Review of Jonah Steinberg, Isma’ili Modern: Globalization and Identity in a Muslim Community

Abstract

Jonah Steinberg’s Ismaili Modern is a fascinating look at how the various agencies of the Aga Khan, the current Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, function to help mobilize and solidify a transnational Ismaili identity. With a strong theoretical base, aided by some ethnography, Steinberg develops a nuanced portrait of the Aga Khan institutions, and compares them to the more inward looking jamati institutions of the community. Steinberg suggests that modern Ismaili identity is mobilized by constructing a specific reading of history (p. 17), and the main, continuous argument of his book is the significance of various institutions of the Aga Khan. Although he asserts that Ismailis self-represent as ‘Modern Muslims’ (p. 21), he does not support that claim. He does, however, point out that the portrait of the community he paints is one that can challenge simplistic understandings of Muslims and the ‘Islamic World,’ both within intra-Muslim discourse and in popular, ascriptive definitions of the term ‘Muslim.’ His opening chapter on the background of the Ismaili community is perhaps his weakest. Although the history is sound, he attempts to discuss the community theologically but demonstrates a lack of engagement with Religious Studies. His attempt to put 1400 years of theological thinking into a paragraph does not serve the book well (p. 10). After that misstep, the book generally develops its argument well. His first chapter, dealing with the history of the Ismaili community, manages to cover a wide swathe of history. There are two areas that seem to demand more attention for the way he has structured his argument. The first is his observation that the Aga Khan, in establishing his own development network, is fashioning an Islamic modernity that is in conversation with it’s European counterpart, but distinct from it Cont Islam (2013) 7:233–235 DOI 10.1007/s11562-011-0160-0