Intellectual mobility and urban institutions in the transregional knowledge ecosystem of Islamic civilization
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22258686 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alireza Ashtari Tafreshi (0000-0002-4823-0660, Allameh Tabataba'i University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discover Global Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2731-9687 • E-ISSN: 2731-9687 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s44282-026-00495-3 |
| OpenAlex | W7167707642 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 35 |
This study examines Islamic civilization as a historically layered knowledge ecosystem shaped by intellectual mobility, urban institutions, and transregional knowledge circulation. Moving beyond celebratory “Golden Age” narratives and decline-based interpretations, the study adopts a qualitative historical synthesis informed by connected history, historical sociology, and thematic coding of major secondary scholarship. The analysis clarifies that “transregional modernity” is used in a limited analytical sense: it refers to historical parallels in connectivity, institutional complexity, textual circulation, and cosmopolitan exchange, not to a claim that Islamic civilization caused European modernity. The findings show that translation, commentary, teaching, manuscript circulation, and institutional patronage transformed inherited knowledge into new intellectual traditions; that scholars, students, jurists, physicians, Sufis, merchants, and pilgrims connected diverse regions through travel, correspondence, pilgrimage, and educational networks; and that mosques, madrasas, libraries, hospitals, courts, markets, and waqf-supported foundations provided the material and social infrastructure for preserving and transmitting knowledge. The study further highlights regional and temporal variation across Abbasid Baghdad, Mamluk Cairo and Damascus, al-Andalus, the Persianate world, Ottoman-Safavid-Mughal contexts, and Indian Ocean networks. It concludes that Islamic civilization is best understood not as a static cultural formation but as an adaptive and institutionally embedded configuration of knowledge practices
Civilization · Islam · Islamic culture · Knowledge production · Narrative · Parallels · Sharia · Traditional knowledge · Asian Studies and History · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · Islamic Studies and History
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |