A clear, intelligently-written guide to a crucial period of Spanish history Written in the same tradition as John Julius Norwich's engrossing accounts of Venice and Byzantium, Richard Fletcher's Moorish Spain entertains even as it enlightens. He tells the story of a vital period in Spanish history which transformed the culture and society, not only of Spain, but of the rest of Europe as well. Moorish influence transformed the architecture, art, literature and learning and Fletcher combines this analysis with a crisp account of the wars, politics and sociological changes of the time.

Beyond the affluent centre of Paris and other French cities, in the deprived banlieues, a war is going on. This is the French Intifada, a guerrilla war between the French state and the former subjects of its Empire, for whom the mantra of 'liberty, equality, fraternity' conceals a bitter history of domination, oppression, and brutality. This war began in the early 1800s, with Napoleon's lust for martial adventure, strategic power and imperial preeminence, and led to the armed colonization of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, and decades of bloody conflict, all in the name of 'civilization'. Here, against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, Andrew Hussey walks the front lines of this war - from the Gare du Nord in Paris to the souks of Marrakesh and the mosques of Tangier - to tell the strange and complex story of the relationship between secular, republican France and the Muslim world of North Africa. The result is a completely new portrait of an old nation. Combining a fascinating and compulsively readable mix of history, politics and literature with Hussey's years of personal experience travelling across the Arab World, The French Intifada reveals the role played by the countries of the Maghreb in shaping French history, and explores the challenge being mounted by today's dispossessed heirs to the colonial project: a challenge that is angrily and violently staking a claim on France's future.

The position of the Qur'an as the central symbol and reference point of Islam cannot be disputed. Despite this significance, the academic study of the Qur'an has lagged far behind that of the Bible. In these studies Andrew Rippin reflects upon both the principles and the problems of studying the Qur'an within the discipline of religious studies. He also pursues detailed investigations of the meaning of variants to the text and the history of Muslim interpretation of the text in its diversity. A newly written introduction lays out some of the general implications of these studies, while extensive indexes of Qur'anic verses, books, authors and topics make this research more readily accessible.

Tracing the centrality of women in the definition of Turkish secularism, this study investigates the 2003 decision to increase the number of women officers employed by the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). It explores how, as professional religious officers, the female Diyanet preachers epitomize a pious, modern and highly educated woman whose role in society has been raised to prominence. Based on extensive fieldwork in Turkey, and drawing on a rich ethnography of the activities conducted by Diyanet women preachers in Istanbul, Chiara Maritato disentangles the state's attempt to standardize a multifaceted female religious participation. In using the feminization of the Diyanet as a prism through which to understand the significance of a renewed presence of Islam in the Turkish public realm, she casts light on a broader reformulation of religious services for women and families in Turkey, and pinpoints how this pervasive moral support has been able to penetrate and reshape even secular spaces.

Driven by a detailed hermeneutical investigation of the Qur'anic story of creation, this book questions the hybrid Biblical/Qur'anic narrative that gradually erased the lines that define the authentic Qur'anic account. Abla Hasan argues that humanity's divine status is the bedrock from which to investigate the meaning of human religiosity and address the problem of pain and suffering. The detailed analysis in this book answers many linguistic and logical pending questions in the Qur'an and is a serious departure from popular Muslim narratives that seek to alleviate our pain and suffering.

In a series of personal and insightful letters to his sons, Omar Saif Ghobash offers a vital manifesto that tackles the dilemmas facing not only young Muslims but everyone navigating the complexities of today’s world. Full of wisdom and thoughtful reflections on faith, culture and society. This is a courageous and essential book that celebrates individuality whilst recognising it is our shared humanity that brings us together.

Written with the experience of a diplomat and the personal responsibility of a father; Ghobash’s letters offer understanding and balance in a world that rarely offers any. An intimate and hopeful glimpse into a sphere many are unfamiliar with; it provides an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe.

Young Muslim America explores the perspectives and identities of the American descendants of immigrant Muslims and converts to Islam. Whether their parents were new Muslims or new Americans, the younger generations of Muslim Americans grow up bearing a dual heritage and are uniquely positioned to expand the meaning of both. In this ethnographic study, Muna Ali explores the role of Muslim Americans within America and the ummah through four dominant narratives that emerge in the cultural discussions about and among Muslims. Cultural differences can cause an identity crisis among young Muslims torn between seemingly irreconcilable Islamic and Western heritages. Additionally, culture presumably contaminates a "pure" Islam and underlies all that divides Muslim America's diverse subgroups. Some propose creating an American Muslim culture and identity to overcome these challenges. But in this historical moment when Muslims have become America's newest "problem people" and political wedge, some Americans are suspicious of this identity and fear a Muslim cultural takeover and the "Islamization of America." Situating these discussions in the fields of identity, immigration, American studies, and the anthropology of Islam, Ali examines how younger Muslims see themselves, their faith community, and their society, and how that informs their daily life and helps them envision an American future.

Bombings in London, riots in Paris, terrorists in Germany, fury over mosques, veils and cartoons-such headlines underscore the tensions between Muslims and their European hosts. Did too much immigration, or too little integration, produce Muslim second-generation anger? Is that rage imported or spawned inside Europe itself? What do the conflicts between Muslims and their European hosts portend for an America encountering its own angry Muslims? Europe's Angry Muslims traces the routes, expectations and destinies of immigrant parents and the plight of their children, transporting both the general reader and specialist from immigrants' ancestral villages to their strange new-fangled enclaves in Europe. It guides readers through Islamic nomenclature, chronicles the motive force of the Islamist narrative, offers them lively portraits of jihadists (a convict, a convert, and a community organizer) takes them inside radical mosques and into the minds of suicide bombers. The author interviews former radicals and security agents, examines court records and the sermons of radical imams and draws on a lifetime of personal experience with militant movements to present an account of the explosive fusion of Muslim immigration, Islamist grievance and second-generation alienation. Robert Leiken shines an unsentimental and yet compassionate light on Islam's growing presence in the West, combining in-depth reporting with cutting-edge and far-ranging scholarship in an engaging narrative that is both moving and mordant. Leiken's nuanced and authoritative analysis-historical, sociological, theological and anthropological-warns that "conflating rioters and Islamists, folk and fundamentalist Muslims, pietists and jihadis, immigrants and their children is the method of strategic incoherence-'in the night all cats are black.'"

What is Russian Islam? What is Russia? This history of Islam in Russia is the story of spiritual survival. The special cultural and national re-awakening that has accompanied the resurgence of Islam in Russia has contributed to the firm foundation of revival and renewal of Islamic thought throughout the Muslim world. Drawing on such diverse sources as the author's early experience of Kazan Tatar nationalism, and the writings of H.G. Wells and Edward Said, the book presents an analysis of the history, development and future prospects for Islam in Russia based on exhaustive research of the primary and secondary sources as well as the author's own personal experience.

This book analyzes the systematic construction of the image of the Other (that is, non-Muslims) by two radical Islamic Groups, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia. The author documents discourse patterns in the groups' publications and speeches stereotyping non-Muslims as hostile towards Islam and imagining Islam's imminent victory after an inevitable clash with all other civilizations. Although these groups do not engage in physical violence, the author categorizes their efforts to stereotype non-Muslims as "symbolic violence" and counterproductive because of the religious and ethnic pluralism of Indonesian society. Muhammad Iqbal Ahnaf is a lecturer and researcher at the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies at Gadjah Mada University and at Darul Ulum Islamic University, Lamongan, Indonesia.

Choice Top Book of 2017 Confronting and combating Islamophobia in America. Islamophobia has long been a part of the problem of racism in the United States, and it has only gotten worse in the wake of shocking terror attacks, the ongoing refugee crisis, and calls from public figures like Donald Trump for drastic action. As a result, the number of hate crimes committed against Middle Eastern Americans of all origins and religions have increased, and civil rights advocates struggle to confront this striking reality. In Islamophobia and Racism in America, Erik Love draws on in-depth interviews with Middle Eastern American advocates. He shows that, rather than using a well-worn civil rights strategy to advance reforms to protect a community affected by racism, many advocates are choosing to bolster universal civil liberties in the United States more generally, believing that these universal protections are reliable and strong enough to deal with social prejudice. In reality, Love reveals, civil rights protections are surprisingly weak, and do not offer enough avenues for justice, change, and community reassurance in the wake of hate crimes, discrimination, and social exclusion. A unique and timely study, Islamophobia and Racism in America wrestles with the disturbing implications of these findings for the persistence of racism-including Islamophobia-in the twenty-first century. As America becomes a "majority-minority" nation, this strategic shift in American civil rights advocacy signifies challenges in the decades ahead, making Love's findings essential for anyone interested in the future of universal civil rights in the United States.

This volume examines the background to the rise of Islam. The opening essays consider the broad context of nomad-sedentary relations in the Near East; thereafter the focus is on the Arabian peninsula and the history of the Arab peoples. The following papers set out the political and economic structures of the pre-Islamic period, and are concerned to trace the evolution of religious beliefs in the area, looking in particular at the role of local traditions and the impact of Jewish and Christian influences.

As the world's second-largest faith and by some accounts the most fast-growing, Islam is often at the forefront of intense public conversation in debates about politics, international relations, globalization, modern society and culture. From the rise of ISIS and revolutions in North Africa and Middle East to more tempered discussions about what it means to be a Muslim in the West and foreign policy making, this student focused textbook, unpacks how we talk about and represent Islam, its place in and relationship to "the West". Supported by an accessible introduction, real-world case studies, a glossary of terms and discussion points at the end of each chapter, Nathan Lean offers students a comprehensive and alternative framework to Islam and the West in the 21st Century

The book deals with the history of North Africa in the Middle Ages. It examines the formation of a society increasingly influenced by Arabic, as well as Islamic, culture after the Arab conquests of the 7th and early 8th centuries which gradually brought the Roman Christian civilisation of the region to an end. The subject and the theme derive to a large extent from the work of Ibn Khaldun at the end of the 14th century, whose indentification of the native Berbers as a subject of historical enquiry defined the place, the period, and the population to be studied. The collection is divided into two halves, the first dealing with the formation of an Islamic state system, the second with that of an Islamic society in which Arabism played an increasing part. Both look forward to the religious and political developments of the early modern period.

These two volumes present a conspectus of current research on the history and culture of early medieval Spain and Portugal, from the time of the Arab conquest in 711 up to the fall of the caliphate. They trace the impact of Islamisation on the pre-existing Roman and Visigothic political and social structures, the continuing interaction between Christian and Muslim, and describe the particular development and characteristics of Muslim Spain- al-Andalus. Together, they comprise 38 articles, of which 32 have been translated into English specially for this publication. The first volume focuses on political and social history, and looks in detail at settlement patterns and urbanisation; the second examines questions of language and covers the brilliant cultural and intellectual history of the period.

Islamic technology - general: Islamic fine technology and its influence on the development of European horology; medieval Arabic mechanical technology; from Philo to al-Jazari; Arabic fine technology and its influence on European mechanical engineering; Arabic mechanical engineering - survey of the historical sources; information on technology in the works of Muslim geographers; mining technology; hydraulic machines. Greek technology: les oeuvres de Heron et leur contexte historique; construction of a flaunting machine by Apollonius the Carpenter. Islamic technology - specific: the nilometer; the Banu Musa and their Book of ingenious devices; Qusta Ibn Luga al-Biruni's mechanical calendar; al-Jazari; notice of an important al-Jazari manuscript. technology in Andalusia: a treatise on machine by Ibn Mu adh Abu Abdallah al-Jayyani; Andalusian technology. Technology and war: Trebuchet; the camel and the horse and the early Arab conquests.

These two volumes present a conspectus of current research on the history and culture of early medieval Spain and Portugal, from the time of the Arab conquest in 711 up to the fall of the caliphate. They trace the impact of Islamisation on the pre-existing Roman and Visigothic political and social structures, the continuing interaction between Christian and Muslim, and describe the particular development and characteristics of Muslim Spain- al-Andalus. Together, they comprise 38 articles, of which 32 have been translated into English specially for this publication. The first volume focuses on political and social history, and looks in detail at settlement patterns and urbanisation; the second examines questions of language and covers the brilliant cultural and intellectual history of the period.

This collection of studies by Edward Kennedy looks first at questions of spherical astronomy, celestial mapping and planetary models, and then deals with astrological calculations. Throughout the author emphasises the importance of advances in mathematics for understanding the development of medieval Arabic sciences. This collection of studies based on previously unexploited manuscript sources in Arabic and Persian. They were written by authors from the 9th through the 15th centuries, whose locations reached from south China in the east through Central Asia, the Middle and Near East, and North Africa, to Spain in the west. The topics are predominately astronomical rather than astrological. The former include eclipse predictions, problems in spherical astronomy, non-ptolemaic planetary theory, and the achievements of Ulugh Beg and his observatory. Astrological subjects treated are the method of calculating the ascendant, and how to determine astrological houses and lots. An astrological history of the career of Genghis Khan is also described.

This text deals with a number of aspects of the history of pre-Islamic Arabian society and the emergence of Islam, as reflected in Hadith, Adab, historical, genealogical and exegetical literature. Among the themes discussed are the ethnic composition of the population of Mecca, the evolving relationship between the Nascent state in Medina and Muslim religious ideas, as well as some aspects of early Muslim expansion. Other articles deal with Jahili tribal groups and their contribution to the emerging Islam, and an article is devoted to Adam as a great herald and predecessor of Muhammed.

An alarming and enlightening first-hand account of what's really going on behind the borders of the Islamic State. ISIS, IS, the ISLAMIC State. It's an organization that has taken on chilling associations due to the horrific deeds committed in its name. ISIS beheads journalists--and yet one, Jurgen Todenhofer, was invited to visit its fighters in Mosul, after months of negotiations. Accompanied by his son, Frederic Todenhofer, who photographed the journey, he asked them to explain their beliefs, motivations, and goals. This book, the most in-depth research conducted on the terror group so far, is the result of those conversations. My Journey into the Heart of Terror shows how the organization grew from its al-Qaeda roots and the role the West has played, both past and present. Along the way, Todenhofer offers startling insights into what ISIS thinks, what it wants--and how it can be defeated. Only by understanding our enemies, Todenhofer believes, can we combat ISIS's radical, un-Islamic vision and the terror and destruction it brings.

This first full-length study of the Arabic reception of Plato's Timaeus considers the role of Galen of Pergamum (129-c. 216 CE) in shaping medieval perceptions of the text as transgressing disciplinary norms. It argues that Galen appealed to the entangled cosmological scheme of the dialogue, where different relations connect the body, soul, and cosmos, to expand the boundaries of medicine in his pursuit for epistemic authority - the right to define and explain natural reality. Aileen Das situates Galen's work on disciplinary boundaries in the context of medicine's ancient rivalry with philosophy, whose professionals were long seen as superior knowers of the cosmos vis-a-vis doctors. Her case studies show how Galen and four of the most important Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers in the Arabic Middle Ages creatively interpreted key doctrines from the Timaeus to reimagine medicine and philosophy as well as their own intellectual identities.

By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah, particularly its Arab heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet, precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability, Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American, homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and powerful transnational force and what implications does it have for the West? In One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds Raymond W. Baker addresses this question. Two things are clear, Baker argues: Islam's unexpected strength in recent decades does not originate from official political, economic, or religious institutions, nor can it be explained by focusing exclusively on the often-criminal assertions of violent, marginal groups. While extremists monopolize the international press and the scholarly journals, those who live and work in the Islamic world know that the vast majority of Muslims reject their reckless calls to violence and look elsewhere for guidance. Baker shows that extremists draw their energy and support not from contributions to the reinterpretation and revival of Islamic beliefs and practices, but from the hatreds engendered by misguided Western policies in Islamic lands. His persuasive analysis of the Islamic world identifies centrists as the revitalizing force of Islam, saying that they are responsible for constructing a modern, cohesive Islamic identity that is a force to be reckoned with.

Since the beginnings of this century western scholars have become familiar with Ignaz Goldziher's hypothesis concerning canonical hadith literature - that religious literary genre of Islam, second in holiness to the Qur'an, which allegedly comprises faithful accounts of what the Prophet of Islam said and did. Goldziher rejected this allegation and maintained that the Hadith rather reflects in the first instance the social, legal, moral and theological debates among the Muslims of the first two and a half centuries after the death of the Prophet. But Goldziher never systematically searched for the real originators of this literature. In this collection of articles, G. H. A. Juynboll deals with the uses Muslims have made of hadith through the ages but studies on chronology, provenance, as well as authorship of the prophetic traditions form the backbone of this anthology. For this purpose the author has developed new methods of analysing the chains of transmitters initially meant to authenticate the individual sayings. His overall position can be summed up as midway between the official Islamic point of view and the stance adopted by his Western predecessors

This collection of articles by Professor Bosworth contains a series of studies on the Arab-Persian heartland of the medieval Islamic world, from the Levant to Afghanistan and the borderlands with India. The emphasis is on historical, religious, cultural and literary aspects of the region's history, from pre-Islamic times to the medieval period. A number of the studies focus on the Arab caliphate and the successor dynasties that arose from it in the Iranian world, others focus on Muslim perceptions of other faiths in the Middle East and on the relations of the ruling Muslim institution with its non-Muslim minorities. One particular group is also concerned with the prolonged contacts and interaction between Islam and the Byzantine Empire.

In 874 CE, the eleventh Imam died, and the Imami community splintered. The institutions of the Imamate were maintained by the dead Imam's agents, who asserted they were in contact with a hidden twelfth Imam. This was the beginning of 'Twelver' Shi'ism. Edmund Hayes provides an innovative approach to exploring early Shi'ism, moving beyond doctrinal history to provide an analysis of the socio-political processes leading to the canonisation of the Occultation of the twelfth Imam. Hayes shows how these agents cemented their authority by reproducing the physical signs of the Imamate, including protocols of succession, letters and the alm taxes. Four of these agents were ultimately canonised as "envoys" but traces of earlier conceptions of authority remain embedded in the earliest reports. Hayes dissects the complex and contradictory Occultation narratives to show how, amidst the claims of numerous actors, the institutional positioning of the envoys allowed them to assert a quasi-Imamic authority in the absence of an Imam.