This collection of arresting and innovative chapters applies the
techniques of anthropology in analyzing the role played by Islam in
the social lives of the world's Muslims. The volume begins with an
introduction that sets out a powerful case for a fresh approach to
this kind of research, exhorting anthropologists to pause and
reflect on when Islam is, and is not, a central feature of their
informants' life-worlds and identities. The chapters that follow
are written by scholars with long-term, specialist research
experience in Muslim societies ranging from Kenya to Pakistan and
from Yemen to China: thus they explore and compare Islam's social
significance in a variety of settings that are not confined to the
Middle East or South Asia alone. The authors assess how helpful
current anthropological research is in shedding light on Islam's
relationship to contemporary societies.Collectively, the
contributors deploy both theoretical and ethnographic analysis of
key developments in the anthropology of Islam over the last 30
years, even as they extrapolate their findings to address wider
debates over the anthropology of world religions more generally.
Crucially, they also tackle the thorny question of how, in the
current political context, anthropologists might continue
conducting sensitive and nuanced work with Muslim communities.
Finally, an afterword by a scholar of Christianity explores the
conceptual parallels between the book's key themes and the
anthropology of world religions in a broader context. This volume
has key contemporary relevance: for example, its conclusions on the
fluidity of people's relations with Islam will provide an important
counterpoint to many commonly held assumptions about the
incontestability of Islam in the public sphere.
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