Abstract

In his famous study,,Islam Observed," Clifford Geertz poses general critical questions for the study of religion. Taking Geertz's critique and the question,,what is Islam?" as starting points, this paper explores problems caused by misleading dichotomies such as,,great" and,,little" traditions,,,oral/literal,",,folk/orthodoxy," etc. Instead of perpetuating the idea of a,,true Islam," concepts such as,,discursive tradition,",,frame of reference," and,,translocalisation" are employed in order to dissolve the particularuniversal antagonism following several recent local studies of Islam.