Islamic Studies
Knowledge and Power in Muslim Societies
Approaches in Intellectual History
Kazuo Morimoto, Sajjad Rizvi (eds.) – 2023-06
The study of Islam and of Islamic history is enjoying something of a revival with an emphasis on intellectual history and a greater concern with the ’subaltern’ within that. Why does religion continue to hold significance in our times? Are humans better off, adaptable, less violent, consistently unpredictable? How can we understand the course of our political history and the seeming dominance of democracy and its discontents, not least the legacies of coloniality and empire? While nationalist historiographies prevail in man...
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Bahrain’s Surviving Dynasty
The Al Khalifa’s Rulership Struggles and Successions 1783-1932
Mohamed Matar – 2023-06
The Al Khalifa of Bahrain is a long-standing dynasty that has established dispute resolution measures to overcome intra-tribal ambitions for power and wealth, replacing extra-constitutional rulership succession with primogeniture. Since their control over Bahrain began in 1783 until the British withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971, the Al Khalifa introduced ten senior ruling shaykhs, seven of whom experienced turbulent successions, and faced in-house rivalries and power-seeking disputes. This book provides valuable insights int...
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Constantinople and the Bosphorus
Translated from the French and annotated by G. Rex Smith and Jonathan M. G. Smith
Pierre Loti with Samuel Viaud – 2024-03
First English translations of Pierre Loti’s ‘Suprêmes Visions d’Orient’ and ‘Constantinople. Fin de siecle’. Pierre Loti (1850-1923) was born Louis-Marie-Julien Viaud into a Protestant family in Rochefort in Saintonge, South-West France (now Charente Maritime). He was an officer of the French Navy and a prolific author of considerable note in 19th-/early-20th-century France, publishing many novels and numerous accounts of his travels around the world. He was a member of the French Academy. Apart from his literary talents, ...
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The Earliest Writings on the Life of Muḥammad
The ‘Urwa Corpus and the Non-Muslim Sources
Andreas Görke, Gregor Schoeler – 2024-02
The main part of this book consists of a compilation and evaluation of the corpus of traditions about the life of Muḥammad attributed to the early scholar ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (c. 643- c. 712). ‘Urwa was the nephew of the Prophet's wife ‘A’isha, who was also his most important informant. The authenticity of a large part of these traditions is certain, since they were handed down independently from each other by two or more tradents of ‘Urwa. They are thus the oldest authentic Muslim reports about the Prophet. The authors...
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Al-Tabari. A Medieval Muslim Historian and His Work
With a New Foreword by the Editor
Hugh N. Kennedy (ed.) – 2024-02
This volume provides a discussion of the works of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Ṭabarī (d. 932 CE), the greatest historian of the early Islamic world. An international team of well-known scholars examine the life of the man, his work, the sources he used and his intellectual legacy. Grouped around four major themes - Caliphate and power, economy and society, Abbasids, and frontiers and the others - the contributions deal with the history, archaeology, architecture and literature of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond, from ...
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The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims
A Textual Analysis
Uri Rubin – 2024-02
Detailed examination of traditions about Muhammad which illustrate particular themes thought to be part of the biblical prophetic paradigm: attestation, preparation, the experience of revelation, persecution, and "salvation," this last meaning the hijra. The author analyzes the ways in which Muhammad's early biographers sought to shape the Prophet's biography through biblically based, and later Qur'anic, modes of authentication. The author has abandoned the quest for the historical Muhammad becau...
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Between Bible and Qur'an
The Children of Israel and the Islamic Self-Image
Uri Rubin – 2024-02
This book investigates the literary role played by the Bible in Islamic sources. It focuses on the tension between Biblical and Qur’anic models as revealed in Islamic texts describing contacts between the Muslims and the “Children of Israel”, as Jews and Christians are usually called in the context of world history. By adopting the method of his earlier work on the image of the Prophet Muhammad, The Eye of the Beholder: The Life of Muhammad as Viewed by the Early Muslims, Rubin examines hadith reports of the first three I...
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The "Constitution of Medina"
Muḥammad's First Legal Document
Michael Lecker – 2024-02
The ‘Constitution of Medina’ is probably the first legal document of Muḥammad and dates back to the first year after his hijra (622 CE), or “emigration”, which brought him from his hometown Mecca to the cluster of towns known as Yathrib or Medina in the Hijāz (northern Arabia) and marked the beginning of the Islamic era. Muslim historians and jurists have been familiar with this important document for centuries, and aware of its legal and theological implications for Islamic law. It was first brought to the attention of s...
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Islamic Legal Principles and Intellectual Property Rights in the Gulf States
Nadia Naim – 2023
The book focuses on the relationship between Islamic law and intellectual property law and proposes groundbreaking alternatives to better support the growth of intellectual property in line with the Islamic moral economy. The author provides an overview of the development of intellectual property under Shariah principles in the Gulf States. She focuses on how the US and the EU have shaped the intellectual property regimes in the Gulf States, the WTO and WIPO in the pre-TRIPS era, and compliance with the minimum standards o...
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Iranian / Persianate Subalterns in the Safavid Period: Their Role and Depiction
Recovering ’Lost Voices‘
Andrew J. Newman – 2022
‘Subaltern studies’ refers to the importance of ‘subordinate’ groups in the making of history. The latter are usually defined as encompassing the urban and rural underclasses, the majority in any society, although generally the term is said to refer to all non-elites, including women. Most often the discourse concentrates on instances of social protest as points whereat the ‘subalterns’ make their ‘voices’ heard in response to, or even independent of, manipulations by the elite. The book draws on wide-ranging sources to b...
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The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East
Volume 1: Problems in the Literary Source Material
Averil Cameron, Lawrence I. Conrad (eds.) – 2021
This volume focuses on the problems researchers face when using (Byzantine) Greek, Syriac and Arabic sources together for the reconstruction of Near Eastern history from 400–c. 800. Contributions to the volume set the stage for a critical re-reading and revisionist interpretations of selected sources in the various cultural and literary traditions. The volume thus brings together neighbouring disciplines in ways that shed new light on this vitally important time in history. 1. Michael Whitby, Greek Historical Writing after ...
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The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East
Volume 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns
Geoffrey King, Averil Cameron (eds.) – 2021
This volume revisits archaeological evidence from Syria, Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Egypt describing a variety of land-use patterns and the development of a particular type of settlement across the Near East. 1. Pierre-Louis Gatier, Villages du Proche-Orient protobyzantin (4ème-7ème s.): Étude régionale 2. Henry Innes Macadam, Settlements and Settlement Patterns in Northern and Central Transjordania, c. 550 – c. 750 3. Yoram Tsafrir and Gideon Foerster, From Scythopolis to Baysan - Changing Concepts of Urbani...
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The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East
Volume 3: States, Resources and Armies
Averil Cameron (ed.) – 2021
A comparative analysis of Byzantine, Sasanian and Muslim armies and their impact on state resources. Contributions discuss the organization and financing of the army in the late Roman state, the transformations and continuities of the late Sasanid state and with authority and armies in the early Muslim state. Thus, the volume brings together perspectives from neighbouring fields, presents military issues in an intercultural manner and assembles important pieces of knowledge in a comprehensive manner. 1. Jean-Michel Carrié, L...
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The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East
Volume 4: Elites Old and New
John Haldon, Lawrence I. Conrad (eds.) – 2021
A collection of critical analyses of the structure, historical development, and composition of the elite strata of late Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic societies in the eastern Mediterranean basin. Culture change, economic foundations, political roles and function, social composition, and background and origins of old and new elites are the focus of the contributions by scholars who deal with the fate of the later Roman elite and its successors. 1. Hugh Kennedy, Elite lncomes in the Early lslamic State 2. William Lancast...
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The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East
Set, Volumes 1-4
Averil Cameron, Lawrence I. Conrad, John Haldon, Geoffrey King (eds.) – 2021
Volume 1: Problems in the Literary Source Material focuses on the problems researchers face when using (Byzantine) Greek, Syriac and Arabic sources together for the reconstruction of Near Eastern history from 400–ca. 800. Volume 2: Land Use and Settlement Patterns revisits archaeological evidence from Syria, Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and Egypt describing a variety of land-use patterns and the development of a particular type of settlement across the Near East. Volume 3: States, Resources and Armies focuses on a ...
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The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule.
An Historical and Archaeological Study
Robert Schick – 2021
An assessment of the nature and social continuity of Christian communities in Palestine from 602–813. By synthesizing literary and archeological evidence, it provides a detailed discussion of disparate historical and archeological data. In the first part, the Sasanian, Byzantine and early Muslim invasions of southern Syria and the changing of government policies towards Christians are discussed. Topical studies about church use, conversion and iconoclasm, are also included. . The second part offers a useful alphabetical ...
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Narratives of Islamic Origins:
The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing
Fred M. Donner – 2021
How and why did Muslims first come to write their own history? The author argues in this work that the Islamic historical tradition arose not out of idle curiosity, or through imitation of antique models, but as a response to a variety of challenges facing the Islamic community during its first several centuries. In the first part, the author presents an overview of four approaches that have characterized scholarship on the literary sources, including the source-critical and the skeptical approaches, then it discusses histo...
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Studies in Early Islamic History
with an Introduction by G. R. Hawting
Martin Hinds – 2021
Collection of all of Martin Hinds’ (1941–1988) full-length articles which appeared in journals as well as one of his articles for the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd Edition. Most of the articles have to do with the early period of Islamic history, while two others deal with the early Abb sid caliphate. The volume is especially important in light of the fact that all of the articles were revised by the editors based on Hinds’ own corrected copies: 1. Kufan Political Alignments and Their Background in the Mid-Seventh Century A.D...
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A Gateway To Hell, A Gateway To Paradise.
The North African Response to the Arab Conquest
Elizabeth Savage – 2021
This book is a study of the early history of the lbadiyya in North Africa, a "moderate" movement among the Kharijis which from its base in Basra gradually spread among the Berbers of the Maghrib in the 750s. The Berbers found in this new religious allegiance an attractive ideology with which to rebel against the central caliphate. An Ibadi imamate, headed by the Rustamid dynasty, was founded in Tahart in 160 or 162/777 or 779 and lasted until 296/909, when it fell to the Fatimids. The book is divided into seven ch...
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Arabs and Others In Early Islam
Suliman Bashear – 2021
This work investigates available early Arabic hadith and exegetical literature in order to determine the great complexity of how Arabs, Muslims and Arab-Muslims viewed themselves and members of other communities. In particular, it focuses on the relation between definitions of “Arabness” and “otherness” with Islamic ascriptions of believers and nonbelievers and endeavors to trace the changing of these views over time. Moreover, this is an in-depth analysis of a series of ad ths and isn ds that discusses when, where, why, an...
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The Continuatio of the Samaritan Chronicle of Abū l-Fatḥ al-Sāmirī al-Dinfī
Including an Annotated TranslatIon
Milka Levy-Rubin (ed.) – 2021
A complete facsimile edition of the previously unedited Samaritan sequel to the Kitab al-Ta‘rikh by Abū l-Fatḥ al-Sāmirī al-Dinfī (d. ca. 1355). The edition of this chronicle photographically reproduces Paris BN Ms. Samaritain 10 (pp. 203–264), which, written in Middle Arabic, seems easily readable but poses a plethora of editorial problems. The editor entitled the work a Continuatio, and translated it into English with full editorial and explanatory annotation. The work describes the local history of the Samaritan people i...
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The Earliest Biographies of the Prophet and Their Authors
Josef Horovitz – 2021
Josef Horovitz (1874-1931) wrote this classic monograph a century ago in two parts in German. The editor added footnotes, corrections and the preface, and it is now a book in its own right. The translation was prepared by Marmaduke Pickthall (d. 1936). Lawrence I. Conrad, who re-edited the articles also presents a slightly corrected textual version, expanding and updating the notes and bibliography and adding a new introduction dealing with Horovitz’s and other orientalists’ work on early Islam in the early 20th century. H...
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Ibn Asakir and Early Islamic History
James E. Lindsay (ed.) – 2021
Ibn Asakir’s massive Tarikh madinat Dimashq (TMD) is a veritable gold mine of information for our understanding of the first five and one-half centuries of Islamic history. This book offers important insights on the mechanics of Arabic historiography, in particular on biographical sources from the Middle period. Moreover, two contributions show that Ibn ‘Asakir pursued a political and sectarian agenda within his TMD. 1. James E. Lindsay, Ibn ‘Asakir, His Ta‘rikh madinat Dimashq and its Usefulness for Understanding Early Isl...
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Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic
David Cook – 2021
A detailed study on the nature of Muslim apocalyptic material in Islam, both Sunni and Shi‘i . Taking a transcultural perspective by also discussing Christian and Jewish apocalyptic traditions, it offers in eight studies and three appendices a typology of apocalypses and many new insights into the matter. For instance, historical apocalypses as well as apocalyptic figures, like the Dajjal, the Sufyani and the Mahdi are discussed. Moreover, apocalyptic hadith literature, in particular Nu‘aym b. Hammadi’s (d. 844) Kitab al-Fi...
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The Late Antique World of Early Islam:
Muslims among Christians and Jews in the East Mediterranean
Robert G. Hoyland (ed.) – 2021
This book offers a number of innovative studies on the three main communities of the East Mediterranean lands—Muslims, Jews and Christians—in the aftermath of the seventh-century Arab conquests. It focuses principally on how the Christian majority were affected by and adapted to their loss of political power in such arenas as language use, identity construction, church building, pilgrimage, and the role of women. Attention is also paid to how the Muslim community defined itself, administered justice, and regulated relations ...
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The Place to Go: Contexts of Learning in Baghdad, 750-1000 C.E.
Jens Scheiner, Damien Janos (eds.) – 2021
This work focuses on the intellectual and educational history of Baghdad in the early ‘Abbasid and Buyid periods (8th–10th centuries). It covers a wide range of disciplines taught in the metropolis before the institutionalization of the madrasa system. Among these fields of knowledge are Arabic poetry and literature, the transmission of prophetic reports, Arabic historiography and astronomical-astrological teaching. Christian learning in the city is highlighted by two contributions, while two more papers focus on Jewish pra...
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Islamic Theological Discourses and the Legacy of Kalam. Gestation, Movements and Controversies
Set, Volumes 1-3
Mustafa Shah (ed.) – 2019
With a concern for context and history, this major reference work presents key academic contributions devoted to the study of early, classical and pre-modern Islamic theological thought. The aim is to provide a balanced survey of the research discourses which have shaped study of the rich legacy of Islamic theology and Kalam. Divided into three volumes and comprising 39 articles, the collection includes an introduction which provides not only an assessment of key discussions and debates in the study of Islamic theology, bu...
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Occidentalism, Conspiracy and Taboo. Collected Essays on Islam and Politics
Volume 4
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2019
Sadik J. Al-Azm was one of the foremost Arab public intellectuals, who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on Islam and the West, Secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. This fourth collection of his essays includes: - Syria in Revolt (2014) - Experience or “Regime of Truth”? About Translation, Arabic and the Postmodern (2014) - Orientalism of the Worst Kind (2015) - The Shari‘a from a Secular Perspective (2015) - Crossing Borders: Orientalism, lslamism and Postmoder...
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The Struggle for the Meaning of Islam. Collected Essays on Islam and Politics.
Set, Volumes 1-4
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2019
Sadik Jalal Al-Azm was an internationally respected scholar and political commentator who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on issues surrounding Islam and the West, secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. He was recognised as a principled defender of human rights and has been the main ethical reference for the Syrian revolution. Al-Azm was educated at the American University Beirut, and at Yale in modern European philosophy and has taught at Damascus, Harvard, Pri...
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The Making of Religious Texts in Islam: The Fragment and the Whole
Asma Hilali, S. R. Burge (eds.) – 2019
This volume offers an interdisciplinary study of the modalities, actors, technicalities and consequences of the evolving of religious texts within the perspective of the fragment versus the whole. The focus is on fragmentary texts from Islamic religious sources, and includes contributions on Qur’anic manuscripts, early graffiti, the formation of the Qur’anic canon, the Hadith literature, and Old Babylonian extispicy texts. Three main topics are addressed: - the text and its materiality; - the structure of the text and the dy...
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Reform of Islam:
Forty Theses for an Islamic Ethics in the 21st Century
Abdel-Hakim Ourghi – 2019
Abdel-Hakim Ourghi’s Reform of Islam is an open indictment of prevailing conservative Islam which insists on the absolute subjugation of the body and mind of all Muslims. The author seeks a humanist understanding of Islam and aims to interpret Islam in today’s terms. He argues against the historical alienation and transfiguration that still shape the collective consciousness of Muslims in the 21st century. Using critical analysis and logic, the author aims to reveal the true core of Islam. Ourghi’s 40 Theses include: - The ...
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Islamist Occidentalism: Sayyid Qutb and the Western Other
Nadia Duvall – 2019
Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) was the most important radical Islamist ideologue in modern times. This groundbreaking new study analyses Qutb’s thinking from his early years in Cairo to the radical Islamist stance he adopted towards the end of his life. „Essentialist views are not the preserve of Orientalists in the Saidian sense. They are the bottom line of all brands of contempt for or hatred of the Other, when the latter is a collective identity, one side’s essentialist rejection prompting the other side’s counter-rejection. The...
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The Fatwa as an Islamic Legal Instrument: Concept, Historical Role, Contemporary Relevance
Set, Volumes 1-3
Carool Kersten (ed.) – 2018
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Islamic legal practice and thought is the role and position of fatwas or legal opinions. This three-volume reference work offers a comprehensive overview of and detailed insights into - the concept of the fatwa as a vehicle of legal opinion-making in Islam - its historical role in different parts of the Muslim world - and contemporary debates reflecting both the fatwa's enduring relevance and its ongoing contestation among Muslims today....
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The Muslim Theology of Huzn: Sorrow Unravelled
with a foreword by Alparslan Açıkgenç
Mahshid Turner – 2018
The subject of sorrow (huzn) and how it should be treated is a subject as old as mankind itself. Considered for the most part as something negative, which should be somehow avoided or remedied completely, the real meaning and purpose of its existence have never been explained satisfactorily. The Quran, however, claims that nothing is created purposelessly, which implies that sorrow also has its uses. With the aim of unravelling the mystery of its existence, this ground-breaking study aims to tell the story of sorrow in the Q...
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In Search of Ali Ibn Abi Talib’s Codex: History and Traditions of the Earliest Copy of the Qur’an.
with a foreword by James Piscatori
Seyfeddin Kara – 2018
The history of the text of the Qur’an has been a longstanding subject of interest within the field of Islamic Studies, but the debate has so far been focused on the Sunni traditions about the codices of Caliphs Abu Bakr and Uthman b. Affan. Little to no attention has been given to the traditions on Ali b. Abi Talib’s collection of the Qur’an. This book examines both Shi‘i and Sunni traditions on the issue, aiming to date them back to the earliest possible date and, if possible, verify their authenticity. To achieve this, t...
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European Muslims and their Foreign Policy Interests: Identities and Loyalties
Imène Ajala – 2018
In a global context marked by terrorist threats, Muslim communities in the West have come under increasing scrutiny. Sensitive questions on identity arise with regard to their foreign policy interests and their loyalties. Topics covered include: - Relations between European Muslims and international issues - Political opportunity structures - Organization and institutionalization of Islam - Diaspora and transnational dimensions - The securitization of Islam - Foreign policy and loyalty This book investigates the foreign pol...
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Islam and Humanity: Consequences of a Contemporary Reading
First Authorized English Translation of Al-Islam wa-l-Insan. With a foreword by Dale F. Eickelman
Muhammad Shahrour – 2017
„EXPLAIN THE QUR’AN BY THE QUR’AN“ Shahrour’s reading of the Qur’an is “modern” in that he directly engages the reader. He argues that we must act as if “the Prophet just died and informed us of this book” and interpret his message anew. The reader must actively interpret the meaning of the Qur’an. The Prophet Muhammad conveyed the last of God’s revelations; now, writes Shahrour, humankind is on its own to perfect itself and adapt to modern conditions. His first book as an Islamic thinker "Al-Islam wa-l-Kitab" was ...
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Wahhabism - Doctrine and Development
Set, Volumes 1-2 (Critical Surveys in Islamic Denominations)
Esther Peskes (ed.) – 2016
Saudi Arabian Wahhabism is the ultra-puritanical form of Sunni Islam which has been adopted by Islamist radicals, Salafists, and jihadists to legitimize and spread their extremist agenda. The scholarly articles in these two volumes throw fresh light on this messianic radicalism by tracing its origins in the 18th century up to its present role as the authoritative interpretation of Islam in the strategically vital Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. - Volume 1 focuses on the main tenets of Wahhabi doctrine that brought about the Wahhabi...
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Trial and Tribulation in the Qur‘an. A Mystical Theodicy
with a foreword by Colin Turner
Nasrin Rouzati – 2015
This book offers a critical analysis and re-examination of the notion of Divine trial, first by providing a comprehensive typology and a contextual interpretation of the Qur'anic narratives pertaining to the concept. Divine trial is then investigated through a historical review of prophetic tradition (hadith) and the exegetical literature (tafsir); followed by a discussion on Prophetology, and an overview of bala in the lives of the prophets. The book further develops key aspects of Muslim theology and mysticism through...
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Der Orient - Fiktion oder Realität? The Orient - Fiction or Reality?
A Critical Analysis of 19th Century German Travel Reports [Text in German with English Summary]
Mohammed Khalifa – 2015
Following the great expeditions of the 18th and 19th century, travel activity in general increased from the end of the 18th century onwards. In addition to European destinations, the Orient and above all Egypt now became the goal of this movement embracing travel and exoticism. This work centers on the question of the received patterns of thought and argumentation that were applied consciously or unconsciously by those travelers. By way of example, the reports of the Austrian scholar and scientist Joseph (Ritter von) Russegg...
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The Caliphate and Islamic Statehood: Formation, Fragmentation and Modern Interpretations
Set, 3 volumes
Carool Kersten (ed.) – 2015
Although the Caliphate was formally abolished ninety years ago, it had already ceased to exist as a unitary and effectively administered political institution many centuries earlier. The ever widening gap between political ideal and historical reality is also reflected in the varying conceptualizations and theories of the Caliphate developed by Islamic religious scholars and Muslim intellectuals past and present. However, recent events in the Islamic world show that the idea of a Caliphate still appeals to Muslims of varying...
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On Fundamentalisms: Collected Essays on Islam and Politics
Volume 1, with a Foreword by Stefan Wild
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2014
Sadik Al-Azm was one of today's foremost Arab public intellectuals, who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on Islam and the West, secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. On Fundamentalisms includes essays on: - Islamic Fundamentalism Reconsidered - Islam and the Science-Religion Debates in Modern Times - The Struggle for the Meaning of Islam - What is Islamism? - The Takfir Syllogism...
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Islam – Submission and Disobedience
Collected Essays on Islam and Politics Vol. 2
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2014
Sadik Al-Azm was one of today's foremost Arab public intellectuals, who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on Islam and the West, secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. Islam – Submission and Disobedience includes essays on: - The Importance of Being Earnest About Salman Rushdie - Is the Fatwa a Fatwa? - The Tragedy of Satan - Satanic Verses Post Festum: The Global, the Local, the Literary - Universalizing from Particulars...
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Is Islam Secularizable? Challenging Political and Religious Taboos
Collected Essays on Islam and Politics Vol. 3
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2014
Sadik Al-Azm was one of today's foremost Arab public intellectuals, who offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on Islam and the West, secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. Is Islam Secularizable? includes essays on: - Civil Society and the Arab Spring - Orientalism and Conspiracy - Ground Zero Revisited, - Islam and Secular Humanism - Trends in Arab Thought - Palestinian Zionism - Orientalism and Orientalism in Reverse...
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Critique of Religious Thought. First English Translation of naqd al-fikr ad-dini
with a new introduction by the author
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2014
Sadik al-Azm's Critique of Religious Thought set off one of the the great Arab intellectual uproars of the twentieth century, leading to the author's imprisonment and trial for mocking religion and inciting sectarian conflict. As in his earlier Self-Criticism after the Defeat, Al-Azm takes on the taboos of the age and their sponsors: the religious elites. In this book he attempts to awaken the Arab mind from its dogmatic slumber, leading it out of the Middle Ages and into a modern world characterized by science and...
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The Arabs and Islam in Late Antiquity:
A Critique of Approaches to Arabic Sources
Aziz Al-Azmeh – 2014
This work provides a critique of Arabic textual sources for the history of the Arabs in late antique times, during the centuries immediately preceding Muhammad and up to and including the Umayyad period. Aziz Al-Azmeh considers the value and relevance of a range of literary sources, including orality and literacy, ancient Arabic poetry, the corpus of Arab heroic lore (ayyam), the early narrative, and the Qur’an. The work includes a very extensive bibliography of the works cited. This is the first book in the Gerlach Press se...
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Secularism, Fundamentalism, and the Struggle for the Meaning of Islam.
Collected essays. (Set, 3 volumes)
Sadik J. Al-Azm – 2014
Sadik Jalal al-Azm was an internationally respected scholar and political commentator who has offered innovative, often controversial challenges to conventional narratives on issues surrounding Islam and the West, secularism, Orientalism, and the Israel-Palestine issue. He is recognised as a principled defender of human rights and has been the main ethical reference for the Syrian revolution. Professor al-Azm was educated at the American University Beirut, and at Yale in modern European philosophy and has taught at Damascus...
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The Qur’an Revealed: A Critical Analysis of Said Nursi’s Epistles of Light
with a Foreword by Dale F. Eickelman
Colin Turner – 2013
The Qur'an Revealed is a landmark publication in the history of Islamic studies, providing for the first time a comprehensive critical analysis of Bedizuzzaman Said Nursi's 6000-page work of Quranic exegesis, The Epistles of Light. In discussing a wide range of themes, from Divine unity to causation, from love to spirituality, from prophethood to civilization and politics, Colin Turner invites the reader into Nursi's conceptual universe, presenting the teachings of arguably the Muslim world's most underst...
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