Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge

Wael B. Hallaq’s Restating Orientalism: A Critique of Modern Knowledge interrogates what he proposes are canonized misconceptions of Orientalism by examining the trends in discourse that have emerged since the publication of Edward Said’s seminal work in 1978. It builds on Hallaq’s other contributions to the field on the topics of modernity, politics, and Islamic law over the last forty years, most notably Sharī’a: Theory, Practice, Transformations (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and The Impossible State: Islam, Politics, and Modernity’s Moral Predicament (Columbia University Press, 2013). In the paratextual material, Hallaq advises readers to treat Sharī’a and The Impossible State as required preliminary reading in order to gain the firmest grasp on the present monograph’s claims, given that it functions as a sequel of sorts to these writings. Additionally, he suggests that readers engage with the contents of Restating Orientalism in chronological order as his discussions of many concepts are developed over the course of multiple chapters and depend on the reader’s familiarity with previous sections for these points to be effectively communicated