Ijtihād and the Regional Origins of a Universal Vision

Abstract

This chapter takes issue with the popular network thesis which argues that an intellectual network of likeminded, reformist scholars was generated as a result of travelling through and residence and education in Mecca and Medina. In contrast, the chapter demonstrates the diversity and regional origins of most reform projects in the eighteenth century. It illustrates, for example, the regional differences between ways in which the idea of ijtihad was deployed, and relates these differences to regional traditions of scholarship.