Who: Toby Matthiesen
Precis
Based on a synthesis of decades of scholarship in numerous languages, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism, is the first truly global and longue durée history of Sunni-Shii relations. Moving chronologically, his book sheds light on the many ways that it has shaped the Islamic world, outlining how over the centuries Sunnism and Shiism became Islam’s two main branches, and how Muslim Empires embraced specific sectarian identities. Focussing on connections between the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, it reveals how colonial rule and the modern state institutionalised sectarian divisions and at the same time led to pan-Islamic resistance and Sunni and Shii revivalism. It then focuses on the fall-out from the 1979 revolution in Iran and the US-led military intervention in Iraq. As Matthiesen shows, however, though Sunnism and Shiism have had a long and at times antagonistic history, most Muslims have led lives characterised by confessional ambiguity and peaceful co-existence. Tensions arise when sectarian identity becomes linked to politics. In this talk, Matthiesen will outline his motivations for writing the book as well as some of the challenges he faced in the process. He will furthermore explain how the book contributes to and departs from earlier work and how it can contribute to discussions of religion and politics more broadly, especially in the early modern and modern periods.
Bio
Toby Matthiesen is Senior Lecturer in Global Islam at the University of Bristol. He has previously been a Marie Curie Global Fellow at Ca’ Foscari University and at Stanford University, and has held fellowships at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He is the author of Sectarian Gulf: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Spring That Wasn’t (Stanford University Press, 2013) and The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2015). His latest book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism, a global and longue durée history of Sunni-Shii relations, was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. His current research interests relate to the role of religion in international affairs, Islam and the Cold War, and the rise of the Gulf States.
To join online (tea & coffee from 5pm - talk starts at 5.15pm UK time).
[[[[us06web.zoom.us/j/91075056246?pwd=VC9VVm1YU01ablMzcDdVOUVjdnVMUT09](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/91075056246?pwd=VC9VVm1YU01ablMzcDdVOUVjdnVMUT09)
All are welcome.