Description
Book SynopsisAlef Is for Allah is the first groundbreaking study of the emotional space occupied by children in modern Islamic societies. Focusing primarily on visual representations of children from modern Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, the book examines these materials to investigate concepts such as innocence, cuteness, gender, virtue, and devotion, as well as community, nationhood, violence, and sacrifice. In addition to exploring a subject that has never been studied comparatively before, Alef Is for Allah extends the boundaries of scholarship on emotion, religion, and visual culture and provides unique insight into Islam as it is lived and experienced in the modern world.
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface on Transliteration and Conventions
Acknowledgments
1. Of Children, Objects, and Seeing: An Introduction
2. Emotion and Its Affects
3. Bringing Up Baby: The Construction of Childhood
4. Good Muslim Boys Do Their Homework
5. Cuteness and Childhood in Turkey
6. The Poster Children of Pakistan
7. Toy Guns and the Real Dead in Iran
8. Of Children, Adults, and Tomorrow: A Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
