A Culture of Ambiguity: An Alternative History of Islam

A Culture of Ambiguity is one of several books authored by Thomas Bauer, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster, which contributed to his being awarded Germany’s prestigious Leibniz Prize in 2013. It has only recently been translated into English, although the original German work was written ten years ago, with some suggesting it may be as influential as Edward Said’s Orientalism. While Bauer demonstrates his expertise in language and texts, he also covers a vast spectrum of fields including linguistics, theology, scriptural analysis and sociology to outline his argument that Islam, at least historically, can be described as a culture of ambiguity. In the Introduction and Chapter 1 (‘Cultural Ambiguity’), Bauer sets out his thesis that Islamic history was characterized by an acceptance of ambiguity and contradiction, in contrast to the modern West, which opposes ambiguity, following its ‘obsession with truth’ (213). While the West seeks to eradicate ambiguity, the historical Islamic tradition has been content with maintaining but ‘domesticating’ ambiguity. The influence of the West on Islam — in part due to colonialism — has meant, however, that this ‘tolerance’ of ambiguity has been stifled in the contemporary period, bringing ‘considerable devastation to the Islamic world’ (16). It is worth elaborating on Bauer’s concept of ‘cultural ambiguity’, which he outlines in depth in Chapter 1. Bauer defines it as follows: