Ebook: Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslim Congresses

Late in the 19th century Muslims, separated by distance, language, and history, first thought to make their world whole by assembling in congress. "Islam Assembled" traces the roots of political activism in Islam as it took form in these gatherings.

From the first fitful initiatives undertaken by a handful of Muslim cosmopolitans to the era when the West began to divest itself of its Muslim possessions and the need for the congresses diminished, "Islam Assembled" traces in detail this crucial but previously untold story. The congresses followed one another in no particular sequential order and they bore no formal relationship to one another.

The initiative moved from continent to continent, and the action unfolded not only in Mecca, Cairo, and Jerusalem, but also in such unlikely places as Moscow, Geneva, and Tokyo. So scattered was the evidence that no attempt has hitherto been made to study the congresses in an integrated fashion and to measure their cumulative effects. The passage of time has made possible a comprehensive study, based upon sources only now within reach.

Kramer sets out to trace the congress idea through its earliest evolution, to examine in depth the first and largely unsuccessful initiatives, and to assess the congresses convened between the two world wars. In the course of his study he brings out the central theme of the congresses, Muslim attachment to the political concepts of a united Islam, even as the Muslim empire and caliphate waned.

"Islam Assembled" explores, for the first time, the moment when Muslims first equated the sheer expanse of Islam with political power in the modern world.