Islamism a religio-political ideology that seeks to revive Islam to its past assertiveness and glory,Burgat, François, "The Islamic Movement in North Africa", U of Texas Press, 1997, pp. 39–41, 67–71, 309 purify it of foreign elements, reassert its role into "social and political as well as personal life" where "government and society are ordered in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam" (aka Sharia).Shepard, W. E. Sayyid Qutb and Islamic Activism: A Translation and Critical Analysis of Social Justice in Islam. Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill. (1996). p. 40
It is thought to have started to form towards the end of the 19th Century with Sayyid Rashid Rida, developed as an idea "more or less in 1940" (according to Olivier Roy),Roy, Failure of Political Islam, 1994: p.3 under Hassan al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood), Sayyid Qutb, Abul A'la Maududi, and Ruhollah Khomeini;Fuller, Graham E., The Future of Political Islam, Palgrave MacMillan, (2003), p. 120 surprising the world with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979, and going on to "arguably" alter "the Middle East more than any trend since the modern states gained independence", redefining "politics and even borders" (according to author Robin Wright).
As of 2020, at least some observers have detected a decline in the vigor and popularity of the ideology, as well a backlash against Islamist rule in some countries (Turkey, Iran, and Sudan).
Precursor events
Debate on revival of Caliphate
The abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 1 November 1922 ended the Ottoman Empire, which had lasted since 1299. On 11 November 1922, at the Conference of Lausanne, the sovereignty of the Grand National Assembly exercised by the Government in Angora (now Ankara) over Turkey was recognized. The last sultan, Mehmed VI, departed the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (now Istanbul), on 17 November 1922. The legal position was solidified with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923. In March 1924, the Caliphate was abolished, marking the end of Ottoman influence. This shocked the Sunni clerical world, and some felt the need to present Islam not as a traditional religion but as an innovative socio-political ideology of a modern nation-state. The success of the October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin in 1917 was a source of inspiration. Though militantly atheist (and though they subjected Muslims under their control to "vigorous state-sponsored anti Islamic propaganda" (29)), Bolsheviks were the enemy of their enemy, branded themselves as the movement of the future that overturned the economic, political system of European colonialism. In British India, the Khilafat movement (1919–24) following World War I was led by Shaukat Ali, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Abul Kalam Azad as an expression of this desperation. The reaction to new realities of the modern world gave birth to Islamist ideologues like Rashid Rida and Abul A'la Maududi and organizations such as Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Majlis-e-Ahrar-ul-Islam in India. Rashid Rida was a prominent Salafi theologian of Egypt who called for the revival of Hadith studies in Sunni seminaries and a pioneering theoretician of Islamism in the modern age. During 1922–1923, Rida would publish a series of articles in Al-Manar titled “The Caliphate or the Supreme Imamate”. In this highly influential treatise, Rida advocates for the restoration of Caliphate ruled by muslim jurists and proposes gradualist measures of education, reformation and purification through the efforts of Salafiyya reform movements across the globe. Ayatullah Khomeini's book government of the jurist is greatly influenced by this book, so is his call to the pure Islam () and his analysis of the post-colonial Muslim world. Sayyid Rashid Rida, a student of Muhammad Abduh, had visited India in 1912 and was impressed by the Deoband and Nadwatul Ulama seminaries. These seminaries carried the legacy of Syed Ahmad Barelvi and his pre-modern Islamic emirate.B. Metcalf, "Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860–1900", p. 50-60, Princeton University Press (1982). Maududi was an Islamist ideologue and Hanafi Sunni scholar active in Hyderabad Deccan and later in Pakistan. Maududi was born to a clerical family and got his early education at home. At the age of eleven, he was admitted to a public school in Aurangabad. In 1919, he joined the Khilafat Movement and got closer to the scholars of Deoband. He commenced the dars-i nizami education under supervision of Deobandi seminary at the Fatihpuri mosque in Delhi. In 1925, he wrote a book on Jihad, al-Jihad fil-Islam(), that can be regarded as his first contribution to islamism. He was a prolific writer and wrote many books. His writings had a profound impact on Sayyid Qutb.
Predecessor figures and movements Some Islamic revivalist movements and leaders pre-dating Islamism include: Ahmad Sirhindi (~1564–1624) was part of a reassertion of orthodoxy within Islamic Mysticism (Taṣawwuf) and was known to his followers as the ' Mujaddid ('renovator) of the second millennium'. It has been said of Sirhindi that he 'gave to Indian Islam the rigid and conservative stamp it bears today.'Massington, L., Radtke, B. Chittick, W.C., Jong, F. de., Lewisohn, L., Zarcone, Th., Ernst, C, Aubin, Françoise and J.O. Hunwick, “Taṣawwuf”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. HeinrichsQamar-ul Huda (2003), Striving for Divine Union: Spiritual Exercises for Suhraward Sufis, RoutledgeCurzon, pp. 1–4.Mortimer, Faith and Power, (1982) p. 58. Quoting Aziz Ahmad, Studies in Islamic Culture in the Indian Environment, Oxford University Press, (1964), p. 189 Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328), a Syrian Islamic jurist during the 13th and 14th centuries who is often quoted by contemporary Islamists. Ibn Taymiyya argued against the shirking of Sharia law, was against practices such as the celebration of Muhammad's birthday, and "he believed that those who ask assistance from the grave of the Prophet or saints, are mushrikin (polytheists), someone who is engaged in shirk."Haque 1982, pp. 78–81. Shah Waliullah (1703-1762) of India and Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab of Arabia were contemporaries who met each other while studying in Mecca. Shah Waliullah was a forerunner of reformist Islamists like Muhammad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Asad in his belief that there was "a constant need for new ijtihad as the Muslim community progressed and expanded and new generations had to cope with new problems" and his interest in the social and economic problems of the poor.Mortimer, Faith and Power, (1982) pp. 67–68. Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab (1703-1792) advocated doing away with the later accretions like grave worship and getting back to the letter and the spirit of Islam as preached and practiced by Muhammad. He went on to found Wahhabism. Revivalists who fought early in the colonial era included Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (1856-1921) was a disciple and successor of Shah Waliullah's son who emphasized the 'purification' of Islam from un-Islamic beliefs and practices. He anticipated modern militant Islamists by leading an extremist, jihadist movement and attempted to create an Islamic state based on the enforcement of Islamic law. While he battled Sikh fundamentalist rule in Muslim-majority North-Western India, his followers fought against British colonialism after his death and allied themselves with the Indian Mutiny.Mortimer, Faith and Power, (1982), p. 69 After the failure of the Indian Mutiny, some of Shah Waliullah's followers turned to more peaceful methods for preserving India's Islamic heritage and founded the Dar al-Ulum seminary in 1867 in the town of Deoband. From the school developed the Deobandi movement which became the largest philosophical movement of traditional Islamic thought on the subcontinent and led to the establishment of thousands of madrasahs throughout modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.Islam and the Muslim World, (2004) p. 374 Shamil fought the Russians in Daghestan (1830-1859)(p. 39) Abdul-Qadir fought the French in Algeria (1833-1847)(p. 39)
Early history
Though Islamists draw on work of early/medieval Islamic scholars (mentioned above), the roots of Islamist movements are found in the late 19th century when "the Islamic world grappled simultaneously with increased engagement with modernity and the ideas of Enlightenment, on the one hand, and with its own decline in the face of Western colonialism, on the other". Print technology and mass literacy expanded, facilitating the spread of new ideas as well as greater access to Islamic materials—particularly the Qurʾān. This "undermined the authority of trained religious scholars", (ʿulamāʾ), as interpretative gatekeepers, as lay believers used printed Quran's to engage "in their own individual interpretations of the scripture (ijtihād)", leading to "increased scriptural literalism". At the same time "modernist thinkers attempted to reconcile decay in the Islamic world (which had once been a leader in scientific achievement and intellectual endeavour) with the success of the West".
A particularly harsh demonstration of Islamic decline was the dismemberment of most of the Muslim Ottoman Empire by non-Muslim European colonial powers towards the end of the 19th century saw .Mortimer, Edward, Faith and Power, (1982), p. 85 The empire had spent massive sums on Western civilian and military technology to try to modernize and compete with the encroaching European powers, and in the process went deep into debt to these powers.
In this context, the publications of Jamal ad-din al-Afghani (1837–97), Muhammad Abduh (1849–1905) and Rashid Rida (1865–1935) preached Islamic alternatives to the political, economic, and cultural decline of the empire.Mortimer, Edward, Faith and Power, (1982), pp. 93, 237–40, 249 Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida formed the beginning of the Islamist movement,Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Macmillan Reference, 2004, v.2, p. 609The New Encyclopedia of Islam by Cyril Glasse, Rowman and Littlefield, 2001, p. 19The Oxford Dictionary of Islam by John L. Esposito, OUP, 2003, p. 275Historical Dictionary of Islam by Ludwig W. Wadamed, Scarecrow Press, 2001, p. 233 as well as the reformist Islamist movement.
Their ideas included the creation of a truly Islamic society under sharia law, and the rejection of taqlid, the blind imitation of earlier authorities, which they believed deviated from the true messages of Islam.Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: the Egyptian Experience by Caryle Murphy, p. 46 Unlike some later Islamists, Early Salafiyya strongly emphasized the restoration of the Caliphate.Roy, Failure of Political Islam (1994), p. 33
Sayyid Rashid Rida
Syrian-Egyptian Islamic scholar Muhammad Rashid Rida first articulated the modern concept of an Islamic state that played a significant role in forming the revolutionary ideology of the early years of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as influencing other Sunni Islamist movements.
In his influential book al-Khilafa aw al-Imama al-'Uzma ("The Caliphate or the Grand Imamate"); Rida explained that societies that properly obeyed Sharia would be successful alternatives to the disorder and injustice of both capitalism and socialism.