Concert of Civilizations

Jeremy Kleidosty is currently a post-doctoral fellow on the Academy of Finland project Political Power in the Early Modern European and Islamic Worlds, at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is working on a new book that profiles Tunisia's constitutional history and that of its constitutional father, Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi. Previously, he taught International Relations at the University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. He gained his PhD in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, Scotland in 2013 and researches constitutionalism and political theory. His work particularly aims to foster dialogue and fruitful avenues of reconciling different political traditions in a globalized world.

• Introduction; Chapter 1 Constitutional Conversations—Alternative Models for the Challenge of Civilizational Conflict; Chapter 2 Western Constitutionalism—Universal Norms or Contingent Cultural Concepts; Chapter 3 From Medina to Runnymede—Comparing the Foundational Legacies of the Constitution of Medina and the Magna Carta; Chapter 4 Comparing Constitutionalisms—Is there an Islamic Constitutionalism?; Chapter 5 Constitutional Conversations—The Fusing of Political Tradition in Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi’s The Surest Path; Chapter 6 The Arab Spring—Constitutional Thought in Contested Political Space, Questions and Conclusions;

’This volume provides a highly inspiring discussion for scholars seeking to understand the roots and evolution of constitutionalism, freed from a Euro-centric straitjacket. A must-read work for both political scientists and historians looking for a new research paradigm in the globalized world.’ Bee Yun, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea ’This book is path-breaking not only because it compares Islamic Constitutionalism, which theorizes legal practices of millennia old Middle Eastern states, with much younger Western jurisprudence. But also because it faces the paradox that orientalist and neo-colonial interventions have made it inconceivable to most people that the Middle East could ever have enjoyed rule of law. These neo-colonial interventions had the power to change reality on the ground with the consequence that the Arab Spring, that great rebellion against the new realities of Middle Eastern post-colonial authoritarian states, has now created a new set of realities. Is Islamic rule of law retrievable? And can it ever again be reconciled with Western jurisprudence?’ Patricia Springborg, Humboldt University, Germany