Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century: The Azhar and Shi’ism between Rapprochement and Restraint

This is the title of a book by Rainer Brunner, published by Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2004), 435 pp. ISBN 90–04–12548–5.

Book report

The twentieth century has experienced a zenith of Christian ecumenism; by contrast, Islamic ecumenical movements appear impossible. In this serious book the author addresses this important aspect of Islamic studies and provides an interesting and useful historical overview. Brunner has examined the institutional and scholarly aspects of Islamic ecumenism, without looking very far into the compatibility of the concept with Islam from a philosophical point of view. Ecumenism requires a religious authority in order to function and while such authorities do exist in the minority Shi’a sect of Islam, they are somewhat faint within the majority Sunni sect. From the outset the book seems to assume that the Azhar holds such authority, whereas it is perhaps common knowledge that such authority ceased to exist long before the time of President Nasir. For this type of study to be comprehensive, there is need to examine the adherence of the masses to such a concept. It is why Shaltut turned to the public when he wanted to make a case for an Islamic ecumenism (see p. 287). To research the public Muslim view of ecumenism might be difficult and perhaps beyond the scope of this work, but that is what is needed to give a realistic measure of the concept and not exclusively the attitude or actions of the ulema, which are often influenced by local politics. The author also seems to have adopted a narrative approach which has unbalanced the length of chapters (unneccessarily increasing the bulk of the study). It is divided into an introduction; ten chapters; an epilogue with a very useful summary; bibliography and a helpful index.

Introduction

The introduction opens on the scene of the fierce controversy that erupted amongst German historians regarding the correlation of historical debate and national identity. Brunner likens this to the ‘history of the Islamic orient in the twentieth century’ and the contending views thereon. Rather unconvincingly, he connects this observation to the idea of ecumenical rapprochement among the denominations in Islam. He holds that this is a recent phenomenon. The concept of taqrib bayn al-madhahib can be seen as embedded in Islamic discourse through the earliest period. If ecumenical rapprochement is understood as building bridges between different viewpoints, then discussion of it dates back to the time of ‘Abbas and ‘Umar. The introduction also presents and discusses Shi’ism as if it were an unified ‘block’ of adherents to the same doctrine and rites. Another weakness is the presentation as fact of uncertain historical events like the ‘indirect involvement of Ali in the murder of Uthman’, a claim sorely in need of evidence to back it up.

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 looks into the first attempt to resolve the Sunni-Shi’i conflict, namely Nadir Shah’s politically motivated effort to force Sunnism and Shi6ism together, an effort that Brunner dismisses as pointless and fruitless. He states (p. 34) that the pan-Islamic movement was unambiguously Sunni dominated in its origin. But this could be understood as owing to the fact that the Sunnis always had the upper hand politically, and the Shi’a, fearful of being assimilated into Sunni society, were sceptical of their intentions.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 ‘The Azhar Reform and Shiism at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century’ is a useful, well-referenced historical overview of the period, at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Shi’a ulema and indeed the Azhar seem to have accepted each other as peers for whom a theological reconciliation beyond short-run politics was conceivable.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 ‘A Controversial Correspondence (1911–36)’ is among the weakest in the book. It is built on a debate that took place between Eusayn Sharaf al-Din al-2mil; and the Shaykh al-Azhar on Sunni and Shi6i theology. Brunner concludes that correspondence is a not entirely fictitious, highly stylized version of a debate—not as it actually happened but as it would have had to happen in order to achieve its desired goal. There are a few errors of translation where the text is cited, for example the following misleading sentence—on p. 65: ‘the pages came to be concealed and guarded’.

Chapter 4

Chapter 4, ‘Caliphate and Ecumene (1924–1939)’, refers not to the caliphate itself but to its history during this short period in Turkey and the position of Islamic sects on the position of the caliphate following Mustafa Kemal’s annulment of it. It covers the debates between Sunni and Shi6a scholars on the subject, such as Shaykh al-Azhar’s encouraging a scholar named Muammad Abu l- Fadl al Jizawi to call for an Islamic international congress to deliberate the annulment of the caliphate and choose a new caliph. As expected from such a politically motivated conference it was unable to agree on any matter and was never resumed. Unfortunately, like many similar narratives in the book, the author fails to give enough critical background so that one may understand the event concerned. In this case, the failure, as reported, to agree on what to do, owed much to the fact that the issue of caliphate was discussed in the exclusive political and religious salons, away from the mass of the people. Moreover, the discussion focused on the restoration of the caliphate under the Egyptian king Fuad, which could well explain the failure of such a call.

Chapter 5

‘The Institutionalisation of Ecumenical Thinking’ is the somewhat misleading title of Chapter 5, which is really about how the masses were used by certain groups, such as the Salafiyya and Ikhwan to influence the ecumenical concept according to their own strategies. This confirms what I said earlier, that the masses are really the roots where ecumenism needs to be explored. The first ‘institution’ dedicated to Islamic ecumenism was the ‘Jama’at al-ukhuwa al-islamiyya’ set up in the spring of 1938 in Cairo. The driving force behind it and its president was the famous Egyptian diplomat, ‘Abd at-Wahhab al- ‘Azz:m. Its activities were halted by the outbreak of the Second World War. The attempt to restart the Jama’at in Karachi in 1949 also failed. Numerous initiatives, particularly outside the Arab world, called continually for ecumenism but all were unsuccessful and achieved very little. This chapter is a valuable contribution to the history of the subject, but, regrettably, does not offer to discuss the possible reasons for these striking failures.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6, ‘Scholarly Network of the Taqrib movement (1947–1960)’, is, in a sense, a continuation of the previous one, with the same institutional emphasis from a different historical angle, and, again, an interesting and valuable historical record.

Chapter 7

‘Scope and Limits of the Ecumenical Debate’ (Chapter 7) is one of the best parts of the book. Indeed, the author could well have started at this point, after an historical introduction. He is right to observe that ecumenism in Islam around the middle of the twentieth century shared the same concerns it had at the end of the nineteenth century. At that time, the efforts were ‘treading on rocky and uncharted territory’. But then, why did the ecumenical efforts of the mid- twentieth century also fail to achieve much? The question begs a clear answer.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 (‘Polemics, Rapprochement and Revolutionary Politics 1952–1957’) picks up the concerns of Chapters 5 and 6, here with a regional flavour, and a particular focus on Egypt and the Azhar relationship with Iraq and Iran. The conclusions in this chapter are interesting and helpful.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9, ‘Triumph and Failure of Ecumenical Thinking 1958–1961’ begins with an account of the period of Mahmud Shaltut, 1959. Before Shalt<t no Sunni legal scholar of any rank, let alone the grand Shaykh al-Azhar, had gone as far as to recognize Shi6ism as an equal with the Sunni schools. The Taqrib bayn al madhahib group was rehabilitated after several years of decline at the time of Shaltut. There was even a serious discussion about establishing a chair of Ja’far; fiqh at al-Azhar. However, none of this lasted long and the ecumenical dialogue was not deemed to warrant a permanent position, and indeed compromised by its supporters, namely Shaltut and al-Midani. This was primarily due to the high political price to be paid for it, which might have damaged the interests of the Azhar University. The later part of the chapter (on Egypt, Iraq and Iran 1958–1960) is dedicated to politics and theology. It confirms that Shaltut call for rapprochement between the Azhar and Shi6ism was not theological-based but a tactical move to follow President Nasir’s politics. The author’s conclusion at this point (p. 311) is rather interesting, particularly if read in the context of present-day in Iraq, to which, of course, he does not refer. This apparent (and politically based) cooperation between Sunnis and Shi6is proved in the long run to have serious negative repercussions for the taqrib union, which were not appreciated in the heady mood of the time. One cannot but wonder whether a serious theological understanding between the two wings of Islam could have prevented the massacre in Iraq, making it possible to present a common front both before and after the invasion/ occupation of 2003.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10, ‘From Rapprochement to Restraint’, makes the main reasons for the weakness of taqrib much clearer, namely the conflict between the state or sovereign power and the religious authority. This contrasts with the approach in Chapter 4 where the sovereign power and faith authority were treated as a whole in evaluating the concept. In this chapter, the conflict between the two for control is seen as a main reason, amongst a few others, that weakened the movement and perhaps contributed to serious damage. This conflict is observed from the time of the Shah (1962–63) with his attempt to control the awqaf, down to King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Sadat of Egypt; finally ending with the Iranian revolution, which broke the diplomatic relationship with Egypt and thus put an end to the Islamic ecumenical group Jama6at al-taqrib bayn al-madhahib. This group had represented ‘the only Islamic union of the twentieth century that at least in the first decade and a half of its existence demonstrated the prospect of Islamic rapprochement’.

Concluding chapter

The concluding chapter sees the future of ecumenical discussion as being less dependent on the relationship between scholars than that between rulers. This is true to a large extent, but one should not ignore the power of the peoples themselves, who get scant attention in this book. Such power is the very reason that has kept today’s Iraqi society from rupturing completely, despite all the odds. Overall, this book is a good attempt to document the subject in a fair and objective way. Most readers will probably feel that it could do with updating to include the situation subsequent to the American invasion of Iraq and the future of Islam in the region.