In Search of the Lost Orient

Olivier Roy is joint chair of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and Social and Political Sciences Department at the European University Institute in Florence, where he heads the Mediterranean program. His books include Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (Columbia, 2004), Secularism Confronts Islam (Columbia, 2007), and Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways (2010).

• Foreword, by Olivier Mongin and Jean-Louis SchlegelPart I. Preamble1. Hitchhiking from Paris to Kabul: A Look Back at a DeparturePart II. From Louis-le-Grand to Dreux Via Afghanistan2. Louis-le-Grand, the May 1968 Revolution, and Learning Persian3. Louis-le-Grand, Normale sup’, and the Crisis of the Humanities4. Oriental Scents: From Yemen to China5. Return to the Fold6. Postcards and American Pool7. Professor at Dreux: Leftist, Away from Paris, and Happy8. Out of SchoolPart III. The Afghan Decade9. Once Again, and for Real, Afghanistan10. On Foot, on Horseback, and Wearing a Burka in Wartime Afghanistan11. Blue Helmets and Russian Bombs12. The Failure of Political Islam13. War Experience: Prisoners and Bandits14. Jihad15. The Afghan CircusPart IV. The Central Asia Decade16. A Soviet Invitation to Central Asia17. A Diplomatic Passport18. The Expert and the Politician19. Marriage: The Orient Lost and FoundPart V. Cultures and the Universally Human: Toward Holy Ignorance20. The Crisis of Cultures and the Universal21. What Was Good About Orientalism22. Against the Secularists’ Essentialism23. The Decade 2000–2010: Where Were You on September 11, 2001?Part VI. The Importance of a Religious Genealogy24. Portrait of a Young Protestant in the 1950s and ’60s25. Can One Think One’s Own Life?Epilogue: A Story to End All StoriesNotes

Olivier Roy is one of the most important analysts of political Islam working today, arguably the single most insightful voice in a vast field. In Search of the Lost Orient provides a complete intellectual life story and argues that empirical research and a focus on concrete social practices must be the basis by which Islam and its intersection with politics must be understood. An engagingly written, impressive book that provides a rare and unique view of political Islam and one of its major thinkers. -- Benjamin Brower, University of Texas at Austin