Usaama al-Azami read his BA in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford, and his MA and PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Alongside his university career, he also pursued Islamic studies in seminarial settings in which he has also subsequently taught. He has travelled extensively throughout the Middle East, living for five years in the region. He is also an enthusiastic teacher who is very eager to support the formation of research scholars, and always welcomes students with such aspirations to get in touch with him.
Usaama is primarily interested in the interaction between Islam intellectual history, with a special interest in diachronic transformations in Islamic political thought. His first book, Islam and the Arab Revolutions looks at the way in which influential Islamic scholars responded to the Arab uprisings of 2011 through 2013. His current monograph project explores the question of takfir or excommunication, and its diachronic developments from early Islam to modernity.
Usaama’s PhD, which is a separate project whose chapters he is preparing publication, is entitled “Modern Islamic Political Thought: Islamism in the Arab World from the Late Twentieth to the Early Twenty-first Centuries”. In it, he explores how Arab ulama of a mainstream “Islamist” orientation have engaged Western political concepts such as democracy, secularism and the nation-state, selectively adapting and assimilating aspects of these ideas into their understanding of Islam. His broader interests extend to a range of disciplines from the Islamic scholarly tradition from the earliest period of Islam down to the present.
Research Interests:
Islamic intellectual history
Islamic political philosophy, law and ethics
The Arab uprisings, the ulama and contemporary politics
Methodological debates in Islamic studies
Postcolonial and decolonial studies
Current Projects:
Monograph in preparation: Islam and the Question of Takfir
Courses Taught:
Islamic Thought in the Middle East
Islam and Politics in the Middle East (MPhil/MSc only)
Modern Islamic Thinkers (BA only)
Recent Publications:
Islam and the Arab Revolutions The Ulama Between Democracy and Autocracy. Oxford University Press, 2022.
“Locating Ḥākimiyya in Global History: The Concept of Sovereignty in Premodern Islam and Its Reception after Mawdūdī and Quṭb,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2021.
“Legitimising Political Dissent: Islamist Salafi Discourses on Obedience and Rebellion after the Arab Revolutions.” in Masooda Bano (ed.). Salafi Social and Political Movements: National and Transnational Contexts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
“‘Abdullāh bin Bayyah and the Arab Revolutions: Counter‐revolutionary Neo‐traditionalism’s Ideological Struggle against Islamism.” The Muslim World 109 (2019), 343-361.
“Neo-traditionalist Sufis and Arab Politics: A Preliminary Mapping of the Transnational Networks of Counter-revolutionary Scholars after the Arab Revolutions.” In Global Sufism: Boundaries, Structures, and Politics. Eds. Mark Sedgwick and Francesco Piraino. London: Hurst, 2019, 225-236 and 278-283.
