Muslim philosophical activities on the cusp of the Safavid era (i.e., late 9th/15th and early 10th/16th centuries) have so far escaped the attention of modern scholars. In Iran, the city of Shiraz was the principal center of philosophy at this time, and it was here that Najm al-Din Mahmud al-Nayrizi (d. after 933/1526), whose life and works are the subject of this book, spent his formative years. An accomplished Shi'i scholars, Nayrizi engaged with Avicennan as well as Suhrawardian philosophy in his works. Beside Nayrizi, the present study introduces his contemporaries among the philosophers of Shiraz and provides an outline of the main challenges of their thought, particularly of the two leading figures, Jalal al-Din al-Dawani (d. 908/1502) and Sadr al-Din al-Dashtaki.

From false idols and graven images to the tombs of kings and the shrines of capitalism, the targeted destruction of cities, sacred sites and artifacts for religious, political or nationalistic reasons is central to our cultural legacy. This book examines the different traditions of image-breaking in Christianity and Islam as well as their development into nominally secular movements and paints a vivid, scholarly picture of a culture of destruction encompassing Protestantism, Wahhabism, and Nationalism. Beginning with a comparative account of Calvinist Geneva and Wahhabi Mecca, The Politics of Iconoclasm explores the religious and political agendas behind acts of image-breaking and their relation to nationhood and state-building. From sixteenth-century Geneva to urban developments in Mecca today, The Politics of Iconoclasm explores the history of image-breaking, the culture of violence and its paradoxical roots in the desire for renewal. Examining these dynamics of nationhood, technology, destruction and memory, a historical journey is described in which the temple is razed and replaced by the machine.

Nearly four decades after a revolution, experiencing one of the longest wars in contemporary history, facing political and ideological threats by regional radicals such as ISIS and the Taliban, and having succeeded in negotiations with six world powers over her nuclear program, Iran appears as an experienced Muslim country seeking to build bridges with its Sunni neighbours as well as with the West. Ethics of War and Peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam explores the wide spectrum of theoretical approaches and practical attitudes concerning the justifications, causes and conduct of war in Iranian-Shi'i culture. By examining primary and secondary sources, and investigating longer lasting factors and questions over circumstantial ones, Mohammed Jafar Amir Mahallati seeks to understand modern Iranian responses to war and peace. His work is the first in its field to look into the ethics of war and peace in Iran and Shi'i Islam. It provides a prism through which the binary source of the Iranian national and religious identity informs Iranian response to modernity. By doing so, the author reveals that a syncretic and civilization-conscious soul in modern Iran is re-emerging.

"This is the most comprehensive account of the internal dynamics of the young intellectual generation of NU advocating for pluralism and democracy within Islam in Indonesia, during Gus Dur's leadership of PBNU. Because of the author's unique vantage point, her sometimes sharp criticism of this movement and its internal dynamics is extremely useful to those who continue to advocate for reform, within NU and in Indonesia generally." - Ahman Suaedy, Executive Director, Wahid Institute, Jakarta "Robin Bush provides an authoritative, insightful and engaging account of the political and intellectual world of Nahdlatul Ulama. She carefully analyses the tumultuous and often tangled dynamics within NU from the 1980s to the post-Soeharto period and unearths deeper historical and cultural resonances in explaining the organisation's outlook and actions. This is a valuable work for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Islamic politics in Indonesia." - Greg Fealy, Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Indonesian Politics, Australian National University, Canberra

This is an era when the Islamic World is making a range of attempts to redefine itself and to grapple with the challenges of modernity. Many schools of thought have emerged which seek to position modern Islam within the context of a rapidly changing contemporary world. Exploring and defining the relationship between religion and knowledge, Ismail Rafi Al-Faruqi, a distinguished 20th century Arab-American scholar of Islam, formulated ideas which have made substantial contributions to the Islam-and-modernity discourse. His review of the interaction between Islam and knowledge examines the philosophy behind this relationship, and the ways in which Islam can relate to our understanding of science, the arts, architecture, technology and other knowledge-based fields of enquiry. This book includes contributions from Seyyed Hossein Nasr, John Esposito, Charles Fletcher and others, and will prove an essential reference point for scholars of Islam and students of philosophy and comparative religion.

Themistius' (4th century CE) paraphrase of Aristotle's Metaphysics 12 is the earliest surviving complete account of this seminal work. Despite leaving no identifiable mark in Late Antiquity, Themistius' paraphrase played a dramatic role in shaping the metaphysical landscape of Medieval Arabic and Hebrew philosophy and theology. Lost in Greek, and only partially surviving in Arabic, its earliest full version is in the form of a 13th century Hebrew translation. In this volume, Yoav Meyrav offers a new critical edition of the Hebrew translation and the Arabic fragments of Themistius' paraphrase, accompanied by detailed philological and philosophical analyses. In doing so, he provides a solid foundation for the study of one of the most important texts in the history of Aristotelian metaphysics.

This collection of essays on Islamic art and architecture in the nineteenth century covers a wide geographical area and draws together different regional elements. The essays devote much attention to social, political, economic and intellectual issues, including the role of tradition and responses to European aesthetics, among them the appropriation of orientalism and the rise of revivalist movements.

The First Islamic Reviver presents a new biography of al-Ghazali's final decade and a half, presenting him not as a reclusive spiritual seeker, but as an engaged Islamic revivalist seeking to reshape his religious tradition.

The Third Edition of Brill's Encyclopaedia of Islam is an entirely new work, with new articles reflecting the great diversity of current scholarship. It appears in four substantial segments each year, both online and in print. The new scope includes comprehensive coverage of Islam in the twentieth century and of Muslim minorities all over the world.

This collection of papers explores the facets of gender and sex in history, language and society of Altaic cultures, reflecting the unique interdisciplinary approach of the PIAC. It examines the position of women in contemporary Central Asia at large, the expression of gender in linguistic terms in Mongolian, Manju, Tibetan and Turkic languages, and gender aspects presented in historical literary monuments as well as in contemporary sources.

This volume offers an account of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) as a rational theologian who created a symbiosis of philosophy and theology and infused rationality into Sufism. The majority of the papers herein deal with important topics of al-Ghazali's work, which demonstrate his rational treatment of the Qur'an and major subjects of Islamic theology and everyday life of Muslims. Some other contributions address al-Ghazali's sources and how his intellectual endeavors were later received by scholars who had the same concern of reconciling religion and rationality within Islam, Christianity and Judaism. With contributions by Binyamin Abrahamov, Hans Daiber, Ken Garden, Avner Giladi, Scott Girdner, Frank Griffel, Steven Harvey, Alfred Ivry, Jules Janssens, Taneli Kukkonen, Luis Xavier Lopez-Farjeat, Wilferd Madelung, Yahya M. Michot, Yasien Mohamed, Eric Ormsby, M. Sait OEzervarli, and Hidemi Takahashi.

In In Search of Identity: The Hadhrami Arabs in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia (1900-1950) Huub de Jonge discusses changes in social, economic, cultural and national identity of Arabs originating from Hadhramaut (Yemen) in the Netherlands East Indies and Indonesia. Within the relatively isolated and traditionally oriented Hadhrami community, all sorts of rifts and divisions arose under the influence of segregating colonial policies, the rise of Indonesian nationalism, the Japanese occupation, and the colonial war. The internal turmoil, hardly noticed by the outside world, led to the flourishing of new ideas, orientations, loyalties and ambitions, while traditional values, customs, and beliefs were called into question.

Introduction to World Religions: Upgrading One's Cultural Literacy is an enlightening and engaging text that provides students with fundamental knowledge about world religions to deepen their awareness and understanding of global cultures. The book is divided into three units. Unit I explores the Vedic religionsaEURO"Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. East Asian belief systems and religions are discussed in Unit II. The final unit describes the Abrahamic religionsaEURO"Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Each unit highlights a major belief, tradition, or practice that unites the featured religions, and each individual chapter includes a list of key terms, selected readings, and comprehension questions to reinforce essential learnings. Throughout, maps build students' knowledge of world geography, and photographs and illustrations bring key beliefs, traditions, and practices to life. Developed to help students expand not only their knowledge of global religions but their knowledge of the world itself and its myriad cultures, Introduction to World Religions is an ideal text for foundational courses in religion and theology.

After the first war in Chechnya in 1994 and related flareups in Daghestan, the world suddenly discovered within Russia the existence of "exotic," freedom-loving but also "warlike" Muslim peoples intent on liberating themselves from the domination of a distant Russian government.

In In Quest for God and Freedom, Anna Zelkina delves into a past that remains alive in the minds of the peoples of these regions, a past that is crucial to understanding current events. She examines the formative period of the first half of the nineteenth century, during which the Chechens and Daghestanis joined forces under the banner of Islam and shari'a to resist Russian attempts to conquer them, an all-too familiar scenario in light of recent events.

Zelkina focuses on the Sufi brotherhoods, mainly the Naqshbandiyya, under whose charge the resistance was conducted. She reveals the immense impact of this Muslim mystical order upon the social, religious, and political life of the peoples of Chechnya and Daghestan during this crucial period. In the process, she sheds light on the Islamization of the North Caucasus and on the leading role the Sufi brotherhoods still play in Chechen and Daghestani public life today.

In Quest for God and Freedom is must reading for anyone wishing to understand the current crisis in the Caucasus.

A Linguistic History of Arabic presents a reconstruction of proto-Arabic by the methods of historical-comparative linguistics. It challenges the traditional conceptualization of an old, Classical language evolving into the contemporary Neo-Arabic dialects. Professor Owens combines established comparative linguistic methodology with a careful reading of the classical Arabic sources, such as the grammatical and exegetical traditions. He arrives at a richer and more complex picture of early Arabic language history than is current today and in doing so establishes the basis for a comprehensive, linguistically-based understanding of the history of Arabic. The arguments are set out in a concise, case by case basis, making it accessible to students and scholars of Arabic and Islamic culture, as well as to those studying Arabic and historical linguists.

al-Radd al-jamil attributed to al-Ghazali (d. 1111) is the most extensive and detailed refutation of the divinity of Jesus by a Muslim author in the classical period of Islam. Since the discovery of the manuscript in the 1930's scholars have debated whether the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazali was really the author. This is a new critical edition of the Arabic text and the first complete English translation. The introduction situates this work in the history of Muslim anti-Christian polemical writing. Mark Beaumont and Maha El Kaisy-Friemuth argue that this refutation comes from an admirer of al-Ghazali who sought to advance some of his key ideas for an Egyptian audience.