Knowledge and Power in Morocco: The Education of a Twentieth-Century Notable

by Dale F. Eickelman

Overview

This intensive social biography of a rural Moroccan judge discusses Islamic education, the concept of knowledge it embodies, and its communication from the early years of colonial rule in twentieth-century Morocco to the present. The work sensitively combines the outlooks and perceptions of the author and those of the shrewd and reflective ‘Abd ar-Rahman, supplementing our knowledge of resurgent militant Islamic movements by describing other popularly supported Islamic attitudes toward the contemporary world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691025551
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/30/1992
Series:	Princeton Studies on the Near East , #1
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	221
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations, Tables, and Maps	ix
	Foreword	xi
	Preface	xv
	Introduction	3
	Learning and the State	3
	Intellectuals: Context and Style	8
1.	Biography as a Social Document	14
	The Anthropologist and the Judge	19
	The Sharqawi Papers	25
2.	Beginnings	37
	Bzu and Its Region	37
	The Family Milieu: Origins	41
	A Qadi's Childhood	50
	His Brother's Footsteps	53
3.	The Education of a Qadi: The Quranic Presence	57
	Islamic Knowledge in Morocco	57
	The Social Context of Religious Learning	59
	Carriers of the Quran	65
	Places of Study	68
4.	The Yusufiya: A Profile of Higher Islamic Learning	72
	Rural Students in Marrakesh	77
	Student Hostels	79
	Higher Learning and Society	85
	The Mosque-University Milieu	91
5.	The World of the Educated Rural Notable	107
	The Return	107
	Discerning Islam	114
	Self-Images	122
	Bzu: The Two Faces of Learning	124
	The Responsibilities of Learning	130
6.	Politics and Religion: From Protectorate to Independence	135
	The Berber Decree	135
	The Colonial Apogee	137
	The War Years	139
	Postwar Nationalism	146
	The Deposition	151
	Independence: The View from the Periphery	155
7.	The Great Transformation?	161
	The Erosion of Traditional Learning	161
	From Mosque-University to Religious Institute	169
	Personal Choices	172
	Challenges	173
	Glossary	181
	Bibliography	185
	Index	197

Editorial Reviews

Eickelman is an astute and delicate storyteller. His narrative illuminates 'Abd al-Rahman's biography, as Michel Foucault says, at the 'point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, learning processes, and everyday lives.'

The Middle East Journal - Stephen William Foster

Eickelman is an astute and delicate storyteller. His narrative illuminates 'Abd al-Rahman's biography, as Michel Foucault says, at the 'point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, learning processes, and everyday lives.'
— Stephen William Foster

The Middle East Journal

"Eickelman is an astute and delicate storyteller. His narrative illuminates 'Abd al-Rahman's biography, as Michel Foucault says, at the 'point where power reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, learning processes, and everyday lives.'"—-Stephen William Foster, The Middle East Journal

From the Publisher