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The aesthetics of comparativeness in Clifford Geertz’s Islam Observed

Bibliographic Data

ID22232140
AuthorsMustapha Ait kharouach (0000-0002-4823-1401, Lusail University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume13
Issue1
Publication date2025-12-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHumanities and Social Sciences Communications (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2662-9992 • E-ISSN: 2662-9992
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/s41599-025-06280-y
OpenAlexW4416933050
LanguageEN
References cited12

Interdisciplinarity and comparativeness in studying complex phenomena, such as religion, proved to be of very crucial utility either as methodology or as analytical model. In Islam Observed : Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia , the anthropologist Clifford Geertz demonstrated the extent to which cultural anthropology can recount and revisit social formulations of religions and thus reopen new horizons and positionalities in understanding and perceiving religion practices by employing a comparative methodology that combines disciplines of anthropology, ethnography, sociology, and literature. Geertz’s comparative perspective in tracing the foundational formation of Islam in two distinct geographical contexts (i.e. Indonesia and Morocco) is notably significant. This article seeks to explore the comparative concepts he employed, particularly the notion of aesthetic codes , which illuminate the diverse practices of Islam across regions. It also highlights the role of cultural poetics in shaping the belief systems of societies situated in geographically distant parts of the Islamic world. It also engages critically with the literary aura in Geertz’s comparative approach by extending the reflection with more recent theories in comparative and world literature

Comparative religion · Islam · Islamic culture · Poetics · Situated · Asian Studies and History · Religion and Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nigeria · Study and Philosophy of Religion

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Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo

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