Lecture
Was There Indeed a Decline of Ambiguity in Islamic Modernity? Deathbed Emotions as a Case Study
- Pieter Coppens
- Date
- Thursday 4 December 2025
- Time
- Serie
- What's New?! Fall Lecture Series 2025
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
Recent claims that the advent of modernity in the Muslim word from the 19th century onwards ended a ‘tolerance of ambiguity’ (Ambiguitätstoleranz) alleged to be common in premodern Islam has become widely accepted. This lecture tests whether this claim holds true for the history of emotions in the Muslim world: can we speak of stricter emotional regimes from the 19th century onwards? In the case of deathbed emotions one can indeed witness such a shift towards more emotional discipline and less ambiguity in religious literature. The reasons for that, however, may be more complex than the confrontation with Western modernity and its Cartesian mindset that is mostly given as the explanation of this decline of ambiguity.
About the speaker
Pieter Coppens is associate professor of Islamic Studies at the School of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He has published on the history of Qur’an commentary, Sufism, Salafism, eschatology, and deathbed emotions.
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