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The twelfth/eighteenth and early thirteenth/nineteenth centuries saw the emergence in the Muslim world of great reformers, muǧaddid s and muǧtahid s, perceived as such by their contemporaries. Aware of a general crisis in the Muslim world and eager to maintain the unity of the umma , they wished to remedy it through their reform projects, and participated in the revival of Hadith that characterised the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, echoing the fifteenth. Many also discussed takfīr , practiced by Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb. How to study them, how to read them, and with what methods? These are the questions posed by the two books surveyed here, while illuminating historiographical progress in the intellectual and religious history of the eighteenth century. Ahmad Dallal's important book, Islam without Europe: Traditions of Reform in Eighteenth-Century Islamic Thought , published in 2018, starts from a close reading of the works of six reformers, embedded in a Yemeni and Indian scholarly tradition: Ibn al-Amīr al-Ṣanʿānī (1099/1688-1182/1769), Šāh Walī Llāh al-Dihlāwī (Shah Waliullah, 1114/1703-1176/1762), Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1115/1703-1206/1792), ʿUṯmān b. Fūdī (Usman Dan Fodio, 1168/1754-1232/1817), Muḥammad b. ʿAlī l-Šawkānī (1173/1759-1250/1834) and Muḥammad b. ʿAlī l-Sanūsī (1202/1787-1276/1859). Strongly scholarly, militant, but unfortunately representative of a poorly contextualised textual history, Islam without Europe is a very useful book, which encourages comparative reading of the main authors discussed, al-Šawkānī in particular. It is possible, however, to read the primary sources in a true historian's way of thinking. This is the point made by Stefan Reichmuth in The World of Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī , published in 2009, about Murtaḍā l-Zabīdī (d. 1205/1791), an Indian scholar trained in Yemen and settled in Egypt. Mixing biography, network studies, and general history of Islamic thought in the twelfth/eighteenth century in its social, political, and economic anchorage, the book concludes with the humanism of this Muslim scholar and Sufi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European empires extended their rule over most of the Muslim world. The present article argues that these empires promoted three interrelated political discourses; namely, a discourse on utilitarianism, a discourse on civilizational progress, and a discourse on liberal imperialism. The empires also encouraged Islamic reform movements, which entailed cooperation between Muslim thinkers, European officials, liberal intellectuals, and Orientalists. Reform movements legitimated the three aforementioned discourses in terms of premodern Islamic religious concepts (e.g. ʿaql, maṣlaḥa, maqāṣid al-šarīʿa, iǧtihād, taqlīd). These concepts were reinterpreted and tacitly linked to imperial policies concerning race, technology, industrial capitalism, and authoritarian violence. The article examines this process by considering the British Empire, and its relationship to Islamic reform projects in India and Egypt. The article discusses nineteenth century British political discourses as developed in the writings of Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and Herbert Spencer. The article then discusses Islamic reform in India, focusing on the Muslim thinkers Sayyid Aḥmad Ḫān and Amīr ʿAlī, as well as their relationships with British figures like William Muir and John Strachey. Next the article discusses Islamic reform in Egypt, focusing on the Muslim thinkers Muḥammad ʿAbduh and Rašīd Riḍā as well as their relationships with British figures like Lord Cromer and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Résumé: Entre la fin du XIXe siècle et le début du XXe siècle, les empires européens ont étendu leur domination sur la majeure partie du monde musulman. Le présent article soutient que ces empires ont promu trois discours politiques interdépendants, à savoir un discours sur l'utilitarisme, un discours sur le progrès de la civilisation et un discours sur l'impérialisme libéral. Les empires ont également encouragé les mouvements de réforme islamique, qui impliquaient une coopération entre les penseurs musulmans, les fonctionnaires européens, les intellectuels libéraux et les orientalistes. Les mouvements de réforme légitimaient les trois discours susmentionnés en termes de concepts religieux islamiques prémodernes (par exemple ʿaql, maṣlaḥa, maqāṣid al-šarīʿa, iǧtihād, taqlīd). Ces concepts ont été réinterprétés et tacitement liés aux politiques impériales concernant la race, la technologie, le capitalisme industriel et la violence autoritaire. L'article examine ce processus en considérant l'Empire britannique, et sa relation avec les projets de réforme islamique en Inde et en Égypte. L'article aborde les discours politiques britanniques du XIXe siècle tels qu'ils sont développés dans les écrits de Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, John Stuart Mill et Herbert Spencer. L'article aborde ensuite la réforme islamique en Inde, en se concentrant sur les penseurs musulmans Sayyid Aḥmad Ḫān et Amīr ʿAlī, ainsi que sur leurs relations avec des personnalités britanniques comme William Muir et John Strachey. L'article aborde ensuite la réforme islamique en Égypte, en se concentrant sur les penseurs musulmans Muḥammad ʿAbduh et Rašīd Riḍā, ainsi que sur leurs relations avec des personnalités britanniques comme Lord Cromer et Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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