Modernist movements in Islam. Historical overview. 19th century

Abstract

         This article provides a brief overview of the historical conditions of emergence of modernistic movemen in muslim world in 19 century.Also made an attempt to show difference between directions in which different branches of muslim modernists developed their ideas, such as secular direction and theological modernistic direction.Also touched the main subjects of discussion within modernistic discource such as taqlid, ijtihad, hijab and woman rights. The article reveals the historical causal relationship between the modernist wave that swept the Muslim world in the 19th century, when over the decades new thinking was formed trying to reconcile the Islamic faith and modern values, such as constitutionalism, and touched upon issues such as cultural revival, nationalism, freedom religious interpretation, scientific modernist studies, education, women's rights and a host of other topics, and the subsequent political constitutionalist movements of the early 20th century. The article touches upon the question of what inconsistencies Muslim modernists saw between Islam and modern values, what they saw for their reasons and what ways they saw ways out of the prevailing circumstances. There are also some fragmentary historical parallels with the Christian world, where constitutionalism also came through a series of revolutions and socio-political reforms, and examples of repression against dissent are given, showing that religious fanaticism is historically nothing characteristic of Islam, but is a part of history and other religions. Attention is also drawn to the fact that the negative part of the history of the Inquisitions and the persecution of dissent did not prevent the Christian world from successfully going through the process of modernization and an attempt is made to find the reasons for the lagging behind in this sense of a certain part of the Muslim civilization. The article also talks about when and what kind of historical necessity pushed the Muslim world to the active development of the ideas of modernism. A specific period is named, namely the first half of the 19th century, starting with the Napoleonic military campaign in Egypt, when the threat of complete domination of the Christian world hung over the main Muslim empires, and it is said about which Muslim intellectuals and statesmen of that time were prompted activities objective awareness of the fact that the Muslim world is lagging behind, who should be considered the fathers of Islamic modernism and what works of reformers are considered to be canonical.