Aria Nakissa

Washington University in St. Louis | WUSTL , Wash U · Department of Anthropology

Recent cognitive science research indicates that humans possess numerous biologically rooted religious and moral intuitions. The present article draws on this research to compare forms of religious morality in the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and the Indic traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism). Special attention is given t...

During the colonial era, liberal Western states established vast empires which came to encompass almost all of the world's Muslims. Western states worked out specific methods for governing Muslims, which were often referred to as “Muslim policy”. Recent scholarship on Muslim policy exhibits several key trends. One is expansion of geographical scope...

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European empires extended their rule over most of the Muslim world. The present article argues that these empires promoted three interrelated political discourses; namely, a discourse on utilitarianism, a discourse on civilizational progress, and a discourse on liberal imperialism. The empi...

The past 3 decades have witnessed growing efforts to rethink areas of inquiry traditionally dominated by the humanities. One such area is religion, and, by extension, “Islamic studies” (i.e., the study of Islam and Muslim societies). Recent efforts to rethink religion and Islamic studies draw insights from cognitive science, and also frequently emp...

This article argues that the emerging Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) provides a valuable new perspective on colonialism. CSR argues that humans are innately inclined towards certain types of religious belief (e.g., belief in spirit beings, belief in immortal souls) and certain types of non-utilitarian morality (e.g., belief in an obligation to...

In his influential work on the cognitive science of religion ( CSR ), Pascal Boyer argues that the spread of religious ideas involves a tradeoff between their “intuitiveness” and their interest-provokingness/memorability (i.e.,their capacity to provoke interest and be remembered). For Boyer, religious ideas are “intuitive” insofar as they are easy...

Specialists in Islamic studies have taken virtually no interest in the influential emerging field of cognitive science of religion (CSR). The present article addresses this problem by considering how insights from CSR can be used to reconceptualize classical Islamic theology. The article analyzes a number of theological topics, including predestina...

This article provides an anthropological analysis of counterterrorism in Indonesia. In doing so, it draws on several complementary ideas which have shaped anthropological scholarship on security, addressing ‘states of exception’, ‘securitization’, ‘governmentality’, and ‘human security’. The article develops its analysis through the first ethnograp...

Specialists in Islamic studies have taken virtually no interest in the influential and rapidly developing field of Cognitive Science of Religion ( CSR ). The present article seeks to address this problem by considering how insights from CSR can be systematically applied to reconceptualize Islamic theology, law, education, and mysticism. The article...

This article examines post-9/11 efforts by Western governments to instill respect for human rights among the world’s Muslim populations. The article argues that Western discourses on human rights are best conceptualized as a hegemonic Bourdieusian distinction strategy. In a dynamic strategy of this type, new human rights norms are continually produ...

This book shows how hermeneutic theory and practice theory can be brought together to analyze cultural, legal, and religious traditions. These ideas are developed through an analysis of the Islamic legal tradition, which examines both Islamic legal doctrine and religious education. In terms of disciplinary orientation, the book combines anthropolog...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine the traditional Islamic pedagogy of companionship. In companionship, a student learns from a teacher by entering into a long-term personal relationship with him and sharing in his everyday affairs. The chapter discusses companionship as a pedagogy favored by Traditionalist scholars....

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine how modern reform has altered traditional Islamic pedagogies inside al-Azhar and the Dār al-ʿUlūm. It gives special attention to the progressive marginalization of companionship owing to bureaucratization and the concomitant reorganization of educational time and space. The chapter e...

This conclusion briefly summarizes the key findings from previous chapters. It argues that bringing together hermeneutic theory and practice theory is not only essential for understanding the Islamic legal tradition, but also for understanding other cultural, legal, and religious traditions. It begins by noting that cultural, legal, and religious t...

This chapter examines the overall structure of Islamic legal thought, and explains how it relates to the pedagogical practices characteristic of Islamic learning. Here the chapter develops hermeneutic ideas using insights from “planning theory,” an influential approach in recent philosophical and legal scholarship. This allows for a new perspective...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine the traditional Islamic pedagogy of “taking from the mouths of shaykhs .” This pedagogy requires that a student obtain religious knowledge by sitting with a teacher and listening to him comment on ancient religious texts. The chapter discusses why Muslim scholars value this pedagogy,...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine the key concepts of Sharīʿa, Sunna, and ethics. It argues that these concepts can best be understood in terms of the relationship between mind and action, drawing on insights from hermeneutic theory and practice theory. Building on anthropological work in practice theory, the chapter...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine how shifts in the structure of religious education have helped give rise to new perspectives on Islamic law. It gives special attention to the emergence of the reformist legal currents known as “Wasatism” and “Salafism.” Both currents reject taqlīd , hold that it is legitimate to dis...

This chapter discusses hermeneutic theory and practice theory, situating them with respect to the work of Geertz and Asad. It then clarifies precisely how hermeneutic theory and practice theory can be brought together in the analysis of cultural, legal, and religious traditions, giving special attention to the Islamic tradition. One of the chapter’...

This chapter offers a detailed ethnographic and historical account of higher religious learning in modern Egypt. It begins with a description of premodern Egyptian religious learning prior to the Napoleonic invasion. It then provides an overview of contemporary Egypt’s leading institutions of higher religious education. First it describes al-Azhar...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine the traditional Islamic concept of sanad . A sanad is a chain of scholars through which knowledge is passed over time. The chapter discusses the importance of the sanad in the view of premodern scholars and contemporary Traditionalist scholars. It also discusses how the sanad is rela...

This chapter combines ethnography and textual analysis to examine how modern reform has progressively marginalized the pedagogy of taking from the mouths of shaykhs . Inside al-Azhar and the Dār al-ʿUlūm, this pedagogy has been displaced by new reading practices tied to new types of texts. The chapter discusses how new reading practices and texts w...

This introduction provides a general overview of the book. It explains how the book combines anthropology and Islamicist history to investigate contemporary Egyptian religious education. It also explains that the aim of the book is to show how hermeneutic theory and practice theory can be brought together to analyze the Islamic legal tradition. The...

This article examines how the events of the Arab Spring have helped give birth to a new juristic subfield known as the “Fiqh of Revolution”. The Fiqh of Revolution supplies legal guidance on peaceful rebellion under contemporary conditions, addressing itself to a 21st century world order shaped by new internet media and post-Cold War international...

In this article, I combine textual research with ethnographic data collected at al-Azhar and Dar al-.Ulum to investigate how the modernization of traditional religious learning has transformed the character of Islamic legal doctrine. I argue that changes in educational t chniques have produced a shift in "episteme". Whereas traditional religious le...

This article explores the importance of ethical discipline in resolving the ambiguities characteristic of legal interpretation. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among religious scholars at Egypt's al‐Azhar, I demonstrate that traditional Muslim educational techniques are structured with the aim of imparting a particular set of dispositions (modell...