The Transnational Mosque is the first book-length study to provide a nuanced understanding of the role of mosques in the construction of Muslim identity through the lens of their political, religious, and architectural history. The primary subject in current debates on Islam is the reinterpretation of history, which is often linked to an idealized age of Caliphal rule, the painful legacy of colonialism, or an imagined regional identity. The debates hinge upon what might the future hold for Muslim nations and their subjects. This discussion concerns not simply a monolithic transformation of ide ... More

The Transnational Mosque is the first book-length study to provide a nuanced understanding of the role of mosques in the construction of Muslim identity through the lens of their political, religious, and architectural history. The primary subject in current debates on Islam is the reinterpretation of history, which is often linked to an idealized age of Caliphal rule, the painful legacy of colonialism, or an imagined regional identity. The debates hinge upon what might the future hold for Muslim nations and their subjects. This discussion concerns not simply a monolithic transformation of ideology, but a contested space where governments and communities of belief compete for the dissemination of their own version of Islamic identity. This book is a study in which the built environment is a critical resource for understanding culture and politics in the contemporary Middle East and the Islamic world. By concentrating on the epitomes of Islamic architecture, mosques, especially those built at the turn of the twenty-first century, the study elucidates their significance as sites for both the validation of religious praxis and the construction of national and religious ideology.