Islamic political thought over the past two centuries might best be studied around the theme of a new era in which all parts of the Muslim world responded to alien intrusion. Western hegemony reached different parts of the Muslim world at different times and differed in its intensity, but it was well under way by 1800. In the process the various Muslim polities (whether empires or states or lesser units) all faced a new reality that led in most cases to outright Western colonial rule, a development that reached a peak in the peace settlement following the First World War. Only Afghanistan, parts of Arabia, Iran and the Anatolian core of the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) escaped colonial rule but they experienced their own forms of persistent Western pressure.

Thereafter came decolonisation, mainly achieved in the two decades following the Second World War. Even with formal independence, however, the perception, not lacking in some reality, of the Muslim political leadership and their populations has been that they are controlled by the alien other.

As the timing and pattern of the Western intrusions differ so also did the circumstances within the diverse Muslim world make for different responses. The Ottoman Empire in 1800 had existed for roughly a half millennium, possessed a long-established government staffed by Muslims who ruled over a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire with, however, a considerable Muslim majority.