The Islamic World is an outstanding guide to Islamic faith and culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished international team of scholars, it elucidates the history, philosophy and practice of one of the world's great religious traditions. Its grounding in contemporary scholarship makes it an ideal reference source for students and scholars alike.

Edited by Andrew Rippin, a leading scholar of Islam, the volume covers the political, geographical, religious, intellectual, cultural and social worlds of Islam, and offers insight into all aspects of Muslim life including the Qura (TM)an and law, philosophy, science and technology, art, literature, and film and much else. It explores the concept of an a ~Islamica (TM) world: what makes it distinctive and how uniform is that distinctiveness across Muslim geographical regions and through history?

In this groundbreaking biography, Abdel Rahman Azzam narrates the life of Saladin, placing him in historical context against the backdrop of the 10th and 11th-century Sunni revival, a powerful sweeping intellectual renaissance that transformed every field of Islamic thought. Azzam contends that Saladin was not just the brilliant military commander of popular imagination but that his true greatness lay in his political and spiritual vision. He was an outsider whose life was filled with paradoxes. Famous for driving the crusaders out of Jerusalem, and for his bitter war of attrition with Richard the Lionheart, and fabled for his chivalry and generosity, he became the most powerful man in the Islamic empire, but died penniless, without enough money to line his coffin. This book tells his fascinating and complex story. The author covers Saladin's political rise, his consolidation of power in Egypt with the support of the advisers and military men that he relied on. Indeed one of the main aims of the biography is to introduce to the reader the men around Saladin and the vital religious, military, and administrative roles they played, thereby offering a three-dimensional quality to the man himself. In the early chapters of the biography, Azzam's aim is to peel away the myths surrounding Saladin and to set aside the legend so that the reader may gain a better understanding of the historical figure by placing him in his historical context. Subsequently the first two chapters focus more on the context of the Islamic world than on Saladin himself, setting it apart from other works on Saladin. The remaining chapters of the book deal with Saladin's victory at Hattin and the ensuing Third Crusade, and ending with his death in Damascus. In the final chapter the author gives an insightful assessment of Saladin, bringing the book full circle to the opening Prologue.

Reflecting the diversity of Islam, this collection focuses on the presence of Muslims in countries outside the traditionally conceived heartlands of the Islamic world. The history of the arrival of Islam in such countries and the nature of the way in which Islam is practised in such places is the thematic focus of the materials selected for inclusion. Today, the community of Muslims around the globe looks to the Arab world (and Iran) as a source of identity and authority. While this is driven as much by finances as by religious ideology, it does create a sense of there being a central Islamic world and a 'diaspora' which can be separated and considered. This separation may also be considered a historical phenomenon: the core 'Islamic world' came into existence as a result of the early military expansion of the Arabs up to about 750CE; after that point, the spread of Islam occurred by different and more gradual means (often influenced by trade especially). Both of these ways of conceptualizing the region of interest results is a vast amount of territory in which to explore the special manifestations of Islam. Materials selected for inclusion in this Major Work provide general information on Islam rather than being overly specific. A number of aspects are considered: * the history of the introduction of Islam into the area; * the means by which Islam spread; * the attitude Muslims took to the surrounding culture; * the character of the Islam which resulted; * the sense of Muslim identity in the area; and * the issues which might have emerged as a result. The gathered material is grouped geographically with an attempt to include as many individual countries as possible within each area, while also paying attention to each of the above criteria. An initial selection of articles on 'world Islam'-the process and means of the spread of Islam in general and some consideration of what it means to talk about the presence of Islam in the world and a survey of the general diversity of characteristics of Islam-serves as an introductory section to the volumes. Additional groupings are geographical and include South Asia; South East Asia; Australia and islands of the Pacific; China; countries of the former Soviet Union; South Africa; East Africa; West Africa; Europe; North America; Central and South America.

In secular Europe the veracity of modern science is almost always taken for granted. Whether they think of the evolutionary proofs of Darwin or of spectacular investigation into the boundaries of physics conducted by CERN's Large Hadron Collider, most people assume that scientific enquiry goes to the heart of fundamental truths about the universe. Yet elsewhere, science is under siege. In the USA, Christian fundamentalists contest whether evolution should be taught in schools at all. And in Muslim countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Pakistan and Malaysia, a mere 15 per cent of those recently surveyed believed Darwin's theory to be 'true' or 'probably true'. This thoughtful and passionately argued book contends absolutely to the contrary: not only that evolutionary theory does not contradict core Muslim beliefs, but that many scholars, from Islam's golden age to the present, adopted a worldview that accepted evolution as a given. Guessoum suggests that the Islamic world, just like the Christian, needs to take scientific questions - 'quantum questions' - with the utmost seriousness if it is to recover its true heritage and integrity. In its application of a specifically Muslim perspective to important topics like cosmology, divine action and evolution, the book makes a vital contribution to debate in the disputed field of 'science and religion'.

This work was originally published in 1936. This volume discusses the Islamic faith in the perspective of the ancient Arabian monotheism and its similarities with Christianity and Judaism. The similarities not only in dogma, but also in the ritual of Nestorian Christianity are discussed as well as an interpretation of Mohammed's religious personality.

What is happening in Islam is of concern to more than Muslims. The Qur'an is the prime possession of Muslims: how then, are they reading and understanding their sacred Book today? This volume, originally published in 1985, examines eight writers from India, Egypt, Iran and Senegal. Their way with the Qur'an indicates how some in Islam respond to the pressures in life and thought, associated in the West with thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Marx, Camus, Kafka, Jung, Fanon and De Chardin.

Originally published in 1951, this book provides a thorough explanation of the essential elements of Islam: Muhammad and the Quran, Faith, Prayer, Alms, Fasting, Pilgrimage, Holy War, Hadith, and Sunna, Creed, Prophets, Philosophy, Law, Sects, Mysticism, Social Life and Modern Movements.

Originally published in 1967, this Companion is designed to help readers of the Qur'an by giving them necessary background information. An account is given of ideas peculiar to the Qur'an, and the main variant interpretations are noted. A full index of Qur'anic proper names and an index of words commented on has been provided. Based on A J Arberry's translation, this Companion can be used with other translations, or indeed with the original text, since the verses are numbered.

Originally published in 1964, this volume gathers together extracts from many of Arberry's best-known works and supplements them with a selection of previously unpublished translations. The material therefore presents a vivid picture of the richness and variety of Islamic civilization from its origins to the late twentieth century.

This book was originally published in 1985. Beginning with the Qur'an, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba confronts the question of male supremacy in Islam, and the strict separation of the masculine and the feminine. He gives an account of purification practices, of Islamic attitudes towards homosexuality, concubinage, legal marriage and of the sexual taboos laid down by the Qur'an. He assesses present-day sexual practice, including eroticism, misogyny and mysticism and concludes that the sexual alienation - and even oppression - of modern Muslim women is the result not of the Islamic vision of sexuality, but of social and economic pressures.

Originally published in 1986, this volume deals with the historical, philosophical and psychological concepts found in Islamic medical practices, and covers Islamic ideas on physiological, pathological, curative and preventative medicine. This was the first systematic study of Islamic medicine to be published in the English language and continues to have much relevance at a time when interest both in Islamic thought and in alternatives to conventional medicine is strong.

Originally published in 1958, this volume covers important aspects of Islamic history and culture: Arabia before the Prophet The Prophet The Koran and Islam The Caliphate From the Caliphate to the end of the Ottoman The Crusades The Maghreb Muslim Spain The Sharia Philosophy The Sciences Literature The Arts Problems of the Twentieth Century Arab World

Despite being revered as the Holy Book by Muslims throughout the world, the Koran is the least known and least understood in the West of all the great religious books. In this volume A J Arberry examines this paradox and explains the qualities of the Koran which have made it acceptable to so many people. The selections have been chosen and arranged to illustrate the religious and ethical message of the Koran.

Against a vivid background of Jewish and Islamic history, Bernard Lewis portrays the Judaeo-Islamic tradition - a cultural relationship parallel to the Judaeo-Christian heritage. He traces its origins in the early Middle Ages, its flowering, and its ending, followed by the incorporation of most of the Jews of Islamic countries into the state of Israel. The book examines the relations of Islam and other religions; the formative and classical periods of the Judaeo-Islamic tradition in medieval Islam; the development of the Ottoman Empire; and its eventual demise in the twentieth century. This book was originally published in 1984.

Originally published in 1939. After the death of Muhammad his community was ruled by three caliphs who kept their capital as Medina, the City of the Prophet. Under the rule of the caliphs those who did not confess the Muslim faith were under certain restrictions both in public and private life. This volume examines the social, cultural, religious and economic aspects of this period and includes chapters on: Government Service; Churches and Monasteries; Christian Arabs, Jews and Magians; Dress; Financial Persecution, Medicine and Literature and Taxation.

This collection of essays by one of the best known contemporary Muslim scholars writing in English covers many facets of Islamic life and thought. The author has brought together studies dealing with the practical as well as intellectual aspects of Islam in both their historical and contemporary reality. The contemporary significance of themes such as religion and secularism, the meaning of freedom, and the tradition of Islamic science and philosophy is given particular attention.

The Darvishes is an invaluable contribution to the study of the Belief and spiritual principles of the Darvish Orders and is one of the most accurate reference works on the subject. Drawn exclusively from the original Oriental works, and from Turkish, Arabic and Persian manuscripts the originality and authenticity of the work is beyond doubt. As well as discussing Darvish doctrines and history, the volume also examines the spiritual and metaphysical significance of Sufism as a living tradition

In this volume Henry Corbin emphasizes the differences between the exoteric and esoteric forms of Islam. He also reveals that whereas in the West philosophy and religion were at odds, they were inseparably linked, at least during this period, in the Islamic world.

A valuable section of notes and appendices includes original translation of numerous Sufi treatises.

This work was originally published in 1966. Long regarded as a classic, this volume argues that Afghani and 'Abduh should be considered subverters rather than reformers of Islam. It addresses the spread of concealed unbelief and atheism in Muslim society towards the end of the nineteenth century, and shows how both Afghani and 'Abduh, while making a show of their piety, really held esoteric beliefs quite incompatible with orthodox and traditional Islam.

Originally published 1867. This volume describes not only the basic tenets of the Sufis but also the Ahl i wahdat which was a branch of Sufism. The author's use of a Persian manuscript treatise by 'Aziz bin Mohammed Nafasi' is an indispensable tool, particularly because the author did not merely translate it but gave a clearer and more succinct account of the system. The volume contains an Appendix containing a glossary of allegorical and technical terms in use among Sufiistic writers.

A lively debate is currently being conducted in the social sciences around the concepts of "tribe", "segmentary societies" and "Islam in society". This wide-ranging collection by thirteen distinguished anthropologists contributes to the debate by examining various segmentary Islamic tribal societies from Morocco to Pakistan.

First published in 2008. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.