The Venture of Islam has been honored as a magisterial work of the mind since its publication in early 1975. In this three-volume study, illustrated with charts and maps, Hodgson traces and interprets the historical development of Islamic civilization from before the birth of Muhammad to the middle of the twentieth century. This work grew out of the famous course on Islamic civilization that Hodgson created and taught for many years at the University of Chicago.
In this concluding volume of The Venture of Islam, Hodgson describes the second flowering of Islam: the Safavi, Timuri, and Ottoman empires. The final part of the volume analyzes the widespread Islamic heritage in today's world.
"This is a nonpareil work, not only because of its command of its subject but also because it demonstrates how, ideally, history should be written."鈥�The New Yorker
Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson was an Islamic studies academic and a world historian at the University of Chicago. He was chairman of the interdisciplinary Committee on Social Thought in Chicago.
Marshall Hodgson, wrote his vision of Islam and its importance for 1500 years, especially from Nile to Oxus region, as he said "the future core of Islamdom". the main Idea that Hodgson discussed in the 3 parts, that Islam is part of world civilization and the spot of modern history. The Venture of Islam is a great work and its details are extremely necessary, so you can read the follow article to get more knowledge about the book.
Today, I've finally finished the last and final part of "The Venture Of Islam" and successfully can't get over it! Drug for my broken soul... Alhamdulillah!馃尰
鈼綟irst Volume-
We can consider the great and wonderful work 鈥淭he Adventure of Islam鈥� as a comprehensive record of all eras and regions of Islamic history, concerned with the history of consciousness and conscience and the movement of cultural traditions and their social positions. It looks at the Islamic civilization, which Hodgson refers to as 鈥淚slamism,鈥� as woven within global dimensions, and with this vision, Hodgson constitutes a break with the traditional Orientalist heritage, although Hodgson will intersect with it, as we will see on some issues. However, what distinguished Hodgson鈥檚 vision was his rejection of the fundamental approaches towards Islam, and from here he formulates his approach and establishes the edifice of his new terminology in his view of Islamic civilization in the introduction to his huge book, which reached two hundred. Page, and this introduction is the key to the book as a whole, as through it Hodgson set out to purge the Orientalist field of words and terms borrowed from European history, which revolve around the idea of 鈥嬧€婨urocentrism. Overwhelmed...
鈼維econd Volume-
A very important part about the Islamic heritage in the Middle Ages, even though it gives a major role to Sufism in the Islamic history movement in the Middle Ages. Perfectly categorized!
鈼綯hird Volume-
It is one of the most important parts of the book because it relates to how our modern world was formed and the challenge of Islamic civilization to European modernity, and how the Islamic gunpowder empires formed a strong extension of medieval Islam before it disintegrated and European modernity penetrated within the environment of Islamic systems disintegrated from those major entities. The final touch with gorgeousness!
This series, probably, stole away the region of my "favorite religious series" of all time...
The concluding volume of Hodgson's trilogy offers some interesting insights if you can be patient enough to sift through the dense verbose narrative and the many irrelevant tangents. Towards the end; the objectivity suffers because you can tell he is allowing his own Quaker bias to colour his opinions. A flaw of this book is that Hodgson presents opinions as though they are factual without bothering to justify them. I would have liked to have seen a deeper explanation of the following:
1) The origin of Akbar's universalist approach to Islam and why his great-grandson Aurangzeb was so wholly different, persecuting and slaying so many Shias.
2) How communal rights between Muslims and Hindus started, and how were the British responsible?
3) A more detailed explanation of the errors in Allama Iqbal's ideology
4) A deeper explanation of how colonialism capitulated the Islamic legal processes present in Muslim countries.
Having read the book I am reminded of a salient statement made by Muhammad Asad; 'Islam did not make Muslims great. Muslims made Islam great.'
The concluding book of Hodgson' trilogy is perhaps the wekest link in the group as Hodgson seems only able to give a few hints and suggestions of how to deal with the modern world after his much more magisterial treatment of the medieval period. Since much of the third book was compiled after the author's death based on his notes, the style of the work perhaps necessarily suffers. Also of interest is the switch in orientation from the universal treatment of themes in the first two works to a series of chapters on different regions in the third.
The Venture of Islam series is simply the best history of the the Islamic (and Islamicate!) world as a whole. Hodgson was such a visionary thinker, it is a shame he passed away so young!
Berkay Ers枚z taraf谋ndan 2. kez T眉rk莽e'ye 莽evrilmi艧tir. T眉m ciltler i莽in i莽eri臒i dili yaz谋m stili ve olaylar谋 yorumlamas谋 a莽谋s谋ndan bak谋ld谋臒谋nda, eser tam bir sab谋r s谋nav谋yd谋. Orjinal metinindeki 莽ok 莽ok uzun c眉mlelerin ve kar艧谋l谋ks谋z terimlerin bunda pay谋 b眉y眉k. Konumuz olan 3. cilte ise, Tarihe, dinlere ve 枚zellikle 陌slama bak谋艧谋n谋z谋 de臒i艧tirecektir. Bu ciltte ise g眉n眉m眉z medeniyetler 莽at谋艧mas谋 veya ayr谋艧mas谋n谋n k枚kleri sorgulan谋yor, yak谋n ge莽mi艧i anlamland谋rmak i莽in 眉zerine iyi d眉艧眉n眉lmesi gerekli analizler yap谋l谋yor. Bir defada okunup anla艧谋lacak bir eser de臒il, okurken mutlaka kalem ka臒谋t yan谋n谋zda olmal谋...
It is only in the third volume that you realize how old the book is. Some of the historical explanations and terminologies in this volume are outdated but nevertheless, Hodgson provides you with a very robust and meaningful framework to understand what happened when the Islamic world had to face modernity. All in all, this is one of the best trilogies and a must-read if you want a great understanding of Islamic history.
Hodgson has earned himself a place as one of my intellectual heroes. This trilogy is an incredible feat, and holds up well, over fifty years later. And on a methodological level, this work represents, for me, the most compelling case for "World History" I've ever experienced. In Hodgson's hands, World History is not simply history with a wider scope; it is history with wider perspective.
When events are placed within the context of Eurasia over the past several thousand years, insights can be found that are not available with a more granular or specialized perspective. We see common challenges, common economic concerns, and intertwined development from Europe to China. Even during the modern era, when I worried that Hodgson's abstractions would flounder due to the speed of change, he offers a compelling account of the common problems faced by Muslims confronting modernity. Seeing the shared challenges of, say, Muslims in British Indian and the late Ottoman Empire 鈥� and their similar responses to these challenges 鈥� highlights the deep constraints that Muslims faced in how they adapted to modernity. On the other hands, if you want to know why Turkey and Iran have taken such different paths over the last hundred years, Hodgson's work has got you: his sociologically attuned mind is adept at comparative history, as well. Throw in a bunch of useful maps, diagrams, and timelines, and you have a very great trilogy.