The post-First World War period was pivotal in global history, international relations and geopolitics. And no more than in South Asia. where for decades the 'Great Game' in geopolitical rivalry of the two greatest modern empires - Britain and Russia - had dominated international relations. But with the advent of Communism in Russia and growing nationalism and pan-Islamism in Afghanistan, Persia and India, Britian's imperial standing was under threat. Faced with these problems, some in the British government, such as Lord Curzon, the dominant imperialist in the British Foreign Office, fell back on what they knew - old patterns of rivalry and high-handedness that characterised the Great Game. Not all, however, agreed with Curzon, and with war in Afghanistan, civil unrest in India, and rising tensions in Persia, those who opposed this Great Game mindset advocated a new way forward for British foreign relations.

Covering a rich array of global aspects, ranging from individuals as ideational entrepreneurs to transnational intellectual trajectories, this volume deals with multiple dimensions of global and transnational backgrounds pertaining to Turkey’s intellectual history, starting with the 19th and reaching the 21st-century. The book engages with the late Ottoman and republican Turkish periods through topics such as the transnational processes that contributed to the development of modern Turkish philosophy, the Bosnian and Bulgarian intellectuals at the end times of the Ottoman imperial order, Wilsonianism’s impact, the role of Westerners in promoting Ottoman political agendas, the global connections and ramifi cations of Turkish Islamism as well as Turkish anticlericalism and leftism. The aim is to globalize late Ottoman and republican Turkish intellectual histories by presenting distinct frameworks for advancing the Global Intellectual History agenda in this distinct setting.

A study of political possibilities in the era of modern imperialism, from the perspective of the sovereign state of Hyderabad.

Social research and historical study of political leadership in Bengal from 1912 to 1947.

The political thought of Muslim societies is all too often defined in religious terms, in which the writings of clerics are seen as representative and ideas about governance are treated as an extension of commentary on sacred texts. Disenchanting the Caliphate offers a groundbreaking new account of political discourse in Islamic history by examining Abbasid imperial practice, illuminating the emergence and influence of a vibrant secular tradition. Closely reading key eighth-century texts, Hayrettin Yücesoy argues that the ulema’s discourse of religious governance and the political thought of lay intellectuals diverged during this foundational period, with enduring consequences. He traces how notions of good governance and reflections on prudent statecraft arose among cosmopolitan literati who envisioned governing as an art. Competent in nonreligious branches of knowledge and trained in administrative professions, these belletrists articulated and defended secular political practices, reimagining the caliphal realm as politically constituted rather than natural. They sought to improve administrative efficiency and bolster state control for an empire made up of diverse cultures. Their ideas about moral cultivation, temporal reasoning, and governmental rationality endured for centuries as a counterpoint to religious rulership. Drawing on this history, Yücesoy critiques the concept of “Islamic political thought,” calling for decolonizing debates about “secular” and “religious” politics. Theoretically rich and historically grounded, Disenchanting the Caliphate is an insightful and provocative reconsideration of key strands of political discourse in the intellectual history of Muslim societies.