Title and/or Abstract:
"Jihad and Islamic History"

by Jonathan E. Brockopp

In this essay, I analyze four constructions of the “lesser jihad,” that is jihad as warfare. After an initial overview of the key events and persons from the Prophet’s lifetime, I explore two classical and two modern interpretations of war. The classical positions (those of legal scholars and historians) dominate the Islamic tradition even today, and many modern jurists and historians would give much the same account as that of their medieval counterparts. I have therefore selected modern voices that reflect other tendencies, one devoted to reform (Muhammad Abduh) and another to revolution (bin Laden). In providing this more complex picture of warfare, I argue that we can usefullly distinguish those scholars who maintain an ongoing exploration of the classical sources from those who would purport to give us a singular definition of the truth