• DOI:10.1086/373102
• Corpus ID: 154847344

Islamic Civilization and the Legend of Political Failure

@article{Hess1985IslamicCA,
  title={Islamic Civilization and the Legend of Political Failure},
  author={Andrew C. Hess},
  journal={Journal of Near Eastern Studies},
  year={1985},
  volume={44},
  pages={27 - 39}
}

• Andrew C. Hess
• Published 1 January 1985
• History
• Journal of Near Eastern Studies

How Marshall G. S. Hodgson overcame the narrow conventions of orientalism to apply an imagination of the broadest scale to the history of Islamic civilization involves the mysteries of creation.' Surely one major reason why this courageous scholar developed such a grand vision of history lies with his fundamental humanity. His publications on other cultures are not demonstrations of intellectual superiority but are protests against the absence of empathy in the interpretation of human events.2 Cantankerous, stubborn, complex, he challenged readers to leave their moorings and to set out with him on a demanding intellectual as well as moral journey. Taking not the familiar events of his own civilization as his subject matter, he sought to explain the entire history of Islamic civilization, The Venture of Islam.3 To do this, Hodgson discarded the procedures of his own craft and set the events of Islamic civilization within the framework of world history. Unhesitatingly, he crossed cultural frontiers and applied comparative history in a field known for its concentration on the sources, the chronological view of history, and the properly authenticated tradition.4 Like all innovators, his work attracted criticism. If we sum up the objections, what they say is that Hodgson simply went too far in his assault on ethnocentrism. His comparison of the Renaissance with cultural highpoints in the civilizations of China and Islam is perhaps the most well-known example.5 For him the Renaissance was no more than something similar to the flowering of Sung China or the blossoming of the High Caliphal period in Islamic history. Along with this doublebarreled judgment on a period where developments are crucial to our understanding