Divine Punishment, “the Last Jihad” or the Origin of Protestantism: the Crusades in the Written Legacy of Arab and Tatar Muslim reformers (19th — Early 20th Centuries)

Abstract

This case study is a first ever attempt to compare the perceptions of the Crusades that emerged in Arab and Tatar Muslim modernist narratives of the late 19th — early 20th centuries through the discourse analysis of their written legacy. The comparison itself is of particular interest to understand the emergence of early Muslim modernist discourse, influential enough to set the tone for the various ideological concepts among modern Muslims. It is argued in this paper that Arab and Tatar Muslim reformers expressed significant differences in their interpretations of the Crusades period, despite a number of summary explanations can be reviewed in the Muslim modernist discourse under consideration (such as divine punishment, great shock for the umma, etc.). At the same time, the Crusades' concept along with the image of the “Christian — Crusader — Other” became an integral part of Muslim intellectual discourse of the late 19th — early 20th centuries, due to the widespread occurrence of “print capitalism” and actualization of anti colonial narratives among Muslims.