Hodgson - The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam

Marshall Goodwin Simms Hodgson died suddenly on June 10, 1968, in his forty-seventh year, before he had finished this and other works. At the time of his death the manuscript for the first four of the six books of The Venture of Islam had been submitted to a publisher as final (although minor editing and footnote attribution still remained to be done); he had reworked much of Book Five; and he had indicated revisions wanted in Book Six. Many of the charts and diagrams were only sketches, and there were only general descriptions of the intended maps. A much shorter version of the work, resembling The Venture of Islam in its general form, had existed for a number of years, used and sought after by graduate and undergraduate students alike. It had started as a brief outline, some chapters consisting of only two or three pages or not yet even written. He constantly wrote, withdrew what he had written, rewrote, and sought criticism from his colleagues near and far. He was simultaneously at work on a world history, and he often remarked that he hoped readers would some day have both available, for he had long been convinced that any historical development could only be understood in terms of the historical whole, and that whole included the entire canvas of human history. Although several hundred pages of manuscript for his world history exist, most unfortunately it apparently cannot be published, for to put it in meaningful form would mean that it was no longer his work. A number of the world history's basic assumptions and points of view can be found in The Venture of Islam , however, particularly in the various sections of the Introduction to the Study of Islamic Civilization, originally planned by Hodgson as appendices to the entire work. He was an indefatigable and fastidious worker, with definite ideas of his own. Although continually seeking advice from everywhere, he was yet adamant that no publisher's editor would alter his text.

It was with considerable trepidation that I agreed to see this work through the press after his death. I had worked with him, even sharing his office for a time, and had taken over the course in the history of Islamic civilization at the University of Chicago, a course that he had created and that we had for two years jointly taught. The Venture of Islam had originated to meet the needs of that course; but concurrently Hodgson recognized that much he had to say went far beyond any ordinary text. He always hoped the book would appeal to the educated layman as well as to the specialist and the beginning student; he thought he could reach all three in the one work, and it was thus that he wrote.

He kept voluminous notes, and he had written out for himself many directions; there were numerous complete charts as well as sketches and designs for others. The same was true for illustrations, which unfortunately because of cost have had to be eliminated. I saw my task to be as light-handed as possible, and to preserve the manuscript as completely his. Therefore, there is a more detailed text, and there are more charts and maps for the first two-thirds of the work than for the last third. His writing style, particularly, is unaltered; there were places in the manuscript where he had deliberately changed to a greater complexity from an earlier, less detailed style. Always his aim was to pack as much meaning as possible into a sentence or a paragraph, while keeping it so circumscribed as to include only what he wanted. Some of his neologisms may not be attractive; more than most other writers, however, he has made his readers aware of the traps one may fall into when giving a word or concept familiar in one culture an apparently similar connotation in the context of another culture. His world history would have had central to it such concerns. I followed his notes where I could. Since he opted for different spellings and even in some cases different terminology later in his writing, I have tried to bring some consistency there. In a few instances he altered traditional dates to other, less usual chronology; these dates I have left. Only where a few notes in brackets are found in Book Six has my presence intruded. I hope and believe the work is his, purely and directly, and that I have done nothing to alter it.

No one who was associated with Marshall Hodgson remained unmoved by who he was and the scholarship he stood for. He was a lesser-known giant among better-known scholars. His Quaker background provided him with a quiet gentleness backed by absolute resolution when necessary; perhaps more than for most teachers, the kind of person he was informed the classes he taught, especially those in Qurn and fism. No narrow specialist, he found in his work with the intellectually wide-ranging Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago a satisfaction rivaling that afforded by his Islamic study and teaching.

It is impossible here to make the acknowledgments he would have made if he were alive. Leading Islamic scholars throughout the world read portions of his work. He was able to take few leaves from his teaching and his administrative duties to devote entirely to research; but one or two precious opportunities did occur. Help also came from friends, and especially his students. I would like to acknowledge simply by name help graciously and eagerly offered me by his colleagues and students: Professors William H. McNeill, Muhsin Mahdi, and the late Gustave von Grunebaum for valuable counsel; graduate students Harold Rogers, Marilyn Robinson Waldman, William Ochserwald, and George Chadwick, now all launched on careers of their own; and many others too numerous to mention.

Most of all, the countless hours Marshall Hodgsons wife, Phyllis, devoted to the whole work over the years under the most trying of circumstances cannot be left unacknowledged. Her example, as his, remains for the rest of us a monument.

REUBEN W. SMITH