Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

The Mosque, the Laboratory, and the Market • 81By positing his “old orthodoxy” against science, Goldziher wantedto contrast it “to some ‘new’ orthodoxy, and this is identified as Islamin Goldziher’s day, which he mentions in the very last sentence [of hispaper]” (Gutas 1998): “Orthodox Islam in its modern developmentoffers no opposition to the study of the ancient sciences, nor doesit see an antithesis between itself and them” (Goldziher 1916, tr.Swartz 1981, 209). Gutas has noted that this “statement points to thesource of Glodziher’s rationalistic and even political bias” and he hassuggested that Goldziher’s hypothesis should be seen in the light ofhis well-known anti-Hanbali bias.Goldziher’s attitude toward Islam was formulated in thebackground of the colonization of the Muslim world by Europeanpowers that had, in turn, presented Islam as a spent force that couldonly be derided and vilified. This bias against Islam, which hadpenetrated all spheres of thought and imagination of European lifein the nineteenth century, must have contributed a great deal to themaking of Goldziher’s intellectual position toward Islam. He was adirect heir to the medieval history of hostility toward Islam. Islamwas then studied in Europe not as a true religion but as an inventionof Muhammad: many works included in their titles the termMuhammadanism, which Goldziher used in the title of his major workMuhammedenische studien (1888).The European attitude toward Islamic science during Goldziher’stime can also be judged from an interesting encounter betweenJamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838/9-1897) and Ernest Renan (1823-92), the French philologist, historian, and critic. The details of thisencounter also show us the complex psychological makeup of Muslimintellectuals in that fateful century during which the Europeanpowers colonized almost the entire Muslim world. They also revealcertain aspects of changes in the European outlook on religion andEuropean understanding of the relationship between religion andscience at that time.Religion was then seen as an inhibitor of science. This was firstseen in reference to Christianity, but soon this initial recastingof the role of Christianity in Europe was enlarged to include allreligions, Islam being particularly chosen for its perceived hostilitytoward rational inquiry. The idea that Islam was inherently against