{"id":37172,"date":"2026-09-24T05:50:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/article\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T05:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:50:00","slug":"islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/article\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Abstract<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published in Arabic in issue 50 (2024) of <em>Islamochristiana<\/em> (PISAI, released in April 2025), this essay by <a href=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/chercheur\/salman-wassim\/\"><strong>Wasim Salman<\/strong><\/a>, president of PISAI and director of the journal, examines the relationship between political power and Islam in the work of the Syrian historian and sociologist Aziz al-Azmeh, professor emeritus at Central European University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From <em>Islams and Modernities<\/em> (1993) to <em>The Emergence of Islam in Late Antiquity<\/em> (2014), al-Azmeh has developed a resolutely non-essentialist reading of Islam: in his view, Islam is neither a monolithic bloc nor a fixed essence dictating the conduct of Muslims once and for all, but a set of diverse historical traditions in constant evolution, shaped by relations of power and by successive imperial configurations. He offers a symmetrical critique of Islamist discourse (which treats Islam as an absolute political programme) and of Western culturalism (which reduces Arab societies to an alleged religious backwardness).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Salman gives an account of this approach and asks what it implies for a contemporary Muslim theology capable of distinguishing religion from power, and for Christian-Muslim dialogue, by highlighting the way Islam has been articulated, from its very origins, with changing political frameworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Issue 50 (2024) of <em>Islamochristiana<\/em>, co-edited by Wasim Salman and David Marshall, is devoted to Jerusalem (an eleven-essay file) and gathers, in addition, several free studies including the present one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Further details on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pisai.va\/it\/pubblicazioni\/islamochristiana.html\"><strong>PISAI journal page<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37023,"template":"","class_list":["post-37172","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"date_tournage":"2025-04-01","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh - Pluriel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/article\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh - Pluriel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Abstract Published in Arabic in issue 50 (2024) of Islamochristiana (PISAI, released in April 2025), this essay by Wasim Salman, president of PISAI and director of the journal, examines the relationship between political power and Islam in the work of the Syrian historian and sociologist Aziz al-Azmeh, professor emeritus at Central European University. From Islams [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/article\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pluriel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/\",\"name\":\"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh - Pluriel\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/islamochristiana-51-2025-melanges-couverture.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-24T04:50:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/islamochristiana-51-2025-melanges-couverture.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/islamochristiana-51-2025-melanges-couverture.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":658},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/en\\\/article\\\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/?lang=en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pluriel\",\"description\":\"University Platform for Research on Islam\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/pluriel.fuce.eu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh - Pluriel","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pluriel.fuce.eu\/en\/article\/islam-seen-through-the-work-of-aziz-al-azmeh\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Islam Seen through the Work of Aziz al-Azmeh - Pluriel","og_description":"Abstract Published in Arabic in issue 50 (2024) of Islamochristiana (PISAI, released in April 2025), this essay by Wasim Salman, president of PISAI and director of the journal, examines the relationship between political power and Islam in the work of the Syrian historian and sociologist Aziz al-Azmeh, professor emeritus at Central European University. 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