Transcultural transfer of Islamic knowledge: The instruction
of foreigners at Islamic schools in South Asia and its impact
on their countries of origin
Applying the perspective of transcultural mediation, the project
seeks to chart the dissemination of religious knowledge at higher
Islamic schools in South Asia to foreign students, the application
of this knowledge by the graduates in their countries of origin,
and its impact on the interpretation and understanding of Islam.
The increasing networking between different parts of the Islamic
‘periphery’ and growing cross-border interaction between
Muslims of different cultural and national origin are at the centre
of the research. The project highlights ‘South-South cooperation’
between Muslims not belonging to the traditional heartlands of
Islam, which has so far received little attention in academic
research. It intends to contribute to understanding the dynamics
of creating a translocal and transcultural space or ‘interstice’
where a specific religious, political and/or symbolic culture
shaped by these graduates emerges. The project attempts to elucidate
the divergences and disjunctions in the transcultural mediation
process of the knowledge of Islam at the places of instruction
and in the student and graduate countries of origin. These may
include disparities between reformist Islam and other competing
traditions of interpretation, between local and external influences,
and between the different forms of applying acquired religious
knowledge in the field of politics, ideology, culture or education.
project publications 
Sub-project 1
On the Religious and Political Culture of "Peripheral"
Pan-Islamism: The Instruction of Foreigners at the International
Islamic University Islamabad (Pakistan) and at the Dar al-'ulum
Deoband (India) (2004-2005)
Dr. Dietrich Reetz, modern historian and political scientist
for South Asia
The project intends to explore and analyse the instruction of
foreigners at reformist Islamic schools in South Asia, concentrating
on students from Asia and Africa in terms of ‘South-South’
Pan-Islamism. It pursues the question of whether South Asia is
becoming a new centre for the dissemination of religious knowledge
in the Islamic world and how this role affects the interpretation
and practice of Islam. In this, it focuses on two Islamic institutions
of higher learning, the dar al-'ulum Deoband in north India, and
the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. Both
are renowned for their regional and transnational standing. The
inquiry concentrates on the specifics of instructing foreigners,
the curriculum, conditions of study, and self-organization of
foreign students, as well as the latter’s adaptation to the
local environment and interaction with local Islamic traditions.
It will seek to highlight the changes brought about by the presence
of these foreigners, both in the schools and in the foreigners
themselves. It will also reflect on the hermeneutical understanding
of Islam as influenced by the instruction of foreigners and their
presence (project
webpage).
Transcultural change via education: The Islamic instruction
of Malaysian and Indonesian students in India and Pakistan and
the application of their knowledge in their home country (2003-2004)
Dr. Farish Noor, political scientist for Southeast Asia
The aim of the project is to study the process of education and
the formation of transnational educational networks between Islamic
educational establishments in Malaysia and Indonesia and their
counterparts in South Asia (specifically India and Pakistan).
The theoretical focus will be on the process of transcultural
transfer of education. The intention is to look at how Islamic
knowledge imparted at South Asian institutions is accepted, adapted
and recontextualised by Malaysian and Indonesian students, and
the subsequent impact on the local understandings of religion,
politics and culture in their respective societies. The approach
will combine both empirical analysis of institution and network
formation as well as discursive analysis of the shifts and changes
that take place within the discursive space of Islamic educational
discourse. The aim is to assess the impact of such transcultural
exchange on local socio-cultural and political settings and to
analyse how and why these discursive shifts have taken place within
the arena of Islamist educational and political discourses in
Malaysia and Indonesia. Thus far, there has been a significant
gap in the research done in this field as there is no updated
comprehensive study on the transnational networks and linkages
between Islamist educational networks in South Asia and Southeast
Asia (project
webpage).
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