022 review hartung_sayyid qutb

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on divine elusiveness and the contradictory attempt to nevertheless say something,

whilst ending up taking refuge in manneristic language games. Language games that

in any case have a truth-content for al-Ma arr, since, for him, the Arabic language

constitutes a level of reality that is parallel (if not superior) to the world of phenomena

(the Heidegger quotation on p. 81 is highly appropriate in this sense).

In short, two important conrmations may be drawn from Peltzs work: the structuring

function of Semitic rhetoric, at least at the level of passages that, in their length, recall

the earlier and middle Meccan suras; and the strange marriage of rationalism and

religious issues that constitutes the driving force in al-Ma arrs work. In Peltzs

analysis, however, such conrmations remain essentially implicit and are almost lost

in the wealth of technical observations that not infrequently risk disorienting thereader. Indeed, Peltzs book certainly does not make for easy reading.

To conclude, it is to be hoped that the author will complete the full translation

of the ghytof which this book offers only a taste. Some passages, such as ghya

163 (p. 232), have an artistic value in their own right. In any case, the analysis on the

lexicon and the careful study of the whole opus that Peltzs book presupposes ought

to allow this additional work to be completed rapidly.

MARTINODIEZThe Catholic University of Milan, and The Oasis International Foundation

DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2014.0153

NOTES

1 Al-Ma arr, Kitb al-Ful wal-ghyt, ed. Mamd asan Zant (Cairo: n.p., 1938).

2 isha Abd al-Ramn Bint al-Shi (ed.), Rislat al-Ghufrn li Abl- Al al-Maarr

wa-maah na muaqqaq min Rislat Ibn al-Qri (Cairo: Dr al-Ma rif, 1977).

Sayyid Qutb: The Life and Legacy of a Radical Islamic Intellectual. By

James Toth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. x + 382. $ 35:00. ISBN

978-0-19-979088-3.

Once upon a time one could well expect academics to have fully acknowledged all therelevant literature on any given matter in whatever language. Regrettably, those days

seem long since past, giving way to the illusion that English is the only academic

language worth of consideration, a fact that, in its ultimate consequence, has led to the

emergence of rather redundant publications, and in most cases still to a seriously

defective appraisal of the state of research. The book here under review appears

to be only a case in point: an acknowledgement of the easily available research

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literature in various European languages as well as in Arabic would have contributed

signicantly to maintaining a more humble stand in the authors endeavour to make

better sense of Sayyid Qub (executed in 1966), one of the most radical Islamic

thinkers of the 20th century (p. 3). Even a quick search of the internet would have

revealed almost instantly the existence of Sabine Damir-Geilsdorfs excellent study in

GermanHerrschaft und Gesellschaft: Der islamistische Wegbereiter Sayyid Qub und

seine Rezeption (Wrzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2003), the acknowledgement of which

would probably have resulted in a very different book.

The social anthropologist James Toth divides his work in two distinct parts, in order to

not exclusively focus on select prominent concepts in the writings of Qu b, epitomised

in the two monographs by Sayed Khatab from 2006. The rst part is therefore devotedto an extensive discussion of Qubs biography as the context in which his prominent

ideas have evolved. However, since the basic facts have well been covered in the

works of William E. Shepard and John Calvert, the readers attention can justiably be

focussed instead on matters that these two authors have treated in less depth.

One such issue is the brief exposition of the relationship between Qub and his South

Asian precursor Sayyid Abl-Al Mawdd (190379) on pp. 69f, which,

admittedly, was much more complex than earlier authors such as Leonard Binder

would want us to believe (see Toths critical note 72, p. 311), but the portrayal of

which is still highly decient in the book under review, and in places simply

inaccurate. Again, had Toth recognised Damir-Geilsdorfs work, or our own

monograph on Sayyid Abl-asan Al Nadv (191399) from 2004, he would

have been able to draw a much more precise picture of what emerges to have been a

triangular connection between Qub, Mawdd, and Nadv. Moreover, already an

acknowledgement of Nadvs readily available Arabic travelogue Mudhakkirt si

l-sharq al- Arab would have rectied the portrayal of the relationship between

Qub and the Indian lim, which was much more complex and much less amicable.

Another matter of concern is the rather unreective application of heavily

presuppositional labels of early Islamic theological orientations, such as Mutazil

and Kharij, as well as the supposed impact of the medieval anbal Ibn Taymiyya

on the formation of Islamist thought. Once again, a more careful research into

the academic literature available in languages other than English (e.g. Thomas

Hildebrandts, Neo-Mutazilismus? Intention und Kontext im modernen arabischen

Umgang mit dem rationalistischen Erbe des Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2007)) would have

contributed to a much more differentiating discussion. As it stands, however, Toth

apparently falls prey to the tendency for the rather polemical use of historically

concrete theological labels in contemporary Islamist circles.

Finally, for numerous fairly interesting points in this rst part of the book, such as

the details of the readings discussed in a circle around Qubs sisteramda (p. 89),

160 Journal of Qur anic Studies


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Toth does not provide primary references that the interested reader could follow up,

which ultimately begs the question why these points have been made at all.

In contrast to the prosopographic

rst part of the book, the expansive second part onSayyid Qutbs Islamic Concept (pp. 95232) appears much more useful. While

Islamic Conceptseems to be either a misnomer for Conception of Islam, or should

have been put in plural to account for the numerous concepts discussed in the

following, it is this quite systematic treatment of core concepts in Qubs thought

that makes for a worthwhile reading. Setting out from a discussion of Qubs

theological ontology, epitomised in the concepts of divinity (rabbniyya),

immanence (thabt), one-ness (tawd), and comprehensiveness (shuml), and

the corresponding human epistemology and ethics (chapter 6), Toth continues with thethree core concepts of Qubs political theory; ignorance (jhiliyya), sovereignty

(kimiyya), and strife( jihd), in chapter 7. Interestingly, though, while suggesting

viable alternative translations forkimiyyaand the corresponding ubdiyya(pp. 138

and 140), Toths discussion does hardly take place against the backdrop of the

comprehensive analysis of jhiliyya and kimiyya in the above-mentioned two

monographs by Khatab. Rather, because he bases it almost exclusively on Qubs own

writings, as Khatab did before him, Toth does not yield many new or different

insights, which makes this chapter, at least in this extent appear rather redundant.

Chapters 8 to 10 present an elaboration of Qubs societal vision, discussing society,

economy and state with their constitutive elements respectively. Chapter 11 discusses

once again the concept ofjhiliyya, although now more explicitly as a constituent of

a salvation-based concept of history. However, since this aspect of Qubs thought

plays a crucial role in the justication of jihd in its various forms, this discussion

could have well been included in chapter 7, instead of splitting up an analysis of one

and the same conceptual term.

The book is completed with four appendices, of which the rst one a dramatis

person seems a bit redundant, while the following three on further aspects of

Qubs conceptual universe (women, the People of the Book, and apologetics,

pp. 27584) are too brief and too little related to the so far very systematic portrayal

of Qubs thought in the second part of the book. However, even with regard to the

systemacy that Toth provides, a critical word seems appropriate. While this systemacy

greatly helps the initiate to make better sense of how Qubs theoretical concepts

interrelate, it nonetheless blurs the quite signicant fact that Qub, other than for

instance Mawdd, did not really develop a sober and self-referential systematic

outline of Islam. Rather, Qubs ideas of an Islamic societal framework were rather

scattered and, moreover, even changed over time, a fact which the researcher needs

at least to openly acknowledge, regardless of whether or not Qubs ideas are then

portrayed in a systematic fashion.

Book Reviews 161


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Last but not least, the systematic exposition of Qubs core concepts are hardly

discussed as his legacy, which the subtitle of the book promises. While scholars like

Damir-Geilsdorf have given a lot of consideration to the reception and modication of

these concepts by posterity, including at the hands of radicalisers and later Egyptian

Muslim Brethren as well as those who provided alternative concepts, Toth connes

this discussion to the epilogue of his book (pp. 23348), moreover sparing highly

inuential thinkers like Ysuf al-Qaraw (b. 1926).

In conclusion, therefore, Toths monograph unfortunately seems to ll the gap in our

knowledge of Qub and his thought to a much lesser extent than the marketing

statements of the publisher and the endorsements by three academics on the back

cover would want us to believe. For researchers, the book hardly offers much new andchallenging insight apart from Toths attempt to systematise Qubs conceptual world.

For the general reader, who, after all, seems to be the target audience, it presents a

somewhat defective image, a fact that would need at least explicit acknowledgement,

if not rectication.

JAN-PETER HARTUNG

SOAS, University of LondonDOI: 10.3366/jqs.2014.0154

162 Journal of Qur anic Studies

022 review hartung_sayyid qutb

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