This is the first book to examine the Arab Shi'a, a community whose identity and problematic relationship with the rest of the Middle East cuts to the heart of the crisis of Arab politics and society. The Shi'a represent a majority of the population along the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf and are the largest religious group in Lebanon. This book, based on extensive field interviews, examines the nature of Shi'ite belief and community life, contemporary political and social problems, key grievances, and the nature of their relationship with the dominant Sunni state today as they seek a major voice in a new political order.

This book consists of a series of interrelated chapters analyzing why Iran, among all countries, has seen so many revolutionary movements in the past century; the degree to which its religion, Shi'ism, is revolutionary; and the history of revolutionary and resistance movements in the modern Muslim world. The author stresses historical change, such as the change of Twelver Shi'ism from political quietism to revolutionary opposition, and also previously unnoticed factors in revolution, such as the multi-urban character of all Iran's modern revolutions.

Since the Mediterranean connects cultures, Mediterranean studies have by definition an intercultural focus. Throughout the modern era, the Ottoman Empire has had a lasting impact on the cultures and societies of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, the modern Balkans are usually studied within the context of European history, the southern Mediterranean within the context of Islam. Although it makes sense to connect both regions, this is a vast field and requires a command of different languages not necessarily related to each other. Investigating both Greek and Arabic sources, this book will shed some light on the significance of ideas in the political transitions of their time and how the proponents of these transitions often became so overwhelmed by the events that they helped trigger adjustments to their own ideas. Also, the discourses in Greek and Arabic reflect the provinces of the Ottoman Empire and it is instructive to see their differences and commonalities which helps explain contemporary politics.

The victory of the young religious politicians of the Justice and Development Party in 2002 and their new pro-European Union stance was proceded by the emergence of new Islamic intellectual, autobiographical, and literary accounts in the 90s. This book explores the changing understandings of Islam by focusing on the Islamist movement's production of literary fiction since the early 1980s. It contextualizes a close reading of exemplary novels within broader developments in Turkish society. The study sheds light on how the politics of gender, collective identity, idealism, and individual aspirations in a modern context are expressed, generated, and revised through literature.

The primary objective of this book is to understand the nature of the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. Boko Haram's goal of an Islamic Caliphate, starting in the Borno State in the North East that will eventually cover the areas of the former Kanem-Borno Empire, is a rejection of the modern state system forced on it by the West. The central theme of this volume examines the relationship between the failure of the state-building project in Nigeria and the outbreak and nature of insurgency. At the heart of the Boko Haram phenomenon is a country racked with cleavages, making it hard for Nigeria to cohere as a modern state. Part I introduces this theme and places the Boko Haram insurgency in a historical context. There are, however, multiple cleavages in Nigeria ethnic, regional, cultural, and religious and Part II examines the different state-society dynamics fuelling the conflict. Political grievances are common to every society; however, what gives Boko Haram the space to express such grievances through violence? Importantly, this volume demonstrates that the insurgency is, in fact, a reflection of the hollowness within Nigeria's overall security. Part III looks at the responses to Boko Haram by Nigeria, neighbouring states, and external actors. For Western actors, Boko Haram is seen as part of the "global war on terror" and the fact that it has pledged allegiance to ISIS encourages this framing. However, as the chapters here discuss, this is an over-simplification of Boko Haram and the West needs to address the multiple dimension of Boko Haram. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism and political violence, insurgencies, African politics, war and conflict studies, and IR in general.

The Islamic labor market rests on the principles of the free market exchange of Islamic economics. Regrettably, the latter has failed to keep pace with the rapidly growing academic and professional developments of the former. Much of the published work within Islamic economics is idealistic if not radically ideological with little relevance to the Islamic labor market, leaving students of Islamic economics without a coherent body of economic theory to understand the practical objectives of Shariah that gives a sense of direction to the developments in this field. Drawing upon received sources of goals of Shariah, the authors present an independent academic work which: Emphasizes the common conceptual grounds of labor market behavior shared by the objectives of Shariah approach as well as the conventional approach to economics. Adopts standard tools of contemporary economics to explain the industrial relations. Extends the conventional scope of the labor market and forces of the labor market under the umbrella of Shariah. Enables readers and practitioners of Islamic economics to make economic sense of Shariah compliance and human resource development. Explains how the economics of Shariah is liable to offer moral guidance and a sense of direction to regulators and practitioners of the Islamic labor market. Labor in an Islamic Setting will be of interest to postgraduate students, academics, middle and senior management in both the western and the Islamic business communities, researchers and policy makers.

The book is based on original research on the entrepreneurial leaders in the Malay community and on the author's own participation in Malay business ventures. Sloane draws on her experience of working in Wall Street to analyse the ironies and contradictions in both the prevailing Western, Asian and Malay definitions of entrepreneurship and the 'heroes' of competing styles of capitalism.

This three-volume set of previously out-of-print titles closely examines three key aspects of Muslim Spain: the Muslim conquest and settlement, together with its political and economic administration; spirituality in the region; and El Cid and the Spanish reconquest. Together they form an important overview of the period and the region.

Based on extensive ethnographic research, this book examines how the Islamic community in Java, Indonesia, is actively negotiating both modernity and tradition in the contexts of nation-building, globalisation, and a supposed clash of civilizations. The pesantren community, so-called because it is centered around an educational institution called the pesantren, uses education as a central arena for dealing with globalization and the construction and maintenance of an Indonesian Islamic identity. However, the community's efforts to wrestle with these issues extend beyond education into the public sphere in general and specifically in the area of leadership and politics. The case material is used to understand Muslim strategies and responses to civilizational contact and conflict. Scholars, educated readers, and advanced undergraduates interested in Islam, religious education, the construction of religious identity in the context of national politics and globalization will find this work useful.

Islamist capital accumulation has split the Turkish bourgeoisie and polarized Turkish society into secular and religious social groupings, giving rise to conflicts between the state and political Islam. By providing a long-term historical perspective on Turkey's economy and its relationship to Islamism, this volume explores how Islamism as a political ideology has been utilized by the conservative bourgeoisie in Turkey, and elsewhere, to establish hegemony over labor. The contributors analyze the relationship between neoliberalism and the political fortunes of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), and examine the similarities and differences amongst new factions in the secular and Islamic middle class that have benefited economically, socially, and culturally during the AKP's reign. The articles also investigate the impact of the Gulen Movement and the role of the media in shaping the contours of intra-class struggle within contemporary Turkish political and social life.

Militant Islamic fundamentalists blame the ills of their societies on the West and call for the overthrow of local governments and the resumption of Jihad against the Infidels. Ambassador Hoveyda explores the historical and contemporary causes of the current wave of militant Islamic fundamentalism. Despite their terrorist attacks in the West, he also shows why fundamentalists are even more dangerous for Muslim countries that are desperately trying to catch up with the incipient global economy and alleviate their accumulated social and economic problems. If Western colonization and economic domination of the 19th and 20th centuries are to be blamed for the predicament of Muslim countries, Hoveyda points out that Muslims also bear a great responsibility for their situation. He shows how the triumph of fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran in the 12th century triggered the gradual decline of Islamic civilization. He also chronicles the history of militant Islamic movements of the past and present from the Assassins of the late 11th century to Ayatollah Khomeini. Having met his first militant Islamic fundamentalist at the age of four in Syria, where his father was serving as Persian Consul-general, Hoveyda draws upon a lifetime of personal experience as well as scholarship and experiences of others to provide an important insider/outsider examination of a worldwide concern.

In The Mosque Conflict in Catalonia: Space, Culture, and Capitalism, Martin Lundsteen examines two paradigms around mosque conflicts-one of an analytical nature and the other of a political-technical nature. Lundsteen argues that both paradigms interpret conflicts culturally, as originating primarily in the symbolic realm. Though racism and xenophobia are certainly at the core of the issue, Lundsteen shows through the study of the conflict surrounding the mosque project in Premia de Mar (Barcelona) that other dimensions of utmost importance lurk behind these interpretations. This book constitutes an anthropological approach to the intersection of local-global processes of contemporary capitalism and emphasizes the understudied socio-spatial dimension of these conflicts.

Years of Upheaval discusses 'Axial periods' in history; years that witnessed such fundamental reversals in history as to make the world turn upside down and inaugurate a new era. Raphael Israeli sees the post-1989 period as such a period in Islam. He explores events in the Islamic world since the end of the 1980s, and during the 1990s and their aftermath, particularly following the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the Rushdie Affair, and the death of Khumeini. Israeli posits these events signalled a new age of Islamic violence and fundamentalism. The period has seen the dissipation of state borders and the rise of transnational and trans-territorial movements, such as ISIS, that have been extraordinarily attractive to young people in the Islamic world. The hopeful Arab Spring (2010-2013) has been replaced by a threatening Islamic winter. A number of major events shook the Muslim world on both the Asian and the African continents as well as peripheral Islamic minorities in Australia, Canada, and Latin America. Among them were the Islamic Bomb and the rise of radical Islamic movements (notably Hamas and Hezbollah) and the rift between Sunnites and Shiites. These and other momentous events in the Islamic world occasioned the 'Arab Spring' and produced unrest in a wide swath of the Muslim world. Even more importantly, these were forming trends that are characterizing the decades thereafter.

The prophet Muhammad and the early Islamic community radically redefined the concept of time that they had inherited from earlier religions' beliefs and practices. This new temporal system, based on a lunar calendar and era, was complex and required sophistication and accuracy. From the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, it was the Muslim astronomers of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires who were responsible for the major advances in mathematics, astronomy and astrology. This fascinating study compares the Islamic concept of time, and its historical and cultural significance, across these three great empires. Each empire, while mindful of earlier models, created a new temporal system, fashioning a new solar calendar and era and a new round of rituals and ceremonies from the cultural resources at hand. This book contributes to our understanding of the Muslim temporal system and our appreciation of the influence of Islamic science on the Western world.

Muslim Institutions of Higher Education in Postcolonial Africa examines the colonial discriminatory practices against Muslim education through control and dismissal and discusses the education reform movement of the post-colonial experience.

How did Tunisia succeed in eliminating the threat of militant Islamic fundamentalism? Borowiec examines the actions, which begin with the removal of the senile President Habib Bourguiba in 1987, known in Tunisia as the change. Today, while its next door neighbor, Algeria, is in the midst of an upheaval threatening modernization and a secular government, Tunisia is the only Muslim country to ban polygamy and to introduce state-funded contraception. Borowiec begins by sketching Tunisia's history from the Phoenician era onward. He provides a detailed analysis of the country's Islamic movement, and then examines the efforts of Bourguiba's successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to liberalize the economy, foster a Western orientation, and make education accessible to all. Interviews with leading government officials as well as educators, writers, and average Tunisians puts a human face on a process that may allow Tunisia to make the transition to become a young developed nation at the beginning of the next millennium. This book is important to scholars, researchers, and the general public concerned with events in North Africa and the Arab world.

This book presents successful case studies in Muslim and Muslim minority countries that have revolutionized the redevelopment of idle waqf properties into productive land trusts. The revival of this institution over the last two decades shows the growing optimism in galvanizing the socioeconomic role of waqf by adopting its flexible shariah measures. Innovative ways of financing redevelopment allow Muslims to extend these roles to include new beneficiaries. New uses for these properties include providing services to the community, opening jobs for the majority of people, funding small entrepreneurs, educating the masses, providing health care, and sheltering the poor and needy. Countries under study include Sudan, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, New Zealand, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Iran. Additionally, the book examines the International Development Bank's role in financing the development old waqf properties in different countries.

The Iranian Connection is the network of embassies and diplomatic staffs spread throughout the world that support Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism, controlled by 'Dept 15', in Tehran, the Iranian government denying all implication. When he came to power in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini used terrorism to consolidate his position, realised its potential, and exploited it to further his dream to 'March to Jerusalem', by assassinating his enemies, supporting like-minded national terrorist groups, causing huge explosions at Israeli embassies, organising aircraft hijacking and hostage-taking. The Iranian Connection is supporting insurrection in Algeria and the Israeli Occupied Territories, the object being to install governments that will rule according to the Koran and Muslim custom.

Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East (the former: Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des Vorderen Orients) are published as supplement to Der Islam founded in 1910 by Carl Heinrich Becker, an early practitioner of the modern study of Islam. Following Becker's lead, the mission of the series is the study of past societies of the Middle East, their belief systems, and their underlying social and economic relations, from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia, and from the Ukrainian steppes to the highlands of Yemen. Publications in the series draw on the philological groundwork generated by the literary tradition, but in their aim to cover the entire spectrum of the historically oriented humanities and social sciences, also utilize textual sources as well as archival, material, and archaeological evidence. Its editors are Stefan Heidemann (Universitat Hamburg, editor-in-chief), Gottfried Hagen (University of Michigan), Andreas Kaplony (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen), and Rudi Matthee (University of Delaware).

The book discusses leading issues in Islamic economics and finance that continue to remain in a fluid, non-consensual state in the profession. It examines the nature and significance of Islamic economics. The book deals with the mainstream topics including growth, environment, distributive justice, monetary policy, risk treatment, methodology and Basel Accords to rehabilitate them for the Islamic discipline within the framework of scarcity, self-interest and gain maximization. Further, it explores the role of the state in directing the economy toward achieving Islamic goals of development and welfare.

Generations of Western writers--from the Crusades to the present day--have written portraits claiming to depict the life and personality of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Over the course of thirteen centuries, stubbornly biased and consistently negative representations have persisted, presenting images which bear no resemblance to the noble man familiar to Muslims. Muhammad in Europe traces this consistent tradition of distortion and provides an account of the reasons behind it.

Drawing on works dating from the Middle Ages to the last decade of the twentieth century and spanning Latin, Italian, French, German, and English language sources, the book culminates with a critical analysis of Salman Rushdie's controversial novel, "The Satanic Verses."

First published in 1991, this title explores the myths and misperceptions that have underpinned Muslim-Christian relations throughout history, and which endure to the current day. William Montgomery Watt describes how the myths originated and developed, and argues that both Muslims and Christians need to have a more accurate knowledge and positive appreciation of the other religion. Chapters discuss the Qur'anic perception of Christianity, attitudes to Greek philosophy and the relationship between Islam and Christianity in medieval Europe. Written by one of the leading authorities on Islam in the West, Muslim-Christian Encounters remains a relevant and vivid study and will be of particular value to students of Islam, religious history and sociology.

This book offers an alternative framework for macroeconomic policy in Malaysia, derived from the universal principles of social justice espoused in the objectives of the Shariah. It attempts to holistically analyze issues related to public finance, which has been criticized for lack of transparency and justice in wealth distribution. This book explores these criticisms and discusses the principles of Islamic finance that may be applied to macroeconomic policymaking to create a better economy overall. It presents a case for a flat tax system, to make the economy more resilient to shocks, and financing methods that limit interest-rate-based debt contracts and allow greater risk sharing among the market participants on a broad scale. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this book models the Malaysian economy based on policies that apply the fundamental Islamic finance principle of risk sharing to demonstrate its benefits in spurring growth, promoting distributive justice, rendering the economy more stable, strengthening the potency of monetary policy, enhancing fiscal governance, and improving financial inclusion. The book will be of interest to students, policymakers, financial institutions, researchers, ministries of finance, central banks, securities commissions, and anyone interested in alternative economic paradigms.

For many years Malise Ruthven has been at the forefront of discerning commentary on the Islamic world and its relations with the predominantly secularised and Christian societies of the West. Well known for his bold interventions on such issues as the Rushdie affair and publication of "The Satanic Verses"; the many unresolved questions relating to the Lockerbie bombing; and the globe-changing terrorist attack of 9/11, Ruthven's perceptive writings, particularly those that have appeared in the "New York Review of Books", reliably re-frame difficult issues and problems so that his readers are prompted to look at the challenges afresh. Ruthven is here at his most compelling: he offers astute and topical insights across the whole spectrum of Middle East and Islamic studies. Whether questioning the involvement of Libyan agents in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103; exploring the contested place of women in Islam; or discussing the disputed term 'Islamofascism' (his own), the author's probing, searchlight intelligence aims always to get at the truth of things, regardless of attendant controversy. Representing the 'best of Ruthven', these lucid essays will be widely appreciated by students, specialists and general readers. They transform our understandings of contemporary society.

Years of research into secret societies in the United States led Seraphim to present a daring and riveting expose on post-modern secret societies, or "occult orders." He offers more than five years of personal communications, commentary, and insight into the 21st-century activities of contemporary "occult" groups and uncovers an extremely alarming trend inside modern occultism.