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- Title
Evidence, Secrets, Truth: Debating Islamic Knowledge in Contemporary Sudan.
- Authors
Salomon, Noah
- Abstract
Scholars are at near consensus that contemporary Muslim societies are characterized by a democratization of access to knowledge and a leveling-out of the hierarchies involved in its transmission. However, while changes in configurations of knowledge and power toward more egalitarian access to both are undeniable, this article explores how one demographic—contemporary Sudanese Sufis in the context of a state-sponsored push toward the “Islamization of knowledge”—is both shaped by this new discursive context and is questioning the wisdom of its uncritical adoption. In doing so, this article seeks to move beyond dichotomies—mind/body, discursive/nondiscursive knowledge, Islamism/Sufism—that still characterize the study of Islamic mysticism while highlighting the integral nature of Sufi publics to the key debates which drive contemporary Islam. Through a close ethnographic reading of the lived-hermeneutics of Sufis who are embracing a theology of restricted knowledge (or, secrets), this article contributes to a broader discussion of the emergent politics of religious knowledge in our twenty-first century “information society.”
- Subjects
SUDAN; ISLAM; THEORY of knowledge (Islam); SUFISM; ISLAMIC mysticism; ISLAMIZATION; CERTAINTY
- Publication
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2013, Vol 81, Issue 3, p820
- ISSN
0002-7189
- Publication type
Essay
- DOI
10.1093/jaarel/lft035