A Muslim Civil Society?

Abstract

The global reemergence of the idea of civil society surely ranks as one of the more curious events in recent history. One might ask whether Mardin's portrayal of Muslim civilization is not too totalizing or unitary; the Muslim social imagination may well contain diverse memories and political visions. Some recent literature on the relationship between civil structures and civic norms takes its cues from Tocqueville's famous observations on the associational bases of American democracy. Towards the end of his study of the idea of civil society, Adam Seligman observes that, having originated in the philosophies of Western Enlightenment, the ideals of civil society were disseminated and transformed in the late nineteenth century through their association with the modernist projects of nationhood and citizenship. Pesantren are typically organized around a respected Muslim scholar. They depend for their economic sustenance on gifts from the pious as well as the economic activities of resident students.