Landscapes of the Jihad

Faisal Devji is Reader in Modern South Asian History and Fellow of St. Antony's College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of, inter alia, "Muslim Zion: Pakistan as a Political Idea" and "The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptations of Violence".

"No political theorist, anthropologist or student of Islam will fail to be provoked and inspired by this brilliant analysis of jihadi discourse. [...] Devji moves effortlessly between theology, history and cultural studies to give us the first major English-language interpretation of the moral world of contemporary jihad.' – Professor Arjun Appadurai, New School University

"Devji's very original book analyses Al Qaeda and jihad in metaphysical terms, discarding geo-strategic and cultural factors, [hence] the West is also presented as a metaphysical entity. Globalization is thus not linked to strategy, territory or culture. The concept of landscape summarises his approach: action creates its own landscape and is not the expression of an pre-existing cultural, territorial or strategic divide. Hence there emerge different 'landscapes': of jihad, of mysticism, of media and of film, all of which combine with each other. [...] Devji's original analysis of the writings of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri is very illuminating and substantiates his iconoclastic approach.' – Professor Olivier Roy, author, "Globalised Islam: The Search for a New Ummah"

"One of the most intelligent analyses of the world-view of the militant Islamist" – The New Statesman

"A brilliant long essay on the ethical underpinnings of modern jihad... Martyrdom, observes Devji rightly, 'only achieves meaning by being witnessed by the media'. It is, short, a horrendous form of advertising" – New York Review of Books

"Devji's Landscapes of the Jihad examines the vitality of militant movements, arguing that in a global society, organizations like al-Qaeda have gathered meaning and strength in an 'institutional vacuum'... Devji rejects the traditional scholarship that roots it in regional issues like the Palestinian cause and poverty and oppression. Most controversially, he equates militant Islam with 'the plethora of non-governmental agencies dedicated to humanitarian work'. He also concludes, more conventionally, that the U.S. response to militant Islam – the 'global war on terror' – has transformed war 'into a species of policing'" – Publishers Weekly

"'The Terrorist in Search of Humanity' is in many ways a sequel to Devji's equally provocative 2005 book, Landscapes of the Jihad. Al Qaeda's importance in the long run, Devji writes, lies not in its pioneering a new form of networked militancy... but instead in its fragmentation of traditional structures of Muslim authority within new global landscapes... it is a measure of Devji's seriousness, and his unfailingly original turn of mind, that one waits impatiently for his next provocation" – The National

"I enjoyed 'Landscapes Of The Jihad', in which Devji points out just how deeply unorthodox a Muslim Bin Laden is – not just in his espousal of indiscriminate violence but also his cult of martyrs and frequent talk of dream and visions, all of which derive from popular, mystical and Shia Islamic traditions, against which the orthodox has long struggled" – William Dalrymple, Sunday Herald

"'Landscapes of the Jihad' is very short, closely and narrowly focused, thought-provoking, and elegantly written... One refreshing aspect of Devji's book is that it leans heavily on evidence from an area often neglected by scholars writing about Islam – the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan" – Carole Hillenbrand, Times Literary Supplement

"Do not approach this challenging essay... expecting a familiar narrative of al-Qaeda and its founder, or of the eponymous 'war on terror'. Devji dispenses with conventional analysis and with much that is regarded as received wisdom... Devji describes how jihad has subordinated the local to the global. He plays down its Middle Eastern origins and he stresses its diverse sources (Shia and Sufi as well as Sunni) as well as its heterodox innovations. Bin Laden's transformation of jihad, for example, from a collective to an individual duty, is a radical departure from the classical Islamic tradition. But how else could a global movement operate in a post-modern world where Muslims are moved to applause or to action by some spectacular act of violence, which they see on a television or computer screen? Conventional forms of top-down recruitment and mobilisation are, it seems, as passe as conventional politics... 'Landscapes of the Jihad' is, in its unconventional thinking, an oasis in the wearisome desert of al-Qaeda studies. It is, in the best possible sense, subversive" – The Economist