Call for Papers: Islam and the category of "religion" (Summer 2019) 

 

We are seeking papers on the theme of 'Islam and the category of "religion"' for the Summer 2019 issue of the semi-annual scholarly journal, Pakistan Journal of Historical Studies (PJHS), published by the Indiana University Press (Bloomington, USA).

 

Recent scholarship has historicised the concept of "religion" as it is used in contemporary popular, academic, and political discourse. Critics have called into question the usefulness and validity of a term developed in the context of post-Reformation Christianity and deeply entangled with the history of European colonialism, especially for the study of non-Western cultures. We seek papers that examine this question from the perspective of the study of Islam.

 

Potential topics:

• Is Islam a "religion", now or in the past? 

• Does the conception of Islam as a "religion" help or hinder our understanding of "Islamic art," "Islamic science," and "Islamic politics"? 

• How has Islam been constructed or governed as a "religion" in contemporary contexts? 

• How do indigenous concepts, such as dīn and īmān, compare to "religion"?

• Did the diversity of peoples and communities within Islamic empires, or studied by Islamic scholars, require the development of concepts similar to "world religions"?

 

Amina Steinfels, Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA, will guest edit this issue.

 

Deadline for submitting articles will be 15th April 2019. Manuscripts should be submitted through the Indiana University Press website, via the following link:

 

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/pjhs/login

 

Length of an article should be between 8,000 and 12,000 words. For style-sheet, visit the following link:

 

http://hak3408.wixsite.com/khaldunia/guidelines-for-contributors

 

For more information or to propose an idea, please email to pjhs@khaldunia.org (cc to asteinfe@mtholyoke.edu; hak@khaldunia.org)