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Showing 161 - 180 of 2013 items
Islam and the Arabs
By Rom Landau. 2008
Originally published in 1958, this volume covers important aspects of Islamic history and culture: Arabia before the Prophet The Prophet…
The Koran and Islam The Caliphate From the Caliphate to the end of the Ottoman The Crusades The Maghreb Muslim Spain The Sharia Philosophy The Sciences Literature The Arts Problems of the Twentieth Century Arab WorldThe Shia revival: how conflicts within Islam will shape the future
By Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr. 2006
Middle East scholar discusses the schism between Shias and Sunnis in the Muslim world. Provides cultural and historical context for…
their traditional hostility in order to explain the animosity between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the reasons each branch of Islam seeks dominance in the Middle East. 2006Reconciliation: Islam, democracy, and the West
By Benazir Bhutto. 2008
Former prime minister of Pakistan recounts her 2007 return home after eight years in exile. She calls for reconciliation among…
religions and nations, boldly asserts the true nature of Islam, and offers a practical road map for bringing societies together. Bestseller. 2008The Jihadist Threat: The Re-conquest of the West?
By Paul Moorcraft. 2015
This timely and controversial book examines the international and domestic threats to the West from Jihadism. It joins the dots…
in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and explains what it means for the home front, mainly Britain but also continental Europe and the USA. More Brits are trying to join the Islamic State than the reserve forces. Why? It puts the whole complex jigsaw together without pulling any punches.After briefly tracing the origins of Jihadism from the time of the Prophet, The Jihadist Threat analyses the fall-out from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and how far these fuelled the rise of the self-styled Islamic State and other terror groups and the extent these pose to European society. Finally, the Author offers suggestions for defeating this existential threat to the Western way of life.This well-illustrated book is written from the inside. Professor Paul Moorcraft, currently the Director of the Centre for Foreign Policy Analysis, London, has long worked at the heart of the British security establishment and has operated as a war correspondent in over thirty conflict zones since Afghanistan in the 1980s, often alongside frontline Jihadists. Arguably no-one is better qualified to write on this subject and his knowledge coupled with forthright views cannot be ignored.Remaking Islam in African Portugal: Lisbon‚ Mecca‚ Bissau (Framing the Global)
By Michelle C. Johnson. 2020
A portrait of Muslim migrants adapting to a new world and a new understanding of their own religious and cultural…
identity in a European city.When Guinean Muslims leave their homeland, they encounter radically new versions of Islam and new approaches to religion more generally. In Remaking Islam in African Portugal, Michelle C. Johnson explores the religious lives of these migrants in the context of diaspora.Since Islam arrived in West Africa centuries ago, Muslims in this region have long conflated ethnicity and Islam, such that to be Mandinga or Fula is also to be Muslim. But as they increasingly encounter Muslims not from Africa, as well as other ways of being Muslim, they must question and revise their understanding of “proper” Muslim belief and practice. Many men, in particular, begin to separate African custom from global Islam. Johnson maintains that this cultural intersection is highly gendered as she shows how Guinean Muslim men in Lisbon—especially those who can read Arabic, have made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and attend Friday prayer at Lisbon’s central mosque—aspire to be cosmopolitan Muslims. By contrast, Guinean women—many of whom never studied the Qur’an, do not read Arabic, and feel excluded from the mosque—remain more comfortably rooted in African custom. In response, these women have created a “culture club” as an alternative Muslim space where they can celebrate life course rituals and Muslim holidays on their own terms.Remaking Islam in African Portugal highlights what being Muslim means in urban Europe, and how Guinean migrants’ relationships to their ritual practices must change as they remake themselves and their religion.Religious Appeals in Power Politics (Religion and Conflict)
By Peter S. Henne. 2023
Religious Appeals in Power Politics examines how states use, or attempt to use, confessional appeals to religious belief and conscience…
to advance political strategies and objectives. Through case studies of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Russia, Peter S. Henne demonstrates that religion, although not as high profile or well-funded a tool as economic sanctions or threats of military force, remains a potent weapon in international relations. Public policy analysis often minimizes the role of religion, favoring military or economic matters as the "important" arenas of policy debate. As Henne shows, however, at transformative moments in political history, states turn to faith-based appeals to integrate or fragment international coalitions. Henne highlights Saudi Arabia's 1960s rivalry with Egypt, the United States's post-9/11 leadership in the global war on terrorism, and the Russian Federation's contemporary expansionism both to reveal the presence and power of calls for religious unity and to emphasize the uncertainty and anxiety such appeals can create. Religious Appeals in Power Politics offers a bold corrective to those who consider religion as tangential to military or economic might.That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story
By Huda Fahmy. 2020
In this graphic memoir, the National Book Award finalist shares her &“frank, funny&” story of finding a husband as an…
observant Muslim woman in America (NPR Morning Edition). Chaperones, suitors, and arranged marriages aren't only reserved for the heroines of a Jane Austen novel. They're just another walk in the park for this leading lady, who is on a mission to find her leading lad. From the brilliant comics Yes, I&’m Hot in This, Huda Fahmy tells the hilarious story of how she met and married her husband. Navigating mismatched suitors, gossiping aunties, and societal expectations for Muslim women, That Can Be Arranged deftly reveals to readers what it can be like to find a husband as an observant Muslim woman in the twenty-first century—offering a perceptive and personal glimpse into the sometimes sticky but ultimately rewarding balance of independent choice and tradition. Praise for the work of Huda Fahmy &“Explores the complexities of identity . . . hilarious, charming.&” —Kirkus Reviews &“Entertaining, frequently wry.&” —Publishers WeeklyMa vie à contre-Coran: une femme témoigne sur les islamistes (Collection Partis Pris Actuels)
By Djemila Benhabib. 2009
« Quand Djemila Benhabib a pris connaissance du rapport de la commission Bouchard-Taylor, elle a été outrée qu'on demande aux…
Québécois d'accueillir favorablement toutes les requêtes faites au nom de l'islam. Sous prétexte de tolérance, les commissaires ont ainsi confondu musulmans et islamistes, alors que ces derniers ne sont qu'une petite minorité parmi les immigrants de culture musulmane. Or, les islamistes, Djemila Benhabib les connaît bien et elle a toutes les raisons de s'en méfier [...]. » -- 4e de couvMuhammad: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Jonathan Brown. 2011
Georgetown University Islamic studies scholar explores what Muhammad has meant to Muslims over the past fourteen centuries. Considers both the…
"pious legend" and the facts, and places controversial aspects of Muhammad's life, such as his polygamy, in the context of his times. 2011Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism
By Teena Purohit. 2023
Muslim intellectuals who sought to establish the boundaries of modern Muslim identityMuslim modernism was a political and intellectual movement that…
sought to redefine the relationship between Islam and the colonial West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spearheaded by Muslim leaders in Asia and the Middle East, the modernist project arose from a desire to reconcile Islamic beliefs and practices with European ideas of secularism, scientific progress, women&’s rights, and democratic representation. Teena Purohit provides innovative readings of the foundational thinkers of Muslim modernism, showing how their calls for unity and reform led to the marginalization of Muslim minority communities that is still with us today.Sunni Chauvinism and the Roots of Muslim Modernism offers fresh perspectives on figures such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, and Abul A&’la Mawdudi. It sheds light on the exclusionary impulses and Sunni normative biases of modernist Muslim writers and explores how their aim to unite the global Muslim community—which was stagnant and fragmented in their eyes—also created lasting divisions. While modernists claimed to represent all Muslims when they asserted the centrality and significance of unity, they questioned the status of groups such as Ahmadis, Bahais, and the Shia more broadly.Addressing timely questions about religious authority and reform in modern Islam, this incisive book reveals how modernist notions of Islam as a single homogeneous tradition gave rise to enduring debates about who belongs to the Muslim community and who should be excluded.The butterfly mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam
By G. Willow Wilson. 2010
Author's memoir of her conversion to Islam and her romantic relationship with an Egyptian man after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.…
Details her spiritual search as a college student, her move to Cairo at age twenty-one, and the culture clash she experienced as an American living in Egypt. 2010Who is Allah? (Islamic civilization and Muslim networks)
By Bruce B. Lawrence, Bruce B Lawrence. 2015
Islamic studies professor examines history, culture, theology, politics, and media to explain the importance of the central expression of the…
Muslim religion: Allah. Lawrence discusses art, rituals, divergent sets of practices, and the influence of religious practice on scientific and mathematical exploration. 2015Islam and the future of tolerance: a dialogue
By Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz. 2015
Harris, author of The End of Faith (DB 62053), and Nawaz, chair of a think tank focusing on religious freedom,…
extremism, and citizenship, examine the role of the Islamic religion in extremist violence in the twenty-first century. Presented as the authors speaking back and forth. 2015The Koran: Selected Suras (Dover Thrift Editions: Religion Ser.)
By Arthur Jeffery. 1958
The Koran is the sacred scripture of Islam, a collection of revelations that Mohammed, the Prophet, said he had received…
from God (through the angel Gabriel) in seventh-century Arabia. Mohammed preached these revelations in rhymed verses that comprised suras, or chapters. Shortly after his death, his followers published the suras as the Koran (an adaptation of a word meaning "scripture lesson"), which today is considered one of the great sacred books of the world. Deeply moralistic, full of passion and fervor, the suras deal with such topics as the omniscience and majesty of God, death and judgment, the proper conduct of the faithful, stories of previous prophets, kindness to orphans, and much more.The complete Koran consists of 11 suras — arranged from longest to shortest — plus an opening prayer and two closing charms. The selections in the present volume were carefully chose to give a cross-section of the whole and to illustrate Mohammed's teaching as it developed from the rhapsodic style of his early Meccan period to the workaday legislative material of the Medinan period. This excellent English translation replaces the original verse form with accurate, highly readable prose, making a treasury of eternal wisdom from the Koran accessible to both the novice and the serious student.South Asian Islam: A Spectrum of Integration and Indigenization (Global Islamic Cultures)
By Nasr M Arif, Abbas Panakkal. 2024
This volume explores the historical trajectory of the spread of Islam in South Asia and how the engagements of the…
past have played a crucial role in the making of the present outfits of South Asian Islam. Islam in South Asia has maintained a distinct role while imbibing cultural, social, ethnic, folk, and artistic networks of the subcontinent in diverse echelons. In an unequivocal analysis, this volume showcases the visible varieties of Islam from an array of regional cultural, ethnic, and vernacular groups. While many characteristics remain distinct in different provinces or regions of South Asia, similarities are palpable in etiquettes, customary laws, art, and architecture. More than regional differences, various ethnic groups from all poles of the Indian subcontinent have paved the way for the dissimilar landscapes of Islam, in tandem with differences in language, culture, and festivals. The case studies in this book exhibit forms of cultural pluralism in the communities, which have helped in building a cohesive community. Part of the ‘Global Islamic Cultures’ series that looks at integrated and indigenized Islam, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of religion, religious history, theology, study of Islamic law and politics, cultural studies, and South Asian Studies. It will also be useful to general readers who are interested in world religions and cultures.Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa (Heritage Studies in the Muslim World)
By Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann. 2023
Timbuktu Unbound: Islamic Texts, Textual Traditions and Heritage in West Africa is a cutting edge collection offering a reconsideration of manuscripts in Muslim West…
Africa. The contributors give voice to the dynamic ways in which textuality operates through technological innovations, ongoing habituated practices, and how the workings of power and authority within these communities inform these texts and their roles. To that end this book explores a number of interrelated themes: the social value of texts as objects; personal libraries as forms of investment/legacy; social practices involved in the exchange, movement and gifting of certain kinds of manuscripts; hierarchies and evaluative treatments of manuscripts, and quasi-market forces. The recent destruction and subsequent salvage operations to protect the Timbuktu manuscript libraries has highlighted their role as the quintessential exemplar of manuscript heritage in newly historicized Africa. Yet these events also underscore the prevalent narrative about Muslim West African cultural heritage - embodied in the form of manuscripts, archives and documents - as under dramatic and existential threat. This volume seeks to diverge from this dominant salvific starting point of heritage discourse - namely, that such objects are things of intrinsic value to be saved - in order to examine the more nuanced activities of diverse actors engaged in the study, preservation, acquisition, movement and, in some cases, destruction and disposal of the wide range of materials that constitutes the textual heritage of these societies.Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations (third edition)
By Michael Sells. 2023
Approaching the Qur&’an presents brilliant translations of the short, hymnic chapters, or Suras, associated with the first revelations to the…
Prophet Muhammad. These early Suras contain some of the most powerful, prophetic, and revelatory passages in religious history, offering the vision of a meaningful and just life that anchors the faith of one fifth of the world&’s inhabitants. In addition to these translations, Michael Sells provides an introduction to the Qur&’an, commentaries on the Suras, a glossary of technical terms, and discussions of the auditory nature and gender aspects of the Arabic text. An ideal resource for students and interested lay readers, this third edition also includes a new full Sura and associated commentary, a new preface, and a thoroughly updated bibliography.This book tells the story of the Lebanese Shi’a and their development from a marginalized, discriminated minority to a highly…
politicized community that has given birth to Hezbollah, one of the most powerful paramilitary forces in the contemporary Middle East. It explores the Arab-Israeli conflict through the lens of Shi’a intellectuals and scholars from South Lebanon, and chronologically reflects on trending perceptions of Palestine, the Zionist movement, and the Jewish community in Lebanon.The monograph illustrates how Zionism and the establishment of Israel played a decisive role in the intellectual revival of early Muslim perceptions of Jews. It demonstrates how political conflicts after 1948 have impacted the work of scholars such as Musa as-Sadr and Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, and have triggered the formation of social and Islamist movements. It also shows how Hezbollah’s leaders have used religious sources and Western anti-Jewish narratives to construct a deep-rooted ideology to support their struggle for South Lebanon and Palestine. The combination of social needs, religious beliefs and political interests forms the core of the analysis. This text appeals to students and researchers working within the convergence of politics and Middle Eastern religions.Divine Money: Islam, Zakat, and Giving in Palestine (Muslim Philanthropy and Civil Society)
By Emanuel Schaeublin. 2023
Zakat giving or mutual aid is a sacred practice in Islam. Where government and public safety nets fail, zakat serves…
as a form of social security in Muslim communities. In Divine Money, Emanuel Schaeublin shows how zakat institutions and direct zakat donations function in contemporary Palestine. Based on his ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Nablus, Schaeublin traces zakat flows as they provide critical support to households living under military rule and security surveillance. In the neighborhoods of Nablus, the Islamic tradition shapes public life. Many enact simple gifts of money of food as an expression of God's generosity and justice. How do such invocations of the divine enable people to negotiate responsibilities and tensions arising from differences in wealth in Palestinian society? What is the role of zakat in confronting political repression and economic instability?Discover the beliefs and lessons of Islam&’s sacred textThe Koran, the sacred text at the heart of the second-largest religion…
in the world, is regarded by Muslims as the exact word of God as revealed to the prophet Muhammad. Representing the ultimate authority on almost every issue related to Muslim life, the Koran&’s lessons and parables offer the faithful moral and spiritual guidance. In The Wisdom of the Koran, readers will discover a selection of key chapters such as &“The Night Journey&” and &“The Cave,&” footnotes to convey context and meaning, as well as several stories from Judeo-Christian history. This invaluable anthology is an excellent step toward greater understanding of one of the finest pieces of Arabic prose and the Muslim faith.