Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe
Lecture
Guest Lecture: Religious Charisma, Civility and Sovereignty in the Sociology of Islam
CERES Palais, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
Guest lecture presented by Prof. Dr. Armando Salvatore (McGill University, Montreal)
The lecture will delineate some key trajectories in the history of the Islamic ecumene through which saintly charisma was appropriated by various rulers for the sake of political legitimacy. The presentation will also focus on the shifting role of religious knowledge production in the process. The analysis will show the emergence of original forms of precolonial political modernity that can be contrasted with the European Leviathan-model of sacral sanctioning of sovereignty. Examples are mainly drawn from the evolution of Ottoman rule and court culture in the larger context of early modern Islamicate empires and their changing religio-political cultures.
