The Ulama in the Age of Colonialism

to handle and, instead, devote themselves entirely to scholarly work, social reform, constructive efforts and dawah. They are charged with the responsibility for these activities. They must, therefore, focus on the responsibility they are charged with. The period extending from towards the end of the Khilafat-e-Rashida, the age of the ‘Rightly-Guided Caliphs’, through the Umayyad Caliphate and down to the end of the Abbasid Caliphate covers a span of some six centuries. This period witnessed numerous internal political confrontations. However, it was also formalised by various disciplines that came under the ‘Islamic sciences’. How was this constructive work made possible amid enormous political strife? The sole reason is that the Ulama and the rest of the scholarly community kept aloof from political strife and focused on intellectual pursuits like compilation and classification of various sciences. This division of roles enabled these scholars to focus their energies on the enormously valuable task of crystallizing these various branches of Islamic knowledge while remaining unaffected by the political tumult around them. Similarly, the Muslim empire of Spain (Andalusia), which spanned about eight hundred years, too was