This event will begin promptly at 17.00 BST
Based on a synthesis of decades of scholarship in numerous languages, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism, is the first truly global and longue durée history of Sunni-Shiʿi relations. Moving chronologically, his book outlines how over the centuries Sunnism and Shiʿism became Islam’s two main branches, and how Muslim Empires embraced specific sectarian identities. Focussing on connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, it reveals how colonial rule and the modern state institutionalised sectarian divisions and at the same time led to pan-Islamic resistance and Sunni and Shiʿi revivalism.
It is based on fieldwork across the Islamic world, including in the Gulf States, Lebanon, Iraq and India, and a wide range of primary and secondary sources. It seeks to draw out the connections between different periods and regions, especially the instrumentalisation of memories of earlier conflict in the modern era. It also looks at the impact of printing and editing of Islamic “classics” in Arabic and Persian on the establishment of more rigid sectarian identities. As Matthiesen shows, however, though Sunnism and Shiism have had a long and at times antagonistic history, most Muslims have led lives characterised by confessional ambiguity and peaceful co-existence. Tensions arise when sectarian identity becomes linked to politics. In this talk, Matthiesen will outline his motivations for writing the book as well as some of the challenges he faced in the process. He will furthermore explain how the book contributes to and departs from earlier work and how it can contribute to discussions of religion and politics more broadly, especially in the early modern period.
Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series
Hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) and convened by Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series is designed to invite scholars of various international academic institutions, specialising in intellectual, social and political aspects of medieval and early modern Islamic societies, to present and discuss their research. Watch previous lectures on our YouTube channel.
Speakers
Toby Matthiesen
Lecturer
Toby Matthiesen is Senior Lecturer in Global Religious Studies (Islam) at the Department of Religion and Theology of the University of Bristol and has previously held fellowships at the Universities of Oxford, Venice, Stanford, Cambridge, and the LSE. He is the author of Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t (Stanford University Press, 2013), and The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2015). The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism was published by Oxford University Press in 2023.
Faisal Devji
Professor
Faisal Devji is Professor of Indian History and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He has held faculty positions at the New School in New York, Yale University and the University of Chicago, from where he also received his PhD in Intellectual History. He is a Fellow at New York University’s Institute of Public Knowledge and Yves Otramane Chair at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. Recent publications include Islam After Liberalism, The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence, and Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea.
Please note filming and photography may take place during the event, and be used across our website, newsletters and social media accounts. These could include broad shots of the audience and lecture theatre, speakers during the talk, and of audience members participating in Q&A.
Views expressed in this lecture are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community or leadership. Promotion of this lecture is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.
Cover photo: Furniture fragment (Louvre) Coyau / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
