According to a longstanding interpretation, book religions are agents of textuality and logocentrism. This volume inverts the traditional perspective: its focus is on the strong dependency between scripture and aesthetics, holy books and material artworks, sacred texts and ritual performances. The contributions, written by a group of international specialists in Western, Byzantine, Islamic and Jewish Art, are committed to a comparative and transcultural approach. The authors reflect upon the different strategies of "clothing" sacred texts with precious materials and elaborate forms. They show how the pretypographic cultures of the Middle Ages used book ornaments as media for building a close relation between the divine words and their human audience. By exploring how art shapes the religious practice of books, and how the religious use of books shapes the evolution of artistic practices this book contributes to a new understanding of the deep nexus between sacred scripture and art.

Few studies focus on the modes of knowledge transmission (or concealment), or the trends of continuity or change from the Ancient to the Late Antique worlds. In Antiquity, knowledge was cherished as a scarce good, cultivated through the close teacher-student relationship and often preserved in the closed circle of the initated. From Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform texts to a Shi'ite Islamic tradition, this volume explores how and why knowledge was shared or concealed by diverse communities in a range of Ancient and Late Antique cultural contexts. From caves by the Dead Sea to Alexandria, both normative and heterodox approaches to knowledge in Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities are explored. Biblical and qur'anic passages, as well as gnostic, rabbinic and esoteric Islamic approaches are discussed. In this volume, a range of scholars from Assyrian studies to Jewish, Christian and Islamic studies examine diverse approaches to, and modes of, knowledge transmission and concealment, shedding new light on both the interconnectedness, as well as the unique aspects, of the monotheistic faiths, and their relationship to the ancient civilisations of the Fertile Crescent.

The volume deals with the witness and the service of Protestants and Protestant churches in all nations and contexts and sketches Protestantism as a global renewal movement. It is active in the setting of all 171 nations with a non-Protestant religious or secular majority, and in the 28 Protestant majority nations. Protestantism wants to make all people 'mature' and all societies 'responsible.' It made the Bible the most translated book on earth and provided more songs and hymns than any other religion or movement. About 10 % of the world population is Protestant. But the impact of Protestantism on world culture is larger than 10 %. The book highlights the significance of Protestant Noble Peace Prize winners and martyrs. Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela are the most influential Protestants in the post-war period. Protestants dream of a universal language, a universal statement of faith, and a universal hymn.

Each year, more than two million pilgrims from over 100 countries converge on the holy city of Mecca to reenact the ritual dramas that Muslims have been performing for centuries. Making the hajj is one of the most important duties in the life of a Muslim. The pilgrimage-and its impact on international politics-is enormous and growing every year, yet Westerners know virtually nothing about it. What is the hajj and what does it mean? Who are the hajjis? What do they do and say in Mecca and how do they interpret their experiences? Who runs the hajj and what are their political objectives? How does the hajj encourage international cooperation among Muslims and can it also promote harmony between Islam and the West? In Guests of God, Robert R. Bianchi seeks to answer these and many other questions. While it is first and foremost a religious festival, he shows, the hajj is also very much a political event. The Muslim world's leading multinational organization, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has established the first international regime explicitly devoted to pilgrimage. Every large Muslim nation has developed a comprehensive hajj policy and a powerful bureaucracy to enforce it. Yet, Bianchi argues, no authority- secular or religious, national or international-can really control the hajj. Pilgrims believe that they are entitled to travel freely to Mecca as "Guests of God"-not as guests of any nation or organization that might wish to restrict or profit from their efforts to fulfill a fundamental religious obligation. Drawing on his personal experience as a pilgrim and a wealth of data gathered over the course of ten years of research, Bianchi has produced a fascinating look at the hajj filled with personal, candid stories from political and religious leaders and hajjis from all walks of life. A wide-ranging study of Islam, politics, and power, Guests of God is the most complete picture of the hajj available anywhere.

1. This book looks at the relationship between Islam and education and studies educational institutions-both school-level and higher education colleges/universities-which have been established and are run by Muslim communities, and examines the numerous innovations happening across the country. 2. The book questions the stereotype of the 'Indian Muslim' and notes the varying and divergent notions about 'reform'. 3. It will be of interest to departments of history of education, religious education, comparative education, contemporary social issues across the UK/US. It will also be useful to people working with policy and non-government personnel, Islam and educational reform, and educational planners

This book is an ethnographic case study of Sufi ritual practice and embodied experience amongst female members of the Naqshbandi community. Drawing on fieldwork in Cape Town, South Africa, and Lefke, Cyprus (2013/2014), the author examines women's experiences within a particular performance of Sufi tradition. The focus is on the ritual named hadra, involving the recital of sacred texts, music, and body movement, where the goal is for the individual to reach a state of intimacy with God. The volume considers Sufi practice as a form of embodied cultural behavior, religious identity, and selfhood construction. It explains how Muslim women's participation in hadra ritual life reflects religious and cultural ideas about the body, the body's movement, and embodied selfhood expression within the ritual experience. Sufi Women, Ritual Embodiment and the 'Self' engages with studies in Sufism, symbolic anthropology, ethnography, dance, and somatic studies. Contributing to discussions of religion, gender, and the body, the book will be of interest to scholars from anthropology, sociology, religious ritual studies, Sufism and gender studies, and performance studies.

This book examines the works of Medieval Muslim philosophers interested in intercultural encounters and how receptive Islam is to foreign thought, to serve as a dialogical model, grounded in intercultural communications, for Islamic and Arabic education. The philosophers studied in this project were instructors, tutors, or teachers, such as Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Al-Ghazali, and Averroes, whose philosophical contributions directly or indirectly advanced intercultural learning. The book describes and provides examples of how each of these philosophers engaged with intercultural encounters, and asks how their philosophies can contribute to infusing intercultural ethics and practices into curriculum theorizing. First, it explores selected works of medieval Muslim philosophers from an intercultural perspective to formulate a dialogical paradigm that informs and enriches Muslim education. Second, it frames intercultural education as a catalyst to guide Muslim communities' interactions and identity construction, encouraging flexibility, tolerance, deliberation, and plurality. Third, it bridges the gap between medieval tradition and modern thought by promoting interdisciplinary connections and redrawing intercultural boundaries outside disciplinary limits. This study demonstrates that the dialogical domain that guides intercultural contact becomes a curriculum-oriented structure with Al-Kindi, a tripartite pedagogical model with Al-Farabi, a sojourner experience with Al-Ghazali, and a deliberative pedagogy of alternatives with Averroes. Therefore, the book speaks to readers interested in the potential of dialogue in education, intercultural communication, and Islamic thought research. Crucially bridging the gap between medieval tradition and modern thought by promoting interdisciplinary connections and redrawing intercultural boundaries outside disciplinary limits, it will speak to readers interested in the dialogue between education, intercultural communication, and Islamic thought. .

Through analysis of the Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad, which pledge protection to diverse faith communities, this book makes a profoundly important contribution to research on early Islam by determining the Covenants' historicity and textual accuracy. The authors focus on the Prophet Muhammad's relationship with other faith communities by conducting detailed textual and linguistic analysis of documents which have received little scholarly consideration before. This not only includes decrees of the Prophet Muhammad, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, but also of important Muslim rulers. They present their findings in relation to contemporaneous historical writings, historic testimonies, official recognition, archaeological evidence, historic scribal conventions, date-matching calculations, textual parallelisms, and references in Muslim and non-Muslim sources. They also provide new and revised translations of various Covenants issued by the Prophet Muhammad which were attested by Muslim authorities after him. The authors argue that the claim of forgery is no longer tenable following the application of rigorous textual and historical analysis. This book is essential reading for Muslims, Christians, Jews, Samaritans, and Zoroastrians, as well as anyone interested in interfaith relations, Islamophobia, extremist ideologies, security studies, and the relationship between Orthodox and Oriental Christianity with Islam.

Beginning with the medieval period, this book collates and reviews first-hand scholarship on Muslims in the Middle East and South Asia, as noted down by eminent British travellers, sleuths and observers of lived Islam. The book foregrounds the pre-colonial and pre-Orientalist phase and locates the multi-disciplinarity of Britain's relationship with Muslims over the last millennium to demonstrate a multi-layered interface. Fully sensitive to a gender balance, the book focuses on specially selected individuals and their transformative experiences while living and working among Muslims. Examining the writings of male and female authors including Adelard, Thomas Coryate, Mary Montagu and Fanny Parkes, the book analyses their understanding of Islam. Moreover, the author explores the works of a salient number of representative colonial British women to move away from the imperious wives stereotype and shed light on gender and Islam in Near East and South Asia by illustrating the status of women, tribal hierarchies, historic and architectural sites and regional politics. Going beyond familiar views about colonialism, travel writings and memsahibs without losing sight of the complex relations between Britain and Asian Muslims, this book will be of interest to academics working on British history, Imperial history, the study of religions, Shi'i Islam, Islamic studies, Gender and the Empire and South Asian Studies.

This volume showcases a wide range of contemporary approaches to the identification of literary structures within Qur'anic surahs. Recent academic studies of the Qur'an have taken an increasing interest in the concept of the surah as a unity and, with it, the division of complete surahs into consecutive sections or parts. Part One presents a series of case studies focussing on individual Qur'anic surahs. Nevin Reda analyzes the structure of Surat Al 'Imran (Q 3), Holger Zellentin looks at competing structures within Surat al-'Alaq (Q 96), and A.H. Mathias Zahniser provides an exploration of the ring structures that open Surat Maryam (Q 19). Part Two then focusses on three discrete aspects of the text. Nora K. Schmid assesses the changing structural function of oaths, Marianna Klar evaluates how rhythm, rhyme, and morphological parallelisms combine in order to produce texture and cohesion, while Salwa El-Awa considers the structural impact of connectives and other discourse markers with specific reference to Surat Taha (Q 20). The final section of the volume juxtaposes contrasting attitudes to the discernment of diachronic seams. Devin Stewart examines surah-medial oracular oaths, Muhammad Abdel Haleem questions a range of instances where suggestions of disjointedness have historically been raised, and Nicolai Sinai explores the presence of redactional layers within Surat al-Nisa' (Q 4) and Surat al-Ma'idah (Q 5). Bringing a combination of different approaches to Qur'an structure into a single book, written by well-established and emerging voices in Qur'anic studies, the work will be an invaluable resource to academics researching Islam, religious studies, and languages and literatures in general. Chapter #6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003010456

Providing an in-depth and extensive analysis of the concept of power as articulated by Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah (1935-2010), this case study analyses the systemic conceptualisation of power and his argumentation of sacralising Islamised power. The volume also offers a quick overview of how the concept was understood and articulated by other Shi'ite jurists such as Ayatollah Khomeini. Examining Fadlallah's oeuvre, in particular his seminal book Islam and the Logic of Power [ al-Islam wa-mantiq al-quwwa ], this book focuses on the narrative itself, which played a central role in the radical transformation that occurred in the Shi'te concept of empowerment and its recognition as a necessity. The analysis of Fadlallah's conceptualisation and argumentation illustrates the mechanism of sacralising righteous power as well as the means of gaining it. Fadlallah reinterpreted Shi'sm as a project of empowerment to initiate and sustain an "impulse of power" amongst the Lebanese Shi'tes in the most critical moment of modern Lebanese history. Dealing with the concept of power in Shi'te political thought from a theoretical perspective, the study has an innovative approach that offers an insight into how the transformative narrative is constructed and what makes it convincing. Shedding light on the content and logical structure of Fadlallah's argumentation, this volume will be of interest to scholars and students researching contemporary politics, Islam, and the Middle East.

Within contemporary Western European academic, media, and socio-political spheres, Muslims are predominantly seen through the lens of increased religiosity. This religiosity is often seen as problematic, especially in the context of securitised discourses of Islamist terrorism. Yet, there are clear indications that a growing number of people who grew up in Muslim families no longer subscribe to Islam or call themselves religious at all. Drawing on fieldwork in the UK and the Netherlands, this study examines the experiences of people moving out of Islam. It rigorously questions the antagonistic nature of the debate between 'the religious' and 'the secular', or who is in and who is out, and argues for recognition of the ambiguity that most of us live in. Revealing many complex forms of moving out, this study adds much-needed nuance to understandings of secularity and Muslim identities in Europe.

This book compares Islamic and Western ideas of human rights in order to ascertain which human rights, if any, can be considered universal. This is a profound topic with a rich history that is highly relevant within global politics and society today. The arguments in this book are formed by bringing William Talbott's Which Rights Should Be Universal? (2005) and Abdulaziz Sachedina's Islam and the Challenge of Human Rights (2014) into conversation. By bridging the gap between cultural relativists and moral universalists, this book seeks to offer a new model for the understanding of human rights. It contends that human rights abuses are outcomes of complex systems by design and/or by default. Therefore, it proposes that a rigorous systems-thinking approach will contribute to addressing the challenge of human rights. Engaging with Islamic and Western, historical and contemporary, and relativist and universalist thought, this book is a fresh take on a perennially important issue. As such, it will be a first-rate resource for any scholars working in religious studies, Islamic studies, Middle East studies, ethics, sociology, and law and religion.

This volume examines heritage-making and Islam in the context of current happenings in Europe, as well as analysing past developments and future possibilities. Presenting work based on ethnographic, historical and archival research, chapters are concerned with questions of diversity, mobility, decolonisation, translocality, restitution, and belonging. By looking at diverse trajectories of people and things, this volume encompasses multiple perspectives on the relationship between Islam and heritage in Europe, including the ways in which it has played out and transformed against the backdrop of the 'refugee crisis' and other recent developments, such as debates on decolonising museums or the resurgence of nationalist sentiments.

William Chittick takes-a-major step toward exposing the breadth and depth of Ibn al-'Arabi's vision. The book offers his view of spiritual perfection and explains his theology, ontology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and soteriology.

Al-Mu'ayyad bi-llah al-Haruni (d. 411/1020) was a representative of the intellectual center of the Zaydiyya in Northern Iran and a student of the leading Mu'tazilite theologians of the time. In his Kitab Ithbat nubuwwat al-nabi he presents a proof of prophecy of Muh ammad and a refutation of the Isma'ilyya.The present volume explores the historical and intellectual context of the oeuvre and includes a partial critical edition of the text.

The author includes cutting-edge case studies from across North America in order to instigate debate, debunk misconceptions and foster productive dialogue. Unlike any existing books, this textbook focuses on Muslim women in both America and Canada. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students in the fields of Islamic and Muslim Studies, Gender Studies, International Relations, Political Science and Sociology.

The author includes cutting-edge case studies from across North America in order to instigate debate, debunk misconceptions and foster productive dialogue. Unlike any existing books, this textbook focuses on Muslim women in both America and Canada. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars and students in the fields of Islamic and Muslim Studies, Gender Studies, International Relations, Political Science and Sociology.

Adopts a unique methodology to provide a detailed hermeneutical reading of the story of al-Khidr. The book rethinks and revives the marginalized Qur'anic global humanitarian message. The Qur'anic Dilemma is a groundbreaking resource for all scholars of Islamic Studies, or those interested in Qur'anic interpretation, Muslim ethics, or comparative theology.

Originally published in 1953, Bridge to Islam is a detailed study of the beliefs of Muhammad and his followers, exploring the relationship between the world of Islam and that of Christianity. Drawing attention to the common beliefs between Islam and Christianity, the book examines the relationship between these two prominent religions and poses the argument that it is only through a proper appreciation of the differences in spiritual attitudes that a bridge of understanding and knowledge can be built between them. It traces the religious histories of different countries in the Middle East and assesses the position of Islam and Christianity in each one. Bridge to Islam will appeal to those with an interest in the history of Christianity, the history of Islam, religious studies, and the Middle East.

This book offers insights into the building of trust in Muslim communities through community engagement in a climate of counter-terrorism. Police engagement with Muslim communities is complex with a history of distrust. This book first attempts to understand the role and implications of uncertainty on community engagement in Muslim communities, and then explores the cultural nuances associated with the demonstration of trustworthiness, and decisions to bestow trust. It further highlights the complexities and implications for Muslim leaders when trying to simultaneously engage police and appease their own communities; the book exposes community perceptions of an over-reaction by authorities that has moved suspicion from a handful of terrorists to the entire Muslim community, resulting in problematic community perceptions that Muslim communities are being targeted by police. The findings suggest that the intentionality of police is a highly significant consideration in trust negotiations, and reveals a number of cultural preferences considered critical to trust negotiations. The book further highlights opportunities to enhance the development of trust and avoid pitfalls that can be problematic to community engagement. The lessons learned seek to enhance the existing body of literature regarding strategies and resources to improve counter-terrorism community engagement with Muslim communities. This book will be of much interest to students of counter-terrorism, preventing violent extremism, deradicalization, and security studies.