Advanced Muslim Political Thought and Realism for a Multi-Civilisational World

Instructor:  M. Owais Khan

Date/times:

November 8 - December 27, Saturdays 10 AM - 12 PM US Eastern Standard Time

Note:

Final course registration is subject to a review process, the instructor and/or AlQasas administration may refuse registration to any individual at their discretion. If your registration is declined a prompt refund will be issued.

Course level:

Intermediate/Advanced

Course description:

This is an advanced seminar in classical Sunni political theory that excavates the buried tradition of Sunni political realism that flourished during the "last flowering" of Ittihad-i Islam (c. 1875-1950). Responding to the Ottoman Caliphate's collapse and Western hegemony, modern Muslim intellectuals engaged classical concepts of sovereignty (Imamah), political order (Nizam), and statecraft (Siyasa) to reconcile Islamic governance with modernity. The course challenges the reduction of Ittihad-i Islam to "Pan-Islamism," revealing it as a sophisticated project reinterpreting foundational texts (al-Mawardi, al-Juwayni, Ibn Khaldun) to address freedom, representation, and international relations. We contrast this with the subsequent "long interregnum" of secular nationalism and Cold War Islamism, whose failures (post-2011 Arab Uprisings, Gaza 2023) underscore the urgent need to recover classical paradigms. Through primary sources and critical political theology, students will reconstruct core Sunni foundations of classical political theory: Jahiliya (political anarchy), Dairah al-Adl (circle of justice), Asabiyya (elite solidarity), and cyclical state dynamics. The goal is to reignite Sunni political ethics capable of informing a civilizational pole in today’s multipolar world, moving beyond reactionary ideologies toward a realist tradition grounded in prophetic state-building and balanced governance.

Student Learning Outcomes: 

1. Master core concepts of classical Sunni political thought (Imamah, Siyasa, Jahiliya, Nizam).
2. Reconstruct Sunni theories of sovereignty, constitutionalism, state formation/collapse.
3.  Develop fluency in comparing Sunni political theology with Western realism (Hobbes, Schmitt).
4. Evaluate the relevance of classical paradigms for contemporary Muslim political revival.

Required Texts (Selection): 

Course Reader: Key excerpts will be provided before class from al-Juwayni (Ghiyāth al-Umam), al-Mawardi (al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya), Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddimah), Ibn al-Azraq (Bada’i al-Silk), Shah Waliullah (Hujjatullah al-Baligha), al-Turtushi (Siraj al-Muluk) & Secondary Source material

Course schedule: