bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Pagans, Tartars, Moslems, and Jews in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"
Authors: Meyer-Hoffman Gretcheo Iman
Published: October 2020

Brenda Deen Schildgen's analysis of the Canterbury Tales explores thecontemporary worldviews of medieval Europeans. Chaucer, an Englishcourt poet, wrote probably his greatest work- the Canterbury Tales - at theend of the fourteenth century. It is a collection of 24 tales told by pilgrimsas they make their way to Canterbury cathedral. Chaucer frames the taleswith a prologue and dialogue between the tales.Schildgen's book examines the eight tales set outside Christian Europe.Much of the book discusses the medieval view of paganism and the continuinginfluence of pagan philosophy on medieval intellectual thought.She analyses the "Man of Law's Tale," whose story takes place in bothpagan and Muslim lands. (It is worth pointing out here that, although by thefourteenth century the Mongols increasingly were becoming Muslims, theTartars in the "Squire's Tale" are associated with paganism.) In addition todiscussing the tales involving pagans and Muslims, Schildgen analyzes theanti-Semitic "Prioress' Tale."Drawing on Habermas's theory of practical discourse (in which discussantsengage in a discourse where each is aware of and open to the other'sperspectives and interpretations), Schildgen argues that the Canterbu,yTales is an excellent example of what Habermas has in mind. Traditionalanalysis states that Chaucer does not favor one pilgrim over the others, andSchildgen takes this a step further by arguing that the Canterbury Talesincorporates "a range of intellectual and ethical attitudes that thrived inChaucer's pan-European contemporary cultural and social world." She ...
Globalization and the Postcolonial World
Authors: Wilmsen David
Published: October 2020

According to Ankie Hoogvelt, this book is intended to "introduce students todebates regarding the development prospects of the Third World." This sheaccomplishes in very compact and richly documented detail. Indeed, thereare so many citations that the lack of a bibliography is sorely felt.The book is divided into three parts, each addressing a broad themeaffecting development and the Third World. The first considers the historicalroute of capitalist expansion into a world economic system by means of,among other things, the core countries' depredations of their peripheralcolonies. The second treats the world economy's increasing internationalizationand the retrenchment of wealth accumulation by means of strategichegemony and economic regulation, especially by the United States. Thefinal part examines the resultant situations in the four distinct socioculturalrealms of the Third World, devoting a chapter to each: sub-Saharan Africa,the Islamic world, East Asia, and Latin America.True to the spirit of debate she is trying to foster in her students,Hoogvelt challenges some of the conventional assumptions about humansociety's advancement under globalization. She points out that, contraryto expert consensus, the flow of wealth to the Third world has declinedsince the colonial era. Or, again, that world trade represented a greaterpercentage of world production at the beginning of the twentieth century,before the era of globalization, than it did at its end, when it was in fullstride. Or, yet again, that much of the apparent increase in trade, especially ...
Fifth Harvard University Forum Islamic Finance
Authors: AJbarzinji Zaid
Published: October 2020

Each year, the Harvard Islamic Finance Information Program (HIFIP) of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies organizes this forum. This year's forum had an international flavor, thanks to participants from Malaysia, South Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Participants were mainly finance industry representatives from the Islamic Development Bank, the Kuwait Finance House, HSBC Amanah Finance, the Dow Jones Islamic Index, Bank Indonesia, Freddie Mac, and others. In addition, several experts in Islamic economics and finance, such as Monzer Kahf, M. Nejatullah Siddiqi, Nizam Yaquby, and Frank E. Vogel participated. Many other participants sought to educate themselves about the principles of Islamic finance and the availability of lslamically approved financial products. Overall, the forum was more of an opportunity for those interested in Islamic finance to meet each other, network, and present some of their latest lslamically approved financial instruments and contracts. The forum fea­tured a few research papers and many case studies. Most presentations and panel discussions focused on current and past experiences in the Islamic finance industry, challenges facing the development of new financial instru­ments, effective marketing and delivery of products to end-users, and areas where applying jjtihad is most needed and promising. Participants also dis­cussed the need to develop relevant financial institutions to strengthen the stability and perfonnance of Islamic financial service providers ( e.g., man­aging liquidity and risk). Thomas Mullins, HIFIP's executive director, welcomed the guests. He stressed the Islamic finance industry's important role in creating a dialogue between I slam and the West - a role made especially relevant after Septem­ber 11. Forum chairperson Samuel Hayes, Jacob Schiff Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, used his opening remarks to commend the industry on its many accomplishments during the past decade and outlined areas for improvement. In his introduction, Saif Shah Mohammed, presi­dent of the Harvard Islamic Society, suggested that the industry should prer vide relevant services to students, such as Shari'ah-compliant educational loans and young professional programs. Ahmad Mohamed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), delivered the keynote address: "The Emerging Islamic Financial Architecture: The Way Ahead." He discussed the infrastructure required to strengthen the Islamic financial industry, which is in a process of evolution. Some recent major initiatives include the Accounting and Auditing Organ­ization for Islamic Financial Institutions, the Islamic Financial Services Organization, an international Islamic financial market with a liquidity management center, and an Islamic rating agency. Currently, there are ...
Auto/Biography and the Construction of Identity and Community in the Middle East
Authors: Christina Rachel
Published: October 2020

This collection of reflective essays and research articles argues for thegreater use of auto/biographies, both as data sources and as representationaltexts, in examining individual and communal identity negotiations in theMiddle East. It reflects the theoretical and topical shifts toward the local,regional, and particular that characterize poststructuralist and postmodernistsocial science research. It also resonates to the increased concernabout representing marginalized populations in historical, sociological, andanthropological literature. Positing that "biography lies at the intersectionof the personal and the political and of public and private history," Fay callsfor a more flexible, interpretive, and micro-focused understanding of therelationship between individuals and their contexts. She also championsauto/biography as both a means of entry into private lives and a lensthrough which to view those lives as part of a broader sociohistoricalmilieu.The various authors assert that such a use of biography is consistentwith traditional Arab and Islamic forms of representation - a claim that recentersthe Middle East within the social sciences as a key site of know I ...
"Believing Women" in Islam
Authors: Geissinger Aisha
Published: October 2020

Does the Qur'an permit the oppression of women? Can women pursue equality and remain within the framework of its teachings? In this original and thought-provoking work, Barias attempts to address these controversial questions. 

In the preface, Barias asks whether the Qur'an is a patriarchal text, and acknowledges that while this question might not be meaningful from the perspective of the Qur'anic text itself, Muslim women today are confronted with frankly patriarchal exegeses. In order to open up a discursive space for her reading, Barias asserts that various readings of the Qur'an should not be confused with the text itself, and that since Islam has no clergy, women can reclaim the right to interpret the Qur'an. Contrary to both conservative and progressive Muslims, she argues that the Qur'an challenges inequality and oppression ...
Roman Catholics and Shi'i Muslims
Authors: Stewart Devin
Published: October 2020

Comparing Roman Catholicism and Twelver Shi'i Islam suggests itself for several reasons: the parallel passions of Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad's grandson Husayn; the suffering of and devotion of their mothers, Mary and Fatimah; and perhaps most prominently in recent years, the powerful hierarchies of authority within each faith, headed by the Pope on the Catholic side and by several leading jurists (mljjtahidun) who bear the title of legal authority for laymen ( marji>al-taqlid) on the Shi'i side. In fact, the papacy is frequently mentioned in contemporary debates about the marji> al-taqlid's position within Twelver Shi'ism, often with a hint of envy. Some Shi'i thinkers aspire to the unity, efficiency, doctrinal uniformity, and political clout that a single, universally recognized legal authority for the Twelvers might provide. Bill and Williams' new publication is, however, the only work of which I am aware that undertakes this comparison in a sustained and rigor­ous manner.

After two introductory chapters that provide the basic historical back­ground of the two faiths and the I ives of the Twelve Imams, the authors begin the comparison proper. Chapter 3, "Sacred Actors and Intercessors," compares the figures of Jesus and Husayn, Mary and Fatimah, and the lmamzadas (descendants of the Imams) and Catholic saints. Chapter 4, "Redemptive Suffering and Martyrdom," treats redemptive suffering and the importance attached to the concept of martyrdom in both faiths, stress­ing the rituals or passion plays through which believers participate in the tragedy of the deaths of Jesus Christ and Husayn ...
History Testifies to the Infallibility of the Qur'an
Authors: Wheeler Brannon
Published: October 2020

Dr. Fatoohi and Prof. al-Dargazelli have produced an intriguing and farreachingcomparison of the Bible and the Qur' an relating to Moses and theIsraelites. Both authors are kha/ifahs of Shaykh Muhammad al-Casnazanial-Husseini of the Aliyyah Qadiriyyah Casnazaniyyah Sufi tariqah. Theyhold degrees in physics from Baghdad University and Durham University,and have authored numerous books, especially on Sufism, in Arabic andEnglish.Although readers might expect this book to address literary and culturalissues surrounding the shared but different accounts of Moses and theIsraelites in the Bible and the Qur'an, the authors have chosen to focus ondemonstrating the Qur'an's historical accuracy. Dividing their book intoIO chapters, they argue alternately that the Bible is inconsistent and historicallyinaccurate, while the Qur'an is consistent and confirmed byexternal historical evidence. The Biblical account of Moses and theIsraelites is not directly compared to the Qur'anic account; rather, theBible is used primarily as a foil to emphasize what the authors see as theQur'an's reliability. For example, while the authors point out that the Bibleappears to give various names for Moses' father-in-law (Exodus 2: I 8, 3: I, ...
Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Authors: Hoosein Sharon
Published: October 2020

"Strengthening Our Voices" was a fitting topic for the most recent CanadianCouncil of Muslim Women (CCMW) conference held on September 13-15,2002, at the Bank of Montreal Learning Institute, Markham, Ontario,Canada. This national organization, with chapters across Canada, wasfounded in 1982 when Muslim women from across Canada attended thefounding conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This year's conference celebrated20 years of leadership and "working towards equity, equality, andempowerment." Lila Falhman, a founding member and now 78 years old,was on hand to commemorate the event. Other founding members, currentCCMW president Barbara Siddiqui, and many local chapter leaders alsowere present. The Bank of Montreal Learning Institute in Markham was theperfect venue, for it allowed almost 300 people to hear the keynote speakers.Tables were set up for silent auction and sales of the latest books byFarid £sack, Sadia Zaman, and Khaled Abou El Fad!.The invited keynote speaker, Beverly Amina McCloud, professor at DePaul University, (Chicago, IL) unfortunately could not attend. Graciouslytaking her place, however, was Sheila McDonough, professor of religion atConcordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and author of therecently released The Muslim Veil in North America: Issues and Debates(University of Toronto Press: 2002.) She engaged the audience in a livelydiscussion of the philosophical question "Can a Muslim Woman Think?"She logically argued that genetics are evenly distributed to offspring, so thatwomen receive intellect from both parents; that children think as they learn;and that, in general, all homo sapiens are thinking creatures. She used severalQur'anic verses to demonstrate that God addresses women as a groupseparately from men and also stressed that everyone is responsible for hisor her own actions on the Day of Judgment ...
The Thirty-First Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists
Authors: Sein Layla
Published: October 2020

The Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) held its thirty first annual conference in Washington, DC, from October 25-27, 2002, with the collaboration of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIID. The conference was cosponsored by the School of International Service, American University, and supported by the university's Ibn Khaldun Chair ofislamic Studies, Dr. Akbar Ahmed.

In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Louis Goodman, Dean of the School of International Service, American University, encouraged the use of academic forums to highlight social concerns of the larger world community. Introductory comments by AMSS President Dr. Louay Safi, stressed the need for scholars to examine the different agendas being introduced to address concepts dealing with the fears and concerns faced by the larger Muslim and non-Muslim communities in a post-9/11 world.

The Conference Chair, Dr. Amira Sonbol, Georgetown University, OC, hoped that this con­ference would promote debate on how Islam has been studied to date, and encourage Muslims to revisit moments in history to understand their com­munity's position in world history.  The conference theme, "The Muslim World after September 11: Agenda for Change," echoed in the presentations made by over 40 scholars in eight consecutive panels, one roundtable discussion, a plenary session, and a keynote address at the annual banquet. Students, academicians, activists, and intellectuals engaged in a lively debate with the panelists after their presentations. Media coverage was provided by the Washington Post and the Washington Times ...
Western Mimicry or Cultural Hybridity
Authors: Mazid Nergis
Published: October 2020

Qasim Amin ( 1865-1908) remains one of Egypt's most contro­versial figures in the early modem women's rights movement. His use of Orientalist arguments to support the advancement of women's rights and to reform veiling was inflammatory to Egyptians demanding their rights for self-determination. Yet embracing aspects of the imperial value system did not mean that Amin succumbed to colonialism. Instead, he found compat­ibilities between his interpretations of Orientalism and lslam regarding women's morality and the nation's strength. The fusion and hybridity of indigenous and colonial epistemologies can be found in Amin's demand for reforming women's rights in Egypt ...
A Thematic Commentary on the Qur’an
Authors: Mirza Mahan
Published: October 2020

There has been an increasing interest in the Qur’an’s literary aspects withinthe field of Qur’anic studies over the last few years. In the past, westernscholars have devoted a great deal of energy to tracing foreign influencesin the Qur’an or reconstructing the chronology of its verses and surahs.However, the trend now is shifting toward textual studies, a developmentindicated by the proliferation of articles, anthologies, and books on theQur’an as a composed literary ornament.This shift is both refreshing and welcome, particularly for those whoare more interested in understanding the Qur’an in its present form, ratherthan learning about its textual history or compilation. Classical Islamicscholarship developed a body of exegetical material on the Qur’an’s miraculousnature (i‘jaz) from a literary perspective. This approach has taken aprimarily microscopic linguistic viewpoint (balaghah [eloquence]) ofstudying the choice of words and how the verses are constructed.Although it has always been accepted that the Qur’an’s surahs are distinctliterary pieces with their own style and content, comprehensive attemptsto present entire surahs as thematically independent entities have been rare.With increasing pressure from western scholars that the Qur’an is incoherentand haphazardly arranged, a new genre of exegetical material is developing,both in Muslim and western circles. This new genre focuses upon explainingwhy the surah should be considered as a distinctly composed piece with itsown dynamic of sound and meaning. Muhammad al-Ghazali’s work fallswithin this emerging category of Qur’anic exegesis.A Thematic Commentary on the Qur’an is a translation from al-Ghazali’s Al-Tafsir al-Mawdu‘i. The print is well typeset and easily legible,not cramped together, with a glossy green cover commanding an elegance ...
Empire and Elites after the Muslim Conquest
Authors: Barlas Asma
Published: October 2020

Perhaps one would not expect a history of “Islamic rule” in the seventh andeighth centuries in what is now the Middle East to illuminate any contemporarydebate on Islam, in particular about whether there is an innate civilizationalclash between it and the (Christian) West. And yet this modeststudy manages to do that, if only tangentially and coincidentally, and if readwith some reservations.Cambridge historians are renowned for their preoccupation with elites,generally of provinces far removed from the centers of power, and hencetheir single-minded focus on the “politics of notables” of relatively minorlocalities. From such provincial concerns, however, emerge more universalclaims about, for instance, the nature of British colonial rule in India or ofIslamic rule in the Middle Ages. Chase Robinson, following this tradition,assesses – as “critic and architect” – the changing status of Christian andMuslim elites following the Muslim conquest of northern Mesopotamia.Three themes are implicit: the interrelationship of history and historiography,the effects of the Muslim conquest, and the nature of Islam. Thus, Iwill review it thematically as well. I should point out that I engage his workas a generalist, not as a historian, and that I am interested not so much in hisretelling of events as in the political meanings with which he endows them.(Re)writing History. To reconstruct a past about which there is such adearth of primary period sources is at best hazardous. For one, where documentssuch as conquest treaties exist, they have little truth-value, saysRobinson. He thus specifies that he is concerned less with their accuracythan with how they were perceived to have governed relations between localMuslims/imperial authorities, on the one hand, and Christians on the other.For another, conquest history in fact “describes post-conquest history.” Thusthe “conquest past” is a re-presentation of events from a post-conquest present,an exercise in which Christians and Muslims had an equal stake sincethe “conquest past could serve to underpin [their] authority alike.”Historians then must disentangle events from their own narration, or at leastrecognize the ways in which recording events also reframes them.Fortunately for him, says Robinson, his work was enabled by that of al-Azdi, a tenth-century Muslim historian. However, even as he admits that ...
The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival
Authors: Micallef Daniel
Published: October 2020

The Islamic world underwent profound political and religious changes in theeleventh and twelfth centuries. These changes were paralleled by one of themost significant transformations of Islamic art and architecture. What shared meaning lies at the origins of these two historical developments? How, if atall, were these paralleled transformations part of the same struggle?The Transformation of Islamic Art during the Sunni Revival takes usinto this dialogue. This work consists of seven chapters, including aplethora of beautiful photographs, in which Yasser Tabbaa, a professor at theUniversity of Michigan and a highly regarded Islamic art scholar, argues thatthe transformations in medieval Islamic architecture and ornament duringthis period reflected and embodied the conflict between the ‘Abbasid andFatimid dynasties. It is in the struggle for political authority and religiouslegitimacy that new and competing forms of expression took hold.In discussing the book’s themes and the discourses of which it is a part,Tabbaa refutes the essentialist traditions of some Orientalists, art historians,and even aestheticians that, while having seemingly different intentions, allportray Islamic art as separate or divorced from its history. They ignore orgloss over significant historical developments in the Islamic world, and thereforerepresent Islamic art, in all of its variety, as a homogenous genre, as theterm arabesque implies. Tabbaa highlights the epoch of the Sunni revival byrejecting the essentialist models and focusing on the period’s unique conflictsand changes. He argues that calligraphic, ornamental, and architecturalforms, in addition to being instruments of perceptual mediation, were engenderedwithin specific discourses to give symbolic support to certain claims toauthority and to establish a difference against challenging claims ...
Muslim Leadership and the Challenge of Reconciling the Religious with the Secular
Authors: Safi Louay
Published: October 2020

The "return to religion" is a worldwide reality shared equally by the fol­lowers of different religions. Now that secularism, as a social ideology, has failed to provide a moral foundation for modern society, religion is reassert­ing its authority in all cultures. Intellectuals and religious leaders are increasingly rethinking the place of religion in modern society. Nowhere is the challenge of reconciling the religious and the secular more intense than in Muslim societies. Unlike western societies, Muslim cultures have experienced secularism not as a structure designed to prevent the imposition of one religious tradition on another, but as modern faith promoted by many political leaders eager to offer an alternative to religion. For many years, Muslim secularists looked at religion with contempt and tried to use their political authority and commanding social positions to undermine religion and religious sentiment. Most recently, however, secu­lar leaders have had to step back from their anti-religion posture in the face of the rising tide of religion in Muslim societies. Still, secularism and the secular state are widely associated with corruption, intolerance, and author­itarianism because of the archaic and bankrupt manners by which the self­proclaimed prophets of secularism in the Muslim world have exercised their power.

But while secularist excesses have led to its retreat before a newly founded religious spirit in the Muslim world, the new religiosity, in its effort to compensate for secularist extremism, is in danger of committing its own excesses. Finding a creative space between the stagnant tradition­alist outlook and the dogmatic and power-prone attitude of many Muslim ...
The War for Palestine
Authors: Hammer Juliane
Published: October 2020

The events of 1948 mark the Palestinians' nakbah (catastrophe) and the Israelis' war of independence. The historiographies describing and analyzing these events have always been debated and contested. For instance, 1948 can be described as a founding element of Palestinian and Israeli iden­ tities respectively. A serious attempt to rewrite earlier historiography was introduced by the Israeli "new historians" in the 1980s. Based on documents and materials from recently opened Israeli archives, they set out to challenge Israel's founding myth and the lopsided description of the causes and events leading to the Palestinian refugee problem.The volume under review moves the rewriting a step further by attempting to take a fresh look at the Arab states' and the Palestinians' involvement in the development of the 1948 war. The editors suggest that it is possible, as well as necessary, to deconstruct the myths surrounding the Arab armies' defeat in 1948 by finding its causes in the Arab states' politi­cal situation and with each one's internal situation. The introduction explains the need for such a rewriting process and points out that much needs to be done, especially regarding the historiog­raphy of Arab states that stil I draw some of their legitimacy from their historical myths, often related to the 1948 war. Similarly, the Arab states' support for the Palestinians and their cause, as well as their participation in the 1948 war (to save Palestine), are almost always presented as inter­dependent and an example of high moral commitment. Opening Arab archives (civil and military) of this period seems to be a dream of histo­rians, rather than a realistic expectation, for the near future. Thus, the introduction concludes that much research in support of this critical tra­dition has yet to be done ...
Doctrines of Shi'i Islam
Authors: Faghfoory Mohammad H.
Published: October 2020

The growing interest in Shi'ism in the western world since the Iranian revolutionhas resulted in the publication of numerous books and articles onShi' i f slam. Most studies, however, focus on Shi' ism's historical develop­ment, highlight differences between Shi'i and Sunni Islam, or discuss Shi'ipolitical behavior in the context of the politics of violence. This book byAyatullah Ja'far Sobhani, an emjnent scholar of Shi'ism and professor ofIslamic studies in the Hawzah 'llmiyah of Qum (Iran), is a notable excep­tion. The author is a Qur'anic commentator, a prolific writer, a biographerof the Prophet and Imam 'Ali, and has written several books on theologyand jurisprudence.Sobhani opines that modern man (sic) is turning to religion once againbecause of his (sic) disillusionment with technological innovation and scientificadvancement. The author seeks to meet this need by presenting anauthoritative yet objective account of Shi' i Islam from within, and theShi'is' perception of their tradition and of themselves without exaggerationand distortion.The book is a useful source for non-specialists as well as advancedreaders who want to learn about the contemporary expression of Shi'i traditionfrom an authoritative source. As Shah Kazemi states in his introduction,the book presents an account of the mainstream religious thinking ofcontemporary Iran's official religious establishment, yet is not influencedby the revolutionary environment. It follows the traditional format and linesof argument laid out by previous Shi' i 'ulama.The book is divided into three chapters, preceded by the translator'sforward and the author's preface. In chapter l, Sobhani establishes a philosophicalframework within which he presents the doctrines of lthna 'AshariShi'ism. Chapter 2 discusses some legal issues and principles of Shi'i theology.In the third chapter, Sobhani departs from the traditional paradigmof Shi' i treatises and addresses some controversial and contested legalissues and challenges ...
Debates on Islam and Knowledge in Malaysia and Egypt
Authors: Haque Amber
Published: October 2020

Although the debate on the arrival of the lslamization of knowledge (IOK)concept continues among today's scholars, giving it a practical frameworkis generally credited to the late Ismail Raji al-Faruqi, a PalestinianAmericanscholar and a founding member of the International Institute ofIslamic Thought (HIT). Mona Abaza, associate professor in the School ofHumanities and Social Sciences at the American University in Cairo,acknowledges this. She took over 10 years to collect and present herresearch in this book. The book is divided into three parts with 14 chapters,a hefty 71 pages of notes and bibliography, and a small index. The facts andfigures about Malaysia covered in the initial pages are from mid-1998 andtherefore, unfortunately, are outdated.In the "introductory reflections," which constitute part 1 of the book,Abaza submits that the topic under discussion is controversial even amongMuslim academics. Nevertheless, she has set out to compare the IOK endeavorsin two very distinct cultures whose Islamizers, she believes, have a primarilysecular training but an Islamic outlook. While Malaysia propagates ...
Al-Kitaab Fii Tacallum al-Arabiyya
Authors: Roochnik Paul
Published: October 2020

The latest in the series of Al-Kitaab fii Ta calf um al-cArabiyya books, Kitaab3 offers some new activities to challenge advanced Arabic learners. Of thefamiliar, tested themes, al-cibaaraat al-jadiida (new expressions) rankamong my favorites. Native speakers take idioms for granted, while studentsare often confused by them. The authors provide a generous list oftranslated idioms and how to use them. One of those oft-repeated exercisesshows students several rows of four Arabic words and asks them tochoose which word does not belong there. The students have to justify theirchoice in Arabic, as the authors want them to "reach the level of the educatednative speaker."Kitaab 3 consists of IO chapters. Chapter 1, "Islam and Politics," fea turestwo articles on "Islamic fundamentalism": "Resolving the Disputewith the Islamic Situation" (Fahrni Hewaydi) and "Whither This IslamicSpread?" (Ahmad Kamal Abul Majd). In the area of grammar, it coversspecial uses of the demonstrative pronoun, the hollow verb, and the verbaland adverbial maa. In chapter 2, "Between Classic and Popular Heritage,"we read "The Anecdotes of Goha," that lovable fool who has kept Arabs ofall ages laughing since time immemorial. The same chapter highlightsYoussef Idris in his "On Egyptian Theatre," and Nizar Qabbani's poem"qaari 'at al-finjaan" [The Reader of the Cup]. More discussion of maaensues, this time its nominal and conditional meanings, along with thedefective verb's morphology ...
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

This is a superb book. With penetrating insight and an eloquent style, alDa'miexplores the crucial role that Arabo-lslamic history played in thearguments of such prominent British and American "men of letters" asThomas Carlyle and Washington Irving. The book opens with a preface,in which he lays out his rationale and purpose, and contains seven chapters,in which he develops his argument.AI-Da'mi seeks to deepen our understanding of nineteenth-centuryOriental ism by exploring the works of leading intellectual writers of thattime: not the professional historians, but the "men ofletters" who used historyto expound their arguments, but with a kind of literary licence notavailable to a proper historian. His main argument is that the writers usedArabo-Islamic history not simply as an exotic or a romantic flourish, butrather as an integral and important aspect of their discourses to commentupon their own time. For example, Carlyle praises the Prophet as a heroicleader, as a way to warn the British of the dangers of utilitarianism andmaterialism; Ralph Waldo Emerson likewise does this to send a messageto the young American nation; Cardinal John H. Newman to alert Europeto the Ottoman threat; and so on.Al-Da'mi convincingly points out that we can neither understandthese writers nor the age itself adequately without properly comprehendingthis aspect of their writings. This is an important rectification to traditionalwestern scholarship, which typically leaves out all mention ofanything non-European in its study of its own intellectual history. (WalterE. Houghton's classic work on the Victorian age, The Victorian Frame ofMind, 1830-1870, has in its index only one entry for Prophet Muhammad ...
Islam Unveiled
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: October 2020

Rehashing historical animosities, polemics, and stereotypes, Spencer's work is an admirable contribution to the clash of civilizations underway. Basically a collection of diatribes, invective, and ranting against Islam consolidated by a heavy dose of disinformation, Islam Unveiled reflects a discursive piece of work consistent with the lmperium's policies and inter ests. With a pure secular discourse having proven ineffective in confronting Islam, the same discourse has been repackaged in a religious garb, pouring old wine into an even older bottle in order to fight fire with fire. The subtitle of the book, Disturbing Questions About the World's FastestGro-wing Faith, expresses the author's main worries and underscores thatsimilar publications are not mere religio-polemical enterprises to be responded to by sheer counter-polemics. Rather, they are part and parcel of a strategy of conflict seeking to undermine basic beliefs and identity structures for the purpose of essential mastery and domination - military, political, economic, and, above all, cultural. The basic polemical frame is whether and to what possible extent Islam can be made compatible with supposedly "superior" western values. Alternatively, instances in which such compatibility is not possible is taken as a standard point indicating Islamic irrelevance and failure. In the book's IO chapters, therefore, Spencer raises typical questions and issues that, in line with the purposes of western discourse, beg their own answers. Most chapters are in the form of a question probing, for instance, whether Islam is a religion of peace, promotes sound moral values, respects human rights and women, is compatible with liberal democracy or secularism, and is tolerant of others, particularly non-Muslims ...
The Postcolonial Arabic Novel
Authors: Babana-Hampton Safoi
Published: October 2020

Muhsin Jassim Al-Musawi’s book offers a fresh contribution not only tostudies in Arabic literature but also to postcolonial critique, cultural criticism,comparative literature, and cross-cultural studies. Its interest lies inthe fact that it introduces a relatively less explored territory in postcolonialthought and cultural criticism: namely, Arabic literature. Theattention of many western and non-western scholars in the field has long been directed toward Anglophone literature from South Asia, Japan,Africa, and Canada, and then to Francophone literature from North Africaand the Antilles.In the context of the Arab world, the author also situates the importanceof his study in how The Thousand and One Nights, a work whosefate and reception he sees as emblematic of the fate of fiction writing inthe Arab world, was received. Just like the novel genre in general, thiswork only received scholarly interest rather recently, after centuries ofneglect and disdain by conservatist Arab scholars and elite culture.Central to postcolonial critique, whose sources and precedents can betraced to the practices and discourses of those writers associated with variousintellectual traditions (e.g., poststructuralism, deconstruction, Marxism,feminism, cultural studies) and which has affinities with the literary movementknown as postmodernism, is the experience of colonization as amoment of cultural self-consciousness and self-dividedness. This momentgenerates contradictory and ambivalent identity patterns and subject positionsresulting from the encounter with the Other (culture), and emphasizesthe constructedness of identity. Al-Musawi transposes these key postcolonialmotifs and insights to the realm of Arabic literature in order to revealimportant dimensions of the contemporary Arabic novel.Scholarly research on Arabic literature (both within and outside theArab world) often privileged poetry as an object of study, given its historicallyprominent place in elite culture and the Arab world’s literary canon.The subject choice of the book is of particular interest, because it targetsthe Arabic novel as an emerging literary genre, and, by the same token,because of its use of postcolonial analytical concepts to account for thisrelatively new literary genre’s place in contemporary Arab culture andsociety ...
Mulla Sadra, The Elixir of the Gnostics
Authors: Khalil Atif
Published: October 2020

Professor Chittick undertook the translation from Arabic of the Iksir al-`Arifin (Elixir of the Gnostics) at the bequest of the Sadra IslamicPhilosophy Research Institute. No doubt, one of the institute’s reasons formaking this request is because Chittick is currently one of NorthAmerica’s most formidable scholars of the Islamic “sapiental” tradition,the stream of thought that combined both falsafah (philosophy) andtasawwuf (Sufism). He has to his credit some of the best English translationsof medieval Arabic and Persian texts. Chittick’s wealth of knowledgecomes out in the extensive endnotes, running 28 pages, which notonly help explain obscure passages and terms, but also trace many of theideas to their sources.The Elixir is a unique work of Sadra’s in that it is, as Chittick notes inthe introduction, something of a translation of Kashani’s (d. 1213-14)Persian Jawidan-nama (Book of the Everlasting). One could argue that theEverlasting serves simply as a template for Sadra’s work, since he removes 40 percent of the text and increases it by half the length of theoriginal. In that regard, most of the Elixir is original. However, the basicstructure of the Everlasting, four parts divided into 35 chapters, remains.The four parts deal with the classification of the various sciences, thenature of the soul, and cosmic beginnings and ends. Within the rubric ofthese four broad categories, a range of subjects are covered: from time,space, Adam, and Satan, to birth, death, and the resurrection. TheEverlasting, it is worth noting, was also translated into English by Chittickjust 2 years before the publishing of this work, in the Heart of IslamicPhilosophy (pp. 194-233), another factor rendering him a most suitabletranslator for this text ...
The Book of Revenue
Authors: DeLorenzo Yusuf Talal
Published: October 2020

With the revival of Islamic finance, the translation of this seminal workon fiscal matters is a significant landmark. While such Islamic thinkers asBaqir al-Sadr, Abu’l A`la al-Mawdudi, and others were formulating thethinking that eventually engendered Islamic banks and finance houses,most of the classical reference works in Arabic remained obscure andunpublished. Over the past 50 years, however, much has changed.Of course, the Qur’an and Sunnah provide a wealth of material ontransactions (mu`amalat). However, during the first few centuries, Muslimjurists expended great energy on the subject, especially as Muslimsencountered business practices and legal customs that differed from thosefound in seventh-century Arabia. That this body of law was ignored forseveral centuries, however, is part of the legacy of colonialism and, in part,a very natural phenomenon. After the colonial and other powers marginalizedIslam’s social and cultural institutions, it is not surprising that fiqhwas relegated to academic settings. Moreover, in order for it to becomevibrant once again, it required practitioners who were conversant with theclassical discipline as well as cognizant and appreciative of the world’snew realities.Beginning with the theoretical musings of such thinkers as Baqir al-Sadr, Mawdudi, and Qutb, the growth of Islamic banks and investmenthouses in the decades of the seventies and eighties provided the incentivefor more practical studies; and a new generation of Muslim jurists beganwork in earnest on modern finance. What began as a handful of smallbanks in the Gulf in the 1970s, developed in the 1980s into over 100 such ...
The New Politics of Islam
Authors: Sabet Amr G. E.
Published: October 2020

This book, in the words of its author, is the outcome of a protracted intellectualengagement with Islam in world affairs and an attempt to unravel thesemantics of civilizational categories (p. 1). Using seemingly Islamic rawmaterial, it incorporates postmodern and identity political analysis, as wellas the realist and functionalist investigative tools of social theory, in order tooffer a critical study of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) – theinteractive “arena” of self-neutralizing pathological Muslim states.The book comprises four chapters plus a concluding summary. Chapter1 consists of a critical introductory section to the nature of the “problem,”and a literature review that links Islam to the contemporary internationalrelations (IR) discourse and emphasizing its salience. Chapter 2 outlinesthe pan-Islamic paradigmatic and historical contexts in which the idea of the OIC was conceived and implemented, and points out the interplay ofnational interests and transcendental religious imperatives. Chapter 3challenges the myth of Islamic monolithism. Through a policy analysis ofcase studies of three key Muslim states (viz., Saudi Arabia, Iran, andPakistan), Sheikh attempts to highlight how each state manipulates theOIC in pursuit of its self-defined self-interest. Finally, chapter 4 seeks tomitigate the previous chapter’s hard-nosed geopolitical realist analysisby engaging in the paradigmatic and methodological debates surroundingreligious self-identity in foreign policy.The study adopts an “eclectic” methodology that proclaims no specificadherence to any dominant IR research paradigm (p. 19). It seeks to construct/conceptualize the Islamic narrative as derived from classical theologicaland jurisprudential treatises, both modified and reapplied in the courseof modern history. Subsequently, it attempts to deconstruct this narrative inlight of the “true-life” state policy of each case study. Finally it reconstructsthe IR discipline by resorting to a sociological understanding of foreign policythat integrates soft ideational and hard material factors (p. 18) ...
After Shock
Authors: Opini Bathseba M.
Published: October 2020

This anthology, a feminist standpoint on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, engagescritical feminist voices to counteract the United States’ specious justificationsof hatred, violence, and vengeance against Afghanistan and Muslimsin general following the tragedy. The authors relate the preeminence andpolitics of the West to violence in the Middle East, parts of Asia, Africa, andSouth and Central America. Their objective is to deconstruct the hypocrisyentangled in the West’s politics, particularly the Bush administration’s unilateral,patriarchal, misogynist, and masculinist foreign policies and actionsthat help create and sustain terrorism. The authors also seek to show that9/11 is not the only act of terrorism; rather, there are different acts of terrorinflicted on innocent people globally.While many writings have condemned 9/11, only a few depictwomen’s perspectives. Much of the literature focuses on men’s viewsabout the war. Moreover, non-western women have hardly written anythingthat could be said to document feminist viewpoints on the war. AfterShock: September 11, 2001 – Global Feminist Perspectives reveals theinvisibility of women’s voices in condemning terrorism and in formulatingresponses to the terrorist attacks. The anthology utilizes the voices ofwomen from different nationalities, professions, and cultural backgrounds,and thus fills a significant gap: feminist voices on terror and war.This book is one of the most welcome developments in voicing women’sperspectives on terrorism.The anthology is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Reactions,” has threesections framed by three questions: “Whose Terrorism? 12 September to 7October; Whose War? 8 October to 13 November ; and Whose Peace? 14November to 8 March.” Captivating pieces in the first section include Robin ...
Following Muhammad
Authors: Bennison Amira K.
Published: October 2020

Following Muhammad is a scholarly, but not academic, book directed atthe general reading public. Written by a religious studies scholar with anevident sympathy for Islam, it seeks to address western prejudices about Islam by presenting a clear, concise, and accessible picture of the faith incontext. Although the author explores Islam’s historical evolution, his primaryfocus is to balance this with insights into how Muslims themselvesunderstand their religion in contemporary as well as historical times.Although primarily directed toward non-Muslims, whose essentialistmedia-driven assumptions about Islam are constantly lamented by Ernst,it is also of interest to the Muslim reading public as a refreshing departurefrom standard accounts of Muslims and Islam. Although not a textbook,it could be profitably used as a text for discussion in a variety ofcourses.Two key issues to which Ernst returns repeatedly are, first, the erroneouswestern tendency of assuming that fundamentalists are the “true”representatives of Islam, and, second, the importance of recognizing thepart colonialism has played in shaping contemporary developments in theMuslim world. By drawing comparisons with Christianity, Judaism, andother faiths, he highlights the unacceptability – and indeed absurdity – ofmany generic assumptions about Islam and Muslims. Instead, he stressesthe importance of non-Muslims recognizing the diversity of faith and practicein time and space that characterizes Islam, just as it does all other worldreligions.The book is divided into six chapters organized in a thematic ratherthan a chronological manner in order to reflect the author’s self-proclaimedemphasis on “rethinking” Islam today. Chapter 1 explores western perceptionsof, and prejudices toward, Islam in modern and medieval times andsuggests ways to avoid such prejudices in our own time. Chapter 2 looks atwhat is meant by the term religion and how evolving western definitions ofreligion have shaped western perceptions of other faiths, including Islam.This is counterbalanced by a survey of how Muslims have defined Islam byassessing its historical vocabulary and the vocabulary used by present-dayMuslims ...