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Social Media Suhba: The Limits of Online Islamic Education in Contemporary Cairo
Abstract by Dr. Mary Elston On Session 045  (Contending Visions of Media)

On Friday, November 15 at 8:00 am

2019 Annual Meeting

Abstract
Scholars have long acknowledged the centrality of the practice of companionship (suhba) in modern and pre-modern Islamic education (Makdisi 1981, Berkey 1992, Ephrat 2008, Silverstein 2008). According to these studies, suhba refers to a process of learning by which a teacher and student build a personal bond that allows the student to absorb the instructor’s virtuous dispositions (akhlaq) and knowledge (‘ilm). Most often, a student will practice suhba by remaining in the presence of the shaykh as much as possible -- studying, talking, eating, and worshiping with him. In this paper, I examine a new dimension to the contemporary practice of suhba at al-Azhar mosque, the preeminent institution of Sunni Islamic learning located in Cairo. While in-person suhba remains an important component of contemporary Islamic educational practices at al-Azhar, social media sites, such as Facebook and YouTube, have come to play a role in how young Muslim Cairenes practice suhba with their shaykhs. Based on a year of ethnographic research at al-Azhar, which included participant observation and interviews with students and religious scholars, this paper examines the ways in which social media sites have expanded and reconfigured not only the practice of suhba but Islamic education more generally. In particular, it explores how the religious scholars and their students conceptualize the relationship between Islamic education and this new cyber realm. I argue that although the religious scholars and their students increasingly rely on social media for important aspects of Islamic education, such as suhba, the religious scholars are developing new epistemologies that seek to delimit the possibilities of Islamic education online. By exploring the tension between contemporary practices of Islamic education and social media in Egypt, my paper presents a new perspective on the relationship between Islam and modern technology more generally.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Islamic Studies