The Colonial Era and the Muslim World

The colonial era, spanning roughly from the late 18th to the mid-20th century, saw European powers conquer, occupy, and reshape the vast majority of the Muslim world. From the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, colonialism disrupted centuries-old Islamic institutions, redrew borders, and imposed Western legal and educational systems. The effects of this period continue to shape the Muslim world today.

The French in North Africa and the Levant

Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 marked the beginning of modern European colonial engagement with the Muslim world. France subsequently colonized Algeria (1830), Tunisia (1881), Morocco (1912), Syria, and Lebanon (1920). In Algeria, French colonization was particularly brutal, involving large-scale land confiscation, cultural suppression, and the displacement of the Muslim population. The Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) cost over a million Algerian lives. Throughout North Africa, the French imposed their language and legal systems while marginalizing Islamic education and institutions.

The British Empire

Britain colonized or exercised control over vast Muslim territories, including the Indian subcontinent, Egypt, Sudan, Aden, the Malay Peninsula, and, after World War I, Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordan. British colonial policy often employed divide-and-rule strategies, exploiting ethnic and sectarian differences. In India, the impact was profound: the Mughal Empire was formally dissolved after the 1857 uprising, Islamic courts were replaced by British law, and traditional madrasas lost their state patronage. The partition of India in 1947 and the Balfour Declaration's promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine (1917) created conflicts that persist to this day.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement and Its Legacy

The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 between Britain and France divided the Ottoman territories of the Middle East into spheres of influence, creating artificial borders that ignored ethnic, tribal, and religious realities. The resulting states, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, were designed to serve colonial interests rather than the needs of their populations. This carving up of the Muslim world, done in betrayal of promises made to Arab leaders who had supported the Allied war effort, remains one of the most consequential and resented acts of the colonial era.

Resistance and Independence

Muslim resistance to colonialism took many forms, from armed rebellion to intellectual revival. Scholars like Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh called for Islamic reform and pan-Islamic solidarity. Movements such as the Sanusiyya in Libya, the Mahdist state in Sudan, and the Deoband movement in India combined religious revival with anti-colonial struggle. Independence movements across the Muslim world eventually succeeded in the mid-20th century, but the colonial legacy of artificial borders, weakened institutions, and economic dependency continues to pose challenges.