Understanding not feeling. What is new in the network approach to writing Muslim history? Reflecting on Shahzad Bashir's project “A New Vision for Islamic Pasts and Futures. Interpretive essays on Islamic artifacts, texts, and phenomena entwining over fourteen centuries”.

Abstract

Abstract. Originally conceived as a short review of Shahzad Bashir's multimedia project on a new vision of the Islamic past and future, in this form this text is more of an analytical overview, focusing not only on the materials themselves, but also on the fundamental problems of writing a comprehensive history of Islam and Muslims in the present. Bashir's bold and technologically ergonomic statement sounds extremely relevant, and the ambitious attempt to cover 14 centuries of Islamic history and the original concept of spatio-temporal contextualisation are genuinely admirable. However, as one reads the material, a number of questions arise about the relationship between form and content in the project in question, the appropriateness of denying metanarratives in the description of Muslim societies, and the influence of the contemporary left-liberal agenda on academic research. Placing Bashir's work in a broad academic and socio-political context contributes to the debate on trends in the development of contemporary knowledge about Islam and Muslims.