The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism
What is Jihadi-Salafism and how does it relate to classical Islam? Scholars of Terrorism Studies argue that ‘Jihadism’ and Salafism are derivatives of Wahhābism and lie on the ideological margins of the Islamic tradition. This book challenges this narrative, demonstrating that concepts associated with the terms – including ‘divine sovereignty’, ‘jihad’ and ‘the caliphate’ – are utilised by Salafi Ulama in connection with the following disparate classical Islamic traditions: Shāfiʿite legal theory during the Mongol invasions; Ottoman and Indian anti-colonial Ḥanafite thought; Mālikite and Shāfiʿite ‘political jurisprudence’; and the literalism of the Yemeni luminary Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834).

This is the first book to disaggregate linear histories of Jihadi-Salafism by shifting the focus from Wahhābism to Sunnism, including Māturīdite and Ashʿarite doctrinal schools and the ‘four schools’ of law. Based on archival research and interviews, it examines the thought of diverse Ulama, ranging from ʿAbdullah ʿAzzām to Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī. It highlights their profound commitment to the classical Islamic sciences, as well as their distinct interpretations of historical crises that befell the premodern Umma, ultimately articulating a vision for its future.

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The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism
What is Jihadi-Salafism and how does it relate to classical Islam? Scholars of Terrorism Studies argue that ‘Jihadism’ and Salafism are derivatives of Wahhābism and lie on the ideological margins of the Islamic tradition. This book challenges this narrative, demonstrating that concepts associated with the terms – including ‘divine sovereignty’, ‘jihad’ and ‘the caliphate’ – are utilised by Salafi Ulama in connection with the following disparate classical Islamic traditions: Shāfiʿite legal theory during the Mongol invasions; Ottoman and Indian anti-colonial Ḥanafite thought; Mālikite and Shāfiʿite ‘political jurisprudence’; and the literalism of the Yemeni luminary Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834).

This is the first book to disaggregate linear histories of Jihadi-Salafism by shifting the focus from Wahhābism to Sunnism, including Māturīdite and Ashʿarite doctrinal schools and the ‘four schools’ of law. Based on archival research and interviews, it examines the thought of diverse Ulama, ranging from ʿAbdullah ʿAzzām to Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī. It highlights their profound commitment to the classical Islamic sciences, as well as their distinct interpretations of historical crises that befell the premodern Umma, ultimately articulating a vision for its future.

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The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism

The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism

by Jaan Islam
The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism

The Premodern Origins of Jihadi-Salafism

by Jaan Islam

Hardcover

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Overview

What is Jihadi-Salafism and how does it relate to classical Islam? Scholars of Terrorism Studies argue that ‘Jihadism’ and Salafism are derivatives of Wahhābism and lie on the ideological margins of the Islamic tradition. This book challenges this narrative, demonstrating that concepts associated with the terms – including ‘divine sovereignty’, ‘jihad’ and ‘the caliphate’ – are utilised by Salafi Ulama in connection with the following disparate classical Islamic traditions: Shāfiʿite legal theory during the Mongol invasions; Ottoman and Indian anti-colonial Ḥanafite thought; Mālikite and Shāfiʿite ‘political jurisprudence’; and the literalism of the Yemeni luminary Muḥammad al-Shawkānī (d. 1834).

This is the first book to disaggregate linear histories of Jihadi-Salafism by shifting the focus from Wahhābism to Sunnism, including Māturīdite and Ashʿarite doctrinal schools and the ‘four schools’ of law. Based on archival research and interviews, it examines the thought of diverse Ulama, ranging from ʿAbdullah ʿAzzām to Abū Muḥammad al-Maqdisī. It highlights their profound commitment to the classical Islamic sciences, as well as their distinct interpretations of historical crises that befell the premodern Umma, ultimately articulating a vision for its future.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781399546676
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication date: 01/31/2026
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Jaan S. Islam is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh as a SGSAH Fellow and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. Dr Islam’s main research interests are comparative political thought, Islamic jurisprudence and decolonial theory. His recent works include Islam and the State in Ibn Taymiyya: Translation and Analysis (Routledge, 2022) and “A Jihadi Critique of the Modern State” published in Political Theory.

Table of Contents

Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Note on Translation and Transliteration


1. Proposing an Alternative History of Jihadi-Salafism
2. A Brief History of Global Jihad
3. Introducing Salafi Hermeneutics: Questioning the Myth of ‘Jihadi-Salafism’
4. ‘Political Jurisprudence’: Theorizing the Early Caliphate (10th-13th c.)
5. The Convergence of Legal Theory and Exegesis: Shāfiʿī-Ashʿarism and the Condemnation of Secular Rulers
6. The Sharīʿa and Secularism: From the Mamlūks to Modernity
7. Sultanate and Sharīʿa in Ottoman Political Thought: From Māturīdite Exegesis to post-Caliphate Nostalgia (17th-13th/14th-20th c.)
8. Indian Ḥanafite Origins of Ḥākimiyya as a Decolonial Alternative
9. Reinventing Legal Theory: The Salafi Revival of Literalism (18th c.) and Comparative Jurisprudence

Epilogue: Retheorizing Islamic Political Thought in the 21st Century

Bibliography
Contemporary Primary Sources
Classical Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Index

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