Portrait of a Moroccan ʿālim: Shaykh Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar al-Kattānī’s Life, Works, and World (1858 - 1927)

Abstract

That global events of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries spurred important developments in the sphere of Muslim political thought has been the subject of ample scholarly research. Within this important and still growing body of scholarship, however, less attention has been paid to the diversity of currents among those groups of Muslim thinkers, particularly religious scholars (ʿulamāʾ, sing., ʿālim), who did not promote the standard rhetoric of religious reform, revival, or resistance to authority. Often written off as conservatives at odds with modernity who lack the capacity to think originally and effect concrete change, many of these scholars in fact contributed significantly and diversely to the development of Islamic political thought during this period from within the existing structures of tradition and society. This dissertation explores the biography of one such ʿālim, Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar al- Kattānī (1858 - 1927), a scion of one of Morocco’s most prominent families of ʿulamāʾ, Sufi shaykhs, and shurafāʾ (descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad). Loosely following the chronological arc of Kattānī’s life and career, which played out across Morocco and late Ottoman Hijaz and Damascus, this study examines a wide selection of his works, written at critical junctures, which impart insights into his religio-political vision and the practical modes by which he sought to enact it in society. More broadly, this study adds depth and texture to our understanding of the ʿulamāʾ, their multifaceted identities, and the diverse environments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Islamic world that they navigated and negotiated on their own terms.