Reframing Orientalism: Weber and Islam

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Abstract
In debates on the encounters of Middle Eastern societies with Western modernity, Max Weber's work is invariably seen as the classical statement of what may be called sociological Orientalism. Most 'Third Worldist' and other anti-Orientalist critics locate Weberian and neo-Weberian perspectives within Orientalism as a discourse of Western domination which has remained hegemonic since the mid-nineteenth century. In contrast, this paper argues that only with the victory of the Bolsheviks in 1917 and the subsequent consolidation of the Soviet bloc were conditions in place for the re-articulation of Orientalism as an ideological construct, a discourse of domination. Weber as well as Marx and other pre-Soviet thinkers are thus relocated outside the reach of the Orientalist/anti-Orientalist opposition, where they display significant differences from both. The essay then turns to reconsider W'eber's specific research programme and his views on Islam and shows their intrinsic limitations for the current debate over the rise and trajectory of militant Islamism. It concludes by outlining a still recognizably Weberian strategy for resolving this debate.

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