Decolonizing Islamic History

Muhammad Alan Juhri

Eurocentrism, which views the West as the center and the only standard for the
advancement of knowledge, seems to have impacted the study of Islamic history. The history
of Islam in Western scholarship is built on a foundation that ignores the methodology and
observations that developed in the classical tradition of Islamic scholars. Classical Islamic
literature, such as Sirah Nabawiyah and others, are often regarded as pious readings and
uncritical. The numerous works of literature are ignored because they do not provide
historical records but only the existential records of the thought and faith of later generations.
Consequently, this neglect causes reduction and errors in presenting the reality being studied,
as exemplified in the article “Reimagining the Harem.” This article tells how the West
confidently portrays Harem Women as Vile Women who only satisfy men's lust. This
depiction is not based on reality but on the imagination of western people to validate their
belief in the superiority of western civilization. Anyway, for them, the best is the West, while
the others are considered despicable.
Nowadays, we can see that the West has succeeded in colonizing the ideology of
human knowledge (colonialization). In almost all aspects, they have claimed that it belongs to
the West; in fact, the West has dominated and influenced many aspects of our lives. Call it,
for example, aspects of food, clothing, language, and so on. The question is, what makes
them dominate and become universal? The answer is strength. The existence of power makes
anything that comes from them considered superior and trusted. Later, due to this condition,
an idea called decolonization emerged, an attempt to restore and clean our perceptions and
insights from western domination. Can we free ourselves from this colonial discourse? And
how? The temporary answer that can be given is to deepen our knowledge and insight,
especially regarding the influence of the West on Muslim civilization. Wallahu A’lam.