Series Information:
Islamic Studies Series

Islam and Political Legitimacy explores one of the most challenging issues facing the Muslim world: the Islamisation of political power. It presents a comparative analysis of Muslim societies in West, South, Central and South East Asia and highlights the immediacy of the challenge for the political leadership in those societies. Contributors to this volume examine the evolving relationship between Islam and political power in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. Researchers and students of political Islam and the growth of radicalism in the Muslim world will find Islam and Political Legitimacy of special interest. This is a welcome addition to the rich literature on the politics of the contemporary Muslim world.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203503805

Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia is one of the first substantial comparative studies of contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia, homes to the world's largest Muslim population. Following the collapse of New Order rule in Indonesia in 1998, this book provides an in-depth examination of anti-authoritarian forces in contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia, assessing their problems and prospects. The authors discuss the roles played by women, public intellectuals, arts workers, industrial workers as well as environmental and Islamic activists. They explore how different forms of authoritarianism in the two countries affect the prospects of democratization, and examine the impact and legacy of the diverse social and political protests in Indonesia and Malaysia in the late 1990s.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203208005

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 is the only volume dedicated to the Alevis available in English and is based on sustained fieldwork in Turkey. The Alevis now have an increasingly high profile for those interested in the diverse cultures of contemporary Turkey, and in the role of Islam in the modern world. As a heterodox Islamic group, the Alevis have no established doctrine. This book reveals that as the Alevi move from rural to urban sites, they grow increasingly secular, and their religious life becomes more a guiding moral culture than a religious message to be followed literally. But the study shows that there is nothing inherently secular-proof within Islam, and that belief depends upon a range of contexts.

eBook available with sample pages: 020341750X

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the major intellectual positions in the philosophical debate on Islamic law that is occuring in contemporary Iran. In light of the relationship between global modernity and the religion of Islam, the purpose is to analyze to what extent these positions and their understanding of questions of epistemology, methodology and hermeneutics are engendered by the cognitive and ontological structures of modernity. Among the pivotal figures who are considered in this respect are primarily Abdullah Jawadi-Amuli (traditionalism), Muhammad Mujtahid-Shabistari (modernism) and Abd al-Karim Surush (postmodernism), but other individuals who belong to the intellectual elite of Iran are also included.

Islamic Philosophy has unusual origins. Originally a hybrid of Greek philosophy and early Islamic theology, its technical language consisted of a number of words translated from the Greek. This book studies how Islamic philosophers of the ninth century AD, such as al-Kindi, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, developed an indigenous set of terms and concepts. Their Books of Definition influenced the revision of the Arabic language to incorporate these new fields of knowledge.
Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy: The Limits of Words uses the work of these philosophers as a basis from which a comparison with their Greek precedents is enabled. The book presents a framework for incorporating an Islamic and historically contextualised philosophy into a continuum of world philosophers. At the core of this framework is Ibn Sina's Kitab al-hudud which the author has translated into English and situates it in its correct geopolitical framework. In establishing a historical and literary context for the writing and circulation of Ibn Sina's definitions, the book breaks new ground in the integration of Islamic philosophy within a general history of philosophies.
This fascinating and comprehensive study will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students of Islamic Philosophy.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203221370

This important contribution to the literature on development economics analyses the effectiveness of programme aid - i.e. aid that is given in the form of projects. Using real world examples from countries such as Nicaragua, Tanzania, and Vietnam this book deals with one of the core issues in development economics today.

Travel beyond the fear and paranoia of 9-11 to experience Muslim culture Gay Travels in the Muslim World journeys where other gay travel books fear to treadMuslim countries. This thought-provoking book tells both Muslim and non-Muslim gay men's stories of traveling in the Middle East during these difficult political times. The true, very personal tales reveal how gay men celebrate their lives and meetings with local men, including a gay soldier's story of his tour of duty in Iraq. Insightful and at times sexy, this intelligent book goes beyond 9-11 and the present political and cultural divides to illustrate the real experiences of gay men in trouble zonesin an effort to seek peace for all. After the collapse of the Twin Towers, fears about terrorism and Muslim culture went hand in hand. Gay Travels in the Muslim World enters the current war zones to bring real and very personal stories of gay men who live and travel in these dangerous areas. This book challenges readers' preconceptions and assumptions about both homosexuality and being Muslim, while showing the wide range of experiencesgood and badabout the regions as well as the differences in attitudes and beliefs. Excerpts from Gay Travels in the Muslim World: From I Want Your Eyes by David Stevens Men by themselves are rare. I pass a handsome Omani man sitting on the Corniche wall with a cigarette between his long brown fingers. He wears his colourful cuma cap at a jaunty angle and his mustard-coloured dishdasha has risen up to reveal tantalizingly hairy calves. I note the carefully made holes in his earsnot in his ear lobes but deep inside the cartilagesa pre-Islamic custom still practiced on some male babies to ward off evil spirits. I decide it suits him. From It All Began with Mamadou by Jay Davidson Drawing definitive conclusions about a society after living here for a little more than a year is not a wise, safe, or responsible action on my part. If a society's culture is a mosaic of thousands of little tiles, then I like to think that what I have been able to piece together has been a tableau in which certain aspects have become discernable, some are a little less clear, and others remain in a way that I will never see as whole and comprehensible. From A Market and a Mosque by Martin Foreman Sylhet, Bangladesh: It's eight o'clock in the evening and Tarique and Paritosh are taking me out to look at the cruising spots. Until I flew in here this afternoon, all I knew of the provincial city and the surrounding area was that it was where most of the Bangladeshis in the UK come fromand since most of the Bangladeshis in the UK live in my home borough of Tower Hamlets, I feel a kind of affinity with the place. Whether or not Sylhet feels an affinity with me is a different matter. From Work In Progress: Notes From A Continuing Journey of Manufacturing Dissent by Parvez Sharma In the construction of the image and life of the queer Muslim is also the awareness of the not so well known fact that a sexual revolution of immense proportions came to the earliest Muslims, some 1,300 years before the West had even thought about it. This promise of equal gender rights and, unlike in the Bible, the stress on sex as not just reproduction but also enjoyment within the confines of marriage has all but been lost in the rhetoric spewing from loudspeakers perched on Masjid'sor mosquesin Riyadh, Marrakech and Islamabad. The same Islam that has for centuries not only tolerated but also openly celebrated homosexuality is, today, used to justify a state-sanctioned pogrom against gay men in EgyptAmerica's enlightened friend in the Middle East. Gay Travels in the Muslim World is a refreshing, well written look a

The two theories of divine love that are examined in this book have their foundations in Greek, Jewish, Christian and Muslim ideas. Al-Ghazâlî (12th century) was influenced mainly by Plato and Ibn Sina's teachings, while al-Dabbâgh (13th century), who accepted some Ghazâlîan notions, developed a theory of divine love that can be traced back to Neoplatonism. Both scholars created complete theories of divine love that include definitions of love, its causes and signs, the ways to love God, God's love for man, and kinds of love. The book will interest students of theology, philosophy and mysticism in general, and students of Islam in particular.

This book, based on extensive original research in the field, analyses the political, social and cultural implications of the rise of Islam in post-Soviet Russia. Examining in particular the situation in Tatarstan and Dagestan, where there are large Muslim populations, the authors chart the long history of Muslim and orthodox Christian co-existence in Russia, discuss recent moves towards greater autonomy and the assertion of ethnic-religious identities which underlie such moves, and consider the actual practice of Islam at the local level, showing the differences between "official" and "unofficial" Islam, how ceremonies and rituals are actually observed (or not), how Islam is transmitted from one generation to the next, the role of Islamic thought, including that of radical sects, and Islamic views of men and women's different roles. Overall, the book demonstrates how far Islam in Russia has been extensively influenced by the Soviet and Russian multi-ethnic context.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203217691

Exploring the mainstream American Muslim community up close, this guide briefly traces the history of Islam in the US and Canada, while it offers a fascinating and informative introduction to Islamic values and institutions. It assesses such issues as American Muslims' perception of themselves, their differences from and similarities to Muslims in Islamic countries, and how they have adapted to life and work in the secular societies of the US and Canada. This book also depicts the responses of Muslim media organizations, charities and community support structures in the wake of 9/11.
Packed with data designed to serve researchers and Muslims alike, this unique resource includes useful tables and analyses of population statistics, immigration, and participation in the political process as well as an extensive directory of more than 130 pages that lists both websites and local contact details for the organizations that support today's mainstream US and Canadian Muslim community.

Americans' awareness of Islam and Muslims rose to seemingly unprecedented heights in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, but this is not the first time they have dominated American public life. Once before, during the period of the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis of 1979 to 1981, Americans found themselves targeted as a consequence of a militant interpretation of Islam. Daniel Pipes wrote In the Path of God in response to those events, and the heightened interest in Islam they generated. His objective was to present an overview of the connection between in Islam and political power through history in a way that would explain the origins of hostility to Americans and the West. Its relevance to our understanding of contemporary events is self evident.

Muslim antagonism toward the West is deeply rooted in historical experience. In premodern times, the Islamic world enjoyed great success, being on the whole more powerful and wealthier than their neighbors. About two hundred years ago, a crisis developed, as Muslims became aware of the West's overwhelming force and economic might. While they might have found these elements attractive, Muslims found European culture largely alien and distasteful. The resulting resistance to Westernization by Muslims has deep roots, has been more persistent than that of other peoples, and goes far to explain the deep Muslim reluctance to accept modern ways. In short, Muslims saw what the West had and wanted it too, but they rejected the methods necessary to achieve this. This, the Muslim trauma, has only worsened over the Years.

This book brings together research into key aspects of the interconnections between Islam, crime and the criminal justice system in Britain, a particularly timely collection in the light of both the recent disturbances in several northern English cities as well as the impact of the events of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath.

Chapters in the book focus on young Muslim men and criminal activity, Muslim women and their experiences of victimisation, the experiences of Muslim police officers, of Muslims in prison, issues of human rights in relation to Muslims in Britain, and the criminal justice policy implications of religious diversity. Main aims pursued through the book include issues of victimisation as perceived by Muslim communities, Muslim perspectives on crime and criminal justice, and ways of addressing issues of marginalisation and exclusion within Muslim communities.

Overall the book provides an important contribution to debates over the role of Muslims in British society generally, as well as their experiences of and involvement in the criminal justice system and the policy implications that arise from this.

Ibn al-Athir, who died in the 13th century, is one of the most important historians of Islam. His major chronicle, the Kamil fi'l-Ta'rikh, is one of the greatest achievements of Muslim historiography for the range and comprehensiveness of the sources it assembled and for its narrative, covering the whole sweep of Islamic history up to his own lifetime. This volume of D.S. Richards' translation covers the early years of conquest and the period of the 'great sultanate'. With its copious annotations, the translation will open a direct window into this period of history for non-Arabic readers and will be an invaluable aid and resource for students and scholars.

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.

One of the greatest dilemmas facing Muslims today is the fact that Muslim culture, which originated many centuries ago, is often seemingly incompatible with the culture of the modern Western world, and the features associated with it - technological progress, consumerism, and new electronic communication, all of which have the potential for a homogenizing effect on any culture. This book explores many key aspects of the globalisation process, discussing how Muslim countries are coping with the encounter with globalisation, as well as considering how the West is responding to Islam.

Series Information:
Culture and Civilization in the Middle East

In much of the Muslim world, Islamic political and economic movements appear to have a comparative advantage. Relative to similar secular groups, they are better able to mobilize supporters and sustain their cooperation long-term. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Turkey, a historically secular country that has experienced a sharp rise in Islamic-based political and economic activity. Drawing on rich data sources and econometric methods, Avital Livny challenges existing explanations - such as personal faith - for the success of these movements. Instead, Livny shows that the Islamic advantage is rooted in feelings of trust among individuals with a shared, religious group-identity. This group-based trust serves as an effective substitute for more generalized feelings of interpersonal trust, which are largely absent in many Muslim-plurality countries. The book presents a new argument for conceptualizing religion as both a personal belief system and collective identity.

This study of women and gender in a Muslim society draws on archival and literary sources as well as the life stories of women of different generations to offer a unique ethnographic and historical account of the lives of urban women in contemporary Azerbaijan. Focussing on a group of professional women in Baku, it provides insight into the impact of the Soviet system on the position of Azeri women, their conceptions of femininity and the significant changes brought about by the post-Soviet transition to a market economy and growing western influence. Also explored are the ways in which local cultural expectations and Islamic beliefs were accommodated to different modernisation projects.

One of the greatest dilemmas facing Muslims today is the fact that Muslim culture, which originated many centuries ago, is often seemingly incompatible with the culture of the modern Western world, and the features associated with it - technological progress, consumerism, and new electronic communication, all of which have the potential for a homogenizing effect on any culture. This book explores many key aspects of the globalisation process, discussing how Muslim countries are coping with the encounter with globalisation, as well as considering how the West is responding to Islam.

This book is a comparative study of the sociological field in two different Muslim societies: Malaysia and Egypt. It analyses the process of the production of 'knowledge' through the example of the modern 'Islamization of knowledge debate' and local empirical variations.

The fields of morality and ethics have been left out significantly from socio-scientific study in general and in economics and finance in particular. Yet this book argues that in this age of post-modernist analytical inquiry, the study of morality and ethics is an epistemological requirement. This book illustrates the delimiting nature of mainstream economic reasoning in treating morality and ethics and highlights the potential contribution of analytical monotheism, as typified by the Islamic concept of Tahwid. The principal purpose of this book is to undertake an introductory exploration of the critical area of comparative economic thought in order to place the nature and emergence of ethico-economic theory in its proper context. It is ultimately argued that such a post-orthodoxy revolutionary methodological worldview can be presented by Islamic political economy, Islamic economics and finance.

Instructive, entertaining and even stimulating. - Middle East International

Through an exploration of his experiences as a Muslim and his personal search for understanding, (Akbar Ahmed) sets before us the kindlier face of Islam and the dynamics of its history. - History Today

This is a most readable book which will set Muslims and non-Muslims thinking. - Islam, Christian and Muslim Relations

An in-depth analysis of Islamic history and society... required reading for students and researchers. - Colonel Ghulam Sarwar, The Voice of Islam