Bourdieu and Historical Analysis

Abstract

Many scholars, among them Omar S. Kasule (“Islamic Epistemology and Integration of Knowledge in the Islamic University” [2009]) and Fathi Hasan Malkawi (Epistemological Integration: Essentials of an Islamic Methodology [2014]) call for the epistemological integration of knowledge. I seek to answer this call, in part, by demonstrating the relevance of Pierre Bourdieu’s (d. 2002) theory to the study of Islam, Muslims, and Islamic movements. One precedent in this direction is Stephane Lacroix’s Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (2011), which studies the Saudi Sahwa movement from the 1950s to the 1990s. I contend that studies of Islam must go even further in this direction. As this approach deserves our attention, I will present Bourdieu’s theory to those who study Islam and Muslims ...