1.3 Early Modern History (12-34)

In the last video you saw the wide variety of different countries that we will look at in this course. And you might have been wondering why we chose to take such a diverse group of countries and treat them in one common course, simply on the mere fact that ... the majority of their populations share a common faith. And you might have been wondering that yourself and saying, 'well I might be a Muslim, I might be a Christian, I might be a woman, I might be a man, I might be rich, I might be poor. So ... why do I focus, here in this course on religion as the one characteristic that justifies us to treat these countries together?' And I'd like you to remember that reality is complex and we're not trying here to simplify it unduly. But any analysis is based on disaggregating a relatively complex reality into chunks that are easier to understand. So there is something here that unifies these countries, which is their common faith, and the reason we think it's acceptable to treat them together is because they treat themselves as one common community that has something in common, that distinguishes them from others and that is a focus of their identity.

And If you look at the countries that we will look at in this course, most of them, all of them actually, are majority Muslim. And all of them attach a particular importance to this fact of this shared history of allegiance to a common religious faith.

And you might be wondering where this strong attachment to religion as a cultural force, as a focus of identity, comes from. And here it is important to remember the very rapid expansion of Islam as a religion, but also as a political force that we discussed last time, and the enormous achievement that Islamic civilisation created in the lands that became Muslim.

And if you look at this photo, this is a photo from Bukhara that I took myself last year. It shows something distinctly Central Asian, but at the same time no one would be questioning that this is a Muslim city. And if you look at this photo, for example, which is from David Samling here in Copenhagen, it shows the wealth and the strength of Muslim governmental traditions. Here is a court scene where a Muslim ruler in mobile India is receiving a guest. This history of cultural and civilisational achievement is something that is very prevalent, and a source of considerable pride among virtually all Muslims today, which might explain why there's such a strong attachment to it.

Now, the problem we are looking at in the modern period, and this is the focus of this course, is how this history of greatness contrasts with a history of domination during roughly the last 200 years. And it is this discrepancy of the self image of historical greatness, and a contemporary experience of domination and subjugation, that explains a large part of the idiosyncrasies that we see in contemporary Muslim societies.

If you look here for example, this is a picture of Fath Ali Shaw Qajar, the first Qajar king of modern Iran. And you see he's still depicted very much in a traditional garb as a traditional oriental ruler. But already the background is inspired by European painting traditions.

And if you look here, the photo of one of his successors, Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar, here already you see the strong influence of European traditions. Here, for example, in the uniform he's wearing, but also in the way the miniature is painted.

So in principle you could now expect a period of cross-fertilisation, the Muslim nations now learning from the technology and the science now being developed in the modern period in the North, and to the mutual benefit of both. We do not really see this development. Instead we see the beginning of a long and ongoing period of domination of Muslim lands by the ever ... stronger European forces.

As you can see on this painting here, which shows French revolutionary troops under Napoleon, which in 1798 decide to invade Egypt. And this decision is not really being triggered by anything the Egyptians have done. As you can see in the next painting, it is triggered by a confrontation that

revolutionary France has in Europe with the other conservative powers. Here, on this painting, you see French and British naval forces fighting it out, off the Egyptian coast, which is indicative of the problem we see, now ongoing, for the Muslim lands.

In this photo you see Australian troops being based in Egypt during World War I, symbolizing the reduction of most Muslim lands, having become the object of history of decisions being taken elsewhere.

And this sentiment is strongly resented, a resentment aptly described by the Syrian philosopher Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm in the following quote.

"In the marrow of our bones, we still perceive ourselves as the subjects of history, not its objects, as its agents and not its victims. "We have never acknowledged, let alone reconciled ourselves to, the marginality and passivity of our position in modern times. "In fact, deep in our collective soul, we find it intolerable that our supposedly great nation must stand helplessly on the margins not only of modern history in

general, but even of our local and particular histories." [Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm]

This experience of colonial domination was by no means limited to the Muslim world. Most other southern societies went through a similar process of humiliating imposition of foreign domination. One country's experience is particularly instructive, both in its own right and also because it was closely followed throughout the Muslim world.

Japan had lived in self-imposed isolation for several centuries, but then in 1853 it was presented with an ultimatum sent by a naval detachment of the United States, presenting its government with one clear choice: to open its borders to trade, or face military attack.

The Japanese government quickly realised that it had not much of an option but to accede to these demands, but what Japan then did, as you can see in this painting here, it studied the military superiority of the West that had presented

it with this unwelcoming position. And as you can see in this painting, the Japanese looked carefully at the sources of military dominance, and then they embarked on a self-conscious process of emulation, in order to catch up in most of the important factors with the West.

As you can see in this painting, it shows the funeral of the Meiji emperor of the time, and it shows the Japanese dignitary in a Western military uniform.

And what Japan managed, and this is something for which the Muslim world continues to be very, very impressed by, it managed to maintain its tradition while emulating the West. And this emulation was focused in the military, in the bureaucracy, in law and in the economic structure of the country. And Japan, within a very short period managed to be able to compete with the West effectively. As you can see in this painting, in 1894, it fought a major war with China and defeated it easily.

And then five years later, when China itself was resisting colonial encroachment by the European powers, Japan was now fighting alongside, as you can see in this painting, fighting alongside British forces against Chinese forces.

And, as you can see in this painting, Japan was then admitted, so to say, into the colonial club. It is here shown, you know, here you see a Japanese soldier next to his European compatriots.

And I'm not now condoning the history of Japanese expansion, particularly as it played out in the 20th century, but the point to remember is that Japan, within 40 years, manage to bridge this enormous gap and be now recognized as a great power on a par with Europe. And four years later, in 1904 and 1905, Japan fought a major war against a European white great power.

Here you see a French depiction of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 and 1905, which Japan decisively won. It annihilated the Russian far eastern fleet, as you can see in this painting, showing a Japanese wood print mocking the Russian

emperor seeing his returning troops being completely defeated and wounded.

And it is this experience of managing to catch up and to compete and ultimately stand up to the European forces that left a lasting impression on Muslim intellectuals at the time. And this fascination with the Asian society maintaining its traditions while being able to compete effectively in the modern world, that fascination continues in the 21st century. As you can see in this video of Ahmad Al Shugairi, a Saudi, a very popular television preacher who went for his Ramadan program of 2009 ... He went to Japan and showed ordinary scenes of Japanese society, ... showing how come they are traditional Japanese people maintaining their traditions, while doing all the things that we claim to do,

being clean, being polite, being efficient, etc. and always asking his viewers, how come we are not like the Japanese? And this process of successful modernization and reform and emulation, this is a process that continues in the Muslim world, and has so far been largely unsuccessful, but the challenge remains.

And this challenge is something that we will see in the course as it unfolds, and we will explore it further. [Coursera: Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World - University of Copenhagen - Dr Ebrahim Afshah. This transcript was made by a student, comparing the provided subtitles text to the video. Minor changes have been made to improve clarity.] Illustrations: https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/muslimworld/credits%2FList%20of%20illustrations%201.3.docx