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.

Muhsin is one of the organizers of Al-Fitra Foundation, a South African support group for lesbian, transgender, and gay Muslims. Islam and homosexuality are seen by many as deeply incompatible. This, according to Muhsin, is why he had to act. "I realized that I'm not alone-these people are going through the very same things that I'm going through. But I've managed, because of my in-depth relationship with God, to reconcile the two. I was completely comfortable saying to the world that I'm gay and I'm Muslim. I wanted to help other people to get there. So that's how I became an activist."Living Out Islamdocuments the rarely-heard voices of Muslims who live in secular democratic countries and who are gay, lesbian, and transgender. It weaves original interviews with Muslim activists into a compelling composite picture which showcases the importance of the solidarity of support groups in the effort to change social relationships and achieve justice. This nascent movement is not about being "out" as opposed to being "in the closet." Rather, as the voices of these activists demonstrate, it is about finding ways to live out Islam with dignity and integrity, reconciling their sexuality and gender with their faith and reclaiming Islam as their own.Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugleis Associate Professor in the Department of Middle East and South Asian Studies at Emory University. His previous books includeRebel between Spirit and Law: Ahmad Zarruq, Juridical Sainthood and Authority in Islam;Sufis and Saints' Bodies: Mysticism, Corporeality and Sacred Power in Islamic Culture; andHomosexuality in Islam: Critical Reflection on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Muslims.

Gershon Brin examines the development of biblical law, suggesting that it may be due to different authors with different legal outlooks, or that the differing policies were required in response to different social needs, etc. Biblical laws appearing in the Dead Sea Scrolls literature are treated in a separate unit. Study of this subject can shed light both on the biblical laws as such, as well as on the manner of their reworking by the Judaean Desert sect. Brin also discusses here questions of the style, the idea, and the historical and ideological background underlying the reworking of these laws in Qumran. The second part of the book presents a comprehensive picture of the issues involved in the laws of the first-born, a subject that has legal, social and religious implications.

One of the best general introductions to Islamic law Despite its age this is still one of the best general introductions to Islamic law. It remains a standard work in scholarly bibliographies. Offering both a history and a critical analysis, this book is enriched by a 66-page appendix containing complete translations of primary texts. Macdonald 1863-1943], a professor at the Hartford Seminary, established the field of Islamic studies in the United States in 1893. His efforts led to the creation of what is now the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Hartford Seminary. Introduction PART I Constitutional Development I. From Death of Muhammad to Rise of Abbasids II. To Rise of Ayyubids III. To Present Situation PART II Development of Jurisprudence I. To Close of Umayyad Period II. To Present Situation PART III Development of Theology I. To Close of Umayyad Period II. To Foundation of Fatamid Khalifate III. To Triumph of Ash'arites in East IV. Al-Ghazzali V. To Ibn Sab'in and End of Muwahhids VI. To Present Situation APPENDICES Illustrative Documents in Translation Selected Bibliography Chronological Table Index

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.

This text revisits the main arguments and explanatory frameworks that have been used since the 1970s to understand Islamic activism, moderate as well as militant and violent, and proposes a rethinking of Islamist politics. Linking macro-level explanations to micro-level analysis, it analyzes Islamist activism and militancy in terms of the interplay of social formation and political structures on the one hand, and network processes within the other.

The Journeys of a Taymiyyan Sufi explores the life and teachings of 'Imad al-Din Ahmad al-Wasiti (d. 711/1311), a little-known Hanbali Sufi master from the circle of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). The first part of this book follows al-Wasiti's physical journey in search of spiritual guidance through a critical study of his autobiographical writings. This provides unique insights into the Rifa'iyya, the Shadhiliyya, and the school of Ibn 'Arabi, several manifestations of Sufism that he encountered as he travelled from Wasit to Baghdad, Alexandria, and Cairo. Part I closes with his final destination, Damascus, where his membership of Ibn Taymiyya's circle and his role as a Sufi teacher is closely examined. The second part focuses on al-Wasiti's spiritual journey through a study of his Sufi writings, which convey the distinct type of traditionalist Sufism that he taught in early eighth/fourteenth-century Damascus. Besides providing an overview of the spiritual path unto God from beginning to end as he formulated it, this reveals an exceptional interplay between Sufi theory and traditionalist theology.

That Muhammad succeeded as a prophet is undeniable; a prominent military historian now suggests that he might not have done so had he not also been a great soldier.Best known as the founder of a major religion, Muhammad was also Islam's first great general. While there have been numerous accounts of Muhammad the Prophet, this is the first military biography of the man. In Muhammad: Islam's First Great General, Richard A. Gabriel shows us a warrior never before seen in antiquity--a leader of an all-new religious movement who in a single decade fought eight major battles, led eighteen raids, and planned thirty-eight other military operations. Gabriel's study portrays Muhammad as a revolutionary who introduced military innovations that transformed armies and warfare throughout the Arab world. Gabriel analyzes the environment in which Muhammad lived and the religion he inspired as they relate to his military achievements. Gabriel explains how Muhammad changed the social composition of Arab armies by replacing traditional ways of fighting with a new command structure. Muhammad's transformation of Arab warfare enabled his successors to establish the core of the Islamic empire--an accomplishment that, Gabriel argues, would have been militarily impossible without Muhammad's innovations. Richard A. Gabriel challenges existing scholarship on Muhammad's place in history and offers a viewpoint not previously attempted.

One of the main cultural consequences of the contacts between Islam and the West has been the borrowing of hundreds of words, mostly of Arabic but also of other important languages of the Islamic world, such as Persian, Turkish, Berber, etc. by Western languages. Such loanwords are particularly abundant and relevant in the case of the Iberian Peninsula because of the presence of Islamic states in it for many centuries; their study is very revealing when it comes to assess the impact of those states in the emergence and shaping of Western civilization. Some famous Arabic scholars, above all R. Dozy, have tackled this task in the past, followed by other attempts at increasing and improving his pioneering work; however, the progresses achieved during the last quarter of the 20th c., in such fields as Andalusi and Andalusi Romance dialectology and lexicology made it necessary to update all the available information on this topic and to offer it in English.

In The Shi'is in Palestine Yaron Friedman offers a survey of the presence of Shi'ism in the region of Palestine (today: Israel) from early Islamic history until the contemporary period. It brings to light many pieces of information and interesting developments that are not widely known, in addition to the general point that, contrary to common belief, the Shi'i community has played a significant role in the history of Palestine. The volume includes a study of Shi'i shrines in Palestine, as well as showing the importance of these Muslim sites and holy towns in Palestine in the Shi'i religion.

Before it fell to Muslim armies in AD 635-6 Damascus had a long and prestigious history as a center of Christianity. How did the city, which became capital of the Islamic Empire, and its people, negotiate the transition from a late antique, or early Byzantine world to an Islamic culture? In this innovative study, Nancy Khalek demonstrates that the changes that took place in Syria during the formative period of Islamic life were not a matter of the replacement of one civilization by another as a result of military conquest, but rather of shifting relationships and practices in a multi-faceted social and cultural setting. Even as late antique forms of religion and culture persisted, the formation of Islamic identity was effected by the people who constructed, lived in, and narrated the history of their city. Khalek draws on the evidence of architecture, and the testimony of pilgrims, biographers, geographers, and historians to shed light on this process of identity formation. Offering a fresh approach to the early Islamic period, she moves the study of Islamic origins beyond a focus on issues of authenticity and textual criticism, and initiates an interdisciplinary discourse on narrative, story-telling, and the interpretations of material culture.