The Ethnographic State: France and the Invention of Moroccan Islam (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520273818)

Alone among Muslim countries, Morocco is known for its own national form of Islam, "Moroccan Islam." However, this pathbreaking study reveals that Moroccan Islam was actually invented in the early twentieth century by French ethnographers and colonial officers who were influenced by British colonial practices in India. Between 1900 and 1920, these researchers compiled a social inventory of Morocco that in turn led to the emergence of a new object of study, Moroccan Islam, and a new field, Moroccan studies. In the process, they resurrected the monarchy and reinvented Morocco as a modern polity.

This is an important contribution for scholars and readers interested in questions of orientalism and empire, colonialism and modernity, and the invention of traditions.

Author: Edmund Burke
ISBN-10: 0520273818
ISBN-13: 9780520273818
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 09/10/2014
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.20w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2015 pg. 1382