The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa
A Crown Seminar with Malika ZeghalOctober 30, 2024
11am -12:15pm EST
Watch a recording of this Crown Seminar on our YouTube channel.
Challenging claims that Middle Eastern states have become secular in modern times, this Crown Seminar features Malika Zeghal, in conversation with Eva Bellin. Zeghal offers an innovative analysis of the continuity of the state's custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion based on her new book, The Making of the Modern Muslim State: Islam and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Princeton 2024). Spanning Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, her work highlights the deep historical roots of current political divisions over Islam in governance.
Malika Zeghal is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and a member of the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University.
Eva Bellin is the Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics in the Department of Politics and the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University.