Abstract
Sparked by the crisis of Muslim sovereignty in the age of European empire, Islam came to be seen as a protagonist in global history freed from kings and clerics. But as a civilizational and later ideological actor, Islam deprived figures like God or the Prophet of their theological roles while robbing the Muslim community of its political agency. Today its paradoxical project appears to be coming apart.
Bio
Faisal Devji is Beit Professor of Global and Imperial History and Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He is the author books on Gandhi's nonviolence, Pakistan as a political idea, militant Islam and globalisation.
