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Tradition and History in Islam Primitivism in Islamic Thought and Scripture v in ce nt j. co rn el l When the regime of the Commander of the Faithful [Ah .mad ibn Muh .ammad alShaykh al-Mahdı̄] was established, he rejected imitation (taqlı̄d), increased creativity (tawlı̄d) and innovation (ikhtirā), favored theoretical research (qiyās al-mashāhid alā al-ghāib), and freed all worthy endeavors from the constraints that limited their usefulness. This resulted in numerous conquests, the exaltation of industries, the rule of civilization, subtleties of innovation and creativity, the expansion of capability, and a grandeur the like of which cannot be compared to anything achieved by his predecessors. May God prolong his days, make his achievements successful, and make his Imamate a protection for Islam! The condition of these times is of miracles beyond the limits of the human imagination. One can improve or create whatever the mind conceives, whether it is the answers to the most difficult philosophical problems or feats of engineering.1 T his remarkable passage was written in the late 1580s by Abd al- Azı̄z al-Fishtālı̄ (d. 1621), the court historian of the Moroccan Sultan Ah . mad al-Mans .ūr al-Dhahbı̄ (‘‘The Golden Conqueror,’’ r. 1578– 1603). Ah .mad al-Mans .ūr’s father, Muh .ammad al-Shaykh al-Mahdı̄ (d. 1557), reunited Morocco after more than a century of civil war and foreign invasion. He was a descendant of the Prophet Muh .ammad and claimed for himself the caliphal titles of amı̄r al-muminı̄n (Commander of the Faithful) and imām. Ah .mad al-Mans .ūr was the greatest ruler of the Sadian Dynasty, which dominated Morocco from 1554 to 1659. In many ways his reign was comparable to that of his contemporary, Queen Elizabeth I of Britain. Under the Sadians, Britain and Morocco were allies. As this passage demonstrates, Sadian Morocco, like Elizabethan England, encouraged both ambition and creativity. The Sadians welcomed merchants and adventurers from Spain, Italy, France, and the 7 8 Vincent J. Cornell Ottoman Empire. Iberian Jews oversaw international commerce, the state pursued a mercantilist economic policy, a fire-armed professional army maintained security, and Morocco was a place where ambitious men could ‘‘create whatever the mind conceives.’’ There seemed to be no limit to what Ah .mad al-Mans .ūr and his subjects could achieve. However, this golden age was not to last. The final major outbreak of the bubonic plague at the beginning of the seventeenth century killed the Sadian ruler and most of the urban elites of the country and plunged Morocco into a political, economic, and intellectual decline from which it did not recover until modern times. Al-Fishtālı̄’s description of Sadian Morocco is important because it contradicts the cliché of ‘‘the closing of the Muslim mind.’’ This is the title of a recent book that argues that Islam is against progress and innovation.2 This passage provides historical evidence that a premodern Muslim state could in fact foster creativity and innovation. Even today, few Western historians would admit that a progressive ethos like that of Elizabethan England could be found in the premodern Muslim world. Although the date of this text is from the early modern period, its modern sentiments make it seem as if it were written at the height of the Enlightenment. What makes this passage seem modern? First, it rejects imitation and praises innovation, creativity, and technological change. Second, it shows the spirit of pragmatism by stating that Ah .mad al-Mans .ūr ‘‘freed all worthy endeavors from the constraints that limited their usefulness.’’ Sentiments such as these have long been considered hallmarks of modernity. Other tokens of modernity can be found in this passage as well. For example, it celebrates the ethic of well-being, which, according to some theorists, stimulates innovation and creates an aesthetic in which industrial technique is praised as art.3 In addition, one can find signs of modernity’s dynamism and acceptance of risk as well as the tendency to overturn traditional habits and rules for the sake of efficiency.4 Primitivism and History The modernist ethos that characterized Sadian Morocco had its opponents, just as modernism has its opponents today. Historically, opposition to modernism has often been expressed through some form of primitivism. Although primitivism has existed since antiquity, antimodernists have repeatedly sought to revive this ethic since the Enlightenment...

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