Jadidism as a New Type of Religiousity: Essay on Preliminary Conceptualization

Abstract

The present article focuses on understanding the phenomenon of Jadidism in the context of the global Islamic renewal movement. It consists of an introduction, two paragraphs and a conclusion. In the introduction, the author indicates the relevance and extent of discussion of the topic. It emphasizes the admissibility of various approaches to the thematization of this phenomenon. The first paragraph deals with some modern concepts in the historiography of the Jadid issue. It also criticizes an attempt to shut down this issue with a revisionist deconstruction of the opposition between Jadidism and Kadimism as presented in the works of D. DeWeese and some of his Russian supporters. The author argues for the absence of serious grounds for rejecting this opposition, for the rhetorical nature of its criticism and for the irrelevance of the revisionists’ arguments. In the second paragraph, the author shifts the focus from criticism of opponents to a “positive” presentation of some of the fundamental theses that must be taken into account when studying the Jadid movement. Based on the conceptual distinction between religiosity and religion, the author describes Jadidism as a new type of religiosity that has emerged as a result of responding to the challenges of modernity. At the same time, the term “modernity” itself is interpreted in the light of the theory of multiple versions of modernity. This helps to avoid an overly facile evaluation of Islamic modernism as an inherently Eurocentric phenomenon. Furthermore, the second paragraph points out that Islamic modernism, including Jadidism, is deeply rooted in the Islamic tradition of tajdid. The author concludes with his interpretation of the essence of the Jadid project.