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Islam: The View from the Edge

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Islam: A View from the Edge. By Richard W. Bulliet. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Pp. 236. [money amount]

Islam: A View from the Edge is a socio-historical analysis of the Nishapur Diaspora through the experience of the new converts and their relationship with the ulemas. The aptly titled book is a survey of how Islam developed in the periphery rather than in the center, and how the scholastic developmental patterns in the center were heavily influenced by the creativity in the periphery. He suggests that the edge's creative source was the question-answer motif employed by the converts to learn about Islam. When people converted they would seek out individuals who knew the answers to questions regarding worship. This led to the emergence of individuals who succeeded in gaining the convert's ratification for their interpretive efforts as being the most authentic representations of the divine intent. Such fluid discourse led to the development of local expressions of Islam. Bulliet contends that there was no single legitimate interpretation of Islam but rather many in the early years of Islamic history. Islam was homogenized by the efforts of many Persian ulemas who were expatriates of what is today Eastern Iran. These individuals organized themselves into schools of law around charismatic eponyms which came to be known as madhhabs.

Madhhabs would later become the center of all religious interpretive exercises and a source of legitimacy in the Muslim body politic. In particular Bulliet points out the Ashari-Shafi community of Persia that were the most influential consolidators of Sunnism. They spread their rationalistic expression of Sunni Islam via their stock and trade, namely the Madrasa, a quintessential Persian innovation in early Muslim civilization. This group eventually became part of the center and its version of orthodoxy was championed by such figures as Nizam al-Mulk. This form of Sunni Islam was understood by its proponents as the middle path between the excessively rationalistic Mu'tazilites and the overly conservative traditionalist Hanbalites. Nizam al-Mulk commissioned the famous Nizamiyya Madrasas in Tus and more importantly in Nishapur and Baghdad. It was from these schools that the Ash'ari-Shafi'i scholars propagated their doctrines and inserted a type of mythology into the collective memory that the scholastic evolution within Sunni Islam had its end goal their grand synthesis of the text and reason.

If there are any criticisms that could be directed at Bulliet's work it is that he stresses the edge disproportionately and effectively gives an impression that the center had no significant role in the development of Islam. Bulliet says the view from the edge is needed because it is the edge that ultimately creates the center (pg. 12). However he becomes too dogmatic in distinguishing between the edge and the center and overlooks their similarity. The development of the center Iraq and the edge Iran/Nishapur have much more in common than in differences. The relationship between the edge and the center should be seen as interactive where both influenced each others development. However this does not take away from the fact that the book is very well written and offers a fresh look at the origin and development of Islam.

That obscurantism withstanding, there is a lot that we as American Muslims can learn from Prof. Bulliet's research. We here in North America constitute a particular edge and the discourse within our community can, if we take the task at hand seriously and work determinedly, produce the type of reorientation of the Sunni worldview in the center, that the Ash'ari-Shafi'i Ulema achieved in Medieval Islam, from authoritarianism to the authoritative pluralism, in the 21st century. Insha'Allah.

There is a saying attributed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that 'Disagreement among the scholars is great mercy for mankind'. Taken in this spirit, this work of Professor Bulliet is a great contribution to Islam. There exists very little information about some of the events and development in early muslim history. By looking at what people did write about (like personal biographies) and also some broader social/economic conditions the author is able to make some very surprising conclusions.

For a layperson and believing muslim like myself this was a book that was engrossing in what I learn't from it and thought provoking in what questions it raised for me. I am sure that scholars (muslim and non-muslim) studying about Islam would read this book. However I would recommend that any muslim serious about learning of the development of islamic society and traditions would find this work of great value. One does not have to agree with everything in a particular work for it to be valuable. This book has far more to offer any one studying development of islamic societies than any I have read.

Bulliet-a creative though often wrong-headed historian of medieval Islam-proposes a novel way of looking at the early centuries of Islam that offers a valuable perspective on the surge of Islam during the past twenty-five years. The author distinguishes between the "view from the center," by which he means the utilitarian vision of Islam propounded by its political rulers, and the "view from the edge" of seekers, adepts, and all those trying to figure out for themselves what their faith means. The two visions differ profoundly: the one propounds a view of Islam as a legalistic system in keeping with the rulers' interests, the other seeks to fulfill deep spiritual needs. The one remains within containable limits, the other finds unpredictable and dangerous manifestations. Saudi Arabia's government represents the former system, Iran's the latter. Bulliet argues that while Muslims and Westerners alike often accept the center's view of Islam, the edge actually drives Muslim history by spontaneously finding its own religious authorities and following their guidance. In the early centuries of Islam, converts made up the edge. Today, the edge's two main groups consist of disoriented students and urbanized peasants. In need of guidance, they turn to the interpreters of Islam who most convincingly address their concerns. And, Bulliet predicts, their choices will determine far more about the future of Islam than will the actions of politicians or the books of philosophers.

Middle East Quarterly, September 1994