A leading modernist A leading modernist Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, wrote more than 2000 works on Islamic law, theology, exegesis or Arab history. He aimed at eliminating the rivalries between schools of thought and diversity in Islamic sensibilities and proving the Islamic teachings being rational. Based at Damascus, Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi influenced a lot of Syrians who were then attracted by the Arab nationalism of the early twentieth-century.