Presenter
Fuchs Simon Wolfgang - Department of Asian Studies and Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, IsraelPanel
30 – South Asian Islam and the World: In Search for a New ParadigmAbstract
The Pakistani Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is predominantly considered a local Islamist phenomenon. While the literature acknowledges the impact of Sayyid Abu ’l-A‘la Maududi’s (d. 1979) thought on the formation of global Islamism, in particular through his concept of divine sovereignty, we have so far no clear understanding of the intellectual and personal connections that JI members forged with Islamist movements in the second half of the 20th century. Which experiences did they share with fellow foreign Islamists, which ideas and practical approaches did they exchange? In which way did JI’s short-lived honeymoon with military dictator Zia ul-Haq feature in these discussions? Which lessons did Pakistanis and others draw from the Islamic revival since the 1970s? This paper will focus on travelogues written by JI members, such as Khalil Ahmad Hamidi’s (d. 1994) Tahriki safar ki dastan: 83-89 mushahidat, which documents the author’s journeys to the Middle East and Africa in the 1980s. Hamidi was a JI leader who was particularly well-connected to the Arab-speaking Middle East. As the head of the Dar al-‘Uruba, he oversaw the rendering of Maududi’s oeuvre into Arabic while also translating publications by the Muslim Brotherhood into Urdu and acting as an interpreter. The paper will supplement this material with insights drawn from JI periodicals such as Takbir or Asia, which frequently discussed visiting delegations and trips abroad, and further travelogues, such as Sayyid As‘ad Gilani’s (d. 1992) detailed description of the first anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in his Safarnamah-i Iran, published in 1983.
