bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Muslim Women
Authors: Chishti Maliha
Published: October 2020

Shahnaz Khan's study of Muslim female identity in Canada is a worthycontribution to the literature on Muslim experiences in the West. Sheexplores how women negotiate their identities in-between the polarizeddiscourses ofOrientalism and Islam by occupying a hybridized third space.This third space is not only the site of resistance to the dominant Islamicand Orientalist prescriptives of Muslim female identity, but a starting pointfor Muslim women to engage in individual and collective projects to remapand reconfigure their identities in a process of cultural, political, andeconomic empowerment. Khan argues that progressive politics by and forMuslim women are possible only from this hybridized location. Her studyelucidates this third space's dynamics by examining the dialectic betweenthe personal narratives of culturally diverse Canadian Muslim women andthe political space they inhabit.In her introduction, Khan locates herself as a Muslim feminist intellectualwho does not practice but is influenced by Islam, as well as Orientalist,multiculturalist, and feminist discourses. In order to move away fromessentialist notions of "Muslim," Khan clarifies that she uses the term toreveal the fluidity and diversity of expressions associated with beingMuslim, including its use in both a religious and non-religious context.In chapter 1, Khan draws on the work of various social theorists to rup­ture the notion of a homogenous, static, and authentic culture. She does thisby emphasizing cultural fluidity, permeability, and shifting boundaries.Resisting and challenging the former serves as the premise of what istermed the third space, whereby hybridized identities are constructed froma wide and even contending range of influences, such as eastern and westerncultural forces and religion. For Muslim women, Khan outlines how thethird space disavows colonial authority and forbids the reign of dominantnarratives of either Islam (which legitimates patriarchal authority throughsacred texts) or Orientalism (which represents Muslims as the pejorative"Other"). This third space allows Muslim women to negotiate, resist, andreinvent the forces informing their realities.In the next few chapters, the personal narratives of 14 Muslim womenelucidate how Muslim women negotiate their own identities as they confrontracism and lslamophobia in the broader community, and sexism and ...
Toward the Full Inclusion of Muslim Women in the Ummah
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

This paper outlines some of the challenges that prevent Muslim women from becoming full members of the Ummah. Although we often hear of the rights of"women in ]slam'' in the abstract,1 we must know the specifics to improve the lives of Muslim women in reality. This paper tries to provide those specifics. It does not analyze the items, since the issues covered are many and disparate; rather, it simply highlights some concerns so that qual­ified practitioners can discuss and debate remedies. The bulk of this paper's main concern is to address some of the obstacles that hamper efforts to alleviate these challenges. The first section presents the list of challenges, while the second sec­tion discusses these obstacles. The paper concludes with a series of proposals intended to assuage the listed problems. Therefore, its focus is on more broad-based remedies rather than a specific remedy for a specific problem. The paper's underlying assump­tions are that women should be fully included in the Ummah and that this is not the case now. To make this clear, a definition of "full inclusion in the Ummah" is given before the paper proceeds to listing the challenges ...
Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought
Authors: Sabet Amr G.
Published: October 2020

This book, an historical survey of the Islamic injunction to command rightand forbid wrong, a biographical exposé of Muslims who understood andpracticed this principle, and a bibliographical reference, is a welcome andtimely addition to the literature on Islamic thought. Detailed and extensive,yet not particularly difficult to read, it is equally accessible to all readers. Itsmain theme is the basic Islamic individual and communal duty to stop otherpeople from doing wrong. Cook contends that few cultures have paid suchmeticulous concern to this matter, despite the issue’s intelligibility in justabout any culture.As a central Islamic tenet, this principle could not be ignored, and yet itssociopolitical implications and consequences made it the focus of rigorousattention by Muslim scholars. The doctrine inexorably brings up the balancingand equally sacrosanct value of privacy, together with issues of knowledge,specialization, competence, and stability – the “how” of the whole matter.After all, the act of forbidding wrong was not supposed to undermine theprinciple by becoming an intrusive breach of privacy, an excursus into socialprying, or a potential justification for unmitigated rebellion against the state.The book consists of five parts comprising 20 chapters. Part I sets thedescriptive framework by elaborating the normative material found in theQur’an, Qur’anic exegesis, tradition, and biographical literature about earlyMuslims. Part II is dedicated to the Hanbali school ince its foundation byAhmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855) in Baghdad. The author traces its shiftinginfluences in Damascus and Najd, where the school continues to have a holdin the Saudi state to this day. Part III deals with the Mu‘tazilis and their Zaydiand Imami heirs, all of which, Cook contends, provide the richest documentationfor the intellectual history of forbidding wrong. The remaining Sunnischools of thought, the Khariji Ibadis, together with a chapter on al-Ghazali’stackling of the duty and another chapter pulling together the discussion ofclassical Islam, comprise Part IV. Finally, Part V surveys the duty’s saliencein modern Islamic thought and developments in both the Sunni and Imamischools and engages in a comparative exercise with this duty’s pre-Islamicantecedents and with non-Islamic cultures, including the modern West ...
Peace, Jihad & Conflict Resolution
Authors: Alwani Zainab
Published: October 2020

The international seminar on Peace, Jihad & Conflict Resolution, jointlyorganized by AMSS, IIIT, and the Islamic Educational, Scientific andCultural Organization (ISESCO), was hosted by the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU), Georgetown University on November 2-3, 2002. 

The seminar’s goal was to bring a deeper understanding of the place andposition of religion in general, and Islam in particular, toward the dynamicconcepts of peace, jihad, political violence, and military conflict. The seminargot off to a lively start on Saturday morning with introductions presentedby Dr. Jamal Barzinji (vice president, IIIT). Welcoming remarks weremade by Dr. Ahmad S. Weld Abah (chairman, ISESCO Executive Council),Dr. Louay Safi (AMSS president), and Dr. John Esposito (CMCU director).The opening session was followed by an inspiring speech by Dr. Taha Jaberal-Alwani (president, Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences[GSISS]), on “Concepts between Islamic and Western Worldviews: Jihad asan Example.”Al-Alwani analyzed the meaning of peace, jihad, and conflict resolutionfrom an Islamic jurisprudential perspective by examining how these conceptsare governed by the values of tawhid (unity of God), tazkiah (purificationof humanity), and ‘imran (establishing a values-based civilization).He discussed how practicing and establishing peace is obligatory for all people,because Islam considers humanity to be one family. Since most ofIslam’s jurisprudential rules are based on peace, according to al-Alwani,“both peace and jihad have different levels, and each one should be fulfilledby individuals, family, and society.” He characterized jihad as: “There is noother concept that will match the meaning of peace in Islam except jihad,”and argued that “jihad is based on different levels: to struggle is the majormeaning of jihad, in order to elevate oneself to a higher level, they muststrive.” The concept of conflict resolution implies that many stages shouldbe applied and negotiated before resorting to war.Thirty-two papers were presented in eight consecutive panels duringthe 2-day seminar. The panelists approached the issues from theoretical perspectivesand sociopolitical experiences in order to overcome stereotypicaldiscussions and superficial impressions. On the first day, the following subthemeswere analyzed in four panels: “Jihad, War and Peace in the IslamicAuthoritative Texts,” “Positive Attitude toward the ‘Other’,” “Religion: ATool for Conflict Resolution,” and “Religious and Cultural Roots of Warand Peace.”These panels drew attention to the need of developing an authenticmethodology that deals objectively with religious texts and history. In thefirst panel, Dr. Jamal Badawi (St. Mary’s University, Canada) offered a newvision in his analysis of how some misunderstood verses and ahadith haveleft a negative impact upon the nature of Muslim and non-Muslim relations.He addressed such questions as: “Does Islam teach hate toward others?” ...
American Muslims
Authors: Bullock Katherine
Published: October 2020

With a picture of a minaret superimposed on the Statue of Liberty, thisbook's cover is a striking introduction to what is inside. Like the Statue ofLiberty that has acted as a beacon of freedom for wave after wave ofrefugees and immigrants, Khan argues that Muslims in America are beaconsfor the Muslim world, calling the ummah to an Islam of moderation, tolerance,and excellence; helping to bring the ummah out of its current malaiseby engaging in itjthad; and, the same time, bringing Islam to an ailing UnitedStates. And as the minaret and the Statue of Liberty also can represent polesof tension for Muslims (the love/hate relationship and the spilt personalitysyndrome that Muslims have toward the United States), Khan's book investigatesthe Muslim experience of living in the United States. He criticizes theUnited States for failing to live up to its promises of liberty for its Muslimcitizens and inhabitants, as well as for Muslims around the globe.American Muslims has eight chapters, each presenting a different angleof the relationship between being Muslim and being American. Khan setsthe scene by discussing "Islam in America" ( chapter l ), moves to "AmericanMuslims and American Politics" (chapter 2), "American Foreign Policy"(chapter 3), and "American Muslims and American Society" (chapter 4). Hethen introduces the notion of an American Muslim perspective (chapter 5)and has a chapter on the compatibility between Islam and democracy ( chai:rter 6). The 9/11 attack and its impact upon Muslims is discussed next (chai:rter 7), and the book ends with his perspective as an American Muslim onpolitics in the Muslim world (chapter 8).Khan presents forceful and consistent arguments that are both thoughtprovokingand often refreshing in their honesty. He is not afraid to say out ...
Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World
Authors: Bernhardsson Magnus T.
Published: October 2020

1n this interesting and well-researched book, Bruce Masters analyses the historyof Chris tian and Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire's Arabprovinces and how they fared within a Muslim majority and hierarchy. Byand large, this important study is a story of modernization, identity, and ecclesiasticalpolitics that focuses primarily on Christian communities in Aleppo,Syria. The book's main themes are somewhat familiar: How Christian andJewish communities were in an advantageous position to benefit fromincreasing European influence in the Middle East, and how a secular politicalidentity (Arab nationalism) emerged in the Levant. The book's value liesnot in its overarching thesis, but rather in the details of the story and theimpressive research upon which this well-crafted narrative is based.Masters chronicles how the identities of Christians and Jews evolveddue to their increasing contact with western influences, or, as Masters labelsit, "intrusion." The status quo was forever transformed because manyChristians began to distance themselves, economically and socially, fromtheir Muslim neighbors. Masters, a historian who teaches at Connecticut'sWesleyan University, contends that the western intrusion altered Muslimattitudes toward native Christians. In the nineteenth century, local Christianswould serve for some Muslims as "convenient surrogates for the anger thatcould only rarely be expressed directly against the Europeans."Although the Arab provinces experienced serious sectarian strife in thenineteenth century, these antagonisms were, by and large, absent in the ...
Dialogue of Civilizations
Authors: Zaidi Ali Hassan
Published: October 2020

This book arose from a series of conferences held as part of the Todalnstitute's research project, Human Security and Global Governance, initiated in 1996. The book's ambitious title matches its expansive structure. Aside from 16 chapters divided equally into Parts One and Two, there is a preface by Hans Kung, an introduction by the editors, and a lead chap­ter by Tehranian. Tn addition, the appendix cites a 15-item declaration by the peace scholars attending the Okinawa conference in 2000 to promote mutual respect and understanding among alt religious and secular tradi­tions of civility. Tehranian and Chappell's "Introduction" situates the need for dia­logue among civilizations in light of 9/11, which, they argue, presents both challenges to human security and a critical opportunity for the emer­gence of a new, just world order. The editors read 9/11 not as a lone act of insanity, but as an act that represents global resentment against how the world is run. They argue that unlike poverty in traditional systems that provide a social safety net, modern poverty in the "global fishbowl" is experienced as more humiliating and infuriating, because communication technologies make possible increased awareness of relative deprivation. In chapter I, "lnformatic Civilization: Promises, Perils, Prospects," Tehranian extends the introduction's claims that in the wake of the New World Disorder, we now have the opportunity to forge a global civiliza­tion fostered by dialogue, which itself is made possible by new technolo­gies. This section raises my hackles, for Tehranian's use of"civilization" vacillates between the singular and the plural. That is, should we think of "civilization" as a uniform, linear progression of human society based, as Tehranian argues, upon a mode of production, or should we think of"civ­ilizations" in terms of different cosmologies derived, for instance, from the world religions? ...
Unveiling Islam
Authors: Haque Amber
Published: October 2020

Many books have been written on Muslims and Islam since 9/1 I. Amajority of them have tried to show Islam's negative side in an attempt toprove that Islam teaches violence and that Muslims love to engage injihad to become martyrs. Such contentions are generally made by antiMusliminterest groups, certain religious organizations, and politiciansunder the influence of such extremists. These people stir up anti-Muslimsentiments to influence public opinion and bend government policies infavor of such groups. This book is a similar attempt to gain popularity forthe authors and arouse anti-Muslim sentiment at a time that is trying formost Americans. The authors, Ergun Caner and Emir Caner, are brothers.The senior author is professor of theology at Criswell College, Dallas,Texas, and the second author teaches at the Baptist Seminary in WakeForest, North Carolina.The book contains a preface and introduction, I 6 chapters on variousaspects of Islam, and four appendices, including an index to the Qur'anand a glossary of Arabic terms. The preface is a story of the clash ofculturesbetween the authors' Muslim (Turkish) father and Swedish mother,which resulted in a divorce when the Caner brothers were still veryyoung. The father had visitation rights and would take Ergun and Emir tothe Islamic Center in Columbus, Ohio, on weekends "to do the prayers,celebrate Ramadhan and read the Qur'an." This was the children's onlyexposure to Islam, until Ergun was I 5 and visited a church after his bestfriend invited him to do so. Ergun found the people at church warm and"didn't mock when he stumbled through the hymns." He joined thegospel ministry in 1982 and has since been preaching (against Islam) inorder "to bring salvation for 1.2 billion Muslims." Thus the title of thebook is itself deceiving, as it conveys that a practicing Muslim became aChristian, when, in fact, the authors actually became Christians in theirearly teens and had almost no education in Islam.It is appalling that the introductory chapter opens with a threat from"Shaikh" Osama bin Laden to the Americans and blessings for those whogave their lives to k.ill the 9/1 I victims. The authors portray bin Laden asa typical Muslim who is out to get all people who refuse to accept Islam ...
No Shame for the Sun
Authors: Nazim Zabeda
Published: October 2020

Shahla Haeri’s groundbreaking work could not have emerged at a moredesperately needed time. In the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on Iraq, thewestern media have worked feverishly to bombard the West with imagesand messages about Muslim women and Islam. Whether it is the imageof Afghanistan’s burqa-clad women or Iraq’s veiled women, the messagehas been the same: All Muslim women are speechless, powerless, andoften invisible victims of an oppressive monolithic Islam.In No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women,Haeri presents the reader with an insightful and poignant look at the livesof six educated, middle-class and upper-middle class, professionalPakistani women. Situated against Pakistan’s changing social, political,economic, cultural, and religious landscapes, their successes, costs, andstruggles “challenge the notion of a ‘hegemonic’ and monolithic Islam thatvictimizes Muslim women” (p. xi).The book’s preface spells out its main purpose: to render visible theexperiences of professional Pakistani women within the larger goal of disruptingthe dominant western stereotypes and beliefs of Muslim women.In the introduction, Haeri situates herself by raising a series of questionsemerging from her own experiences as an Iranian-born, middle-class, educated,professional Muslim woman living and working in the UnitedStates. Namely, she questions her own invisibility resulting from the persistenceof western stereotypical images and beliefs of women in theMuslim world and then offers an overview of the theoretical and historicalrationale for their persistence ...
The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy
Authors: Hartman Michelle
Published: October 2020

In The Poetics of Islamic Legitimacy, Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevycheffectively debunks the myth that the classical Arabic panegyric ode (qasidat al-madh) is merely a descriptive, prescriptive, or sycophanticpoetic genre by demonstrating its dynamic engagements with what sheterms “Arabo-Islamic court life.” The book builds on her previous work(e.g., The Mute Immortals Speak [Cornell University Press: 1993]), usingan approach that blends an understanding of myth, rite, and archetype inthe classical Arabic qasidah with historically grounded, contextualizedinterpretations of these poems. Her insightful, close readings of individualpoems are coupled with a detailed exploration of the classical Arabicqasidah’s social and ritual functions – from the pre-Islamic period,through its early days, and continuing through the Umayyad and`Abbasid periods.This book’s specific argument is that the panegyric ode “created,encoded, and promulgated a myth and ideology of legitimate Arabo-Islamic rule” (p. ix). She uses a range of contemporary sources, includinganecdotal material about poetry and poets, in her interpretations. Thisgrounds her detailed and specific literary analyses in a broader sociopolitical,historical, and cultural setting and invigorates her argumentsabout poetry’s role in relation to power and leadership.Each chapter treats one aspect of this overall argument and progresseschronologically, beginning with pre-Islamic Arabia and ending withAndalusia. Each chapter is highly structured and begins by setting a context.Stetkevych then explicates the paradigms and theories employed (e.g.,Van Gennep’s rite of passage and Mauss’ formulation of ritual exchange),before providing a translation of the poem(s) to be analyzed. Finally, sheanalyzes one or more poems, reading each section meticulously in relationto the previously outlined contexts, paradigms, and theories, as well as theArabic literary tradition. She also notes grammatical and linguistic pointsand the sociopolitical, historical and/or cultural elements affecting its composition.She concludes by linking each chapter to the larger idea that bindsthe book together – how the poems shore up or undermine the legitimacyof Arabo-Islamic leaders ...
Excellence and Precedence
Authors: Stewart Devin
Published: October 2020

The question of the imamate or the caliphate, the designation of the Muslimcommunity’s legitimate leader, is undoubtedly one of the most important inIslamic history. The first civil war (656-61), which broke out with the murderof Caliph `Uthman, had a profound effect not only on subsequentIslamic political and religious institutions, but also on later Muslims’ views,accounts, and discussions of the community’s early history. This bitter conflict,which necessarily involved extensive controversy concerning theidentity and required qualifications of the community’s legitimate leader, laid the foundations for an enduring theological split among Islam’s threemajor “sects”: the Shi`ites, the Sunnis, and the Kharijis – one that wouldpersist long after the war ended with the assassination of `Ali.Polemics among these groups, and among subcategories of the threemain groups, each of which endeavored to justify its contemporary viewson legitimate leadership and sectarian identity, were a creative force inmany fields. Bodies of theoretical discussion, primarily in theology butalso in law and other fields, grew around these polemics, using prooftextsfrom the Qur’an and Hadith, as well as historical accounts, as evidencein arguments about the Companions, their relationships with theProphet, their relative merits and other moral qualities, and their dealingswith each other. Though focused on a much earlier period and concerningconflicts long over, these polemics were all the more sensitive andemotionally charged because of their contemporary implications concerningthe legitimacy of the sectarian groups’ beliefs.Her work reveals, by examining one important intellectual exchange,some of the processes by which this body of theoretical discussion grew. Itanalyzes Bina’ al-Maqalah al-Fatimiyah fi Naqd al-Risalah al-`Uthmaniyah, a seventh-/thirteenth-century polemical Shi`ite work on theimamate, itself a refutation of a third-/ninth-century polemical work. Theauthor, Jamal al-Din Ahmad ibn Musa ibn Tawus (d. 673/1274-75),belonged to an established Twelver Shi`ite scholarly family from Hillah,southern Iraq. Both he and his brother, Radiy al-Din `Ali ibn Tawus (d.664/1266), were important thirteenth-century scholars, although Radiy al-Din has been better served than Jamal al-Din in modern scholarship sincethe publication of Kohlberg’s A Medieval Muslim Scholar at Work: IbnTawus and His Library (Leiden: 1992) ...
Centre For Medieval Studies Middle Eastern and Islamic Influence on Western Art & Liturgy
Authors: Hughes Andrew
Published: October 2020

Central to the conference, held during March 5-6, 2004, at Trinity College,University of Toronto (Canada), was the desire of its organizer, AndrewHughes, to find analogies in other disciplines to his speculation that theEuropean plainsong (liturgical chant) of the Middle Ages was performed in a manner similar to that of Middle Eastern music (“Continuous Music:Natural or Eastern? The Origins of Modern Performance Style”). His speculationstemmed from decades of discussions with his colleague TimothyMcGee about the nature of musical sound. Oral transmission, its replacementby various difficult-to-interpret notations, and an often polemic rejectionof Arabic influence make the investigation difficult and controversial.1McGee responded (“Some Concerns about Eastern Influence in MedievalMusic”) and later, working from practical experiments presented by agroup of graduate students attending the conference, offered a very interestingnew interpretation. Some reservations were expressed by CharlesBurnett (Warburg Institute, London), a distinguished Arabist with musicologicalqualifications. He was invited to comment on the initial round tableand the conference as a whole.Other papers relevant to music were George Sawa’s review of Arabictheories of medieval music (“The Uses of Arabic Language in MedievalRhythmic Discourses”). He referred to numerous matters that might havea bearing on European music, especially with respect to ornamentationand rhythm. Art Levine discussed other non-western musical cultures,some of which were also influenced by Islamic music, and raised questionsabout ornamentation, tuning, and the nature of pitch (e.g., what is anote? “What Can Non-Western Music Offer?”).Moving from the sound of music to words about it, Randall Rosenfelddescribed numerous pilgrimage and Crusader chronicles. They containpassages reporting that Europeans found little strange in eastern music,suggesting that eastern and western music cannot have been as dissimilaras seems to be the case today (“Frankish Reports of Central Asian andMiddle Eastern Musical Practice”). John Haines traced in detail the use ofArabic terms from Adelard of Bath’s twelfth-century translation ofEuclid’s geometrical writings to an important mid-thirteenth-centurymusical treatise, where the terms for quadrilateral shapes resemblingsquare notation are used to refer to musical symbols (“Anonymous IV’sElmuahim and Elmuarifa”). Luisa Nardini presented details of particularmelodic characteristics in Gregorian chants that identify Byzantine andGallican melodies in Gregorian repertories (“Aliens in Disguise:Byzantine and Gallican Songs as Mass Propers in Italian Sources”).In other disciplines, Philip Slavin revealed the striking similarities oftopics and words between Byzantine and Roman (Gregorian) penitentialliturgy, seeing possible origins in Jewish prayers and the fourth-centuryConstitutiones Apostolorum (“Byzantine and Western Penitential Prayers ...
Warraq’s War
Authors: Ahmad Ahrar
Published: October 2020

Books Reviewed: Why I Am Not a Muslim. New York: Prometheus Books,2003; The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. New York: PrometheusBooks, 2000; What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, andCommentary. New York: Prometheus Books, 2002; Leaving Islam:Apostates Speak Out. New York: Prometheus Books, 2003.Among other consequences of the horrific tragedy of 9/11 is the generationof a veritable cottage industry in books about Islam and Muslims.There had always existed a void regarding such books. In spite of itsAbrahamic roots and its long, if somewhat troubled, encounters with theWest, the significance of Arab countries in terms of western economicinterests and the steady growth of diasporic Muslims settling in the developedworld (easily surpassing the Jewish presence, probably even in theUnited States), Islam had remained a residual category entirely peripheralto American intellectual or cultural life.The unprecedented nature and the brutality of the event that led to theMuslim “explosion” into the public consciousness exposed the woefulindifference about Islam and reinforced the Orientalist stereotypes ofMuslims as mysterious, backward, and menacing. There was a predictableappetite among the public to know about Muslims, who had traditionallybeen pictured as quaint and dreadful “others” but were now increasinglybeing presented as angry and threatening “fanatics.” Some of the booksrushed to print were works of genuine scholarship, demonstrating experience,knowledge, and elegance. Others were obviously driven by commercial considerations rather than academic, and some were, indeed, shallow,trite, and often misleading.In the latter genre, two classes of books, both critical of Islam, quicklybecame popular: those written from an alarmist western perspective bysuch authors as Steven Emerson, Daniel Pipes, and Robert Spencer, andothers that were supposedly “insider” exposés and interrogations issuingfrom such critics as Irshad Manji, the brothers Irgun Mehmet and EmirFathi Caner, and Mohammad Mohaddessin. The doyen of the latter groupis, undoubtedly, Ibn Warraq ...
Short Arabic Plays
Authors: Hartman Michelle
Published: October 2020

Like most of the other anthologies edited by Salma Khadra Jayyusi, ShortArabic Plays is a collection of translated Arabic literary works focusedaround one particular genre. This anthology, part of Jayyusi’s Project forthe Translation of Arabic (PROTA), will bring attention to a dynamic, butunderstudied, genre of Arabic literature. This diverse collection consists of20 short plays by 15 playwrights, demonstrating the breadth of the genreand its interest not only to scholars and specialists, but also to those concernedwith literature more generally.One problem with this particular anthology, however, is that Jayyusi’sseven-page editor’s introduction barely manages to explain the impetusbehind the project, make her acknowledgments and outline the majorthemes in short plays in general – let alone contextualize the plays includedin this volume. Although it includes short biographies of the editor, contributors,and translators (after a brief glossary of Arabic words), there are nointroductions to the individual works or even such bibliographic indicationsas their original titles and dates of publication. In contrast, other anthologiesby Jayyusi – for example, Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology (ColumbiaUniversity Press: 1987) and Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature(Columbia University Press: 1992) – are accompanied by useful and lengthyintroductions written by Jayyusi herself, as well as brief introductions toeach individual contribution.Likewise, the anthology most closely related to this one, ModernArabic Drama: An Anthology, coedited with Roger Allen ...
The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria
Authors: Khalil Atif
Published: October 2020

Contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations are so mired in the Middle East’spolitical conflict that most people are often quite surprised to learn of theremarkable theological, legal, and mystical intersections between both traditions.Modern political hostilities centered on the Palestinian-Israelidivide have almost entirely clouded the shared Semitic heritage of faithsthat were, until just a little more than 50 years ago, invariably stamped bythe Christian West with the seal of “otherness” – an “internal otherness” inthe case of Judaism, and an “external otherness” in the case of Islam.In this light, Josef Meri’s work is a welcome contribution to the scholarlystudy of Jewish-Muslim relations. The study raises our awareness of both religions’ common cultural and intellectual history: more specifically,to the medieval Muslim and Jewish pilgrimage culture of saint venerationin Syria, and, to a lesser extent, other regions of the Near East. The workgrew out of the author’s doctoral dissertation at Oxford, done under thesupervision of Wilferd Madelung and Daniel Frank, and bears the mark ofthe many hours Meri must have spent as a scholarly archeologist diggingthrough an enormous range of classical Arabic and Hebrew texts as well aspertinent secondary literature.Although the concentration of the comparative analysis tilts toward theIslamic side (the author notes that the evidence for Jewish saint venerationis considerably less), he still manages to explore the parallel concepts, religiouspractices, and architectural facets relevant to his analysis with reasonablesuccess. The work is not simply a descriptive account of Jewishand Muslim saint veneration, but an assessment of the psychological andcultural modes that accompany such forms of religious expression. To thisend, Meri draws out some of the wider theoretical issues pertaining to theconstruction of sacred space and the social function of saints and pilgrimagesites ...
Suicide in Palestine
Authors: Gandolfo K. Luisa
Published: October 2020

Within the context of Islamic thought, suicide has met both tolerance andresistance and has spawned two cultural categories: suicide and martyrdom.Nadia Taysir Dabbagh approaches the issue with a dexterity honed by medicalexperience, and her insightful analysis of the two concepts reveals thatsuicide is perceived as a private act condemned by society and religion, whilemartyrdom is a public act exalted for the greater good. The fusion of theoriesplucked from psychiatry, anthropology, and psychology and then coupledwith compelling case studies conducted in Ramallah and Gaza creates a coveragethat treads the line between objective analysis and morbid fascination,as her research contributes a reasoned account of a startling trend largely lostin a region immersed in its tumultuous past and present and uncertain future.This book is the product of an intercalated M.B.–Ph.D. program submittedto the Psychiatry Department at University College London. The introductorychapter incorporates an elucidated methodology that identifies biological,social, and psychological study approaches, with the primary systemof analysis resting on the latter. This person-centred technique perceives suicideas an individual phenomenon linked to risk factors (e.g., depression,anxiety, and stressful life events) and associations. Likewise, the socialapproach favors a broader angle and associates suicide with such social conditionsas unemployment, domestic violence, and sociopolitical protest. Thebiological approach draws a correlation between affective disorders, such asbipolar disorder, and suicide. Eminent suicidologists, such as Michael Kral,Silvia S. Canetto, and David Lester, who assert that suicidal behavior shouldbe placed in its cultural as well as social context, provide the publication’stheoretical foundation ...
Muslims and Arabs in Western Politics
Authors: Tatari Eren
Published: October 2020

The “Muslims and Arabs in Western Politics” conference, held at IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, on September 22-24, 2005 and organized byAbdulkader Sinno (assistant professor, political science and Middle Easternstudies, Indiana University), was highly enriching and intellectually stimulating.The two public lectures and five panels, ranging from civil rights and libertiesto public perceptions of Muslims, shed light on various aspects of thecomplexities of this field and acquainted the participants with cutting-edgeresearch by leading scholars from North America and Western Europe.James Zogby and David Cole delivered the two public lectures on “TheEmergent Arab-American Political Constituency” and “Paradigms ofPrevention: The Rule of Law and the War on Terror,” respectively. Zogby covered the development of the Arab-American community’s politicalmobilization and inclusion in mainstream American politics throughout thetwentieth century. He narrated his personal experience as a Lebanese immigrantwho had experienced the “hard times” of discrimination and exclusion.In addition, he reported on the significant increase in the political mobilizationof Muslim minorities in the United States over the last few decades,combined with a growing interest from politicians. His speech ended on apositive note: He is convinced that the community’s trajectory will continueto move forward. On the other hand, David Cole’s talk focused on the stateof constitutional law after 9/11. He argued that substantial negative inroadshave been made to the five pillars of the rule of law, namely, equality beforethe law, transparency of procedures, fairness of procedures, checks and balances,and commitment to basic human rights ...
Iran, Iraq, and the Legacies of War
Authors: Gormley Louise , Armani David
Published: October 2020

With the noble aims of conflict resolution and peace building, Lawrence G.Potter and Gary G. Sick have compiled an excellent collection of essays on“the war without winners” (p. 2). This remarkable publication, Iran, Iraq,and the Legacies of War, adds to Potter and Sick’s series of co-edited bookson Middle Eastern issues, namely, The Persian Gulf at the Millennium:Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion (Palgrave Macmillan:1997) and Security in the Persian Gulf: Origins, Obstacles, and the Searchfor Consensus (Palgrave Macmillan: 2002). Potter and Sick are two prominentscholars of international affairs at Columbia University. During theCarter presidency, Sick served as the principal White House aide for Iran onthe National Security Council. (Sick is well-known for his exposé All FallDown: America’s Tragic Encounter with Iran [Random House: 1985]).This 224-page book was written in the cautiously hopeful belief thatthe time has come for reconciliation to begin. It contains nine chapters plusPotter and Sick’s helpful introduction, which contextualizes the futile warthat shook the world. The Iran-Iraq war was one of the longest and costliestconventional wars of the twentieth century. Although the number ofcasualties is still in dispute, an estimated 400,000 were killed and perhaps700,000 were wounded on both sides (p. 2). The Economist commentedthat “this was a war that should never have been fought … neither sidegained a thing, except the saving of its own regime. And neither regime wasworth the sacrifice” (p. 2) ...
Nationalist Voices in Jordan
Authors: Ghori Faisal
Published: October 2020

Jordan has existed now for nearly 60 years, since the termination of theBritish mandate in 1946, and has generally been studied in terms of itsHashemite rulers and the “King’s men,” those who helped the Hashemitesconstruct it. These historical narratives, argues Anderson, have privilegedthe Jordanian monarchy and the “high” elements of society and, consequently,have ignored the “urban” elements that played an equal, if not agreater, role in constructing the Jordanian national identity. In this sense,Anderson gives voice to narratives that were previously unknown andunheard and, by so doing, makes a significant contribution to the body ofliterature on Jordan.She contends that the “Arab Street” “holds a key to understandingJordan in the twentieth century” and, in this regard, focuses upon the “true”Jordanian natives and their narrative. Taking a subaltern approach toJordanian history, she examines the foundation of the Jordanian NationalMovement (JNM), a coalition of leftist parties based loosely upon Arabnationalism, and its influence upon the nation’s formation. Given her uniqueapproach to Jordanian history, she admits that her work is incomplete, formany first-hand accounts and memoirs, which cannot be found, should beexamined in light of the larger body of literature on Jordan.The history of Jordan is that of post-colonial independence and nationhood,of a nation that had never existed in the hearts and minds of those whowould live within its borders until it was actually drawn on a map. In anagreement brokered in late March 1921 between Winston Chuchill, then theBritish colonial secretary, and Abdullah I, the latter would accept British ...
The Great Syrian Revolt and the Rise of Arab Nationalism
Authors: Giannuzzi Timothy
Published: October 2020

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Any reader of MichaelProvence’s study of the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925 might be forgiven suchcynicism. Here is a fine and well-documented example of an earlier attemptby a western power to come to grips with the Middle East – with unfortunateresults. It involved foreigners infallibly confident in themselves andtheir mission, compliant local elites out for self-aggrandizement, insurgentspreaching religious-inflected nationalism, the gulf between all three, and theensuing horror. The Great Syrian Revolt was a pivotal event both for Syriaand for Arabs at large. It allowed the former to conceptualize themselves asa nation while serving as an exemplar for the latter, thereby playing a formativerole in the development of national consciousness in the region. Byinfluencing the Baathist movement two decades later, it had ramificationsfar beyond its failure.Provence devotes much of the first chapter to staking out interesting theoreticalground. Rejecting the notion of insurrection as being largely a battleof ideas directed by intellectuals, he argues persuasively for an approachto the rebellion centered on a rural, rather than an urban, setting and for acasus belli founded on French misrule and economic relations between differingclasses of Syrian society. His central thesis is that the grain tradebetween the Druze in the fertile Hawran region of southern Syria andmiddle-class merchants, mostly from the Maydan quarter of Damascus, wasthe central axis upon which the revolt turned.Such an approach has its drawbacks, namely, the paucity of documentaryevidence from contemporary rural Syria. Much of the latter half of thefirst chapter is devoted to this difficulty. In casting a judicious eye over therange of primary source material, both French and Arabic, Provence ...
Sibawayhi
Authors: Molloy Rebecca B.
Published: October 2020

London and New York: I.B. Tauris and Oxford University Press India, inassociation with the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, 2004. 159 pages.In the “Foreword,” Michael Carter states that his book is aimed at the generalreader who is interested in the history of Arabic grammar and, in particular,in the achievement of Sibawayhi, the discipline’s architect and originator. This much-needed and long-awaited effort is a welcome addition to thefield of Arabic grammatical theory, for it contextualizes Sibawayhi’s grammaticalideas, as set forth in his Al-Kitab, by giving a short account of hisbackground and life (p. vii). The reader, whether advanced or novice, willappreciate how accessible the material has been made. To be sure, reducingSibawayhi’s complex and profound observations to 145 pages runs the riskof making it even harder to understand. But the author avoids such pitfallswith ease and grace. In fact, a knowledge of Arabic is not essential; but, asthe author says, “given the nature of the topic it will certainly be useful” (p.vii). All examples are transliterated and translated, and technical terms andbasic concepts are explained as often as possible.Despite the complex subject matter, Carter does a brilliant job describingthe Kitab’s place within the Arabo-Islamic system and the historical contextin which it was written. It is useful to spend some time on Sibawayhi’slife, even though little is actually known about it, and so chapter 1, “Sibawayhithe Person,” explores his importance through portraits in biographiesas well as from the contents of his own work. It has been convincinglyargued that the earliest form of Sibawayhi’s name (Amr ibn `Uthman Sibawayhi)is probably authentic (p. 9). That Sibawayhi was by origin a Persianwho ended up in Basra seems to be beyond contention, although neither thedate nor the place of his birth can be confirmed. All biographies agree thathe came to Basra to study religious law, either Hadith (traditions of theProphet) or basic principles of fiqh (jurisprudence), which were just beginningto take form. The details of his death are just as vague as those of hisbirth and personal history. Carter presents his readers with a short account ofthis problem, with which even the classical biographers had to wrestle (seepp. 15-16) ...
Creative Thinking
Authors: Johnston David L.
Published: October 2020

Growing out of a course that the authors have taught jointly since 1996 atthe International Islamic University Malaysia (“Creative Thinking andProblem Solving”), this book is designed for use as an undergraduate textbookon these issues from an Islamic viewpoint. Since Muslims generally deplore their own community’s lack of creativity and desperately need toreverse their technological and scientific dependence on other countries, theauthors seek to present a realistic strategy to help them regain the innovativespirit that characterized classical Islamic civilization. Drawing on cognitivepsychology and related disciplines in western academia, they begin with theassumption that creativity is a learned skill, rather than the personal endowmentof an elite corps of humanity. The book then develops their secondassumption: Islamic values and perspectives can be enriched through a dialoguewith western social sciences.The first part is devoted to Islamic civilization’s contribution to humancivilization: tafakkur and other Qur’anic words calling for people to thinkcreatively (chapter 1); applying secular “thinking styles” literature to theQur’an, including the inquisitive, objective, positive, hypothetical, rational,reflective/contemplative, visual, metaphorical, analogical, emotional, perceptual,conceptual, intuitive, scientific, and wishful thinking styles (chapter2); analyzing the concept of ijtihad and its vocation to constantly adaptIslamic law to changing circumstances and find creative solutions to persistentsocioeconomic and political challenges (chapter 3); and summarizingMuslim contributions to science, philosophy, and medicine (chapter 4) ...
The Lion in Spring? Three Takes on Syria through the Presidential Lens
Authors: Stanton Andrea L.
Published: October 2020

Alan George, Syria: Neither Bread Nor Freedom. London and New York:Zed Books, 2003; Flynt Leverett, Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire.Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 2005; David Lesch, The NewLion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and Modern Syria. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 2005.Since Hafez al-Asad’s death in June 2000, Syria has spent more time in theinternational spotlight than perhaps ever before, due primarily to the Bushadministration’s interest in the country’s relations with four of its neighbors:Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Lebanon. This interest has spurred the publication ofseveral “contemporary issues” books analyzing the country’s political situationand aimed at English-speaking policymaking, analyst, diplomatic, andjournalistic communities in the United States and elsewhere. Three of themost talked-about analyses are Alan George’s Syria: Neither Bread NorFreedom, Flynt Leverett’s Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire, andDavid Lesch’s The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al-Asad and ModernSyria. These three books have become well-known “recommended reads”for policymakers working on Syria and have circulated around the Europeanand American diplomatic, non-governmental organization (NGO), and businesscircles in Damascus.Like most of the books published on Syria since the 1970s, these threefocus on the president, and for good reason: the intense presidential personalitycult that characterized Syria under Hafez al-Asad (reigned 1971-2000) has continued into his son Bashar’s presidency, albeit in a softened form(fewer photos in public places and less frenzied “great leader” rhetoric).Those looking to explain current Syrian policies and to forecast future developmentsdo so by concentrating their analyses on the president – in this case,the son of the legendary and much-scrutinized Hafez. The transition from aregime led by a man about whom decades of information and analysis hadbeen collected to one led by his relatively unknown son has produced asense of uncertainty and lack of knowledge among American policymakers,foreign service officials, and journalists. For many seeking to understandSyria’s present and likely future, the primary questions to answer are: Whois Bashar and what has influenced his development as a political leader?What are his objectives as regards ideological, domestic, and foreign relationsconcerns? How strong is he vis-à-vis other regime officials, and whatcapacity does he have to make his objectives prevail? ...