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OpenTALKS: John Slight ‘British Imperialist Visions of Islamic States’

As The Open University celebrates its 50th anniversary, History department hosts History lecture series which opens a window onto the exciting research being conducted by historians at The Open University. Centre Assistant Director John Slight gave a talk on ‘British Imperialist Visions of Islamic States’ on 3rd April 16:30-17:30 in Berrill Lecture Theatre.

Lecture 4 image

Credit: Samuel Zwemer, The Moslem World (out of copyright image)

From the mid-nineteenth century, men working in the highest levels of the British state, animated by the partition of the world among the imperial powers and fuelled by the idea of Britain as the ‘greatest Mohammedan power’, began to sketch out a vision for states under British tutelage in which Islam played a central role. This talk will trace the trajectories of these putative Islamic states in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the role played by Muslim leaders in them, and explain how this British imperial manipulation of Islam ultimately failed.

‘This talk will explain how Britain’s imperial attempts to manipulate Islam in the nineteenth century ultimately failed.’