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?

Examining the global experiences, challenges and achievements of Muslim women participating in physical activities and sport, this important new study makes a profound contribution to our understanding of both contemporary Islam and the complexity and diversity of women's lives in the modern world.

The book presents an overview of current research into constructs of gender, the role of religion and the importance of situation, and looks closely at what Islam has to say about women's participation in sport and what Muslim women themselves have to say about their participation in sport. It highlights the challenges and opportunities for women in sport in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, utilizing a series of extensive case-studies in various countries which invite the readers to conduct cross-cultural comparisons. Material on Iraq, Palestine and Bosnia and Herzegovina provides rare insights into the impact of war on sporting activities for women. The book also seeks to make important recommendations for improving access to sport for girls and women from Muslim communities.

Muslim Women and Sport confronts many deeply held stereotypes and crosses those commonly quoted boundaries between 'Islam and the West' and between 'East and West'. It makes fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the interrelationships between sport, religion, gender, culture and policy.

This study emphasizes Muslim women's rights as human rights. The book explores the existing patriarchal structures and processes that present women's human rights as contradictory to Islam. Academics and activists, most of whom live in the Muslim world, discuss the major issues facing women of the region as they enter the 21st century. They demonstrate how the cultural segregation of women, contradictory and conflicting legal codes, and the monopoly of the interpretation of religious texts held by a select group of male theologians, have resulted in domestic and political violence against women and the suppression of their rights. The contributors focus on ways and means of empowering Muslim women to participate in the general socialization process as well as in implementing and evaluating public policy.

There are two main trends distinguishable amongst Muslim reformists - revivalists and modernists. This book charts and analyses the main trends of Muslim reformist political thought in Bukhara. It is the first to utilize original sources preserved in Soviet archives that were previously inaccessible to western scholars. The author has translated numerous original documents from Tajiki and Russian into English. This book thus serves as a useful resource for students of Islam, Central Asia, the former Soviet Union, and of law, politics and philosophy.

This book is the first to provide a complete overview of Islamic extremism in Kuwait. It traces the development of Islamist fundamentalist groups in Kuwait, both Shiite and Sunni, from the beginning of the twentieth century. It outlines the nature and origins of the many different groups, considers their ideology and organization, shows how their activities are intertwined with the wider economy, society and politics to the extent that they are now a strong part of society, and discusses their armed activities, including terrorist activities. Although focusing on Kuwait, it includes overage of the activities of Islamist groups in other Gulf States. It also discusses the relation between Ruling Families with Islamist political groups, thereby demonstrating that the intertwining of Islamic ideology and armed activities with politics is not a new development in the region.

Themistius' close relationship with Christian emperors from Constantius to Theodosius makes him one of the most important political thinkers and politicians of the later fourth century, and his dealings with Julian the Apostate have recently attracted much speculation. This volume presents a new critical edition, translation and analysis of Themistius' Letter to Julian about kingship and government, which survives mainly in Arabic, together with texts, translations and analyses of Julian's Letter to Themistius and Sopater's Letter to Himerius. The volume is completed with a text, translation and analysis of the other genuine work of Greek political theory to survive in Arabic, the Letter of Aristotle to Alexander, which dates from an earlier period and throws into relief the particular concerns of Themistius, Julian, and the rulers of the fourth-century Roman world.

Muslims in 21st Century Europe explores the interaction between native majorities and Muslim minorities in various European countries with a view to highlighting different paths of integration of immigrant and native Muslims.

Starting with a critical overview of the institutionalisation of Islam in Europe and a discussion on the nature of Muslimophobia as a social phenomenon, this book shows how socio-economic, institutional and political parameters set the frame for Muslim integration in Europe. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden are selected as case studies among the 'old' migration hosts. Italy, Spain and Greece are included to highlight the issues arising and the policies adopted in southern Europe to accommodate Muslim claims and needs.

The book highlights the internal diversity of both minority and majority populations, and analyses critically the political and institutional responses to the presence of Muslims.

Southeast Asia manifests some of the most interesting, non-violent as well as conflictual elements of Islamic social and political life in the world. This book examines the ways in which Muslim politics in Southeast Asia has greatly impacted democratic practice and contributed to its practical and discursive development. It addresses the majority and minority situations of Muslims within both democratic and authoritarian politics. It shows, for example, how in Muslim majority Indonesia and Malaysia, political Islam directly engages with procedural democracy; in Muslim minority Thailand and the Philippines, it has taken a violent route; and in Muslim minority Singapore, it has been successfully managed through civil and electoral politics. By exploring such nuances, variations, comparisons and linkages among Muslim majority and minority countries, this book deepens our understanding of the phenomenon of Muslim politics in the region as a whole.

Indonesia provides particularly interesting examples of gender diversity. Same-sex relations, transvestism and cross-gender behaviour have long been noted amongst a wide range of Indonesian peoples. This book explores the nature of gender diversity in Indonesia, and with the world's largest Muslim population, it examines Islam in this context. Based on extensive ethnographic research, it discusses in particular calalai - female-born individuals who identify as neither woman nor man; calabai - male-born individuals who also identify as neither man nor woman; and bissu - an order of shamans who embody female and male elements. The book examines the lives and roles of these variously gendered subjectivities in everyday life, including in low-status and high-status ritual such as wedding ceremonies, fashion parades, cultural festivals, Islamic recitations and shamanistic rituals. The book analyses the place of such subjectivities in relation to theories of gender, gender diversity and sexuality.

Relating the Muslim understanding of Moses in the Qur'an to the Epic of Gilgamesh, Alexander Romances, Aramaic Targums, Rabbinic Bible exegesis, and folklore from the ancient and medieval Mediterranean, this book shows how Muslim scholars authorize and identify themselves through allusions to the Bible and Jewish tradition. Exegesis of Qur'an 18:60-82 shows how Muslim exegetes engage Biblical theology through interpretation of the ancient Israelites, their prophets, and their Torah. This Muslim use of a scripture shared with Jews and Christians suggests fresh perspectives for the history of religions, Biblical studies, cultural studies, and Jewish-Arabic studies.

This book is the first systematic attempt to study the situation of European and American Muslims after 9/11, and to present a comprehensive analysis of their religious, political, and legal situations.

Since 9/11, and particularly since the Madrid and London bombings of 2004 and 2005, the Muslim presence in Europe and the United States has become a major political concern. Many have raised questions regarding potential links between Western Muslims, radical Islam, and terrorism. Whatever the justification of such concerns, it is insufficient to address the subject of Muslims in the West from an exclusively counter-terrorist perspective. Based on empirical studies of Muslims in the US and Western Europe, this edited volume posits the situation of Muslim minorities in a broader reflection on the status of liberalism in Western foreign policies. It also explores the changes in immigration policies, multiculturalism and secularism that have been shaped by the new international context of the 'war on terror'.

This book will be of great interest to students of Critical Security Studies, Islamic Studies, Sociology and Political Science in general.

Jocelyne Cesari is an Associate at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for European Studies, teaching at Harvard Divinity School and the Government Department, specializing in Islam and the Middle East.

This book is the first systematic attempt to study the situation of European and American Muslims after 9/11, and to present a comprehensive analysis of their religious, political, and legal situations.

Since 9/11, and particularly since the Madrid and London bombings of 2004 and 2005, the Muslim presence in Europe and the United States has become a major political concern. Many have raised questions regarding potential links between Western Muslims, radical Islam, and terrorism. Whatever the justification of such concerns, it is insufficient to address the subject of Muslims in the West from an exclusively counter-terrorist perspective. Based on empirical studies of Muslims in the US and Western Europe, this edited volume posits the situation of Muslim minorities in a broader reflection on the status of liberalism in Western foreign policies. It also explores the changes in immigration policies, multiculturalism and secularism that have been shaped by the new international context of the war on terror .

This book will be of great interest to students of Critical Security Studies, Islamic Studies, Sociology and Political Science in general.

Jocelyne Cesari is an Associate at Harvard s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Center for European Studies, teaching at Harvard Divinity School and the Government Department, specializing in Islam and the Middle East.

This book draws on the research of some of the leading scholars in the fields of Jewish-Islamic relations, the Israeli-Arab conflict and political Islam. These highly topical essays examine the relationship between Israel and the Islamic world from both a thematic and geo-strategic perspective.

Divided into two distinct sections, the first section of the book deals with issues relating to contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations and, in particular, looks at the attitude towards the Jewish state amongst opinion-makers, religious institutions and leaders in the Muslim world. Key issues such as the Islamic attitude to Palestinian suicide-bombing, and Arab anti-Semitism are addressed here. The second section examines the attitude of key Muslim nations Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan to the Jewish state, and charts the evolving, bilateral relationship between these nations and Israel from the birth of the Jewish State in 1948 up to the present day.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Israel Affairs.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) were elected to power in 2002 and since then Turkish politics has undergone considerable change. This book is a comprehensive analysis of the AKP, in terms not just of its ideological agenda, but also of its social basis and performance in office in the main theatres of public policy - political reform, and cultural, economic and foreign policies.

Based on an extensive analysis of official and party documents, interviews, academic sources and media coverage, the book outlines the main features of the current global debate on the relationship between Islam, Islamism and democracy. While most top AKP leaders come from an Islamist background, the party has behaved as a moderate, centre-right, conservative democratic party who are fully committed to democracy, a free market economy and Turkey's EU membership. The book explores and analyses these changes in Turkish politics, and provides coverage of the workings of the contemporary Turkish political systems, policy and ideological issues that go to the heart of Turkish identity.

Filling a gap in the existing Turkish and English literature on the subject, this book will be an important contribution to Political Science, particularly the areas of Turkish politics, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies and comparative politics.

This book deals with two different pragmatic approaches to textual communication: (i) the mainstream approach followed by the 'Ash'ari s, Hanafi s and Mu'tazili s, (ii) the salafite approach followed mainly by the Hanbali s, defended and elaborated by Ibn Taymiyyah. One of the primary aims of the book is to explore and formulate several Muslim legal theorists' pragmatic theories, communicative principles and linguistic views, construct them in the form of models and set them within a general uniform framework. Another aim is to reveal a corpus of information and data which, though highly relevant to modern pragmatics, is still unknown. This study, which can be seen as an extensive introduction to 'medieval Islamic pragmatics', is the first attempt to examine the approaches followed by the Salafi s or the mainstream from a pragmatic viewpoint. There has been no attempt to explain the principles and the strategies utilised by the medieval Sunni Muslim legal theorists in their account of how communication works and how successful interpretation is achieved. Of course, a lot of work has been done on different Islamic sects and their different positions over the interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah, but these studies fall short of delving into the underlying communicative principles that motivate their differences over interpretation. The author's formulation of the Muslim legal theorists' views is enhanced by setting up a reliable theoretical foundation and by delving into their underlying philosophical principles. This involves relating the legal theorists' insights into interpretation and communication to their relevant ontological, epistemological and theological outlooks, and comparing these insights with their modern pragmatic counterparts.

This book is regarded as a personal manifesto, a statement through the history of partition and its aftermath, of the values which India's Muslims should cherish and of the national priorities they should promote. It provides the reference-point for understanding India's Partition and its legacy.

The growth of Islam both worldwide and particularly in the United States is especially notable among African-American inmates incarcerated in American state and federal penitentiaries. This growth poses a powerful challenge to American penal philosophy, structured on the ideal of rehabilitating offenders through penance and appropriate penal measures. Islam in American Prisons argues that prisoners converting to Islam seek an alternative form of redemption, one that poses a powerful epistemological as well as ideological challenge to American penology. Meanwhile, following the events of 9/11, some prison inmates have converted to radical anti-Western Islam and have become sympathetic to the goals and tactics of the Al-Qa'ida organization. This new study examines this multifaceted phenomenon and makes a powerful argument for the objective examination of the rehabilitative potentials of faith-based organizations in prisons, including the faith of those who convert to Islam.

It is commonly believed that during the interwar period, Kemalist secularism successfully eliminated religion from the public sphere in Turkey, leaving Turkish national identity devoid of religious content. However, through its examination of the impact of the Ottoman millet system on Turkish and Balkan nationalisms, this book presents a different view point. Cagaptay demonstrates that the legacy of the Ottomon millet system which divided the Ottoman population into religious compartments called millets, shaped Turkey s understanding of nationalism in the interwar period. Providing a compelling examination of why and how religion shapes national identity in Turkey and the Balkans the book covers topics including:

* Turkish nationalism
* the Ottoman legacy
* Kemalist citizenship policies and immigration
* Kurds, Muslims and Jews and the ethno-religious limits of Turkishness.

Incorporating documents from untapped Turkish archives, this book is essential reading for scholars and students with research interests in Turkey, Turkish nationalism and Middle East history.

Islam's Predicament with Modernity presents an in-depth cultural and political analysis of the issue of political Islam as a potential source of tensions and conflict, and how this might be peacefully resolved.

Looking at the issue of modernity from an Islamic point of view, the author examines the role of culture and religion in Muslim society under conditions of globalisation, and analyses issues such as law, knowledge and human rights. He engages a number of significant studies on political Islam and draws on detailed case studies, rejecting the approaches of both Orientalists and apologists and calling instead for a genuine Islamic pluralism that accepts the equality of others. Situating modernity as a Western product at the crux of his argument, he argues that a separation of religion and politics is required, which presents a challenge to the Islamic worldview.

This critical analysis of value conflicts, tensions and change in the Islamic world will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of international relations, social theory, political science, religion, Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies.

Islam's Predicament with Modernity presents an in-depth cultural and political analysis of the issue of political Islam as a potential source of tensions and conflict, and how this might be peacefully resolved.

Looking at the issue of modernity from an Islamic point of view, the author examines the role of culture and religion in Muslim society under conditions of globalisation, and analyses issues such as law, knowledge and human rights. He engages a number of significant studies on political Islam and draws on detailed case studies, rejecting the approaches of both Orientalists and apologists and calling instead for a genuine Islamic pluralism that accepts the equality of others. Situating modernity as a Western product at the crux of his argument, he argues that a separation of religion and politics is required, which presents a challenge to the Islamic worldview.

This critical analysis of value conflicts, tensions and change in the Islamic world will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of international relations, social theory, political science, religion, Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies.

This book is the first detailed study of the causes of de-radicalization in armed Islamist movements. It is based on frontline research that includes interviews with Jihadist leaders, mid-ranking commanders, and young sympathizers, as well as former security and intelligence officers and state officials.

Additionally, it is also the first book to analyze the particular conditions under which successful de-radicalization can take place. The current literature on Islamist movements attempts to explain two principal issues: their support of violence (radicalization) and their changing attitudes towards democracy and democratization (moderation). However, the reasons behind renouncing (behavioural de-radicalization) and de-legitimizing (ideological de-radicalization) violence have not been evaluated to date. The author provides an in-depth analysis of the de-radicalization processes of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers (1951-73), former allies of al-Qa'ida, such as al-Gama'a al-Islammiyya (Islamic Group of Egypt, 1997-2002) and al-Jihad Organization (2007- present), as well as of Algerian Islamist groups (1997-2000). The book also analyzes cases of de-radicalization failure.

The two questions that the book highlights and attempts to answer are Why? and How? For example, why do radical Islamist militants revise their ideologies, strategies and objectives and initiate a de-radicalization process; and what are the necessary conditions behind successful de-radicalization? De-radicalization of Jihadists shows how a combination of charismatic leadership, state repression, social interactions and selective inducements can ultimately lead jihadists to abandon 'jihad' and de-legitimize violence.

This book will be of great interest to students of radical Islamist movements and Islamic Studies, terrorism and political violence, security studies, and Middle Eastern politics.

Omar Ashour is a Lecturer in Politics in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He has a PhD in International Relations from McGill University in Canada.

This book is the first published English-language translation of the significant History of Islamic Spain by Ibn al-Qutiya (d. Cordova 367 / 977). Including extensive notes and comments, a genealogical table and relevant maps, the text is preceded by a study of the author and his work, and is the only serious examination of the unique manuscript since Pascual de Gayangos? edition in 1868.

Ibn al-Qutiya's work is one of the significant and earliest histories of Muslim Spain and an important source for scholars. Although like most Muslims of al-Andalus in this period, Ibn al-Qutiya was of European origin, he was a loyal servant of the Iberian Umayyads, and taught Arabic, traditions (hadith) and history in the Great Mosque of Cordova. Written at the height of the Umayyad Caliphate of Muslim Spain and Portugal (al-Andalus), the History describes the first 250 years of Muslim rule in the peninsula. The text, first fully translated into Spanish in 1926, deals with all aspects of life, and includes accounts of Christians, Jews and Muslim converts.

This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of the history of Spain and Portugal, Islamic history, and Mediaeval European history.

A young girl's imagination takes flight and carries her on a magical journey. From the great mosques to wondrous palaces and ornamental gardens, she journeys through the rich artistic heritage of the Islamic civilization. The richness and beauty of Islamic art is brought to life.

The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s ended the Yugoslavian Federation, which for nearly fifty years had succeeded in preserving a delicate coexistence among the ethnic, religious, and national components contained within it. Following this, the Balkans became a violent arena of confrontation due to these warring factions. Islamic Terror and the Balkans describes and analyzes the growth of radical Islam in the Balkans from its inception during the years of World War II to the present.

Shay's account shows how the Bosnian War between the Muslims and the Serbs provided the historical opportunity for radical Islam to penetrate the Balkans, at a time when the Muslim world, headed by Iran and the various Islamic terror organizations, including Al-Qaida, came to the aid of the Muslims in Bosnia. In the framework of the mobilization of these entities in aiding the Muslim side in the conflict, the operational and organizational infrastructure of Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards was established, as well as those operated by other Islamic terror organizations.

When war in Bosnia ended, terrorist infrastructures remained in the Balkans and served as a basis for these entities' intervention in the confrontation that developed in the Balkans in the late-1990s, specifically in Kosovo and Macedonia. Today, the Balkans serve as a forefront on European soil for Islamic terror organizations, which exploits this area to promote their activities in Western Europe, Russia, and other focal points worldwide. Shay's analysis of terror activity in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and exposure of terror cells throughout the world, and particularly in Europe, attest to the increasing involvement of the "Balkan alumni" and of the terrorist infrastructure from this area in creating global terror activity.

In recent years, Islamic fundamentalist, revolutionary, and jihadist movements have overshadowed more moderate and reformist voices and trends within Islam. This compelling volume introduces the current generation of reformist thinkers and activists, the intellectual traditions they carry on, and the reasons for the failure of reformist movements to sustain broad support in the Islamic world today. Richly detailed regionally focused chapters cover Iran, the Arab East, the Maghreb, South Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Europe, and North America. The editor's introductory chapter traces the roots of reformist thinking both in Islamic tradition and as a response to the challenge of modernity for Muslims struggling to reconcile the requirements of modernization with their cultural and religious values. The concluding chapter identifies commonalities, comparisons, and trends in the modernizing movements.