Overview
This book studies the relationship between political thought, preaching and emotions through the writings of Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201), a celebrated hortatory preacher in late-Abbasid Baghdad. Through an intertextual analysis of Ibn al-Jawzi's works in various genres, this book details how his ideal form of rulership reflected the emotional norms and pietistic moral virtues promoted in Muslim hortatory sermons. It also examines the emotional strategies deployed in his efforts to reform the rulers of his time. In highlighting the importance of piety in Ibn al-Jawzi's political discourses, the book points to a new reading of the history of Islamic political thought that, rather than foregrounding order and military prowess, considers competing political languages among medieval Muslim intellectuals. In doing so, it calls for the need to rethink notions of 'politics' and the 'political' when studying Islam.
Full Product Details
Author: Han Hsien Liew (Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, Arizona State University)
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781399511292
ISBN 10: 1399511297
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 28 February 2026
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: Not yet available
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.
Reviews
Han Hsien Liew’s work stakes out new ground for the study of politics in Islam. Tabling the modernist focus on power for the intricate role of preaching—emotionally rich and morally challenging—in setting norms of rulership in Islam, it is a clarion call to take pietistic ideals seriously amidst Islam’s hierarchies. -- Paul Heck, Georgetown University This book is an articulate rehabilitation of the Hanbali scholar and preacher Ibn al-Jawzi, undertaken through a careful examination of his political discourse and program of reform that was a response to the circumstances of the age. An essential read, the book is an eloquent attestation to the performative ethical and political power of hortatory disquisition, a perspective rarely attended to in the field. -- Wael Hallaq, Columbia University
Han Hsien Liew’s work stakes out new ground for the study of politics in Islam. Tabling the modernist focus on power for the intricate role of preaching—emotionally rich and morally challenging—in setting norms of rulership in Islam, it is a clarion call to take pietistic ideals seriously amidst Islam’s hierarchies. -- Paul Heck, Georgetown University This book is an articulate rehabilitation of the Hanbali scholar and preacher Ibn al-Jawzi, undertaken through a careful examination of his political discourse and program of reform that was a response to the circumstances of the age. An essential read, the book is an eloquent attestation to the performative ethical and political power of hortatory disquisition, a perspective rarely attended to in the field. -- Wael Hallaq, Columbia University Han Hsien Liew’s study is an engaging exploration of a major premodern religious scholar’s grappling with political and social contingency. This book stands as a finely crafted reminder of the enduring political significance of religious preaching—both in the past and in our present moment. -- Hayrettin Yücesoy, Washington University in St Louis
Han Hsien Liew’s work stakes out new ground for the study of politics in Islam. Tabling the modernist focus on power for the intricate role of preaching—emotionally rich and morally challenging—in setting norms of rulership in Islam, it is a clarion call to take pietistic ideals seriously amidst Islam’s hierarchies. -- Paul Heck, Georgetown University This book is an articulate rehabilitation of the Hanbali scholar and preacher Ibn al-Jawzi, undertaken through a careful examination of his political discourse and program of reform that was a response to the circumstances of the age. An essential read, the book is an eloquent attestation to the performative ethical and political power of hortatory disquisition, a perspective rarely attended to in the field. -- Wael Hallaq, Columbia University Han Hsien Liew’s study is an engaging exploration of a major premodern religious scholar’s grappling with political and social contingency. This book stands as a finely crafted reminder of the enduring political significance of religious preaching—both in the past and in our present moment. -- Hayrettin Yücesoy, Washington University in St Louis A superb study of Ibn al-Jawzi, thoroughly, meticulously and insightfully conveying the integration in his writings and preaching of discourses of ethical politics on the one hand and personal piety and merit on the other. Han Hsien Liew shows how preaching brought debates over political legitimacy into the public sphere, and how the offering of political advice moved well beyond court circles into urban space. -- Louise Marlow, Wellesley College Han Hsien Liew’s insightful exploration of Ibn al-Jawzi’s attempts to ameliorate the tension between Realpolitik and the Islamic ideal of pious leadership in the 12th century is a major contribution to Islamic political thought. The study has important implications for the contemporary Islamic world as well in which debates about the nature of political leadership are newly resurgent. -- Asma Asfaruddin, Indiana University in Bloomington Han Hsien Liew’s book is the latest and fullest on Ibn al-Jawzi. He brings together a wide range of scholarship on Iraqi politics in the later 12th century, political thought from many centuries, and preaching. He also brings to bear recent theoretical advances from our much more numerous colleagues in European history, especially as to the history of emotions. Everyone will enjoy it who is interested in the range of premodern Islamic political thought. -- Christopher Melchert, University of Oxford
Author Information
Han Hsien Liew is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. In addition to the history of Islamic political thought, his research interests include Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic theology, Islam in Southeast Asia and the history of emotions. His work has been published in Al-Qanṭara: Revista de Estudios Árabes, Journal of Islamic Studies, Journal of the American Oriental Society and Arabica. He was recently awarded a Herodotus Fund Membership from the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
