In recent years, geographies of identities, including those of ethnicity, religion, 'race' and gender, have formed an increasing focus of contemporary human geography. The events of September 11th, 2001 particularly illustrated the ways in which identities can be transformed across time and space by both global and local events of a social, cultural, political and economic nature. Such transformations have also demonstrated the temporal and spatial construction of hate and fear, and of increasing incidences of 'Islamophobia' through the construction of Muslims as 'the Other'. As the social scientific study of religion continues to be marginalized within mainstream scholarship, there remains an important gap in the literature. This timely book addresses this gap by collecting a range of cutting-edge contributions from the social, cultural, political, historical and economic sub-disciplines of geography, together with writings from gender studies, cultural studies and leisure studies where research has revealed a strong spatial dimension to the construction, representation, contestation and reworking of Muslim identities. The contributors illustrate the ways in which such identities are constructed, represented, negotiated and contested in everyday life in a wide variety of international contexts, focusing upon issues connected with diaspora, gender and belonging.

This book is a comprehensive study, which provides informed knowledge within the field of Islamic economics. The authors lay down the principal philosophical foundation of a unique and universal theory of Islamic economics by contrasting it with the perspectives of mainstream economics. The methodological part of the theory of Islamic economics arises from the ethical foundations of the Qur'an and the Sunnah (tradition of the Prophet) along with learned exegeses in an epistemological derivation of the postulates and formalism of Islamic economics. This foundational methodology will be contrasted with the contemporary approaches of the random use of mainstream economic theory in Islamic economics. The book establishes the methodological foundation as the primal and most fundamental premise of the study leading to scientific formalism and the prospect of its application. By way of its Islamic epistemological explanation (philosophical premise) in the form of logical formalism and the use of simple real-world examples, the authors show the reader that the scientific nature of economics in general and Islamic economics in particular rests on the conception of the scientific worldview. With its uniquely comparative approach to mainstream economics, this book facilitates a greater understanding of Islamic economic concepts. Senior undergraduate and graduate students will gain exposure to Islamic perspectives of micro- and macroeconomics, money, public finance, and development economics. Additionally, this book will be useful to practitioners seeking a greater comprehension of the nature of Islamic economics. It will also enable policymakers to better understand the mechanism of converting institutions, such as public and social policy perspectives.

Hikayat Abi l-Qasim al-Baghdadi (The Portrait of Abu l-Qasim al-Baghdadi) is an 11th-century Arabic work by Abu l-Mutahhar Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Azdi which tells the story of a Baghdadi party-crasher crashing a party in Isfahan. It is introduced by its author as a microcosm of Baghdad. This work, written in prose but containing numerous poems, is widely hailed among scholars as a narrative unique in the history of Arabic literature, but The Portrait also reflects a much larger tradition of banquet texts, from "Trimalchio's Dinner Party" and Plato's Symposium to the works of Rabelais. It also paints a portrait of a party-crasher who is at once a holy man and a rogue, a figure familiar among scholars of the ancient Cynic tradition or other portrayals of wise fools, tricksters, and saints from literatures around the Mediterranean and beyond. While some early scholars of The Portrait dismissed it as disgusting and obscene, this work, with its wealth of material-cultural, philosophical, spiritual, and literary treasures, is much more than just a "dirty book". Following an introduction, which offers new insights into the relationship of the work to both its Greek predecessors and to its European descendants, the volume presents a new, improved edition of the Arabic text, together with a richly annotated translation, that aims at being both scholarly and readable, reflecting the often racy style of the Arabic. This makes it not only useful to specialists and students of medieval Arabic literature, but also accessible to a much wider general readership of those interested in comparative literature or "world literature". There are extensive indexes of names, places, subjects, and rhymes.

Hassan Mahamdallie walks the streets of Detroit - the city America allowed to die, Ziauddin Sardar visits the 'first city' at the crossroads of Asia, Boyd Tonkin is shocked at the new gleaming cultural capitals of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Robert Irwin unearths Basra during the Abbasid period, Kevin Ovenden looks at modern-day Athens in turmoil, Judy Cox sees London through the visions of William Blake and Nazry Bahrawi takes in the nostalgia and popular culture of Singapore. Also in this issue past and present explorations of Lahore, Melbourne, Istanbul, a photo essay on the dreams of the migrant workers of the Gulf and the last word column by Myriam Francois-Cerrah.

This volume brings together a set of key articles, along with a new introduction to contextualize them, on the role of Turkish peoples in the Western Asiatic world up to the 11th century. Such topics as the geographical and environmental original milieux of these peoples in the forest zone and steppelands of Inner Asia, the formation and breakup of tribal confederations within the steppes, and the evolution of tribal structures, are examined as the background for the appearance of Turks within the Islamic caliphate from the 9th century onwards. These came first as military slaves, then as movements of peoples, such as the tribal migrations of the Oghuz, leading to the establishment of the Seljuq sultanate, whilst from within Islamic society, individual Turkish commanders were able at the same time to build up their own military empires such as that of the Ghaznavids. In this way was put in place a Turkish dominance of the northern tier of the Middle East, with attendant changes in demography and land utilisation, which was to last for centuries.

Despite political upheavals under Muslim domination in the Middle Ages, Palestine was a center of great artistic activity recognized for its incredible dynamism. Its unique contribution to the Islamic "macrocosm," however, never became the subject of extensive study. Numerous archeological excavations on this relatively small geographic area reveal the existence of extremely well preserved monuments of high architectural quality and exceptional religious value. This is what Myriam Rosen-Ayalon exposes in this thorough introduction to Palestinian Islamic art and archeology. In chronological order she presents here for the first time the multifaceted and long-lasting achievements of Islamic art in Palestine, filling the gap of years of neglect on the subject.

This is a collection of essays on current questions of historiography, illustrated with reference to Islamic historiography. The main concerns are conceptions of time and temporality, the uses of the past, historical periodisation, historical categorisation, and the constitution of historical objects, not least those called "civilisation" and "Islam." One of the aims of this book is to apply to Islamic materials the standard conceptual equipment used in historical study, and to exercise a large-scale comparativist outlook.

Despite political upheavals under Muslim domination in the Middle Ages, Palestine was a center of great artistic activity recognized for its incredible dynamism. Its unique contribution to the Islamic "macrocosm," however, never became the subject of extensive study. Numerous archeological excavations on this relatively small geographic area reveal the existence of extremely well preserved monuments of high architectural quality and exceptional religious value. This is what Myriam Rosen-Ayalon exposes in this thorough introduction to Palestinian Islamic art and archeology. In chronological order she presents here for the first time the multifaceted and long-lasting achievements of Islamic art in Palestine, filling the gap of years of neglect on the subject.

When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter?

Shortlisted for Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year. 'Engrossing . . . fascinating . . . courageous' – Observer

When writer Mariam Khan found herself increasingly frustrated with a national discourse that marginalized Muslim women’s voices, she decided it was time for something new. Why was she only hearing about Muslim women from other people? Why weren’t Muslim women given the chance to speak for themselves?

It’s Not About the Burqa is poised to change all that. Here are voices you won’t see represented in the headlines: seventeen Muslim women speaking frankly about the hijab and wavering faith, about love and divorce, about feminism, queer identity, sex, and the twin threats of a disapproving community and a racist country. These essays are funny, warm, sometimes sad, and often angry, and each is a passionate declaration calling time on oppression, lazy stereotyping, misogyny and Islamophobia.

What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it’s all about the burqa.

Here’s what it’s really about.

A climate of Islamophobia allows anxieties about Muslim men living in and migrating to Britain to endure. British Muslims men are often profiled in highly negative terms or regarded with suspicion owing to their perceived religious and cultural heritage. But novels and films by British migrant and diaspora writers and filmmakers powerfully contest these stereotypes, and explore the rich diversity of Muslim masculinities in Britain. This book is the first critical study to engage with British Muslim masculinities in this literary and cinematic output from the perspective of masculinity studies. Through close analysis of work by Monica Ali, Nadeem Aslam, Guy Gunaratne, Sally El Hosaini, Hanif Kureishi, Suhayl Saadi, Kamila Shamsie, Zadie Smith, Zia Haider Rahman and Salman Rushdie, Peter Cherry examines how migrant and diaspora protagonists negotiate their masculinity in a climate of Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric. Cherry proposes a transcultural reading of these novels and films that exposes how conceptions of 'Britishness', 'Muslimness' and those of masculinity are unstable and contingent constructs shaped by migration, interaction with other cultures, and global and local politics.

Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, many defining features of classical Sunni Islam began to take shape. Among these was the formation of medieval Sunnism around the belief in the unimpeachable orthodoxy of four eponymous founders and their schools of law. In this original study, Ahmad Khan explores the history and cultural memory of one of these eponymous founders, Abu Hanifa. Showing how Abu Hanifa evolved from being the object of intense religious exclusion to a pillar of Sunni orthodoxy, Khan examines the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy, and outlines their changing meanings over the course of four centuries. He demonstrates that orthodoxy and heresy were neither fixed theological categories, nor pious fictions, but instead were impacted by everything from law and politics, to society and culture. This book illuminates the significant yet often neglected transformations in Islamic social, political and religious thought during this vibrant period.

In case studies that include the Caribbean, South America, Mexico, and the United States, the contributors to this interdisciplinary volume trace the establishment of Islam in the Americas over the past four centuries. They simultaneously explore Muslims' lived experiences and the ways Islam has been shaped in the New World - by "Muslim minority" societies such as the Shriners; through the Gilded Age's fascination with Orientalism; in the embrace of Islam by American black intellectuals like Malcolm X and the Black Power movement; and by the ways hip hop artists re-create and reimagine Muslim identities. Together the twelve essays challenge the typical view of Islam as timeless, predictable, and opposed to Western worldviews and value systems, showing how the religion continually engages with issues of culture, class, gender, and race.

The present English translation reproduces the original German of Carl Brockelmann's Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur (GAL) as accurately as possible. In the interest of user-friendliness the following emendations have been made in the translation: Personal names are written out in full, except b. for ibn; Brockelmann's transliteration of Arabic has been adapted to comply with modern standards for English-language publications; modern English equivalents are given for place names, e.g. Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem, etc.; several erroneous dates have been corrected, and the page references to the two German editions have been retained in the margin, except in the Supplement volumes, where new references to the first two English volumes have been inserted. Supplement volume SIII-ii offers the thee Indices (authors; titles; and Western editors/publishers).

Suicide terror has become a fundamental strategic weapon in the confrontation between Fundamentalist Islam and its adversaries and now constitutes a threat to world welfare and security. "The Shahids" proposes that the nature of this terror changed after the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11. In this first book to be published on the subject, the author offers both an interpretation and an overall picture of a worldwide phenomenon that is not yet fully recognized, even in Israel, which remains a central arena for the perpetration of suicide attacks by terror organizations. "The Shahids" analyzes the general phenomenon of Islamic suicide attacks, and provides the reader with tools, comparative analyses, and comprehensive information enabling enlightened examination about suicide attacks worldwide. After a review of the historical development of the religious and ideological values legitimating suicide attacks, the volume explores the ways in which all terror organizations are both alike and different. It focuses on the countries that support terror--Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia--discusses suicide attacks perpetrated by women and the suicide attackers' mothers, and shows how various countries have put an end to suicide attacks. It scrutinizes testimony drawn from confiscated documents regarding the approach of terror leaders and the administrative support of various organizations for suicide attacks, while offering descriptions and direction on ways to contend with this challenge. It explores the possibilities and recommendations for an international struggle against suicide attacks through the implementation of recently published, innovative ideas proposed by UN Organizations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. "The Shahids" maps out the overall phenomenon of suicide attacks, as well as identifies various organizations and central key figures through comparative cross-sections.

TV crews and foreign correspondents come and go, but former BBC correspondent Jane Howard made her home in Iran for five years, raising her two young children there. Her experience took her beyond the headlines and horror stories and into the lives of everyday Iranian women. Her brilliantly observed report, "Inside Iran: Women's Lives, takes the reader from dinner in a presidential palace to tea in a nomad's tent. From women working in rice paddies and tea plantations to highly educated women in Tehran who have been banned from working in their professions. The image of Iranian women is still one of anonymous ranks of revolutionary marchers, clad in black. But underneath their black chadors or drab raincoats, they not only wear jeans, T-shirts and Lycra leggings, but they also work outside the home, drive, play sports and even become politicians. While many women haven't regained the Western-style freedom they lost in the revolution of 1979, others have won rights they never had before. Practically every girl has access to primary education now, and even remote villages have clean drinking water, a paved road and a school. Yet Islamic law continues to impose many inequities and constraints. In cash terms, for example, a woman's life is worth half that of a man's, and in the courtroom, two women have to give evidence to equal one man's testimony. Howard describes how the atmosphere changed with the election of the reformist president Khatami, and Iranians dared to demand more freedom and discuss their problems openly. She has interviewed government officials and opinion formers, and has traveled throughout the country to meet with women from all sectors of society. The result is afascinating story of struggle and change, vividly documenting what it means to be a woman in Iran.

This accessible and deeply informed book examines the threat that Islamic extremists pose to America and provides a balanced discussion of the link between Iraq and the war on terror. Explaining the basics of Islam and guiding the reader through the intricacies of each significant fundamentalist group, the Palmers answer key questions: Who are the Muslim extremists and how do they fit within the broader context of the Islamic religion? What is their war plan and how do they operate? Who are their allies and what are their weaknesses? What is the experience of Israel, the Islamic world, and the United States in fighting extremists? How can they be defeated? Now in a thoroughly revised and updated edition, the book includes new chapters on Hamas, the Iraqi clones of Hizbullah-including Sadr-and the Islamic government in Turkey.

Magic and divination in early Islam encompassed a wide range of practices, including belief in jinn, warding off the evil eye, the production of amulets and other magical equipment, conjuring, wonder-working, dream interpretation, predicting the weather, casting lots, astrology, and physiognomy. The ten studies here are concerned with the pre-Islamic antecedents of such practices, and with the theory of magic in healing, the nature and use of amulets and their decipherment, the arts of astrometeorology and geomancy, the refutation of astrology, and the role of the astrologer in society. Some of the studies are highly illustrated, some long out of print, some revised or composed for this volume, and one translated into English for the first time. These fundamental investigations, together with the introductory bibliographic essay, are intended as a guide to the concepts, terminology, and basic scholarly literature of an important, but often overlooked, aspect of classical Islamic culture.

Sectarian divisions within the Islamic world have long been misunderstood and misconstrued by the media and the general public. In this book, Adam R. Gaiser offers an accessible introduction to the main Muslim sects and schools, returning to the roots of the sectarian divide in the Medieval period. Beginning with the death of Muhammed and the ensuing debate over who would succeed him, Gaiser outlines how the umma (Muslim community) came to be divided. He traces the history of the main Muslim sects and schools - the Sunnis, Shi'ites, Kharijites, Mu'tazila and Murji'a - and shows how they emerged, developed, and diverged from one another. Exploring how medieval Muslims understood the idea of 'sect', Gaiser challenges readers to consider the usefulness and scope of the concept of 'sectarianism' in this historical context. Providing an overview of the main Muslim sects while problematising the assumptions of previous scholarship, this is a valuable resource for both new and experienced readers of Islamic history.

Sectarian divisions within the Islamic world have long been misunderstood and misconstrued by the media and the general public. In this book, Adam R. Gaiser offers an accessible introduction to the main Muslim sects and schools, returning to the roots of the sectarian divide in the Medieval period. Beginning with the death of Muhammed and the ensuing debate over who would succeed him, Gaiser outlines how the umma (Muslim community) came to be divided. He traces the history of the main Muslim sects and schools - the Sunnis, Shi'ites, Kharijites, Mu'tazila and Murji'a - and shows how they emerged, developed, and diverged from one another. Exploring how medieval Muslims understood the idea of 'sect', Gaiser challenges readers to consider the usefulness and scope of the concept of 'sectarianism' in this historical context. Providing an overview of the main Muslim sects while problematising the assumptions of previous scholarship, this is a valuable resource for both new and experienced readers of Islamic history.

In this major contribution to Muslim intellectual history, Andrew Hammond offers a vital reappraisal of the role of Late Ottoman Turkish scholars in shaping modern Islamic thought. Focusing on a poet, a sheikh and his deputy, Hammond re-evaluates the lives and legacies of three key figures who chose exile in Egypt as radical secular forces seized power in republican Turkey: Mehmed Akif, Mustafa Sabri and Zahid Kevseri. Examining a period when these scholars faced the dual challenge of non-conformist trends in Islam and Western science and philosophy, Hammond argues that these men, alongside Said Nursi who remained in Turkey, were the last bearers of the Ottoman Islamic tradition. Utilising both Arabic and Turkish sources, he transcends disciplinary conventions that divide histories along ethnic, linguistic and national lines, highlighting continuities across geographies and eras. Through this lens, Hammond is able to observe the long-neglected but lasting impact that these Late Ottoman thinkers had upon Turkish and Arab Islamist ideology.

This volume brings together seventeen articles reflecting the wide range of scholarly interest in early Shi`ism over the past half century. All major branches of Shi`ism are covered. Some studies are historical in nature, whether dealing with specific events or offering a broad historical perspective. Others focus on literary issues, on the development of doctrine or on the relations between the Shi`a and the non-Shi`i world. The studies have been selected because they represent the best of current scholarship, or are classic works with continuing significance; six appear for the first time in English translation. The editor's introduction reviews the historiography of the field and highlights directions and trends in research and is followed by a bibliography of key further reading.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is one of the most important yet least understood Palestinian armed factions, both in terms of its history and ideology. Labelled a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, it has grown to become the second largest armed movement in the Gaza Strip and the third largest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Using a wealth of primary sources, this book traces the history of PIJ from its origins in the early 1980s to today. By looking at how the group was established, how it has developed in theory and practice, and how it understands religion and politics, Skare seeks to answer the key question of why the PIJ still exist despite the presence of its more powerful sister movement Hamas. In doing so, he fills an important empirical gap in the literature on Palestinian Islamism.

Running through the papers collected here is the concern to try and understand the reasons which people thought they had for acting in a certain way, and - not always the same thing - the reasons which they expressed for what they were doing. The book's first section focuses on the theories of government in the late medieval Church, especially the ideas of conciliarism; the second is concerned with the study of medieval guild and city organisation and politics, looking at the communal movement and at the impact of Christianity on the development of republican ideas. In the papers in the final part, Professor Black takes a comparative approach, setting the political thought and traditions of the Islamic world, in particular, alongside those of Western Europe as part of an attempt to understand the origins of the modern state: to know why this emerged in Europe, he argues, it is necessary to ask why it did not develop elsewhere and it is intellectual and cultural factors which provide the most obvious differentiating features.

The art of the object reached unparalleled heights in the medieval Islamic world, yet the intellectual dimensions of ceramics, metalwares, and other plastic arts in this milieu have not always been acknowledged. Arts of Allusion reveals the object as a crucial site where pre-modern craftsmen of the eastern Mediterranean and Persianate realms engaged in fertile dialogue with poetry, literature, painting, and, perhaps most strikingly, architecture. Lanterns fashioned after miniature shrines, incense burners in the form of domed monuments, earthenware jars articulated with arches and windows, inkwells that allude to tents: through close studies of objects from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, this book reveals that allusions to architecture abound across media in the portable arts of the medieval Islamic world. Arts of Allusion draws upon a broad range of material evidence as well as medieval texts to locate its subjects in a cultural landscape where the material, visual and verbal realms were intertwined. Moving far beyond the initial identification of architectural types with their miniature counterparts in the plastic arts, Margaret Graves develops a series of new frameworks for exploring the intelligent art of the allusive object. These address materiality, representation, and perception, and examine contemporary literary and poetic paradigms of metaphor, description, and indirect reference as tools for approaching the plastic arts. Arguing for the role of the intellect in the applied arts and for the communicative potential of ornament, Arts of Allusion asserts the reinstatement of craftsmanship into Islamic intellectual history.

Folktales are instrumental in ensuring the survival of oral traditions and strengthening communal bonds. Both the stories and the process of storytelling itself help to define social, cultural and political identity. For Palestinians, the threat of losing their heritage has engendered a sense of urgency among storytellers and Palestinian folklorists. Yet there has been remarkably little academic scholarship dedicated to the tradition. Farah Aboubakr here analyses a selection of folktales edited, compiled and translated by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana in Speak, Bird, Speak Again (1989). In addition to the folktales themselves, Muhawi and Kanaana's collection is renowned for providing readers with extensive folkloric, historical and anthropological annotations. Here, for the first time, the folktales and the compilers' work on them, are the subject of scholarly analysis. Synthesising various disciplines including memory studies, gender studies and social movement studies, Aboubakr uses the collection to understand the politics of storytelling and its impact on Palestinian identity. In particular, the book draws attention to the female storytellers who play an essential role in transmitting and preserving collective memory and culture. The book is an important step towards analysing a significant genre of Palestinian literature and will be relevant to scholars of Palestinian politics and popular culture, gender studies and memory studies, and those interested in folklore and oral literature.