Social groups: religious groups and communities Books

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThe chapters on individual nonverts are the most engaging in the book. Bullivant has an eye for good human interest stories and a talent for interviewing people. * Mark L. Movsesian, Law and Liberty *We have been hearing for a long time about the remarkable rise of the nones. Only more recently have scholars delved deeper into the life worlds of America's growing non-religious population. Bullivant provides an accessible guided tour of the growing number of ex-religious Americans that is easy reading and unburdened by heavy theory or complicated statistics. This is the book for those looking for a smooth on-ramp to understanding the big picture facts and issues involved in this major cultural change. * Christian Smith, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame *We cannot understand the explosive rise of religious "nones" without understanding the rise of "nonverts." With rigor and wit, Stephen Bullivant shows us nonverts matter because our past relationships profoundly shape our present and future lives,often in divergentways. Religious nonverts commonly share quite different identities and experiences from "Cradle Nones." Just as nonverts who grew up evangelical or Catholic are unique compared to former Muslims or Mainline Protestants. Weaving togethercompelling personal stories and sweeping quantitativeanalysis, Bullivant shows us both the brilliant diversity and undeniable commonality of the formerly-religious. * Samuel L. Perry, co-author of The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy *Nonverts brings America's stunning rise of secularization to life. Stephen Bullivant highlights the humanity of the growing secular population in America—with equal parts brio, rigor, and humor. Many of the stories told within these pages will no doubt resonate with nonreligious readers. Religious readers will benefit from learning why so many others are deciding that religion is not for them. People who are unsure about their religious beliefs will find that their experience is more common than they might think. No matter their background, everyone who reads this book will gain a deeper understanding of how America's 'new secularists' are reshaping the cultural landscape. * David Campbell, author of Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics *In Nonverts, Stephen Bullivant threads the difficult needle of being academically rigorous, while also being accessible to a general audience. The backbone of the book is a careful melding of the statistical evidence with very personal and engaging stories of how and why people have left religion behind. It should serve as a key text for anyone who is interested in understanding secularization and its many causes and consequences. * Ryan Burge, author of The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They are Going *Nonverts will serve as an indispensable guide to this shifting landscape, as well as the future of American life. * David True, Reading Religion *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Note on Sources and Referencing 1. None the Up and Up 2. When the Saints Go Marching Out 3. None Specifics 4. Flatline Protestants 5. Nothings Come from... Somethings? 6. Exvangelicals 7. The Ex Effect 8. Recovering Catholics 9. Nonvert Nation

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Book SynopsisA clear and compelling discussion of how the church can better reach, support and champion black congregation membersTrade ReviewBen Lindsay’s book is a must-read for the UK church. He is lucid, punchy and deeply honest about the issue of racism in the UK today, and in the UK church. It is my prayer that we heed this call and respond together to the mandate to challenge discrimination in all its forms. -- Justin Welby, Archbishop of CanterburyThis is one of the most important books to be written in recent years and is essential reading for every Christian and especially every church leader in the UK. Ben puts on speakerphone the voices of people of colour which are often whispered or silent and invites us to listen. -- Selina Stone, Lecturer in Political Theology, St Mellitus CollegeThoughtful and well considered, Ben Lindsay tackles the space where race, religion, and culture intersect, in a book that is both insightful and relatable at once. -- Chimene Suleyman, The Good Immigrant USA co-editor, The Good Immigrant contributorToo often Christians have assumed that being colour blind is the best way to approach race and ethnicity in the church. Ben Lindsay’s compelling book opens our eyes to this naivety and challenges us to be willing to have a more serious conversation. At this critical moment in our national life where race, immigration and the UK’s relationship with the world is being negotiated, this important and timely book needs to be read, discussed and acted upon. -- Dr Krish Kandiah: Founding Director: Home for Good, author of God is StrangerBen Lindsay's book is a fascinating eye-opener around history and representation in the church. Ben shines a light on the struggle with being a black Christian and being black in a majority white church with sensitivity, fact and practical strategies to bring churches into the modern day conversation. A must read. -- Jasmine Dotiwala, Head of Youth Engagement, Media TrustBen Lindsay challenges Christians racialised as white to consider the legacies of white privilege in the contemporary church. Serious engagement with the contents of the book demand radical action in the composition of leadership, persistent Christian anti-racist practice, and exorcism from the demon of 'colour blindness.’ -- Robert Beckford, Professor of Theology, Canterbury Christ Church University.I am a black British born man and not only does Ben articulate the subject which is so personal to me, he is also fearless and faces it head on in this book by stating the obvious issues around race, colour and matters that are big in the wider church. -- Noel Robinson, Musician and Worship LeaderThis book should be read by all in senior leadership and those involved in theological education. Until this issue is addressed head on in the church and young black people are able to see visible images of themselves in senior leadership within the church, then the church’s mission will be seriously damaged and impeded. I will be telling lots of people about this book as it is more than an excellent read – it is geared for action. -- The Revd Prebendary Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of CommonsDelivered with a perfect balance of truth and grace, this book will open the eyes of many. As a young black man navigating in a predominantly white world, this book is a timely weapon of wisdom and a game-changer. -- Guvna B, rap artist and author of Unpopular CultureBen Lindsay says we need to talk about race, and he's right. Through an impressive synthesis of Scripture, history, literature, pop culture, sociology and personal narrative, Ben invites us to have a much-needed conversation, and gives us a host of resources to help us. Provocative, frank and often challenging, this is also a pastoral and very human book, with insights to consider on virtually every page. -- Andrew Wilson, Teaching Pastor, King's Church LondonBen is a rarity. In his book he tackles some of the difficult issues that relate to race, such as white privilege and colour blindness. Through the careful use of life stories Ben highlights the perennial challenges faced by people of colour in predominately white churches and suggests possible ways in which such ongoing negative experiences can be addressed by the church. This is an excellent book. If churches can read this book with the openness it calls for, it can, over time, become a game changer for so many churches engaged in the complex world of building a ‘church for all nations.’ -- Wale Hudson Roberts, Baptist Union of Great Britain's first Racial Justice Co-ordinatorThis book reminds us and also challenges us to keep the conversation open about individual experiences, fears and deep concerns regarding race. I believe the church has come a long way but it has much further to go. This book will help in that process. -- Les Isaac, Co-founder of Street Pastors

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Book SynopsisThe first English translation of the final and most powerful book of poetry by the beloved, award-winning Israeli poet, Leah Goldberg.Trade Review"Annie Kantar's versions of Leah Goldberg's late poems bring into English Goldberg's signature combination of resonant clarity and crystalline musicality, and the result is a marvelous translation of what is arguably Goldberg's most powerful book. With This Night lets the English reader eavesdrop on modern Hebrew poetry in one of its finest hours." Peter Cole, 2007 MacArthur Fellow and author of The Dream of the Poem

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This is in short an extraordinary book, a corrective for anyone who Orientalizes shamanic ritual." * European Journal of Korean Studies *"[A]n interesting encounter with popular religion in the changing circumstances of Cheju." * Journal of Asian Studies *"[A] welcome contribution to an arena that has long needed to study monetary transactions in ritual." * Asian Ethnology *"[T]he book is inspiring and innovative in terms of the deep and detailed analysis of the multiple meanings of reciprocity in the context of shamanistic rituals." * Acta Koreana *"An insightful and valuable contribution to the study of Korean shamanism, it should find a place on the shelf of anyone who wants to have a better and more complete understanding of this living tradition." * Journal of American Folklore *"[C]learly one of the best books on musok out there." * Religious Studies Review *

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Book SynopsisWhat happens to a composer when persecution and exile means their true music no longer has an audience?Trade ReviewA Financial Times Best Book of 2023: Classical Music “A deeply thoughtful, intensely detailed and clearly argued exploration. . . . This is not only a fascinating book, but an essential one, which will hopefully inspire further studies.”—Jessica Duchen, Engelsberg Ideas “Mr Haas writes in compellingly lucid prose, emphasising with painful sharpness the long-lasting and brutalising effects of war on every aspect of artistic endeavour.”—Henrietta Bredrin, Country Life “Haas’s achievement is already well known but this fact-filled book supplements those sound documents with a wealth of extra information. . . . This is an important book, no doubt about it.”—Rob Cowan, Gramophone “Michael Haas is absolutely brilliant. His devotion to giving voice to the many creators who were brutally silenced during World War Two is inspiring and essential work. He does this with passion and knowledge.”—Marin Alsop “Michael Haas has done more than anyone to rehabilitate the music of hundreds of composers who were silenced by the Nazis and blindsided by the post-War music world. Every work of Haas contains completely unexpected revelations from untapped sources. This marvellous book is no exception.”—Norman Lebrecht “With great curiosity and empathy, Michael Haas illustrates climactic moments as these Jewish refugees lingered between worlds, lost countries and roots, and searched for new and old identities.”—Ute Lemper “Music of Exile is especially relevant today, with the resurgence of authoritarianism and the politicization of immigration. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in music and history, and concerned about our contemporary world.”—James Conlon

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Book SynopsisA work more disturbing than fiction from "the father of graphic novels" (New York Times). "The ultimate illustration of how absurdly comical and cancerous The Protocols has been to mankind."—Thane Rosenbaum, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewTrade Review"In his powerful art and shocking narrative—designed to expose, once and for all, this corrupting worldwide lie—Eisner is the true superhero of our time." -- Cynthia Ozick"A fiery torch of a book: A righteous light shone on an outrageous lie." -- Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics

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Book SynopsisA bold exploration of the Holocaust by a pre-eminent scholar in the field.Trade Review"... this clear, well-written... book has much of importance to tell us in an age of sudden fear, propaganda and fake news, in which the Third Reich and its crimes reappear often as a "touchstone"." -- Times Higher Education

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Book SynopsisThis book is a survey of the history of the Jewish people from biblical antiquity to the present, spanning nearly 2,500 years and traversing five continents.Opening with a broad introduction which addresses key questions of terminology and definition, the book's ten chapters then go on to explore Jewish history in both its religious and non-religious dimensions. The book explores the social, political and cultural aspects of Jewish history, and examines the changes and continuities across the whole of the Jewish world throughout its long and varied history. Topics covered include: the emergence of Judaism as a religion and way of life the development during the Middle Ages of Judaism as an all-encompassing identity the effect on Jewish life and identity of major changes in Europe and the Islamic world from the mid sixteenth through the end of the nineteenth century the complexity of Jewish life in the twentieth century, thTrade Review'Recommended' – Choice'...a welcome and helpful introduction for the non-specialist.' – Journal of Jewish Studies Table of ContentsIntroduction: Dimensions of Jewish History 1. The World of the Hebrew Bible 2. The Challenge of Hellenism 3. The Rise of Rabbinic Judaism 4. The Jews of Islam 5. The Jews of Medieval Christendom 6. World Jewry in Flux, 1450–1750 7. The Age of Enlightenment and Emancipation 8. Anti-Semitism and Jewish Responses, 1870–1914 9. Renewal and Devastation, 1918–1945 10. The Post-War World. Conclusion. Bibliographic Essay: Suggestions for Further Reading

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Book SynopsisDo Muslim Women Need Saving? is an indictment of a mindset that has justified all manner of foreign interference, including military invasion, in the name of rescuing women from Islam. It offers a detailed, moving portrait of the actual experiences of ordinary Muslim women, and of the contingencies with which they live.Trade Review[A] beautiful book… It is a riveting account by an academic who has spent many years observing women in the Middle East and the West, and adeptly wears several hats as an anthropologist and professor in women’s studies. Abu-Lughod is a great listener and a sharp observer of everyday life. She understands the struggles, joys and jealousies of Middle Eastern women and has an ear for the stories that do not make headlines. Refusing to treat Muslim women as a category, she focuses on nuances and complexities. Where others see an undifferentiated mass of individuals, she sees real women with real stories… There are Islams, just like there are Judaisms, Christianities and Hinduisms. We need to make the word plural to understand the wide variety of practices and power relations. And Lila Abu-Lughod’s Do Muslim Women Need Saving? does precisely that with its captivating approach. -- Elif Shafak * Literary Review *[A] classic of feminist anthropology…Anyone who wants to understand the lives of women in Muslim countries will learn from Ms Abu-Lughod’s detailed and empathetic portraits of the women of southern Egypt. * The Economist *Every page contains a fresh riposte to easy cultural or religious explanations for women’s oppression… Do Muslim Women Need Saving? is the result of many years’ rumination over contemporary feminist debates in the developing world… In this volatile debate Lila Abu-Lughod frequently reminds her readers that she writes ‘as an anthropologist.’ In keeping with this role, she offers no simple remedy for female suffering abroad; nor does she condone the shrug that dismisses distant injustices as ‘just their culture.’ Instead, she offers an injunction to look and listen carefully for suffering at home as well as overseas, and to examine ‘our own responsibilities for the situations in which others in distant places find themselves.’ -- Nabeelah Jaffer * Times Literary Supplement *Saving Muslim women is now a global undertaking in which the participants are both Muslim and non-Muslim. Lila Abu-Lughod’s book is a critical reflection on this mushrooming industry, and its representatives, representations and bureaucracy… Abu-Lughod succeeds in…exposing several stubbornly persistent myths. She critically assesses the vast number of sensational representations of women, written by Muslims and others, about the general repression in a so-called IslamLand. She follows the trail of global feminism in the extensive bureaucracy, institutions and non-governmental organizations that have emerged since the 1990s, all claiming to save Muslim women… Her focus on analyzing how individual Muslim women experience freedom, rights and constraints brings a much-needed perspective… She offers a panoramic view of women’s multiple experiences in their own contexts, thereby dismissing sweeping generalizations about these women being a homogeneous oppressed mass. She urges us to look at contexts shaped by global politics, international capital and modern state institutions that all contribute to changing landscapes of family and community. Abu-Lughod reminds us that rights may be universal but above all they are projects bounded by political contexts, institutions and language… This book is destined to unsettle the convictions of those concerned with saving Muslim women. Many will find it shocking for its uncompromising critique of recent moral crusades, while careful readers will doubtless find in it enough ammunition to deconstruct projects that may seem worth pursuing, but ultimately are not as focused on improving women’s lives in faraway places as they first appear. Abu-Lughod dissolves geographical boundaries, exposes the limits of global morality, and deconstructs the international power context that allows Muslim women to remain that distant voiceless other, awaiting intervention. It invites us to think not only about dominant representations of Muslim women in images and words, but also about our own engagement with the other, which has always taken place in an unequal context. -- Madawi Al-Rasheed * Times Higher Education *There is an ethical dimension to [Abu-Lughod’s] attention to the particularities and complexities of difference between women of different countries, social backgrounds and cultures, and even within cultures she’s always attuned to the differences brought about by class and economic background…Through her in-depth demolition of the new moral crusades brought on by the genre of ‘gendered Orientalism’ in the pulp nonfiction of books by ‘insiders,’ i.e., Muslim women who threw off their shackles or who tore off their veils and ran away from their oppressive Muslim homes in order to live the precise kind of life lived by a certain class of Western woman in urban areas, Abu-Lughod zeroes in on the treacherous hypocrisy of the seemingly well-read and well-educated class of progressive Westerners. -- Subashini Navaratnam * PopMatters *Some of the most rewarding material in Do Muslim Women Need Saving? examines the obsession with constraint that counterposes perceptions of Muslim women to Enlightenment ideals of freedom and autonomy, connected to theoretical work by Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood… While she is hardly alone in critiquing the flattened stereotype of the abject Muslim woman, Abu-Lughod brings refreshing new observations to this well-trodden ground… Abu-Lughod provocatively suggests that American feminism shares with older imperial agendas the political imperative to see Muslim women as particularly oppressed… This book is a great service to those of us who have long wanted for a resource we can recommend to explain why Muslim women do not need saving. Persuasive, generous, and insightful, Abu-Lughod asks us to bring our careful analysis, critical self-reflection, and constant recognition of our common but also differently expressed humanity to the table. -- Leti Volpp * Public Books *The book’s principal strengths lie in skillfully deconstructing the symbolic significance of a range of high profile ‘moral crusades’ involving Muslim women which have captured the global imagination. Abu-Lughod highlights how the most basic conditions of these women’s lives are set by political forces that are often national or even international in origin even if they are local in effect…She argues that concepts such as ‘oppression,’ ‘choice,’ and ‘freedom’ are blunt instruments for capturing the dynamics and quality of Muslim women’s lives in these places. In addition to revealing such characterizations as overly simplistic, Abu-Lughod also analyses the politics and the ethics of the international circulation of discourses about ‘the oppressed Muslim woman.’ She shows, for example, how debates on the veil and discussions of honor crimes are deployed as 21st century political projects. She writes passionately about the salacious and voyeuristic way in which such crimes are recorded, pointedly asking why knowing about the ‘culture’ has been seen as more important than exploring the story of the development of repressive regimes in the region. Equally, she highlights how in the West such discourses are unashamedly linked to xenophobic immigration policies. She warns of the risks entailed in such polarizing ‘savior’ discourses whereby feminism and even secularism are only seen as Western concepts…This book represents a necessary if uncomfortable intervention for those who may uncritically engage in the diverse range of clarion calls to save Muslim women…Abu-Lughod’s book provides a richly evidenced and easy to read deconstruction of simplistic culturalist explanations of any phenomena which pertain to Muslim women in all their diversity. As with other postcolonial feminists such as Mohanty and Narayan her approach represents a useful analytical tool to explore contemporary controversies about the experiences of Muslim and other Other women in all their complexity. -- Naaz Rashid * LSE Review of Books *Sharply observed take on the Western impulse to save oppressed Muslim women and the wider political, legal and cultural issues at stake. -- Marc Lynch * Washington Post blog *One of the book’s great accomplishments is to present readers with concrete examples of women who explain their actions and justify their choices, instead of caricatured victims to be pitied and saved by enlightened others. -- Joan W. Scott * Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies *In accessible, lucid prose, Abu-Lughod explains how sensationalized memoirs, or ‘pulp nonfiction,’ have perpetuated stereotypes and made Muslim women a symbol of an alien culture. The author dispassionately points out the hypocrisy of colonial feminism, and how more often than not, there is a clear political agenda behind the liberation of the ‘women of cover’ and how the role of the U.S. is often overlooked. The women presented here see their Islamic faith as a source of strength to fight injustice, not the cause of it. They’re not asking to be rescued from their religion, the author contends, but from the discriminatory legal system, poverty, outdated patriarchal family traditions, and border controls that continue to inhibit their freedom. While offering no easy solution, the author recommends observation over moral crusades, stating: ‘Anyone seriously interested in Muslim women’s rights must follow them as they move.’ This book is an excellent place to begin. * Publishers Weekly *Tracing connections from human rights groups and international feminist NGOs, to philosophy and anthropology, to best-selling memoirs of Muslim women and titillating pulp fiction accounts of Muslim women’s suffering, Abu-Lughod argues that the West’s perception of Muslim women as creatures in need of rescue is shaped by a confluence of powerful forces. Incisively argued and often sharply critical, Abu-Lughod’s book—which will surely spark debate—is essential reading for anyone interested in women’s rights in the Muslim world. -- Leila Ahmed, author of A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence from the Middle East to AmericaIn this passionate, sharply articulated, and engaging argument, Lila Abu-Lughod describes how Islam has been transformed into a homogenized geography ‘somewhere out there’ and how its women, different as they are diverse, have become the excuse for political and military interventions. In place of the simplistic arguments that are bandied about on the global stage, this book reminds us to ask more important questions: who are the saviors of Muslim women and how did they acquire the right to be the saviors? Every thinking individual should read this book. -- Urvashi Butalia, author of The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of IndiaThis is a provocative and astute challenge to the received wisdom of our time that Muslim women need to be saved by the liberated West. Abu-Lughod not only offers an insightful critique of the remedies offered to combat violence against Muslim women but also helps us see their lives differently. We are forced to confront the shared humanity between ‘us’ and ‘them’ that is both unsettling and instructive. A must read for those who remain skeptical of ‘save the Muslim woman’ campaigns that are so popular and fashionable today. -- Saba Mahmood, author of Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist SubjectThere is no one better qualified than Lila Abu-Lughod to take on difficult questions about Muslim women and their portrayal in the global media. Her answers shake up some fundamental assumptions held by liberals and conservatives alike and raise new questions. This book persuades us to consider new and more productive ways of thinking and acting. -- Mahmood Mamdani, author of Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on TerrorLila Abu-Lughod lays bare the many factors that can collude to produce an unhappy woman in a Muslim society: abusive father, distant husband, bad personal decisions, and restrictive codes of conduct, yes, but also poverty, neoliberalism, politicized NGOs, war, and occupation. Her book tells larger, transnational stories, bringing together activists, publishers, and women from all over the world. -- Elora Shehabuddin, author of Reshaping the Holy: Democracy, Development, and Muslim Women in Bangladesh

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Book SynopsisA comprehensive and authoritative survey of Islamic Architecture from the world's leading expert.Trade ReviewThis book is a treasure trove ! a refreshing contribution to the field of Islamic architecture. The publication in paperback of Robert Hillenbrand's Islamic Architecture will be a boon to those who want to study the subject in depth ... Since this book first appeared in 1994 it has provided readers with an opportunity to grasp the vast scope of architectural history in the Islamic world and to understand how its traditions developed. The author discusses the evolution of Islamic architecture from its origins in Medina to its flowering in diverse and far-flung territories from Spain to Afghanistan. His task was daunting, but in an impressive lifetime of study he has personally experienced the architecture in all but one of the countries he covers...with his scholarly guidance and broad perspective, countless readers will gain a broader perspective and a deeper understand of Islamic architecture. Islamic Architecture is an awesome achievement ... Hillenbrand's arguments are incisively presented in a prose [which] occasionally develops an eloquence that mesmerises. Islamic Architecture is a work on a grand scale ... admirable for its intellectual rigour. Marvellous ... no other work comes close remotely close to this wealth of illustrations and informed discussion This book is a treasure trove ! a refreshing contribution to the field of Islamic architecture. The publication in paperback of Robert Hillenbrand's Islamic Architecture will be a boon to those who want to study the subject in depth ... Since this book first appeared in 1994 it has provided readers with an opportunity to grasp the vast scope of architectural history in the Islamic world and to understand how its traditions developed. The author discusses the evolution of Islamic architecture from its origins in Medina to its flowering in diverse and far-flung territories from Spain to Afghanistan. His task was daunting, but in an impressive lifetime of study he has personally experienced the architecture in all but one of the countries he covers...with his scholarly guidance and broad perspective, countless readers will gain a broader perspective and a deeper understand of Islamic architecture. Islamic Architecture is an awesome achievement ... Hillenbrand's arguments are incisively presented in a prose [which] occasionally develops an eloquence that mesmerises. Islamic Architecture is a work on a grand scale ... admirable for its intellectual rigour. Marvellous ... no other work comes close remotely close to this wealth of illustrations and informed discussionTable of ContentsScope of the enquiry; religious architecture 1 - the mosque; religious architecture 2 - the minaret; religious architecture 3 - the madrasa; the mausoleum; secular architecture 1 - the caravanserai; secular architecture 2 - the palace.

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Book SynopsisAn up-to-date survey of medieval Islamic medicine offering new insights to the role of medicine and physicians in medieval Islamic culture.Trade ReviewAn outstanding contribution to a very important field. While there has been a great deal of new research on premodern medical texts from the Islamic world, there are few surveys written for a broader public. This text will make a lasting contribution to the history of science in general, and to the study of premodern Islamic medicine in particular. -- Jonathan Brockopp, Pennsylvania State University 'A succinct and very useful introduction to the subject, and highly reommendable for everyone interested in the history of medicine.' -- Remke Kruk, Bibliotheca Orientalis 'Without question, this volume can be considered the best and most critical introduction to the field and a guide for future research.' -- Daniel Martin Varisco, AJISS 'Anyone interested in the history of Islamic science will find this a useful book to own.' -- Daniel Martin Varisco, AJISS This marvellous, informative book is superbly written, and has an eye for what will capture the reader's interest. Medieval Islamic medicine offers so much more than one might expect. An outstanding contribution to a very important field. While there has been a great deal of new research on premodern medical texts from the Islamic world, there are few surveys written for a broader public. This text will make a lasting contribution to the history of science in general, and to the study of premodern Islamic medicine in particular. 'A succinct and very useful introduction to the subject, and highly reommendable for everyone interested in the history of medicine.' 'Without question, this volume can be considered the best and most critical introduction to the field and a guide for future research.' 'Anyone interested in the history of Islamic science will find this a useful book to own.'Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Notes on Transliteration, Dates, and General Format List of Illustrations Introduction 1 The Emergence of Islamic Medicine 2 Medical Theory

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Book SynopsisIt aims to fill the gap between specialised volumes on specific aspects of Muslim Spain and derivative surveys of the field that lack an academic coherence.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Background: Invasion and Settlement; 2. Establishment of a quid pro quo in al-Andalus; 3. Chaos in the Ninth Century; 4. The Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba; 5. The Influence of Islam in Christian Territories of Iberia; 6. Islamic Culture in the Heyday of al-Andalus; 7. The Collapse of the Islamic State and the Emergence of the Taifas; 8. The Change of Power in the Iberian Peninsula in the Eleventh Century; 9. Revitalisation: the Murabitun and the Muwahhidun; 10. A Case Study: Toledo from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Centuries; 11. The Nasrids of Granada; Conclusion; Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book in English to provide a comprehensive account of the rise and fall of the Almoravids and the Almohads, the two most important Berber dynasties of the medieval Islamic west, an area that encompassed southern Spain and Portugal, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The Sanhaja Almoravids emerged from the Sahara in the 1050s to conquer vast territories and halt the Christian advance in Iberia. They were replaced a century later by their rivals, the Almohads, supported by the Masmuda Berbers of the High Atlas. Although both have often been seen as uncouth, religiously intolerant tribesmen who undermined the high culture of al-Andalus, this book argues that the eleventh to thirteenth centuries were crucial to the Islamisation of the Maghrib, its integration into the Islamic cultural sphere, and its emergence as a key player in the western Mediterranean, and that much of this was due to these oft-neglected Berber empires.

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Book SynopsisBorn and raised in Essex, Maajid Nawaz was recruited into politicised Islam as a teenager. Abandoning his love of hip hop music, graffiti and girls, he was recruited into Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Liberation Party) where he played a leading and international role in the shaping and dissemination of an aggressive anti-West narrative. While studying for his Arabic and law degree, he travelled around the UK and to Denmark and Pakistan, setting up new cells.Arriving in Egypt the day before 9/11 his views soon led to his arrest, imprisonment and mental torture, before being thrown into solitary confinement in a Cairo jail reserved for political prisoners. There, while mixing with everyone from the assassins of Egypt''s president to Liberal reformists, he underwent an intellectual transformation and on his release after four years, he publically renounced the Islamist ideology that had defined his life. This move would cost him his marriage, his family and his friends as well as his own personal security.Six years after his release, Maajid now works all over the world to counter Islamism and to promote democratic ideals through his organisation, The Quilliam Foundation, which he co-founded with former Islamist and bestselling author Ed Husain.Following in the wake of the extraordinary democratic change in the Arab world, that few would have foretold, Radical is Maajid''s intensely personal account of life inside and out of Islamic extremism. It also highlights one man''s quest to inspire change and challenge extremism in all its forms.This is a hard-hitting memoir of one man''s journey into and out of Islamic extremism.Trade ReviewThis is a book for our times. It should be read by anyone who wants to understand how the extremism that stalks our world is created and how it can be overcome. It could only be written by someone who has lived this story. And Maajid has * Tony Blair *This book is more powerful than America's drone attacks because it helps kill the ideas that inspire terrorists. Ultimately, it is by defeating the extremists' worldview that we will make our world safer. Maajid's compelling story from hatred to hope shows us how this can be done * Ed Husain, author of The Islamist *Maajid Nawaz was thirty years my junior when I first encountered him in the Torah Prison. His story saddened but inspired me. His innocence and idealism sharply contrasted with the corruption and despotism of his captors. Through Maajid my faith was renewed that a spring of freedom was bound to happen eventually, and so it did * Dr Saad El-Dine Ibrahim, Egyptian liberal reform pioneer and former political prisoner *This book is the account of a redemptive journey – through innocence, bigotry, hardline radicalism and beyond – to a passionate advocacy of human rights and all that this can mean ... I was moved beyond measure * Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK *Imagine Homeland crossed with Skins, and you will get some idea of what a gripping, revelatory book this is. Unputdownable * Tom Holland *

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Book SynopsisWafi Momin is Head of the Ismaili Special Collections Unit at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK, where he teaches courses on developments in modern and contemporary Muslim Societies and aspects of Islam in South Asia. He received his doctorate in South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago, US, and has written articles on Ismaili tradition in South Asia and its interaction with Indic religious movements.Trade ReviewThrough the variety of subjects covered, the up-to-dateness of their content, and the formal quality of the book as a whole, there is no doubt that this open access and richly illustrated volume ... will provide an excellent basis for future research not only in the field of Ismaili studies stricto sensu, but also in Islamic studies more generally. * Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies *This invaluable volume will be of immense value and interest to scholars working primarily in the field of manuscript studies, Ismaili studies and cultural studies of the Islamic world. * The Muslim World Book Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Note on Contributors Transliteration, Dates, and Abbreviations Introduction, Wafi A. Momin, Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK Section I: THE SHAPING OF A NEW FIELD 1. Ismaili Manuscripts and Modern Scholarship in Ismaili Studies, Farhad Daftary, Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 2. Husain Hamdani, Paul Kraus, and a Suitcase Full of Manuscripts, François de Blois, University of Cambridge, UK Section II: RASA'IL IKHWAN AL-SAFA', KITAB AL-ZINA, AND THEIR MANUSCRIPT TRADITION 3. The Ikhwan al-Safa’s Epistles on Logic in Some Manuscripts of the IIS Arabic Collection, Carmela Baffioni, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 4. The Missing Link? MS 1040: An Important Copy of the Rasa’il Ikhwan al-Safa’ , Omar Ali-de-Unzaga, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 5. The Manuscript Copies of Abu Hatim al-Razi’s Kitab al-Zina at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Cornelius Berthold, University of Hamburg, Germany Section III: EXPLORING TWO EARLY TAYYIBI WORKS AND THEIR TRANSMISSION 6. The Majmu’ al-tarbiya between Text and Paratext: Exploring the Social History of a Community’s Reading Culture, Delia Cortese, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 7. Textual, Orthographic Variations and Scribes’ Annotations: A Possible Tool for the Transmission Analysis of the Text?, Monica Scotti, University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy Section IV: REVISITING NIZARI HISTORY OF ALAMUT TIMES 8. Alamut and Badakshan: Newly identified Sargudhasht-i Sayyidna Manuscripts and their Background, Miklos Sarközy, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 9. 'Ahd-i Sayyidna, a Newly Discovered Treatise on the Consolidation of the Nizari Da'wa in Alamut, Karim Javan, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 10. The Discovery, Description and Publication of the Manuscripts of Two Major Niazari Ismaili Texts from the Alamut Period: The Haft Bab and the Diwan-i Qa’imiyyat of Hasan-i Mahmud-i Katib, S. J. Badakhchani, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK SECTION V: COMMUNAL SCRIPT, SCRIBAL ELITE, AND SATPANTH MANUSCRIPT CULTURE 11. Khwajah Sindhi (Khojki): Its Name, Manuscripts and Origin, Shafique N. Virani, University of Toronto, Canada 12. A Forgotten Voice: The Agency of Scribal and Literate Elite and the Satpanth Manuscript Culture, Wafi A. Momin, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK SETION VI: IDENTITY, CULTURAL INTERACTIONS, AND ESOTERIC INTERPREATION AMONG CENTRAL ASIAN ISMAILI COMMUNITIES 13. Ismaili-Sufi Relationships in the Light of the Ni’mat Allahi Manuscripts in the Holdings of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 14. Poems of Allegiance: Shah Diya-i-i Shughnani’s Salam-nama, Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 15. The Sahifat al-nazirin: Reflections on Authorship and Confessional Identity in a 15th-Century Central Asian Text, Daniel Beben, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 16. The Seven Pillars of the Shari’a and the Question of Authority in the Central Asian Ismaili Manuscripts: An Ismaili Esoteric Discourse, Yahia Baiza, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK SECTION VII: APPROACHING TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION THROUGH QUR’ANIC MANUSCRIPTS AND HOLOGRAPH AUTOGRAPH COPIES 17. Writing the Qur’an between the Lines: Preliminary Remarks on Marginalia in the Qur’an Manuscripts held by The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Asma Hilali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK 18. The Making of a Holograph: Authorial Arabic Manuscripts in the Special Collections of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Walid Ghali, The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK List of illustrations Index

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Book SynopsisAn honest, fair, and thorough discussion of the issues raised in Jewish Christian apologetics, covering thirty-five objections on general and historical themes.Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionPart 1 General ObjectionsPart 2 Historical ObjectionsNotesGlossarySubject IndexIndex of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn outstanding and impressive work of scholarship, one that provides us with an essential window into the history of this singular "hell for women." - The Jewish Daily Forward

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Book SynopsisThis newly revised all-encompassing textbook is a guide to the history, beliefs and practice of Judaism. Beginning with the ancient Near Eastern background, it covers early Israelite history, the emergence of classical rabbinic literature and the rise of medieval Judaism in Islamic and Christian lands. It also includes the early modern period and the development of Jewry in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Extracts from primary sources are used throughout to enliven the narrative and provide concrete examples of the rich variety of Jewish civilization.Specially designed to assist learning, Judaism: Introduces texts and commentaries, including the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic texts, mystical literature, Jewish philosophy and Jewish theology Provides the skills necessary to understand these step-by-step with the help of a companion website Explains how to interpret the major events in nearly four thousand years of Jewish Trade ReviewAlready an indispensable resource, this second edition of Judaism: History, Belief and Practice, with its outstanding clarity and comprehensive range, has a yet stronger claim to the status of core text for any student or general reader new to the serious study of Judaism. Melissa Raphael, University of Gloucestershire and Leo Baeck College, London.This Second and revised edition of Judaism: History, Belief and Practice is to be welcomed not only by those of us who teach survey courses in Judaism where this is the text for our students, but colleagues who now have at hand a ready and complete encyclopedic reference in one volume. Steve Jacobs, The University of Alabama, USATable of ContentsList of mapsList of figures Preface Tips for students Sources Acknowledgements Part I: History 1 Ancient Mesopotamian Civilization 2 The Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Civilization 3 Israelite Monotheism and Law 4 The Patriarchs 5 Exodus 6 Conquest and Settlement7 The Rise of Monarchy 8 Solomon and the Divided Monarchy 9 Kings of Israel and Judah 10 Jeroboam II to the Fall of the Northern Kingdom 11 Ahaz and Hezekiah 12 From Manasseh to Babylonian Captivity 6813 Aftermath of the Fall of Judah 14 Return and Restoration 15 The Rise of Hellenism 16 Judaism under Hellenism 17 The Kingship of Herod 18 Rebellion against Rome 19 The Rise of Christianity 20 Roman Jewish War and Aftermath 21 Jews in the Roman Empire 22 Jews in Babylonia 23 Rabbinic Scriptural Interpretation24 Rabbinic Theology 25 Judaism under Islamic Rule 26 Karaism 27 Jews in Muslim Spain and other Islamic Lands 28 Jewry in Christian Europe in the Middle Ages 29 The Jews in Christian Spain 30 Dispersion of the Marranos 31 Early Medieval Thought 32 The Philosophy of Maimonides 33 Jewish Philosophy after Maimonides 34 Rabbinic Mysticism 35 The Hasidei Ashkenaz 36 The Emergence of Kabbalah 37 Jews in the Ottoman Empire 38 The Shabbatean Movement 39 Jewry in Eastern and Western Europe 40 The Rise of the Hasidic Movement 41 The Status of Jewry in Europe 42 Jews in Eastern Europe 43 The Emergence of Jewish Thought in the Enlightenment 44 The Origins of Reform45 The Rise of Anti-Semitism 46 The Zionist Movement 47 Jews in the United States, Palestine, Africa and Asia 48 The Nazi Regime 49 The Death Camps 50 Jewry after the Holocaust 51 The State of Israel52 The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict53 The Ongoing Struggle54 Women in Modern Judaism55 Jews and Culture56 Jews in Medicine and Science57 The Future of JudaismPart II: Belief and Practice BELIEF58 The Unity of God 59 Divine Transcendence and Immanence 60 Eternity 61 Omnipotence and Omniscience 62 Creation 63 Providence 64 Divine Goodness 65 Revelation 66 Torah and Mitzvot 67 Commandments 68 Sin and Repentance 69 The Chosen People 70 The Promised Land71 Prayer 72 Love and Fear of God 73 Messiah74 The Afterlife PRACTICE75 Community Life 76 Jewish Education 77 The Jewish Calendar 78 Places of Worship 79 Worship 80 The Sabbath 81 Special Sabbaths 82 Pilgrim Festivals 83 New Year and Day of Atonement 84 The Days of Joy 85 Fasts 86 Life Cycle Events 87 Marriage 88 Divorce 89 The Home 90 Dietary Laws 91 Death and Mourning 92 Jewish Ethics 93 Conversion Glossary Reference Bibliography Judaism on the Internet Index

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Book SynopsisPeter Fraenkel here gives a vivid account of a childhood in a middle-class, non-observant Jewish family in Nazi Germany, forced to emigrate to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1939. Here the contrast could hardly be greater, from persecuted Jew, to ''enemy alien'' in colonial Northern Rhodesia, to re-assimilation into the privileged colonial elite. Following education in Northern and Southern Rhodesia he worked for the Northern Rhodesian and later, Central Broadcasting Service. Here his pioneering work and support for racial equality in a deeply racist society connected with his earlier life - ''no fixed abode'' but in tune with humane liberalism.Table of ContentsList of illustrations – vi Part I: Silesia – 1 1. Roots in the air – 3 2. But we were Germans – 15 3. We became Jews – 39 4. Exodus – 76 Part II: Rhodesia – 101 5. Where you die of hunger doesn’t make much of a difference, does it? – 103 6. Encountering Dimitrov and Macbeth – 130 7. Quit you like men – 142 8. Red thug? – 157 9. Becoming a bwana – 163 10. Out of the saucepan – 176 11. Vultures high and low – 200 12. Vampire men – 217 13. Searchlights in the dark – 235 14. The watch on the Rhine – 238 Index - 241

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisExplores the delicate interplay between emigration of Jews from Israel to Germany and the construction of a new identity in the shadow of antisemitism both past and present in their new home.Critically analyzing Israeli-Jewish migration to Germany, A Double Burden combines complementary approaches from the social sciences-quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic research-to track migrants'' reasons for moving, their families'' reactions, their settlement in the new country, and their social and economic integration, construction of identity, and perceptions of old and new antisemitism in Germany. Each chapter is placed within a relevant theoretical framework, the entire discussion set against the background of present-day international migration in general, migration to Germany in particular, and the Jewish experience in unified Germany. Rich with empirical evidence and presented with exceptional clarity and accessibility, A Double Burden will appeal to scholars of migration studies, the Israeli Diaspora, and German-Jewish life, as it also illuminates trauma and memory among third-generation Holocaust survivors.

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking account that examines the various ways Jews were betrayed by their fellow countrymen during the Holocaust.Trade Review‘One of those books which will complete your knowledge of not only the Holocaust but also the history of World War II.’ -- Washington Book Review

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the various methods and trends in Hadith Studies across the globe. Bringing together contributions from 10 scholars of Hadith, it addresses the subject from a variety of methodological vantage points and historical premises.

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Book SynopsisFocusing on 5 objects found in the main media from the 10th to the 16th century - ceramics, metalware, painting, architecture and textiles - Sheila S. Blair shows how Greater Iranian artisans played with form, material and decoration to engage their audiences.

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Book SynopsisThe first collection of scholarly essays on the key texts and critical themes of hadith commentary-a central site of Islamic intellectual life for more than a millennium-across diverse periods, regions, and sects.

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Book SynopsisPresents the experiences of two burgeoning cities and the Irish people that helped to establish what it is 'to be Irish' within themTrade Review"Her observations about the integrated Irish world press as well as how religious and political thought in Ireland informed the attitudes of diasporic communities confirm the importance of both comparative and transnational approaches in investigating the diasporic experience. [...] Throughout this excellently researched, eloquently written and methodologically innovative work, Cooper unearths elements of the Irish world experience that adds depth and texture to our understanding of the field. Her interpretation of Irish communities in Chicago and Melbourne is an important contribution because of its comparative focus and elucidation of the nuances and complexities involved in immigrant identity formation." -Dr Regina Donlon, Carlow College St. Patrick's

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Book SynopsisBerlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and one of the world’s largest Israeli diaspora communities. Germany’s guilt about the Nazi Holocaust has led to a public disavowal of anti-Semitism and strong support for the Israeli state. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Berlin report experiencing increasing levels of racism and Islamophobia. InThe Moral TriangleSa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans in Berlin to explore these asymmetric relationships in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the private sphere. They show how these relationships stem from narratives surrounding moral responsibility, the Holocaust, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and Germany’s recent welcoming of Middle Eastern refugees. They also point to spaces for activism and solidarity among Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians in Berlin that can help foster restoraTrade Review“Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor are engaged in rich and rare dialogues—with each other and their informants—that redefine the ‘moral triangle’ between Palestinians, Jews, and Germans as they act, react, interact, resist, and reconcile in Berlin. In a spirit of affective affiliation they draw on psychic compulsions and political circumstances that haunt the histories of cohabitation. Survival, trauma, grace, forgiveness, desperation, and hospitality are issues that stir the conscience and consciousness of this remarkable book. The Moral Triangle exceeds its geometry to provide a many-sided, plural perspective on living together in difference with dignity.” -- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University“The Moral Triangle takes up one of the most complex topics in the contemporary world: the ethically fraught relationships between Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians. But Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor's book is also much more than an original and urgently needed study; it is itself an ethical document that exemplifies how scholarship can confront thorny moral and political problems with generosity, nuance, and a strong sense of restorative justice. This uniquely powerful book will make a significant and salutary intervention for both academic and general readerships.” -- Michael Rothberg, author of * The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators *“[The Moral Triangle] shines in its impressionistic and fast-paced reportage style. Galor and Atshan tap into narratives of perpetrators and victims, trauma and its afterlives, responsibility and reconciliation, morality, and memory.” -- Anna-E. Younes * Journal of Palestine Studies *“Guilt and a sense of culpability for their country’s past crimes against the Jewish people have led many Germans—particularly the country’s government—to adopt highly supportive positions vis-a-vis Israel. In The Moral Triangle, scholars Saed Atshan and Katharina Galor dare to explore the sensitive intricacies of this issue. . . . The results of their work are fascinating and groundbreaking.” -- Dale Sprusansky * Washington Report on Middle East Affairs *

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Book SynopsisThe essays in Islamic Ecumene address the ways in which Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia and from sub-Saharan Africa to the steppes of Uzbekistan are members of a broad cultural unit. Although the Muslim inhabitants of these lands speak dozens of languages, represent numerous ethnic groups, and practice diverse forms of Islam, they are united by shared practices and worldviews shaped by religious identity. To highlight these commonalities, the co-editors invited a team of scholars from a wide range of disciplines to examine Muslim societies in comparative and interconnected ways. The result is a book that showcases ethics, education, architecture, the arts, modernization, political resistance, marriage, divorce, and death rituals. Using the insights and methods of historians, anthropologists, literary critics, art historians, political scientists, and sociologists, Islamic Ecumene seeks to understand Islamic identity as a dynamic phenomenon that i

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Book SynopsisWorld War II produced a fundamental shift in modern racial discourse. In the postwar period, racism was situated for the first time at the center of international political life, and race's status as conceptual common sense and a justification for colonial rule was challenged with new intensity. In response to this crisis of race, the UN and UNESCO initiated a project of racial reeducation. This global antiracist campaign was framed by the persecution of Europe's Jews and anchored by UNESCO's epochal 1950 Statement on Race, which redefined the race concept and canonized the midcentury liberal antiracist consensus that continues to shape our present. In this book, Sonali Thakkar tells the story of how UNESCO's race project directly influenced anticolonial thought and made Jewish difference and the Holocaust enduring preoccupations for anticolonial and postcolonial writers. Drawing on UNESCO's rich archival resources and shifting between the scientific, social scientific, literary, and cultural, Thakkar offers new readings of a varied collection of texts from the postcolonial, Jewish, and Black diasporic traditions. Anticolonial thought and postcolonial literature critically recast liberal scientific antiracism, Thakkar argues, and the concepts central to this new moral economy were the medium for postcolonialism's engagement with Jewishness. By recovering these connections, she shows how the midcentury crisis of racial meaning shaped the kinds of solidarities between racialized subjects that are thinkable today.Trade Review"The Reeducation of Raceis a brilliant and original study of liberalism, racial formation, and anticolonial thought. Ambitious, wide-ranging, and provocative, the book brings together fields of study too often siloed, anchored by a virtuoso reading of the UNESCO Statement on Race. Thakkar's confident and lucid voice rethinks race and plasticity forever."—Yogita Goyal, University of California, Los Angeles"Through the unlikely lens of post-World War II UNESCO, this book provides real and really new insight into the attempt to recover a liberal postwar order after the racial horror of World War II, and into the limitations of institutional antiracism in those same years. It will be a landmark contribution to the current effort to articulate the politics of Jewishness with both Black and anticolonial theory. We will be reading it carefully in the years to come."—Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University"Sonali Thakkar's brilliant first book begins as a mystery of sorts. When and why did the word 'equality' get swapped out of the 1950 UNESCO Statement on Race, to be replaced by 'educability, plasticity'? Answering that question sheds important light on how the colonialist legacy tainted the liberal anti-racism of the postwar period."—John Plotz, Public BooksTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Reeducation of Race 1. Rupture and Renewal 2. The Racial Residuum 3. Culture and Conversion 4. Reeducation as Repair Coda: The Waning Consensus Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisUnderstanding Political Islam retraces the human and intellectual development that led François Burgat to a very firm conviction: that the roots of the tensions that afflict the Western world’s relationship with the Muslim world are political rather than ideological. In his compelling account of the interactions between personal life-history and professional research trajectories, Burgat examines how the rise of political Islam has been expressed: first in the Arab world, then in its interactions with European and Western societies. An essential continuation of his work on Islamism, Burgat’s unique field research and ‘political trespassing’ marks an overdue challenge to the academic mainstream.Trade Review'An outstanding book that sheds clarity on the oft-obscure debate about Islam and politics. Alternately personal and scholarly, Burgat takes the reader through his extensive field work in the Arab Muslim world to share the conversations and revelations that have shaped his approach to the subject. He also engages head-on with the divisive debates that have poisoned the discussion of Islam’s place in the West since 9/11, not least in his native France. Engagingly written and passionately argued, Understanding Political Islam is essential reading.'Professor Eugene Rogan, Director of St Antony's College Middle East Centre, University of Oxford'Understanding Political Islam? finally makes accessible to English readers the formidable intellectual journey of the prominent French scholar, Francois Burgat, and provides the most up to date synthesis of his research that spans over four decades and multiple countries from North Africa to the Middle east.Francois Burgat is an original and unique voice who has continuously challenged the dominant assumptions on political Islam by showing for example that Islam as a religion is not the main factor of Islamism, and therefore religious reform is not the solution to the existing Islamist predicament. Building on Burgat’s longstanding fieldwork, this book provides a rich and in depth analysis of the multifaceted and evolving reality of Islamism from its origin in the 1960s to the Arab Spring and ISIS. It is a must read for students of politics and experts of the Middle east.'Professor Jocelyne Cesari, University of Birmingham and Georgetown University, author of What is Political Islam?'A magisterial statement on the study of Islamic politics by one of its most distinguished scholars, this is also a deeply personal book that summarises a career spent in North Africa and the Middle East living among and speaking to some of the region's most important political actors.'Professor Faisal Devji, Director of St Antony's College Asian Studies Centre, University of Oxford'Misunderstanding of“Political Islam” has been perhaps the greatest political trap the West hasfallen into in modern times, dragging it into endless wars, interventions,coups and attempts at regime change in the Muslim World— all failing toaccomplish anything except death and destruction. François Burgat was oneof the very first researchers to abandon high-flown theorizing about whatpolitical Islam is all about. Instead gettingdown into the mix to spend time with an array of real personalities livingunder concrete but diverse circumstances, Burgat captured earlier thanmost a feel for the realities and impulses inside Islamic movements, howeverdivergent among themselves. He has consistently argued that the issue comesdown not to exotic ideologies but to a practical struggle by Muslims to recovera place of power and dignity in the world and to establish identities washedaway under years of colonialism. Burgat’s writings had great impact on my ownthinking on the topic going back over thirty years. In this unique book, Burgatoffers us his physical and intellectual journey through the Muslim world overthe years, as his ideas took deeper shape and root. He continues to providehere the human and psychological dimensions of the complex phenomenon thatwe in the West like to lump together as "Islamic radicalism." Thisbook makes clear how his approach and understanding have withstood the test oftime.'Graham E. Fuller, former Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, a former Senior Political Scientist at RAND, and a current Adjunct Professor of History at Simon Fraser University -- .Table of ContentsPreface to the English Edition Introduction: Writing the History of a Research Career Part I: Discovering the Muslim "Other" 1 Intuitive Accumulation 2 Algeria: Approaching the Other 3 Prelude in the Jamahiriyya 4 Egypt, Arabic, and Grasping Difference 5 Yemen: Modernisation Without Colonization 6 “Beneath Israel, Palestine” 7 Syria and Bilad Al-Sham Part II: Political Islam: The stakes of an alternative interpretation 9 Being a Political Scientist of the Muslim World 10 Saving the Other's “Others”: A French Obsession 11 The Political Cost of Dissent 12 Between Judges and Spooks 13 Wrestling with the Research of Others: Olivier Roy, Gilles Kepel and Islamism 14 The Charlie Hebdo Attacks: Failure of Islam—or Failure of Politics? Conclusion: Where Do We Go Now?

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Book SynopsisFaith stories is an investigation of faith and belief systems in Australia and England. Drawing on ethnography, interviews, focus groups for adults and arts-based workshops for their children, Hickey-Moody takes a community-based approach to examining belonging, attachment, faith, belief and ‘what really matters’ in diverse areas. Each of the book’s research sites is geographically and culturally specific in ways that shape residents’ experiences of community and belonging, but they are united by enduring threads relating to colonisation, diaspora and negotiating belonging in culturally diverse contexts. Examining faith reveals that there are striking similarities between seemingly different cultures. Understanding these connections can reduce conflict and promote cohesion in communities that are often struggling to adapt to huge changes. This book provides rich resources for those who wish to explore faith and belief in complex social circumstances, either as research or as community engagement. In such increasingly divided times, work like this is needed now more than ever.Trade Review'Weaving between disciplines, methods, and interactive practices, Hickey-Moody expertly pulls the reader along several threads of the personal, the communal, the political, and the belief that there is always something more. This is a work that enacts an ethos of radical, collective care, a richly descriptive work that never hides from its readers all of the living and breathing, all of the troubles and joys, of its own making.'Gregory J. Seigworth, Professor of Communication Studies in the Department of Communication and Theatre at Millersville University -- .Table of Contents1 Contexts / Comhthéacs2 Faith: a new materialist approach / Creideamh3 Mapping and making / Ag déanamh4 Affect and joy / Áthas5 Belonging / Muintearas6 Connections / Naisc7 Incapacity / Neamhábaltacht8 Other worlds / NeamhshaoltaConclusion / ConclúidIndex

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection harnesses a diversity of interpretivist perspectives to provide a panoramic view of the production, experiences, contexts, and meanings of religion. Scholars from the US, South Asia and Europe explore religious phenomena using ethnographic, comparative historical, psychosocial, and critical theoretical approaches. Each chapter addresses foundational themes in the study of religion – from identity, discourse and power to ritual, emotion, and embodiment. Authors examine dynamic intersections of race, gender, history, and the present within the religious traditions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, as well as among the non-religious. Cutting boldly across religious traditions and paradigms, the book investigates areas of harmony and contradiction across different interpretive lenses to achieve a richer understanding of the meanings of religion.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Interpretive Approaches in the Study of Religion ~ Erin F. Johnston 1. Making Sense of Queer Christian Lives ~ Jodi O'Brien 2. Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: Religion, Spirituality and Ritual among Children and Grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors ~ Janet Jacobs 3. Doing It: Ethnography, Embodiment, and the Interpretation of Religion ~ Daniel Winchester 4. Mind the Gap: What Ethnographic Silences Can Teach Us ~ Rebecca Kneale Gould 5. The Public Sphere and Presentations of the Collective Self: Being Shia in Modern India ~ Aseem Hasnain 6. Meaning and Power: Toward a Critical Discursive Sociology of Religion ~ Titus Hjelm 7. The Religion of White Male Ethnonationalism in a Multicultural Reality ~ George Lundskow 8. Totalitarianism as Religion ~ Yong Wang 9. The Heritage Spectrum: A More Inclusive Typology for the Age of Global Buddhism ~ Jessica Marie Falcone 10. Interpreting Nonreligion ~ Evan Stewart Afterword: Approaching Religions – Some Refl ections on Meaning, Identity, and Power ~ Vikash Singh

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Book SynopsisScience and faith are often seen as being in opposition. In this book, award-winning sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund questions this assumption based on research she has conducted over the past fifteen years. She highlights the ways these two spheres point to universal human values, showing readers they don't have to choose between science and Christianity. Breathing fresh air into debates that have consisted of more opinions than data, Ecklund offers insights uncovered by her research and shares her own story of personal challenges and lessons. In the areas most rife with conflict--the origins of the universe, evolution, climate change, and genetic technology--readers will find fascinating points of convergence in eight virtues of human existence: curiosity, doubt, humility, creativity, healing, awe, shalom, and gratitude. The book includes discussion questions for group use and to help pastors, small group leaders, and congregants broach controversial topics and bridge the science-faith divide.Table of ContentsContentsPart 1: Building Blocks1. From Fear to Understanding2. Overlapping Communities3. Creative Evolution: Moving Past the Origins DebatePart 2: Process4. Curiosity5. Doubt6. Humility7. CreativityPart 3: Redemption8. Healing9. Awe10. Shalom11. GratitudeFurther Reading

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Book SynopsisMore than a cookbook, this collection of heirloom recipes conveys Auschwitz-Birkenau survivors’ stories through the mnemonic lens of cooking and food. Collected and edited during the pandemic, this book—in the words of Ronald S. Lauder, Chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation—“is a story of hope and triumph of the human spirit.” Over 110 recipes accompanied by survivors’ pre-war recollections and post-liberation memories weave a unique tapestry of sensory experiences of flavors and aromas from the old world, accounts of loss and trauma, as well as heartwarming and poignant tales of new beginnings and healing. All of the recipes have been tested and retested to make sure they can be replicated in your kitchen while keeping the original character and voice of the survivors who contributed to the volume. Delicious recipes include Blintzes, Kugel, Matzo Ball Soup, Cholent, Goulash, Kasha Varnishkes, Rugelach, and more. Plus, there is a special chapter devoted to classic dishes for the Jewish holidays (Latkes, Charoset, Gefilte Fish, Knishes, Tzimmes, Challah, and others) that you can use to prepare, host, or bring food to a gathering. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation.Trade Review"Preparing the dishes in this substantial new cookbook feels like paying homage to resilient survivors." -- Florence Fabricant * The New York Times *"A perfect gift for anyone who loves the traditions and food in the Jewish religion." * Glamour *"Honey Cake & Latkes is more than a collection of recipes. It also contains inspiring stories from the survivors as well as archival and contemporary photographs showing their resilience." * Jewish Telegraphic Agency *"Sure, Honey Cake & Latkes contains enough Jewish recipes to feed an oneg's-worth of hungry mouths, but in this poignant, one-of-a-kind cookbook, the matzo balls and latkes take a backseat to the subject matter at hand: the collective legacy and triumph of the survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, whose families provided the recipes for the compilation. The cookbook is also a gift that keeps on giving, since all proceeds are donated to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation." * Saveur *“You’ll want to cook this mix of well-known classics like matzo brei and lesser known dishes such as mamaglia, a Romanian staple akin to polenta. But just as much, you’ll want to savor the stunning photographs of the foods and, more importantly, the stories of the survivors.” —Dawn Davis, Editor in Chief, Bon Appetit"Rather than a sad postscript to genocide, the book is a celebration of the power of food told from the perspective of a population who, contrary to expectations, telegraphs survival, renewal and joy." —Adeena Sussman, Hadassah Magazine

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Book SynopsisIn this wide-ranging collection of insightful, controversial, and often-witty essays, the renowned author of Why I Am Not a Muslim has created a representative selection of his best work on the Koran and various problems posed by the interaction of Islam with the West. The title of the collection comes from an article that originally appeared in the London Guardian on recent textual studies of the Koran. This research suggests that, contrary to a longstanding Muslim belief about the afterlife, a harem of beautiful virgins may not be waiting for the faithful male departed in heaven. For the many readers of his books who have wondered about his background, the author begins with a charming personal sketch about his upbringing in England and his unabashed Anglophilia. A section on Koranic criticism includes excerpts from two of his books, What the Koran Really Says and Which Koran? No stranger to controversy and polemics, the author devotes two sections to articles that consider the totalitarian nature of contemporary political Islam and explore the potential for an Islamic Reformation comparable to the Protestant Reformation in the West. The concluding section is composed of Ibn Warraq's journalism, including a critique of reputed Muslim reformer Tariq Ramadan, a defense of Western culture ("Why the West Is Best)," an article about the Danish cartoons that provoked widespread Muslim outrage, and even a commentary on heavy metal music in a Muslim setting. This thoughtful, engaging collection on diverse topics will interest both longtime readers of Ibn Warraq and those new to his work.

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Book SynopsisFeatures a new section on the institutional settings of German Jewish Studies, a Film Forum on Shahar Rozen's 1998 documentary Liebe Perla, and interviews with Paul Mendes-Flohr and Barbara Honigmann, among other contributions. Nexus is the official publication of the biennial German Jewish Studies Workshop at the University of Notre Dame. Together, Nexus and the Workshop constitute the first ongoing German Jewish Studies forum in North America. Because the locus of scholarship is never incidental, Nexus 6 introduces a new section, "Contexts," to examine, in this case, what it means to pursue German Jewish Studies at a Catholic university, Notre Dame. And because research is never static, it inaugurates a series in which scholars revisit their own prior scholarly publications. Robert Smith launches this initiative by revising his view of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a source for post-Holocaust Christian-Jewish dialogue. The volume also offers conversations with the legendary Paul Mendes-Flohr on his understanding of the German Jewish "legacy" and with Barbara Honigmann on her distinctive prose style and what it means to her to practice Judaism. The popular Film Forum section returns, this time focusing on Shahar Rozen's 1998 documentary Liebe Perla. Nexus 6 also presents new scholarship on Babi Yar Holocaust memorials, Freud's famous Moses essay, Primo Levi's translation of Kafka, and an introduction to and first English translation of the 18th-century philosopher Salomon Maimon's understudied essay History of His Philosophical Authorship in Dialogues.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction - Martha B. Helfer and William Collins Donahue Contexts: German Jewish Studies at the University of Notre Dame Jewish Studies at a Catholic University: An Address to the German Jewish Studies Workshop, February 20, 2017 - John T. McGreevy Jewish (Studies) at Notre Dame: A Welcome Address Delivered at the 6th Biennial Workshop at Notre Dame, February 2019 - Peter Holland Nexus Film Forum: Shahar Rozen's Liebe Perla (1998) Edited by Brad Prager A Conversation with Shahar Rozen - Moderated by Brad Prager An Ethics of Radical Visibility - Jennifer Cazenave The Shape of Testimony in Shahar Rozen's Liebe Perla - Valentina Geri Sight Unseen: Liebe Perla and Archival Images - Brad Prager Film or Photo? Liebe Perla and Corresponding and Conflicting Survivor Testimony - Erin McGlothlin --------------- "My Marriage to the German-Jewish Intellectual Legacy": A Conversation with Paul Mendes-Flohr - Moderated by Steve Dowden Holocaust Tourism and Visual Mediation: Sergei Loznitsa's Austerlitz - Michael D. Richardson Narrative Convergences and Clashes: German, Israeli, and Ukrainian Constellations of Holocaust Memory through Babi Yar Commemorations - Kristina Hook Christian Responsibility and Anti-Jewish Theology: Revisiting "Reclaiming Bonhoeffer After Auschwitz" - Robert O. Smith "Alles so ein bisschen neben der Spur" / "Everything Just a Bit off the Beaten Path": Aesthetics, Politics, Jewishness: A Conversation with Barbara Honigmann (German / English) - Introduced and conducted by William Donahue Freud's Moses and the Critique of Nationalist Origins - Ari Linden "With the knife in the heart." Understanding Primo Levi's Translation of Franz Kafka's The Trial - Valentina Geri Salomon Maimon's History of His Philosophical Authorship in Dialogues: A Primer and Translation - Jason M. Yonover

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Book SynopsisEver since Plato’s Republic, the study of statecraft has been a staple of Western discourse, and so has the study of particular leaders. Although Jewish scholars, thinkers, and popularizers have contributed notably to this genre, strikingly few have turned their attention to the history of Jewish leaders—that is, leaders specifically of the Jewish people—in particular. And yet there has been no lack of such outstanding figures, from the biblical period of Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land and once again in present-day Israel or during the millennia of exile and formal Jewish statelessness in the Diaspora. This book, devoted to ten of the most colorful, fascinating, and consequential Jewish political leaders over the past three millennia, fills the gap. Among the ten, men and women alike, some were firmly bound to Judaic religious teachings and others less so, but guiding all of them was the fixed lodestar of their own Jewish identity. By the mid-20th century, the legacy of past generations would inspire modern successors bent on the re-founding of the sovereign Jewish state, one of the greatest political feats in human history. In delving into the unique circumstances and predicaments faced by these ten, and into the characteristics that mark them and their statesmanship as specifically Jewish, readers will also become familiar with what Jewish tradition has to say about the demands of statesmanship and, by inference, with the qualities needed by successful Jewish political leaders encountering the challenges of today and tomorrow. Trade Review“Drawing upon a mastery of Jewish diplomatic history from King David to David Ben Gurion, an equally astounding familiarity with American culture, and a literary gift that would be the envy of many novelists, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik has produced a book that is a pleasure to read and a delight to the mind.”—Norman Podhoretz, Former editor-in-chief of Commentary magazine and author of Why Are Jews Liberals? “Meir Soloveichik has given us a fascinating read. Providence and Power is more than engaging, however. It's also an important contribution to the ongoing reflection by multiple parties on the relationship of religious conviction to statecraft-and it will thus reward close reading by political thinkers, lawmakers, people of biblical faith, and interested citizens everywhere.”—George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center “Winston Churchill once told a young American to study history ‘as therein lies all the secrets of statecraft.’ Rabbi Soloveichik has taken this advice to heart, revealing the secrets of Jewish statesmanship over the millennia with a historian’s scholarship but also with a novelist’s eye for anecdote and a pleasing wit. By drawing out common themes, this is also an important handbook for leadership in our own times.”=—Andrew Roberts, author: ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’ How did the Jewish people continue to govern itself through the hard millennia of separation from its land? This exciting book locates a key to the mystery in the overlooked area of Jewish statecraft, and in men and women—monarchs, scholar-rabbis, self-appointed leaders—who negotiated successfully between divine providence and earthly power. Rabbi Soloveichik’s uniquely personal engagement with the whole sweep of Jewish experience makes his telling of their stories every bit as inspiring as its subjects. —Ruth Wisse, Professor Emerita, Harvard University, author: Free As A Jew

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Book SynopsisFrom fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto and living underground to fighting for social justice in 1960s’ Seattle and helping smash the communist system in 1980s’ Poland, this is a narrative that erupts into critical moments in Jewish, Polish, and American history. It is also a story of the hidden anguish that accompanies and courses through that history, of the living haunted by the dead. The story is told through a conversation, often contentious, between Michael Steinlauf, historian of Polish-Jewish culture and child of Holocaust survivors, and the anthropologist and artist Elżbieta Janicka. It is illustrated with scores of photographs and documents.Table of Contents1. Poland, 1980s 2. Columbia, 1960s 3. Seattle, first half of the 1970s 4. Brighton Beach, 1950s 5. Brandeis, 1979-88 6. Bondage to the Dead, first time around 7. Bondage to the Dead, second time around 8. Moses, Moyshe, Michał, Maryś, Michel, Michael first time around 9. Moses, Moyshe, Michał, Maryś, Michel, Michael second time around 10. PostscriptsAcknowledgements

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Book SynopsisThe Biblical narrative is usually very terse and cryptic. Over the millennia, Jewish scholars often painted a patriarchal picture with women "in their place." Yes, ancient Middle Eastern society was patriarchal, but matriarchs had power as well. Yes, kings ruled, but the king’s mother had major influence over him. Powerless women existed, but so did female prophets and judges. The narrative describes real people, with human weaknesses as well as strengths. There are love stories and lust stories, as well as stories of the dangers of favoritism, greed, and envy. This book puts these women—some are role models—into the context of an ancient society, bringing them imaginatively from the sidelines onto center stage.Trade Review“Reguer fills her narrative with minute details of what life was like in the women’s respective historical periods, which helps well-trod biblical stories come to life… Onto Center Stage is written by an academic and published by an academic press, but these facts should not scare potential readers off. The prose is easy to read and engaging, making it accessible to a wide array of readers… Onto Center Stage is an enjoyable peek inside the lives and times of biblical-era women.”— Leah Grisham, Jewish Book CouncilTable of ContentsIntroduction1. Sara2. Rebecca3. Rahel and Leah4. Powerless Women: Dina and Tamar5. Miriam and Tzippora: Sisters-in-Law6. Deborah the Judge7. Ruth8. Chana9. David’s Wives: Michal, Avigayil, Bathsheba10. Esther11. Addendum: Reclaiming the Heroic Jewish Judith

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Book Synopsis“My dear children, I write this for you in case your dear children or grandchildren come to you one of these days, knowing nothing of their family. For this reason I have set this down for you here in brief, so that you might know what kind of people you come from.” These words from the memoirs Glikl bas Leib wrote in Yiddish between 1691 and 1719 shed light on the life of a devout and worldly woman. Writing initially to seek solace in the long nights of her widowhood, Glikl continued to record the joys and tribulations of her family and community in an account unique for its impressive literary talents and strong invocation of self. Through intensely personal recollections, Glikl weaves stories and traditional tales that express her thoughts and beliefs. While influenced by popular Yiddish moral literature, Glikl’s frequent use of first person and the significance she assigns her own life experience set the work apart. Informed by fidelity to the original Yiddish text, this authoritative new translation is fully annotated to explicate Glikl’s life and times, offering readers a rich context for appreciating this classic work.

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Book SynopsisFor almost two centuries, followers of the Baha'i faith, Iran's largest religious minority, have been persecuted by the state. They have been made scapegoats for the nation's ills, branded enemies of Islam and denounced as foreign agents. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Baha'is have been barred from entering the nation's universities, more than two hundred have been executed, and hundreds more imprisoned and tortured. Now, however, Iran is at a turning point. A new generation has begun to question how the Baha'is have been portrayed by the government and the clergy, and called for them to be given equal rights as fellow citizens. In documenting, for the first time, the plight of this religious community in Iran since its inception, Fereydun Vahman also reveals the greater plight of a nation aspiring to develop a modern identity built on respect for diversity rather than hatred and self-deception.Trade Review‘The sheer scope, breadth, and depth of this history of religious persecution of the beleaguered Babis and Baha’is of Iran is masterful, impressive, and instructive, especially as to its contribution to present-day thought and implications for the future… 175 Years of Persecution is essential reading for any serious study of religious persecution in the Middle East (especially in Iran) and is a valuable contribution to human-rights literature.’ * Reading Religion *‘An exceptional book written in an exceptional time in the modern evolution of an ancient nation… a comprehensive and heart-breaking, infuriating but incisive, eloquent yet scholarly account of a virulent, obsessive hatred that has profoundly shaped the construction of Iran’s modern identity. It is a masterful weaving of abstract historical events with intimate stories of suffering, demonstrating how the choices made by the wielders of power shape the lives of ordinary people going about their lives.’ * Iran Press Watch *‘175 Years of Persecution offers a lucid academic account of the lives of the Baha’is under such intolerable conditions… This book is a must-read for all interested in modern Iran.’ -- Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi, Professor of History, University of Toronto‘Vahman, a very learned specialist in Iranian studies, offers a significant addition to our understanding of modern Iranian history… Important reading.’ -- Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Research Professor, Harvard University, and author of The Mantle of the Prophet‘Fereydun Vahman’s book 175 Years of Persecution provides, in accessible narrative vignettes, a sweeping account of the persecution of Iran’s Baha’i community. Many articles and reports have documented the persecutions, but usually focusing on a chronologically and geographically confined space, often with a clinical approach. However, like Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee on the genocidal campaign against Native Americans, or James Allen’s Without Sanctuary, a visual history of lynching in the American south, here we have a work that brings the human impact to the fore. Vahman weaves together a larger story from individual, mob, or state-sponsored acts of murder, arson, gravesite desecration, imprisonment, dismissal from jobs, deprivation of pensions and education, etc. In clear and readable prose suitable for students, activists, and the general public, this book memorably describes the beleaguerment of the Baha’i community in Iran since its inception and makes it clear why the situation of Baha’is has been described as a bellwether of the prospects for true political rights and civil society for the entire Iranian polity.’ -- Franklin Lewis, Associate Professor of Persian Language & Literature, University of ChicagoTable of ContentsForeword Acknowledgements Introduction: The “Enigma” of the Baha’i Religion in Iran PART ONE: Persecution During the Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasties, 1844–1979 Chapter 1: Why Were the Babi and Baha’i Faiths Suppressed in Iran? Chapter 2: The Violent Repression of the Babis and Baha’is during the Qajar Period Chapter 3: The Baha’is during the Reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi Chapter 4: Baha’is in the Reign of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi Chapter 5: The Shahrud Incident Chapter 6: Eighty-One Stab Wounds: The Murder of Dr Berjis in Kashan Chapter 7: True Crime: The Incident at Abarqu Chapter 8: The Events of 1955: Hojjat al-Islam Falsafi, the Ramadan Broadcasts, and the Military Occupation of the Baha’i Center PART TWO: The Islamic Republic in Confrontation with the Baha’i Faith Chapter 9: Baha’i Persecution during the Last Days of the Shah’s Regime Chapter 10: The Baha’is—the First Victims of Oppression in the Islamic Republic Chapter 11: The Persecution of Baha’is under Bazargan and the Revolutionary Council Chapter 12: The Presidencies of Banisadr and Raja’i Chapter 13: Arrests and Executions of the Baha’i Assemblies, 1981–85 Chapter 14: The Destruction of Baha’i Holy Sites and Community Resources Chapter 15: After Ayatollah Khomeini: The Escalation of Persecution Chapter 16: Efforts at Reform under President Khatami Chapter 17: Escalating Repression under President Ahmadinejad (2005–13) Chapter 18: An Obsession with Conspiracy Theories in the Islamic Republic Chapter 19: Systematic Humiliation: Being Labeled Ritually Unclean (Najes) Chapter 20: The Perspectives of Iran’s Grand Ayatollahs on the Baha’i Faith Chapter 21: The Appeals of International Organizations and the Iranian Diaspora Epilogue Postscript Appendix Glossary Select Bibliography Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe 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 places like Egypt, with the backing of several Gulf states. Focusing primarily on Egypt, this book considers a relatively understudied dimension of these revolutions: the role of prominent religious scholars. While pro-revolutionary ulama have justified activism against authoritarian regimes, counter-revolutionary scholars have provided religious backing for repression, and in some cases the mass murder of unarmed protestors. Usaama al-Azami traces the public engagements and religious pronouncements of several prominent ulama in the region, including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Ali Gomaa and Abdullah bin Bayyah, to explore their role in either championing the Arab revolutions or supporting their repression. He concludes that while a minority of noted scholars have enthusiastically endorsed the counter-revolutions, their approach is attributable less to premodern theology and more to their distinctly modern commitment to the authoritarian state.Trade Review‘[An] important study, the first comprehensive account of its kind.’ -- Asian Affairs‘Compelling.’ -- Middle East Policy'Al-Azami's book should be of great help to those interested in the religious dimensions of the Arab Spring debates. It provides important insights into the modes of argument and analysis of contemporary political discourse that is explicitly Islamic.' -- The Middle East Journal'Ten years after the Arab Spring, little attention has been given to the important role of religious scholars. Al-Azami's excellent book provides an extensive analysis of a myriad of discourses and political alliances. A must-read for researchers of modern Islam and Middle East studies.' -- Heba Raouf Ezzat, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ibn Haldun University'Literature on the Arab Spring is vast, but a novel perspective and original dimension is rare. Al-Azami's book accomplishes both. He succinctly illustrates that the Arab Revolutions were also an epistemological battle, in which the ulama played a pivotal role. A quintessential read.' -- Wadah Khanfar, former director general of Al Jazeera Media Network and President of the Al Sharq Forum'A comprehensive account and analysis of how the events of the Arab Spring unfolded among the ranks of the ulama. Indispensable for anyone wanting to understand the fault lines which will dominate the Muslim world for years to come.' -- Jonathan A. C. Brown, Professor of Islamic Civilization, Georgetown University

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Book SynopsisThe Qur’an is full of parables. Each one, when its meaning is unpacked and understood, offers wisdom and guidance. Surah Kahf, chapter 18 from the Qur’an, is particularly thought provoking, and Muslims are advised to read it at least once a week. But why? And what can we gain from it? In this book Yasir Qadhi leads us through Surah Kahf, unfolding the lines, stories and symbols that have inspired people for over a thousand years: the people of the cave, Prophet Musa’s momentous encounter with Khidr, the two men and their gardens, and Gog and Magog. And surely We have explained matters to people in the Qur’an in diverse ways, using all manners of parables. (Qur’an 18:54) Through Yasir Qadhi’s unmistakeable voice, modern Muslims may glimpse some of the Qur’an’s profound meaning. Say: “If the sea were to become ink to record the Words of my Lord, indeed the sea would all be used up before the Words of my Lord are exhausted…” (Qur’an 18:109)

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