bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
From Dialogue to Collaboration
Authors: Bruckmayr Philipp
Published: October 2020

Conferences focusing on the thought of Fethullah Gülen, especially the activitiesof the faith-based movement inspired by it, can nowadays be consideredcommon events. Indeed, by now the organization of such academic conferencescan rightfully be regarded as yet another regular field of activity of themovement, besides its major and relentless endeavors in interreligious dialogue,secular education, welfare, and the media. Whereas the major eventsof the last two years took place in Europe and the United States (London andRotterdam, 2007; Washington DC, 2008; and Potsdam, 2009), the AustralianCatholic University, the Australian Intercultural Society, and Monash Universityput Australia back on the map with this conference. Convened during 15-16 July 2009 at the Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, it was alsomeant to celebrate last year’s establishment of the university’s FethullahGülen Chair for Islamic Studies, held by Prof. Ismail Albayrak ...
Radical Reform
Authors: Morrow John Andrew
Published: October 2020

Tariq Ramadan’s latest book, Radical Reform: Islamic Ethics and Liberation,consists of sixteen chapters divided into four major sections: “OnReform,” “ClassicalApproaches of the Fundamentals of Law and Jurisprudence,”“For a New Geography of the Sources of Law and Jurisprudence,”and “Case Studies.”The author commences by criticizing the process of ijtihad as it currentlyexists. Although it made things progress for centuries, he finds thatijtihad is highly inadequate, has not resolved the crises faced by Muslims,and has not produced the expected renewal. As far as taqlid is concerned,Ramadan argues that imitating past scholars makes Muslims believe thatthey can avoid today’s challenges by taking refuge in the past. Ijtihad, hebelieves, has always been behind the times, simply seeking to interpretIslamic law in light of new changes and developments in society. He is criticalof literalist, traditionalist, conservative, and culturally based interpretationsof Islam. Arab culture, he points out, is not Islam’s sole culture. Thusif Islam is truly a universal religion, it must provide its followers with themeans to approach cultural diversity.The author provides an intelligent criticism of Salafism, which confuseseternal principals with historical models and thereby reduces Islam’s universalityto the dream of an impossible return to the past and an irresponsible“nostalgia of origins.”As he points out, many Salafi reductionists cannot distinguishbetween religion and culture and therefore view diversity and socioculturalevolution as religious innovations. Not only is he critical of mosttraditional approaches to ijtihad, he is critical of virtually every Islamicmovement when it comes to their methods of implementing Islamic law ...
iMuslims
Authors: El-Nawawy Mohammed
Published: October 2020

In his new book iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam, Gary Bunt buildsupon the research represented in his two previous books: Virtually Islamic(Oxford University Press: 2000) and Islam in the Digital Age (Pluto Press:2003). Bunt’s latest book, however, provides a more comprehensive, elaborate, and up-to-date analysis of the nature and various approaches of thediverse Muslim voices that are projected online and included in what hedescribed in previous work as a “cyber-Islamic environment.” ...
The Messiah of Shiraz
Authors: Momen Moojan
Published: October 2020

The book under consideration deals with Babism and Shaykhism, two religiousmovementsof nineteenth-century Iran.According toMacEoin, they areprincipally of note in that they were the precursors of the Baha’i faith. Thebook consists of the author’s Ph.D. thesis on the emergence of Babism from Shaykhism (completed in 1979, 250 pages); nine articles subsequently publishedin various journals and books, mainly on different aspects of Babism;seven articles written for the Encyclopedia Iranica; a conference paper; andthe author’s translation of the first one-and-a-half chapters of the Bab’sPersian-language Bayan. Almost all of this material is available on-line (forthe Ph.D. thesis, see www.h-net.org/~bahai/diglib/books/K-O/M/maceoin/FROMSHAYKHISMTOBABISM.pdf). As such, this book does not constitutenew research and must be regarded more as a retrospective on one scholar’swork. This leads to two questions: For whom is this work intended andhow should one review such a book – should one evaluate it on the basis ofthese works’ value at the time they were published or now? ...
Disfigured
Authors: Ami Naama Ben
Published: October 2020

Rania Al-Baz’s ten-chapter book touches on a sore point found all over theglobe and among people of all socioeconomic classes. Written in the first person,she intersperses her story with reports on the laws and customs in Islamand in Saudi society that shed light on the events in her life. The readerbecomes acquainted with her life philosophy, which helped her overcome thedifficulties she faced and the physical and mental pain she endured. Throughher personal story we learn how Arabs perceive relations between the sexes,Saudi women’s place in society and the home, women’s absolute submissionto their husbands and their desires, and the Qur’anic law concerning suchcrimes as murder (p. 8) and the physical abuse of women ...
Southeast Asia and the Middle East
Authors: Kersten Carool
Published: October 2020

As part of a growing interest in global and transnational patterns connectingdifferent parts of the Muslim world, scholarship on Islam in Southeast Asia,which has long suffered from what Robert Hefner once called a “double marginalisation” in the work of both Islamicists and Asianists, has madeconsiderable progress in mapping the networks connecting Dar al-Islam’seastern geographical peripheries with its perceived Middle Eastern “heartland.”And while Cornell historian Eric Tagliacozzo notes that several studiesdeal with the history of the commercial, educational, and religiousexchanges between the Hijaz and insular Southeast Asia, making good forthe “paucity of historiography of this particular transregional dialogue,” hesees his edited volume as filling the lacuna on “what the parameters of thislong-distance dialogue between civilizations have meant over the centuries”(p. 1). Using Fernand Braudel’s notion of longue durée as a rubric, he hasgrouped the collected essays under the respective headings of “The EarlyDimensions of Contacts,” “The Colonial Age,” “The First Half of the 20thCentury,” and “Into Modernity.” ...
International Treaties (Mu’âhadât) in Islam
Authors: Fadel Mohammad
Published: October 2020

In the post-9/11 era and with increasing tension between the Islamic and thenon-Islamic worlds due to al-Qa’ida’s purported global jihad, Labeeb Bsoul’sstudy of the Islamic law of international treaties is certainly a timely contributionto an important topic. While this work represents a fairly comprehensiveresource for researchers in this area insofar as it gathers the opinions ofnumerous pre-modern (and some modern) scholars of Islamic law on variousissues related to war and peace between Islamic and non-Muslim states,it is, unfortunately, no more than a simple compilation of their views.Indeed, the author provides no meaningful historical framework by which one could trace doctrinal development or tie these doctrines to a wider historicalor philosophical tradition of international law. Those looking foranswers regarding the possibilities for mutual co-existence between Muslimand non-Muslim states on the basis of mutual equality will be severelydisappointed ...
Imams and Fighting Radicalism in North America
Authors: Ibrahim Zakyi
Published: October 2020

Indeed God enjoins justice and doing of good (virtue) and giving to kinsfolk,and He forbids all that is shameful (lewdness), and abomination(evil), and aggression (wickedness): He admonishes you so that youmight remember. (Qur’an 16:90)More than 90 percent of practicing Sunni Muslims are likely to hear thisverse recited to signal the end of Friday khutbah. Rightly identified asembodying God’s specific admonition to Muslims, and as one that isworth constant pondering, this verse is cited regardless of the khutbah’stopic partly to imprint its message on the attendees’ minds. In this editorial,however, I use it specifically within the context of religious radicalism asregards both its message and historical application.This very comprehensive verse is loaded with interpersonal values aswell as communal principles. Ibn Mas`ud, the young Companion famous forhis knowledge of the Qur’an, describes it as “the most encompassing verse,in the entire Qur’an, pertaining to good and evil” (ajma` ayatin fi al-Qur’anli khayr wa sharr).1 It is as categorical in its admonition of justice and fairness,kindness and generosity, attention and offerings to relatives as it isclear in its prohibition of shameful acts and lewdness, abomination and evil,and aggression and wickedness. According to Ibn Ashur, these are specificto the Shari`ah’s general principles (usul) of enjoining good and forbiddingevil.2 Were people to lead their entire lives not only cognizant of these elementsbut also according to each admonition, they would create a perfectlyharmonious society ...
The Genesis of the Bábí-Bahá’í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs
Authors: Quinn Sholeh A.
Published: October 2020

How Muslims in past centuries dreamed about, attempted to actualize, andconceived the apocalyptic and messianic events of the End Times cannot beignored in any comprehensive approach to the study of Islam. This volumeconsists of an English translation of one important source that contributes toour understanding of nineteenth-century Islamic messianic movements:Mirza Habib Allah Afnan’s (1875-1971) history of the Babi and Baha’i religionsin Shiraz. Born in Shiraz, Afnan grew up in the home of SayyidMuhammad `Ali Shirazi, “The Bab,” (1819-50) and was raised by his widow,Khadijah Begum.The Bab was born into a Shi’i Muslim merchant family during the earlyQajar period, a time when many of his contemporaries expected the nearadvent of messianic and apocalyptic events. Among the groups so inclinedwere the “Shaykhis,” devotees of Shaykh Ahmad ibn Zayn al-Din al-Ahsa’i(d. 1826). The Bab was initially a Shaykhi and a follower of Sayyid KazimRashti (d. 1843), al-Ahsa’i’s successor. In the 1840s, he claimed to be theexpected qa’im (messianic “ariser”) or mahdi (“rightly guided one”) andfounded a religion that he hoped would change the world and usher in an eraof peace and justice. These assertions led to his execution in Tabriz, Iran, in1850. In subsequent years, most of his followers looked to Mirza Husayn`Ali Nuri, “Baha’u’llah,” as the Bab’s successor and a figure who, in his ownright, fulfilled Babi and other messianic expectations ...
The Politics of Iranian Cinema
Authors: Khatib Lina
Published: October 2020

If there is one element of the politics of Iranian cinema that is understudied,it is that of the relationship between Iranian films and the Iranian film audience.Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad’s book, The Politics of Iranian Cinema: Filmand Society in the Islamic Republic, fills this glaring gap by providing aunique insight into how Iranian films are received in Iran; what political andsocial debates they spark; and how they form part of a larger nexus of powernegotiations between the state, artists, and film viewers. The book takes anexpansive approach to “politics,” not favoring hard politics over soft politics or vice versa, but showing how the two go hand in hand in defining the filmmakingprocess in Iran.The book’s uniqueness lies in its reliance on participant observation, inaddition to interviews, as one method of studying the Iranian film audience.Through this, the reader gets a sense of people’s reactions to the films discussed.Zeydabadi-Nejad often reproduces sections of conversation amongfilm viewers that bring to life his statements about the films’ relationshipwith the political environment. The cynicism expressed by a group of youngpeople after watching Bahman Farmanara’s 2001 film House on the Water(p. 86), for example, serves as a sharp illustration of the disillusionment withstate ideology among the urban middle class — an issue covered elsewherein the literature on Iranian cinema, but usually presented in generalized termsrather than through the prism of individual reactions found here ...
Middle Eastern Belongings
Authors: Szanto Edith
Published: October 2020

Diane King captures the sentiment undergirding this book by quoting VirginiaDominguez and “returning to ‘bonds of affection for people or places’”(p. 10) in the conclusion of her introduction. She sums up the book’s chaptersas “hav[ing] in common attention to various ways of belonging in (and,in the case of the European headscarf debates, adjacent to and with referenceto) the Middle East. All treat Middle Eastern collectives as sites of what Herzfeld(2005: 6) calls the ‘cultural intimacy’ of nationalism, in which particularnationalisms are composed of ‘the details of everyday life – symbolism, commensality,family and friendship’” (p. 1). Each chapter shows how “belonging”is contested and destabilized in and by imagined communities andfragile states. By addressing questions of violence, moreover, each articlehighlights “both belonging’s messiness and its joys” (p. 10).King’s edited volume ties together six articles and an introduction, allof which previously appeared in Identities, a peer-reviewed cultural anthropologyjournal published by Routledge. With the exception of the fiftharticle, which appeared in a separate volume, the articles were published asa special edition, also entitled “Middle Eastern Belongings.” ...
Miss USA 2010, Muslim American Cyber-Discourse, and the Question of Exhaustion
Authors: Delgado Janan
Published: October 2020

On 16 May 2010, NBC Universal and Donald Trump gave the MuslimAmerican community its first Muslim Miss USA.1 Upon finding out thebasics – Rima Fakih is of Lebanese Shi`ite origin and represented Michiganat the beauty pageant – many began to wonder what the appropriateresponse should be: a “Thank you, Mr. Trump” and befitting celebrations, a“No thank you, Mr. Trump” and its share of condemnation, or an ambivalent“something in between.” In this essay I discuss some of the considerationsthat made the third option a highly favored one among young voiceson the Muslim American blogosphere. I argue that their articulation of thisposition shows significant trends in the development of a young MuslimAmerican cyber-discourse, and that these trends cannot be fully understoodwithout paying due attention to a shared sense of exhaustion among youngMuslim Americans today ...
It’s Easier to Reach Heaven than the End of the Street
Authors: Robinson Francis
Published: October 2020

Emma Williams is a British doctor who studied history at Oxford andmedicine at London. This book, which was first published in Britain in2006, records her experiences and assessments of what she saw when she accompanied her husband, a senior UN official, to Israel during 2000-03.The family lived in Jerusalem’s “Forest of Peace,” an area south of the oldcity, which remained undeveloped because it had been no man’s landpatrolled by the UN between 1948 and 1967. Emma and her husband wentwith three children and had a fourth, born out of choice in a Palestinianhospital in Bethlehem, while they were there. Her husband spent much ofhis time in Gaza; Emma worked in Jerusalem and, when possible, in theWest Bank ...
Introducing Islam
Authors: Parray Tauseef Ahmad
Published: October 2020

Introducing Islam is the result of the author’s more than thirty years of teachingand research about Islam within the context of religious studies. Thiscomprehensive and concise textbook is an ideal introduction to Islam thatseeks to present it and its culture, as found within different Muslim countries,in a sympathetic way.From its early environment and origins in the life and career ofMuhammad (pbuh), it traces the history of Islam through its classicalexpressions and up to its contemporary interactions with the West. Devotinga chapter to each important topic (e.g., the Qur’an, Islamic law, Islamic theologyand philosophy, and Sufism) and to studies of Islam in individualcountries (e.g., Turkey, Iran, Egypt, and Indonesia), it explores Islamiccivilization through discussions of Islamic art and culture as well as communityrituals. Consisting of a preface, an introduction, and three parts(divided into nineteen chapters [2-20]), the book is illustrated with ten mapsand twenty-eight figures, text boxes, summary charts (key points), a glossaryof key Arabic terms, and a list of further reading to aid students/readers’understanding ...
The Relationship between the Qur’an and the Sunnah
Authors: Willoughby Jay
Published: October 2020

From 25 July to 6 August 2010, a select group of scholars invited by the InternationalInstitute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) analyzed “The Relationshipbetween the Qur’an and the Sunnah.” Chaired by Mahmoud Ayoub (HartfordSeminary), this twenty-session event focused on how Muslims are dealingwith Islam’s two core sources in the twenty-first century
Sajjad H. Rizvi. Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics
Authors: Ali Aun Hasan
Published: October 2020

Mullā Ṣadrā and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being appears at a time whenthe study of Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī’s philosophy has reached a critical mass.Critical editions of Shirazi’s works are available, and there are numerousstudies on aspects of his thought. Rizvi has done an excellent job of synthesizingthis information, examining it critically and building on it to pushSadrian studies forward. The philosophical question that Rizvi explores inthis book is: “[h]ow can we reconcile the vision of the unity in existenceand the quest for a singular explanation for reality with our everyday, phenomenalexperience of plurality and multiplicity?” (xi). Rizvi approachesthis question both as a philosopher and a historian of philosophy.The aim of this study is to examine Shirazi’s central philosophicalidea—the modulation of being—and to use this idea to understand hisphilosophy. Whereas most studies on Shirazi have focused on Kitāb al-Mashā‘ir or al-Ḥikma al-‘arshīya, Rizvi focuses on the section on metaphysicsin Shirazi’s most important work Al-Ḥikma al-muta‘ālīya, or simplythe Asfār. There are two major theses in this book. One, “tashkīk is ahermeneutic concept which describes the threefold division of being andits gradation,” and two, “gradation and modulation occur in each mode ofbeing” (3). As Rizvi points out, “being in expression” is the foundation ofShirazi’s semantic theory; “mental being” is about epistemology and psychology;and “actual being” covers metaphysics. “Modulation,” then, isthe axis around which different branches of Shirazi’s philosophy revolve ...
Markus Dressler, Ron Geaves, and Gritt Klinkhammer, eds. Sufis in Western Society
Authors: Bazzano Elliott
Published: October 2020

Contributors to the volume, Raudvere and Gaši, skillfully note that “cherished,unfamiliar or rejected—attitudes of Sufism are seldom neutral”(163). If one traces the evolution of Sufism to Western lands, this aneutralityis accentuated. Thus, Sufism in the West is understandably a growing ifunderstudied field. There is a dearth of surveys on the topic, and this makesadditional attention to global networking and locality especially welcome.The authors seek to challenge the romantic and literary biases of Orientalistscholarship, and the eleven chapters rise to the occasion because mostfocus on particular living Sufi communities.The opening chapters set the methodological tone. In the Introduction,the editors emphasize “Sufism as a lived religion” and they rightly acknowledgethat Sufism often acts “as a bridge between Eastern and Westernspiritual or mystical philosophy” (4). In Chapter 2, Peter Beyer usesthe term glocalization while arguing that “as globalized structures, religionsare no longer . . . regional affairs which can be understood primarilywith reference to a particular core region” (13). He narrates a story of twoCanadian Muslim women who might experience different kinds of beliefand practice on a spectrum of religiosity. Strangely, however, only oncein the article does he mention “Sufism,” and the false dichotomy “Sufi/scriptural,” which contrasts with the major concepts in the book, such asthe primacy of the Qur’an for many Sufis ...
Ahmed Essa with Othman Ali, The Muslim Contribution to the Renaissance
Authors: Gaber Tammy
Published: October 2020

Despite this being the age when information is readily available, the analysis,the dissemination, and the effect of pioneering Islamic knowledge inall fields is a relatively recent endeavor with only a handful of books thatcover these areas from an academic point of view. The Muslim Contributionto the Renaissance is a comprehensive addition; it is a collection ofnumerous examples of Islamic innovation, and places these examples in their historical context in direct relation to the developing West—a timecalled the “Dark Ages”’ in Europe and the “Golden Age” in the Muslimworld. This Golden Age was one of high calibre scholasticism and practicalexploration in all fields, and it directly influenced the emergence in theWest of what was to be called the “Renaissance.” ...
Journey into America
Authors: Hashemi Manata
Published: October 2020

Akbar Ahmed’s latest book, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam,has become one of the first comprehensive ethnographic studies of theMuslim community in America. Ahmed and his team of young researchersoffer a keen anthropological analysis of American Muslims that spans overseventy-five cities, one hundred mosques, and two thousand interviews.A modern-day version of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America,Journey into America charts the various historical, social, and ideologicaltrajectories that have shaped both American and Muslim identities. Assuch, the work represents one of the first post-9/11 sociological commentariesthat attempt to define the nature of American Muslim identity and thepossibilities for its reevaluation. Over the course of nine chapters, Ahmedlays out for a general audience the groundwork for precisely such anendeavor ...
The Ottoman Age of Exploration
Authors: Langermann Tzvi
Published: October 2020

This very interesting treatise describes in detail the expansion in thesixteenth century of the Ottomans south and east, from Yemen and Eritreathrough the Indian Ocean and as far as Sumatra. Pivotal events were theOttoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, which opened up for them the routes toMecca, Medina, and points east—and their final expulsion from Yemen in 1636, depriving them of their key staging point in the area. The expansiontook on various forms: the increase of military power (mainly naval), thedevelopment of economic interests, and the strengthening of ties with localMuslim populations. At times, the direction and initiative came directlyfrom Constantinople—especially when the “Indian Ocean faction” wasable to exert its influence—but more usually from Ottoman functionariesin Egypt and Yemen, or even ambitious pirates. The main rivals in the areawere the Portuguese and their allies. However, developments elsewherebore heavily on this contest, which, at times, took on global proportions.Ottoman interests in the Indian Ocean were strengthened by their role asguarantors of the Holy Cities and the pilgrimage routes to them, as welltheir defense of Muslim merchants throughout the area. For their part, thePortuguese viewed their affairs as part of a plan that would, they hoped,lead ultimately to the conquest of Egypt and the Holy Land. The Ottomanconquest of Iraq was at least in part an attempt to outflank the Portuguese andprevent a Portuguese-Safavid alliance. Ultimately, though, the protractedconflict with Persia launched by Murad III in 1577, apparently swayedby opponents of the Indian Ocean faction, seriously drained Ottomanresources, and was likely a factor in their ultimate failure to control theIndian Ocean. At various times the Ottomans considered joining forceswith the French pirates or Dutch Protestants against the Portuguese. By theearly seventeenth century, neither the Ottomans nor the Portuguese werecontesting for dominance in the Indian Ocean; the key players there werethe English, Dutch, Safavids, and Mughals ...
Islamic Natural Law Theories
Authors: Sodiq Yushau
Published: October 2020

Emon’s Islamic Natural Law Theories, is an excellent source of researchfor specialists in Islamic jurisprudence. It is not for the general public.Emon divides his work into five chapters: Introduction, Hard Natural Law,The Critique of Hard Natural Law, Soft Natural Law, and Conclusion. Bothhis style and his usage of words are fascinating. His understanding of thepremodern works on Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh) reflects his indepthresearch and comprehension of classical works. His rendering of jurisprudentialterms (alfaz usuliyyah) into English language also marks hisgreat familiarity with Islamic sources. This work is an excellent addition tothe literature on Islamic law.Emon’s work focuses on the ontological authority of reason in theShari‘ah. He investigates the use of reason in establishing a rule of lawalongside the source texts. He explicates the meanings of natural law asunderstood by premodern jurists and explains to what extent, in the absenceof source texts, can good and bad (husn and qubh) assume sufficientnormative authority, which will result in Shari‘ah obligation.Emon affirms that the use of reason in Shari‘ah has been debated extensivelyby Muslim jurists. While many scholars rejected the authority ofreason in legislation, others endorsed it. However, in practice, all scholarsresort to it in one form or another. From chapter one to the end, Emon successfullyexplains with lucidity the concept of good and bad. He analyzesthis concept from the perspectives of major Muslim scholars from differentschools of Islamic jurisprudence. He selects leading scholars from eachschool ‒ like Qadi Abdul Jabbar, Abu Husayn al-Basri, Abu Bakr al Jassas,al-Ghazali, al-Qarafi, al-Shatibi, Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri, and others ...
Muhammad and the Believers at the Origins of Islam
Authors: Schubel Vernon James
Published: October 2020

Fred Donner’s Muhammad and the Believer’s at the Origins of Islam is themost recent in a long line of books that have attempted to recast the narrativeof the early history of Islam in ways that seek to challenge both traditionalIslamic readings of the sources and previous academic scholarship.Donner explicitly states that his book has two goals. The first is to challengethe notion that he sees as permeating Western scholarship on Islam: that theProphet Muhammad (ṢAAS) and his followers were mainly motivated byfactors other than religion ‒ that is to say, that Islam was more of a politicalmovement than a religious one. On this point, Donner argues persuasivelythat the primary motivation guiding the Prophet and his movement wasreligious and that his message was a clarion call to monotheism and piety that built upon Christianity and Judaism. More controversially, Donner arguesthat the Prophet Muhammad was less the founder of a new religiouscommunity than “an inspired visionary” who “inaugurated a pietistic religiousmovement that we can best call, followings its adherents own usage,the Believers movement (86‒87).” This movement was not in its originsa new religion but instead an ecumenical community, which included notonly Arabs newly converted to monotheism but also Christians and Jews.Donner’s second task is to counter the notion that that the Umayyads were“cynical manipulators of the outward trappings of the religious movementbegun by Muhammad (xii).” Instead, Donner seeks to rehabilitates theUmayyads “as rulers who sought practical ways to realize the most importantgoals of the movement and perhaps more than anyone else helpedthe Believers attain a clear sense of their own distinct identity and of theirlegitimacy as a religious community (xii).” ...
Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam
Authors: Fadel Mohammad
Published: October 2020

Kecia Ali has already acquired a reputation as one of the most important English-language scholars of Islam and gender of her generation. Her latest book will do nothing to detract from that reputation, and may well solidify her asthe leading scholar of her generation of Islam and gender in the United States.While the title suggests that its contents exhibit a parallel concernwith slavery and marriage, the work is really devoted to showing how theformally separate legal institutions of marriage and slave holding shapedand were shaped by each institution ‒ with their respective doctrines attimes converging, and while at other times, the doctrines diverged. Thebook consists of an introduction, five substantial chapters, and a conclusion.The chapters cover the formation of a marriage and its similarities toand distinctions from concubinage, the only other legal relationship thatmade sexual relations licit. The second chapter treats the interdependencyof claims within marriage, while pointing out the gendered nature of theclaims particular to the husband and the wife. The third chapter focuses onthe wife’s legal claims to her husband’s companionship, particularly in thecontext of a polygynous marriage. The fourth chapter deals with the variousmodes of dissolving a marriage in Islamic law and compares them witha master’s power to manumit his slave. The fifth chapter compares andcontrasts marriage and slavery as particular modes of ownership (milk) ...
Encyclopedia of Islamic Herbal Medicine
Authors: Pengelly Andrew , Bennett Kathleen
Published: October 2020

For anyone interested in researching herbs mentioned in the religious textsof Islam, the Encyclopedia of Islamic Herbal Medicine by John Morrowoffers an abundance of information and insights. By combining informationgleaned from the Qu’rān and the Sunnah, as well as the sacred writingsof the Twelve Imams, Morrow proposes an authoritative reference to Prophetic medicine ‒ medicine based solely on the religious texts of Sunniand Shīʻah Islam ...
Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam
Authors: Nguyen Martin
Published: October 2020

In his Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam, Todd Lawson provides a rich and multifacetedexploration of an unconventional exegetical text by Ali MuhammadShirazi (d. 1850), more prominently known as the Bab. The text in questionis Tafs¥r S´rah Y´suf, also known as Qayy´m al-AsmOE’ and Aúsan al-Qa§a§.Available only in manuscript form, the Tafs¥r is an early and critically importanttext for understanding the rise of Babism, a messianic new religiousmovement that emerged out of Shi‘ism. Lawson’s study will not only be of interest to scholars of Ithna’ ‘Ashari Shi‘ism, Babism, and Baha’ism, but isalso a valuable contribution to tafs¥r studies and the burgeoning field of Muslimapocalyptic literature.The Tafs¥r S´rah Y´suf, however, is not a conventional scriptural commentary,for its relationship to the Qur’an is far more complex. Being deeplyconnected to the Bab’s emerging identity as the “gate” of the hidden Imam,the Tafs¥r moves beyond the sphere of the explanatory into that of the revelatory.As a result, the text bears explicitly scriptural resonances. Among the examplesprovided is that the chapters of the Tafs¥r are called s´rahs, the text hasprostration (sajdah) markers, each s´rah opens with the basmalah, and nearlyall of them have disconnected letters at their beginning. In Lawson’s ownwords, “…it is clear from the structure of the work that the author is introducinga new scripture or revelation by means of the Trojan horse of exegesis” (p. 22) ...
Islam and Liberal Citizenship
Authors: Woodlock Rachel
Published: October 2020

In Islam and Liberal Citizenship: The Search for an Overlapping Consensus,Andrew March asks if Muslims can draw on Islamic doctrinal resources tosupport living as a minority in secular liberal democracies? His answer is athoroughly researched and argued “Yes.” This work of political philosophyprovides a cogent rebuttal to the Islamophobic narrative common in certaincircles that Muslims are a fifth column – cuckoo hatchlings waiting for demographicdominance before Islamizing their host nations.The author’s detailed and critical analysis is long overdue, particularlygiven the debates about Muslims in western countries that have polarizedopinions on such issues as France’s “burqa-bans” or the United States’ “waron terror.” There is also a wider context: addressing how religious doctrinescan be subordinated to secular authority, which is asked by others with sacredlaw-based religions, among them Orthodox Jews, Catholics, and Baha’is. Further,for those interested in strengthening commitment to civil society, Marchpresents belief-sourced reasons for supporting the argument that liberaldemocracy can shore up support among the religious faithful who are not necessarilyswayed by secular arguments ...
The IAMCR “Islam and Media” Working Group
Authors: Haron Muhammed
Published: October 2020

The International Association of Media and Communication Research(IAMCR; http://iamcr.org), with which the “Islam and Media” and severalother working groups are affiliated, promotes “media and communication researchthroughout the world, addressing socio-political, technological, policyand cultural processes.” One of its key objectives is to “provide a forum whereacademic researchers and others involved in media and communication researchand practice can present and discuss their work, hone their critical skillsand collaborate.”The “Islam and Media” working group was originally formed to reflectupon “the communication phenomenon such as human interaction with a viewto contributing toward mutual understanding and peace with justice” and “toengage in research and organizational development efforts geared towardstrengthening the global societal structures based on personal responsibilityand mutual cooperation in social, political, and economic relations.” At thisJuly 2012 event, participants sought “to contribute to the advancement ofresearch and evaluation in the media and communication related fields froman Islamic point of view (the Tawhidi perspective).” The papers presenteddealt with the universal principles of communication in Islam and the West;Islam, communication, and sustainable development; coverage of the United States’ war in the Middle East; and how the media reports on extremism/terrorism ...
Islam, Religion, Practice, Culture and World Order
Authors: Sodiq Yushau
Published: October 2020

Isma‘il al-Faruqi (1921-86), a reformer, a visionary, and a great modernscholar, wrote on several aspects of Islam and Muslim interactions with majorspiritual traditions of the world. This short book is a collection of his brief reflectionson Islam’s basic ideals. Thus it is not a research work, but rather anexplication on how Islam should be comprehended on its own merit. Expressedin simple language to make its contents accessible to the general publicand containing no references, it consists of seven parts each comprised ofthree or four chapters. The arrangement of topics was not chronological, eventhough one would have expected its editor, Imtiyaz Yusuf – one of al-Faruqi’sstudents – to pay attention to such order by rearranging the chapters. For example, one would logically expect the discussion of the isrOE’ and mi‘rOEj tocome before the discussion of the hijrah ...
Observing the Observer
Authors: Al-Azami Usaama
Published: October 2020

This excellent study brings together a number of widely regarded Western

scholars of Islam as contributors on the nature and history of Islamic studies in

the American academy. This compilation is part of “The State of Islamic Studies

in American Universities,” a research project undertaken by the International

Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Center for Islam and Public Policy

(CIPP) between 2004 and 2007. Its findings were first made available in draft

form on IIIT’s website in 2009 (http://iiit.org/iiitftp/ PDF%27s/Islamic-Studies.

pdf), where it remains as of writing this review. That draft appears to have

been substantially complete, and one wonders why it took three years to remove

a chapter and then add a more refined introduction, a short conclusion, and a

bibliography. Still, its earlier online availability (free of charge) means that one

cannot be too critical of its delayed publication.

This volume brings together some major names in Western Islamic studies,

including Seyyed Hossein Nasr, John Voll, Farid Esack, and Saba Mahmood,

and represents important reflections on the state of the field as an

academic endeavor. Ten essays, varying in length from eleven pages to ones

almost four times that length, are preceded by a useful introduction and conclusion,

both of which concisely summarize noteworthy aspects of each essay

and can serve as a valuable overview for the rushed reader. The study includes

essays of both a qualitative and quantitative nature, which are generally of

high quality. The editors state that they seek to inform the lay reader as well

as scholars in the field, but also feel that the “data and analyses […] will be

immensely valuable for educational planners and administrators who are interested

in strengthening programs of Islamic studies in institutions of higher

learning” (p. xxvii). Given the constraints of space, I restrict serious reflection

to only a handful of the rich essays ...
Islam and Christianity
Authors: Shafi Sophia Rose
Published: October 2020

In Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective,

John Renard gives us yet another gem of a book: beautifully written, meticulously

researched, and cleverly presented. A comparative study of these two

traditions could have easily resulted in a pluralistic muddle of two of the

world’s most studied religious traditions. Instead, the author gives us a careful

examination of theology that forces us to think carefully about categories like

religion, faith, and orthodoxy.

The preface begins with a confession of sorts, for Renard notes therein

the tension between comparative linkage and religious authenticity that presents

itself in such a project. While Islam and Christianity exhibit many of the

same themes, nowhere does he put forth the kind of thesis that would yield a

“many roads to one mountain” axiom. What makes this book compelling is

its careful presentation of two distinct theologies that, although clearly different,

exhibit a familial relationship. What is meant by “theology” is quite broad,

and Renard seems to suggest that a number of theological languages are at

play in these two traditions. Islam and Christianity is not the kind of reductionist

work that one might expect to see in such an ambitious project; rather,

it is a dialog, a conversation among scriptures, hagiographies, poems, liturgies,

and ideas ...
Did Pakistanis Vote for the Status Quo?
Authors: Abdullah Omer Bin
Published: October 2020

The latest – and possibly the last – period of military rule in Pakistan

ended in 2008, when elections were held under the thendictator

General Pervez Musharraf. The voting sprouted a

coalition government headed by the Pakistan Peoples Party that

ruled (or rather riled) the country for five excruciating years. The

ever-erring ruling group included the Pakistan Muslim League-

Nawaz, one of the many breakaway wings of the country’s

founding political movement.

The country has suffered ever since the Soviets invaded neighboring

Afghanistan, leading the United States and its allies to fund

the “mujahideen,” the tribal-based loosely organized Muslim

fighters from all over the world. After 9/11, President George W.

Bush’s attack on Afghanistan and hot pursuit of targets inside Pakistan,

not to mention the military dictator Musharraf’s wholesale

willingness to support the United States in all of its decisions, has

led to high levels of violence and instability.

The Pakistani political establishment has little to show for its efforts.

However, another development took root seventeen years ago.

Imran Khan, the internationally respected and loved sports heroturned-

philanthropist, realizing that acts of kindness alone would

not heal the country’s malaise, launched his own political party in

a quest for justice and equality in a society firmly controlled by the

feudal landed class created by the British to rule the Subcontinent.

After ignoring him for some fifteen years, despite his many sacrifices,

the nation finally heard him. But while his popularity boomed

in 2011, his attempt to empower the masses by bringing in “fresh

blood,” namely, young educated people, women, and even the poor

into the assemblies failed. The voters were, as many Pakistanis believe,

deprived of their choice, and thus the same exploitative feudal

class was returned to power. Khan has not fared too well, but at

least he has planted the seeds of inclusive participation. Whether

he can sustain it, however, remains to be seen.
International Politics of the Persian Gulf
Authors: Kayaoglu Turan
Published: October 2020

The Persian Gulf region is home to the six members of the Gulf Cooperation

Council (viz., Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia),

Iran, and Iraq. Holding over 60 percent of the world’s oil and over 40 percent

of its natural gas reserves, the Persian Gulf is central to the global economy.

Yet a dominant regional power is lacking; beginning with the British in the

late nineteenth century, foreign powers have consistently been meddling in

the region. Significant economic, social, cultural, and political changes have

transformed the region’s international relations since Britain’s withdrawal in

the 1960s. The contributors to this volume, which provides a rich account of

this transformation, focus on natural resources, the Iranian-Saudi competition,

the interest of major external actors, and political reform.

The volume’s main thrust is the centrality of both state and regime security

in order to understand the region. The volume’s editor, Mehran Kamrava,

notes that the international politics there is essentially that of security

politics. He offers four reasons for this: (1) its central role in oil and natural

gas production and, increasingly, global finance, (2) the competition between

Iran and Saudi Arabia over regional leadership, (3) the long-standing

American-Iranian conflict, and (4) the instability brought about by intermixing

politics and religion.

He identifies three poles of power that shape the region’s security dynamics:

the American pole; the GCC pole, which is centered on Saudi military

and Qatari-UAE financial power; and the Iranian pole, which relies both on

military might and soft power. Since the Iranian revolution, the American and

the GCC poles have built a resilient alliance that has been driven by both the

United States’ growing direct involvement and the GCC’s failure to provide

security to its members.

The chapters, written by leading regional specialists, further elaborate on

the region’s security dynamics. In Chapter 2, J. E. Petersen offers a useful typology

of boundary formation. He discusses how the state-building process,

historical claims, colonial imposition, and resource competition have shaped

state boundaries. As these boundaries remain contested, Petersen details various

ongoing problems. In Chapter 3, Fred H. Lawson refines the concepts “security

dilemma” and “alliances dilemma” and uses them to explain the arms race in

the Gulf since the first Gulf War. Middle East specialists and international relations

scholars will find these chapters useful in conceptual refinement ...
The 2011 Egyptian Revolution and Islamists in Egypt and Malaysia
Authors: Pasuni Afif
Published: October 2020

The opposition Islamist PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or Pan

Malaysian Islamic Party) is one of the oldest political parties in

Malaysia. Inspired by Egypt’s Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim

Brotherhood [MB]), PAS is also influenced by occurrences in the

Middle East; following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, its leaders

revamped their organizational structure to entrust key decisions

to religious scholars. The ramifications of the 2011 Egyptian revolution,

arguably one of the most significant Middle Eastern political

events in recent times, thus deserves a closer look.

This short article attempts to look at this revolution’s possible impact

on Islamists in Malaysia. I argue that Malaysia had already

undergone its own version of a revolution in the 1998 reformasi

(reformation) due to the shared characteristics between the two

events: both (1) shared the same premise of alleged political injustice;

(2) provided opportunities for Islamists to influence the

political discourse, with the difference that in Egypt there was a

political vacuum; and (3) utilized the Internet heavily to rally the

masses. However, due to Malaysia’s freer democratic and electoral

processes, political changes there will not be as abrupt as in

Egypt. Furthermore, both Egypt’s revolution and Malaysia’s reformasi

have hardly ended; the former is a tumultuous ongoing

process of battling for the legitimacy of rule by appealing to the

masses, while the latter is an ongoing process of appealing to voters

in order to come to rule.
Bibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World
Authors: Gaber Tammy
Published: October 2020

Index Islamicus, begun in 1906, is a database of bibliographic information ofpublications in all areas of studies connected with the Islamic world. Since thattime, interest in Islamic art and architecture has surged from specialists to manyscholars, students, and general interest worldwide. The recent and updated supplementsBibliography of Art and Architecture in the Islamic World, edited bySusan Sinclair, who was assisted by Heather Bleaney and Pablo Garcia Suarez,fills a serious void by listing the materials from 1906 to 2011.Sinclair, an independent scholar with a Ph.D. from the University ofLondon’s Courtauld Institute of Art, is currently researching material in themedievalArab world and has served as the co-editor of the Index Islamicussince 2007. With the support of the university’s renowned School of Orientaland African Studies, she was able to comb the archives of the United Kingdom’sleading institutions, including the National Art Library in London,the British Library, the library of the Warburg Institute, the Cambridge UniversityLibrary, and the University of Oxford libraries, as well as importantcollections located in Spain (e.g., the Biblioteca Nacional de España, theBiblioteca Islámica, and the libraries of Consejo Superior de InvestigacionesCientificas). The compilation of resources from these vast collections aswell as the material available online has brought this bibliographic collectionto a new level.At first glance, the material may seem to be no more than a listing ofsources on the subject, with no “content” per se to read. However, the valueof such texts and of this set in particular is that the bibliographic listings aregrouped by type and subtypes, which enable researchers in particular areas toaccess a wealth of information not necessarily accessible by other search enginesor mechanisms ...