Most Muslim societies were built around separate political and religious institutions. This separation, however, was never complete and conceptual ambiguities were translated into a variety of institutional patterns in the relationship between states and religious associations. Of the pre-modern Islamic societies, the “Caliphate” societies were integrated political and religious societies in which the state and community were inseparable, while the “Sultanate” societies saw political institutions which ruled over the quasi-independent religious associations that were the true bearers of Muslim religious life. In the twentieth century, the response of the religious elites to the breakdown of the Muslim state system and to European domination was Islamic reformism or Islamic renewal. The reformist movements adopted the ambiguous attitude of the historical religious associations toward political actualities. The revivals are commonly characterized by “Islamic Fundamentalism” and tend to take on political or jihadist tactics.
