In this exhaustive survey of the institution of al-kharaj -- land tax in Islam -- Ghaida Khazna Katbi provides a comprehensive and minutely detailed history of a practice which evolved from an exigency of conquest into an essential pillar of the early Islamic state. At the time of the Muslim conquests, al-kharaj constituted a tax on lands owned by non-Muslims. It gradually developed into an instrument of state under Umar bin al-Khattab and reached its most refined and complex form under the Abbasids. Katbi provides a thoroughly documented statistical analysis of the historical materials for each region of the early Islamic world, in the process examining the Byzantine and Sasanian models which the Arab administrators consulted and in some instances adopted. She reveals unprecedented source material including never-before published correspondence from Umayyad functionaries as well as other documents from the Caliphate, Umayyad and Abbasid periods. This book is a unique research tool analyzing Arab primary sources and using Western academic methodologies -- the definitive work on its subject.

This monograph explores the ways in which canonical Francophone Algerian authors, writing in the late-colonial period (1945-1962), namely Kateb Yacine, Mohammed Dib, Mouloud Feraoun, Mouloud Mammeri and Assia Djebar, approached the representation of Algerian women through literature. The book initially argues that a masculine domination of public fields of representation in Algeria contributed to a postcolonial marginalization of women as public agents. However, it crucially also argues that the canonical writers of the period, who were mostly male, both textually acknowledged their inability to articulate the experiences and subjectivity of the feminine Other and deployed a remarkable variety of formal and conceptual innovations in producing evocations of Algerian femininity that subvert the structural imbalance of masculine symbolic hegemony. Though it does not shy from investigating those aspects of its corpus that produce ideologically conditioned masculinist representations, the book chiefly seeks to articulate a shared reluctance concerning representativity, a pessimism regarding the revolution's capacity to deliver change for women, and an omnipresent subversion of masculine subjectivity in its canonical texts.

Throughout history, the study of sacred texts has focused almost exclusively on the content and meaning of these writings. Such a focus obscures the fact that sacred texts are always embodied in particular material forms-from ancient scrolls to contemporary electronic devices. Using the digital turn as a starting point, this volume highlights material dimensions of the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The essays in this collection investigate how material aspects have shaped the production and use of these texts within and between the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, from antiquity to the present day. Contributors also reflect on the implications of transitions between varied material forms and media cultures. Taken together, the essays suggests that materiality is significant for the academic study of sacred texts, as well as for reflection on developments within and between these religious traditions. This volume offers insightful analysis on key issues related to the materiality of sacred texts in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, while also highlighting the significance of transitions between various material forms, including the current shift to digital culture.

Shireen Hunter provides a pragmatic analysis of relations between Islam and the West, marked by specific cases from the contemporary Islamic/Western divide. Her book gives a realistic and accurate assessment of the relative role of civilizational factors in determining the nature of the state and the prospects for Muslim-Western relations (i.e., whether they will be conflictual or cooperative). Hunter answers the question: Can an accommodation between Islam and the West take place in a gradual and evolutionary manner or will it happen only after conflict and confrontation? And, contrary to Huntington's vaunted thesis in "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" (Simon & Schuster, 1996), she finds that the reality of modern Islam offers room for hope.

Hunter challenges many of the prevailing Western views of the Muslim world. For example, despite the widespread belief on the specificity of Islam because of an assumed fusion of politics and religion, in reality the fusion--of the spiritual and the temporal--has not been greater in Islam than in other religions. Therefore, Hunter asserts, the slower pace of secularization in Muslim countries can not be attributed to IslaM's specificity. This is a major study that will be of interest to concerned citizens as well as scholars and students of the Middle East and Islam.

This survey of Islamic law combines Western and Islamic views and describes the relationship between the original theories of Islamic law and the views of contemporary Islamic writers. Covering the key topics in the area, including the history, sources and formation of Islamic law, the legal mechanisms, and the contemporary context, it is strong in its coverage of the modern perspective, which distinguishes this book from other texts in the field. The aim is to provide the student with a basic understanding of Islamic law and access to the complexity of the Islamic legal system. The language used is non-technical and understanding is aided with a supplementary detailed glossary and analytical indices.

A collection of essays by leading scholars from the perspective of each faith addressing key issues which both divide and unite Jews, Christians and Muslims. The world today is only too painfully aware of the tension, suspicion and at times outright hostility that exists among followers of the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Abraham's Children distinguished scholars from all three faiths examine the key issues which either unite or divide Jews, Christians and Muslims today and offer constructive suggestions for developing mutual understanding, trust and co-operation. The book is divided into two parts. Part One, Foundations of Faith, explores the significance of Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Part Two, Resources for the Modern World, deals with such diverse topics as the image of God in humanity, religion and pluralism, gender, the environment and life after death. Each section is followed by a chapter identifying areas of common ground, as well as continuing differences and questions needing further exploration. The Oxford Abrahamic Group has been meeting for more than ten years. whom are highly conscious that monotheism itself is under question in the modern world. The book demonstrates that faith cannot be shared more widely without an acute awareness of the questions the world poses.

This accessible study is the first critical investigation of the cult of saints among Muslims and Jews in medieval Syria and the Near East. Josef Meri's critical reading of a wide range of contemporary sources reveals a vibrant religious culture in which the veneration of saints and pilgrimage to tombs and shrines were fundamental.

As Abu 'Abd Allah al-Husayn, son of 'Ali and Fatima and grandson of Muhammad, moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbala', his sister Zaynab was drawn ever closer to the centre of the family of Muhammad, the 'people of the house' (ahl al-bayt). There she would remain for a few historic days, challenging the wickedness of the Islamic leadership, defending the actions of her brother, initiating the commemorative rituals, protecting and nurturing the new Imam, al-Husayn's son 'Ali b. al-Husayn b. 'Ali b. Abi Talib, until he could take his rightful place. This is her story.

This four-volume compendium delves into topics such as the theology of rights in Islam, comparative explorations, and a historical study of human rights in Muslim-majority societies spanning Africa, the Middle East, and South and South East Asia during the 20th and early 21 centuries. Moreover, it explores how Muslim women and men have understood their faith and evolving notions of rights and liberties. Volume 1 analyzes the relationship between religion and human rights along with "Western" and "Islamic" human rights schemes. Volume 2 traces early and later Muslim responses to human rights during the 20th century. Volume 3 considers the political context in the struggle for human rights in Muslim societies by focusing on state-society relations. Volume 4 explores shari'ah and contemporary human rights controversies by surveying subjects such as: women's rights which is described as the locomotive of societal change, apostasy and blasphemy laws, as well as LGBT and labor rights.

In 1317, in Ttabriz, western iran - less than a hundred years after the deaths of Ibn 'Arabi and Jalaluddin Rumi, whose writings had already made an indelible mark on much of Islamic culture - Mahmud Shabistari (d.1339), a follower of the teachings of Ibn 'Arabi and Attar (Rumi's literary and spiritual predecessor), composed "The Garden of Mystery" [Gulshan-i raz] in response to questions put to him by Sayyid Husseini, a fellow mystic from Herat in what is now Afghanistan. The questions themselves introduce controversies and metaphysical enigmas of Sufi thought and practice that were at the heart of spiritual inquiry of that time. Shabistari not only answers the questions to the fullest extent possible, but also provides a coherent literary bridge between the Persian 'school of love' poetry and the rapidly growing number of metaphysical and gnostic compositions from what had come to be known as the school of the 'Unity of Being'. "The Garden of Mystery" holds a unique position in Persian literature. It is a compact and concise exploration of the doctrines of Sufism at the peak of their development that has remained a primary text of Sufism throughout the world from Turkey to India.

STUDIES IN ISLAMIC MYSTICISM BY REYNOLD ALLEYNE NICHOLSON LITT. D., LL. D. LECTURER IN PERSIAN IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS I 92 I TO EDWARD GRANVILLE BROWNE WHOSE TEACHING AND EXAMPLE FIRST INSPIRED ME TO PURSUE THE STUDY OF ORIENTAL LITERATURE PREFACE As was explained . in the preface to my Studies in Islamic Poetry, the following essays conclude a series of five, which fall into two groups and are therefore published in separate volumes. While mysticism, save for a few casual references, found no place in the studies on the Lubdbu l-Albdb of Awff and the Luzumiyydt of Abu VA1 al-Maarrf, in these now brought together it has taken entire possession of the field. Ibnu l-Frid, indeed, is an exquisite poet and the picture of Abii Safd ibn Abi 1-Khayr, drawn by pious faith and coloured with legendary romance, may be looked upon as a work of art in its way. But on the whole the literary interest of the present volume is subordinate to the religious and philosophical. I have tried to make the reader acquainted with three iifis famous in the East and worthy of being known in Europe. Most of what has hitherto been written concerning Abii Safd begins and ends with the quatrains passing as his, though for the chief part, at any rate they were neither composed nor recited by him. As to Jflf, the masterly sketch in Dr Muhammad Iqbdls Development of Metaphysics in Persia stands almost alone. Ibuu l-F ri J. had the misfortune to be translated by Von Hammer, and the first intelligent or intelligible version of his great Tdiyya appeared in Italy four years ago. It will be seen that the subjects chosen illustrate different aspectsof tifism and exhibit racial contrasts, of which perhaps the importance has not yet been sufficiently recognised. Abii Safd, the free-thinking free-living dervish, is a Persian through and through, while Ibnu l-Fdri4 in the form of his poetry as well as in the individuality of his spiritual enthusiasm display the narrower and tenser genius of the Semite. Nearly a v third of this volume is concerned with a type of iifism, which- vi Preface as represented by Ibnu l- Arabf and Jfli possesses great interest for students of medieval thought and may even claim a certain significance in relation to modern philosophical and theological problems. Mysticism is such a vital element in Islam that without some understanding of its ideas and of the forms which they assume we should seek in vain to penetrate below the surface of Mohammedan religious life. The forms may be fantastic and the ideas difficult to grasp nevertheless we shall do well to follow them, for in their company East and West often meet and feel themselves akin. I regret that I have not been able to make full use of several books and articles published during the final stages of the war or soon afterwards, which only came into my hands when these studies were already in the press. Tor Andraes Die person Muhammeds in lehre und glauben seiner gemeinde Upsala, 1917 contains by far the best survey that has yet appeared of the sources, historical evolution and general characteristics of the Mohammedan Logos doctrine. This, as I have said, is the real subject of the Insdnu l-Kdmtt. Its roots lie, of course, in Hellenism. Andrae shows how the notion of the ffeio avQg rros passed over into Islam through the Shiites and became embodied in theImdm, regarded as the living representative of God and as a semi-divine person ality on whom the world depends for its existence. Many Shiites were in close touch with iifism, and there can be no doubt that, as Ibn Khaldiin observed, the Shf ite Imdm is the prototype of the iifistic Qutb. It was inevitable that the attributes of the Imm and Qutb should be transferred to the Prophet, so that even amongst orthodox Moslems the belief in his pre-existence rapidly gained ground...

The Kharijites were the first sectarian movement in Islamic history, a rebellious splinter group that separated itself from mainstream Muslim society and set about creating, through violence, an ideal community of the saved. Their influence in the political and theological life of the nascent faith has ensured their place in both critical and religious accounts of early Islamic history. Based on the image of sect fostered by the Islamic tradition, the name Kharijite defines a Muslim as an overly-pious zealot whose ideas and actions lie beyond the pale of normative Islam.
After a brief look at Kharijite origins and the traditional image of these early rebels, this book focuses on references to the Kharijites in Egypt from the 1950s to the 1990s. Jeffrey T. Kenney shows how the traditional image of the Kharijites was reawakened to address the problem of radical Islamist opposition movements. The Kharijites came to play a central role in the rhetoric of both religious authorities, whose official role it is to interpret Islam for the masses, and the secular state, which cynically turns to Islamic ideas and symbols to defend its legitimacy. Even those Islamists who defend militant tactics, and who are themselves tainted by the Kharijite label, become participants in the discourse surrounding Kharijism. Although all Egyptians agree that modern Kharijites represent a dangerous threat to society, serious debates have arisen about the underlying social, political and economic problems that lead Muslims down this destructive path. Kenney examines these debates and what they reveal about Egyptian attitudes toward Islamist violence and its impact on their nation.
Long before 9/11, Egyptianshave been dealing with the problem of Islamist violence, frequently evoking the Kharijites. This book represents an important contribution to Islamic studies and Middle East studies, adding to our understanding of how the Islamic past shapes the present discourse surrounding Islamist violence in one Muslim society.

Christopher Melchert proposes to historicize Islamic renunciant piety (zuhd). As the conquest period wound down in the early eighth century c.e., renunciants set out to maintain the contempt of worldly comfort and loyalty to a greater cause that had characterized the community of Muslims in the seventh century. Instead of reckless endangerment on the battlefield, they cultivated intense fear of the Last Judgement to come. They spent nights weeping, reciting the Qur'an, and performing supererogatory ritual prayers. They stressed other-worldliness to the extent of minimizing good works in this world. Then the decline of tribute from the conquered peoples and conversion to Islam made it increasingly unfeasible for most Muslims to keep up any such regime. Professional differentiation also provoked increasing criticism of austerity. Finally, in the later ninth century, a form of Sufism emerged that would accommodate those willing and able to spend most of their time on religious devotions, those willing and able to spend their time on other religious pursuits such as law and hadith, and those unwilling or unable to do either.

Dom R.H. Connolly provides an English translation and study of four liturgical homilies by Narsai.

Acclaimed worldwide as the definitive biography of the Prophet Muhammad in the English language, Martin Lings' "Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" is unlike any other. Based on Arabic sources of the eighth and ninth centuries, of which some important passages are translated here for the first time, "Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" owes the freshness and directness of its approach to the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.---Martin Lings' gift for narrative, and his adoption of a style which is extremely readable, allows both the simplicity and grandeur of the story to shine through. The result is a book which will be read with equal enjoyment by those already familiar with Muhammad's life and those coming to it for the first time. "Muhammad: His Life Based to the Earliest Sources" was selected as the best biography of the Prophet in English at the National Seerat Conference in Islamabad in 1983.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by the Religious Matters in an Entangled World program, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Public manifestations of Islam remain fiercely contested across the Global West. Studies to date have focused on the visual presence of Islam - the construction of mosques or the veiling of Muslim women. Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape is the first book to add a sonic dimension to analyses of the politics of Islamic aesthetics in Europe. Sound does not respect public/private boundaries, and people experience sound viscerally. As such, the public amplification of the azan, the call to prayer, offers a unique opportunity to understand what is at stake in debates over religious toleration and secularism. The Netherlands were among the first European countries to allow the amplification of the azan in the 1980s, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab explores this as a case study embedded in a broader history of Dutch religious pluralism. The book offers a pointed critique of social theories that regard secularism as all-encompassing. While cultural forms of secularism exclude Muslim rights to public worship, Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape argues that political and constitutional secularism also enables Muslim demands for amplifying calls to prayer. It traces how these exclusions and inclusions are effected through proposals for mosques, media debates, law and policy, but also in negotiations on the ground between residents, municipalities and mosques.

This is a book about a writer, Islamic fundamentalism, mythmaking, and international literary politics. It is the story of Taslima Nasreen, a former medical doctor and protest writer who shot to international fame in 1993 at the age of thirty-four after she was accused of blasphemy by religious fanatics in Bangladesh and her book Shame was banned. In order to escape a warrant for her arrest, the controversial writer went underground and, as the official story has it, fled to the West where she became a human rights celebrity, a female version of Salman Rushdie. Taslima Nasreen's name almost became a household word in 1994, when she was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament, and she was feted by presidents, chancellors, mayors, and famous writers and intellectuals around Europe for two years. She is still remembered and widely admired as a modern-day feminist icon who fought the bearded fundamentalists in her own country and whose life was in danger. This is the official story that most people are familiar with, and the one that is widely believed by Taslima supporters around the world. However, as The Crescent and the Pen reveals, in the style of a literary detective tale, the true story behind the international campaign to save Taslima has bever been told until now. Following on the trail of Taslima, Deen questions the reasoning behind the international "crusade" to save her, in the process debunking much of the current thinking that has shaped Islam into the new global enemy. She discovers that the story of what really happened to Taslima is a fascinating labyrinth where memory and myth have merged, the tale having acquired a life of its own with a hundred differentauthors.

Central to the current debates on the nature and direction of Islam Highly topical and relevant to the 'Islam and Modernity issue Contributors include blue-chip academics In all the current alienating discourse on Islam, so often depicted as a source of extremism and fanatic violence, this book takes a timely and refreshing look at the traditions of Islamic mysticism, philosophy and intellectual debate in a series of diverse and stimulating approaches. It tackles the major figures of Islamic thought, such as Ibn Arabi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and al-Ghazali, as well as shedding light on hitherto unconsidered aspects of Islam and utilising new source material. The contributors are an impressive list of scholars and experts. They include amongst others: S. Alvi, M.A. Amir-Moezzi, L. Clarke, F. Daftary, D. DeWeese, B. Fragner, S. Kamada, W. Madelung, E. Ormsby, N. Pourjavady and J. Morris.

The text of the Qur'an appears to many to be desperately muddled and lacking any coherence. The Composition of the Qur'an provides a systematic presentation of the writing processes (or rhetoric) and argues that there is indeed a coherence to the Qur'anic text. Michel Cuypers shows that the ancient Semitic texts, of which the Qur'an is a part, do not obey the Greek rhetoric and that their basic principle is therefore not progressive linearity, but symmetry which can take several forms, following precise rules. He argues that the knowledge of this rhetorical code allows for a radically new analysis of the structure and rhetoric of the Qur'an. Using copious amounts of examples from the text, The Composition of the Qur'an provides a new theoretical synthesis of Qur'anic rhetoric as well as a methodology for their application in further exegesis. A landmark publication in the field of Qur'anic Studies, this volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers in Islamic Studies, Religious Studies and Arabic Studies.

The Muslim thinker al-Ghazali (d. 1111) was one of the most influential theologians and philosophers of Islam and has been considered an authority in both Western and Islamic philosophical traditions. Born in northeastern Iran, he held the most prestigious academic post in Islamic theology in Baghdad, only to renounce the position and teach at small schools in the provinces for no money. His contributions to Islamic scholarship range from responding to the challenges of Aristotelian philosophy to creating a new type of Islamic mysticism and integrating both these traditions-falsafa and Sufism-into the Sunni mainstream.
This book offers a comprehensive study of al-Ghazali's life and his understanding of cosmology-how God creates things and events in the world, how human acts relate to God's power, and how the universe is structured. Frank Griffel presents a serious revision of traditional views on al-Ghazali, showing that his most important achievement was the creation of a new rationalist theology in which he transformed the Aristotelian views of thinkers such as Avicenna to accord with intellectual currents that were well-established within Muslim theological discourse. Using the most authoritative sources, including reports from al-Ghazali's students, his contemporaries, and his own letters, Griffel reconstructs every stage in a turbulent career. The al-Ghazali that emerges offers many surprises, particularly on his motives for leaving Baghdad and the nature of his "seclusion" afterwards. Griffel demonstrates that al-Ghazali intended to create a new cosmology that moved away from concerns held earlier by Muslim theologians and Arab philosophers. This new theology aimed to provide a framework for the pursuit of the natural sciences and a basis for Islamic science and philosophy to flourish beyond the 12th century.
Al-Ghazali's Philosophical Theology is the most thorough examination to date of this important thinker.

In 2001, Captain James "Yusuf" Yee was commissioned as one of the first Muslim chaplains in the United States Army. After the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001, he became a frequent government spokesman, helping to educate soldiers about Islam and build understanding throughout the military. Subsequently, Chaplain Yee was selected to serve as the Muslim Chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, where nearly 700 detainees captured in the war on terror were being held as "unlawful combatants."
In September 2003, after serving at Guantanamo for ten months in a role that gave him unrestricted access to the detainees--and after receiving numerous awards for his service there--Chaplain Yee was secretly arrested on his way to meet his wife and daughter for a routine two-week leave. He was locked away in a navy prison, subject to much of the same treatment that had been imposed on the Guantanamo detainees. Wrongfully accused of spying, and aiding the Taliban and Al Qaeda, Yee spent 76 excruciating days in solitary confinement and was threatened with the death penalty.
After the U.S. government determined it had made a grave mistake in its original allegations, it vindictively charged him with adultery and computer pornography. In the end all criminal charges were dropped and Chaplain Yee's record wiped clean. But his reputation was tarnished, and what has been a promising military career was left in ruins.
Depicting a journey of faith and service, Chaplain Yee's "For God and Country" is the story of a pioneering officer in the U.S. Army, who became a victim of the post-September 11 paranoia that gripped a starkly fearful nation. And it poses a fundamental question: If our country cannot beloyal to even the most patriotic Americans, can it remain loyal to itself?