Conference #1 – January 28, 2021

The caliphate put to the test of history: a look back at the practice of power in the long duration of Islam

With Sobhi Bouderbala, assistant professor at the University of Tunis and holder of the Averroès Chair at Iméra (Institute for Advanced Studies of Aix-Marseille University). A specialist in the beginnings of Islam and Arabic papyrology, he notably edited (with Sylvie Denoix and Matt Malczycki), New Frontiers of Arabic Papyrology Arabic and Multilingual Texts from Early Islam, Brill, Leiden, 2017; and Julien Loiseau, university professor, history of the medieval Islamic world, and head of the European HornEast project. Horn & Crescent. Connections, Mobility and Exchange between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East in the Middle Ages (ERC).

Can we still speak of a caliphate in Islam? If the term is widely used and accepted to define the nature of the political, since its appropriation by the Muslim reformers of the beginning of the 20th century, the historical analysis makes it possible to qualify its validity by highlighting the plurality of political practices over the long term. . Or how to challenge the predominance of religion in the political sphere in Islam?

Video is in french

Seminar #1 of the cycle “POLITICAL LANGUAGES IN ISLAM” with S.Bouderbala and J.Loiseau