Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson (April 11, 1922 – June 10, 1968), was an
Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
academic and a world historian at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. He was chairman of the interdisciplinary
Committee on Social Thought
The John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought is one of several PhD-granting committees at the University of Chicago. It was started in 1941 by historian John Ulric Nef along with economist Frank Knight, anthropologist Robert Redfield, and Univers ...
in Chicago.
Works
Though he did not publish extensively during his lifetime, he has become arguably the most influential American historian of Islam due to his three-volume
The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization', which The University of Chicago Press, in collaboration with Reuben Smith and other colleagues, published after his death. The work is recognized as a masterpiece that radically reconfigured the academic study of Islam.
Hodgson is also recognized for his work on world history, which was rediscovered and subsequently published under the editorship of
Edmund Burke III.
In ''The Venture of Islam,'' Hodgson positioned Islam as a spiritual endeavor with a profound moral vision—on par with other world religions. He also reimagined the terminology of Islamic history and religion, coining terms like Islamdom (playing off "Christendom"). Hodgson also resituated the geographical locus of Islam; he shifted attention away from an exclusive focus on Arab Islam that had characterized the Euro-American study of the religion to include the
Persianate society
A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity.
The term "Persianate" is a neologism credited to Marshall Hodgson. In his 1974 book, ''The Venture of Is ...
(his coinage), which shaped Muslim thought and practice from the Middle Period onward.
Hodgson's writings were a precursor to the modern
world history
World history may refer to:
* Human history, the history of human beings
* History of Earth, the history of planet Earth
* World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective
* ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...
approach. His initial motivation in writing a world history was his desire to place Islamic history in a wider context and his dissatisfaction with the prevailing
Eurocentrism
Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism)
is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western worl ...
and
Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
of his day. Hodgson painted a global picture of world history, in which the "Rise of Europe" was the end-product of millennia-long evolutionary developments in Eurasian society; modernity could conceivably have originated somewhere else. Indeed, he accepted that
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
in the twelfth century was close to an industrial revolution, a development that was derailed, perhaps, by the
Mongol onslaught in the thirteenth century:
:"Occidental development had come ultimately from China, as did apparently, the idea of a civil service examination system, introduced in the eighteenth century. In such ways the Occident seems to have been the unconscious heir of the abortive industrial revolution of
Sung China" Marshall G. S. Hodgson ''Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History'' (Cambridge 1993), p.68.
Regarding
western exceptionalism
The Great Divergence or European miracle is the socioeconomic shift in which the Western world (i.e. Western Europe and the parts of the New World where its people became the dominant populations) overcame pre-modern growth constraints and em ...
, he argued that it began with the
Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
of the seventeenth century rather than the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
of the fourteenth century . His explanations for the divergence are rooted in the idea of a 'great Western Transmutation.' This is not to be confused with the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, as it includes variables more diverse than just industry. Hodgson posited that all the societal elements (industry, banking, health care, police, etc.) of Western European nations became so advanced (or 'technicalized') and co-dependent that those societies were able to determine their own rate of progress.
The two most important influences on Hodgson's thought were the French orientalist and priest
Louis Massignon
Louis Massignon (25 July 1883 – 31 October 1962) was a Catholic scholar of Islam and a pioneer of Catholic-Muslim mutual understanding. He was an influential figure in the twentieth century with regard to the Catholic church's relationship w ...
and the eighteenth-century American Quaker,
John Woolman
John Woolman (October 19, 1720 ( O.S.)/October 30, 1720 ( N.S.)– October 7, 1772) was an American merchant, tailor, journalist, Quaker preacher, and early abolitionist during the colonial era. Based in Mount Holly, near Philadelphia, he trave ...
. From the former he learned empathy and respect for Islam, while the latter represented a critical view of Eurocentrism and an embodiment of Hodgson's own Quaker conscience.
''Islamicate''
Hodgson introduced the term ''Islamicate'' to refer to characteristics of regions where Muslims, while culturally dominant, were not, properly speaking, “religious”: "'Islamicate' would refer not directly to the religion, Islam, itself, but to the social complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims, both among Muslims themselves and even when found among non-Muslims". For example, wine poetry was ''Islamicate'', but not ''Islamic'' according to Hodgson. This terminological distinction has not been widely adopted.
Life
Marshall Hodgson was born in
Richmond, Indiana
Richmond is a city in eastern Wayne County, Indiana. Bordering the state of Ohio, it is the county seat of Wayne County and is part of the Dayton, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 36,812. Situa ...
in April 11, 1922. He was a practicing Quaker, a strict vegetarian. He worked in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector from 1943 to 1946. In 1951, he received his PhD from the University of Chicago, where he later became professor, receiving tenure in 1961, becoming chairman of the Committee in Social Thought in 1964 and the newly established Committee on Near Eastern Studies in the same year. He was married and had three daughters. Hodgson died in 1968 while jogging on the University of Chicago campus.
Bibliography
* ''The Secret Order of Assassins: The Struggle of the Early Nizârî Ismâʻîlîs against the Islamic World''. 's-Gravenhage,
Mouton, 1955.
* ''The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, Vols 1-3''. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
, 1974.
* ''Rethinking World History: Essays on Europe, Islam and World History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
See also
*
World history
World history may refer to:
* Human history, the history of human beings
* History of Earth, the history of planet Earth
* World history (field), a field of historical study that takes a global perspective
* ''World History'' (album), a 1998 albu ...
*
Islamic studies
Islamic studies refers to the academic study of Islam, and generally to academic multidisciplinary "studies" programs—programs similar to others that focus on the history, texts and theologies of other religious traditions, such as Easter ...
References
Notes
External links
*
Guide to the Marshall G. S. Hodgson Papers 1940-1971at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research CenterGenius Denied and Reclaimed: A 40-Year Retrospect on Marshall G.S. Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam Bruce B. Lawrence at ''
Marginalia
Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminations.
Biblical manuscripts
Biblical manuscripts have ...
'' November 11, 2014
ISLAMICATE SOCIETY''Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World'' article by R. Kevin Jaques at
Encyclopedia.com
Encyclopedia.com (also known as HighBeam Encyclopedia) is an online encyclopedia. It aggregates information from other published dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference works including pictures and videos.
History
The website was launched by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgson, Marshall
1922 births
1968 deaths
American Quakers
American orientalists
American Islamic studies scholars
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
Christian scholars of Islam
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century Quakers