Full Circle

Marshall G.S. Hodgson

When I began my master's work in Religious Studies in 2007, I took up the study of Islam simply because I believed that if a person was going to enter the field of Religious Studies in a "post-9/11 world" (which we were still very much in at the time), logically, they needed to be knowledgeable about Islam. I had no strong feelings or ideas about the religion one way or another--in fact, I was quite disinterested in the subject--but I knew my own personal interests in the study of religion would not be nearly as relevant for the broader society as the study of Islam. I figured once I had Islam down and established my career, at that point I could have the freedom to research the topics that were personally important to me. So, I duly enrolled in the intro courses for Arabic, Middle East studies, and Islam. My advisor at the time was Liyakat Takim, whose classes and teaching style I enjoyed greatly--they kindled in me the beginnings of a genuine interest in the subject of Islam, although I was still pursuing the subject in a very routine, rational, passionless way.

One day--I can't remember if it was towards the end of my first year and the beginning of summer, or another time--I asked Dr. Takim what books I needed to read if I was going to truly become a well-grounded scholar of Islam. He of course told me several well-known titles about Islamic history, law, and "theology," but then he made me nervous and a little frustrated when he recommended a book I had heard about before: Marshall G.S. Hodgson's Venture of Islam. The notorious Venture of Islam. I'd seen it in the library before--all three big green, incredibly boring-looking and presumably outdated canvass volumes. Up to that point, the longest book I'd read straight through was Peter Gay's 2-volume The Enlightenment--and I was actually interested in that subject. Knowing the amount of time and concentration that Venture would take, and knowing I wasn't yet particularly moved by Islamic history, I dreaded what I knew would be inevitable: that I was going to at least attempt to read it purely to achieve my logical ambition of becoming an Islamic Studies scholar.

But before I was even done with the first volume, the book had changed me and my entire perspective on not just Islam, but on world history, historicism, orientalism, sociology of religion, race, and pretty much everything I thought I knew. I have read hundreds of scholarly books--including numerous major thinkers whose ideas have shaped entire generations of scholars--but nothing has come close to the impact that Venture had on me. Yes, it's sorely outdated; yes, it relied almost exclusively on "orientalist" works; yes, it was unfinished at the time of Hodgson's death in 1968 and needed revising, which still could not fix all of its flaws, despite the commendable effort of Terry Burke. But for me it is still the single most important scholarly book that I have ever put before my eyes. Since that time, Venture has influenced everything I've written and my understanding of everything I've read. It was the first time I felt a real passion--not just a rational interest--for Islamic studies.

I am going to resist explaining here all the reasons I think Venture is so important because I want everybody to read it for themselves without my bias.

In my MA program I learned that one would be best served by gaining an area of specialty early on in one's career. Several people advised me to try to find something I was passionate about and that did not have a lot of research on the topic so that I could more easily make a name for myself. I ended up choosing conversion to Islam, originally for whites and Latina/os only because there was very little written on them at the time and because these were the two communities I was closest with in my personal life. It was a great way for me to combine some of my personal interests with the duty I felt to learn about Islamic studies. I eventually extended my interest to include African-American Muslims when I realized one could not understand white or latina/o converts to Islam without understanding black converts. Indeed, I began to realize, at least partly through the influence of Hodgson, that one could not understand U.S. whites and latina/os generally--not just Muslims--without trying to understand African Americans as well. Just as--and Hodgson's influence is much more clear here--one cannot really understand Christians without trying to understand Muslims.

Marshall G.S. Hodgson was not a Muslim; he was a Quaker. But, while teaching at the University of Chicago in the 1950s and 60s, he knew Muslims; he even dined with Elijah Muhammad at the latter's home in the city. But he was not himself a Muslim, and I never, never expected to run into him while researching American Muslim converts, except as the Islamic studies scholar who had met with Elijah Muhammad.

Today, however, I received in the mail something from 2 generations ago. From before even my parents were born. Something about Marshall G.S. Hodgson and American Muslim converts. Something I never expected and which connected countless dots in one fell swoop. Something that brings together so much in the book I am writing, a book that I've long known owes a great deal to Hodgson.

It began something like this...

I never write actual blogs on my blog. But I couldn't help myself. Very irrational of me...