The Salafi Islamic Reform Movement in Damascus, 1885-1914: Religious Intellectuals, Politics, and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria.

This study examines the genesis and early career of modern Islamic reform in Damascus from the perspective of a social history of intellectuals. Using inheritance documents, I show that the wealth of religious scholars (ulama) varied widely, and that the advocates of religious reform came from the middle stratum of ulama. A group of middle class ulama influenced by 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza'ir(')i (who lived in Damascus from 1855 until 1883) called for a return to the ways of Islam's first generations to rejuvenate the Ottoman Empire, which was threatened by European aggression, and to revive the fortunes of the ulama, whose status and material interests had suffered during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The ulama reformers, or "salafis", asserted that revealed law is in harmony with the free exercise of reason and , therefore, with attaining progress. In the 1890s Jamal al-D(')in al-Qasim(')i (1866-1914) emerged as the leading figure in the salafi camp. Using his manuscripts and correspondence, I describe the persecution that salafis suffered at the h and s of conservative ulama and the salafis' involvement in political movements, first for restoring the Ottoman constitution, later in the Arab movement for greater autonomy. Qasim(')i's many published works set forth the salafis' ideas about reforming the ulama's practices by reviving ijtihad and ab and oning emulation of the legal schools' authorities. His works also give an idea of the salafis' attitudes toward the wealthy elite, popular classes, and women. The salafis contributed to the formation of Arabism in Syria through their influence on secondary students interested in reconciling their cultural identity with professional ambitions based on mastering "European" sciences. The students expected to enjoy careers in the bureaucracy and army but they found their ambitions blocked by Turks' domination of the very posts they sought. Therefore they promoted the Arabs' place in the empire, thus giving rise to the Arab nationalist movement. Notwithst and ing the call for a return to the ways of the ancestors, the salafis signified an adjustment to new historical conditions, for they welcomed new technologies and proposed that Muslims could assimilate western means of progress through a pragmatic, rational application of religious law.PhDMiddle Eastern historyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160776/1/8600426.pd