Conversations on Muslim Piety: Reflections from a Nordic Research Network

Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium, a recurring debate in the academic study of Islam and Muslims has centred on how to analyse the status and significance of religious practice, together with the interrelated questions and the new kinds of empirical material that this analysis entails. Scholars have debated how to characterize Muslim piety, how much attention should be given to its different forms
(without, as Samuli Schielke puts it, letting “too much Islam” dominate the study of Muslims), and how such practices connect to other, less obviously religious aspects of Muslim life. While anthropologists have often been referred to as the key voices in this conversation, many researchers in other academic fields and with varying regional expertise have also contributed to developing tools and ideas.