Other responses to colonialism and modernity

In the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, improved communications brought reformist ideas from Egypt into the country, and the Muhammadiyah movement was set up by Ahmad Dahlan (1868–1923), someone who had lived in Egypt and met ‘Abduh. On the other hand, it was not difficult for the ideas of the Nahdah to be taken in another direction, as they were by ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi (1854–1902) who lived for most of his life in Syria. He advocated modernity and liberalism, and also pan-Islamism, but within the context of leadership by the Arabs, not the Ottomans, criticizing the latter for their love of despotism and conservatism. The expansion of Russia south and wars with Iran created many new Muslim subjects for the Tsar, and also much discussion among Muslim intellectuals as to how to respond effectively to the onslaught from the north.

One set of ideas that had a good deal of currency in the nineteenth century was that of Mahdism. The mahdi is someone who is divinely chosen to deliver the community from danger, and the increasing pressure of the industrial West on the Islamic world lead to many mahdis appearing, especially in Africa. Commerce had traditionally been concentrated on the cross-continental routes, but the influence of colonialism lead to the competing power of the coastal ports. In an area between Guinea and Senegal ‘Umar ibn Sa‘id ruled between 1852–64, trying to stay out of the way of the French, and also fight against them when absolutely necessary. In Libya the Sanusi clan, and in particular

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Sayyid al-Mahdi al-Sanusi established their rule while Muhammad Ahmad ibn ‘Abdullah in the Sudan drove out the Turks and the Egyptians, killed General Gordon in Khartoum, and for a short time ruled that huge country. At the end of the century the Somalis discovered a mahdi in Muhammad ‘Abdallah Hasan who went on to resist the British and later the Italians. The crisis as traditional Islamic cultures were overwhelmed by colonialism led to the rapid growth of such millennial movements who offered a potent message of resistance, religion and salvation.

But the search for a mahdi was not limited to Africa; it occurred also in Persia and India, leading to the construction of highly heterodox sects such as the Bahai and the Ahmadiyya movements. The former originated with Sayyid ‘Ali Muhammad who came from Shiraz and was declared by some to be the Bab or door through which humanity would be united with the concealed imam, who himself is the link between this world and the divine realm. The movement was fiercely resisted by the Persian regime and the Bab himself was shot, along with many of his supporters, but it took a strong hold in the form of followers of Mirza Husayn ‘Ali or Baha’ Ullah (Glory of God), and turned into a complex religious movement that over time has become more and more distinct from orthodox Islam, even of the Shi‘a variety.

In India Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1891 declared himself to be the mahdi (and Christ) and acquired a large number of followers. Some of the latter regarded him merely as a reviver of Islam, but others as a prophet, which goes against the basic Islamic principle that the Prophet Muhammad was the last prophet. As one might imagine, these groups have often not been treated well by the Muslim communities in which they live, but the early persecution does not seem to have prevented them from growing into relatively large and successful movements.

Islam and the Islamic world saw itself as definitely in retreat in the nineteenth century. The expansion of the Christian colonialist powers continued to dominate the world economically and militarily. The Ottoman Empire, whose ruler was formally the head of the Sunni Islamic world, the caliph, was in retreat and widely regarded as a crumbling and corrupt edifice. Modernity in the form of science and technology was the brainchild of the Christian countries, and its slow acceptance in the Islamic world caused much questioning about how far Muslims could adopt such alien ideas. The Islamic world attempted to react to the encroaching influence of competing ideas and influences by reinventing itself to incorporate many but not all of those ideas within itself. It established radical resistance movements, and new sects that developed highly original versions of orthodox Islam.

Other responses to colonialism and modernity