Islam

In Jews, Christians, and the Abode of Islam, Jacob Lassner examines the triangular relationship that during the Middle Ages defined—and continues to define today—the political and cultural interaction among the three Abrahamic faiths. Lassner looks closely at the debates occasioned by modern Western scholarship on Islam to throw new light on the social and political status of medieval Jews and...

New research explores Muslim arts and identities in postcolonial Africa. This collection explores the dynamic place of Islamic art, architecture, and creative expression in processes of decolonisation across the African continent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Presenting new methodologies for accentuating African agency and expression in stories about Islamic art, it is a vital new contribution to recent widespread...

Among the many treasures of the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, are hundreds of chess and other games pieces dating from the 7th to the 19th centuries CE. Intricately crafted in a rich variety of materials, including ivory, wood, ceramic, glass, jade, and agate, these tiny objects are of enormous historical and artistic significance. They not only mark the evolution of familiar...

This book is a general introduction to Shi'i Islam—specifically to Twelver Shi'ism, to which the majority of Shi'is belong today. It deals with the history and development of this important religion, giving an account of Shi'i doctrines and focusing in particular on those areas in which it differs from Sunni Islam. Momen's book fills an important gap in the general...

An introduction to a previously unpublished major collection of Islamic, Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern art, notable for its exceptional range and breadth from earliest times to the present. The Farjam Collection of Islamic and Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, comprising over 5,000 artworks, is well known in the Middle East and to the cognoscenti but has remained unpublished...

The Qur'an is the inimitable and direct Word of God. It was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over twenty-three years, who faithfully transmitted it to humanity in the seventh century. Since then, the text and meaning of the Qur'an have been preserved, word for word, exactly as it was fourteen hundred years ago. It is a Book of Guidance for...

This highly illustrated publication details the concepts, construction and design of the new Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum. The book outlines not only the history of the extremely rich and varied collection of Islamic material culture at the British Museum, but also the challenges of building and designing a new gallery for the 21st...

The Qur'an is the ultimate source of Allah's guidance for us. To connect our hearts to the Qur'an and enrich our lives with its lessons, we need to understand it more deeply. This book is designed to provide deep thematic commentary on the Qur'an, to help you on that journey. Qur'an 30 for 30 compiles many of the key insights...

This is the first anthology to represent the contributions and perspectives of medieval Islamic scholars on philosophy of religion. Assembling and translating 63 key texts, including many never before published in English, it captures the variety and influence of Islamic thought on how we think about the existence of God, the problem of evil, and the relationship between faith and...

Uncovering the hidden history of Islamophobia and its surprising connections to the long-standing hatred of Jews. Hatred of Jews and hatred of Muslims have been intertwined in Christian thought since the rise of Islam. In Jewish Muslims, David M. Freidenreich explores the history of this complex, perplexing, and emotionally fraught phenomenon. He makes the compelling case that, then and now,...

In this book, readers are led on a powerful and inspiring journey through the inner dimensions of a range of Islamic acts, including prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage. Consisting of a selection of writings by a great figure in Islamic history, Imam al-Ghazali, this book helps readers realise the benefits of the upliftment of their spiritual, social, and moral qualities....

An engaging account of the history and influence of Muslim cultures on Bombay cinema. Following Marshal Hodgson, the term “Islamicate” is used to distinguish the cultural forms associated with Islam from the religion itself. The term is especially useful in South Asia, where Muslim cultures have commingled with other local cultures over a millennium to form a rich vein of...

FINALIST, RELIGION NEWS ASSOCIATION “EXCELLENCE IN RELIGION REPORTING” BOOK AWARD Donald Trump’s weaponisation of Islamophobia in his first campaign for U.S. president shocked the world. Yet his promise to end the Gaza war rallied many American Muslims to his side in the 2024 election. Here, acclaimed journalist Lawrence Pintak argues that Trump is a symptom of America’s fractious and contradictory...

The second volume of a world-renowned scholar's long-awaited Qur'an commentary, now available in English The Qur'an: Text and Commentary, Volume 2.1 by Angelika Neuwirth is part of a six-volume commentary, originally published in Germany, offering a historical and philological analysis of the form, structure, and semantic message of each of the 114 Qur'anic suras. It brings together the fruits of...

What are the hidden Qur'anic gems that lead to optimal faith, success, taqwa and overall health? Allah has given us the answers. He has taught us how we eat, drink, sleep, behave and live—all to maintain perfect balance and harmony. And yet, when we disrupt Allah's balance, we contribute to the global epidemic of lifestyle-based chronic diseases affecting our mind,...

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) established complete equality between men and women as he said, "Women are full sisters of men." Yet both have their respective special functions. The Character of the Muslim Woman draws out the features of the Muslim woman's character as outlined in the Qur'an and Sunnah. It shows that much of what we imagine to be Islamic...

Imam Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim is one of the most highly regarded works in Islamic thought and literature. Accepted by every Sunni school of thought, and foundational in the Shaafi school, this text, available for the first time in English, is famed throughout the Muslim world. After the Qur'an, the prophetic traditions are the most recognised source of wisdom...

The emancipation of women cannot be complete unless it is coupled with the emancipation of men. This can only be accomplished by drawing our social values from the Qur'an and the sunnah. In this volume, the author shows that mixed social life was the pattern in the early Muslim society established by the Prophet. This author's study of authentic sayings...

A guide to the best of the collections at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. With flagship architecture by I. M. Pei, an interior designed by J.-M. Wilmotte, and one of the world's finest collections of its type, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, is a dazzling showcase of the artistic achievements of the Islamic world....

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. A Jewish Childhood in the Muslim Mediterranean brings together the fascinating personal stories of Jewish writers, scholars, and intellectuals who came of age in lands where Islam was the dominant religion and everyday life was infused...

Muslim people are found all over the world. Most live outside the Middle East, from Asia to the Americas. The vast majority of contemporary Muslims are not fluent in Arabic, and speakers of languages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish have made essential contributions to Islamic history and culture. However, typical courses on Islam tend to downplay areas beyond the...

This volume offers a renewed perspective on the study of wood in ancient Egypt—a material long underestimated in Egyptology despite the country's exceptional preservation conditions. It stems from the online conference NetWood: Wood Networks in Egypt from Antiquity to Islamic Times (June 2021), which brought together specialists from various disciplines to foster interdisciplinary and diachronic dialogue on this material. The...

Mobilizing Mainstream Islam explains the rise and changing shape of religious nationalism in Indonesia after the fall of Suharto in 1998. In the 2000s, a time of electoral democratization, Indonesia's religious and political landscape experienced significant competition and reshuffling as religious and political elites formed an alliance to challenge Indonesia's official policies of tolerance and religious pluralism. As Saskia Schäfer...

Islam between east and west is not a book of theology, it deal with dogmas, institutions and teachings of Islam with the aim of establishing the place of Islam in the general spectrum of ideas.

The essential introduction to Islam by a leading expert. Hardly a day goes by without mention of Islam. And yet, for most people, and in much of the world, Islam remains a little-known religion. Whether the issue is violence, terrorism, women's rights or slavery, Muslims are today expected to provide answers and to justify what Islam is - or is...

This beautiful presentation of a selection from the Holy Qur'an engages the reader in a moment of daily reflection. Edited for ease of comprehension, English-speaking readers will find this compilation both spiritually enriching and easy to understand. With 365 verses covering the whole year, this is a must for every home. An introduction to the Qur'an and its eternal message...

Approaching the Qur’an presents brilliant translations of the short, hymnic chapters, or suras, associated with the first revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. These early suras contain some of the most powerful, prophetic, and revelatory passages in religious history, offering the vision of a meaningful and just life that anchors the faith of one fifth of the world’s inhabitants. In addition...

A sweeping history of Muslim identity from its origins in late antiquity to the present How did Muslims across time and place define the line between themselves and their neighbors? Youshaa Patel explores why the Prophet Muhammad first advised his followers to emulate Christians and Jews, but then allegedly reversed course, urging them to “be different!” He details how subsequent...

A collection of precious decorated Islamic textiles produced before the thirteenth century CE, many published here for the first time. The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, includes a remarkable array of textiles from the Islamic world, ranging widely in form, function, and place of origin. Textiles of the Early Islamic Caliphates focuses on a group of tiraz and tiraz-style textiles produced before...

A practical guide to drawing and painting beautiful Islamic botanical patterns. The ancient art of Islamic pattern is steeped in tradition, with dazzling motifs inspired by geometry and nature. Islamic biomorphic patterns are the floral, organic, and flowing designs that typically sit within a geometric frame and are often referred to as Nabati, Arabesque, Islimi, or Rumi. These patterns can...

Islam fails both individuals and societies, yet non-Muslims keep making excuses for it. As a set of ideas for the ordering of the lives of individuals and societies, Islam has proven to be a singular failure. Aside from the accident of geology that has provided them with oil wealth, Islamic states are generally economic basket cases and serial violators of...

An introduction to William Morris's personal collection of artworks from the Islamic world and how they came to influence his pattern-making One of the principal founders of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris was responsible for hundreds of patterns for wallpapers, fabrics, tapestries, and carpets that are iconic of the late nineteenth century and continue to resonate today. It...

The Qur'an is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims around the world to be the literal word of God as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel nearly fourteen hundred years ago. The 114 chapters, or suras, of the Qur'an contain the narratives, moral principles, and tenets central to Islamic belief. They reveal God's plan...

A revelatory history traversing the ancient roots of Islam in Europe This revelatory history explores the ancient roots of Muslim Europe, tracing their journey through the Mediterranean. Our odyssey begins in the little-known Sufi lodges in Cyprus, where Muslims arrived in 647AD. From there, we travel through the continent - visiting places such as Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain -...

A concise new narrative history of Islam that draws on the transformative insights of recent research to emphasise the diversity and dynamism of the traditionToday's Muslim world is in upheaval: legalists and mystics engage in intense debates, radical groups invoke Sharia, Muslim immigrants in the West face prejudice and discrimination, and Muslim feminists advocate new interpretations of the Koran. At...

Embracing over a thousand years of history and an area stretching from the Atlantic to the borders of India and China, this is an unrivalled synthesis of the arts of Islamic civilisation. From the death of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day, Robert Hillenbrand traces the evolution of an extraordinary range of art forms, including architecture, calligraphy, book illumination,...

A deeply learned reassessment of the history of Chinese Muslims, who since the fourteenth century have been subject to a constant programme of minoritisation. For more than a millennium, Islam has been a Chinese religion, and native-born Chinese Muslims have played important roles in their homeland — as butchers, merchants, and farmers; diplomats, scholar-officials, and royal astronomers. Yet the Muslims...

This pioneering study of the social and political lives of Muslim women has shaped a whole generation of scholarship. In Women and Gender in Islam, Leila Ahmed explores the historical roots of contemporary debates, ambitiously surveying Islamic discourse on women from Arabia during the period in which Islam was founded to Iraq during the classical age to Egypt during the...

Adonis’ influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T. S. Eliot in the English-speaking world. Yet alongside this spearheading of a modernist literary revolution, the secular Syrian-born poet is also renowned for his persistent and staunch attacks on despotism across the Arab world. In these conversations with the psychoanalyst Houria Abdelouahed, Adonis brings into sharp relief the...

In Understanding Islamic Finance, Muhammad Ayub introduces all the essential elements of this growing market by providing an in-depth background to the subject and clear descriptions of all the major products and processes associated with Islamic finance. Key features include: Discussion of the principles of Islamic finance; Introduction to the key products and procedures that International Financial Institutions are using...

Little is known about Arabia in the sixth century, yet from this distant time and place emerged a faith and an empire that stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to India. Today, Muslims account for nearly a quarter of the global population. A renowned classicist, G. W. Bowersock seeks to illuminate this obscure and dynamic period in the history of Islam—exploring...

'One of the fiercest books I've ever read' - Jasbir K. Puar Discourse around Muslims and Islam all too often lapses into a false dichotomy of Orientalist and fundamentalist tropes. A popular reimagining of Islam is urgently needed. Yet it is perhaps an unexpected political philosophical tradition that has the most to offer in this pursuit: anarchism. Islam and Anarchism...

With the current paradoxical climate of increasing secularisation and the rise of fundamentalism across the world, there is no better time to search for fresh insight and guidance from the Qur'an. The Heart of the Qur'an is a well-researched commentary on Surah Yasin. It is written in simple English and is complete with diagrams and illustrations to create an engaging...

This study of messianism and revolution examines an extremely rich though unexplored historical record on the rise of Islam and its sociopolitical revolutions—from Muhammad's constitutive revolution in Arabia to the Abbasid revolution in the East and the Fatimid and Almohad revolutions in North Africa and the Maghreb. Bringing the revolutions together in a comprehensive framework, Saïd Amir Arjomand uses sociological...

Available open access digitally under CC BY NC ND licence. Everyday experiences of anti-Muslim racism include accounts of Islamophobia in public spaces, in the school playground, on social media, and on public transport. Everyday Islamophobia explores how Islamophobia pervades the daily lives of Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, drawing upon work by the author and leading researchers. Everyday...

A leading Qur'anic scholar's revisionary account of how Islam emerged in dialogue with Christian traditions Challenging the dominant narrative about the history of the Qur'an and the emergence of Islam in a predominantly pagan context, Gabriel Said Reynolds presents the Qur'an as a text born within a largely Christian culture. As he examines the ways the Qur'an engages with Christian...

A detailed look at the fast-growing field of Islamic banking and finance The global Islamic finance market is now worth about $700 billion worldwide. Islamic Finance For Dummies helps experienced investors and new entrants into Islamic finance quickly get up to speed on this growing financial sector. Here, you'll find clear and easy-to-understand information on how you can incorporate Islamic...

From the Qur’an to Ramadan, this friendly guide introduces you to the origins, practices, and beliefs of Islam. Many non-Muslims have no idea that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews, and that Islam preaches compassion, charity, humility, and the brotherhood of man. And the similarities don’t end there. According to Islamic teaching, Muhammad founded Islam in 610...

Few centuries in world history have had such a profound and long-lasting impact as the first hundred years of Islamic history. In this book, David Nicolle examines the extensive Islamic conquests between AD 632 and 750. These years saw the religion and culture of Islam erupt from the Arabian Peninsula and spread across an area far larger than that of...

In October 2002, Sadanand Dhume found himself in a place most foreigners were trying to flee—Bali. Powerful explosions the previous night had ripped through two tourist nightclubs, killing more than 200 people. That evening he visited all that remained of the Sari Club—piles of ash, twisted girders, blackened beer bottles, and the stench of charred wood and petrol. Amidst the...

In this incisive account, leading scholar of Islamophobia Deepa Kumar traces the history of anti-Muslim racism from the early modern era to the “War on Terror.” Importantly, Kumar contends that Islamophobia is best understood as racism rather than as religious intolerance. An innovative analysis of anti-Muslim racism and empire, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire argues that empire creates the...

This monumental feat of translation, the product of a ten-year-long collaboration between one of our most respected scholars of Islam, Bruce B. Lawrence, and a poet and scholar of literature, M. A. R. Habib, The Qur'an: A Verse Translation offers readers the first rendering in English to echo, in accessible and fluent verse, the sonorous beauty of the Arabic original...

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Industrial Islamism analyzes the relationship, since the end of the Cold War, between the rise of political Islamism in Muslim-majority countries and the rise of a new global "middle class" of industrial entrepreneurs. Challenging common assumptions,...

Today, the issue of Muslim women is held hostage between two perceptions: a conservative Islamic approach and a liberal Western approach. At the heart of this debate, Muslim women are seeking to reclaim their right to speak in order to re-appropriate their own destinies, calling for the equality and liberation that is at the heart of the Qur'an. However, with...

This work is intended to help readers gain a clear idea of the Qur'anic worldview, particularly the articles of Islamic faith, the God-man relationship, religious duties, and the Islamic value system. It brings into sharper focus the God-oriented life as prescribed by Islam. The Qur'an: Essential Teachings by Abdur Raheem Kidwai provides readers with an insightful exploration of these significant...

This new rendering of the Holy Quran into the English language is the first of its kind, as it is a combination of translation and exegesis. The author 'opens out' the verses of the Holy Book to reveal some of the layers of meaning expounded by the Prophet and transmitted through the ages by the Prophet's companions, family, and the...

This book covers the recent literature concerning Islamic banking and finance (IBF), focuses on the history of IBF since its inception and introduces the latest innovative concepts and practices in the field. The authors cover important topics such as the role of ownership, Shari`ah compliance and governance structures in raising debt capital using IBF practices, including Fatwa issues and the...

Since the beginnings of this century, western scholars have become familiar with Ignaz Goldziher's hypothesis concerning canonical hadith literature — that religious literary genre of Islam, second in holiness to the Qur’an, which allegedly comprises faithful accounts of what the Prophet of Islam said and did. Goldziher rejected this allegation and maintained that the Hadith reflects, in the first instance,...

First published in 2005, Routledge Revivals: The Challenge of Islam addresses the challenges arising from Christian-Muslim encounter and attempts to enable outsiders to understand the religion of Islam. The author offers distinctive perspectives that complement much other literature in the study of Islam, particularly in relation to Christian-Muslim relations and the relation of Islam and the West. The book is...

Jakarta-based Andreas Harsono is one of the most knowledgeable, experienced, high-profile, and courageous reporters and commentators on contemporary Indonesian society. Race, Islam and Power: Ethnic and Religious Violence in Post-Suharto Indonesia is the result of Harsono's fifteen-year project to document how, in post-Suharto Indonesia, race and religion have come to be increasingly prevalent within the nation's politics. From its westernmost...

'A powerful corrective' Guardian 'This should be compulsory reading' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads ‘For anyone interested in the future of Islam, both in Britain and the Islamic world, this is an important book’ The Times The gulf between Islam and the West is widening. A faith rich with strong values and traditions, observed by nearly two billion...

What Is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterised by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we abandon "Islamic" altogether as an analytical term? In What Is...

The Qur'an is God's word. It was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel 1,400 years ago and has been preserved in its original form ever since. It guides humankind to the Islamic creed and legislation, informs them of the stories of earlier prophets and their communities, and calls people to believe in Allah, the One. Millions of people...

Imam Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim is one of the most highly regarded works in Islamic thought and literature. Accepted by every Sunni school of thought, and foundational in the Shaafi school, this text, available for the first time in English, is famed throughout the Muslim world. After the Qur'an, the prophetic traditions are the most recognised source of wisdom...

Imam Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim is one of the most highly regarded works in Islamic thought and literature. Accepted by every Sunni school of thought, and foundational in the Shaafi school, this text, available for the first time in English, is famed throughout the Muslim world. After the Qur'an, the prophetic traditions are the most recognised source of wisdom...

The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionised Islamic literature. Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper, and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East...

Museum of Islamic Art: The Collection is the first comprehensive reference publication on the world-class collection at the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar, featuring examples of dazzling artistic achievements from across the Islamic world. With flagship architecture by I. M. Pei and an interior designed by J.-M. Wilmotte, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar is a dazzling showcase...

The model of marriage constructed in classical Islamic jurisprudence rests on patriarchal ethics that deny gender equality and privilege men. Notwithstanding reforms introduced over the past few decades, this worldview persists in many contemporary Muslim family laws and in gender norms in various contexts. Yet the changing realities of Muslim families, related to gender roles and the needs of spouses...

The exquisite geometric patterns that adorn buildings inside and out across the Islamic world all have an underlying geometry, ranging from the serenely simple to the extraordinarily complex. Presented here are 48 Islamic patterns, from locations such as Samarkland, Delhi, Fez, Isfahan and Cairo, and 48 loose-leaf sheets, each lightly printed with the geometry of the corresponding featured design. Creative,...

This book is the fruit of twenty years' reflection on Islamic charities, both practically and as a key to understanding the crisis in contemporary Islam. On the one hand, Islam is undervalued as a moral and political force, whose admirable qualities are epitomised in its strong tradition of charitable giving. On the other hand, it suffers from a crisis of...

Textiles and clothing are interwoven with Islamic culture. In Islamicate Textiles, readers are taken on a journey from Central Asia to Tanzania to uncover the central roles that textiles play within Muslim-majority communities. This thematically arranged book sheds light on the traditions, rituals, and religious practices of these regions, and the ways in which each one incorporates materials and clothing....

Islamic Architecture is a richly informative and visually packed sourcebook demonstrating and explaining the function and worldwide appeal of Islamic architecture. Islamic architecture dates back 1,400 years and continues to reinvent itself up to the present day. The enormous richness of building types, regional styles, and architectural details is revealed here by a well-travelled expert guide. The book explores both...

No other religion in the modern world has come under such close scrutiny or been viewed as a source of so much harm to our civilisation as Islam. It is routinely portrayed in the media as a promoter of terrorism, supporter of authoritarian governments, oppressor of women, and an enemy of the West. In this sympathetic assessment of the religion,...

This valuable reference work synthesises and elucidates traditional themes and issues in Islamic philosophy as well as prominent topics emerging from the last twenty years of scholarship. Written for a wide readership of students and scholars, The Routledge Companion to Islamic Philosophy is unique in including coverage of both perennial philosophical issues in an Islamic context and also distinct concerns...

The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionised Islamic literature. Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper, and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East...

In The Renewal of Islam, Fitzroy Morrissey explores the evolution of modern Islam, from the nineteenth century to present day. He tells the story of how Muslim thinkers have reinterpreted Islam to meet the challenges posed by the modern world, including Islamic thinking about gender, politics and history; the modern history of Sunni-Shi‘i and Muslim-non-Muslim relations; and contemporary efforts to...

Have tons of fun with this sticker book that takes you through what life was like in the Islamic empires that ruled the world! The Amazing Islamic History Sticker Book covers the Rashidun Caliphate, the Ummayids, the Abbasids, Muslim Spain, the Seljuks, the Mamluks, the Ayyubids, Muslims in China, the Mughals, the Aceh Sultanate and the Ottomans. It contains over...

Imam Nawawi's collection of forty-two hadith brings together some of the most important and pivotal Prophetic traditions. Each tradition encapsulates a great rule of the religion of Islam, described by Islamic religious scholars as an "axis" in Islam. The commentary of the great hadith master Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Daqiq al-'Id is simple but erudite. Mokrane Guezzou is a well-known translator...

The Arab revolutions of 2011 were a transformative moment in the modern history of the Middle East, as people rose up against long-standing autocrats throughout the region to call for 'bread, freedom and dignity'. With the passage of time, results have been decidedly mixed, with initial success stories like Tunisia contrasting with the emergence of even more repressive dictatorships in...

A compelling book that casts the Qur'anic encounter with Jews in an entirely new light. In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Meir Bar-Asher examines how Jews and Judaism are depicted in the Qur'an and later Islamic literature, providing needed context to those passages critical of Jews that are most often invoked to divide Muslims and Jews or to promote Islamophobia....