Abstract

The relationship between the global turn and the perception of cultures is ambivalent and the concept of culture is highly debated, with numerous definitions in existence. The Islamic world as a whole is frequently referred to as a “culture,” the image of the Orient in the nineteenth century was always linked to an imperialist attitude, which went hand in hand with disdain for other “cultures.” The relationship between Islam and the West has been multilayered and changing and has massively and sustainably shaped the collective consciousness in Europe. As a field, Islamic Studies was and is forced to fundamentally redefine itself: The only way for it to survive the challenge of globality is to distance itself from the view that the Islamic world is one uniform “cultural area” or even “culture” that can only be analyzed from the outside or on a textual basis. There is a need to replace the essentializing cultural perception of the Islamic world with empirically underpinned analyses of the local social orders within that world.