Work in Progress Seminar

“Islam Observed” Revisited

Dr Jeremy Kingsley

6th March 2014, 6pm

First Floor Common Lounge

Register at dev-tembusu-nus.pantheonsite.io

I am beginning a major research project on the interaction between the people and ideas of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. I turned to the seminal comparative anthropological work Islam Observed by Clifford Geertz. This book investigates two Muslim communities and their practical, ritual and textual lives. Although still a force to be reckoned with in anthropological and religious studies debates, Islam Observed providers a particularly problematic assessment of two nations, Indonesia and Morocco, and their respective applications of Islam. At a time of great political and social transformation across the eclectic and culturally diverse Muslim world, I will discuss my re-working of one of Geertz’s seminal works.