"Flawless . . . [Makdisi] reminds us of the critical declarations of
secularism which existed in the history of the Middle East."--Robert
Fisk, The Independent
Today's headlines paint the Middle East as a collection of war-torn
countries and extremist groups consumed by sectarian rage. Ussama
Makdisi's Age of Coexistence reveals a hidden and hopeful story that
counters this clichéd portrayal. It shows how a region rich with ethnic
and religious diversity created a modern culture of coexistence amid
Ottoman reformation, European colonialism, and the emergence of
nationalism.
Moving from the nineteenth century to the present, this groundbreaking
book explores, without denial or equivocation, the politics of pluralism
during the Ottoman Empire and in the post-Ottoman Arab world. Rather
than judging the Arab world as a place of age-old sectarian animosities,
Age of Coexistence describes the forging of a complex system of
coexistence, what Makdisi calls the "ecumenical frame." He argues that
new forms of antisectarian politics, and some of the most important
examples of Muslim-Christian political collaboration, crystallized to
make and define the modern Arab world.
Despite massive challenges and setbacks, and despite the persistence of
colonialism and authoritarianism, this framework for coexistence has
endured for nearly a century. It is a reminder that religious diversity
does not automatically lead to sectarianism. Instead, as Makdisi
demonstrates, people of different faiths, but not necessarily of
different political outlooks, have consistently tried to build modern
societies that transcend religious and sectarian differences.
