Islam as Global Order

Abstract

Does the historical experience of Islam as a global religion offer general lessons about global order today? Muslims have historically referred to a world in which they could be citizens that was much larger than their locality: Dar al-Islam. This chapter identifies three properties that have lent deep and felt meaning to this otherwise amorphous concept: partial control, free movement, and cultural heteroglossia. Partial control meant that for Muslims the state was only one among many other authorities that were equally legitimate, and where multiple loyalties were the norm. Free movement of people was a natural corollary to the centrality of commerce in Muslim economies, pilgrimage routes, and the global structure of educational networks. Cultural heteroglossia refers to the ways by which the diversity of Muslim communities around the world appeared unproblematic, so that Muslims could continue to imagine themselves as a single global community, even though they rarely needed to act that way. The chapter concludes by exploring how those properties could be integral to a global order today.