Islamic Historiography and Modernity: A Systematic Literature Review on the Evolution of Muslim Societies in the Postcolonial Era

1. INTRODUCTION

Islamic historiography has undergone a formidable evolution, particularly during the colonial period. Dewière presents the intersection between migration and firearms technology in early modern Islamic societies, challenging earlier narratives that depicted Islamic societies as inherently conservative or resistant to technological progress. Instead, during the colonial era, Islamic historiography increasingly emphasized the agency of Muslim civilizations in the adaptation and spread of firearms technology. This shift aligns with broader trends in historiography, wherein scholars actively reconsider Islamic societies' interactions with external influences, rejecting monolithic depictions of Islamic conservatism.¹

The discourse on modernity within Muslim societies remains highly intricate. Abdelkader discusses how traditional Islamic legal concepts, such as maṣlaḥa (public welfare) and maqāṣid al-sharīʿah (objectives of Islamic law), have been reinterpreted in modern contexts. He further argues that modernity is not a monolithic construct but a set of diverse meanings shaped by specific historical and cultural experiences. Such perspectives are essential for understanding how postcolonial Muslim societies negotiate their relationship with modernity.²

The debate surrounding Islamic origins also illuminates the complexities of modern Islamic historiography. Sivers argues that Islamic origins should be analyzed through the lens of secularization and de-theologization, emphasizing how contemporary fundamentalist movements have sometimes obscured this historical process. This perspective underscores the need for nuanced analysis in both historical and contemporary studies of Islamic historiography.³

The other essential research object is Westernization in education, which took place in the Ottoman Caliphate among Islamic societies. Yuniarto et al. examine how Islamic education transformed from traditionalist to modernist frames under socio-political and socio-religious factors.⁴ This transformation follows wider trends in postcolonial Muslim societies, where, indeed, educational reforms have aimed at a balance between accommodation to modernity and keeping the Islamic spirit intact.

Migration, trade, and cultural exchange have shaped Islamic history in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Nuraisah highlighted the development of historical processes that allowed Islam to penetrate these parts and locate the positions of different agents.⁵ It provides insight into regional perspectives on varied trajectories of Islamic societies during the post-colonial period.

Intellectual engagements with modernity during the colonial period, especially in British India, brought a series of interactions between Islamic philosophical traditions and the epistemologies of modernity. According to Rizvi, colonialism's many transformative effects have created a singular context in which to develop systems of knowledge that seek to reconcile Islamic thought with the legacies of modern challenge.⁶ This interplay between tradition and modernity⁷ remains a central theme in the historiography of post-colonial Muslim societies.

In Lange 2010, there is a discussion about the entwining of legal definitions with sacred notions, complicating the understanding of legal frameworks throughout Islamic history. This perspective forms an important background to modern-day legal reforms and continued debates about the position of Islamic law in post-colonial societies ⁸.

Essentially, the legal reform process in Islamic family law, particularly in Indonesia, can be seen as a point of interaction between modernization and legal secularization processes. Zayyadi demonstrates how contemporary legal frameworks have developed in correspondence with traditional Islamic principles of jurisprudence and modern legal standards. This dynamic reflects the broader challenges faced by Muslim societies in navigating modernity.⁹

The contributions of local Muslim scholars to educational development in Indonesia are pivotal. Bosra calls for the importance of Islamic education to the shaping of modern educational systems, emphasizing the agency of local scholars in adapting Islamic teachings to modern times. This already fosters a unique blend of tradition and modernity.¹⁰

The movement of Islamization of knowledge is another intellectual response of the Muslim scholarly thought to modernity. According to Madani, there was an effort to reconcile Islamic teachings with contemporary scientific and philosophic paradigms. It represents the larger trends of reinterpretation of Islamic thought in order to address modern challenges.¹¹

Yet, this is the case of liberal movements in post-Suharto Indonesia-a big complication in itself regarding Muslim identity. As Kato spells out in 2021, the challenges of diverse communities within the umat, inclusive of narratives representative of the varied experiences of contemporary Muslims, must be established.¹²

Commodified Islam in the Indonesian public sphere also aligns with the meeting of religion and modernity. In this respect, Hasan discusses how Islamic identity has been fabricated from socio-political dynamics and the wishes of an emerging middle class.¹³ This can be demonstrated merely as negotiations over social and political identities in a rapidly changing society. This historiographical review underlines how involvement with historical and modern challenges in Islamic societies has been dynamic and multifarious, hence Islamic studies need to be conducted from a variety of perspectives.

A systematic literature review is an effective approach for pinning the gaps in research, solidifying the existing knowledge, and comprehensively providing insight into the subject matter while guiding further research and application. The reason this research has chosen Islamic historiography is that it reveals a critical juncture between historical narratives, modernity, and the changing deposits of Muslim societies in the postcolonial era. The purpose of this review is to assess the development of Islamic historiography, its relationship with modernity, and how it has contributed to the perception of Muslim societies.

To achieve this, the study aims to address the following research questions:

RQ1: How has Islamic historiography evolved in the postcolonial era, particularly in its engagement with themes of modernity?

RQ2: How have/To what extent have the key factors, such as colonialism, technological advancements, and socio-political contexts, shaped this evolution?

RQ3: How do contemporary interpretations of Islamic historiography influence the understanding of Muslim societies' responses to modernity?

Therefore, the research shall seek to provide an integrated and current understanding of the interlink between Islamic historiography and modernity by answering these questions. Most importantly, it should contribute to the development of a recommended theoretical framework that can become the guiding force for future research and practice in this area. The structure of the paper is as follows: the following sections are devoted to the theoretical and conceptual framework, methodology of this systematic review, and theoretical and conceptually guided analysis and synthesis of study findings. Further consideration is given to areas requiring more research, summed up by providing an overview of the study's implications and the contributions it makes to Islamic historiography.

2. Review Methodology

The review protocol is a standard systematic review process that guarantees methodological rigor; consequently, this reduces the possibility of researcher bias. The current study tries to reduce analyses that could be affected by the researcher because of the use of a preset methodology during the study, therefore reducing expectations from the researcher, as noted by Kitchenham et al.¹⁴ The review guidelines consist of salient features, such as the background of the research and questions involved, selection criteria for the studies, search strategies, quality assessment and data extraction, and synthesis of the primary studies.

Building on these, the previous sections of this review have determined the context in which the research is conducted and have identified the general research questions that be addressed. The final sections outline the remaining key components of the methodology for the review, that is, the detailed, systematic process through which the literature dealing with Islamic historiography and its relationship with modernity in the postcolonial period was assessed and synthesized. It is based on a structured approach that formally helps to make the review as comprehensive and objective as possible.

This study employed both automation-based and manual search techniques to systematically investigate the evolution of Islamic historiography about modernity within the postcolonial context. Following established systematic literature review (SLR) guidelines, the search process began with an automated retrieval of primary studies, supplemented by manual searches to ensure a comprehensive and exhaustive review.

The study relied exclusively on Scopus and ISI Web of Science, two of the most prestigious and widely recognized databases for peer-reviewed research. These databases ensured access to high-quality, authoritative sources directly relevant to Islamic historiography and its engagement with modernity. The search strategy utilized a carefully selected set of keywords, including “Islamic historiography,” “postcolonial era,” “modernity,” “Muslim societies,” “colonialism,” and “intellectual responses.” Boolean operators (“AND” and “OR”) were applied to optimize search precision and expand coverage.

To ensure thematic depth, the primary search terms were strategically combined with related concepts such as “historical narratives,” “socio-political contexts,” “legal reforms,” “education systems,” and “technological advancement.” This approach facilitated a robust methodological framework for capturing the breadth of scholarly discourse.

A structured search and selection framework (Table 1) guided the process, ensuring methodological rigor and reducing selection bias. This framework identified key input factors, including historiographical methodologies, socio-political influences (e.g., colonialism, nationalism, reform movements), and the intellectual traditions shaping the historiographical discourse. It further mapped out mediating mechanisms, particularly the interaction of Islamic historiography with modernity, secularism, and rationality, as well as the cultural and intellectual exchanges that have influenced historiographical developments.

The outcome variables examined in this study encompassed two primary aspects: historiographical transformations and conceptualizations of modernity. The former focuses on developing innovative historiographical frameworks, while the latter explores how Muslim societies historically and intellectually negotiate modernity.

Furthermore, the study considered moderating factors, such as scholarly contributions and educational reforms, which are pivotal in shaping historiographical methodologies and narratives. In addition, regional variations—notably within the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia—were analyzed to illustrate the diversity of historiographical practices and their distinct engagement with modernity.

This methodological framework offers a structured, objective, and methodologically sound foundation for the systematic literature review, ensuring academic rigor and thematic coherence in assessing the evolution of Islamic historiography in the postcolonial era.

Table 1. Framework for Attaining an Efficient Search Strategy in Islamic Historiography and Modernity

The systematic literature review followed a structured process of identifying high-quality and relevant studies on the evolution of Islamic historiography and its interaction with modernity. Extracted records (n = 1,310) through Scopus and ISI Web of Science were included at the identification stage. Thus, after removing duplicate records (n = 1,073) and entries maintained as ineligible by automation tools (n = 1,068), only 1,057 records were available for screening.

The abstracts of these 1,057 records had to be checked against the predefined inclusion criteria with great care in an attempt to estimate their relevance to the study at the screening stage. Because of this evaluation, 812 records had less relevance and thus were excluded, and 245 articles were kept for further assessment. At the eligibility stage, 89 reports were assessed in much greater detail. This involved the critical reading of each article through its introduction, methodology, and discussion sections for relevance to fit the study objectives. Following this stage, 65 articles were excluded because they failed to meet either of the relevance or quality criteria.

At the final inclusion stage, 33 studies were still considered to meet all the inclusion criteria for synthesis, providing thereby a foundation to address the research questions and contribute to a systematic analysis related to Islamic historiography in a postcolonial setting. This is justifiable because it ensures the review has been methodical to ensure rigor and reliability, reduces bias, and comprehensively explores the topic. Figure 1 depicts the entire selection process: the steps taken from the initial identification of records to the final inclusion of studies.

Figure 1. PRISMA Flow Chart for SLR Included Searches of Databases and Registers

To ensure the relevance and rigor of this systematic literature review, specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were established, as outlined in Table 2. The review examines the evolution of Islamic historiography in the postcolonial era and its relationship with modernity. Eligible studies had to be empirical or theoretical, published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus or ISI Web of Science between 2000 and 2023, and had to employ valid methodologies for analyzing historiographical developments in Muslim societies. Only English-language studies were included to ensure standardization and accessibility.

Studies that do not directly contribute to understanding Islamic historiography and modernity were excluded. This includes research with unauthenticated methodologies, irrelevant topics, or those focusing on non-postcolonial contexts. Additionally, unpublished works and publications in languages other than English were omitted to maintain methodological coherence and consistency in the review process.

Table 2. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The screening and quality assessment process was conducted systematically to ensure the selected studies' relevance, transparency, and reliability, following the inclusion criteria outlined in Table 2. A standardized quality assessment (QA) framework was applied to evaluate each study's methodological rigor, validity, and contribution. This process minimized bias and ensured that only high-quality, methodologically sound research was included in the review. Collaborative evaluation among research team members further strengthened the selection process.

As detailed in Table 3, five Quality Assessment Criteria (QAC) were used to assess the studies' accuracy, methodological soundness, and relevance. These criteria ensured that the included literature directly contributes to analyzing the evolution of Islamic historiography and its engagement with modernity while maintaining scholarly rigor.

Table 3. Quality Assessment Criteria (QAC) List

The quality assessment process, outlined in Table 4, ensured that only high-quality and relevant studies were included in the review. Each study was evaluated using a hierarchical ranking system with scores ranging from 0 to 5, based on predefined criteria. Studies scoring 4–5 were classified as high quality, 3.0–3.5 as medium quality, and 2.5 or below as low quality. Out of 33 selected studies, 46% were high quality, 42% medium quality, and 12% low quality, ensuring a robust and transparent analysis of Islamic historiography and modernity.¹⁵

Table 4. The Outcomes of The Process of Selecting Papers

As seen from Appendix A, the data extraction form effectively captures all the relevant data that the researchers obtained from the 33 primary studies. A data extraction form to reduce the risk of bias has been developed and uniquely designed with multiple columns: study ID, title and authors, year of publication, primary findings, methodology used, type of paper, data provider, and journal title. Of these, 33 primary studies were selected through systematic review that best fit the analysis. These studies had been chosen because of their appropriateness to the research field under investigation and had also been previously published.

Table 5. Description of the sample analysis.

3. Results and Analysis

Figure 1 shows the chronological distribution of the significant contributions identified within the systematic literature review. Data illustrates the trend of publication output of research on Islamic historiography and modernity, mapping the shift in the scholarly output through time. The publication frequency has decreased several times from 2002 until 2023. The first recorded publications in 2002 and 2003 had one publication each. It indicates the preliminary interest in the topic at the beginning of the 2000s, probably related to emergent academic discussions on Islamic historiography in the postcolonial context.

From the three published studies that appeared in 2007, research gradually grew from 2006 to 2007. There would be a gradual expansion of interest in those years. It goes upwards sporadically, with notable spikes in 2012 for four studies and in 2014 with five, illustrating that academic concentration on the subject would be at its maximum in those years. It started with five studies in the year 2014, gradually declining to one each in the years of 2017 and 2018, before it leaped a tremendous height in 2020, with seven studies published in the said year. This would correspond roughly to renewed interest in the interplay between Islamic historiography and contemporary themes of modernity, perhaps due to global socio-political events or the advancement of new academic methodologies. From 2020, this trend decreases to one in 2021 and one in 2022. In 2023, there is a slight resurgence, with two studies published, showing that scholarly engagement with the topic is ongoing, albeit reduced.

Overall, the distribution indicates some significant moments of frenetic research, such as in 2012, 2014, and 2020, interspersed with relative lulls. Such a trend may reflect shifting academic emphases, changes in funding or research directions, or perhaps even new theoretical perspectives that reshape the landscape of Islamic historiography research. The surge in 2020 could suggest a higher academic interest in face-to-face with modern challenges and thus at least some integration of Islamic historiography into larger, more contemporary discourses. These findings thus give valuable indications of the temporal development of scholarly interest in Islamic historiography and modernity and, as such, might be of consequence for possible lacunas and future research opportunities in this field.

Figure 2. Distribution of the Key Studies Chronologically

The application of the study model indeed indicates how different factors have shaped the evolution of Islamic historiography and its engagement with modernity during the post-colonial era. Based on the different phases that the study has focused on, as presented in Table 1, the following table summarizes the analysis of the results. The various major dimensions of influence on Islamic historiography and modernity have been highlighted rather effectively in the study model. The useful insights unveil how the legacies of colonialism and socio-political factors shape the historiographical themes and, secondly, how mediating mechanisms such as interaction with modernity and cultural exchanges reveal Islamic historiography's adaptability to diverse contexts. Performative outcome indicators point at the alternative emerging frameworks and the place of modernity within Islamic historiographical narratives, while from the moderating factors comes the role of scholarly contributions and institutional reforms. Finally, regional variations enrich the discourse by offering pluralistic angles on the postcolonial experience of Muslim societies. Table 6 has been finally developed in a format that provides a structured yet concise analysis while retaining comprehensive findings of the systematic literature review.

Table 6. Results of the Study Model

The broad themes through which Islamic historiography in the post-colonial era can be viewed include engagement with modernity, revisiting of historiographical traditions, plurality in narratives, and de-colonizing of historiography. These themes show how Islamic historiography has adapted itself to the thrusts of modern intellectual and socio-political challenges.

Islamic historiography now increasingly grapples with modern ideas of inter-imperiality and alternative temporalities. Such approaches consisted of counter-Eurocentric timelines by providing multidimensional perspectives on historical processes. For example, Doyle discusses how inter-imperiality brings out the complex, multi-directional interactions of the colonial and postcolonial system, while Bashir insists on the relevance of alternative temporalities as a critique against the linear, western-centric progress of history.²⁷ Similarly, Di-Capua discusses a decolonial intellectual movement called Arab existentialism. Di-Capua traces how European existentialist thought was applied to various Arab contexts and shows that Islamic historiography actively enriches modernity within its frameworks.²⁸

These have critiqued Eurocentric models and Orientalist paradigms, with increasing calls for a global and inclusive historiography. According to O'Brien, one needs to go beyond traditional European-centered narratives and envisage the possibility of a global historical perspective that truly confers weight to diversified voices and experiences.²⁹ Heehs also criticizes the Orientalist tradition's reductive view of Islamic societies and calls for historiographical frameworks that acknowledge the shared and interdependent nature of historical experience rather than creating and perpetuating binary oppositions such as East versus West.³⁰

Varied national and socio-historical contexts have thus gradually defined Islamic historiography in all its diversity of Muslim identities. Dunne et al. discuss how different identities change historiographical discourses that resist homogenization systems in narrating Islamic history.³¹ These authors underline the importance of understanding the unique experiences of other Muslim communities to further enrich historiographical discourses and provide nuanced insight into Muslim societies and their historical development.

Decolonizing Islamic historiography inherently involves deconstructing the monotony of Western academic knowledge by integrating indigenization and interdisciplinary approaches. Tayob, states that critiques of Western epistemologies need to be done at specific junctures in methodology to accentuate the local realities and intellectual traditions.³² Similarly, Samier says that historiography needs to include voices and perspectives that were historically and culturally marginalized.³³ He goes on to say that such efforts enrich historiographies through the approaches they provide for understanding Islamic societies and their histories.

Islamic historiography of the postcolonial era represents an active interaction with modernity, for example in the presence of categories such as inter-imperiality and existentialism. The continuous critique of Eurocentric traditions and the movement toward global and inclusive frameworks are a pledge of its evolving nature. Furthermore, the recognition of the multiple identities of Muslims and efforts of decoloniality underline the ability of Islamic historiography to respond to an array of modern challenges, both intellectual and socio-political, as asserted by Dunne et al. and Tayob. All in all, these themes underpin the richness and multi-dimensionality of Islamic historiography in the postcolonial context.³⁴

Table 7. Thematic Analysis: Evolution of Islamic Historiography in the Postcolonial Era

As shown in Table 8, colonial legacies, socio-political dynamics, cultural exchanges, educational reforms, and technological advancement are the key drivers of Islamic historiography's evolution in the postcolonial era. These would, therefore, highlight the multifaceted nature of historiographical developments in Muslim societies.

This becomes evident in the fact that the legacies of colonialism have marked Islamic historiography by the promotion of a Eurocentric approach in opposition to the marginalization of indigenes. Examples include how colonial legacies shaped Islamophobia and racialization, reducing Muslim societies to a one-dimensional view, as discussed in Meer.³⁵ Similarly, Abbasi critiques the coloniality of being, emphasizing the need to reconstruct historiographies and challenge these entrenched paradigms.³⁶ In the same way, Hassan points to how the Orientalist framework is influencing Arabic literature and historiography in terms of the strengthening effect of the dominance of European models and their marginalization of local intellectual traditions.³⁷

Islamic historiography has suffered from time to time with the jolting effect of nationalism and the processes of identity formation. Young discusses how cultural and social dynamic framings from postcolonial and subaltern perspectives within nationalist movements in the Middle East and Central Asia are viewed.³⁸ Hajjaj discusses dialectical relations between language and religion in the context of identity formation in Bangladesh, underlining tensions between colonial legacies and native contexts.³⁹ McLoughlin further denotes socio-political relevancy within his work by mentioning how Orientalism influenced the anthropological study of Muslim societies and their historiographical narratives.⁴⁰

However, how migration, transnationalism, and cross-cultural exchange influence Islamic historiography illustrates both the global and the local in a complex interlink. Mills and Gökarıksel emphasize Islamic historiography's local and relational dynamics in contexts other than those in the West.⁴¹ Mirza approaches the negotiation of identity and belonging by transnational Muslim women in Britain as reflecting the intersection of migration and historiography.⁴² Caron criticizes the use of modernization theories in Afghan historiography to understand nuanced local perspectives and experiences.⁴³

Incorporating the Islamic and Western education frameworks has thus given a different turn to historiographical studies. Sahin examines how secularism has affected Islamic education and calls for a balance between Islamic and Western values.⁴⁴ Ahmed frames the significance of indigenous methods within research, based on which he advances halaqah as an appropriate methodology from the culture to historiography.⁴⁵ All these reforms in education point toward the interdisciplinary sets of methods that immediately reflect epistemologies and realities lived within Muslim societies.

These new technologies indirectly shaped Islamic historiography by connecting the dots between identity and nation-building projects with modern scientific enterprises. Jiwani examines Pakistan's national genome project to show how biopolitical control and technological development shape historiographical narratives. It is a junction of technology and historiography that offers a new set of lenses through which Muslims have made sense of the evolution of their identities within postcolonial contexts.

Other factors contributing to this development in Islamic historiography include colonial legacies, socio-political dynamics, cultural exchanges, educational reforms, and technological advancement. These factors represent the field's resilience and continued engagement with modern intellectual and socio-political challenges. The need for inclusivity, interdisciplinarity, and locality can be seen in the various efforts at decolonizing and enriching Islamic historiography in the postcolonial period.

Table 8. Thematic Analysis: Key Factors Shaping the Evolution of Islamic Historiography

Islamic historiography provides a critical glimpse into how Muslim societies understand and relate to modernity. Cosmopolitan analyses have focused on Islamophobia, intersectionality, decolonial paradigms, spatial practices, and the integration of indigenous knowledge systems, as reflected in Table 9. These analyses dramatize the complexity and resilience of Muslim societies in responding to modern challenges and opportunities.

Contemporary Islamic historiography debates the impact of Islamophobia on the formulation of Muslim identities and the general socio-political environment. Sayyid, for example, discussed the relationship between Islamophobia and the crisis of European identity, demonstrating how Muslims are encoded as the "other" in postcolonial Europe.⁴⁶

Intersectional and decolonial historiographies account for the layered impact of colonialism, race, gender, and power on Muslim societies. Seedat considers Islamic psychology a decolonial paradigm with which to free epistemic frameworks. These interpretations raise questions about how these various modalities approach the question of colonial legacies and epistemic freedom in the engagement of Muslim societies with West.

It also manifests the role that spatial practices and urban decolonization play in formulating responses to modernity within Muslim societies. Luz and Stadler present a discussion on religious urban decolonization through settler-colonial societies, framing how Muslim religious spaces signify resistance to colonial urban planning  

Indigenization, thus offers alternative remedies to engage with modernity and historiographical texts. Alatas, for instance, develops Ibn Khaldun's theories as a non-Eurocentric framework for understanding Muslim societies.⁴⁷ This is also related to Hammer's critique of civil sphere theory for its complete lack of consideration of colonial histories; he then advocates for frameworks that would be historically aware and locally rooted.⁴⁸ These works thus feature the richness an indigenizing perspective brings to intellectual and socio-political challenges typical of our modern times.

Religion and secularism in Islamic historiography are about tensions and crossings from traditional frameworks towards the modern. El Shakry discusses the issue of orientalist critiques in Arab intellectual history and Islamist arguments for a pluralistic view of Arab and Islamic thought.⁴⁹ Sahin examines the integration between Islamic and Western educational values and proposes an interdisciplinary framework to harmonize these systems.⁵⁰

Contemporary reinterpretations of Islamic historiography bear critical witness to how Muslims negotiate modernity. In this paper, I have attempted to uncover how Islamophobia, colonial legacies, spatial practices, and the play of religion and secularity intersect and conflict in complex ways. Incorporating indigenous knowledge systems, intersectional frameworks, and decolonial paradigms, Islamic historiography remains in evolution, offering robust rejoinders to the challenges marked by modernity. This malleability underlines the richness and relevance of Islamic historiography well into the postcolonial era.

Table 9. Thematic Analysis: Contemporary Interpretations of Islamic Historiography and Muslim Societies' Responses to Modernity

4. Academic and Theoretical Implications

The findings of this study offer significant academic and theoretical contributions to the evolution of Islamic historiography in the postcolonial era. By critically engaging with historiographical frameworks, intellectual traditions, and socio-political dynamics, this research challenges Eurocentric narratives and advocates for including Indigenous and decolonial perspectives. It deconstructs Orientalist paradigms, replacing them with pluralistic approaches that reimagine global historiography beyond the traditional East-West binary.

A key contribution lies in integrating indigenous knowledge systems, such as those rooted in Ibn Khaldun’s intellectual traditions, into global historiography. This diversification enriches theoretical frameworks, offering non-Eurocentric models for historical analysis. Additionally, the study highlights the coexistence of religious and secular frameworks, demonstrating the adaptability of Islamic thought in addressing contemporary intellectual challenges.

These findings hold practical relevance for education, research, and policymaking. An interdisciplinary, decolonial approach to educational curricula can promote a more inclusive understanding of history, while research should further explore the indigenization of methodologies. Policymakers may also benefit from these insights to address Islamophobia and foster intercultural dialogue, ensuring a more nuanced engagement with the intellectual and socio-political legacies of Muslim societies.

These findings from the present study spotlight a few crucial insights and implications that may be instructive in further work in Islamic historiography: diversity, decolonial frameworks, and engagement with modernity hold keys toward new avenues of research. The review underlines the importance of integrating regional variations and pluralistic perspectives within Islamic historiography. Histories of Muslim societies, embedded in unique cultural and socio-political contexts, are plural; historiography would need to be more inclusive. As Caron explains, recognizing local narratives, represented by Pashtun Muslims of Afghanistan, is essential to providing an advanced multi-spatiality of Islamic societies. On the other hand, Hassan has emphasized for Arabic literature to reflect regional and cultural diversities within Muslim societies. Such regional differences should be duly taken up as a task to attempt to deal with them to construct more appropriate historiographical frameworks.

In this regard, the movement towards decolonial paradigms in Islamic historiography remains significant. Seedat calls for liberation from Eurocentric epistemologies by advancing Islamic psychology as a decolonial framework; Di-Capua elaborates on how Arab intellectuals harnessed European existentialism to question these legacies of colonialism. Ultimately, these works indicate the potential for decolonial scholarship to challenge dominant narratives and foster homegrown methods that better capture Muslim societies' intellectual and cultural traditions. The future research process should continuously cater to the decolonial paradigms, thus pursuing the development of methodologies that place the local voices and histories first.

The progressive involvement with modernist conceptual frameworks discloses the continued adaptability of Islamic historiography regarding the imperatives of the contemporary intellectual and socio-political context. Doyle advances the concept of inter-imperiality, showing how Islamic historiography negotiates colonial and postcolonial systems of multi-directionality. Bashir reinforces this view on alternative temporalities, critically engaging with linearity in Eurocentric historical narratives. These studies represent how new ideas are integrated into Islamic historiography and its connectedness to its cultural and intellectual heritage. Further research will explore the intersections between modernity and Islamic historiography to address emerging global challenges and innovations.

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

This paper underlines the dynamic evolution within Islamic historiography in the postcolonial era, underlining its flexibility of thought to engage with modernity and handle the socio-political challenges. In addition, such issues as inter-imperiality and decolonial frameworks surface as makers of modernity, challenging Eurocentric perception and shifting focus towards regional diversities. The paper brings out in evident relief the pluralistic experiences of Muslim societies in the evolution and rejection of homogenized narratives for indigenous knowledge systems. The interaction between religion and secularism exemplifies a harmonization process between traditional concepts and the intellectual paradigm capable of reconciling it with the modern spirit. It also allows Islamic historiography to respond effectively to contemporary challenges thrown up by globalization.

From the perspective of historiographical studies, scholars should be focused on regional diversities and local narratives to capture the complex dynamics of the experiences of Muslim communities. Decolonial approaches require that propositions of knowledge production be challenged from the vantage point of Eurocentric epistemology and give voice to the subaltern. Interdisciplinary research on the subject shall use a combined insight into history, sociology, anthropology, and political science to comprehensively understand those factors shaping Islamic historiography. Additionally, the interface of modernity with Islamic historiography in matters such as Islamophobia, migrations, and changing technologies is an area of critical concern yet to be tried.

Other practical implications involve revising educational curricula with de-colonial considerations and interdisciplinarity toward a more inclusive understanding of Islamic historiography. Policymakers should use the knowledge gained in this field to combat Islamophobia and further cultural dialogue. Accordingly, embracing such recommendations by future research and practical applications will provide an enriched avenue to Islamic historiography, with beneficial insights into historical and current experiences of Muslim societies for the benefit of greater societal understanding and engagement.

Conflict of Interest

The manuscript author has absolutely no financial or non-financial conflict of interest regarding the subject matter or material discussed in this manuscript.

Data Availability Statement

The data associated with this study will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.

Funding Details

This research did not receive a grant from any funding source or agency.