Sehlikoglu, Sertaç;
Caron, James;
Polat, Ayse;
(2025)
Introduction to ‘Islamic politics and the imaginative: intangibility and critique’.
History and Anthropology
10.1080/02757206.2025.2460787.
(In press).
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Abstract
This introduction examines the theoretical and methodological challenges of studying imaginative elements in Islamic politics while proposing new frameworks for understanding intangible realms in political formation. Moving beyond traditional approaches that either dismiss imagination as irrational or reduce Islamic politics to textual analysis, we argue for engaging with imagination as a critical interface between material and metaphysical domains. Drawing on recent anthropological scholarship on affect, dreams, and aspirations, alongside classical Islamic concepts like takhayyul, this special issue offers novel approaches to studying Islamic political formations. The collected papers demonstrate how imagination operates as both a realm of critique and a space for political becoming while challenging established disciplinary boundaries between history and anthropology. By engaging with diverse forms of knowledge production – from classical Islamic scholarship to contemporary political movements – this issue contributes to broader discussions about decolonizing academic knowledge while avoiding the trap of reifying new canons. Our intervention suggests ways to understand Islamic politics beyond Eurocentric preoccupations with liberalism and secularism while maintaining critical perspectives on power relations within Islamic traditions themselves.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Introduction to ‘Islamic politics and the imaginative: intangibility and critique’ |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/02757206.2025.2460787 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2025.2460787 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Islam, Imaginaries, Historicity, Political Imagination |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > UCL Institute for Global Prosperity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204844 |
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