Islamic Modernism

Islamic history from 1800 to the present: the weakening of the Ottoman and other Muslim empires, the period of European colonial rule, the independence movements that followed, the founding of the modern Muslim states, and the changes since.

Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905 CE) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and reformer who pioneered Islamic modernism. As Grand Mufti of Egypt, he reconciled Islamic teachings with modern thought and influenced generations of Muslim intellectuals.

Sayyid Muhammad Rashid Rida (1865-1935) was an Islamic scholar of Ottoman Syria who settled in Egypt and founded the journal al-Manar in 1898, editing it until his death. Through it he framed an intellectual response to the pressures of the modern world on Islamic learning.