About this Event
[PLEASE NOTE - The course is BOTH in person ONSITE in London and for those who can not attend in person can purchase the LIVE ONLINE STREAMING ticket to watch it from their device and those coming in person, should you not decide to attend person on the day or half the day, you will still recieve a link to the live online streaming, irrespective but are encouraged to attend in person if you have registered for that ticket, as this helps with allows room allocation, respectively for fellow participants].
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Islamic Courses presents:
PART TWO: ADVANCED MUSLIM POLITICAL THOUGHT AND REALISM FOR A MULTI-CIVILISATIONAL WORLD
Delivered by the team from The Center for Islam and Global Affairs [CIGA]*
Dates: Saturday 6th June 2026
Time: 9am - 6pm
Venue: Ebrahim College, 399–401 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 4QZ
The reality for the next 50 years, most Muslim nations will not be great powers (either failing or clientele states) and will operate somewhat between within the framework "spheres of security" away from the concept of "spheres of influence", a position coined by the leading economist and foreign policy analyst, Jeffrey Sachs. Whereas 'realist' scholars like John Mearsheimer, who argue that the competitive nature of international politics makes it difficult to stop a "sphere of security" from devolving into a "sphere of influence" where a superpower forces its will on smaller neighbors. Others have argued that this approach can legitimize imperialistic behaviors by great powers. Bottom line is, the liberal world model order is over including the UN, democracy and traditional capitalism being replaced by what Yanis Varoufakis(Greek economist and politician) coined 'TechnoFedualism' (extraction of rent through digital platforms) and kleptocracy and the systemic theft of public assets by a ruling elite (kleptocracy) and modern Governments are just a unipolar political party 'tick boxing' excercise. This has clearly demonstrated in Gaza and now with the Iran and Gulf crisis.
The question and challenge remains, how do Muslim thinkers develop a new political thought based on theo-philosophy bourne out of the ashes of a declining West and so-called rules based world order, away from the last 100 years of reactionary ideologies and Uncleji 'piety politics' and preparing themselves for a multi-polar world?
Continuing the series of advanced workshops in classical Muslim political theory that excavates the buried tradition of Muslim political realism that flourished during the "last flowering" of Ittihad-i Islam (c. 1875-1950). Responding to the Ottoman Caliphate's collapse and Western hegemony, modern Muslim intellectuals engaged classical concepts of sovereignty (Imamah), political order (Nizam), and statecraft (Siyasa) to reconcile Islamic governance with modernity. The workshops challenge the reduction of Ittihad-i Islam to "Pan-Islamism," revealing it as a sophisticated project reinterpreting foundational texts (al-Mawardi, al-Juwayni, Ibn Khaldun) to address freedom, representation, and international relations. We contrast this with the subsequent "long interregnum" of secular nationalism and Cold War Islamism, whose failures (post-2011 Arab Uprisings, Gaza 2023) underscore the urgent need to recover classical paradigms. Through primary sources and critical political theology, students will reconstruct core Muslim foundations of classical political theory: Jahiliya (political anarchy), Dairah al-Adl (circle of justice), Asabiyya (elite solidarity), and cyclical state dynamics. The goal is to reignite Muslim political ethics capable of informing a civilizational pole in today’s multipolar world, moving beyond reactionary ideologies toward a realist tradition grounded in prophetic state-building and balanced governance.
Learning Objectives: Master core concepts of classical Muslim political thought (Imamah, Siyasa, Jahiliya, Nizam); Reconstruct Muslim theories of sovereignty, constitutionalism, state formation/collapse; Develop fluency in comparing Muslim political theology with Western realism (Hobbes, Schmitt); Evaluate the relevance of classical paradigms for contemporary Muslim political revival.
Required Texts (Selections): Course Reader: Key excerpts will be provided before class from al-Juwayni (Ghiyāth al-Umam), al-Mawardi (al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya), Ibn Khaldun (Muqaddimah), Ibn al-Azraq (Bada’i al-Silk), Shah Waliullah (Hujjatullah al-Baligha), al-Turtushi (Siraj al-Muluk) & Secondary Source material
In PART II we look at Islamic political thought as a living resource for navigating the emerging multipolar order. In this workshop we will focus on 'The Caliphate and the Constitution: From Khaldunian Realism to Modern Idealism (1876–2026)'.
Course Objective: investigating this "pre-Cold War" window, delegates will understand how the idealism of today’s political Islam was not an ancient relic, but a creative and often desperate intellectual response to the fall of Classical Khaldunian Realism. The abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924 was not merely a change in governance; it was the shattering of a political universe. For centuries, Sunni political thought operated within a framework of Khaldunian realism, a pragmatic tradition that prioritized the cohesion of the community (jama’ah) and the cold realities of power over ideological purity. This workshop plunges into the intellectual crucible of the late Ottoman period (1876–1950) to diagnose the moment this realist tradition collided with Western ascendancy. The political void opened between 1876 and 1950 has never been filled. The crises of legitimacy and identity that plague the Muslim world today, from the failure of the post-colonial state to the rise of non-state actors, are the direct inheritance of this period. We will investigate a profound imaginative process: the rise of modern idealism in the Muslim world. This idealism was not a relic of the past, but a creative and often desperate response to the realization that the Caliphate was falling. As the "Classical Matrix" crumbled, Muslim thinkers began to imagine a post-Caliphate world, attempting to preserve the essence of a tradition within the rigid structures of the modern state. By tracing the degradation of traditional Sunni realism and the birth of modern idealism, we equip ourselves with the intellectual tools to understand the deep structure of Muslim political thought in an emerging multipolar world.
Eight Thematic Pillars - We will treat this era as a political laboratory, dissecting the arguments and constitutions that emerged from the wreckage of empire. Our investigation focuses on eight critical transitions: Regime Crisis: The tension between the traditional Monarchy and the encroaching Republic; Constitutionalism: The rise of written law as a replacement for traditional governance; The Sovereignty Shift: The move from a realistic prophetic sovereignty (grounded in historical agency) toward the polarized extremes of Divine Sovereignty (Hakimiyyah) vs. Secular Sovereignty; The Elite Collapse: The institutional and social disintegration of the traditional Sunni religious and political leadership; The Concept of Freedom: How hurriyya was transformed from a legal status into a modern political rallying cry; The Concept of Equality: The tension between traditional communal hierarchies and the demands of universal citizenship; Nationalism: The shattering of the Ummah into abstract nations demanding a new form of loyalty; The Secular Challenge: How the idea of Secularism was reinterpreted, resisted, and eventually integrated into the post-Ottoman domain; From History to Strategy: The Contemporary Stakes
This workshop does not end in 1950. It concludes by bringing our analytical tools to bear on the present—specifically on the most consequential geostrategic confrontation of our time: Iran’s war against US hegemony. The Islamic Republic of Iran represents a unique case in the modern Muslim political experience. It is neither a secular republic nor a traditional monarchy, nor does it fit neatly into the Sunni-centered narrative of our course. Yet its intellectual DNA was forged in the very crucible we study. Iran’s 1979 revolution was a post-colonial attempt to resolve the very questions that haunted the late Ottoman world: How does sovereignty return to the divine without collapsing into tyranny? How does a political community maintain its identity when the global order is shaped by a hostile hegemon? Today, Iran stands as the most sustained state-level challenger to the unipolar order that emerged after the Cold War—an order built on US military supremacy, dollar dominance, and the assumption that liberal democracy is the endpoint of political evolution. From the “Axis of Resistance” to nuclear diplomacy, Iran’s strategy is a hybrid: it combines ideological commitment (rooted in the idealist turn we trace in this course) with a cold-eyed Khaldunian realism that understands ‘asabiyyah (group solidarity), territorial depth, and the patience to outlast adversaries.
By examining Iran’s posture, we ask larger questions that frame our final sessions: Can Islamic political thought offer a coherent alternative to the secular nation-state model without falling into the traps of authoritarianism or fragmentation? ; How do the categories we have studied—sovereignty, constitutionalism, the role of the ‘ulama, the tension between Ummah and nation—reappear in the strategies of state and non-state actors today?; What would a genuinely multipolar world mean for Muslim polities that have spent a century trying to navigate a system built by and for Western powers? Our final thoughts, will not offer easy predictions. Instead, they will use the intellectual history we have built to give delegates a framework for interpreting the geopolitical realignment underway—a realignment in which the Muslim world is no longer merely a recipient of orders, but a potential architect of new ones.
Join us to discover how the collapse of a political universe a century ago continues to shape the battles—ideological and geostrategic—that will define the 21st century.
AUDIENCE: Because of the academic nature of the workshop, it will only be suited to post graduates, academics, policy makers, think-tank agencies, senior community Muslim thinkers, activists as well as Ulema and anyone interested in Muslim world international relations at a nuanced and advanced level of discourse in view to policy reform and decision making and processes.
*The Centre for Islam and Global Affairs [CIGA] is a premiere research independent non-profit institute in Istanbul, Turkey, affiliated with the Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. Through its departments such as the Islam and Muslim Societies Studies (IMSS), Geopolitical and Strategic Studies (GPSS), Islamophobia and Muslim Minorities Studies (IMMS), it focusses on high-quality research, policy analysis and recommendations, public education concerning global issues affecting the Muslim world, covering topics from geopolitics to human rights, leading discussions and events for policymakers and the public, and its future relations with world powers based on shared principles, common interests, and mutual respect.
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All welcome, limited spaces, pre-registration required!
DEADLINE FOR BOOKINGS APPLY after which prices increase
For more information call/tel: 07956735301 or email: [email protected]
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* Please note, time and resources have been set aside to ensure the programme runs in a smooth and professional manner for the maximum benefit of participants and thus unless the programme has been postponed or cancelled, there are NO REFUNDS as part of the terms and condition policy.
*Lunch and refreshments can be purchased at cafe's or restaurant's near to the venue and NOT included in ticket price.
*The course is BOTH in person ONSITE in London and for those who can not attend in person can purchase the LIVE ONLINE STREAMING ticket to watch it from their device and those coming in person, should decide not to attend person on the day or half the day, you will still recieve a link to the live online streaming, irrespective but are encouraged to attend in person if you have registered for that ticket, as this helps with allows room allocation, respectively for fellow participants
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Ebrahim College, 401 High Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 44.04 to GBP 65.71
