bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Crossing the Threshold
Authors: Solihu Abdul Kabir Hussain
Published: October 2020

Debate over the Hindu and Muslim religious identity, as well as the natureof the two communities’ interaction, has generated different answers. Tosome, it has been an interaction full of conflict and conflict-resolutionbetween two irreconcilable faiths. To others, it remains impossible to reconstructtheir history as one of convergence or divergence, due to the considerablevariation in their cultures and religions over time. Khan addresses thequestion from a different perspective. According to her, “the Hindus or theMuslims whom the question addresses are not real characters” (p. 4): Thereligious identity of the “Self” is not completely distinct from that of the“Other” in medieval India. Thus, the sporadic clashes between Hindus andMuslims have been due mainly to political reasons and occasionally to economicfactors, but definitely never to religious differences.Khan’s book dwells on the making of identity in the Indian subcontinentbetween medieval India and the end of the twentieth century. It seeks toexplore the spiritual encounters between the indigenous Hindu traditionsand Islam, their historical harmonious coexistence, and their presentpredicaments, with special reference to the intermediary position of NizariIsmailism, a Shi`i sect. Based on field research, observation, and personalexperience, the author demonstrates with vivid case studies, legends, andfolklore how the two peoples had formerly lived by shared deities and howthe change of identity based on Hindu nationalism and Islam has wroughthavoc.The book is broadly divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 examinessome important terminologies that underpin religio-cultural identities inIndian history. In ancient and medieval India, people were distinguished bysocio-religious strata, first by the varna system (socio-ritual categories) andlater by the jati panth (caste and sect) system. A similar thing applied toIndian Muslims, who were hierarchically categorized as Ashrafs (referringto nobles, foreign Muslims) and Ajlafs (referring to converts), but not simplyas “Muslims.”The interface between the indigenous Hindu religion and Islam goesbeyond the terminological resemblance and reaches the heart of religious ritualsand ideologies. In chapter 2, the author cites three modes of interaction ...
Middle East Patterns
Authors: Gandolfo K. Luisa
Published: October 2020

Widely regarded as the most comprehensive, authoritative, and geographicalstudy of the region, Middle East Patterns: Places, Peoples, and Politicshas evolved dexterously into a fourth edition that embraces such diversethemes as archaeology and military capabilities, ethnolinguistic features andagricultural developments, and future implications for relations both within and without the region. The additional 221 illustrations – comprising mapsexclusively hand-drawn for the publication as well as images contributed bythe author and tables that elucidate the text through their scrupulous cogency– jointly advance the author’s objective to enhance the reader’s knowledgeof the region through a review of the Middle East’s natural and cultural patternsand their impact upon political and economic developments. Transcendingthe conflicts that have made the region a permanent fixture of theworld’s media, Held presents an enlightening evaluation of the interactionbetween the region’s people and biophysical phenomena in the context ofspatial and historical processes over time.Introducing the region’s historical and geographical foundationsthrough eight chapters, “Part One: Physical and Cultural Geography” examinesthe environment, the historico-political evolution of the power cores,and the spatial interaction between the geographical areas and the politicalevents in a region that encompasses “ancient cultures in new states – oldwine in new bottles” (p. 219). Located in an area of geographical wondersthat range from the planet’s lowest body of water body (1,310 ft. below sealevel) to extreme weather conditions that witnessed a locale southwest of theDead Sea receive its average total annual rainfall in a one-hour downpourduring December 2003, the environment has not escaped the consequencesof political discord ...
Close Relationships
Authors: Holtzman Livnat
Published: October 2020

The two taboo concepts of incest and inbreeding are not so easy to detect inclassical Arabic literature. True, a persistent reader of classical Arabic literature,whether belletristic or historical, is bound to meet unexpectedly ruderemarks on the incestuous habits of one historical figure or the other (mostoften a non-Muslim) while reading a scholarly discussion on historicalevents. Nevertheless, the sources do not address incest and inbreeding in astraightforward manner. Centuries of pious and even sanctimonious discoursemay have covered these topics with a thick layer of dust, a layer thatGeert Jan van Gelder toils to remove in his comprehensive monographClose Relationships.As an illustrious specialist in classical Arabic belles-lettres, van Gelderrecruits his command in the vast scope of sixth- to nineteenth-century Arabicliterature to reveal a surprisingly large amount of stories, anecdotes, and sayingsabout incest and inbreeding hidden in the well-known canonical literature.By doing so, he proposes a resolution to the presupposed contradictionbetween strict taboos against incest in pre-Islamic and Islamic societies andthe role that incest played in reality. By drawing selectively from the writtensources, he produces an uneven but still convincing conceptual blend showingthe reciprocal relationship between literature and life. What may perplexthe reader is the author's perspective of literature overlapping reality, or viceversa.One of van Gelder’s motivations for writing the book is to analyzeancient customs in pre-Islamic and Islamic societies by adopting psychological,anthropological, and literal perspectives. He locates himself in relationto modern interpreters of incest, like Sigmund Freud, Émile Durkheim, B.H. Stricker, Edward Westermarck, and Edward William West, just to mentiona few. Whereas on the one hand he seeks ideas behind the texts ofbelles-lettres, historical fragments, myths, religious and legal texts, on theother he revels in a strong language of jests, anecdotes, songs of semivernacularand vernacular origin, thus brilliantly building up a sort of realityof his own. Van Gelder is cautious enough to discourage the reader fromtaking this seriously: “Literature is never a true mirror of society and reality”(p. 185) ...
Theology, International Law, and Torture
Authors: Elsanousi Mohamed
Published: October 2020

In the post-9/11 environment, the American Muslim community has finallyrealized that it can no longer keep the rest of American society at arm’s lengthwhile seeking to establish its own infrastructure and ensuring its continuity asa distinct community. One example of this community’s increased participationin American civil society is its new-found interest in interfaith dialogue.With such reasoning in mind, the Muslim community has partnered with variousfaith communities to create the National Religious Campaign againstTorture (NRCAT), which was launched during the “Theology, InternationalLaw, and Torture: A Conference on Human Rights and Religious Commitment”conference sponsored by Princeton Theological Seminary, 13-15 January2006, in Princeton, New Jersey.Religious leaders from across the nation, as well as Mohamed Elsanousi(director, Communication and Community Outreach, Islamic Society ofNorth America [ISNA]) Mohammed Shafiq (executive director, Center forInterfaith Studies and Dialogue, Nazareth College, and imam, IslamicCenter of Rochester); and Azhar Azeez (member, ISNA Executive Council and director, Islamic Association of Carrollton) as representatives of ISNA,worked together at this conference to build a powerful, spiritually basedcoalition. Over 160 eminent religious and academic figures, authors, journalists,retired government and military officers, human rights activists, andlawyers spoke ...
National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates 2006 National Conference
Authors: Berry Lemuel
Published: October 2020

The National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates[National Association of African American Studies, National Associationof Hispanic and Latino Studies, National Association of Native AmericanStudies and Affiliates, International Association of Asian Studies] held itsannual conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 13-18 February 2006.The conference served as host to over 580 college and university professors,as well as members of professional organizations, from across theUnited States and several foreign countries. In addition to the speakerswho addressed issues related to the African-American, Hispanic/Latino,Asian and Native American experience, there were more than 1,200 otherattendees.A sampling of institutions represented included the University ofTennessee, six institutions from the California State system, HamptonUniversity, Yale University, Quinnipiac University, Howard University,George Mason University, Wesleyan University, University of Kansas, andPurdue University. Additional participants and attendees came from theUnited Arab Emirates University, the Sequoyah Research Center, the Centerfor the Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice, Cubanet News,Stewart Associates, Erudite RPC Firm, the Economic Policy Institute, andImani Publications.The 2006 conference also involved the Islamic and Middle EasternStudies Association (IMESA). The participation from IMESA marks the firsttime this organization has held its meeting in conjunction with another organization.There were several outstanding papers presented by IMESA participants.Dr. Pisamai Vogulaar (The Center of Christian-Muslim Engagementfor Peace and Justice) presented a paper entitled “Living as MuslimMinorities: ACase Study of Thai Sunni Muslims in Bangkok and Arab SunniMuslims in Chicago.” The focus of this paper was of interest to many of theconference attendees. Other outstanding presentations included “FethullahGullen and Islam in the Contemporary World” by Dr. Yetkin Yildirin (TheInstitute of Interfaith Dialog), “That Which May Not Be Spoken: HomoeroticDesire in the Writings of Ismat Chugtai and Alifa Rifaat” by Dr. Indrani Mitra(St. Mary’s University), and “Seek What Brings Benefit: A Discussion ofContemporary Issues Involving Maslaha and a Few Theological Premises inIts Favor” by Mary C. Moorman (Yale University) ...
Perfection Makes Practice
Authors: Ali Muhamad
Published: October 2020

Studies of Islam in Southeast Asia have sought to better understand its multifacetedand complex dimensions, although one may make a generalizedcategorization of Muslim beliefs and practices based on a fundamental differencein ideologies and strategies, such as cultural and political Islam.Anna M. Gade’s Perfection Makes Practice stresses the cultural aspect ofIndonesian Muslim practices by analyzing the practices of reciting andmemorizing the Qur’an, as well as the annual competition.Muslim engagement with the Qur’an has tended to emphasize the cognitiveover the psychological dimension. Perfection Makes Practice analyzesthe role of emotion in these undertakings through a combination ofapproaches, particularly the history of religions, ethnography, psychology,and anthropology. By investigating Qur’anic practitioners in Makassar,South Sulawesi, during the 1990s, Gade argues that the perfection of theQur’an as a perceived, learned, and performed text has made and remade thepractitioners, as well as other members of the Muslim community, to renewor increase their engagement with the holy text. In this process, she suggests,moods and motivation are crucial to preserving the recited Qur’an and revitalizingthe Muslim community.In chapter 1, Gade begins with a theoretical consideration for her casestudy. Drawing from concepts that emphasize the importance of feeling andemotion in ritual and religious experience, she develops a conceptualizationof this engagement. In chapter 2, Gade explains memorization within thecontext of the self and social relations. She argues that Qur’anic memorizershave a special relationship with its style and structure, as well as with thesocial milieu. Although Qur’anic memorization is a normal practice for mostMuslims, its practitioners have learned how to memorize and recite beautifullysome or all of the Qur’an’s verses, a process that requires emotion ...
A Rumor of Anger
Authors: Satha-Anand Chaiwat
Published: October 2020

This paper is an attempt to understand “Muslims’ voices” at theadvent of the twenty-first century, especially the angry tonewithin. I would argue that such anger could be construed by situatingthe voices in the context of “pure war” constituted by terrorismused by different groups in the name of Islam, as well asstate violence used in the name of security and order at theexpense of rights and democracy. When the state exercises morecontrol over its population through modern technology, whichrenders private space almost obsolete, rumors are used to offsetits powerful gaze. Rumors about violence in the context of purewar, in turn, engender among Muslims some kinds of negativegroup cohesion that is fertile ground for anger directed against“the others,” as evidenced in Southeast Asia and elsewhere ...
From Orientalsim to Postcoloniality
Authors: Al Saeed Ali
Published: October 2020

Orientalsim and postcoloniality are synonymous with contemporary cultureand literature. As much as the younger generations of formally colonizednations and communities would like to argue, the truth of the matter is that on some level, their colonial times have made an everlasting impression ontheir own identity and culture. This was one of the many themes that theconference, held at the Södertörns Högskola University College in Stockholm,Sweden, focused on during its congested four-day program.This was one of the largest gatherings to deal with issues of ethnic identityand diversity, as well as the non-proverbial influences of colonialism inthe reshaping of new communities and their modernized cultures. Paperspresented ranged from diversity and nationalism in the postcolonial context,postcolonialsim and religious studies, African-American writing and socialactivism, colonial romanticism and white supremacy, and postcolonial literatureand film in English, among other topics ...
Reason and Inspiration in Islam
Authors: Rippin Andrew
Published: October 2020

Thirty-eight essays are brought together in this volume to honor HermannLandolt of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University, Canada. Abroad range of participants, including former students and colleagues bothclose and distant, have contributed essays, most of which deal with aspects ofIsmaili, Ithna-ashari, or Sufi thought. Almost all of the essays are in English;four are in French, however. The range of topics is catholic, to say the least,and the rough chronological ordering of the essays can hardly contain them.The “classical” section features such figures as al-Junayd, al-Farabi, IbnTufayl, al-Qadi al-Nu`man, al-Kirmani, Abu Hatim al-Razi, and al-Waqidi;the “medieval” takes in al-Ghazzali, al-Suhrawardi, al-Qushayri, al-Shahrastani,Afdal al-Din Kashani, Jami’, Najm al-Din Kubra, Ibn Sina, and al-Sha`rani; the “pre-modern” includes Shah Tahir, Ahmad Sirhindi, MollaSadra, and Fayd al-Kashani; and the “modern” section features not so muchpeople as themes, such as dervish orders, Ginans, ulama, tradition, and modernization.It is worth noting that several articles in the last section focustheir attention on medieval as much as modern aspects (if not more so, as inthe case of Eric Ormsby’s interesting essay “The Faith of Pharaoh: ADisputed Question in Islamic Theology”). Their classification seems to bemore out of consideration for achieving balance in the book’s form than inaccurately reflecting the contents. Be that as it may, such a cornucopia (asthe editor describes it) cannot help but provide something of relevance toalmost everyone interested in Islamic thought.Two essays particularly drew my attention; they also left me wishingthat the two authors had had an opportunity to consider the conjunctionbetween their papers before they were published (but the absence of such is,of course, in the nature of most such collections). L. Clarke’s excellent paperon “The Rise and Decline of Taqiyya in Twelver Shi`ism” will reward everyreader. Clarke shows how two meanings of taqiyya – “precautionary dissimulationof belief” and “esoteric silence,” what she calls legal and esoterictaqiyya, respectively – became blended through the ages. Esoteric taqiyyawas “a necessary and integral part” of Twelver Shi`ism in early times, for the ...
Globalization and Trans-nationalism
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

On 10 August 2006, The National Advisory Council for South Asian Affairs(NACSAA) met at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, to answer severalquestions: Do markets know best? Does the market really know? Are the richgetting richer and the poor getting poorer? Does globalization meanWesternization and/or Americanization? Are traditional societies being dissipated?As there were many speakers, I will present only brief summaries.Shabir Ahmed stated that the West uses its foreign aid to get countriesto follow its own standards and perspectives, while many members of theelites have abandoned the traditional lifestyle. On the positive side, globalizationsolves poverty through the market. Syed Akhtar asked whether globalizationwas the same as McDonaldization or Nikeification, or just aboutcultural domination and sweatshops. He sees globalization as a win-win situation,provided that a nation has the necessary “enabling conditions”: ahighly educated workforce, the rule of law, and democratic institutions.V. Balachandran reminded the audience that globalization also causesproblems. In India, this takes the form of increasing farmer suicides, shantytowns, a lack of investment in the agricultural sector, a decrease in the quality of life, and questions of who owns the country’s natural resources. JamesClad defined globalization in negative terms: It is not necessarily an acrossthe-board integration of economies, a generator of an immediately improvedsecurity environment, a trend of deepening skill sets and the development ofan industrial and an R&D culture, something new (it is a recurrent phenomenonenabled by technological advancement), or westernization, for all culturesborrow what is useful to them.Abdul Mommen claimed that the South Asian diaspora can help root outterrorism. Currently, South Asia is facing higher levels of terrorism; inAmerica and western Europe, these levels are actually declining or increasingonly marginally. Bangladesh, despite being a liberal Muslim state, is seeingits level of terrorism, as well as the number of fatalities, grow even fasterthan has been the case in the Middle East since 9/11. Vijay Sazawal spokeon self-governance and trans-nationalism in Kashmir. He pointed out thatwhile Pakistan calls for more self-rule in Indian Kashmir, it provides almostnone to its own Kashmiri citizens. He concluded that “the line of control(LOC) is more or less a pretty clean division between various ethnic entitiesthat make up the old princely state and that the current boundary can sustainregional stability even when its political future is questioned.” ...
Islamic Law and the Challenge of Modernity
Authors: Fadel Mohammad
Published: October 2020

This book includes eight articles on various aspects of Islamic law in themodern world, as well as an introduction by the two editors. The articles grew out of a symposium held at Georgetown University in 2001 under the title of“Arab Legal Systems in Transition.” Despite the book’s title, however, itdeals exclusively with the Arab world.That said, the articles are generally very interesting and, in some cases,provocative. Wael Hallaq’s article is the most provocative, for he suggeststhat because the traditional socioeconomic infrastructure that supported theShari`ah as a social institution in the pre-modern world has vanished in theface of the centralized state, the Shari`ah cannot be restored without revolutionaryinstitutional changes in the Arab state that would, at a minimum,give religious scholars the institutional independence to formulate a legitimatevision of Islamic law.

While there can be little disagreement with Hallaq’s observation that thetraditional institutions are gone and will not return, I am not sure why heassumes that the only type of legitimate Islamic law is one formulated by anindependent class of jurists. May it not be the case that a centralized state,subject to democratic controls, could formulate positive legislation that conformsin a meaningful sense with the Shari`ah’s principles? After all, legalmodernity has generally meant the rise of positive law at the expense ofjudge-made law, with the former greatly eclipsing the latter in importanceand prestige. It is highly improbable that Islamic countries could, even ifthey wished, escape the need for ever more positive legislation to cope withthe unique problems posed by modern social organization ...
Creating the New Egyptian Woman
Authors: Burke Jeffrey C.
Published: October 2020

In this tome, Russell examines four principal foci in her historiographicwork on Egypt: “the rise of capitalism, the development of an indigenousbureaucracy, the creation of a modern educational system, and the evolutionof the nationalist movement” (p. 5). The author compares and contrasts consumptionrates between lower-, middle-, and upper-class Egyptian womenand investigates how western patterns of capitalism paralleled and divergedfrom indigenous urban templates of consumerism. Against this backdrop,she frames women’s education “in a larger struggle for cultural and intellectualhegemony” (p. 7). Her engaging work is sprinkled with examples andanalyses of Egypt’s societal “contact and confrontation with Europeanthought and culture” (p. 8).Russell’s volume is intended to be accessible to non-specialists as wellas helpful to specialists in the field. Its sources include archival documentsfrom the Dar al-Kutub, L’Institut d’Egypte, the Egyptian National Archives,the libraries of the American University in Cairo and the PresbyterianHistorical Society in Philadelphia, and other primary materials. An earlierversion of this manuscript stemmed from the author’s doctoral researchunder the tutelage of Judith Tucker. Russell’s work is a noteworthy contributionto the fields of Middle East and women’s studies, communication,education, economics, and other related areas of inquiry.The author’s introduction addresses Qasim Amin’s concept of the “NewWoman.” Russell places the disparate views of Egyptian women in the contextof growing consumerism and educational opportunities in the late nineteenthand early twentieth centuries. Chapter 2 discusses Khedive Ismail’snation-building, chapter 3 studies urban patterns of consumption and economicdevelopment, and chapter 4 deftly analyzes the rise of consumer cultureand advertising in the West in contrast to the development of robustconsumerism in Egypt. Chapter 5 addresses “The New Egyptian Womanand Her Western Sisters,” and chapters 6 and 7 focus on female education.The politics of textbooks is reviewed in chapter 8, which is followed by theauthor’s “Conclusion,” detailed notes, and a helpful index.An intriguing passage (p. 20) references the types of education receivedby male and female slaves in the royal harem. Russell explains that potential ...
Powers of the Secular Modern
Authors: Blumi Isa
Published: October 2020

For more than three decades, anthropologist Talal Asad has challenged thegoverning assumptions of western “knowledge” of the non-western world.In fact, his itinerate career marks the parameters of a dynamic and crucialperiod in western academia. It is Asad’s undermining of British socialanthropology in the late 1960s and ethnographic functionalism in generalthat anticipates the postcolonial theories that would emerge many years later.More than being a simple icon of a generation that challenged the conventionsof Orientalism, it is Asad’s essential (if often unacknowledged) contributionto our current self-critical engagement with the larger world thatmakes this book so valuable. 

At the heart of this book is an invaluable exercise of productive engagementand dialogue arranged by the editors. The clever manner in whichAsad’s most complex and often misunderstood interventions on power, theWest, and the study of the non-western world is put into action in a uniqueway. By bringing together nine quite different scholars who invest considerableenergy in their papers, we are treated to an honest exploration of Asad’scontribution to a wide range of disciplines. Well-known sociologist of religionJose Casanova; anthropologists Steve Caton, Veena Das, and ParthaChatterjee; and renowned political scientists William E. Connolly and Hentde Vries all clearly took their task seriously. Perhaps the most fruitful outcomeof this exercise is the intimacy of the engagement. In many ways, thisbook reads as if the readers are listening to a round-table session that provescrucial to understanding Asad’s influence on how all of these scholars ofreligion have reframed their work over the years ...
Animals in Islamic Tradition and Muslim Cultures
Authors: Khan Mohamad
Published: October 2020

In his peculiarly self-abasing preface to Animals in Islamic Tradition andMuslim Cultures, Richard Foltz speculates that the audience for his bookwill probably consist of “non-Muslims who are sympathetic to Muslim cultureand interested in learning more about what it has to offer in terms ofanimal rights” (p. xii). This appears to be less of a prediction than a presuppositionguiding the book. Appropriately, Animals in Islamic Tradition is avery broad outline of representations of non-human animals from the pre-Islamic era to the present in as many fields as a 192-page book can encompass.As a result, his study tends to be kaleidoscopic, treating each subject ina very general manner, hastily running through the basics and garnishingthem with selected curiosities. For perhaps the same reason, the book is writtenin a very simple style, neither extremely engaging nor boringly obscure,and tends to provide summary rather than analysis.The issue of the non-human animal in Islam and in Islamicate culturesis not a single question, but rather a vast number of disparate questions thatultimately require detailed attention in themselves. Given the lack of attentionhitherto received by each of these specific questions, any general surveysuch as Foltz’s must necessarily be tentative and exploratory. The bookis divided into seven chapters that deal, respectively, with references to animalsin the Qur’an and the hadith literature (chapter 1), animal-relatedinjunctions in Islamic law (chapter 2), scientific and philosophical studies(chapter 3), literary and artistic representations (chapter 4), animal rights inthe contemporary era (chapter 5), Islamic vegetarianism (chapter 6), andMuslim attitudes toward dogs (chapter 7). Each chapter is further dividedinto several subheadings, making the book something of a collection of wellcategorizedarticles rather than a tightly bound narrative building up to acentral argument ...
Religious Americans and Political Choices
Authors: Failinger Marie A.
Published: October 2020

The Journal of Law and Religion held its 2006 Law, Religion, and Ethicssymposium, “Religious Americans and Political Choices,” at Hamline University.The event focused on reframing the divide between the so-calledreligious “Red State” and secular “Blue State” political discourses. Its objectivewas to discover what the major American faith traditions share by wayof political values and understandings about the critical issues facing theUnited States, particularly in the areas of race, poverty, environmental protection,and restorative justice.Keynoter David Gushee (Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, UnionUniversity) began with an “insider’s critique” of how evangelicals haveallowed political conservatives to capture their commitments on issues thatdo not fully reflect their broad priorities as Christians. He argued that evangelicalChristians should cast a wary eye on politico-religious alignments inaccord with their basic principles. Evangelicals, Gushee noted, believe thatGod is redeeming the world on His own time and that a Christian’s first loyaltymust be to Jesus Christ as Lord, not parties, and teaching the Good Newsas well as loving God and one’s neighbor. This evangelical commitmententails the recognition that political activity cannot redeem the world; butbecause the world is an arena of moral concern, politics is a necessary (if sinful)part of life. Thus, Christians must seek peace and prosperity for the entirehuman community, with a consistent ethic of life that embraces those membersof the wider world community who have been marginalized.In the panel on race and poverty, David Skeel (professor of law, Universityof Pennsylvania), an evangelical Christian, continued this theme by discussingthe important role that evangelicals and other Christians have playedin pursuing debt relief for Africa, despite their traditional suspicion of biggovernment. He called for religious Christians to identify the “moral blindspots of our age” and demand that political leaders recognize the equalworth of every human being, both at home and abroad ...
Islam in Modern Turkey
Authors: Tatari Eren
Published: October 2020

Sukran Vahide’s Islam inModern Turkey: An Intellectual Biography of BediuzzamanSaid Nursi is a timely contribution to the study of one of the most prominent Islamic thinkers of the twentieth century. This comprehensivestudy on Nursi’s life (1876-1960) and works would be appropriate for use ingraduate and undergraduate courses in religious, Islamic, andMiddle Easternstudies departments.Vahide fills an important gap in the study of Nursi and his works, whichhas become increasingly popular among western scholars in recent decades.Prior to its publication, only a few brief biographies of Nursi existed, andthose focused solely on presenting a chronological account of his life. Hencethis book’s most significant contribution is, as pointed out in the subtitle, thefact that it is an “intellectual biography.” Although Vahide organizes thebook into sections that correspond with the chronological developments inhis life, the book is divided into three parts that denote the significant intellectualphases (also pointed out by Nursi himself in his writings): “The OldSaid,” “The New Said,” and “The Third Said.” In this way, the author situatesNursi’s writings and ideas, which have inspired the most prominent faithmovement in modern Turkey (approximately 7 million followers), into thehistorical context in which they were developed and transmitted to others ata much needed time in Turkish history ...
The Kurdish National Movement
Authors: Ali Othman
Published: October 2020

A native of Iraq,Wadie Jwaideh founded the Islamic and Near Eastern studiesprogram at Indiana University (Bloomington) in the early 1960s and oversawitsrise to national and international recognition until his retirement in themid-eighties. Under his leadership, Indiana University became an internationallyrenowned center for the study of Islam and the Middle East. Hiscounsel was often sought by many, including heads of state. Moreover, hisencyclopedic knowledge of Arabic, Islamic history, and culture wasunmatched. In 2004, his students and friends founded the Jwaideh MemorialLecture. This book chronologically follows the developments of the Kurdishquestion from the suppression of semi-autonomous Kurdish emirates (principalities)in the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century, throughthe First World War and the Kurdish rebellions of the 1930s and 1940s andthe establishment and fall of the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad.Although his main concerns revolve around the Kurdish nationalistmovement’s relative strength and relations to international politics in theMiddle East, he follows a comprehensive analytical approach and givesthe role of economic, religious, and psychological factors considerableweight.In his foreword, the well-known Kurdologist Martin van Bruinessenwrites that “many scholars have recognized its importance not only as astudy of the earlier phases of Kurdish nationalism, but also as a frameworkfor understanding later developments.” During the preparation of this study,which was originally a Ph.D. dissertation for Syracuse University in 1960,Jwaideh states of the Kurds: “Their behavior is one of the important factorsin the future stability and security not only of the Kurdish-inhabited countries,but of the entireMiddle East” (p. xiv). I strongly agree with Bruinessenthat this statement is more relevant today than ever; current events in Iraqonly serve to bear out how far-sighted Jwaideh was about the Kurds’ role inthe modern Middle East ...
Contemporary Islam
Authors: Blumi Isa
Published: October 2020

At a time when careless opportunism blurs the line separating the hatespeech, race-baiting, and xenophobia that we condemn and the misleadingexpedience of “tolerating” others, the need to change how Muslims engagethe hatred facing them has become most apparent. Threatened by Frenchpoliticians with state-enforced settlement camps and neoconservative socialengineering schemes that erect 10-meter highwalls in theWestBank, BelAir,and Baghdad, it is critical that Muslims demonstrate the ability to resist theirwholesale criminalization with dignity and passion. Unfortunately, the overwhelmingmajority of those who publicly “stand-up” for “reason” are non-Muslim, western-based academics speaking for “Islam” as a non-westernphenomenon that nevertheless “needs to be tolerated.”When “Muslims” are given the rare chance of having a forum throughwhich to communicate, the message has more often confirmed the reductionistassumptions of xenophobic racists advocating their legal exclusionfrom “Christian” Europe. How often has it been noted that those Muslimsmost frequently given access to the mainstream media are the fanatical andpatently violent characters depicted in media stereotypes who actually haveno right to “speak” for Islam in the first place?Contemporary Islam: Dynamic, Not Static challenges these prevailingcurrents in scholarship by actually engaging the audience in a fashion thatdoes not concede Islam’s centrality to a larger human experience ...
Islam, Democracy, and Public Life in South Africa and in France
Authors: Haron Muhammed
Published: October 2020

During 3-5 September 2007, scholars associated with University of Witwatersrand’sDepartment of Anthropology and key members of the Johannesburg-based Institute of French Studies in South Africa explored ways toengage South African and French scholars in forms of cooperation. Toaddress this event’s focus, “Muslim Cultures in South Africa and France,”the organizers brought along the School of Social Sciences and Humanities(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg) and the Institut d’Etudesde l’Islam et des Societes du Monde Musulman (Ecole des Hautes enSciences Sociales [EHESS]) to partner with them.The theme, “Islam, Democracy, and Public Life in South Africa and inFrance,” identified three basic objectives: to re-imagine Islam as an objectof academic enquiry, explore the epistemological dimensions of the study ofIslam, and foster scientific networks. The organizers highlighted a key question:“How do Muslims employ their religion to explain and clarify theirposition and role in public life in South Africa and France?” and identifiedthree focus areas: The Status ofMinority Religions: The Case of Islam; ReligiousIdentity - Political Identity; and Trans-nationalism/regionalism.The “Southern Africa” panel, chaired by Aurelia Wa Kabwe-Segatti(French Institute of South Africa [IFAS]), consisted of Alan Thorold’s (Universityof Melbourne) “Malawi and the Revival of Sufism,” SamadiaSadouni’s (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research [WISER])“Muslim Communities in South Africa,” Liazzat Bonate’s (Eduardo MondlaneUniversity) “Leadership of Islam in Mozambique,” and Eric Germain’s(EHESS) “Inter-ethnic Muslim Dialogue in South Africa.” Sadouni examinedsuch crucial concepts as religious minorities and extracted examplesfrom both countries. Thorold, who analyzed Sufism’s revival in Malawi,relied on the work of ErnestGellner. Some participants, however, argued thathis ideas have been surpassed by more informed theoretical scholarship.Bonate reflected upon the differences that played out within northernMozambique’s Muslim communities vis-à-vis the government. Germain,who explored early Cape Muslim social history, provocatively argued thatmuch could be learned from this community’s make-up and attitude. Asexpected, he was criticized for sketching a romantic picture.The “Media and Power” panel, chaired by Eric Worby, featured GabebaBaderoon’s (post-doctoral fellow, Penn StateUniversity’sAfricana ResearchCenter) “Islam and the Media in South Africa.” She traced how Islam ...
Muslim Citizens in the West
Authors: Ali Jan
Published: October 2020

The Centre for Muslim States and Societies, in collaboration with theAustralian Institute of InternationalAffairs (WesternAustralia Branch), heldthe Fulbright International Symposium at the University ofWestern Australia,Perth, on 1-3 August 2007. Associate Professor Samina Yasmeen (symposiumconvenor) welcomed the participants, and Professor Allan Robson(vice chancellor, University ofWesternAustralia) formally opened the event.The symposium’s objective was to explore complex socioeconomic,religio-cultural, and political factors involved in contributing to a sense ofinclusion or exclusion on the part of minorityMuslim communities living intheWest. The twenty-seven presenters, fifteen from abroad and twelve fromAustralia, analyzed the theme of “Muslim Citizens in the West: PromotingSocial Inclusion” during the event’s eight themed panels from a variety ofperspectives ...
Bioethics & Organ Transplantation in a Muslim Society
Authors: Krawietz Birgit
Published: October 2020

FarhatMoazam was born in Pakistan and attended medical school there. Formany years, she pursued her surgical and pediatric training in the UnitedStates, witnessing not only scientific progress in organ transplantation butalso the rise of modern secular bioethics, the advocacy of individual rightsand patient autonomy, and feminism(p. 175). Equipped with such privilegedknowledge, she obtained high-ranking positions back in Pakistan, reflectingher competence as both a medical doctor and a medical ethics specialist.While working on this dissertation (she received her doctorate in religiousstudies from the University of Virginia in 2004), however, she employed athird and quite unexpected quality: that of an ethnographer. ButMoazamhasno ambition to contribute to the broader theoretical discussion of MarcelMauss’ The Gift (W.W. Norton & Co., 2000). Rather, she brushes aside theapplicability of reasoning in the tradition of the reception of Mauss (cf. pp.126, 138, 143, and 218). Similarly, she is not concerned with theoretical ethnologicalor sociological debates on globalization and its local appropriations,although, ultimately, this is what the story is about.To conduct her fieldwork, she chose to spend three months at a dialysisand renal transplantation unit in her hometown of Karachi. This vanguardinstitution for end-stage-renal-disease (ESRD) patients, part of her old medicalcollege, is now both the largest and the first institution of its type inPakistan. In addition, the country’s first renal transplant was performed therein 1985. Financed to a lesser degree by the state, about 60 percent of theinstitute’s budget has to be raised by sponsors (p. 46). Such services as dialysis,transplantation, medication, and follow-up are free of charge (p. 37), sothere is a tremendous overflow of people in need.The institute, having started its pioneering work in a traditional societythat is still strongly averse to posthumous donation, has to rely on live ...
Cobra II
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: October 2020

This book deals with the April 2003 American invasion and occupation ofIraq. Its title comes from the code name of the military operation designedto drive toward Baghdad. The code name, in turn, was inspired by GeneralGeorge Patton’s 1944 military operation Cobra, during which the Allied forces broke out from Normandy to liberate France – hence Cobra II.Written in a journalistic and investigative style, it chronicles the developmentsand events leading to the Bush administration’s decision to attackIraq. Described as a war of “choice” rather than of “necessity” (p. xxxi), itswiftly defeated the Iraqi army and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.However, it was a failure insofar as it generated a virulent insurgencythat the occupyingAmerican army could not suppress. This insurgency wasan unexpected by-product of the program of “transformation” espoused byformer Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. As part of President GeorgeW. Bush’s vision of overhauling theAmerican military, this programbecamea sort of “official ideology” (p. 8) and response to two main concerns: (1)the long time (six months) it took to plan and amassAmerican forces duringthe lead-up to the 1992 GulfWar that had reversed Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait(this length of time was considered to fall short of credible “superpower”projection), and (2) the American military’s ability to fight two major warssimultaneously, which came to be known as the “two-war doctrine” (pp. 5and 9). The problem with the second consideration was that it required largeground forces to implement the doctrine, at a time when the foreseen transformationsought to trim American forces in favor of high-tech space andprecision weapons ...
Islamic Democratic Discourse
Authors: Mir Anita
Published: October 2020

M. A. Muqtedar Khan’s (ed.) Islamic Democratic Discourse: Theory,Debates, and Philosophical Perspectives examines how Muslim thinkershave and are trying to formulate systems for good and ethical self-governanceand the necessity, therein, for political discourse. The debates in theseessays, which span a wide range of subjects and periods, are held togetherby a common principle: political discourse has a long standing in theMuslim world. Given that the Muslim world’s conventional image is one inwhich autocratic regimes prevail, the significance of this argument, presentedhere from its theological, legal, and regional perspectives, is of greatimportance. For political discourse to be meaningful – that is, for it to be an exercisein the clarification and exchange of ideas and to lead, in some instances, toaction – requires that it take place both in the public and private sphere. Thepublic sphere may be more readily recognized as the proper space forpolitical discourse. However, the slippage of political discourse over to theprivate sphere is also of great value in that it indicates two things: first, politicalideas are recognized as important to both a person’s collective and individualsensibilities and, second, while political discourse is expounded in thepublic sphere, its ideas are often first worked out and subsequently reflectedupon in the private sphere ...
Between Warrior Brother and Veiled Sister
Authors: Derayeh Minoo
Published: October 2020

This book examines the construction of gender and patriarchy in Iran duringthe onset of modernity, the Islamic revolution of 1979, and the post-revolutionera. Among the many works published by prominent scholars of Islamand Iranian women’s studies, Minoo Moallem’s investigation of the constructionof gender by neo-colonial modernity and political movements of anationalist or fundamentalist orientation deserves special attention.Inspired by Michel Foucault as well as Caren Kaplan and InderpalGrewal, Moallem incorporates a post-modern and a transnational feministapproach by arguing that post-modernity should be used as a framework tostudy the growth of modernity (p. 20). Challenging the popular belief thatfundamentalism is a return to the roots and early periods of a tradition or aculture, she finds it “in dialogue with modernity” (p. 13) and thus arguesthat the Islamic fundamentalism observed in the twentieth century is a postmodernizationphenomenon; in her words, “a by-product of the process ofmodernization” (ibid.). Nevertheless, she does not actually consider fundamentalismto be a truly post-modern phenomenon, since it does not respectthe “concept of difference,” as is the case with nationalism.Moallem questions the stereotypes presented by the travelers and foreigndiplomats of the late-eighteenth to early-twentieth centuries concerningthe harem, the veil, women, and so on. She challenges their vantage point increating “otherness” and portraying Islam as barbaric. Although manyworks deal with women, patriarchy, and the construction of gender under thePahlavis, the author offers a new reading and shows how the two rulers’forceful steps in the name of modernization and progress led to the establishmentof a nation-state in which each individual – man or woman – wassocialized to perform his/her role according to the “natural and social divisionof labour” (p. 74).Her work is timely, especially now when Islamic fundamentalism isdefined and analyzed by the politics of power through the global media. Inthe case or jihad, for instance, the author states that for fundamentalists, andmore specifically in Ayatullah Khomeini’s view, there are two types of jihad: ...
Mekka in the Latter Part of the 19th Century
Authors: Blumi Isa
Published: October 2020

The annual spectacle of millions of pilgrims flooding Makkah has capturedthe imagination of generations of readers. This interest in the hajj, however,has not necessarily produced quality scholarship. From crude ethnographicsummaries to careful narratives of spiritual attainment, the literature has beeninconsistent at best. Brill’s republishing of Dutch scholar Christiaan SnouckHurgronje’s (1857-1936) forgotten work offers the modern reader not only aninvaluable window into the hajj as practiced before the age of mass communication,but provides a hitherto neglected discussion on the social, cultural,political, and economic impact that the experience had upon Muslims.Often lost in the generalizations one finds in descriptions of the annualpilgrimage, the world in which the reader is thrust while reading this bookoffers a Makkah that is far more culturally dynamic than expected. Hurgronje’sworld is one filled with cultural and doctrinal variances that aremanifestedin the different ways in which Muslims worshiped, clothed themselves,and ultimately socialized while in Makkah. In this sense, his carefulstudy of life over the months leading to the hajj exposes the reader to a fluidcultural and economic process that constantly transforms, leaving the readerwith the impression that life was not, as the clichés so often try to instill,“timeless.” Hurgronje, to his credit, is not interested in retelling theOrientalist trope; rather, he strives to provide a serious ethnographic and historicalstudy.As Hurgronje himself writes, this is a study to help non-Muslims, especiallyfellow Dutchmen, understand their Muslim subjects living in the FarEast. For this reason, the book’s final part focuses exclusively on the Makkanexperience of Dutch subjects. In this regard, it is a careful analysis of howMuslims from Java, Borneo, and Sumatra interacted with fellow Muslims;socialized in this cosmopolitan milieu; and adopted numerous personal andcollective activities during their stay. That being said, it is especially impressivethat this study is not meant to be only a tool for colonial governance ...