Islamic Relics as Contested Sites of Authority: Religio-Political Appropriations of Relics

This project examines how relics and relic veneration function as contested symbols of authority within Islam, despite dominant theological discourses often marginalising or rejecting such practices. The research challenges the notion that relic veneration represents merely “folk” practices incompatible with “orthodox” Sunni Islam. The project analyses how relics are authenticated, disputed, and mobilised throughout Islamic history. It challenges binary taxonomies (such as orthodox/popular, textual/material, religious/political) that continue to shape Islamic studies. Through diachronic analysis, it examines continuity and change in perceptions and uses of relics across various case studies. The project combines historical studies analysing early Islamic sources with contemporary case studies that includes comparative analyses of religious authorities in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It investigates how relics function as powerful religious and political instruments, where contestations over interpretative authority unfold between competing groups. Methodologically, it combines discourse analysis, conceptual history, and material culture studies. The project contributes new empirical knowledge about Islamic relics and develops novel theoretical understandings of how religious authority operates through material-discursive legitimation strategies, where elites selectively appropriate, reframe, and regulate material practices to establish interpretive control.