Eurocentrism and the Re-Imagination of Global History: The Contributions of Marshall G. S. Hodgson

Zehra Vlug-Ünver

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the critical contributions of Islamicist and world historian Marshall G. S. Hodson’s study of Islamic civilization in Western academia and civilization studies in general. It surveys the emergence of global history as a field of inquiry and critiques of Eurocentrism in historical theory and method, tackling issues such as the ‘invention of Europe’, ‘Euro-exclusivity’, and ‘the Orient’ as an analytical unit. While the logic of Eurocentrism necessarily ends in Otherization and ‘us and them’ dichotomies, global history offers a viable alternative that considers the complex interrelatedness of societies. Hodgson’s global historical approach ‘decenters’ Europe from world history and offers a sophisticated alternative beyond the unidimensional historical study of nations as isolated units. By doing so, Hodgson offers a viable and much needed alternative to the so-called ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis of Islam as the civilizational Other by stressing the fundamental interconnectedness of the world’s civilizations. Examining the possibilities of re-imagining Islamic civilization through a global historical lens, or what some scholars call a ‘Hodgsonian revival’, might prove a helpful remedy to Otherization in an age of growing xenophobia and Islamophobia.