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Slavery

Slavery on the Frontiers of Islam by Paul E. Lovejoy (Marcus Wiener Publishers) The collection of essays in Slavery on the Frontiers of Islam, written by Paul E. Lovejoy, York University , Canada , offers a new paradigm, in which the trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic worlds of slavery are brought into focus under the same lens.

While slave studies have considered either trans-Atlantic slavery or slavery in the world of Islam, rarely has any study combined the enslavement of Africans in America and the Lands of Islam in one volume. Both the Saharan and the Atlantic worlds drew upon the western and central Sudan for the enslaved population that was imported, but in general the two markets for slaves have been treated in isolation and without reference to the common bond of Islam and the multiple roles that Islam has played in the history of slavery, whether in West Africa itself, the Americas, or the Islamic Mediterranean. Western Africa served as the point of dispersion across desert and sea, but it was also the final destination of many of those who were enslaved but who were not transported across the Atlantic or the Sahara .

The enslavement of Africans in the interior of West Africa produced a far-reaching Diaspora that occupied an ambiguous place in the Islamic world. The political and religious issues in the Sudan (land of the Blacks) underlying the enslavement of people emphasized borders and frontiers: ­political, religious, ethnic, and commercial.

Enslaved Muslims and non-Muslims who were brought into the world of Islam reenforced or invented cultural features that were central to their identities as people from the central Sudan .

Slavery on the Frontiers of Islam explores the relationship between Islam and slavery as a series of frontiers in:

• The Americas between enslaved Muslims and their Christian masters and the types of resistance and accommodation that arose there.

• West Africa between Muslim and non-Muslim societies and the attempts at defining who was a Muslim in terms of issues of enslavement.

• North Africa between Muslim masters and the enslaved population from West Africa and the popularity of spirit possession cults, especially bori.

The resistance of Muslims to assimilation and the accommodation of Muslims to bondage also created other frontiers that are explored through a new lens in Slavery on the Frontiers of Islam.

Enslaving Connections: Changing Cultures of Africa and Brazil During the Era of Slavery edited by Jose C. Curto, Paul E. Lovejoy (Humanity Books) This unique collection of twelve essays by internationally known scholars deals with the important but unexplored topic of the transatlantic linkages between western Africa and Brazil during the era of the slave trade. Brazil received more enslaved Africans (approximately 4.5 million) than any other part of the Americas --ten times as many as North America , and more than all of the Caribbean and North America combined. The forced shipment of millions of Africans to the Americas , where their enslavement became the basis of intense exploitation, profoundly influenced the development of the American societies that used slaves, the African societies from which the victims originated, and the European nations centrally involved in colonizing the Americas . Transatlantic slavery and the forces that produced its formal abolition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were clearly vital in helping to define the identities of both Black and White people, and in shaping European colonialism and imperialism. These factors have left legacies of racism and division with important social consequences.

Divided into three major parts, Enslaving Connections focuses first on the Portuguese-Brazilian slave trade. The second section examines the impact of western Africans on the making of colonial and postindependence Brazil . The final section explores the effects of Brazil and Afro-Brazilians on western Africa .

This unique collection of twelve essays by internationally known scholars deals with the important but unexplored topic of the transatlantic linkages between western Africa and Brazil during the era of the slave trade. Brazil received more enslaved Africans (approximately 4.5 million) than any other part of the Americas --ten times as many as North America , and more than all of the Caribbean and North America combined. The forced shipment of millions of Africans to the Americas , where their enslavement became the basis of intense exploitation, profoundly influenced the development of the American societies that used slaves, the African societies from which the victims originated, and the European nations centrally involved in colonizing the Americas . Transatlantic slavery and the forces that produced its formal abolition in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were clearly vital in helping to define the identities of both Black and White people, and in shaping European colonialism and imperialism. These factors have left legacies of racism and division with important social consequences.

There are three interrelated sections to Enslaving Connections. In the first, Alberto da Costa e Silva provides an introduction to the problem of the interaction between Brazil and Africa during the slave trade era. Da Costa e Silva does an excellent job situating the volume in the gaping hole in Brazilian historiography that has hitherto concentrated on relations with Portugal rather than on the direct interaction with Africa . This chapter is particularly compelling in explaining the process of community formation and sets the tone for the fluidity of identities that the editors want to emphasize. As the history of Casa da Mina demonstrates, the interactions across the Atlantic were profound. The Casa was Dahomean in origin, an interesting connection that requires further elaboration. Ivana Elbl studies the Luso-Brazilian slave trade, focusing specifically on supply and demand in the early Portuguese slave trade. Elbl offers an important correction to the literature by carefully incorporating the "supply," that is, the African, side of the transatlantic slave trade into her analysis. In addition, the author complicates the sometimes simplistic depiction of fluctuations in certain characteristics of the trade by exploring a host of economic, political, and cul­t events in all regions of the Atlantic . Most centrally, Ell's argument that Europeans were "only an addition" to a "well-established West African slave "system" resonates especially well with the known history of western Africa .

By the end of the eighteenth century, as Manolo Florentino establishes, the transatlantic trade was organized far differently. By this time, merchants in Brazil dominated the trade, as Florentino demonstrates in establishing the role of slave traders in Rio de Janeiro in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The transatlantic interaction involved Portugal and many other parts of the world, but connections were subordinate to a direct trade between Brazil and Angola , as well as with Mozambique and the Bight of Benin .

Likewise Joseph Miller's chapter, "Retention, Reinvention, and Remembering: Restoring Identities through Enslavement in Africa and under Slavery in Brazil ," provides a nice bridge between the preceding articles on the slave trade and the subsequent chapters on culture and identities. Miller's caveat that the chapter is "methodologically challenging" and "dangerously conjectural" is important, but he presents a persuasive case for the speculation in which he engages. In particular, Miller's attempt to break out of models that emphasize the "survival" of African cultural traits or the rapid adaptation of enslaved Africans to new cultures in the Americas is especially compelling. As Miller suggests, Sidney Mintz, Richard Price, and Philip Morgan have emphasized the importance of agency in the reaction of the enslaved population to their situation,' while scholars such as Gwendolyn Hall and Douglas Chambers have emphasized the continuity of the African past to these adjustments.' How these forces actually interacted is a subject of debate that might well benefit from further comparison with other groups who are forced to live together, whether as inmates, refugees, or immigrants. This idea fits well with the main argument of Miller's chapter and deserves more attention.

The second section of this volume examines the impact of western Africa and Africans in the making of colonial and postindependence Brazil , which is revealed especially through the fluidity and evolution of identities. Gregory Guy covers the linguistic influences of Africans in "Muitas Linguas: The Linguistic Impact of Africans in Colonial Brazil," identifying the specific ways in which Africans not only had an impact on but also became part of Brazilian society. James Sweet focuses on divination rituals from West Central Africa, establishing the "spiritual potency" of Africans, "not a thing for white men to see."

Linda Wimmer's chapter, "Ethnicity and Family Formation among Slaves on Tobacco Farms in the Bahian Reconcavo, 1698-1820," is an important contribu­tion to the corpus of scholarship on slave families and kinship. As her study demonstrates, African ethnicities acquire more explanatory power if the exoga­mous nature of many African marriages is taken as a starting point. Wimmer sug­gests that the characteristic of marriages between Africans of different ethnicities was the principal mechanism behind the emergence of pluralized social identities.

Likewise, Mary Karasch offers a refreshingly honest depiction of the methodological problems inherent in researching "nationhood." She identifies several African and creole (born in the Americas ) nations in "Guine, Mina , Angola , and Benguela: African and Crioulo Nations in Central Brazil , 1780‑1835," thereby reinforcing the central theme of this volume. As she concludes, the ways in which the preservation of Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions have developed are a powerful indication of the need for elaboration.

The final section explores the impact of Brazil and Afro-Brazilians on western Africa . Robin Law investigates the career of the notorious Brazilian slave trader Francisco Felix de Sousa between 1800 and his death in 1849. De Sousa's activities at Ouidah ranged from political intrigue in supporting the over-throw of the Dahomey king in 1818 to slave trading. Silke Strickrodt dissects the Afro-Brazilian community on the western "Slave Coast" in the mid-nineteenth century, which included an assortment of individuals from the Americas, who moved to the port towns of the Bight of Benin and formed a recognizable com­munity by the middle part of the nineteenth century that was variously known as Aguda, Afro-Brazilian, or simply Brazilian, even though those so identified com­prised a much more heterogeneous population that included former slaves from Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, Sierra Leone, and probably elsewhere. This population included "whites," Africans, and mulatto or pardo, in the sense used in Brazil and its Atlantic diaspora in the nineteenth century. Marriage preferences, social inter-action, and business blurred racial categories; references to origins were as much to do with relative wealth and freeborn status as with racial distinctions. The essays here problematize the meanings of mulatto and pardo, as well as creole and, by implication, European and Portuguese. Similarly, Rosa da Cruz e Silva examines the reverberations of the Brazilian trade on the interior of Benguela, specifically on Kakonda and Kilengues in the 1790s. She demonstrates the cru­cial role of Brazilian merchants, many of whom were mulatto or pardo, in the slave trade of the interior at the end of the eighteenth century. Finally, Susan Herlin concentrates on Brazilian commercial penetration of Kongo in the mid-nineteenth century. The chapters in this section offer the often overlooked per­spective that the economic and cultural processes in the Atlantic world did not flow only from Africa to the Americas .

Enslaving Connections represents a tightly organized volume on the transatlantic linkages between western Africa and Brazil during the era of the slave trade. Enslaving Connections is addressed to a wide public that is increas­ingly fascinated with the interactions resulting from African slavery and the black diaspora and interested in understanding how identities have been shaped over the course of the past several centuries. This volume presents cutting-edge research and analysis as a contribution to our understanding of the history of slavery and the development of African cultures in the Atlantic world. Most sig­nificantly, the collection pushes the boundaries of scholarship beyond the now overstudied "transfer" of "survivals" of African cultures under New World enslavement. Presenting the interconnectedness of Brazil and western Africa , the volume is a collective attempt to demonstrate how these connections, cultures, and identities were fluid and always subject to the influences of the major groups involved in Atlantic slavery. At once exacting specificity in reference to cultural processes and connecting those specific issues to the broader picture of the Atlantic world, the collection is both a refreshing statement on the state of schol­arship in the field and a road map for future inquiries.

As a collection, this set of essays offers a model for studying the Atlantic world that promotes an integrated view of how identities were shaped, especially those deriving from cultures and societies of western Africa . The volume takes as a starting point the expanding literature on the relationship between Brazil and Africa, of which the pioneering study of Joseph Miller and the excellent collec­tion of essays edited by Linda Heywood are prominent.' This volume supersedes these earlier studies in two important respects. Whereas the earlier work focuses only on Angola , this volume studies the Bight of Benin as well as West Central Africa, recognizing the importance of the Bight of Benin in the settlement of Brazil . Moreover, earlier studies viewed the interconnections between Angola and Brazil as unidirectional, from Africa to Brazil , while the essays here consider the interaction across the Atlantic as complex and fluid. This volume is structured around the concept of interconnections, following the pioneering lead of Pierre Verger in his study of the relationship between the Bight of Benin and Bahia . The emphasis is on the complexity of the ethnic background of the enslaved pop­ulation, rather than a view of a sort of homogenous central African identity. In fact, all of the chapters establish that there were significant differences among the enslaved population that are best addressed through biographical study, as in the case of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua.

Sufism

The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Harper San Francisco) As the specter of religious extremism has become a fact of life today, the temptation is great to allow the evil actions and perspectives of a minority to represent an entire tradition. In the case of Islam, there has been much recent confusion in the Western world centered on distorted portrayals of its core values. Born of ignorance, such confusion feeds the very problem at hand.

An excellent presentation on the principle tenets of the faith of over a billion people! Nasr's unapologetic, yet passion-filled analysis on Islam is a summation of this adroit scholar’s view of his global faith that provides spiritual guidance and fulfillment to so many people while it can also be twisted and misinterpreted, like all religions, to fit the ideologues of hate. Nasr asserts that there are always those in every faith who wish to impose their will on the majority by hijacking and using religion as a cover for their quest for power. Therefore, The Heart of Islam may help to explain some of the finer details of normative Islam and this book may give an open-minded reader a sense of the moral grandeur of Islam.
In The Heart of Islam one of the great intellectual figures in Islamic history offers a timely presentation of the core spiritual and social values of Islam: peace, compassion, social justice, and respect for the other. Seizing this unique moment in history to reflect on the essence of his tradition, Seyyed Hossein Nasr seeks to "open a spiritual and intellectual space for mutual understanding." Exploring Islamic values in scripture, traditional sources, and history, he also shows their clear counterparts in the Jewish and Christian traditions, revealing the common ground of the Abrahamic faiths.
Nasr challenges members of the world's civilizations to stop demonizing others while identifying themselves with pure goodness and to turn instead to a deeper understanding of those shared values that can solve the acute problems facing humanity today. "Muslims must ask themselves what went wrong within their own societies," he writes, "but the West must also pose the same question about itself . . . whether we are Muslims, Jews, Christians, or even secularists, whether we live in the Islamic world or in the West, we are in need of meaning in our lives, of ethical norms to guide our actions, of a vision that would allow us to live at peace with each other and with the rest of God's creation." Such help, he believes, lies at the heart of every religion and can lead the followers of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as well as other religious and spiritual traditions to a new future of mutual respect and common global purpose.
The Heart of Islam is a landmark presentation of enduring value that offers hope to humanity, and a compelling portrait of the beauty and appeal of the faith of 1.2 billion people.

Islamic Mysticism: A Secular Perspective by Ibn Al-Rawandi (Prometheus Books) Any believer needs to fairly read some debunking views of one’s beliefs. First it is always important to know other points of view, even if they do not persuade or even tend to subvert the truth of the positions one holds as true and life-saving. This book offers a critique of the Sufi path of transformation by a former seeker who feels there is serious deception and self-deception on the spiritual path and it is better to be rational and consistent in one’s views than to seek fantastical delusions. Now such a position is unlikely to appeal to the mystic but if one wants to mature in one’s mysticism one should give such nay-sayers a careful hearing, concede their good points and carefully critique the limitations of their point of view. Otherwise perhaps such rationalists are correct and such pursuits are bunk.

Despite how it may appear to outsides, Islam is not wholly a religion of rigid rules and unforgiving severity, unlikely talks and unthinking belief; it has a heart made of poetry and art, vision and devotion, which can be fully known only from within. It is the side of the religion that has attracted many Western intellectuals and that believers often present in their writings of Islam's only or truest face. Sufism raises many of the deepest questions that can be asked about metaphysics and religious experience, questions that have received considerable attention in recent debates about the philosophy of religion.

Having been drawn to the mystical aspect aspects of Islam through the writings of traditional authors, I made contact in the mid-80s with a group of Western converts centered around a Sufi sheikh from Cyprus . I was initiated in 1985 and for three years thereafter I led the Muslim life as far as possible in full, including fasts, prayers, and prohibitions. As time went on, however, it became plain to me that I was leading a double life. Some of my personal reservations about Islam, Sufism, and religion in general were not shared by other members of the group, liberal as they were in comparison with Muslims in general. This situation led to my gradual disillusionment, distancing, and "dropping out" of activities. About this time the Rushdie affair broke, and I was forced to decide whose side I was on. Needless to say, it was not the side of the Muslims.

Regardless of the eventual outcome, my experience of close contact with the mystical side of Islam was of incomperable worth to me in affording insights into the mentality of Muslims in general, yet it left me with feelings of nostalgia and regret, as for an innocent childhood inevitably outgrown.

The Mystics of Islam by Reynold A. Nicholson (Spiritual Classics: World Wisdom) Sufism is the heart of the Islamic tradition. Its teachings, which synthesize the ways of knowledge and love, are founded upon many of the most beautiful verses of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. Through an unbroken succession of wise and ecstatic voices--many of whom were among the greatest poets of both the Arabic and Persian languages--the doctrine of Sufism has been a constant fountain of spiritual illumination throughout its long history for seekers both within and outside Islam. The Mystics of Islam, first published in 1913, has long been recognized as a classic and definitive introduction to the message of Sufism. In this short but comprehensive work, R. A. Nicholson--who was one of the greatest Islamic scholars of the early 20th century--provides the general reader with an easy approach to the study of Islamic mysticism. He gives a broad outline of Sufism and describes the key principles, methods and characteristic features of the inner life as it has been lived by Muslims of every class and condition from the 8th century onwards. Many quotations are given, mainly in the author's own fine versions from the original Arabic and Persian.
Confronted as we are today by the bitter fundamentalism of fanatics who have distorted the meaning of Islam to serve their own purposes, Nicholson's book is a timely reminder of the beautiful and profound soul of the Islamic faith. The following words--written by one of the greatest Sufis, Ibn Arabi, more than 700 years ago and translated by Nicholson in his text--expresses the universal spirit of the journey: "My heart has become capable of every form: it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks ... I follow the religion of Love, whichever way his camels take. My religion and my faith is the true religion."

Messianic Hopes and Mystical Visions: The Nurbakhshiya Between Medieval and Modern Islam by Shahzad Bashir (Studies in Comparative Religion: University of South Carolina Press ) tells the story of the Nurbakhshiya, an Islamic messianic movement that originated in fifteenth-century Iran and central Asia and survives to the present in Pakistan and India . In the first full-length study of the sect, Shahzad Bashir illumines the significance of messianism as an Islamic religious paradigm and illustrates its centrality to any discussion of Islamic sectarianism. By tracing Nurbakhshi activity in the Middle East and central and southern Asia through more than five centuries, Bashir brings to view the continuities and disruptions within Islamic civilization across regions and over time. Bashir effectively captures the way Nurbakhshis have understood and debated the meaning of their tradition in various geographical and temporal contexts.

Bashir provides a detailed biography of the movement's founder, Muhammad Nurbakhsh (d. 1464). Born to a Twelver Shi'i family, Nurbakhsh declared himself the mahdi, or the Muslim messiah, as an adept of the Kubravi Sufi order under the influence of the teachings of the great Sufi master Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240). Nurbakhsh's religious worldview, which Bashir treats in depth in this volume, offers a new window onto the intellectual world of the late medieval Islamic East.

Although Nurbakhsh met with limited success as a claimant to the title of mahdi during his lifetime, his movement prospered after his death as his disciples remained active in Timurid and Safavid Iran , central Asia , and Ottoman Anatolia. Bashir analyzes the spread of the Nurbakhshiya as well as its greatest sociopolitical triumph--transplantation into Kashmir in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, from where the movement extended into neighboring Ladakh and Baltistan. Making use of previously unexamined sources, Bashir recounts every phase of Nurbakshi history, paying particular attention to the reinterpretation and adjustment of the tradition in each local context.

Excerpt: The review of the formation and development of the Nurbakhshiya in this book highlights three particular aspects of Islamic religious history. First, it provides a detailed example for Islamic messianism as a his­torical phenomenon (and not just a theoretical proposition), with sig­nificant implications for the development of the tradition as a whole. Second, it stresses the significance of Sufi ideas in the intellectual and social histories of Muslim societies. And third, the Nurbakhshiya's fate in various sociohistorical settings sheds light on the dynamics of Islamic sectarianism. For all three issues, the examples of Muhammad Nurbakhsh and his followers advance our understanding of not only the movement itself but the overall development of the Islamic tradition between the late medieval and modern periods.

Nurbakhsh articulated his messianic claim in the context of an extensive but diffuse Islamic expectation of the savior. His own dis­course was primarily addressed to the dogma of Twelver Shi'ism, his natal affiliation and the only major Islamic sect to maintain an intensive focus on the messiah beyond the thirteenth century. The standard Twelver Shi`i doctrine on the issue identifies a particular person, the Twelfth Imam, as the messiah and elaborates the figure through tradi­tions incorporating symbolic and mythological elements concerned with eschatology and salvation history. Like that of other would-be mes­siahs, Nurbakhsh's principal concern in reinterpreting the traditional doctrine was to humanize the myth by fleshing it out both literally and metaphorically. He saw the combination of his life's circumstances and his own and his companions' visions as the fulfillment of all prophecies associated with the messiah in the Twelver tradition.

In terms of external conditions, Nurbakhsh was aided in his case for the messianic claim by the unstable sociopolitical environment of the Islamic East during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The perpet­ual march of armies through the region and the resulting weakening of social institutions under Timur and his successors made it possible for Nurbakhsh to think of the contemporary period as the time for the end of one era and the beginning of a new dispensation. Moreover, these same factors made his message meaningful to his audience and gar­nered him a following throughout his life.

In greater measure than sociopolitical factors, Nurbakhsh's message came out of an intellectual tradition in which the notion of a supreme religious guide had become concretized in the centuries prior to his own birth. Nurbakhsh combined the hereditary charisma of the Shi'i imam with Sufi ideas about the seal of sainthood and the perfect man to produce his particular messianic doctrine. After the destruction of the Sunni `Abbasid caliphate by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, pro­ponents of some minority sects such as Twelver Shi`ism operated under a relatively free intellectual atmosphere in the Islamic East during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Consequently, religious life during that period exhibited a perceptible increase in sentimental attachment to the claims of the `Alid house across sectarian lines in Islamic soci­eties. In addition, the large complex of intellectual and social ideas subsumed under the term Sufism had become the predominant mode of religiosity in the Islamic East by the time of Nurbakhsh's birth. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Nurbakhsh combined elements of Shi`ism and Sufism prevalent in his environment to generate a com­bined system. The contemporary appeal of his message stemmed from this combination's resonance with the intellectual and social reality of Nurbakhsh's audience.

After Nurbakhsh's own career, the relative loosening of sectarian boundaries allowed the Nurbakhshiya to exist as a distinct movement in Iran and Kashmir for brief periods during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There was crucial leeway in this respect due to the region's rulers and states not patronizing the religious establishment of par­ticular sects to the exclusion of scholars affiliated with rival groups. Late Timurid rulers in Iran and Central Asia maintained a deliberate ambivalence regarding their preference for Sunnism or Twelver Shi`ism, making it impossible for one sect to be completely dominant.

Similarly, in the progressively Islamizing Kashmir, the Shahmiri rulers and their viziers were open to a competition between different sects and Sufi orders for the sake of gaining the elites' allegiance and patron-age. The consolidation of the Safavid and Mughal Empires in Iran and India , respectively, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries brought this sectarian fluidity to an end. The stridently Twelver Shi`i and Sunni identities of the two empires meant a narrowing of space between the sects, leading eventually to a gradual disappearance of independent movements such as the Nurbakhshiya. The momentary success and eventual demise of the Nurbakhshiya in Iran and Kashmir are best understood as a part of these larger developments in Islamic history.

The case of the Nurbakhshiya illustrates a fact of the Islamic tradi­tion: that state and elite patronage are crucial issues when discussing sectarian space. In the absence of a formalized ecclesiastic structure ("the church"), Muslim religious life through the centuries has been guided by classes of religious divines identified as scholars, jurists, and Sufis. These classes are themselves divided into either groups identified as sects, subsects, and Sufi orders or historical movements emphasizing particular issues such as methodology and reform. It is in this sense that we can talk of Sunnism; Twelver and Ismaili Shi`ism; the Kubravi and Naqshbandi orders; Akhbari and Usuli tendencies within Twelver Shi'ism; and modern Sunni movements such as the South Asian Ahl-i Hadis and Deobandis. Islamic sectarianism is thus a multitiered and continually evolving phenomenon, and the relative success or failure of a group is tied to material factors such as political patronage or sup­pression and the freedom or lack thereof to proselytize. A state repre­sented by a ruling house or the political and economic elites of a Muslim society, therefore, have a decisive function in the degree to which a particular group can flourish within society. Nurbakhsh's lack of success in the political sphere and the rise and fall of the Nurbakhshiya in both Iran and Kashmir under his successors underscore this crucial conjunction between the religious and sociopolitical aspects of Islamic history.

The case of modern Nurbakhshis in Baltistan and Ladakh, who survive as a distinct movement due to historical and geographical factors, exemplifies the way in which the dynamics of Islamic sectarianism have been transformed in the era of nation-states. The continuing signifi­cance of state patronage in modern times is evident from the fact that the Nurbakhshis of Baltistan have come under intense Twelver Shi`i pressure only since the Iranian revolution of 1979, in which Twelver Shi`i jurists eventually emerged as victors under the leadership of Aya­tollah Khomeini. The revolution has had a significant impact on the Shi`is of Pakistan in terms of both community morale and funding for organized communal action, leading to an emboldened stance against the country's Sunni majority. In the context of the large-scale struggle between Twelver Shi`i and radical Sunni organizations currently active in Pakistan , the Nurbakhshis are a relatively small prize targeted for conversion by the Twelver Shi`is in their quest for demographic and regional expansion.

In comparison with Iran , the Pakistani state is not officially aligned with a particular sect, though it is certainly dominated by individuals who are Sunni. Modern Nurbakhshis have made it a priority to appeal to the state to become recognized officially as a group separate from the major sects. It remains to be seen if this policy will bear fruit or whether social pressure and the unconcern of Pakistani state authori­ties will lead to the Nurbakhshiya being subsumed under Twelver Shi`ism. The case nonetheless clearly shows the independent signifi­cance of social organization in a modern society, where resources and planning can lead to a strengthened position without the explicit state or elite patronage necessary in the medieval period. It is precisely due to this reality that the Nurbakhshis of Baltistan currently see modern tools such as publishing, formal organizations with rationalized struc­tures, and participation in public discourse as the primary means for attempting to safeguard their distinct identity.

Traversing the history and geography of western, central, and south-ern Asia in the tracks of Nurbakhshis in this book takes us through a number of different social contexts in the Islamic East. While pay­ing careful attention to differences arising from local circumstances, the book's narrative also shows the continuities of religious life, in both space and time, concurrent with the transformation of the regions from late medieval empires into modern nation-states. The details covered in this narrative illuminate Nurbakhshi history, while on the broadest level the story of the Nurbakhshiya highlights the consistent effort by human individuals and societies to memorialize the past into a tradition and utilize it to make life meaningful in the present.  

Sufi Martyrs of Love by Carl W. Ernst, Bruce B. Lawrence (Palgrave) (Hardcover) For many in the West, the ecstatic dancing ritual of whirling dervishes is the most recognizable aspect of Sufism. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, with which Muslims throughout the world identify. It emphasizes direct knowledge of the divine within each person. Its adepts see meditation, music, song, and dance as integral to the spiritual quest.

The Chishti Sufi order is among the oldest and most popular of all Sufi traditions. Though most often identified with South Asia, today its devotees can be found from California to Kuala Lumpur. What are the distinctive practices of the Chishtis, and how do they differ from other orders? Who were the founding figures, and what were the seminal texts that provided the basis for this tradition? And how has this legacy continually been reinterpreted until the present day? Sufi Martyrs of Love provides access to the voices of Sufi authorities through the translation of texts being offered in English for the first time. It also offers a critical perspective on Western attitudes toward Islam and Sufism, confronts the prejudices of the academy and the media, and offers a clarification of the contemporary importance of Sufism from Asia to America.

"A brilliant look into a major Sufi tradition that will be essential reading for anyone interested in Sufism, or mystical associations within religious cultures generally. Ernst and Lawrence challenge the `myth of decline' as it has been adopted by historians and chroniclers both within and out­side of the Chishti tradition, and allow us to see that the notion of a lost golden age is a trope within the tradition itself, always moving to a new generation that sees itself as the generation of decline. They also chal­lenge successfully the tradition (or habit) of disjunction between West­ern and South Asian perspectives by placing their own work within both traditions of scholarship.

Sufi Martyrs of Love is particularly supple in its examination of inter­twined topics like meditative practice, the complex role and nature of ge­nealogies, the relation of tradition to tombs and shrines; the relation of the Chishti order to configurations of power-pre-colonial, colonial, and post colonial; and the pull between the tradition's homeland and its many and fascinating outposts or new centers. This is an outstanding book; it should be at the top of the reading list not only for Sufism but for comparative mysticism and the history of religions as well." - Michael Sells , Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative Religions at Haverford College.

The subject of this book is the Chishti Sufi order. The order is comparable to many other Sufi brotherhoods, the paths of devotion that have been motivated by Is­lamic ideals over the past millennium in countries ranging from Morocco to China. Although this movement takes its name from Chisht, a remote town in central Afghanistan, the Chishti lineage of masters and disciples is associated above all with South Asia (modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). The Chishti order has been the most widespread and popular of all the Sufi traditions in this vast region, ever since Mu'in ad-Din Chishti settled in the town of Ajmer in northwestern India at the end of the twelfth century.

Many others have written about both Sufism and the Chishtiyya. This book differs from them in two major ways. First, we use many texts produced by the Chishtis and their supporters that have been previously ignored or slighted. Second, we deliber­ately abandon the numbingly circular arguments, so prevalent in the literature, about a privileged "golden age" of Sufism in general and the Chishti order in particular. In­stead, we advance a new historical periodization of five "cycles" in the development of the Chishtis. Our thesis is that a Sufi order such as the Chishtiyya is more than a parasitical legitimization of power or a nostalgic reverence for bygone saints; it is in­stead a complex of spiritual practice, historical memory, and ethical models, which continues to evolve from its medieval Islamic origins in response to the political, ide­ological, and technological transformations of the contemporary world.

The problematic that frames this book is structured by the two disparate bibli­ographies that are appended to it. The European-language materials, which are listed as comprehensively as possible, illustrate the approach of an Orientalist schol­arship that is focused largely on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a period that-paradoxically-is almost entirely lacking in contemporary documentation and is known only from later texts. The Persian and Urdu bibliography does not pre­tend to completeness; we had finally to provide but a sample of the dozens, if not hundreds, of titles of Chishti manuscripts listed in catalogs of major libraries. The list presented here, in topical form and historical order, is nevertheless large enough to suggest a picture almost the reverse of the Western scholarly dossier (and this in­cludes scholarship from South Asia, which is mostly written according to Western Orientalist methods). Instead of being concentrated in the early period, the original Persian works expand and multiply in number and geographical extent right up to the end of the nineteenth century (see, for example, the numerous biographies of Shaykh Sulayman Taunsawi), and Urdu continues to be an important medium for Chishti Sufism today..

Western approach assumes the superiority of reason and the attainment of objectivity. It projects a historical spectrum of advance and progress for which the West is the only en­gine, and the twentieth century its apogee. It denies the validity of Sufism and also the possibility of a Sufi response to Western norms and values. But articulate voices among contemporary proponentspf Sufism, such as Captain Wahid Bakhsh Sial Rabbani, claim a mystical superiority. From the viewpoint of this Chishti apologist, both the claims of the Enlightenment and the achievements of modern science need to be engaged by the rich offerings of Islamic Sufism: "Sufism and science are striving for the same destination. Science wants to know: How did the universe come into being and what is its nature? Is there any Creator? What is He like? Where is He? How is He related to the Universe? How is He related to man? Is it possible for man to approach Him? Sufism has found the answers and invites the scientists to come and have that knowledge!"13 This response to the Enlight­enment and its political wing, colonialism, is common in the conversations and, increasingly, the writings of South Asian (and other) Muslims. Their counterar­gument exhibits a vivid refutation of the "influence" argument. Far from being de­pendent on or derivative of Neoplatonism, Christianity, Buddhism, or Hindu yoga, Sufism is an original, comprehensive, and hence authentic form of knowl­edge. Here we find an aggressive assertion of indigenous knowledge. The clearest articulation of this assertion comes from a recent Chishti master: Captain Wahid Bakhsh Sial.

Wahid Bakhsh, like his Chishti precursors, has been marked by the spatial and cultural domain of South Asia. The Chishtiyya is not a pan-Islamic order that hap­pens to have an Indo-Muslim branch. The Chishti order stands out, and stands apart, as the major brotherhood to be identified solely with the subcontinent and its multiple regional communities. The Chishtiyya has also been marked by its identi­fication with Islam, with full attention to the preeminence of the Qur'an as revela­tion, Muhammad as the final Prophet as well as Lawgiver, and Islam itself as the inclusive religion of humankind.

Yet, it needs to be stressed at the outset, the Chishtiyya is neither exclusively Indian nor Islamic. The Chishtiyya is at once transnational and transcreedal. And it is this tension, bordering on a contradiction, that we will explore in the pages that follow. We trace our arguments in seven interdependent chapters.

We begin in chapter 1 by interrogating the notion of a Sufi order or brotherhood. We examine the Path of Love as a spiritual method but also as a corporate structure plotted through history. In chapter 2, we consider the vital element of religious prac­tice, focusing on the distinctive Chishti approach to remembrance through medita­tion and remembrance through listening to music. In chapter 3 we offer an extensive analysis of spiritual genealogy and highlight its importance in the construction of a Sufi order.

Throughout the first three chapters, we draw on several of the principal Sufi bio­graphical memoirs (tazkiras) and manuals of spiritual practice employed by the Chishtis. In chapter 4 we offer a critical profile of the biographical process itself. We provide examples from several historical periods. Since the great ones live, their tombs and tomb cults amplify but also modify the reception of biographies, and we devote chapter 5 to certain Chishti tombs and the practices of pilgrimage. Then in chapter 6 we explore the bifurcation of the Chishtiyya itself into two prominent branches, the Nizamiyya and the Sabiriyya, a bifurcation intensified during the period of British colonial rule. It is the colonial period that witnessed the full emergence of an internally fractured order, together with a new reformist critique of traditional Sufi practices, that persists into the modern period. But the modern period is more than a sequel to colonial developments or a death knell for the glories of the forma­tive period. In chapter 7, the final chapter, we examine how technology, from print media to cyberspace, has reconfigured the possibilities of Chishti spirituality. There we consider, albeit briefly, the radical strategy for reformulating Sufism offered by Hazrat Ina yat Khan and his successors. We conclude with speculations on the next phase of Chishti spirituality in the information age. Can one be both a cybermuslim and a cybersufi? If so, the Chishtis are charting the Path to the future as they did a millennium ago on the cusp of Muslim expansion into South Asia.

In the Appendix, we translate extensive excerpts from one tazkira in order to demonstrate how the great ones are remembered by those who define their own spir­itual experience in relation to these Sufi saints. No order, including the Chishtiyya, succeeds without multiple masters, minor as well as major. And so in this Appendix we also illustrate the historical emergence of both minor and major masters.

Throughout this study our goal is to project the Chishtis as spiritual adepts with a flexible, creative mission. Insofar as possible, we allow the multiple voices of Chishti adepts to set the tone for others' appreciation of their mission. Initially the Chishti mis­sion was directed to South Asian Muslims. It adjusted to the demands of Muslim em­pires, both pre-Mughal and Mughal. It then accommodated to external challenges, both colonial and postcolonial. Now, at the dawn of a new millennium, the Chishti tradition itself has become a diverse global phenomenon upon which many feel free to draw, whether within the framework of traditional South Asian Islam or beyond that frame­work. Chishti echoes will continue to resonate, whoever sings, whoever listens.

Islamic Mysticism Contested: Thirteen Centuries of Controversies & Polemics edited by Frederick de Jong, Bernd Radtke (Brill Academic) Islamic mysticism was contested from the formative period of Islam till the present.  Criticism of and opposition to mystical conceptions of Islam and their adherents constitute an integral part of an ongoing debate inside the Islamic tradition.  Controversies and polemics concerning Islamic mysticism often shaped and coincided with sociopolitical configurations.

This volume results from a collective effort by a group of Islamicists and area specialists with a variety of disciplinary orientations to arrive at a comprehensive view of these controversies and polemics wherever and whenever found.

The thirty-five contributions and the introduction are united in their historicising approach, while taking into account the wider sociopolitical context.  Detailed indexes facilitate consultation of the work and give it an added value as work of reference and research tool.

Frederick de Jong is Professor of Islamic Languages and Cultures at Utrecht University . Bernd Radtke is Associate Professor of Arabic and Persian Studies at Utrecht University . Both editors have published extensively on Islamic mysticism and Islamic history.

Criticism of and opposition to mystical conceptions of Islam and their adherents have been and still are crucial forces shaping and coinciding with sociopolitical configurations in the world of Islam while constituting an integral part of an ongoing debate inside the Islamic tradition.  Yet, the virtual absence of comparative studies of regional and historical variations in the polemics between Sufis and those adhering to non-mystical conceptions of Islam is perhaps striking, as is the absence of more comprehensive studies concerning these polemics,’ their historical and cultural determinants and their wider implications?  The relevance of such studies for our understanding of Islamic history is obvious.

It should be equally obvious that the aim to arrive at a comprehensive view of the polemics in their socio-historical contexts requires a collective effort such as the present one, in view of the scope of the field, geographically, historically and, by implication, the number of languages involved.  Less obvious to tie outsider may be the relevance of such an endeavor for our understanding of certain dimensions of present-day fundamentalist Islam and the manner in which anti-Sufi fundamentalist orientations translate themselves into concrete action, such as the destruction of tombs of saints in Lahj in the wake of the Yemeni civil war of 1984, and the killing of Nisar Ahmad, a Naqshbandi and the chief Muslim cleric of southern Kashmir in June 1994.  The generosity he displayed towards Hindus, in line with the Kashmiri Sufi tradition of liberality and acceptance of other faiths, is said to have been the principal reason for his being killed by members of the separatist movement of fundamentalist orientation, the Hizb almujaliidin.  In both cases opposition to Sufism assumed forms of physical violence.  This, one encounters throughout history.  Sufis never had to search for their opponents.

Opposition to Sufism goes back to the early formative period of Islam, with discussions concerning the based nature of zuhd and sayyaha and the necessary conjunction between zuhd and piety.  According to a present-day, Muslim scholar, Muhammad Sayyid al-Jalaynid, the earliest ascetics were retreating from the world in penitence following the events at Karbala , and in response to Umayyad policies.  In their zuhd they followed the example of Hasan al-Basri, who is said to have practiced zuhd in imitation of the Imam ‘Ali .Ibn Taymiyya, whose name figures prominently in the following papers, refers in his Risdlat al-suftyya wa’l fuqara’ to transmissions mentioning that al-Hasar, used the term Sufi.  Ibn Taymiyya also mentions that the earliest Sufi hospices (duwayra sufiyya) were built by adherents of Hasan’s student `Abd al-Wahid b.  Zayd in Basra.?  The prevalent view, however, is that it is only since the fourth/tenth century that mystics have been generally called Sufi.  The question of who was the first to construct a khdnaqah is still unanswered.  Yet, if the labels of Sufi and Sufism have no currency in the early period, the mystical conceptions of Islam emerging in this period enjoy continuity, either in their original or in a reworked form, in later periods.  Thus, the early notion of mahabba rooted in the all comprising knowledge that one is loved by God without reason or cause , growing from ma’rifa, and eventually resulting in unity and Identify of lover and beloved, was later tied to the idea of fand’ (first by Abu Said al-Kharraz).  The claims by the early Sufis to reciprocal love between God and themselves as divinely chosen people were held in conjunction with the notion of tawba.  Theories of tawba were central in the discussions in classical Sufism, as pointed out by Gerhard Bowering.  Within Sufi circles the notion distinguished the proponents of a Gnostics and mystically inspired spirituality from those characterized by a deeply ascetic and traditional religiosity.  The moment of tawba was conceived as the moment of radical reorientation to God and the beginning of a direct access to Him.  Mystics who adhered to this notion of tawba held that their spiritual level was equal to the spiritual level of the prophets.  Likewise, they were convinced that God continued to communicate directly with these mystical elect after the time of the Prophet.  Their self conception of being a divinely chosen elite alienated society and resulted in conflict with the ordinary believers and the learned alike.  One issue was the claim to intense reciprocal love (`ishq) between God and the mystic.  The earliest legal persecution of Sufis, in the second half of the third/ninth century in Baghdad , initiated by Ghulam Khalil against Abu’l Hasan al-Nari and his circle, may be the outcome of differences over the concept of `ishq.  Yet, as observed by Josef van Ess in his introductory essay, we do not really know what actual accusations were brought against the defendants.

Other issues in early Sufism were the precise nature of visionary experiences, and theological concepts such as Sahl al-Tustari’s idea of nur Muhammad, i.e. of primal Man and prototypical mystic.  Sahl’s spiritual heritage may have marked the Salimiyya, who, as Bowering points out, were attacked through polemical distortion.  Attacks on Sufi Koranic commentary, by Hanbalis in particular, were rooted in the rejection of the esoteric method (ta’wil) employed.  Hanbali dominance among these critics should not be taken as a confirmation of presumed Hanbali enmity towards Sufism.  As van Ess points out, this is a present-day stereotype: in the Middle Ages Hanbali attitudes were differentiated.

During the formative period of Islam, when Sunnism and the Mu`tazila had not yet developed their mutually exclusive conceptions, a combined interest in Mu`tazili theology and asceticism was not uncommon, and Mu`tazili and Sufi orientations could be adhered to by one and the same person.  Later, when the Mu`tazila and Sunnism had become dogmatically irreconcilable and politically opposed, Mu`tazilis criticized Sufis as Sunni Muslims and as Sufis.  

The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual: Devotional Practices of Pakistan and India by Shemeem Burney Abbas ( University of Texas Press ) The female voice plays a more central role in Sufi ritual, especially in the singing of devotional poetry, than in almost any other area of Muslim culture. Female singers perform suf ana-kalam, or mystical poetry, at Sufi shrines and in concerts, folk festivals, and domestic life, while male singers assume the female voice when singing the myths of heroines in gawwali and sufiana-kalam. Yet, despite the centrality of the female voice in Sufi practice throughout South Asia and the Middle East, it has received little scholarly attention and is largely unknown in the West.

This book presents the first in-depth study of the female voice in Sufi practice in the subcontinent of Pakistan and India. Shemeem Burney Abbas investigates the rituals at the Sufi shrines and looks at women's participation in them, as well as male performers' use of the female voice. The strengths of the book are her use of interviews with both prominent and grassroots female and male musicians and her transliteration of audio- and videotaped performances. Through them, she draws vital connections between oral culture and the written Sufi poetry that the musicians sing for their audiences. This research clarifies why the female voice is so important in Sufi practice and underscores the many contributions of women to Sufism and its rituals.

Shemeem Burney Abbas is Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Female Voice in Sufi Ritual documents the place of women in Sufi practice in the subcontinent of Pakistan and India . Sama', or the context where devotional Sufi poetry is sung and heard, is almost unknown in the West but is widespread in the Muslim cultures of South Asia and the Middle East . Although it is a significant dimension of Sufi Islam, sama' is poorly documented and scarcely understood among the wider scholarly audience. Women's contribution to this is even less known. Despite the strong gender component of Sufi ritual discourse, the role of women has been ignored in scholarly work. It is very much a part of the living Sufi traditions in countries like Iran , Iraq , Turkey , Lebanon , Egypt , Syria , Morocco , Afghanistan , and Pakistan and India .

In the Islamic world, the mosque is primarily an arena for male activity, with little visible participation of women in the rituals. In the major mosques in Pakistan , for instance, there is a small space where women can go and pray on Friday or on religious festivals such as the Eid. In the local mohalla mosques there is no possibility for a female to offer her ritual prayers. The domain is exclusively for male participation. Thus, the important spheres of religious and spiritual participation for women are the Sufi shrines. There, their input is visible and they are significant participants in events.

The field has never been the subject of investigation by either native or western male scholars for a number of reasons. Among native scholars the area is ignorcd despite the fact that women have done much to educate the rcnowned male Sufis. Womcn are only referrcd to as mothers or sisters or spouses of the members of a Sufi silsila (order). A researcher of Amir Khusrau has stated,

We do not know whether Khusrau had any sisters, for the eastern philosophers generally do not bother themselves about the female relatives of a person; they are considered to be either too insignificant to be mentioned or too sacred and inappropriate to be brought into the glaring and unholy light of publicity.

Western male scholars have ignored the field because, as men, they cannot access the female domains of participation. They cannot enter the culturally close-knit networks among women in the ritual participation at Sufi shrines or at the community festivals, called melas, where much activity takes place. Furthermore, they have been handicapped due to their lack of knowledge of the indigenous languages. They cannot fathom the nuances of the discourse in which the ritual linguistic play of Sufi poetry is carried out but in which the illiterate yet informed audiences of the events are fully proficient through oral instruction.

I bring my own understandings and experiences of the culture that I portray. I convey the intuitions and subtleties of an oral culture where information is passed through word of mouth, from person to person and from family to family. I am still astonished, though, when I hear housecleaners and daily-wage workers at car washes in Pakistan recite Waris Shah's Panjabi poetry from memory, or when the technicians at the Institute of Sindhology eduate me in the female myths of Shah Abdul Latif's poetry.

When I make certain references, such as to child-marriage or widow-marriage, the western reader may no find scholarly references to the same subjects. When I transcribe Hazrat Amir Khusrau's lyric about child-marriage, the intepretation is novel because there is no documentation of the subject in the literature. There is scant literature on child-marriage, and it is only recently that nongovernmental organizations in the subcontinent started to address the issue as an object for social reform. To a native researcher like myself, such events are endemic in the contexts in which I work. Although no one has examined the material in the particular way I propose, my approach is within the accepted ideas and practices of the indigenous culture that I represent. There is little scholarly evidence available.

I investigate the rituals at the Sufi shrines in Pakistan and look at female participation and the female voices in the ceremonials. My research is a linguistic anthropological study of discourse and poetry used in devotional settings. I apply a range of theories to interpret the data in the book: I have utilized the ethnography of speaking. In addition I have applied the conversation analysis system wherever appropriate to the context. The transliteration of live speech and its context in the performances is based on a conversation analysis scheme with adaptations, especially in the turn-taking among qawwals. I am aware that there are a number of theories about speech and performance, but I use only those that relate to my work. The field is broad and the research expansive. Therefore, I use references that I can link with the study.

Many contexts and linguistic codes that I use are familiar to native scholars in Pakistan and India , but there are some features in the songs in the indigenous languages that western scholars may not understand. Thus, I bridge the gap between the East and the West in this book by giving a contextual interpretation of the lyrics in the translations. I have avoided a word-for-word translation but have made sure that the text is an authentic rendering of the poetic narrative that communicates the sophistication of the mood in which the musician sings. I transmit the flavor of languages such as Panjabi, Siraiki, Sindhi, and Urdu to the reader.

I studied Sufi practices at the shrines of Bulle Shah in Kasur, Bibi Pak Daman, Data Ganj Bakhsh Hujwiri, Shah Hussain, and Hazrat Mian Mir in Lahore, Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and Shah Abdul Latif in Sind, and Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya and Rukunuddin Shah Alam in Multan. At these shrines I observed the rituals that both women and men performed. Some rituals were common to all shrines, and some were particular to just that shrine. For example, women participated actively in the support services at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan: a female muridiani gave water to the devotees. A woman was the caretaker of the tombs of Shah Abdul Latif's female relatives who were buried in a compound of the shrine. Among the rituals that I observed was one in which women devotees held up glasses of water to seek ritual blessings from the guluband or heart-shaped necklace that belonged to Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar and that hung over his tomb in Sehwan. The glasses of water were then shared with their kinswomen and men. To orthodox Muslims this may seem to be a fetish, but devotees draw strength from the ritual.

My guide to Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's shrine was a senior librarian at the Institute of Sindhology at Sind University in Jamshoro, Hyderabad . Although an orthodox Muslim, he was a devotee of the Sufi saint. Many like him go to the shrines because they look upon the spaces as venues for mediation and worship. There is tolerance among individuals like him for the rituals that devotees perform. In recent years, with the coming into power of orthodox Islamic governments in Pakistan , there has been a trend to extend and renovate the shrines of Sufis such as Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Hujwiri in Lahore into mosques and places of worship. Data Darbar has been extended to almost ten times its original size and has been remodeled with the most expensive Italian marble. Huge congregations of devotees perform the Friday prayers in the shrine courtyard. I noticed the same feature at the Hazrat Mian Mir (d. 1635 AD) shrine in Lahore , which I visited this summer. The shrine had fallen to pieces almost a decade ago. It has been recently restored and is also used as a mosque.

The audiences at the shrines come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. Gender plays a role as can be seen in the discussions and the photographs in this book. Women come in large numbers. The majority of participants are rural peasants, factory workers, housewives, and middle-class devotees. A large number who come are illiterate but well versed in the oral culture. The shrines fulfill devotional needs and provide outlets from the chores of daily life. There are many affluent and well-to-do devotees at the shrines who go there for prayer and meditation and also to make a mannat (a vow). When that vow is fulfilled, they go to the shrine to make an offering— usually food or charity that they give in cash.

Women's participation in singing sufiana-kalam or Islamic mystical poetry is noticeable in the shrines, at the melas, in concerts, and in the larger domains of female domestic life. Although the main body of my research was directed toward the musical traditions, in the course of my fieldwork I was able to identify the following areas of female participation in Sufism and its rituals:

• Women as mystics in Sufi practices.
• Women as creators of Sufi poetry.
• Women who have influenced male Sufis in their roles as mothers, daughters, nurses, and mentors.
• Women as ethnographers and patrons of male Sufi mystics, such as the Mughal princess Jahan Ara, daughter of Shah Jehan.
• Women as singers/musicians/participants of Sufi songs, sometimes even called the faqiriani in the Sindhi shrines.
• Women as preservers and guardians of Sufi discourse or lore, such as Mai Naimat, a maidservant of Shah Abdul Latif, from whose memory his entire Risalo is said to have been reconstructed.
• Active "female" participants at the shrines, known as the hijras or eunuchs. They have been identified as khawajasara in earlier shrine traditions during the rule of the Muslim kings in India .
• The aesthetics of the female voice, a poetic device in which the speaker is the female, even in the narratives of male musicians. The musicians play with the syntactic and semantic structures of the languages to speak as though they were females.
• Singing in the falsetto, even by male musicians, to impersonate a female voice, as is done by the faqirs or musicians at Shah Abdul Latif's shrine in Bhit Shah. They mimic the heroines of Shah's poetry.
• The myths of female lovers, such as Sassi, Sohni, and Hir, used as aesthetic devices to speak of broader social, political, caste, and gender issues.

In this study, concentrating on the oral culture of the subcontinent, I have found a common thread that runs through each myth, though Sufi poets may use the myths according to their own intention. Male protagonists in the myths are discussed, but in the oral traditions romance is created through the aesthetics of female voices. Male musicians whom I interviewed confirmed this. Although I focus on female voices in this study, there is substantial discussion of male participation as well. I bring in references to Amir Khusrau and his lyrics, to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Sabri Brothers, Shaikh Ghulam Hussain, and Alan Faqir. A large number of the lyrics analyzed in the book are the compositions of male Sufi poets. Whether or not the Sufi poets of the subcontinent wrote in empathy for women is an area of research in itself. The lyrics do have strong female voices, and I leave the field open for further exploration.

The scope of this study is limited to its present undertaking as it is not possible to include every dimension of Sufism here. I do not discuss different versions of the female myths, or delve into male rituals, or bring in every theory or study that a scholar has done on Sufism. I document research in my own field for an informed, educated audience interested in the female dimensions of Sufism in the Pakistan-India subcontinent.

I interviewed a wide range of female and male musicians of Sufi performances in Pakistan between 1992 and 1999. My first interview was with Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 1992 at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad . Although the interview was a formidable undertaking, I was able to solicit responses to questions. My key questions to him were about singing in the gendered voice of Hir or Sassi. His responses are documented in this book. Within a month after my meeting with Khan, I was able to interview Abida Parvin and her musician husband, Shaikh Ghulam Hussain. I received valuable responses from both musicians and discuss them in this study.

Although contacting key musicians was always a challenge and rather stressful, it was quite rewarding in the end when I transcribed the interviews. Alan Faqir even shared with me the politics of singing the female myths embedded in the poetry of the Sufi poets.

I did additional fieldwork at the Sufi shrines and recorded women's input into the rituals that are performed on a day-to-day basis and during the 'urs or mela that celebrates the death anniversary of the Sufi saint. Major databases in this book are my own field recordings of performances. There is input from professionals such as music directors, producers, archivists, and scholars in Pakistan who are linked with the singing of ritual Sufi discourse at the shrines, in concerts, and in the media, especially the radio. The radio seems to ensure the continuity of this tradition in the popular culture among the speech communities.

Although this book has developed from the fieldwork that I did in Pakistan between 1992 and 1999, it gains from the methodology that evolved during the first part of the research between 1985 to 1992, when I worked on my dissertation at the University of Texas at Austin . I depended on archival materials that were a comprehensive collection of multimedia resources from Pakistan , India , the United Kingdom , France , the United States , and Canada . The key archives from which I collected the materials were the Institute of Folk Heritage and the Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad and the Institute of Sindhology in Hyderabad , Sind . I obtained other materials from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and Oriental Star Agencies in the United Kingdom .

Between 1985 and 1992, I focused on the musicians' speech samples and transcribed them meticulously. I saw the same patterns emerge in Urdu, Purbi, Hindi, Panjabi, Siraiki, and Sindhi poetry that the musicians sang. I found references to mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and generally to kin relationships with women. There were allusions to the mystic veil, to women's work, such as husking, grinding, spinning, and weaving, and most fascinating of all to bold female lovers like Hir, Sohni, Sassi, Layla, Mira Bai, and many more. In addition to singing devotional poetry that paid homage to the prophet Muhammad, his family, and his azwaj (wives) the musicians further recited the Prophet's hadith (sayings). They invoked bridal imagery to speak about the mi'raj (the Prophet's ascension) and the Prophet's meeting with the deity, when the veil is lifted or the state of kasf is attained. They sang about the Sufis of the Muslim world and about gender, class, color, and caste. Their discourse challenged the patriarchy and the establishment through the device of the female speaker; even in the metalanguage of the mystic ecstasy, the musicians spoke as females. These findings and the musicians'poetry sung to the mesmerizing percussion in the music became the impulse of the study.

Most importantly, in the same period in the eighties when this study was maturing, world music was claiming Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and his qawwalis resonated in the concert halls of the West. He infused a new life into the qawwali by integrating the vibrancy of the Panjabi qawwali ang (style) with experimentation in musical forms, especially the subtle use of saxophone for instrumentation. His Panjabi qawwalis of the time are fascinating for the versatility of the linguistic resources, which portray the many female voices and which inspired the second phase of this study, focusing on the female speakers of Sufi poetry. He was able to infuse a subtle humor through language play in the qawwali, which is traditionally serious mystic discourse.

Within the same time frame, Oriental Star Agencies in the United Kingdom was promoting musicians who sang Sufi poetry in concerts for the Pakistani and Indian expatriate speech communities. Invariably, the charismatic female voices in the musicians' narratives lent the performances elegance. I wonder if they were aware of it, or did they too suffer from the "paradox of familiarity" as I did? At home in Pakistan during this very period, Abida Parvin, a female musician, was framing her critiques of the orthodox establishment in public concerts, using the poetry of the Sufis of the subcontinent. It was at this time that I did substantial data collection of multimedia sources in Pakistan and the United Kingdom .

I have created a large repertoire of transliterations from Sufi songs that I recorded at the shrines. Some transliterations produced from archival multimedia sources are documented. These are in Urdu, Purbi, Hindi, Panjabi, Siraiki, and Sindhi and include an engaging use of dialect by the musicians to communicate with their audiences. Some of the Panjabi dialects that portray the female speakers would be stigmatized by purists, but they give the flavor of popular speech, and that makes them unique. These are the dialects of the old walled city of Lahore from where I trace the ancestry of my maternal family and where I have my roots. These are the dialects of Gujranwala , Faisalabad , and Sahiwal, which are the heart of the Panjab. I found them in Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's narratives, and now in Mehr Ali and Sher Ali's qawwalis.

There are sections of qawwalis and sufiana-kalam where the musicians switch to elitist codes like Persian and Arabic or they switch codes intralingually, between, say, Siraiki, Sindhi, Panjabi, and Urdu. There is evidence of turn-taking among the qawwalis. These collections, together with my poetic "transmogrifications," are the data that speak. The many female voices form the basis of this study, and there is much more that speaks to an ethnographer; the material establishes its own authenticity. The transliterations verify the metalanguage of ecstasy; the cakki-namas and the carkhi-namas demonstrate the discourse of women's work at grinding and weaving. I found many linguistic and thematic variables in these databases that can be explored for future research.

I stated earlier that I do not try to fit this book into any theoretical frame. I apply the ethnography of speaking and the conversation analysis frame. I let the musicians speak about the female voices, about themselves, about their linguistic resources, and about their songwriters. They are the ones who tell about the roving minstrels and answer the host of questions that the research generates.

As I developed this study, I claimed my own roots. I had listened to the narratives of older women in the family as they talked about my maternal family's descent from Hazrat Bahauddin Zakariya (d. 1267 AD) and Rukunuddin. My family's elder women further spoke about a connection with Hazrat Shams Tabriz. They spoke about the lineage that came from Iran and what is now the Middle East and Central Asia . They further affirmed that my ancestors were appointed as Muftis (religious scholars) of the city of Lahore in the reign of the Muslim slave king Shamsuddin Iltutmish, who ascended to the throne of Delhi after the death of his master, Qutubuddin Aibek, in 1210 AD. Qutubuddin Aibek was himself a slave king. I found this evidence in M. Wahid Mirza's study of Amir Khusrau:

Shamsuddin, a brave and generous monarch, welcomed to his capital many unfortunate people driven from their homes by the Mongols. "Towards men of various sorts and degrees, Qadis, Imams, Muftis and the like, and to darweshes and monks, land-owners and farmers, traders, strangers, and travelers from great cities, his benefactions were universal. From the very outset of his reign and the dawn of the morning of his sovereignty in congregating eminent doctors of religion and law, venerable sayyids, maliks, amirs, sadrs, and (other) great men, the Sultan used, yearly to expend about ten millions; and people from various parts of the world he gathered at Delhi." Kanhyalal affirms the information.

My mother, like other Muslim women in the subcontinent, had a home education and was proficient in reading and writing Persian, Arabic, Urdu, and English literary texts. She was a writer for Ismat, a leading women's journal, which I read as an adolescent and which made me proficient in Urdu. Muslim women among the elite, including Mughal princesses such as Jahan Ara Begam, daughter of Shah Jehan, were educated at home with erudite female mentors who were related to distinguished male doctors of medicine, letters, sciences, history, and the arts.These women were accomplished in classical Arabic and Persian texts and could recite them mnemonically.

Interestingly, I have found evidence in the same source from M. Wahid Mirza about my paternal ancestry, which is claimed from Ziya'al Din Barani (1285-1361 AD). He was the author of Tarikh-e Firuz Shahi, a history of the Muslim monarch Firuz Shah Tughlak (1351-1388 AD), who was probably of Turko-Mongol stock and came from Khorasan during the reign of the Khilji sultans. Barani's history of the Delhi sultanate in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is additionally a major source to study the Muslim ethnomusicology of the time. A substantial portion of Mirza's study of Amir Khusrau used Barani for a resource.

I was born in Pakistan and raised in the North Indian and Bengali traditions of ethnomusicology and poetry, which I further claim from my father, who was an architect educated at Rourkee and Aligarh. I grew up in Bangladesh , which was then East Pakistan and had, immediately after partition, a strong musical tradition. The context was all around me. My father was posted there to build Comilla cantonment. He was a connoisseur of music who played the tabla with articulation. My mother played the sitar. I can now see the gradual evolution of the present study from a multicultural background: the Panjabi and Siraiki Sufi literary, musical, and linguistic traditions from the maternal side; they were the Muftis and Gardezis who belonged to Lahore and Multan . Among the paternal roots is the Burney lineage from which I inherit the North Indian cultural, musical, and linguistic traditions of "UP," now Uttar Pradesh, of Buland Shehr near Meerut .

I shall now let the musicians of Sufi melodies speak for themselves. My role is that of the interpreter of the culture.

Note: Readers who would like to learn more about the music discussed in this book are urged to acquire the CD (with accompanying explanatory material), Troubadours of Allah: Sufi Music from the Indus Valley, available from Weltmusic Wergo, Postach 36-40 D-55026 Mainz DDD LC 06336, ISBN 3-7957-6072-0.

Rumi: Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teaching and Poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi by Franklin D. Lewis (One World) Jalal Al-Din Rumi is a major literary force in America for nearly 20 years now, the United States ' best-selling poet. His words are revered by people from all walks of life, and his popularity has become a postmodern phenomenon. Carefully crafted translations, versions of his poems are more universally disseminated than any contemporary poet’s work. His imagery and mystical fervor inspires and informs the hearts of lovers everywhere, yet there has been very little accessible scholarly work available about the Sufi and his life and times for many years. Most accounts of Rumi have stayed toward the legendary rather than the critical and historical account of his life.

Written by a renowned Persian scholar, this study offers the most accessible overview of the poet and mystic. Eight stylishly and accessibly written chapters lead the reader towards a deeper understanding of this poet's timeless message. With Lewis’s work we are given a wonderfully fulsome account of the scholarly understanding of  Rumi, not just in English but throughout the world. Lewis provides us with a critical account of his life and times as well as a brief history of the Sufi order that has thrived in his name. An exploration of medieval Islam provides a fascinating new insight into Rumi's age, placing him spiritually and culturally into context. Lewises account of Rumi’s father and of his legendary mentor, Shems, makes available in English documents not otherwise considered. Attention to his global popularity provides a variety of viewpoints about the poet's relevance to the late twentieth century. Close readings and translations of these exquisite poems, along with new translations from the original Persian by the author, make this an exciting book that will be by general consensus the best survey work about the poet for years to come. This work is now the best thorough introduction to the poet and mystic both for scholars and public. Highly recommended.

Franklin Lewis is a Lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Emory University in Atlanta . An expert on Persian culture, his publications in this field include acclaimed critical works and translations of Persian literature both old and new.

THE HERITAGE OF SUFISM:

The Heritage of Sufism: Volume I: Classical Persian Sufism from its Origins to Rumi (700-1300) (Oneworld Publications) The Heritage of Sufism: Volume II: The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism (1150-1500) (Oneworld Publications) The Heritage of Sufism: Volume III: Late Classical Persianate Sufism (1501-1750), (Oneworld Publications) Foreword by Dr Javad Nurbakhsh, Introduction by s. H. Nasr is an original contribution to Islamic Studies, this is the most up-to-date study of the rise of Persian Sufi spirituality and literature in Islam during the first six Muslim centuries.

The Heritage of Sufism: Volume I is a collection of twenty-four essays features contributions by such distinguished and internationally recognized specialists as Annemarie Schimmel, S. H. Nasr, Carl Ernst, William Chittick and J. T. P. de Bruijn. Covering the key achievements of the Muslim intellectual and cultural tradition in history, mysticism, philosophy and poetry, it demonstrates the positive role played by Sufi thinkers during this period. Celebrating the richness of the Sufi contribution to Islamic culture and its continuing relevance, this book has been written for students and all those wishing to develop their interest in spirituality and mysticism. The subjects covered include:

• Sufi masters and schools

•  literature and poetry

• spiritual chivalry

• divine love

• Persian Sufi literature

• Rumi and 'Attar

The Heritage of Sufism: Volume II Features studies by twenty-three of the world's foremost authorities on Islamic mysticism, this collection  the second of a three volume comprehensive study  examines the roots of the artistic, literary and cultural renaissance of Sufism from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries.

The aim of the present volumes is to trace the rise and development of Persian Sufi spirituality and literature in Islam, focusing upon the first six Muslim centuries (seventh to thirteenth Christian centuries). The, essays have been contributed by some of the foremost scholars in the field of Islamic studies and Persian mysticism and cover a wide range of subjects, from literature and poetry to metaphysics and Koranic exegesis from Sufi institutions and schools to the mysticism of love, the concept of sainthood, contemplation, chivalry, and the origins of the Malamati movement. Many great figures among the Sufis of this period have never before been examined within the context of the early development of Sufism, but simply discussed by individual scholars in separate monographs or essays, so that the influences exerted by their personalities upon later Muslim society have been neglected. Extensive discussion is devoted in this collection to the rise of the two Sufi `Schools' of Baghdad and Khurasan, and to the role played by key personalities among the mystics such as Abu Hamid Ghazali, `Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani, Abu Said ibn Abi'l-Khayr, the two Suhrawardis Abn'l Najib and Shihab al-Din Yahya (Shaykh al-Ishraq)as well as Hallaj, Ansari, Ruzbihan Baqli, and of course, Rumi, in the development of Islamic culture during the Classical period. In their totality, the twenty-four studies in this book cover many of the significant achievements of the Muslim intellectual and cultural tradition in history, mysticism, philosophy and poetry achievements which in themselves demonstrate the high caliber attained by Islamic societies in early times.

The inspiration and devotion of many people animate the spiritual and material form of the present work. First and foremost, we would like to thank Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh, Master of the Ni’matullahi Sufi Order, for lending his inspiration to the conference on which this collection was based, and for consenting to its inclusion among other KNP publications.

The Heritage of Sufism: Volume III The purpose of the present volumes is to examine the roots of the artistic, literary, and cultural renaissance in the three centuries immediately preceding the Safavid period (1501-1720), which was accompanied by the great expansion of various Persian speaking Sufi orders, and caused the blossoming of an entire literature of Sufism. In many respects, this focus on the religious topography of the Persian society of the mediaeval period which was predominantly `Sufi' in orientation, is unique, for the spiritual and cultural renaissance in these three centuries (1200-1500) has never before been the subject of a monograph  much less of a volume of essays by some of the foremost authorities in the field.

Although the division of this book into six chapters represent many of the dominant themes and issues in the Sufi tradition, they cannot hope to provide a final or even a comprehensive coverage of all the mystical contexts which they discuss. They are rather intended to serve as a surveyor's map of the vast uncharted territory still to be explored. There are still many areas deserving of further attention: the organizational development of mediaeval Khanaqahi life, the politics and mysticism of chivalry (futuwwat), malamati spirituality, etc., which are omitted from this volume as decideratum for future research.

Following Dr. Nurbakhsh's reflections on the limitations of a purely academic approach to the principle of the Unity of Being and the necessity to realize and not merely to audit the teachings of the Sufis, S. H. Nasr's introduction provides an admirable summary of the main alms of this volume. Nasr also comments on the transmission of Persian Sufi literature beyond the frontiers of Iran proper, indeed, to the vast segment of the world embraced by the Atlantic coast of Africa from Morocco to Senegal on the west to the Pacific isles of Southeast Asia; from the Malay archipelago through Indonesia to the southern Philippines on the east and from the Indian Ocean to the south to the sub-Arctic steppes of Central Asia to the north. This is followed by Leonard Lewisohn's overview of recent research on mediaeval Sufism, elucidating the concept of `Iranian Islam' within its particular' historical, religious and academic context, and discussing the political causes and the cultural background of the renaissance of Persianate Sufism in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Chapter two, devoted to `Poetics and Imagery', begins with Annemarie Schimmel's evocative essay on the imagery associated with Joseph in Rumi's poetry, followed by J. C. Burgel's analysis of the process of thematic repetition in Islam, as reflected and paralleled in Rumi's lyrical poetry, this repetition being a feature of the chanting of awrad, or `litanies', in the Sufi sama', `, as a 'controlled' manner of arriving at `ecstasy'. The chapter concludes with J.T. P. de Bruijn s reflections on the origin and character of Islamic Sufi antinominism, with particular reference to Sana'i's Qalandariyydt.

The interdependence which exists `Between History and Hagiography' is the general theme of chapter three. It begins with H.T. Norris's broad discussion (the analytical scope of which embraces the fields of Arabic culture and Western folklore) of the legacy of the founder of the Hurufi movement, Fadlullah Astarabadi, whose influence affected proto-Sufi movements from Azerbaijan to Albania . Next Victoria Holbrook's long essay presents us with previously untranslated material on the literary history of the post-Rumi Mevlevi Order with particular reference to antinominian attitudes in the spiritual life of its masters. Devin DeWeese discusses two important hagiographies of Sayyid 'Ali Hamadani and their relevance to the evolution of the latter-day Kubrawi tariqa in Central Asia and Iran , while Jo Ann Gross's essay explores the function and role of kardmat in the hagiographies of the Naqshbandi master Khwaja Ahrar. Terry Graham examines the biography, religion and political life of the founder of the Ni'matullahi Sufi Order, Shah Ni'matullah Wali, followed by Homa Katouzian's presentation of Sa'di s view of Sufism.

Chapter four is devoted to philosophical themes, beginning with a study by W.C. Chittick on the ontology of Sa'id al-Din Farghani, an author singularly neglected both in the East and the West, and a follower of Ibn 'Arabi. Prof. Chittick raises the question of the dichotomy between `Unity' (wahdat) and `multiplicity' (kathrat) which is found in the philosophical writings of Farghani, who contrasted the Akbarian doctrine of the `Unity of Being' with its polar opposite, namely, the `multiplicity of knowledge'voting that this distinction is scarcely mentioned by the Ibn 'al-'Arabi's follower and Frarghani's teacher, the renowned Sadr al-Din Qunawi. Also faithful to the school of the Magister Maximus, M. Chodkiewicz charts a skillful course through the labyrinth of enigmas in the Futuhat al-Makkiyya, citing the remarkable correlations between the chapter sequences of the Futahat and the structure of the Koran, demonstrating that the former's structure was precisely modelled upon the latter. This is followed by R. J. W. Austin's essay on the love devotional aspect of Sufism: what (re terms the 'Sophianic Feminine' in the writings of Ion 'Arabi and Rumi, tracing the archetype of the Eternal Feminine as beheld through the eyes of these two giants of mystical Islam. I.R. Netton discusses the Neoplatonic substratum of Suhrawardi's Hikmat al-ishrdq while B. Todd Lawson focuses on a fundamentally philosophical thinker, Rajab Bursi, a Shiite mystic who was influenced by the Sufi perspective and author of the Mashdriq anwar alyaqin fi asrar Amir almu'minin.

The fifth chapter examines the practical `applied' aspects of Sufism and features five essays: on sama', `, the role of the spiritual master, the methodologies of two different Sufi manuals and lastly, a discussion of Sufi perspectives on marriage and sexuality. Prof. During focuses on the aesthetic features of Islamic mystical music in order to define the parameters of Sufi music as a specific genre. M. I. Waley's essay provides an overview of the contents of an important but neglected manual of Sufism: the Fusus aldddb by a lesser known Kubrawi Sufi, Abu'lMafakhir Yahya Bakharzi. Johan ter Haar discusses of the rules and manners of the master-disciple relationship in the Naqshbandiyya tradition. John Walbridge's contribution examines the biography of Qutb al-Din Shirazi, the famous philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, musicologist and mystic, focusing on the final chapter of his philosophical encyclopedia which explains the sage's views on marriage, travel, work, spiritual discipline and etiquette. Sachiko Murata completes this chapter with a summary and detailed examination of an unpublished medieval Sufi treatise on the mysticism of marriage and sexuality.

The final chapter brings the focus of the book back from the intellectual to the ecstatic, being devoted to comparative religion and symbolism. It begins with Carl Ernst's essay on the fantastic symbolism of flight in Ruzbihan Baqli s writings, in which the symbol functions as a "locus of encounter between the Divine and the human." It is translucent and must not be taken as an object in itself, so that it does not conceal the Divine from the inward eye. Roderic Vassie deals with 'Abd al-Rahman Chishti's application of the Sufi theory of the 'unity of religions' to the study of the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, in his Persian translation of this work, with reflections on those Hindu doctrines from Rammanuja and Sankaracarya relating to Sufism, namely, bhakti, or love devotion, and advaita Vedanta, or nondualistic Hindu philosophy. Leonard Lewisohn in the final essay concentrates on the 'unity of religions' and the doctrine of 'esoteric idolatry' found in the writings of Mahmud Shabistan; his study emphasizes that it was not the mediaeval scholastic theologians nor the jurisprudents who successfully maintained the interfaith dialogue with other religions, but rather the Sufis, who endeavored to integrate, within the framework of the Koranic doctrine of transcendent divine Unity (and hence, to tolerate), divergent doctrines deriving from sources as far afield as Hinduism and Platoons.

Leonard Lewisohn is a Research Associate at the Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London , and is Outreach Coordinator at the Department of Academic Research at the Institute of Ismaili Studies , London , where he also teaches Persian. His specialist areas include Persian literature and poetry, Sufism, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. His previous books include Beyond Faith and Infidelity: the Sufi Poetry and Teachings of Mahmud Shabistari.

Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism by Fritz Meier, translated by John O'Kane (Islamic History and Civilization, Vol 30: Brill Academic) No one with a serious interest in the history of Sufism can now afford to avoid Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism, a magnificent collection of essays upon the history and nature of Sufism. Meier's studies are on par with the legendary work of Massignon with a fantastic grasp of detail and a sympathetic insight into the nature of mystical praxis.
The Swiss Scholar Fritz Meier (1912-1998) was one of the principal Islamicists of the twentieth century.  His publications have been mostly in German and until this publication have suffered the fate of not being accessible to scholars unfamiliar with the language.  Meier’s entire oeuvre combines expert philological method and precision of thought, a deep-felt and penetrating textual interpretation, and a extensive acquaintance with primary sources that is unusual and even astounding.  Among the numerous fields in which he has initiated original research, Persian poetry and Islamic mysticism (Sufism) in the widest sense stand out in particular.  His work on Sufism covers the whole of the Islamic world and Islamic history from its beginnings up to the twentieth century.

Because his works have been written in German, whole debates on subjects concerning Sufism that have taken place in Anglo-American academic circles, which to their own loss have not taken account of Meier’s often pioneering points of view.  The translation s presented here are offered to remedy this situation.  The translator provides for the first time a translation of fifteen of Fritz Meier’s seminal articles.  The selected articles deal with the history of Sufism; Sufi morals and practices such as dhikr and sama; the historical development of the master disciple relationship; Ibn Taymiyya’s attitude toward Sufism; pious devotional practices such as making use of the tasliya; essential sources for the history of Sufism in the Maghreb and the Almoravids.

Extensive indices will facilitate the use of this epoch making work.  The translations were reviewed by the author before his death and bibliographies have in many cases have been updated.

Anyone with an interest in the golden age of Sufism will find this work a treasure throve of mystical practice and historical rigor, mixed with astute psychological insight.

The remaining comments attempts to outline the principle themes dealt with in the essays.  It follows the introduction by the translator.  Meier’s usual working method is to present a showcase of evidence from primary sources and to accompany this with extensive comparisons and nuanced elucidation.  And although each essay focuses on a exact subject or traces a particular development, Meier frequently adds remarks and judgments which go additionally afield, particularly on matters to do with general themes within Sufism.  This propensity makes it difficult to paraphrase his work without betraying its individual distinguishing qualities.

`The Dervish Dance: An Attempt at an Overview’: This essay has five sections and traces the relationship between dhikr and sama’ .Section 1. considers the Islamic theological concept of God’s absolute transcendence, in connection with the Sufi view that human beings can attain higher perception of God.  Performing dhikr on spiritual retreat by repeating the formula constitutes recollection of God or a means of experiencing spiritual essences.  But Sufis recognize the need for God’s help to advance beyond themselves.  Section 2.  By way of following the Koranic injunction ‘to recollect God’ at all times’, Sufis place dhikr at the center of their communal exercises.  Dhikr al-waqt or dhikr al-awqat is a group performance of dhikr after ritual prayer.  This is to be distinguished from dhikr al-hadra ‘assembly-dhikr’ which only occurs from time to time and on a larger scale.  Modern forms of the latter can involve intense body movements, the goal being to induce a form of dislocation of consciousness or ecstasy.

Section 3.  A second kind of ecstasy, not actively induced, was conceived of as being triggered by something outside a person: by a beautiful face, a word or a line of poetry.  Music could also have this effect.  Examples of suddenly triggered ecstatic states are discussed.  Christian parallels are considered, but a fundamental difference between the Christians and the Sufis was that the latter would assemble communally to induce such states.  Some rules regarding the dance which accompanied sama are discussed, as well as anticipatory mimicking of ecstatic states (tawdjud) and the practice of casting off items of clothing in ecstasy.  Differences between dhikr and sama are considered: in dhikr a person invokes his own forces, in soma` he waits; in the one he speaks, in the other he listens; dhikr is an indispensable part of the Sufi curriculum and work routine, sama is almost always a concession (rukhsa) performed in the context of entertainment and was combated by many as a malignant growth on Sufism.  Both could induce ecstatic states.  Section 4.  Whereas dance had originally been an expression of ecstasy, Meier describes two cases in which dance served as a form of tawajud to induce ecstasy: the Mawlawis, founded in the 13th century by Jalal al-Din Rumi, and the `Isawis of North Africa and Egypt , founded in the 16th century.

5) Meier sketches a process which led to the combination of dhikr and sama`, and gives examples of particular hybrids which resulted.  In closing, he describes in detail the separate segments of the combined performance of dhikr and soma` by the Dayfis which he witnessed himself in Alexandria in 1948.  Other Sufi brotherhoods which regularly employed this form of combination are mentioned.

`A Book of Etiquette for Sufis’: The main section of this essay presents a close paraphrase of the contents of the Adab al-muridin a small handbook for Sufis about correct behavior, written in Persian sometime after 1184 by Najm al-Din Kubra In his sizable introduction, however, Meier first reviews the bewildering plethora of meanings which had developed around the word adab.  In the context of Sufism the term signifies the specific customs, practices and correct mode of behavior of a Sufi.  In much the came way that regulae, constitutions and consuetudines eventually dominated life within the Christian monastic orders, the whole of Sufism came to be conceived of as regulated by adab Meier considers the stages of this development and previous Sufi works which dealt with the subject of adab.

Kubra’s book is divided into seven chapters: 1.  On Wearing the Patched Frock (khirqa), 2.  On Sitting and Rising, 3.  On Littering a Convent, 4.  On Eating, 5.  How One Behaves When Invited for Dinner, 6.  On Listening to Music sama shinidan, 7.  On Correct Behavior adab When Traveling.  Meier provides extensive notes with meticulous explanations and comparisons.

`Qushayri’s Tartib alsuluk’: Meier refers to Ibn `Abbad al-Rundi’s observation in the 14th century that a shift from the shaykh al-ta’lim `the lecture-giving shaykh’ to the shaykh al-tarbiya `the shaykh in charge of training’ took place sometime between the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century.  Qushayri belongs to the period when this shift had set in and a shaykh demands absolute obedience from the novice and initiates him by `implanting’ the formula for recollecting God (dhikr).  Dhikr is one of the most important means a mystic possesses for eliminating decisions of the `self and drawing closer to God.  Associated with spiritual training in the new era is discussion of the occult phenomena which a novice experiences when performing dhikr in spiritual retreat.

Qushayri’s work ‘The Gradation of Travailing on the Path to God’ is a short monograph which provides our earliest evidence of a Sufi shaykh’s explanations to do with the rules and effects of dhikr, as well as the pitfalls the novice must seek to avoid.  Particular postures or techniques to be adopted in performing dhikr are not mentioned.  Meier discusses some contradictions in the work, as well as problems concerning its authorship and manner of composition, and concludes that the text may have been compiled by a student on the basis of Qushayri’s oral teachings.

Meier then paraphrases the contents of the work, which he has divided into 9 sections, and comments on its salient features.  Recollection of God moves from the tongue to the heart and then into the solace `secret’ .The student must forget all things, including himself and his recollection of God.  Above all, the psychic phenomena he experiences must not distract him.  He sees himself grow and expand, he suffers convulsions, he hears strange voices and experiences an extraordinary sweet taste.  He believes he can hear ants when they walk.  He yearns to be able to sleep.

The mystic’s relation to his `secret’ is described.  He must avoid falling into the state of jam`.  Al-jam` `the union of union’ that is a sort of egoistic identification with the Divine that overwhelmed Hallaj and Bistami.  The devil has strategies for intervening.  Mystic states, like a bird, only descend on a human being who remains motionless like a dead person.  Qushayri concludes with some examples of his own psychic difficulties and how he overcame them with the help of a friend.  When his recollection of God finally moved into his `secret’, the experience was so intense he was reduced to skin and bones in the course of one day.  After a detailed paraphrase and commentary Meier provides an edition of the Arabic text, followed by a translation.

‘An Important Manuscript Find for Sufism’: Here Meier describes and analyzes the contents of an Arabic collective manuscript, no.  87 belonging to the Khanaqahi Armadi in Shiraz .  It was first briefly described by Iraji Afshar in 1965.  Eight of the thirteen texts contained in the MS are unique.  These include important verses by Hallaj not found in Massignon’s Diwan al-Hallaj and five new works by Abu Mansur Ma`mar al-Isfahani, a contemporary and fellow townsman of Abu Nu`aym al-Isfahani, about whom relatively little was otherwise known.

The most significant text of the collective MS is an anonymous work entitled Adab al-muluk which has since been edited by Bernd Radtke and translated into German by Richard Gramlich.  This is a compact but comprehensive handbook of Sufism from the 10th or 11th century, offering a parallel with Kalabddhi’s Ta`arruf and Sarraj’s Luma`.  Meier discusses the book’s value for the study of Sufism, its contents and possible authorship.

Then there is a short collection of Sufi maxims, poems and stories, attributed to Sulami.  This is followed by ninety-four sayings by or about Shafi°i with relevance for Sufism, which Sulami collected.  Meier translates this text and considers other collections of Shafi°i’s sayings and his ambiguous attitude toward Sufism.  In Shafi°i’s day Sufism was still at an early stage of development (prior to so-called classical Sufism).  Expanding on his comments on Shafi°i, Meier proceeds to give a sweeping interpretive overview of Sufism’s subsequent development which concludes with special emphasis on the value of Sulami as a source and an appeal for a critical edition of Salami’s Koran commentary.

‘Khurasan and the End of Classical Sufism’: Meier begins by specifying some important features of Sufism which have changed over the centuries.  He then sets out to investigate the transformation of the shaykh al-ta’lim ‘the lecture-giving shaykh’ into the shaykh al-tarbiva, the Sufi master who becomes closely involved in training a disciple to be a spiritual adept.  Meier notes that it was Ibn `Abbad al-Rundi (d.  1390) who first pointed out this transformation and located its occurrence in the 1 11th century.  A comparison of an early Sufi textbook like Sarraj’s Luma` with the ‘Awarif alma`drif of Abu Hafs `Umar a-Suhrawardi (d.  1234) clearly reveals that a shift in this direction did take place.

Firstly, evidence from the 9th and 10th centuries regarding the shaykh al-ta’lim is reviewed.  Although training is already attested in the 10th century in Sarraj’s Luma`, as well as in the Asrdr al-Tawhid (the life of shaykh Abu Said b.  Abi’1Khayr; 967-1049), by the 11th century it had acquired a new status.  Aspects of training were by then dealt with in theoretical discussions and regulations in Sufi systems.  The gap in status between the shaykh and the novice widened.  The pact between the shaykh and the novice imposed absolute obedience on the latter, and the novitiate became an initiation, not into a Sufi order orders only developed later but into a particular silsila or `spiritual family tree’ .Sufi shaykhs claimed to be the heirs to the Prophet.  Further concepts which played a role in augmenting the authority of the shaykh are considered.

Thanks to surviving evidence, we are in a position to observe the transformation of the Sufi shaykh in Nayshabar from the 9th to the 11th century.  Meier proceeds to give a detailed analysis of the shift in attitude towards tarbiya among the following series of important Nayshaburi shaykhs, Abu Hafs al-Haddad a-Nayshabari (d. circa 880), Abu `Uthman a-Hiri (d.  910), Abu ‘Ali a-Thaqafi (d.  940), Abu Sahl a-Su`laki (d.  980), Sulami (d.  1021), and finally Abu ‘Ali al-Daqqaq (d.  1015) and Qushayri (d.  1072).

Developments in Nayshabur reflect a more widespread trend, though Nayshabur played a leading role in shaping that trend.  The influential writings of Sulami and Qushayri guaranteed the future authority of the Nayshaburi model.  Our limited knowledge of the Malamatiyya movement and the ahl al-futuwwa is also discussed in relation to Sufism.  Qushayri is the pivotal figure in the transition from classical Sufism with the predominate of the shaykh al-ta’lim to the post-classical period and the shaykh al-tarbiya.  Meier closes with some remarks on the general significance of this change and the later dissemination of ideas about the shaykh al-tarbiya.

`A Saying of the Prophet against Mourning the Dead’: Mohammed forbade lamenting over the dead but it was difficult to suppress this deep-rooted pre-Islamic custom.  There is a difference between lamenting niyaha and weeping (buka’) .Canonical hadiths express contradictory attitudes towards weeping.  In this essay Meier examines the problems of interpretation which arose concerning variants of the hadith: `The dead atones for the weeping of his relatives over him.’ Many took this to mean that the dead is punished for the weeping of his relatives, but in Islam one cannot be held responsible for the sins of others.

`A'isha rejected the hadith’s authenticity.  Ibn Qutayba’s explanation in its defense is described.  Or does the hadith only refer to someone who has ordered lamentation on his own behalf?  But in our context the verb yu`ad-hdhibu (`atones for’ or ‘is punished for’) can also mean `is tormented by’ or ‘suffers because of his relatives’ weeping.  Mohammed b.  Jarir al-Tabari (d. 923) understood the hadith this way, i.e.  ‘adab is taken to mean `pain’ rather than `punishment’.

A Zoroastrian myth maintains that the deceased must cross over a river and that this may be made difficult by the tears of the living which cause the river to swell.  Meier translates pertinent sections from two Neo-Persian versifications of the Zoroastrian Arda-Wiraz-namag: one by Zartushti Bahraini Pazhdu in the 13th century, the other being an anonymous version written in 1532.  He then considers evidence on prohibiting lamentation from Mandaean and Coptic sources.  The question is raised as to whether the idea of the dead being tormented by weeping was adopted in Islam from the Iranians, as with the case of the Chinwat-Bridge.

In conclusion Meier reviews an array of beliefs about the effect of tears on the dead from other peoples around the world.  His examples are taken from such wide-ranging contexts as Greco-Roman antiquity, German folklore, Sanskrit literature and Eskimo myths.

`An Exchange of Letters between Sharaf al-Din Balkhi and Majd al-Din Baghdadi’; Whereas nothing is known about Balkhi, shaykh Majd al-Din Baghdadi (d.  1219) was a disciple of Najm al-Din Kubra (d.  1221).  Meier notes that only in Sufism’s pos-tclassical period, i.e. after Qushayri (d.  1072), did letters form part of a novice’s training by providing interpretations of dreams and visions.  The latter had come to be taken seriously as a source for understanding the novice’s inner state.  For instance, the Managibi Awhad al-Din Kirmani (d.  1238) portrays the master every morning discussing the nocturnal experiences of the novice.  Kubra attached great importance to visionary experience.  Meier refers to Kubra’s advice by letter to Sayf al-Din Bakharzi (d.  1260 or 1261), as well as the letters between ` Ala ’ al-Dawlai Simnani and his teacher Nur al-Din Kasirqi (d.  1317).

Meier proceeds to give a close paraphrase of Balkhi’s letter to Baghdad !.  The visions Balkhi has had involve demon spirits (jinn) who pose a dilemma concerning saying `There is no god but God’ while one’s ego still remains.  Balkhi witnesses terrifying animals and a huge snake burst forth from a smoking well shaft.  Later he perceives beautiful forms and sounds, and a state of rapture comes over him.  Many details of what he sees suggest allegorical meanings.  In a final vision an old wise man appears who gives spiritual advice to Baghdadi as well as Balkhi.

Meier next paraphrases Baghdadi’s reply.  Here all the main features of Balkhi’s visions are meticulously interpreted and accompanied by spiritual advice.  For instance, the old man of the final vision is identified as probably being the demon shaykh `Abd al-Rahman who was a close disciple of the Prophet.  The well shaft represents the heart, the connecting tract between the material and the supernatural world.  While the senses prevail, the heart is filled with reprehensible qualities.  These are the animals Balkhi saw, etc.  And Baghdadi comments on the correct way to perform the all-important Sufi practice of dhikr, which involves reciting the formula `There is no god but God’ .In closing Baghdadi recommends attaching oneself to human teachers instead of demons, since demons have no experience of the barriers separating man from God.

Meier follows these paraphrases with his own interesting comments on all the points dealt with in the letters, e.g. earlier views about the dilemma associated with the tahlil, numerous other occasions when demons have taught human beings, and the theme of a person being absent from the recollection of God while recollecting God.  Finally, Meier provides an edition of the Persian text.

`The Sumadiyya: A Branch Order of the Qadiriyya in Damascus ’: This essay is divided into three sections.  In section 1.  Meier examines the extant historical evidence relating to the Sumadiyya, a suborder of the Qadiriyya, which was founded in the Syrian village of Sumad but moved its headquarters to Damascus by the end of the 15th century.  The Sumadi family claims descent from a direct disciple of `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d.  1166), as well as from a daughter of Jilani.  Meier presents what is known from Arabic sources about the family’s role in society and politics, particularly their relations with other prominent families in Damascus and the Ottoman government.  While describing the successive heads of the Sumadi family, Meier makes numerous illuminating comments about the decentralized organization and different family branches of the Qadiriyya order.  By around 1800 the family begins to disintegrate, in part due to internal splits over leadership.  At the end of section 1) a detailed genealogical family tree is provided.

Section 2. discusses the prominence accorded to drum playing in the Sumadiyya’s dhikr and sama’-performances .According to legend a particular drum possessed by the family had been beaten at the capture of Acre from the Crusaders.  Meier considers the chronological problems raised by the legend and which capture of Acre may have been intended (1187 or 1291).  Miracles associated with the famous drum are described.  The legend of the drum is also discussed in terms of hagiographic strategies found in other sources.  The Sumadiyya regularly beat drums at night in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus .  There were opponents and supporters of religious uses of drumming.

Section 3. considers the positive spiritual effects of drum playing.  Drums instill awe and respect (muhiba), a sense of gravity and intimacy (waqar and uns) and inspire the desire to set out on the inner path of ‘greater holy war’ .The Kazaruniyya’s military music is a form of music associated with a royal residence and has nothing to do with dhikr or sama’-performances .The courtly orchestra attached to the tomb of Imam ‘Ali Rida (d.  818) in Mashhad consists of trumpets accompanied by drums and plays in honor of the Imam and by way of invoking blessings on him.  Of these three different kinds of military music only that of the Sumadiyya is intended to induce ecstasy.

`The Cleanest about Predestination: A Bit of Ibn Taymiyya’: This essay falls into three sections.  Section 1. by way of introduction, characterizes Ibn Taymiyya’s `fundamentalist’ thought.  The Prophet Mohammed is dead and until the Resurrection cannot intervene on our behalf with God, and certainly `saints’, whether living or dead, have no such power.  We cannot know God through our own efforts.  Everything we need to know about religion and how to live is contained in the Koran and the sunna.  Nor is there a path to God through philosophical speculation, or through self-purification and self-abnegation.  And exaggerated religious devotions are not required.

Section 2. elaborates these points with relation to the Sufis.  Sufis give too much importance to experience and exceptional states: visions, dreams, inspirations, etc.  But these are never as binding as the Koran and the sunna.  Ibn Taymiyya views contemporary miracles as charlatanism or of satanic origin.  In addition, the Sufis tend to be indifferent to the commands and prohibitions of religion, maintaining that whatever happens is the will of God.  For instance Ibn `Ata’allah al-Sikandari. a spokesman at that time for the Shadhiliyya in Egypt, emphasized contentment (rida) above love and advocated dropping all planning (isqat al-tadbir).  The Sufi approach, in this respect, is one-sided.  God has two wills.  The one is designated as kawni `existential’ and determines everything that happens.  The other is din `religious’ and refers to what should and should not be done.  This is an old distinction previously described as irdda (God’s will) and amr (His command).  Sufis overemphasize predestination or God’s existential will.  It is especially reprehensible to argue against the divine commands by invoking predestination.

Section 3. the central part of the essay, is a detailed exposition of Ibn Taymiyya’s nuanced and consistent thought about man’s dilemma and man’s duties in view of God’s two forms of will.  Man has no way of dealing with predestination but must render obedience and do battle in the field of divine commands and prohibitions.  Meier translates an excerpt from Ibn Taymiyya’s Maratib al-irdda which clarifies the different categories and subtle workings of God’s will.

‘Almoravids and Marabouts’: This is the largest and most densely documented of the essays here presented, and consists of four sections.  Section 1. subtitled ‘Ribat and murdbata’, examines the Islamic institution of the frontier guard who, on a voluntary basis, detaches himself from his tribe and family to man a fort ‘Ribat against infidel invaders.  Besides performing a purely military activity, those who undertake murdbata (the salihun and murbitun) also engage in religious devotions and cultivate a sense of piety.

Section 2.  ‘Murabit and marabout’ considers how the later meaning of marabout, `holy man’, evolved out of the meaning of murabit as a frontier guard.  This development was peculiar to North Africa and Spain , whereas ‘Ribat in the East came exclusively to mean a civilian hospice for lodging.  In the Arabic vernacular in the west murdbit comes to signify a man of piety who acts as a mediator in disputes or between the common people and the government.  His family and descendants retain a sanctified status in the community and up to modern times have often played a decisive role in dynastic politics.

In section 3.  ‘Al-murdbitun and the Almoravids’, early Arabic historians who deal with the beginnings of the Almoravid movement of the 11th century are examined in light of the different meanings of rnurdbata in an attempt to make better sense of the unresolved contradictions in the sources.  The interpretations of leading European and Moroccan historians are weighed against the historical evidence and religious significance of the term murbit.  In this context murabit designates a particular people, i.e. a group of Berber tribes (at the head of which stands the Lamtuna) who were originally adherents and then fighting `comrades’ of Ibn Yasin.  In summing up, the full range of differences between a ‘Murabit as a holy man and an Almoravid are reviewed.

Finally, section 4.  `Those who veil their mouth...’ treats the subject of the origins and function of wearing a veil over the mouth, which was a distinctive custom of the Almoravids so much so that their 12th-century rivals the Almohads strongly condemned the practice.  A range of studies by European ethnographers is considered, as well as various ideas about the veil found in early Arabic historical and geographical literature.

`Tahir al-Safadt’s Forgotten Work on Western Saints of the 6th/12th Century’: This essay begins by reviewing the early Arabic sources describing pious Muslims and miracle workers in the west of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, the earliest of which date from the 13th century.  But there is a 12th-century work on this subject, composed sometime before the death of

Abu Ya’azza (1177) which has hitherto been neglected.  Meier then proceeds to give a paraphrase of the accounts about saints, ascetics and religious scholars found in Al-sirr al-masacn by Tahir al-Sadafi.  This is a sizable fragment preserved in al-Barizi’s Tawthiq `ura’liman ft tafdil habib al-rahrndn.  Sadafi’s book might rightly be described as a ‘hagiographical journal’ (Kunnash / kunnasha).  It covers Spain , Morocco , Egypt and the Hijaz, though with a preponderance of persons from the west.  All the individuals described are contemporaries of Sadafi whom he met personally or heard about.  Except for Abu Ya`azza and `Abd al-Malik b.  Masarra, the persons described are not famous saints or men of learning.  These are naive, credulous reports, edifying fantasies which stress the miraculous.  For all their intellectual modesty, however, they enrich our knowledge of hagiographic motifs and acquaint us with persons of the 12th century unknown from other sources.

The work falls into five sections.  Section 1. describes theologians (‘ulama’), jurists (fuqaha’) and Friends of God (awliyd’) whom Sadafi met in the Maghreb ( Morocco and Spain ); section 2. deals with pious worshippers of God (`ubbad) and ascetics (zuhhad) in the same region; section 3. with the same category of people he had not met but only heard about; section 4. with theologians, ascetics and men of education (fudala’) he met or heard about in Egypt ; and section 5. describes persons he encountered in the Hijaz.  Meier’s accompanying notes are copious and provide the reader with interesting comparisons and a wide range of pertinent bibliographical references.

`A Resurrection of Mohammed in Suyuti’: Meier begins by reviewing early ideas about Mohammed’s status and whereabouts after death.  More popular views, in distinction to those later held by Ibn Taymiyya and the Wahhabis, claimed that Mohammed had died and his corpse was in Medina but that he is alive in his grave and, as in the case of the other prophets, his spirit (ruh) is free to move about and participate in the world.  Evidence from tombstone inscriptions is referred to and parallels with Jesus (who in the Muslim view did not die but was translated to heaven) are taken into account.  Likewise, ideas about the Prophet’s ubiquity and multilocation on the part of Friends of God are considered.

The main focus of the essay, however, is the concept of Mohammed’s continued life after death which is sketched in two works by Suyuti (14451505): the Inbdh al-adhkiyd’ ft hayat al-anbiyd’ and the Tanwir a-lhalak ft inkan ru’yat a-lnabi wa’lrnalak .Suyati’s view combines the incorruptibility of the Prophet’s body and his body’s revival by his surviving spirit.  Hence the Prophet lives on in flesh and blood after death.  He moves about freely and travels wherever he wishes on earth and in the supernatural realm (malakut).  He looks as he did in life but is only visible to those whom God has given special grace.

Ibn ‘Arabi held that seeing Mohammed after the latter’s death made one a Companion of the Prophet.  This attitude was shared by the two founders of Sufi orders, Ahmad al-Tijani (d.  1815) and Mohammed al-Sands!  (d.  1859).  Tijani, for instance, claimed to have met the Prophet and been initiated by him and thus to have become a Companion himself.  Other later figures who were influenced by Suyuti are discussed: Mohammed al-Filali, al-Hajj `Umar Tal (founder of a Tijani state on the upper Niger ), etc.  The Salafi-Wahhabi view, based on sound hadiths, accepts that the Prophet lives on in his grave but only in his grave.  He does not move about in the world.

`Invoking Blessings on Mohammed in Prayers of Supplication and When Making Requests’: This essay presents a broad spectrum of uses of the tasliya `invoking blessings on Mohammed’ and speculates as to their origin and meaning.  It is divided into four sections:

1. In prayers of supplication (du`a’), repeated at the beginning, middle and end, or sometimes only at the beginning: Hadiths and other pious sayings supporting this use are cited.  Ibn Taymiyya approved of the tasliya in preference to formulas of conjuration.  Evidence from inscriptions on wood and stone are reviewed.  Uses of the tasliya to overcome adversity are noted.  Repeating the tasliva hundreds of tires is meant to `coerce heaven’, and great benefits are to be had by reciting the yasliya without any specific request.  Hence it is recommended to read through Jazuli’s Dala`il al-khayrdt (a collection of different forms of tasliyat forty times in forty days.  One will also benefit from dedicating to the Prophet all the reward for saying the tasliya.

2. Against the plague: Meier examines a work by Ahmad b.  Abi Hajala (d.  1375) who argues in favor of using the tasliya for protection against the plague.  This author mentions all the cases of plague he knew about in the Islamic world before the plague of 1364 and describes the religious measures taken against the black death in 1348 which he witnessed himself in Damascus.  Maqrizi’s supplementary evidence about plague is discussed, as well as a work by Baylani (d.  1632-33) which gives different remedies against plague including the tasliya.  But the yasliya was not universally adopted as a measure against plague as Ibn Abi Hajala had wanted.  It: remained in the background only to be used occasionally in emergencies.

3. When making a request: Early on the yasliya was used when requesting something from a human being.  It functioned as a form of conjuration.  The person addressed is called upon to invoke blessings on the Prophet.  Oldest known examples are considered, for instance the clever way the poet Abu Dulama used the tasliya in a request he made to the caliph al-Mahdi (d. 785).

4. As an order to be silent: The tasliya can still be used today in an attempt to settle a dispute but as a practice it goes very far back.  It is referred to in early juridical discussions in connection with blasphemy, e.g. by Sahnon (d.  854).  Recent and old examples are examined.  In closing, Meier considers possible explanations for the origin of the yasliya of appeasement, as well as the tasliya used before making a declaration or an intimate communication.

`The Priority of Faith or Thinking Well of Others over a Concern for Truth among Muslims’ The intellectual and practical implications of the complex of ideas associated with husn al-zanu and itiadd are investigated in a rich variety of contexts.  One is impressed by the diversity of situations in which this fundamental Islamic concept turns up.  Meier’s wide-ranging familiarity with primary source materials permits him to pursue his subject in eight separate areas: 1. thinking well of God, 2. of the Prophet Mohammed, 3. of `Alids and descendants of the Prophet’s Companions, 4. of deeply rooted religious practices and customs, 5. of religious authorities, 6. of one’s Sufi instructor, 7.  Muslims’ thinking well of one another, and 8. favorable or unfavorable thought as a magic power.

The hadith qudsi: `I (God) am as My bondsman thinks of Me’ has been variously interpreted in Islam to explain the virtue and benefits of having trust in God, as well as the kinds of power resulting from firm belief.  Meier provides concrete examples of how husn al-zaun requires Muslims to show respect for God, the Prophet, `Alids, holy men and their alleged graves, Sufi shaykhs, and fellow Muslims.  The way faith can heighten the efficacy of supplicatory prayer, even among non-Muslims, is also considered.  Finally, four categories of magical power are examined in connection with thinking well or badly about a person.  These include the psychic powers of the Friend of God, i.e. his himma `effective power’, tasarruf `power of disposal’ and nazar ‘gaze’, as well as tawdjud `anticipatory mimicking’ of rapture as a means of inducing real states of ecstasy.

`Poetic Refrain and Mahyd’: This essay opens with a description of the panegyric poems in praise of the Prophet which form the conclusion to the large work by Ahmad al-Maqqari al-Tilimsani (d.  1631): Nafh altib min ghusn al-Andalus a-lratib wadhikr waziriha Lisdn a-Din b. al-Khatib.  Meier analyzes the strophic structure and rhyme schemes of the poems and in particular their use of the tasliya, i.e. invoking blessings on the Prophet.  He conjectures that this voluminous appendix of Maqqari’s serves as one long tasliya by way of concluding his book.  Meier then asks whether poems with a tasliya refrain might have been used in what later came to be known as a ma mahya-performance, i.e. communal recitation of blessings on the Prophet.  The importance of the Dald’il al-khayrdt of Mohammed b.  Sulayman a-Jazali (d.  1465), a very popular collection of tasliya formulas, is discussed, as well as the later, more elaborate collection by Ibn `Azzam (d.  1553), the Tanbih alanam.

But it was Nur al-Din ‘Ali al-Shani (d.  1537-38) who created the mahya for invoking blessings on the Prophet and in 1492 established its performance in Cairo in al-Azhar.  His student Sha’rani notes in 1542 that Shani’s mahya had spread to Alexandria , Upper Egypt , the Hijaz, Syria , North Africa and Senegal .  In 156364 `Abd al-Qadir al`Atiki performed what was now formally designated laylat almahyd in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus .  Further developments in gatherings for communal reciting of tasliyat are considered and the relationship of the Shuni-type mahyd and the Sufi hadra is examined.  The former gives emphasis to large numbers of repetition to induce God to be good to the Prophet.  In conclusion Meier speculates on whether poems with tasliya refrains such as those cited by Maqqari might have been used in a mahya-performance.  

Astrology

Abu Ma’sar: On Historical Astrology: The Book of Religions and Dynasties on Great Conjunctions introduction and edited by Keiji Yamamoto (Editor), translated by Charles Burnett, (Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, V. 33-34; Brill Academic Publishers) In astrological texts predictions are set out in the form of protases and apodoses.  When protases based on astronomical and meteorological phenomena have apodoses concerning general matters, such as floods, famines, and earthquakes etc., they belong to natural astrology, or celestial omens, a genre which had frequently been practiced by Babylonians before the Hellenistic period.  When celestial phenomena derived from mathematical astronomy are introduced into protases and personal matters are predicted, this is called personal or horoscopes astrology, or genethlialogy, which appeared in Egypt in the Hellenistic period, under Babylonian influence.  The Greeks also brought mathematical astronomy to bear on general matters, resulting in general astrology.  In Sasanian Persia a new genre of astrology appeared, which was, however, ultimately descended from Greek mathematical astrology.  This is called historical astrology; it predicts various conditions or changes concerning kings and caliphs, dynasties and religions, wars and conquests, by means of eclipses, conjunctions, periods, revolutions of the years, and other astronomical factors.  This genre of astrology, which incorporated general astrology, was developed much further by astrologers writing in Arabic.  The most highly developed form of this genre however appears in the work edited Keiji Yamamoto in these volumes, which is generally attributed to the most prolific writer on astrology in Arabic, Abu Ma’sar Ga’far ibn Muhammad ibn `Umar al-Balhi (787-886 C.E.).

The works were widely translated into Latin and the second volume is devoted to a collations of the best manuscript traditions of the Latin adaptations of this work.  Volume provides a critical Arabic text with a contemporary English translation.  The work is invaluable as a key document in the history of astrology but also will be of interest to students of history as Abu Ma’sar deals with certain key historical events providing some symbolic interpretations of general relevance.

The doctrine of the return of all the heavenly bodies to the place where they originated (the World Year) and the implication that each return brings about a similar, if not the same, sequence of earthly events can already be found in ancient Greek thought.  Plato discusses it in the Timaeus.  However, the immense length of the World Year made the actual prediction of events (and the verification that the same events did occur) impossible as such hoary documentation does not exist, and this doctrine had no practical effect on Greek astrological practice.

The same idea of vast periods of time determined by the returns of the heavenly bodies arose in Indian astrology, but in this case the principle of division was established, the largest measurement being that of the kalpa of 4,320,000,000 years whose starting point was when all the mean planets, their apogees, and their nodes were at Aries 0° at the vernal equinox of 1,972,947,102 B.C.E., and the smallest being a yuga of 180,000 years which began with a conjunction of all the mean planets in Aries 0° in 3102 B.C.E.  As the systems became more subtle, smaller divisions were devised, either by taking round numbers of years (e.g., periods of thousands of years, or single years) or by taking individual, or pairs of, planets, and considering their importance when they returned to their starting points, and also in other positions.  Eventually many competing and overlapping systems were in play.  It appears that this proliferation of time periods and their application to practical astrology was due primarily to Persian astrologers in the Sasanian period.  This is witnessed by the fact that the earliest writings on the genre are Arabic texts either translated from Persian and attributed to Persian sages such as Zoroaster (Zaradu’st) and Gamasb, or written by astrologers of Persian extraction in the Islamic realm.  The latter include two of the astrologers who were involved in determining the horoscope for the foundation of Baghdad in 762, Masa’allah and `Umar ibn al-Farruhan.  It is to this rich Indian, Sasanian and Arabic tradition that Abu Ma’sar writings on historical astrology belong.

An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy: Kitab Tadil Hayat Al-Aflak of Sadr Al-Sharia by edited David Pingree and Ahmad S. Dallal (Islamic Philosophy, Theology, and Science, Vol.  23: Brill Academic Publishers) is an edition, translation of and commentary on the astronomical work of the fourteenth-century Central Asian religious scholar Sadr al-Shariba al-Bukhari.  Sadr al-Shariba develops the works of the thirteenth-century Maragha researchers, which set the tone for the astronomical research until the eventual demise of Ptolemaic astronomy.  This work elucidates the development and achievement of the long tradition of reforming Ptolemaic astronomy.  It corroborates other evidence that scientific creativity persisted well beyond the eleventh century, a period often viewed as an age of cultural decline and stagnation.  Sadr al-Shariba’s knowledge of and competence in a diverse variety of disciplines is a compelling example of the state of education and level of scholarship in a fourteenth-century Muslim urban setting.

Modernity

Faithlines: Muslim Concepts of Islam and Society by Riaz Hassan (Oxford University Press) There is now a considerable body of literature which purports to describe and analyze Islamic self-perception.. Some of it is informed and the rest highly biased and subjective. Studies which purport to be comparative are often based on the comparisons of single country studies. One aim of the research was to undertake a systematic comparative investigation of everyday beliefs of Muslims, with special reference to the middle classes in a number of national settings. The focus on everyday beliefs was based on the assumption that moral consciousness is closely related to political and social conditions. The compatibility between the two is an important condition for the formation and maintenance of individual and collective identities. The selection of the middle class was guided by the well-known sociological insight that the middle class plays an important role in shaping the social, economic and political conditions in modem societies. The countries selected for the research were chosen for the geographical, historical, cultural and political characteristics which have influenced their religious milieu.

The research sought to investigate Muslim perceptions of religion and society. It was assumed that religious perceptions would influence the perceptions of society. It was designed as an empirical study and this meant that its focus and scope had to be confined to selected aspects of religious and social phenomena which could be investigated within the constraints of available resources. The other factors which influenced the focus and scope of the study were their relevance to some of the debates which have been mentioned here.

The focus on religion was confined to Muslim piety, Muslim ummah and `images of Islam'. Similarly, the focus on society was confined to the relationship between politics and religion, gender issues and the image of the `other'. The notion of Muslim piety refers to the degree and nature of an individual's religious commitment. The investigation of the Muslim ummah focused on the one widely held belief that all Muslims belong to a `community', loyalty to which transcends other forms of primordial loyalties. The `images of Islam' focus sought to explore the propositions advanced by Watt, Gellner and others about Muslim ideals of Islam, and their relationship, if any, to Muslim piety and to modernization. These dimensions can be considered as three key dimensions of Muslim religious consciousness.

The three aspects of Muslim perceptions of society related to the debate among Muslim intellectuals and Islamic activists about the relationship between religion and politics in Islam. There is now considerable literature that examines this relationship in historical as well as contemporary Muslim societies. The focus in this study was not on examining the competing theories of this relationship but the consequences of different institutional configurations on the public influence of religious institutions.

The gender issues are an important part of modern Islamic discourse. The research focused on two aspects of this discourse, namely Muslim perceptions of gender roles in modern society, and their attitudes towards veiling and patriarchy. Finally, the focus on the perception of the `other' was aimed at exploring Muslim perceptions of Christianity and Judaism, as well as of the West. It was assumed that there is a relationship between the moral consciousness and social and political conditions. This relationship was examined in the light of the empirical evidence gathered on this relationship.  

With the many speeches, the Press, the pundits, and the American aggression against Muslim "terrorists", we have yet to see "reality" or "truth" about Muslims and their views. Assumptions have been the basis for war and bigotry. Rarely are the common assumptions correct; rarer still is there enough understanding of context to provide meaningful discussion. Pundits who continue in error when this is available to read don't deserve to "pund". The same applies to journalists, talk show hosts, of government decision makers. The blind lead the blind. The perceptive reader might even wonder if these Muslims might see the "war on terror" as a Crusade against Islam? What has been assumed to be motivating Muslims is nearly always wrong; generalities about jealousy, hate, world conquest are almost laughable when attitudes are researched and understood. Muslims have enough problems and issues 'at home' but have some community awareness and may be ready to defend their Faith when attacked.

This book deserves a careful reading not for its readability, although sufficiently clear, it suffers from some non idiomatic usage, but for its 'scientific' content that fills a huge void in our actually understanding Muslim range of opinion. Careful interviews of some 4000 Muslims in four countries highlights differences and similarities that will surprise even some Muslims and provide a basis of better 'facts' for those who might want say what the Muslim world is actually like today. It is a good start. The four countries are Indonesia , Pakistan , Kazakhstan , and Egypt . This is a reminder that most Muslims are Asians not Arabs. It also has the special case of Kazakstan where Islam was brutally suppressed for several generations under Communist rule. The attitudes and values studied include those about religion and practice; about family and civil society; about politics; and more. Designed by a Muslim scholar trained in the social sciences the inquiry is well designed while the research remains on target to understand Muslim concerns.

Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion, War, and Euthanasia edited by Jonathan E. Brockopp, Gene Outka (Studies in Comparative Religion: University of South Carolina Press ) considers three of the most contentious ethical issues of our time—abortion, war, and euthanasia—from the Muslim perspective. Distinguished scholars of Islamic studies have collaborated to produce a volume that both integrates Muslim thinking into the field of applied ethics and introduces readers to an aspect of the religion long overlooked in the West. This collective effort sets forth the relationship between Islamic ethics and law, clearly revealing the complexity and richness of the Islamic tradition as well as its responsiveness to these controversial modern issues.

The contributors analyze classical sources and survey the modern ethical landscape to identify guiding principles within Islamic ethical thought. Clarifying the importance of pragmatism in Islamic decision making, the contributors also offer case studies related to specialized topics, including "wrongful birth" claims, terrorist attacks, and brain death. The case studies elicit possible variations on common Muslim perspectives. The contributors situate Muslim ethics relative to Christian and secular accounts of the value of human life, exposing surprising similarities and differences.

In an introductory overview of the volume, Jonathan E. Brockopp underscores the steady focus on God as the one who determines the value of human life, and hence as the final arbiter of Islamic ethics. A foreword by Gene Outka places the volume in the context of general ethical studies, and an afterword by A. Kevin Reinhart suggests some significant ramifications for comparative religious ethics.

Islam and the West; Critical Perspectives on Modernity edited by Michael Thompson (Rowman & Littlefield) (Hardcover) approach the interactions of Islam, the West and modernity through overlapping social, historical, economic, cultural, and philosophical layers. Viewed through this complex prism of analysis, the full dimensions of the relationship become clear and the result is a deeper understanding of the nature of modernity and how other societies can relate to each other.

The chapters collected in this volume each attempt to deal with the prob­lem of Islam's relation to modernity through a complex prism of cultural economic analysis. Indeed, the perspectives presented here are not at all in agreement with respect to their ultimate findings and positions. However, there is no question that each of them move beyond the methodological narrowness of the two perspectives out-lined above and attempt to broaden the discussion of the relationship between Islam, the West, and modernity through political, historical, philosophical, and so­cial scientific lenses—complex historical and social phenomena require "thicker" methods of analysis. Indeed, it was the great nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt who claimed that what was needed in historical analysis was not great simplifiers, of which there was always an excess, but rather great complexifiers, those who were able to generate new insights through a more concentrated analysis of multiple layers of historical reality. This claim has not lost currency over a century and a half later, and it is precisely what the present volume attempts to achieve and, through it, a more nuanced, and hopefully more lucid understanding of one of the great historical, political, and cultural tensions of modern times.

Islam in Context: Past, Present, and Future by Peter Cotterell, Peter G. Riddell (Baker Book House) addresses the central beliefs and tenets of Islam, such as the Articles of Faith and the Five Pillars. However, it makes significant contributions toward understanding Islam, and the relationships between Islam and Christianity, providing balanced perspectives on such issues as Jihaad, the Crusades, Christian missions to Muslims, and responses to terrorism. It mediates the debates concerning the nature of Jihaad, an issue that has polarized many commentators on Islam since 9/11, influencing them to portray Islam as a religion of peace or a religion of violence.

The discussions on the roles of Jesus and Mohammed are particularly insightful, clarifying many misconceptions that govern conversations between Christians and Muslims. The authors give excellent insight into why Mohammed and Jesus are not dynamically equivalent figures in their respective faiths. Unlike Mohammed, Jesus was born of a Virgin, never married, performed miracles, did not participate in war, and ascended into heaven. Readers who want to explore why the crucifixion, a major point of contention between Islam and Christianity, will appreciate some thoughts on the Islamic teachings concerning why Muslims believe Jesus was not crucified.

The analyses of the Crusades clarify some issues that continue to shape relationships between Christians and Muslims. Readers who are unfamiliar with these events will appreciate the historical details, giving enough commentary to value the political natures of these events. The authors' quotes and comments on the "Reconciliation Walk of the 1990s," an effort by many Christians with European origins to seek to seek forgiveness for the crusades, are particularly noteworthy. Of the walkers, the authors quote: "Their words tell us more about where they are from than where they are going..."

No book that seeks to interpret Islam for Christian readers is complete without some comments on missions. This book acknowledges that Christians are working to convert Muslims, and Muslims also seek to convert Christians, offering some good analyses of these efforts. Christians who are interested in the history of Christian missions to Muslims will appreciate the references to Ramon Lull and Bishop Thomas Valpy French, but wonder whether Samuel Zwemer should have been mentioned.

Peter Riddell and Peter Cotterell's audience should especially commend them for including the sections on terrorism, which explore territories on which other authors fear to tread. In doing so, they address some issues that will generate more thought and discussion on discerning how Christians and Muslims should respond to this complex issue, particularly in light of the political developments in the Middle East.

The notion that Muslims must respond to terrorism is germane to the challenge of responding to terrorism. One way in which Muslims can respond to terrorism, the authors suggest, is by locating Qur'an verses that advocate in their original context to discern their historical meanings and their contemporary significance. The integrity of Islam depends on their success in this effort.

The discussion on Christian responses to terrorism resurrects the tensions between Rheinhold Niebuhr and John Howard Yoder. The authors, like John Howard Yoder, affirm the "there can be no New Testament justification for violence: certainly Jesus was uniformly pacifist." However, despite this affirmation, they seem to affirm Niebuhr's decision to reject pacifism "as an inappropriate response to evil," raising Yoder's question as to whether Jesus is normative for Christian ethics.

The authors attempt to resolve this theological tension between Niebuhr and Yoder by resorting to a "two-kingdom" worldview, acknowledging the nature of the conflict in terms of good and evil. They conclude: "The Christian response to this aspect of terrorism ought not to be more violence, but a peacemaking response," leaving Christians on the Yoderian side of the issue to believe the book postulates the right conclusion for the wrong reasons. Christians certainly affirm the need for peacemaking, but how should we engage in it. Should we, like Niebuhr, focus on original sin-or, like Yoder, affirm the redemptive nature of there cross, which transforms original sin and defeats the powers that hold us in bondage to sin. Furthermore, how do these issues express themselves as we apply them to terrorism?

Certainly, a discussion on the redemptive nature of the cross would have enhanced the content of this book. However, the absence of this discussion does not detract from the value of a book that provides Christians and Muslims with the historical, cultural and theological insights they need to make informed interpretations concerning the impact that Islam is having-and will continue to have-on global political, economic and religious issues.

Islam, Postmodernism and Other Futures: A Ziauddin Sardar Reader by Ziauddin Sardar (Pluto Press) Collection of writings of Ziaudding Sardar offers a comprehensive introduction to his thought. Includes an analysis by the editors of Sardar's thought and position as a critical thinker. Explores issues of Islam and cultural change, education, identity, post-modernism, and the future. Softcover, hardcover available from the publisher.

For Sardar Islam has to be reinterpreted for every epoch. Ulike most Muslim revivalists, Sardar does not believe that the 'Medina State', estab­lished by the Prophet Muhammad, has to be imitated in every detail; only its spirit, and the underlying values have enduring significance. It is Sardar's contention that `the norms which the Companions of the Prophets set themselves were the best possible in their own conditions', but that 'at least in theory it is possible, now or in the future, to create a society that achieves a realization of Islamic values greater than that achieved by the Companions of the Prophet'. As a review in Futures noted, `there are Muslims to whom this will seem little short of blasphemy, but Sardar contends that, subject to certain divine injunctions, the community should be guided by the spirit of Islam and not by uncritical observance of precedents which changing conditions have made irrelevant'.

The reinterpretation of Islam from epoch to epoch presents con­temporary Muslims with a stark challenge: to reconstruct the Muslim civilization anew, ever more urgent with the rise of Wahhabism. But this reconstruction cannot be based on a simplistic reductionist model; it has to be based on a futures vision of Islam, the future has to be seen through the message of the Prophet Muhammad, and Islam has to be realized holistically. So, what is the basis for the reconstruction of the Muslim civilization? Sardar suggests that a set of ten fundamental Islamic concepts should be used to guide this reconstruction; collectively, these concepts also furnish us with a futures vision of an Islamic society. Islam, he writes, is a religion, culture, tradition and civilization all at once; but to see it as any one of these single components is to miss the whole picture. Islam is best appreciated as a worldview: as a way of looking at and shaping the world; as a system of knowing, being and doing. The literal meaning of Islam is submission and peace. To be a Muslim is to submit voluntarily to the will of One, All Knowing, All Powerful, Merciful and Beneficent God and to seek peace on the basis of this submission. This peace is sought within a parameter of objective and eternal concepts and values that are furnished by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) and that shape the worldview of Islam. The fundamental concept of the Islamic worldview is tawheed, which is normally translated as `the Unity of God', but which by extension also signifies the unity of humankind and the unity of people and nature. Within this all-embracing framework of unity the creation is a trust from God, and men and women - who are equal in the sight of God whatever their colour or creed - are khalifa or trustees of God. Humankind is responsible for this trust, and each individual will be held accountable for his or her action in the akhira (the Hereafter). The responsibilities of the trustee­ship are fulfilled on the basis of two other fundamental Islamic concepts: ilm (distributive knowledge) and adl (social justice). The thought and actions of the khalifa are based not on blind faith but on knowledge; and the sole function of all the ideas and activities of the trustee are to promote all-round justice. Both ilm and adl are sought on the basis of ijma (consensus), shura (consultation and participation) and istislah (public interest). Within this framework, all ways of knowing, being and doing are halal (praise­worthy); outside this ethical circumference, where there is danger, lies the haram (blameworthy) territory. The challenge for any Muslim people is to map out the halal territory most suitable for their historic epoch. The individuals who voluntarily accept the challenge and undertake to work for this goal, on the basis of the above conceptual and value matrix, are bound together in a community, the ummah.

Sardar's position is as far from the ahistorical Sufi or mystical version of Islam as it is from the reductive and simplistic interpre­tation of the legalist school; yet it incorporates them both. The Sufis might argue that the experience of Allah is much more crucial; that is, civilizational revitalization cannot begin without internal

transformation. Still, there is nothing in Sardar's theoretical position that either could take issue with - yet it is located in a totally different universe. Sardar desires Islam to move forward as a civil­isation based on participatory governance and social justice, and as a knowledge-based society committed to the worship of God and the creation of technical, scientific, and philosophical knowledge that can improve the human condition not just of individuals and the ummah, the community of believers, but of humanity as a whole. While his vision is distinctively Islamic, it is also intrinsi­cally humanistic. Moreover, it opens up everything to question - state, nation, capitalism, science, the whole gamut of modernity has to be re-examined in the light of this conceptual vision and rejected or renovated within the more humane, Islamic framework. This is why, Sardar has suggested, the process of reconstruction will be painful and piecemeal. As it incorporates philosophical, cultural, scientific and economic aspects, it will require intellectual courage and boldness. It is a multigenerational process which will continue well into the next century; and it will have, as it already has, its setbacks and its successes.

Traditions are different from traditionalism, an ideology that seeks power and territory. Traditions, on the other hand, are dynamic; they are constantly reinventing themselves and adjusting to change. Indeed, a tradition that does not change ceases to be a tradition. But traditions change in a specific way. They change within their own parameters, at their own speed, and towards their chosen direction.

Traditions change within their own parameters because if they were to vacate their position a meaningless vacuum would be created. Traditions thus seek meaningful change within an integrated, enveloped and continuing sense of identity. Change within tradition is thus an `evaluated process, a sifting of good, better, best as well as under no circumstances, an adaptation that operates according to the values the veneration of tradition has maintained intact'.

The notion of tradition as a dynamic process leads us to Sardar's understanding of authenticity. He sees authenticity not as a return to something that is fixed in history but as a set of dynamic axioms. Authenticity is that conceptual and ethical matrix that gives a society, a culture, its distinctive worldview and temper. Thus, authenticity is not a question of 're-instituting puritanism in all its stark determinism' but more a form of becoming - it is not an end process but a goal-orientated direction that provides unabashed confidence in one's history and tradition: 'the pride that dares to walk its talk'. Nothing terrifies the west more, Sardar has written, than 'the unapologetic Other with the competence and the confidence to accommodate the contemporary world and amend it in ways undreamed of and unconsidered by the hosts of modernity and postmodernism'. In sharp contrast to many modernists and secularists who believe that there is something culturally lacking in Muslim, Chinese, Indian and Africans cultures that keeps them in chains and underdeveloped, Sardar believes that cultural authenti­city actually contains the seeds for the regeneration of these societies. But for this regeneration to occur, both tradition and culture must be seen in their dynamic forms.

Sardar's vision of the future may not be to the taste of many thinkers. In particular, his interpretation of Islam has been widely contested. He has been criticised by traditionalists, mystics and modernists alike. There is the criticism that he is overtly rationalist; that beyond words is the experience of God. Systems of thought must try to map out these divine experiences. For others, Sardar is too liberal in that he does not take a literalist view of the Qur'an and human history, seeing Islam not as a fixed structure but as a guideline, a vision, a calling - 'a matrix of permissible structures'. Finally, for many, his work is far too critical, in the negative sense of the word; instead of building bridges with nascent research institutes, Sardar is quick to attack them, as, for example, he does in his essay on the nature of an Islamic university. All these positions have been invoked, for example, in the discourse of Islamic science: the mystical tendency has argued for an Islamic science concerned only with the sacred (also meaning secret) knowledge; the traditionalists see Islamic science as an ontological category and are concerned largely with the 'scientific facts' in the Qur'an; and the fundamental modernists reject the whole notion, arguing that science is pure, objective and universally valid. But it is in the nature of discourse to be contested; and even though Sardar has complained that the discourse he has initiated has been hijacked by mystics and fundamentalists of every variety, he would readily concede that discourse is refined, and enlightened progress made, only through contention.

Visions too are, and have to be, contested. In Islam, the perfect vision is traditionally associated with heaven. As Sardar tells us in his lovely essay 'The Paradise I seek', 'the paradise of the Qur'an is not so much an abode of pleasure but an abode of eternal bliss and sublime innocence'. At the centre of the Qur'anic metaphor of heaven is the garden. While so many have become transfixed by the details of the description, for Sardar, the image of heaven is about the limitation of the senses. 'What appears at first to be straight literalism is in fact used to illustrate the limitation of language and demonstrate the ineffability of the world to come.' Sardar suggests that the Qur'anic vision of heaven does not reside only in paradise; it can be used to envision the future of Muslim civilisation here and now. This has been his effort and along the way, as with other Muslims, one realises that the garden metaphor is also about en­vironmentalism (long before environmentalism was fashionable), about stewardship, about the symbiotic relationships between one's own culture and Other cultures. Images of hell give warnings and force one to struggle against technologies of mass destruction, of eugenics, vivisection and other such horrors. Ultimately, the vision of paradise is there to help us build better worlds and to give warnings of what can happen if we fail. The reward is innocence and peace.

By now, the argument that Sardar's work is unique in modern Muslim and world scholarship should be obvious; and, thus, the purpose of this book. We have tried to bring some of his insightful writings into one volume. As well, there is a reasonably full working bibliography of Sardar's work for those who would like to pursue his thought at greater length.

In Sardar's work a paradigm of alternative futures stands before us. It not only articulates a positive future but also shows that one is possible. Just as Islam is a summons to critical reflection, Sardar's books and essays can be seen as an invitation to reasoned thought and action, as an incentive to question the will to power, and as a manifesto to embrace traditional pluralism. This anthology of his work gives a developmental snapshot of this important Islamic social thinker.

Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience by Caryle Murphy (Scribner) Islam's revival is reshaping Egypt and other Arab countries in ways beyond violent politics. The yearning for personal solace, a just political system, indigenous lifestyles, and relevant theology all await satisfaction....Just as the Nile runs through Egypt for almost eight hundred miles, giving it life, so also the Straight Way, the way of Allah, runs through it, beckoning its people. The search by Egypt 's Muslims for a modern understanding of the Straight Way is the essence of today's passion for Islam."" -- from Chapter 1, ""First Verses"" Over decades, a myriad of social, political, and religious factors has made today's Middle East a combustible region and has contributed to Islam's new power and turmoil. Passion for Islam uses one particular country, Egypt , as a lens through which to show how these forces play out across the area, allowing terrorism to gain a foothold. Through the personal experiences and observations of individual Egyptians encountered during her five years as the Washington Post's Cairo bureau chief, veteran journalist Caryle Murphy explores how Islam's contemporary revival is unfolding on four different levels: ""Pious Islam"" highlights the groundswell of grassroots piety that has created more Islamic societies; ""Political Islam"" examines how Islamists, using both violent and peaceful means, are reshaping the region's authoritarian secular political order and redefining Islam's role in the public arena; ""Cultural Islam"" looks at Egyptian efforts to resist a ubiquitous Western culture by asserting an Islamic identity; ""Thinking Islam"" reveals how intellectuals are reexamining their theological heritage with the aim of modernizing Islam.

Virtually Islamic: Computer-Mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments by Gary R. Bunt ( University of Wales Press ) J he internet is the communications' medium for the new millennium. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Virtually Islamic: Computer-mediated Communication and Cyber Islamic Environments is the first broad-ranging academic survey to explore how Islam and the internet combine and interact.

Information technology has had a global impact on how Muslims approach and interpret Islam and, given its utilization as a primary source of information, the internet also influences how non-Muslims perceive Islam and matters relating to it. Among the many issues addressed in this pioneering study are: how multimedia applications are being integrated into websites, enabling `surfers' to listen to and see `sermons' delivered thousands of miles away and to partake of new opportunities for religious experience; how Muslim organizations are networking globally through the electronic medium, and how that impacts upon the understanding of Islam and Muslim identities; how can Muslims and non-­Muslims approach the Qur'an in its digital form; and how the internet is used to present diverse dialogues relating to Islam, often reaching wide audiences where other forms of communication are heavily censored. It is clear that the importance of cyber Islamic environments will increase, shaping Muslim religious interpretations in the new millennium.

Gary Bunt is a lecturer in Islamic studies at University of Wales, Lampeter.

Living Faith: Inside the Muslim World of Southeast Asia by Steve Raymer (Asia/images) Steve Raymer has done an exceptional job at capturing the humanity of Southeast Asian Muslims through the lenses of the faithful camera. The pictures are breathtakingly beautiful, while the accompanying caption and text serve as an easy-to-read commentary especially for those expecting only an excursion into the subject. His attempt at a sympathetic understanding of a culture that is relatively obscure to the average Westerner is commendable; the journalistic objectivity being a salient feature of the book.
Raymer, in my opinion, succeeded in shattering the perpetuated myth surrounding the perception of Muslims. Not only does he cogently disprove the notion of a monolithic Muslim culture across the Muslim world, but he also demonstrates the existence of diversity with which Islam is practiced in this forgotten region. The cognitive image of either a rich Middle-Easterner or a terrorist brandishing an AK-47 so often associated with Islam must now be relegated to the domain of stereotypes. The book is probably a silent apologist for the peace of Islam.
Caveat emptor for those expecting their stereotypes confirmed and prejudices accommodated; the book is sure to frustrate them.

A Descriptive Bibliography of Allama Muhammad Iqbal  byDieter Taillieu, Francis Laleman, Winand M. Callewaert (Peeters)

Excellent bibliographical work about Allama Muhammad Iqbal in the Arabic scripts (Urdu, Persian, Arabic and so on) has been published by the Iqbal Academy , Lahore . Our publication covers only what appeared in the Roman script: English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Turkish, and Russian.

The first book about lqbal, by Z. Khan appeared in 1922 and since then scores of books, hundreds of articles in periodicals and many more articles in newspapers have been produced. They deal with different aspects of Muhammad Iqbal: as a person, a poet, a philosopher and a political thinker. Iqbalia started to appear already during Iqbal's lifetime, when attempts were made to arrange and classify his thought and work, and to evaluate his importance as one of the major philosophers of the subcontinent. More than half a century ago B.A. Dar's Study in Iqbal's Philosophy appeared (1944). In this work, for the first time, the philosophical views and thoughts were treated exhaustively and in a scientific way. Dar's aim was to explain the philosophical aspects of Iqbal's re­interpretation of the message of Islam in the context of a contemporary situation. This is still the aim of many researchers from all over the world today. Since Iqbal is now considered to be not only a philosopher of Islam, but rather a philosopher of mankind, the scope of Jqbalia has broadened dramatically and interest in Iqbal and his thought among non‑Persian and non‑Urdu speakers has increased very much.

Not only books about Iqbal have appeared. Also bibliographies have been compiled. In fact many books have some kind of bibliographical list, and we have tried to include all that material in the present publication. I should like to mention especially the excellent A Bibliography of Articles on Iqbal (1900‑1977) by Malik Mueen Nawas Azhar, published in Lahore in 1978, and the Analytical Catalogue of Books on Allama Mohammad Iqbal (1877­1977) by Abdul Hafeez Akhtar, published by the government of Pakistan in 1978. For Iqbal and the English Press of Pakistan 1948‑1971, 1 refer to the work by Nadeem Shafiq Malik (1996). For surveys of the work done by the team of the Iqbal Review, Lahore , I refer to the publication of A.H. Qarshi and of M. Riaz.

With the generous support of the Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan the Iqbal Foundation Europe at the KULeuven, Belgium , has endeavoured to combine meticulous and patient work in libraries with the most modern search on intemet. The result is an impressive tribute to lqbal, and to the research about him: 2500 entries, the latest entry dated 1998 (A. Schimmel). Even if many superfluous or repetitive articles may have been published, a researcher should look at even small contributions: they may contain valuable information and rare insights. The databank we compiled at the University of Leuven is composed of material taken from published works and from the on‑line services of the major university libraries. From this it appeared that hundreds of scholars and authors have contributed to the immense databank about lqbal, The highest number of contributions is by Annemarie Schimmel, S.A. Vahid and B.A. Dar, followed by A. Bausani, K.A. Waheed, A.J. Arberry and so many others.  

For their inspiration and encouragement to start and complete this daring project, I owe special thanks to Prof Annemarie Schimmel, Bonn , to Dr. Saeed A. Durrani, Birmingham and Mr. Toheed Ahmad, now ambassador in Singapore , and Mr Ambassador Riaz Mohammad Khan, Brussels , while many persons have very kindly made their expertise available. We are very obliged also to the Iqbal Academy , Lahore , and its Director Mr. Suheyl Umar for so kindly putting at our disposal the complete set of the Iqbal Review and other publications, and to the numerous authors who responded to our appeal and sent us their lists of publications about Iqbal. David Nelson, librarian of the Van Pelt Library, Philadelphia has been most helpful, not only with good advice. Last but not least I gratefully mention that this enterprise would not have been possible without the driving force of Mr. Syed Hasan Javed, Counsellor, Brussels .

The redaction of the input was not an easy task, partly because personal names in Pakistan cannot easily be classified. We tried to apply a consistent system and apologize if the reader may be at a loss for a while. In our sources we also did not find uniform spellings (e.g. Hasan and Hasan, Sayyid, Syed, and so on). The classification of the keywords too proved to be a headache; the reader may like to look for certain keywords under three additional headings: philosophy, poetry and politics. Unless otherwise specified, all publications are in English. Finally, no bibliography can ever be complete and is in fact outdated on the day it appears. I would be very grateful for all suggestions, corrections and additions that may be useful for bibliographical research about Iqbal in the future.

The Ardent Pilgrim: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Mohammed Iqbal  by Iqbal Singh (Oxford University Press) This study of Mohammed Iqbal's poetry seeks to arrive at an understanding of his personality and his relationship to the life of his times. The book provides a graphic, sympathetic yet critical picture of Iqbal's intellectual life. Providing a view of the contemporary political context, the text also meaningfully expresses the pre-Partition ethos, including the character of the Muslim intelligentsia and its dilemmas. It should be of value to those interested in Urdu poetry and biographies and students of Asian history.
Contents: I. Father and Son II. The Age of Reason III. Cities of the West IV. In Search of Faith V. The Time of Unveiling VI. Message of the East VII . A Chapter of Deeds VIII. The Dead Sea Fruit IX. The Book of Eternity X. The Lost Melody XI. To Sum Up XII. Matters of No Importance? A Short Bibliography; Additional Bibliography; Index.

Unbelief  Islam

Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books) Important account of the exteam aspects of sectarianism in Islam makes it hard for modern people committed to basic universal human rights and scientific rationalism to readily commit to that invitation to Islam. Why I Am Not a Muslim is written by a former Muslim that critically considers the major principles of Islam. From the religion's origins and the nature of Mohammed's message and laws to Islamic views of women, politics and society, this provides a strong critical view of the Koran and its associated societies. Why I Am Not a Muslim presents a less than flattering picture of the faith and its followers. He analyzes factors that influenced the writing of the Koran, chronicles the rise of Islam, and criticizing the dark side of the faith with chapters on the Salman Rushdie affair, the oppression of women in Muslim society, the authoritarian nature of Islamic law, and the suppression of basic rights in many Muslim countries. Contains a glossary.

Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out edited by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books) In the West, those who abandon their religion (apostates) find it to be a difficult, emotional decision that sometimes carries with it social repercussions, such as physical and psychological isolation from family, friends, and colleagues. However, in culturally diverse societies with a mixture of ethnic groups and various philosophies of life, most people look upon such intellectual shifts in allegiance as a matter of personal choice and the right of the individual. In stark contrast, the socially restricted Muslim world still views apostasy as an unthinkable act, and orthodox Muslims consider it a crime punishable by death. Renowned scholar of Islamic Studies Bernard Lewis has described the seriousness of leaving the Islamic faith in dire terms: "Apostasy was a crime as well as a sin, and the apostate was damned both in this world and the next. His crime was treason--desertion and betrayal of the community to which he belonged, and to which he owed loyalty; his life and property were forfeit. He was a dead limb to be excised."
Defying the death penalty that all apostates potentially face in the Islamic world, the ex-Muslims represented here feel it is their duty to speak up against their former faith, to tell the truth about the fastest-growing religion in the world. These former Muslims--some born into the faith; others, Western converts--from all parts of the Islamic world recount how they slowly came to realize that their religion was in many respects unbelievable and sometimes even dangerous.
These memoirs and journals of personal journeys to enlightenment and intellectual freedom make for moving reading and are a courageous signal to other ex-Muslims to openly express their views.
Ibn Warraq, from the Introduction: Given that I am rather skeptical of the very possibility of a scientific survey of apostates, it is rather difficult for me to make any psychological, sociological, or anthropological generalizations based on fewer than fifty personal testimonies that would be valid outside this particular group. No quick portrait of the typical apostate is likely to appear--some are young (students in their teens), some are middle-aged with children; some are scientists, while others are economists, businesspeople, or journalists; some are from Bangladesh, others are from Pakistan, India, Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, or Iran. Our witnesses, nonetheless, do have certain moral and intellectual qualities in common: for instance, they are all comparatively well educated, computer literate with access to the Internet, and rational, with the ability to think for themselves. However, what is most striking is their fearlessness, their moral courage, and their moral commitment to telling the truth. They all face social ostracism, the loss of friends and family, a deep inner spiritual anguish and loneliness--and occasionally the death penalty if discovered. Their decisions are not frivolously taken, but the ineluctable result of rational thinking.
There are very useful analogies to be drawn between communism and Islam. . . .As Arthur Koestler said, "You hate our Cassandra cries and resent us as allies, but when all is said, we ex-Communists are the only people on your side who know what it's all about."
Communism has been defeated, at least for the moment; Islamism has not, and unless a reformed, tolerant, liberal kind of Islam emerges soon, perhaps the final battle will be between Islam and Western democracy. And these former Muslims, to echo Koestler's words, on the side of Western democracy are the only ones who know what it's all about, and we would do well to listen to their Cassandra cries. -- Ibn Warraq, from the Introduction

Qur’an

Ishmael Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers by John Kaltner (Liturgical Press) Jews, Christians, and Muslims trace their roots to Abraham, but the course of that lineage is not the same for all three faiths. Judaism and Christianity view Isaac, the son of Sarah, as the offspring of Abraham through whom the family line is continued. Islam, on the other hand, sees Ishmael, son of Hagar, as the rightful heir who carries on the family name. The two sacred texts of these religions, the Bible and the Qur'an, have much in common, highlighting the close relationship that exists between the two lines of Abraham's family. This book examines some of the themes, figures, and episodes that are shared by the Bible and the Qur'an. It is an introduction to the Qur'an for the descendants of Isaac, who are invited to listen to and learn from the way Ishmael and his descendants retell the family stories

One of the aims of this book is to lay the foundation for a family reconciliation. Jews, Christians and Muslims all trace their roots back to Abraham, the father of Ishmael and Isaac, and therefore implicitly understand themselves to be somehow related to each other. It is often asserted that Ishmael is the ancestor of the Arabs, particularly Muslims, while Isaac is the forebear of Jews and Christians. Keeping in mind that this is an oversimplified reading of history, it is nonetheless a helpful and appealing image to use in discussing the relationships among members of these three faiths. Their common history, similar beliefs, and shared traditions suggest that Jews, Christians and Muslims are in­deed relatives, even if distant ones. The sad fact is that for a long time the two sides of this large extended family have rarely been on speaking terms and, when they have communicated, they have usually not had nice things to say to each other. Their infrequent conversations have tended to repudiate, rather than celebrate, their common heritage.

Unfortunately, the sacred texts of this family, the Bible and Qur'an, have often been used as tools to further the estrangement among its members. Discussions of the relationships among them frequently begin and often end with one or more parties citing or implicitly relying upon the material found in these two bodies of sacred writing in a way that declares one "the winner." In other words, the Bible and Qur'an are often pitted against each other to bolster the claims of one side and negate the claims of the other. Such misuse of these writings prevents the recognition of the undeniable fact that the two texts have much in common.

That common ground is the ideal place to set up camp, sit down around the hearth, and begin to heal the centuries­ old rift that has divided the family for far too long. Nothing brings families together like reminiscing and remembering days gone by. The wonderful thing about such gatherings is that no two family members recall the same event in exactly the same way, and as each person shares his or her own memories the complexity and richness of the family history are revealed to all. The Bible and Qur'an are, in a sense, the written record of one such family history told from different perspectives. Imagine a reconciliation between Ishmael and Isaac in which they sit around the fire swapping family stories and telling their own versions of what happened. How much they would learn about themselves and each other! Jews, Christians and Muslims have rarely stopped to listen to how the other side remembers the past or what the family's history means to the other. If they did, their appreciation of previously shunned relatives and their contributions to the family tree would grow immeasurably.

This book attempts to envision what such a reconciliation between the offspring of Ishmael and Isaac could be like. It is written from the perspective of Isaac's side of the family and tries to imagine the exciting things that can take place when we sit down with long‑lost relatives and hear them retell familiar stories in new ways. Reading the Qur'an's accounts of biblical traditions can teach Jews and Christians much about Islam, but it can also teach them much about their own side of the family and how it has preserved their common history. In the same way, Muslims, as descendants of Ishmael, can benefit from such an encounter. This book is not written by one from among their ranks, but by a cousin who has a deep love and respect for their side of the family and who hopes they will feel welcome to join us around the fire.

It is important to remember that this book contains a selective reading of the Qur'an. Because we are primarily considering only material that has biblical parallels, most of the Islamic text will not be discussed. Their familiar characters and similar stories help to make these among the most accessible passages for Bible readers, but it must be kept in mind that this is not indicative of the content and style of the entire Qur'an. Nonetheless, the themes and subject matter of these texts are representative of the book as a whole and therefore they serve as a good starting point from which to begin to discover and study Islam's sacred scripture. But it is only a starting point. In order to get a proper sense of the entire text and how the passages studied here function within it, one should read the Qur'an from beginning to end. At the very least, when reading this book it would be helpful to keep a copy of the Qur'an near at hand and read the passages surrounding those we will be discussing so that their literary context can be understood and appreciated.

The English translations of the Qur'an texts contained in the book are my own and a few brief comments about them might prove helpful. Throughout, I have tried to render the meaning of the Arabic in clear English while still giving the reader an experience of some of the literary and grammatical features of the original text. For example, the word order within sentences of the English attempts to mirror that of the Arabic, and this gives a sense of the Quran's unique form and mode of expression. I have also used the same English word to translate every occurrence of a particular Arabic word within a given passage. This highlights the use of repetition and key words which are features commonly found in the Qur'an that can be of assistance in interpreting texts.

In those places where personal pronouns are used to refer to Allah, I have opted for the masculine gender for the same reason. Arabic is a language that is much more gender‑specific than English as is clearly seen in the difference between their verbal systems. In English, the form of the third person singular verb (for example, "speaks") remains the same whether the subject is masculine or feminine, and a personal name, noun, or pronoun ("he" or "she") must be supplied to specify the gender of the subject. This is not the case in Arabic where the verb itself has a different form depending on whether the subject is masculine or feminine. Throughout the Qur'an the Arabic word "Allah" is grammatically masculine, and in order to accurately convey the sense of the original no attempt has been made to change that in the translation. It is common in the Qur'an for Allah to speak in the plural by using pronouns like "we" and "our," and this has been preserved in the English translations in this book. This in no way violates the monotheistic belief of Islam, but is an example of the use of what is sometimes referred to as the "divine we" which elevates and exalts the deity. Such usage is not unique to Islam and is even sometimes found in the biblical literature. In Genesis 1:26, for example, God says, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness."

Much of the discussion in the following chapters entails comparative analysis of texts from the Qur'an and Bible in which the deity is frequently mentioned. To avoid confusion between the two texts and to more easily identify the deity in each, I have consistently referred to "God" when speaking of the Bible and "Allah" when speaking of the Qur'an. This approach is adopted only for the sake of convenience to assist the reader and does not have any theological significance. All biblical citations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version.

Each of the following six chapters discusses a particular biblical figure's role in the Qur'an. In order, those characters are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Mary, and Jesus. While these individuals are treated in the most detail, each chapter also explains the significance of other figures found in the Qur'an who are present in the Bible. For example, the chapter on Moses will also consider the roles of his brother Aaron, the Israelites, the Egyptian Pharaoh, and Moses' unnamed wife and father‑in‑law in the Islamic text. Not every passage in the Qur'an that mentions a figure is cited, but all of the most important ones are translated and discussed with particular emphasis placed on the events and themes of that individual's story which have been important and influential in Islam. Throughout each chapter, the similarities and differences between the Qur’an's and Bible's presentation of the material will be noted and explained. A glance at the table of contents shows that some chapters are quite a bit longer than others. This is primarily due to the relative amount of attention the Qur'an devotes to the individual characters. Some, like Moses and Abraham, are referred to frequently and treated in more detail than others, like Adam and Mary. Consequently, it takes more time to adequately explain their role in the Qur'an and Islam.

Each chapter concludes with a section that is titled "Cooperating Revelations." This is an attempt to explore how the Qur'an might be used to help the Bible reader discover new things about his or her own text. As noted above, the relationship between the two books is usually understood in a way that puts them in competition. If Jews, Christians and Muslims are truly part of the same family, their sacred texts should, at times, be able to cooperate rather than compete with one another. This is not to ignore or downplay the presence of the many profound differences between the Bible and Qur’an that have significant theological and practical implications. Rather, it is to suggest that we need to look beyond the differences to discover the common ground and ask what the stories of the other side of the family have to contribute to those on our own side.

The "Cooperating Revelations" part of each chapter tries to do this by rereading a biblical passage in light of its counterpart in the Qur’an. Revisiting a familiar Bible story with the theme and message of its Qur'an parallel in mind can allow us to notice elements of it that have previously gone unrecognized. This is not an exercise in filling in the gaps that introduces material from the Qur’an into the Bible to improve it in some way or to create a new story that is a hybrid of the two texts. It does not attempt to read anything into the biblical text that is not already there. It is, rather, a method that can shed light on things present within the Bible that are easily missed due to the subtle nature of their presence or the fact that the reader's attention is directed elsewhere in the story. When the texts cooperate in this way, the two sides of the family are brought closer together since the offspring of Isaac experience how much Ishmael's descendants can teach them about the family's history.

A more technical term that might be used to define this method is "intercanonical criticism;' which describes the attempt to study texts from different canons or religious traditions in relationship to each other. Although this is undertaken in an explicit way at the end of each chapter, it is also, in a certain sense, the underlying aim of the entire book. One might question the legitimacy of such an approach and wonder what justification, if any, can be found for adopting this method of study. In fact, there is support for it among both those who read the Bible and those who read the Qur'an.

The Islamic view of revelation, for example, acknowledges that Allah has spoken to a number of prophets throughout history and many of them, like Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus, are familiar to Bible readers. They were each given the same message, which is essentially that of Islam and the Qur'an, but their followers distorted it making necessary the sending of Muhammad, the final prophet. But Islam maintains that many elements of the pre‑Islamic scriptures are divine revelation and the only parts that must be rejected are those that conflict with the Qur'an. Jews and Christians are therefore commonly referred to in the Qur’an as "the people of the book," a term that acknowledges the legitimacy of their sacred writings. Some passages, like 5:68, express well the high status of the Bible in the Qur’an. "Oh people of the book, you have nothing until you observe the Torah and the Gospel and what has been revealed to you from your Lord."

In a similar way, the people of the book have, at times, recognized the value of Islam and its message. We see this in the Catholic tradition where some of the documents of the Second Vatican Council speak of Islam in commendable terms. For example, in paragraph 3 of the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non‑Christian Religions" we read, "The Church has also a high regard for the Muslims. They worship God, who is one, living and subsistent, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has also spoken to humanity" The final phrase, affirming Muslims' belief that the deity has spoken to humankind, can be understood as a legitimation of the Islamic view of revelation that suggests the Catholic Church sees this as a potential point of contact between Islam and itself. While these and other statements fall short of an explicit acceptance of the truth claims of the other regarding the locus and means of divine revelation, they at least signal a starting point from which to begin to work toward the goal of improving relations which is called for in the same Vatican II document. "Over the centuries many quarrels and dissensions have arisen between Christians and Muslims. The sacred council now pleads with all to forget the past, and urges that a sincere effort be made to achieve mutual understanding."

One of the ways such mutual understanding might be attained is through consideration of the relationship between the Qur'an and the Bible. In particular, when we study traditions that are shared by both texts we can learn a great deal about how the monotheistic religions converge and diverge on matters of faith. But a necessary precondition to such study is the adoption of a position of neutrality regarding the Qur'an and Bible that does not start with the premise that one got the story right and the other got it wrong. This does not mean that we triv­ialize the very real and important differences that exist between them, many of which are irreconcilable and the cause of profound theologi­cal and doctrinal conflicts. Rather, we must acknowledge the differ­ences and try to understand how they contribute to the particular story's or tradition's function within the Qur’an or Bible.

Such an approach toward the texts can contribute a great deal to developing the mutual understanding among Jews, Christians, and Muslims that is called for in statements like those of Vatican II. It allows us to recognize the fact that, their differences notwithstanding, there are significant and fascinating points of contact between our sacred scriptures and there can be, at times, a great benefit to reading and understanding one in light of the other. The Bible and the Qur'an then cease to be competing revelations in which the legitimacy of each de­pends upon questioning the merits of the other, and they become co­operating revelations that work in tandem to inform and educate their readers.

What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary edited by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books) This collection of classical essays, some translated here for the first time, provide an objective, critical commentary on the traditions and language of the Koran, discussing its grammatical and logical discontinuities, its Syriac and Hebrew foreign vocabulary, and its possible Christian, Coptic, and Qumranic sources. Included among these essays are a comprehensive commentary on the discussion of the expression 'an yadin in Sura II; a discussion of the possible meanings of Sura IX. 29, the longest sura in the Koran; and selections from the late Koranic scholar Richard Bell's Introduction to the Qur'an and A Commentary on the Qur'an.
 
Islam has worldwide influence, and even in the United States is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth. Islam and its sacred book, the Koran, have been the subject of voluminous commentary and, recently, great popular interest; yet it has rarely received the kind of objective critical scrutiny that has been applied to the texts of the Bible for more than a century.

Though some scholars of note have raised crucial questions about the authenticity and reliability of the Koran and Muslim tradition, Koranic studies by and large have failed to take advantage of critical skeptical methodologies. Today the majority of interpreters of Islam's sacred text appear content to lie in the Procrustean bed prepared by Muslim tradition more than a thousand years ago.

To correct this neglect of objective historical scholarship, Ibn Warraq has assembled this excellent collection of critical commentaries on the Koran published by noted scholars from the beginning of the twentieth century to recent times. These important studies, as well as his own lengthy introduction, show that little about the text of the Koran can be taken at face value. Among the fascinating topics discussed is evidence that early Muslims did not understand Muhammad's original revelation, that the ninth-century explosion of literary activity was designed to organize and make sense of an often incoherent text, and that many of the traditions surrounding Muhammad's life were fabricated long after his death in an attempt to give meaning to the Koran. Also of interest are suggestions that Coptic and other Christian sources heavily influenced much of the text and that some passages even reflect an Essenian background reaching back to the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Complete with a glossary of Arabic terms and appendices on Semitic languages and scripts, this outstanding volume is a welcome resource for interested lay readers and scholars alike.

Anyone familiar with Ibn Warraq's books readily knows why he is pretty much universally reviled by Muslim polemicists (he has several death fatwas outstanding against him - hence his use of a pseudonym for publishing). This book is no different. In it, Ibn Warraq presents a large collection of articles from scholars who spent their lives investigating the Qur'an and its history. This, in and of itself, will cause most Muslims and "pro-Islam" people in the West to view this book as a "hostile" source. Any collection of articles that deconstruct the Qur'an and which demonstrate flaws, imperfections, and inconsistencies in the Qur'an will be viewed as such.

Critical issue is that much of the information in the book is very dated. We're talking about information first presented by the likes of Noldeke, Wellhausen, and Goldhizer in the late 19th century. I wonder why such critical scholarship no longer is academically produced? Given the explosion of creative and methodically innovative ways of reading Hebrew and Christian scripture, why have not some of these found critical adapters in Muslim scholarship?

However much of this information is still relevant today, if only because of the relative paucity of scholars who are actually willing to critically examine Islam without slavishly seeking to substantiate the Islamic party line. Many of the linguistic arguments still have not been satisfactorily answered by Muslims or Westerners to this day (i.e. rebuttals based on circular reasoning such as relying upon the traditional Islamic view of the Qur'an to substantiate the traditional Islamic view of the Qur'an don't count).

If Muslims think that the essays in Ibn Warraq's book are "hostile", then they should acquaint themselves with the works of more modern researchers from the last thirty years like Crone, Cook, Nevo, Wansbraugh, etc. These and other investigators are even more "hostile" if only because they have a greater base of archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic, etc. data from which to assess the traditional Islamic historiography.

As we can see from some of the previous reviewers, those who don't like this book are generally a bit biased themselves. One from March 20, 2003 (below) barely addresses the actual content of the book, and spends up who-knows how much bandwidth giving us a screed about the "peaceful" aspects of jihad and how the Qur'an really promotes peace, love, harmony, and all that other good stuff. Another review (Edgar Hopida, Nov. 16, 2002 ) complains about bias in this book, using such objective terminology as "this book represents the one-sided, misleading, and dishonest evidence about the Qur'an, Islam, and its rich history" and "Orientalism, has for centuries attempted to deconstruct Islam, trying to give biased proof that the Occident is superior over the Orient." Would Mr. Hopida care to explain why "Orientalists" have been inclined towards trying to do the exact same thing with the Bible? Perhaps they were trying to give biased proof that the Occident is superior over the *Occident*, too?

Basically, this is a book which the reader will either appreciate for its factual content, or else will despise for its factual content, depending on whether Islamic presuppositions are brought to the table before reading it.  

The Origins of the Koran: Classic Essays on Islam's Holy Book edited by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books) Scholars of Islam are familiar with the Koran's many errors and contradictions, but these have rarely been revealed to a wider public. The Origins of the Koran is an attempt to remedy this deficiency by bringing together classic critical essays which raise key issues surrounding Islam's holy book. Indispensable to scholars and all those interested in the textual underpinning of one of the fastest growing religions in the world.

Excerpt: The stereotypic image of the Muslim holy warrior with a sword in one hand and the Koran in the other would only be plausible if he was left-handed, since no devout Muslim should or would touch a Koran with his left hand which is reserved for dirty chores. All Muslims revere the Koran with a reverence that borders on bibliolatry and superstition. "It is," as Guillaume remarked, "the holy of holies. It must never rest beneath other books, but always on top of them, one must never drink or smoke when it is being read aloud, and it must be listened to in silence. It is a tal­isman against disease and disaster."'

In some Westerners it engenders other emotions. For Gibbon it was an "incoherent rhapsody of fable," for Carlyle an "insupportable stupidity,' while here is what the German scholar Salomon Reinach thought: "From the literary point of view, the Koran has little merit. Declamation, repeti­tion, puerility, a lack of logic and coherence strike the unprepared reader at every turn. It is humiliating to the human intellect to think that this mediocre literature has been the subject of innumerable commentaries, and that millions of men are still wasting time absorbing it."'

For us in studying the Koran it is necessary to distinguish the histor­ical from the theological attitude. Here we are only concerned with those truths that are yielded by a process of rational enquiry, by scientific exam­ination. "Critical investigation of the text of the Qur'an is a study which is still in its infancy,' wrote the Islamic scholar Arthur Jeffery in 1937. In 1977 John Wansbrough noted that "as a document susceptible of analysis by the instruments and techniques of Biblical criticism [the Koran] is vir­tually unknown."' By 1990, more than fifty years after Jeffery's lament, we still have the scandalous situation described by Andrew Rippin:

I have often encountered individuals who come to the study of Islam with a background in the historical study of the Hebrew Bible or early Christianity, and who express surprise at the lack of critical thought that appears in introductory textbooks on Islam. The notion that "Islam was born in the clear light of history" still seems to be assumed by a great many writers of such texts. While the need to reconcile varying histor­ical traditions is generally recognized, usually this seems to pose no greater problem to the authors than having to determine "what makes sense" in a given situation. To students acquainted with approaches such as source criticism, oral formulaic compositions, literary analysis and structuralism, all quite commonly employed in the study of Judaism and Christianity, such naive historical study seems to suggest that Islam is being approached with less than academic candor.'

The questions any critical investigation of the Koran hopes to answer are:

1. How did the Koran come to us?—That is the compilation and the transmission of the Koran.

2. When was it written, and who wrote it?

3. What are the sources of the Koran? Where were the stories, legends, and principles that abound in the Koran acquired?

4. What is the Koran? Since there never was a textus receptus ne varietur of the Koran, we need to decide its authenticity.

I shall begin with the traditional account that is more or less accepted by most Western scholars, and then move on to the views of a small but very formidable, influential, and growing group of scholars inspired by the work of John Wansbrough.

According to the traditional account the Koran was revealed to Mu­hammad, usually by an angel, gradually over a period of years until his death in 632 C.E. It is not clear how much of the Koran had been written down by the time of Muhammad's death, but it seems probable that there was no single manuscript in which the Prophet himself had collected all the revelations. Nonetheless, there are traditions which describe how the Prophet dictated this or that portion of the Koran to his secretaries.  

Muhammad

Muhammad in Europe by Minou Reeves (New York University Press) Generations of Western writers from the Crusades down to the present day have claimed to depict the life and personality of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Over the course of thirteen centuries, biased and stubbornly negative representations have persisted, presenting images which bear no resemblance to the noble figure familiar to Muslims. Muhammad in Europe traces this consistent tradition of distortion and provides an account of the reasons behind it.

Prefaced by a biographical sketch of Muhammad's life based on original sources, the book traces the defining eras of Western history and thinking, showing how Muhammad and Islam have been used as foils to Western thought. Today, most Westerners have inherited the assumption that there was something wrong with Muhammad's character and behavior, a belief that has helped to kindle the suspicion and resentment toward the West.

Drawing on works dating from the Middle Ages to the last decade of the twentieth century and spanning Latin, Italian, French, German, and English language sources, the book culminates with a critical analysis of Salman Rushdie's controversial novel The Satanic Verses.

Born in Tehran , Minou Reeves was, until 1979, a career diplomat. At the time of the Iranian Revolution she was Queen Farah's international secretary. She is the author of Behind the Peacock Throne and Female Warriors of Allah: Women and the Islamic Revolution and is now a Fellow of the Institute of Linguists , London .

Excerpt: Several years ago when I was working on my book Female Warriors of Allah: Women and the Islamic Revolution, I encountered again and again Western portraits claiming to depict Muhammad's life and personality. They had been written by generations of European writers presenting Islam and its Prophet to a Western audience. Over the course of no less than thirteen centuries a stubbornly biased and consistently negative outlook had persisted, permeating deep levels of European consciousness. In the works of an overwhelming majority of European writers Muham­mad was portrayed as a man of deep moral faults. Churchmen, historians, orientalists, biographers, philosophers, dramatists, poets and politicians alike had sought to attribute to Islam and especially to Muhammad fanatical and disreputable, even demonic characteristics. The unchanging nature of this portrayal was as striking as it was disturbing.

The trouble started with early medieval Christian polemicists. They chose not to attack Islamic theology, which was too seductive in its simplicity and clarity, and which raised too many awkward questions about Christian dogma. Nor could they cast doubt on the pious practice of ordinary Muslims. Instead, anticipating the worst excesses of tabloid journalism, they personalized the issue and attacked the Prophet of Islam, dispensing with all but the barest knowledge of any facts and inventing falsehoods. Muslims could not reply in kind, since they are told by the Qur'an to revere Jesus as a holy prophet.

Since then, Westerners of most ideological tendencies (but not, let it be said, Jewish) have inherited the assumption that there was something wrong with Muhammad's character and behaviour, which gave them licence to be at least patronizing and in many cases positively defamatory. Christians have claimed that Muhammad deliberately spread a false religion of his own invention, atheists that he pretended to have the support of God in order to manipulate people, liberals that he was an autocrat, authoritarians that he was a libertarian, feminists that he was an exploiter of women, male chauvinists that he was ruled by women, andso on. Most of these later writers simply repeated the fabrications of their predecessors, but Voltaire stands out for having invented new slanders.

From time to time a fresh start has been attempted by a Westerner ready to look again at the original sources — Sale, Carlyle, Rilke, Tor Andrae, Watt, Schimmel ... However, more often than not these more balanced views have been thrust aside by the revival of the old calumnies. It was as if the cliches and prejudices had been planted so deep in the Western mind that nothing could displace them.

These images bear no resemblance to the Muhammad familiar to Muslims, seen by them as the noblest of men, kindest of husbands and fathers, most faithful and forgiving of friends, who humbly accepted the terrible burden placed on him by his God, patiently labored through persecution, emigration and war to carry out his task, and who in victory was magnanimous towards his enemies.

I decided to trace this consistent tradition of distortion and to seek the reasons behind it. The account of Western portrayals of Muhammad is prefaced by two chapters setting out – as far as possible objectively and unadorned – the true story of Muhammad, based on original sources, with the emphasis on those aspects of his life and character that have been most maligned in the West. This biographical sketch is condensed, and avoids the temptations of elaborated detail and hypothesized mental states. In this respect I was most fortunate to receive expert assistance from the Qur'anic scholar and historian of Islam, Dr P. J. Stewart, who has scrutinized and revised the biographical account in the light of his long years of study in this area. I am deeply indebted to him for this important contribution to the clarity and historicity of Muhammad's biography.

The early biographical sources are of course all Muslim, just as the early sources for the life of Jesus are all Christian and those for Buddha all Buddhist, and allowances have had to be made for the devotional element in the Islamic view of Muhammad. The two chapters of the outline biography are followed by a separate chapter on spiritual content of Islam. Together, these three chapters provide the background against which Western accounts should be viewed.

The rest of the book traces the historical trail left by European images and fables. In following it, readers will find themselves on a journey through the evolution of European self-identification and political formation from the Crusades to the present day. They will continually encounter Muhammad and Islam as the defining foil to Western thought, sometimes as whipping-boy, occasionally as inspiring and reviving contrast, frequently as satanic menace.

Coming closer to the present day, it becomes plain to see how these images, so deeply rooted in the Western consciousness, have helped to ignite the suspicion and resentment towards the West that manifests itself in Islamic Fundamentalism. Far from being a recent phenomenon, this emerged in response to European colonialism in the Islamic Orient from North Africa to Indonesia , and most crucially to the establishment of Israel in the heart of the Near East .

Today the attraction of Islamic Fundamentalism reaches beyond revolutionary Iran , to Turkey , Egypt and – dramatically close to Europe – to Algeria . Its impact has been so great in recent years that, even as more balanced pictures of Muhammad and his religion have begun to appear in Western writings, they have been eclipsed by images of a radical, anti-Western and violent Islam that once again bears the hallmarks of the age-old prejudices. It is as if the wheel of history has turned full circle back to the age of the Crusades and Holy Wars.

This book, then, traces the story of Muhammad's reception in Europe , a story of rivalry and confrontation and yet at times of fascination for the exotic. By uncovering the cliches and distortions that have shaped the Western views of Islam and its founder, I hope that readers will be enabled to assess Europe 's own part in the making of this turbulent relationship. By seeing the world of the other with empathy and openness – by relying on well-founded research and knowledge rather than on myth – it may be that confrontation can make way for mutual respect and tolerance. Unless the West begins to form a more sympathetic and wholesome view of Islam, the medieval rancour will continue, nurturing hatred, violence and political turmoil.

Muhammad's message was of friendship and unity, not contempt and war. Hatred did not feature in his plan of social and religious reform. His successors respected the freedom of conscience of their Christian and Jewish subjects. If Westerners will learn to respect Muhammad and Islam, they can hope to be respected in return.  

The Quest for the Historical Muhammad edited by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus Books) Ibn Warraq presents this important anthology of the best critical studies of Muhammad and early Islam ranging from the very beginnings of Islamic Studies in the nineteenth century to contemporary research. Both in his selection of essays and in his introduction, Warraq makes it clear that some very serious scholarly and scientific controversies lie at the heart of Islam. First, the Koran itself, the Muslim sacred scripture and the foundation of Islamic culture, is called into question as the basis for objective historical knowledge of Muhammad. Some scholars have also questioned the reliability of most of the other early Arabic documents that supposedly attest to events in the life of Muhammad and his followers. Was the Koran dictated by Muhammad at all? Was it actually compiled earlier than a hundred years after the Prophet's death? How much of Muslim sacred tradition, in the light of objective historical analysis, must be dismissed as unreliable hearsay? ! ! Were the motives of the first Muslim conquerors during the Jihad truly religious in nature or largely mercenary? These disturbing questions, long suppressed throughout the history of Islamic scholarship, are here raised in these erudite and thoroughly researched essays by noted scholars.

I was rather disappointed at this anthology compiled by Ibn Warraq. This spurious anthology of writings on Muhammad and early Islam "can be seen as an implicit criticism of this optimistic view of our historical evidence for the rise of early Islam." From a historians stand point, this book seems to be nothing but a 'revisionist circus." Rather than being a quest, as the title suggests, this work attempts to refute the traditional view and legitimacy of Islam and its founder. Obvious contradictory statements concerning how much historical material is available on the life of Muhammad range from an overwhelming amount to practically none at all. The book, edited by Warraq (Why I Am Not a Muslim), readily admits to the anti-Islamic bias of some of its contributors. For example, Henri Lammens, who authored three chapters, is described as one who had "a holy contempt for Islam." Is Ibn Warraq serious, or is he just trying to cover up for Lammens treatment of the Quran? Henri Lammens himself refers to the Qur'an as an "infinitely shabby journal." The authors presented in this book are very scholarly, and are essential contributors to the study of early Islam. However, given the editors position and agenda (anti-Islamic polemic), this work is not balanced and is sure to cause a good deal of controversy in the Muslim world. As a student of ancient Semitic linguistics, I would state that Ibn Warraq is not qualified nor is he (she?) needed to be our guide in this "Historical Quest."
This is a partisan work compiled by the editor hiding behind the nom de plume of Ibn Warraq (lit. "Son of a copyist"). a name redolent of medieval theological controversies. The editor is clearly courting controversy by indulging in a self-serving, polarizing discourse in his lengthy introduction, which sets the tone for the rest of the book. The introductory radd consists of two essays composed by Ibn Warraq and fellow "zindiq" Ibn Rawandi (another cleverly crafted pseudonym). These two essays contain a recital of the masawi of authors from what I will call the non-rejectionist school, and the maf akhir of authors from what I will call the rejectionist school; Ibn Warraq and Ibn Rawandi zealously endorse the views of the latter school. As is well known to Islamicists, the adherents of the rejectionist school advocate the whole-scale jettisoning of the written classical Islamic sources, primarily dating from the third/ninth century, for reconstructing the history of early Islam. Juxtaposed to them are those scholars from the non-rejectionist school who, in varying degrees, call rather for a critical re-reading of the traditional sources in order to present a credible account of the rise and development of the Muslim polity. The first group, the "Islamic Propagandists" in our editor's constellation, selectively include Montgomery Watt, Fuat Sezgin, Nabia Abbott, Fred Donner, C. H. M. Veersteegh, and Estelle Whelan, while the second group, the "Critical Vanguards," include Henri Lammens, Edward Muir, Patricia Crone, Michael Cook, and John Wansbrough, among others. Our copyist's son clearly has an ideological axe to grind: anyone who revises, refines, challenges, or nuances the arguments of the rejectionist school is depicted as doing so from sinister motives, while those who unequivocally champion its views are understood to be motivated by the purest and most single-minded scholarly devotion to the indefatigable pursuit of Historical Truth. Poor editing, sloppy transliteration, and ad hominen attacks on certain authors from the "enemy" camp, especially Watt, add to the chagrin of the reader. Ibn Warraqs failure to even give a fair account causes him to omit different theories. Some of which seemingly challenges the revisionist position. The works of Uri Rubin and Harold Motzki are not even mentioned. Sadly, the rest of the book is an anthology of previously published essays by Ernest Renan, Henri Lammens (three articles in all), C. H. Becker, Arthur Jeffery, Joseph Schacht, Lawrence I. Conrad (two essays), Andrew Rippin, J. Koren and Y. D. Nevo, and F. E. Peters, all of which in varying ways question traditional interpretations of the rise of Islam and the career of its Prophet, and/or of the composition and growth of specific Islamic corpora: scripture, sira, hadith, tafsir, and [ta.sup.[contains]]rikh. The final section consists of two essays by Herbert Berg and G. R. Hawting that are adulatory assessments of the significance of John Wansbrough's hypotheses for contemporary studies of early Islam.
There is no doubt that many of the above writers have raised pertinent and provocative questions that have been and continue to be debated by scholars in the field. They raise challenges and questions concerning the Islamic origins and the historical position of Muhammad. To give a quick example, the work of F.E. Peters is remarkable and erudite. Unfortunately for "Iby," the consequence of this book is that it simply excludes different views on Islamic origins. Ibn Warraq does not even include a single "non-revisionist" theory, which is unfortunate for a "true" historian. Ibn Warraq lacks the skills to handle Arabic texts properly and assumes that the revisionist position is static. By being a former Muslim, and his choice of scholars while omitting others, causes him to commit the same sin that he accuses Muslims of committing: bias and uncritical reporting. Ibn Warraq also forgets that there is a debate going on as well. But Ibn Warraq is not interested in debate; he wants nothing less than wholesale conversion to his point of view, touted as that of a friqa najiya within the community of scholars of Islam. This kind of triumphalist grandstanding needlessly poisons the atmosphere and stymies efforts to engage in honest scholarly discussion. Ibn Warraq is no authority in the field of Islamic origins. With mentioning that, he should not be taken seriously as our guide to the study. Quite frankly, Ibn Warraq should have never pursued this endeavor, since he will be slapped with being biased because he is a former Muslim. The book overall contains very scholarly essays in which one would benefit from the field. However, to have Iby as our guide to the field is absurd.  

 Classic Islam

Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State edited by Yehuda D. Nevo, Judith Koren (Islamic Studies: Prometheus Books) The study of the 7th-century Arab takeover of the Middle East and of the early decades of Islam has until recently been based almost exclusively on the Muslim sources, which usually provide several conflicting versions of an event, such as when, where, and how a battle was fought or a city surrendered, or who was the commander in a particular engagement. Western scholars who accept the historicity of the Muslim sources have therefore devoted considerable effort to reconstructing the progress of the conquest from the many conflicting and contradictory details reported.

The result is a "Traditional Account" of the Arab Takeover that makes considerable sense; and to formulate a coherent, plausible narrative out of a vast array of conflicting details is quite an achievement. However, it does not demonstrate that any of the conflicting accounts are "true"; and the question, indeed, is not whether the traditions can be moulded to make sense, but whether they are demonstrably historical.

The contemporary and near-contemporary evidence, both literary and material, presents a picture of the Arab takeover of the Middle East, and of the rise of Islam, that is so far removed from that found in the Muslim literature (and in all the other literary sources based on it) that no reconciliation is possible. One is forced to choose between two incompatible paradigms either to reject the main outline of the Traditional Account as history, and to formulate an alternative version based on the contemporary evidence, or to turn a blind eye to the evidence as presented and to work solely within the universe of discourse of the Muslim sources. In the opinion of Yehuda Nevo and Judith Koren, the latter course is the study of literature, not history. Their alternative version derived from the contemporary evidence is the subject of this book. The authors offer new perspectives on such issues as the role of the Byzantine Empire in the rise of the Arab State , the Arabs' initial step away from paganism in the form of "Indeterminate Monotheism," the canonization of the Islamic Scripture, and the historicity of the Arab Prophet. In making their arguments, special attention is paid to semantic analysis of key religious terminology in the Arabic language, including the name Muhammad.  

Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State is weighed a bit towards the speculative side. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, since speculation is often the precursor to further research which leads to a better understanding of the truth. The theory presented in this book pretty much refutes point by point the "Traditional" account of the Muslim incursions into the Palestine/Syria area of what once was the Byzantine empire . They do build a good case, based upon extant contemporaneous information (epigraphic, archaeological, contemporary writers) to support their claim, and indeed most of their evidence is thought-provoking. They sometimes overreach in "fitting" a piece of data into their paradigm - something they repeatedly accuse "Traditional" historians of doing (and rightly so, much of the time). Overall, the information presented is good and the theory seems pretty sound, as long as it is remembered that it IS just a theory, not to be dogmatized into absolute truth as has happened with so much else in the realm of the early origins of Islam.

The book is fairly easily read, the information is presented in a relatively straightforward way, but a fair amount of extraneous information seems to have been added in for filler, which has to be filtered out.

Overall, a good read which provides for a somewhat revolutionary view of the Late Byzantine/Early Islamic period in the Levant . As with most revolutionary ideas, the thesis built by Nevo and Koren will have its detractors, a good thing since this helps to weed out error and move a theory more towards extant reality. Unfortunately, as with some of Nevo's other books, this one has suffered from much attack by Muslims on purely obscurantist religious bases (i.e. the information contradicts the "accepted" Muslim account, and therefore is evil blasphemy against Allah). This sort of detraction has no place in the realm of intellectual discussion, and should probably be rightly dismissed by the seeker of truth.

An Introduction to Modern Arabic by Farhat J. Ziadeh, R. Bayly Winder ( Dover ) Students receive all the necessary tools for learning a complex language in this well-organized introductory manual. Specially designed for those without prior experience in studying foreign languages, its focus is modern literary Arabic, particularly the style employed by newspapers. The authors, experienced teachers of Arabic, begin each chapter with a text embodying the points to be discussed. The simple, narrative-style texts feature a variety of elements from everyday Middle Eastern life. An inductive analysis follows, with a natural progression from specifics to broader generalities. The carefully chosen vocabulary terms are those that arise most often in spoken and written Arabic, and a vocabulary list appears in the appendix.

Understanding the Hadith: The Sacred Traditions of Islam by Ram Swarup (Prometheus Books) Although the non-Muslim world is not as familiar with the Hadith as with the Qur’an, it is the Hadith that is the most important single source of Islamic laws, precepts, and practices. Ever since the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, millions of Muslims have attempted to mimic his dress, diet, hairstyle, toilet mores, and sexual and marital habits in the hope of being more like the man who walked in the ways of Allah. Whether one visits Saudi Arabia or Central Asia , India or Malaysia , Muslims by the millions can be found conforming to the Prophet's views on the veil, polygamy, and ablution.

The Hadith constitutes a voluminous literature. Every word from Muhammad's lips, every nod or shake of his head, every one of his gestures and mannerisms was important to his followers. They remembered these as best they could and passed these "traditions" on from generation to generation.

Using the Sahih Muslim, a massive work consisting of 7,190 traditions divided into 1,243 chapters, Ram Swarup quotes representative selections that touch upon the main tenets of Islamic faith: purification, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, marriage and divorce, crime and punishment, religious wars (jihad), paradise, hell, repentance, and many others.

According to Muslim theologians, Islam is a "complete" and "completed" religion that deals not only with theological matters but also with all aspects of the believer's life. It is equally political and military. It has much to do with statecraft, and it has a very specific view of the world peopled by "infidels" or non-Muslims. Since most of the world is still "infidel," it is very important for those who are not Muslim to understand Islam. Understanding the Hadith provides many insights into the mind-set of the typical Muslim who is raised on these traditions.

Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism by Binyamin Abrahamov (Edinburgh University Press) The principal theological struggle in Islam has taken place between traditionalist theologians and rationalist ones.  Professor Abrahamov examines the foundations of both traditionalism and rationalism in classical Islamic thought, the criticism leveled by each system of thought against the other and the attempts which have been carried out to reconcile reason and tradition.  The materials studied cover the third/ninth century to the tenth/sixteenth century.  

African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters between Sufis and Islamists edited by David Westerlund and Eva Evers Rosander (Ohio University Press) Islamic radicalism is striving to eradicate the mystical and popular forms of Islam.  In some areas of Africa , this is jeopardizing the delicate balance between the many different traditional Islamic orientations.  The majority of African Muslims are traditional Sufis.

African Islam and Islam in Africa examines the various forms of Islam found in contemporary Africa and the clashes between them.  Editors Eva Evers Rosander and David Westerlund. with eleven contributors, analyze in particular the intra-Muslim relationship between Sufis era and Islamists They study ‘his relationship from a regional perspective, as well a,; e themes such as education, gender issues, human rights, the impact of the wider Muslim world on Africa, and the influence of Islam on the secular power structure.

The position of Islam as a religious ideology and as a political and social system in Africa cannot be separated.  Contemporary Islamists are striving to transform society and state by strictly following the legal norms of the sharia (Islamic law).

But is it the people themselves who identify with the sharia, or is it only the elite?  By strictly following the laws of the sharia, the religious chants and incantations that people of different Islamic orientations have been practicing for centuries will be deemed illegal.  However, the rigidness of the contemporary Islamic reformers varies from region to region.  For example, in Nigeria they are requiring the people to learn Arabic in order to study the one true version of the Qur’an (which with the Sunna forms the main basis for the sharia), while in East Africa they are more tolerant of Swahili translations.

Travel to Morocco , Egypt , and Saudi Arabia to attend universities brings an influential group of Africans exposure to the wider Muslim world.  There is also contact through missionaries from the Muslim centers to the periphery of Africa , building schools, mosques and hospitals.

On the whole, Muslim countries pay more attention to the African continent than do western nations.  The fact that many African communities are becoming active participants in the Muslim more world as opposed to the technologically advanced world of the west is a logical result.

The Muslims in Egypt are watched closely by African Muslims, who view Egypt as a politically powerful country close to the center of Mecca .  Although most Muslim Egyptians, known as “mainstreamers,” are actually without strong and specific Islamic convictions, they do give the outward appearance of becoming more Islamic.  Here the boundary between what is publicly and privately permissible in terms of religious practice and tolerable reputation is examined.

Islamism has been exploited for political reasons at the expense of the ancient orders.  In this study, the education system is analyzed as an indicator of religious orientations and the Islamization of tradition and modernity.  Here we see the amount of independence between Sufi leaders and the representatives of the “secular” power, and how this balance of power is affected by the insistent and moralizing presence of the Islamists.

African Islam and Islam in Africa, in probing Muslim plurality, provides a varied picture of how different Islamic orientations have coexisted, interacted, and conflicted.

Ghazaliat by Molana Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha (University Press of America ) Written in the traditional style of love poems, the Ghazatiat is a classic guide to the heart of Sufism.  Evoking the wonderful language of erotic and spiritual love that characterizes the works of the renowned thirteenth century Sufi, Rumi, Professor Angha skillfully unfolds the mysteries of existence by revealing spiritual love at its most profound level, with all its accompanying beauty, ecstasy, and awe: “Like the clouds my being expands / Overhead; and turns into tears; then like a spree/Of budding, blooming, blossoms, with deep delight, I laugh; until such a time that, with the key of Your love/ My heart and soul blossom, to truly strike/ The treasure in the earth!”

Known as Professor Angha to his students, His Holiness Shah Maghsoud Sadegh Angha was the forty-first Sufi Master in an unbroken succession of eminent spiritual teachers dating back to the seventh century.  He revolutionized Sufism, previously accessible to only a select few, by providing the opportunity for study to all who wished.  A prolific writer, he is the author of more than 150 works, which often integrate physics and metaphysics.  

Fundamentalism

Islamic Fundamentalism: An Introduction Revised and Updated Edition by Lawrence Davidson ( Greenwood Press) An updated and expanded look at the religious movement that has had an immeasurable affect on the world. Islam is one of the most rapidly growing religions in the world, and Islamic fundamentalism is one of its more forceful manifestations. It is also one of its least understood. Perhaps because of this, and because of recent terrorist attacks, Islamic fundamentalism is often feared in the West. This book seeks to give a clearer picture of what Islamic fundamentalism is by explaining its history, identifying its adherents over time, and analyzing what Islamic fundamentalists believe and what they want. Using a mixture of essays, biographical portraits, and primary documents, Davidson provides an invaluable overview to this religious, cultural, and political phenomenon. This revision of the acclaimed first edition adds a new chapter examining the causes and effects of terrorism. A historical overview of Islamic fundamentalism begins the book and is followed by essays on The Society of Muslim Brothers, the Iranian revolution and government, the Saudi government, Western perceptions of Islam, and issues of violence and terrorism. A section of biographies follows, including new portraits of Osama bin Laden and Iranian President Khatami. A section of primary documents includes passages from the Quran and various reactions to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States . The volume concludes with an annotated bibliography of print, electronic, and video resources. This fully revised and updated reference resource is much needed in this climate of uncertainty and misunderstanding regarding Islam, Islamic fundamentalism, and the War on Terror.

Islam is one of the most rapidly growing religions in the world, and Islamic fundamentalism is one of its more forceful manifestations. The violent activities and pronouncements of a small number of Islamic fundamen­talists often appear in our newspapers, news magazines, and television reports, yet it is a phenomenon that continues to be little understood. Perhaps because this is so, it is increasingly feared. This book seeks to give a clearer picture of what Islamic fundamentalism is by explaining its history and identifying its adherents over time. It also seeks to analyze what Islamic fundamentalists believe and what they want.

Chapter 1 presents a brief history of the Muslim people, for one of the basic factors shaping the perceptions and goals of all Islamic fundamen­talists is their reading of their common Muslim history. This chapter also describes how Islamic fundamentalists see their contemporary situation and what reforms they want to bring about.

With this foundation laid, Chapter 2 describes the first successful mod­ern Islamic fundamentalist organization, the Society of the Muslim Brothers. In many ways, this organization has inspired most of today's Islamic fundamentalists, as well as providing them with lessons on what can be expected when Islamic reformers come up against hostile and resistant governments.

Chapters 3 and 4 examine two cases of functioning Islamic states. The first is the Islamic Republic of Iran. Established by a revolution in 1979, the subsequent evolution of Iranian society has been influenced not only by the application of strong fundamentalist Muslim norms and values but also by a pronounced anti-Western orientation. The case of Iran is then compared to that of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a nonrevolutionary, conservative society but also of Islamic fundamentalist character. Where Iran is a republic, Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, and where Iran is suspicious of and hostile toward the West, Saudi Arabia's relations with countries such as the United States are strong and stable. These examples are de­signed to let the reader see that Islamic fundamentalism is not a monolithic affair. There are many differences among Islamic fundamentalist move­ments and states in terms of forms of governance, the application of Is­lamic values, and attitudes toward the West.

Chapter 5 presents a review of Western attitudes and perceptions, con­centrating mainly on the issues of democracy and women's rights. These are issues which seem to separate Islamic civilization from the West. The questions are asked: can Islam support democratic values and practices, and can gender equality be achieved within an Islamic context?

Chapter 6 addresses the issues of violence and terrorism, as well as supplying information on various Islamic groups. Many people in the West look at the activities of Islamic fundamentalists with apprehension, and now associate them with violent attacks on the United States. Some even claim that there is little or no room for peaceful relations with movements that often appear to hold values so different from those in the West. Whether this point of view is accurate or exaggerated poses an important question, with serious policy implications for the Western world.

This book also contains a documents section and brief biographies of leading Islamic fundamentalists. The documents give the reader a sample of the writings of a number of Islamic fundamentalists, as well as relevant sections of the Qur’an and sayings of the prophet Muhammad. These serve to illustrate and elaborate on the points and arguments made in the various chapters. The reader is encouraged to become familiar with these docu­ments and refer to them often. The biographies give additional important information on most of the personalities taken up in the chapters, as well as other fundamentalist leaders. As with most historical figures, knowing something of their background can help make their beliefs and actions more understandable.

Finally, the book contains a chronology of events, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography. The reader should briefly go through the chronology as an introduction to the history given in Chapter I . An effort has been made to explain unfamiliar terms as they appear in the text, but heir meanings can also be found in the glossary. A wealth of additional information is available on Islamic fundamentalists, Muslims in general, and the religion of Islam. The bibliography will lead the interested reader to books, videos, and Internet sources that can broaden his or her under­standing of this important subject.

A defense of Islam, and an indictment of religious fundamentalism, addressed to Islamic and Western readers.  

Islamic Fundamentalism and the Doctrine of Jihad by A. J. Abraham (Wyndham Hall Press) Popular and scholarly interest in the phenomenon of Islamic Fundamentalism, as depicted in the media, has continued to grow in intensity. Descriptions of "Islamic Terrorism" from around the world has damaged the image of Islam in the West. This study, sympathetic in tone, discusses the theory of Islamic Fundamentalism and the Doctrine of Jihad, and offers an Islamic alternative from Islam's own past.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the world's three great monotheistic religions originated with the same Semitic High God, and grew to maturity in the embrace of their respective religious communities. Despite their numerous similarities in theory and practice, they grew further apart, unable to clearly acknowledge their evolution from one another or the same God. Indeed, over the centuries, they have parted company.

Judaism considers itself the only true revelation, seeing both Christianity and Islam as either approximations or abominations of its own creed. Christianity maintains that it is the only true faith, claiming that the Jews lost the covenant with God when they rejected the Sonship and divine spiritual nature of Jesus Christ and in the past, Jews and Christians saw the Prophet Muhammad as a "false" prophet. Islam has rejected and denied the total validity of Jewish and Christian scripture seeing them as semi valid or "corrupted" texts that have been distorted over the ages. Islam claims that it is the only valid religion.

Judaism evolved into a national-legal belief system. Christianity remained a universal creed or philosophy with a total focus on God and Jesus Christ and Islam became a political-legal ideology. All three religions have their liberal rationalists and their extreme fundamentalists. This study, however, is only concerned with Islamic fundamentalism.

Which way Islamic society will progress under fundamentalist rule can not be ascertained at this time. We have seen, however, that the Islamic sciences produced a vital force in Europe , influencing western thought in the areas of democracy, socialism and law. That interaction contributed to the creation of modern states.

Today that heritage is being strongly and effectively challenged by Moslem fundamentalists whose views tend to conflict with the cultural evolution of modern societies. Clearly, the fundamentalists are on the upswing seeking to create "Revolutions in Reverse."' In many ways, their activities could be compared with John Calvin's administration in Besel , Switzerland , in 1536, but, perhaps, less democratic. As in Calvin's time, the current trend in Islam may not last forever because the clergy continues to face some opposition within their states. Perhaps they have miscalculated in attempting to implement a literal interpretation of Islam and totally missed the spirit of Islam which is truly viable and innovative.

It is clear that there is much room and need for secular and religious ideas and institutions in the Moslem world and, in fact, the secular and the clerical traditions should compliment one another to enhance the evolution of human rights in Islam. And, it is hoped that as the Moslem world approaches the secular world, Moslem-Christian relations will converge in a spirit of hope, sincerity, and understanding that will surpass the cordiality of the present.  

Islam and the West: Conflict or Cooperation? by Amin Saikal (Palgrave Macmillan) On any given issue of importance, I like a broad overview so that things can be put into the proper perspective. Regarding Islam and the West, this provides that in less than 150 pages. Given the importance of future global political development, such a feat of concise and accurate explanation is remarkable.

From the brief starting point of the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as all descendents of Abraham - (where are we all going wrong in our God-centered beliefs?) to the effect of the Communism vs Free World since WWII mentality, the groundwork is laid to where we are now in US relations and understanding of
Islam. Yet to be determined is how the US is to effectively operate in the future to allow or enable alliances that can bring about more democratic and economic growth and stability in the Middle East , and elsewhere, where Islamic faith is a factor. Given a billion Muslims globally, there is a considerable opportunity for good mutual development in most parts of the globe.

What Amin has done was provide a "need to know" book that should be required reading for anyone who has hopes for a more peaceful and just worldview. Otherwise, the same old issues of hatred and destruction will continue to flame. I am sure that such flaming is not what Abraham and his monotheistic descendents had in mind.

Also, noted by Amin is that there has been centuries of positive and mutual cooperation among the West and Islam. His summary of how we got where we are, coming from a very reputable scholar, as Dr. Saikal is, at least has provided this reader with hope that there are avenues for solutions similar to past cultural relations that enhanced all sides.

His review of different understandings and realizations of "democracy" in our modern world provided a clarity that would have otherwise gotten lost in specific events. The case of Iran 's experiments in democracy is a case in point.

A broad-ranging assessment of relations between the Muslim and Western worlds in the contemporary era set in the context of the way these have evolved historically. Arguing that the relations have been marked by long periods of peaceful coexistence, but also by many instances of tension, hostility, and mutual recrimination, Amin Saikal assesses the impact of the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict, the consequences of the Iranian revolution and of the wars in the Gulf and Afghanistan , and charts a course for future coexistence.

The Future of Political Islam by Graham E. Fuller (Palgrave Macmillan) September 11; vitriolic rhetoric against the United States by prominent Muslims; the war against terrorism shifts from Afghanistan to the Philippines and Indonesia . It is easy to believe Islam and Muslims are enemies of the West; it is also wrong.

This sweeping survey of trends in the Muslim world contends that the issue is not whether Islam plays a central role in politics, but what Muslims want. To focus on radicalism and extremism blinds us from another trend: liberal political Islam.

Proponents of liberal political Islam emphasize human rights and democracy, tolerance and cooperation. They face an uphill struggle as authoritarian regimes oppress opposition and use Islam to justify their undemocratic rule. As people are denied avenues to participate and criticize, as secular ideologies have failed, religion has come to play a central role in politics. The outcome of the struggle between extremists and liberals will determine the future of political Islam.

Fuller has written an illuminating and important book on the relationship between Islam, a religion, and Islamism, a "religous-cultural-political framework for engagement on issues." Most Americans, it would seem, associate Muslims with fanatic bomb-throwers. Fuller points out the diversity of Islam and its adherents and examines some of the reasons why Muslim states and political movements are so often failures in the modern world -- when 1,000 years ago they were in the vanguard of civilization.

Amidst many other ideas, Fuller cites, from a UN study, three crisis areas for the Arab world. Lack of political freedom, low level of education, and the low social status of women. He postulates a choice among Islamists. They can continue to ossify or they can find ways to use Islam constructively to confront these crisis areas. This is the challenge of Islam, and the challenge of the U.S. and the West is to help ensure that the choice is the latter and not the former.

In his last chapter, Fuller gives two scenarios for the future. One is dark, foreseeing continued conflict between political Islam and the West; the other is more hopeful.

The best parts of the book in my view are Fuller's insights into what the U.S. might do to encourage the more liberal Islamists. These include a just solution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and support for positive movements in the Islamic world. It hardly seems in the U.S. national interest to have the Muslim world as an antagonist and thus this book is worth a careful reading for its insights and its policy suggestions.

After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy by Noah Feldman (Farrar Straus & Giroux) What comes after jihad? Outside the headlines, believing Muslims are increasingly calling for democratic politics in their undemocratic countries. But can Islam and democracy successfully be combined? Surveying the intellectual and geopolitical terrain of the contemporary Muslim world, Noah Feldman proposes that Islamic democracy is indeed viable and desirable, and that the West, particularly the United States , should work to bring it about, not suppress it.

Encouraging democracy among Muslims threatens America 's autocratic Muslim allies, and raises the specter of a new security threat to the West if fundamentalists are elected. But in the long term, the greater threat lies in continuing to support repressive regimes that have lost the confidence of their citizens. By siding with Islamic democrats rather than the regimes that repress them, the United States can bind them to the democratic principles they say they support, reducing anti-Americanism and promoting a durable peace in the Middle East .

After Jihad gives the context for understanding how the many Muslims who reject religious violence see the world after the globalization of democracy. It is also an argument about how American self-interest can be understood to include a foreign policy consistent with the deeply held democratic values that make America what it is. At a time when the encounter with Islam has become the dominant issue of U.S. foreign policy, After Jihad provides a road map for making democracy work in a region where the need for it is especially urgent.

Young Professor Noah Feldman is the latest high profile academic evangelist for "Islamic Democracy". I believe his apologetics regarding the application of the Shari'a (Islamic Holy Law), past, present, and potentially in the future, are delusional and corrosive.

My major concerns are the following:

(I) A completely uncritical acceptance of the most sanitized, sacralized version of "classical" Islamic history, from Muhammad's consolidation of control over Arabia , through the extensive jihad conquests of Asia , Africa , and Europe

Feldman's writings are disturbingly reminiscent of Professor John Esposito's presentations, which suffer from these inappropriate biases, as lucidly described by the scholar Bat Ye'or: 1) historical negationism, consisting of suppressing or sketching in a page or a paragraph, one thousand years of jihad which is presented as a peaceful conquest, generally "welcomed" by the vanquished populations; 2) the omission of Christian and, in particular, Muslim sources describing the actual methods of these conquests, and the rule of the conquered peoples, as sanctioned by the classical jihad ideology written by numerous Muslim jurists since the 7th century: pillage, enslavement, deportation, massacres, and the imposition of dhimmitude ; 3) the mythical historical conversion of "centuries" of "peaceful coexistence", masking the processes which transformed majorities (i.e., vast Christian populations, in particular) into minorities, constantly at risk of extinction

(II) Moral equivalences that range from the deliberately disingenuous, to the frankly absurd; just a few examples:

· The contemporary Anglican Church is deemed comparable to those Shi'ite clerics (including, one must assume Khomeini disciples) calling for the creation of an Islamic state in Iraq

· The application of Halachic law in Israel is highlighted trying (most unpersuasively) to argue that the imposition of Shari'a would be no worse- an utterly absurd comparison given the truly circumscribed application of Halachic Law in Israel, relative to the far reaching repression of basic rights for all women and all non-Muslims under Shari'a law, or Shari'a-inspired law in Muslim countries, or even Muslim-dominated provinces (eg., in Northern Nigeria) that apply the Shari'a

· Apologism for barbaric huddud punishments (stoning to death for adultery; mutilation for theft) under the Shari'a

· Non-sequitur discussion of the "limitations" of the U.S. Bill of Rights without any serious discussion of the fact that true freedom of conscience, including full protection according to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, simply does not exist in any of the 55 countries of the Organization of Islamic States, while many are in egregious violation of its provisions

This warped historiography and unacceptable moral equivalence are melded in a clumsy, callow manner yielding roseate, if not downright reckless predictions about the presumed actions of so-called "Islamist-democrats". Indeed, the bizarre concept of "Islamist-democrats" epitomizes the profoundly flawed premises of Feldman's analyses. He specifically cites SheikhYusuf Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the influential Muslim Brotherhood as an example of such an "Islamist-democrat", calling him "complex". Again, this is eerily reminiscent of John Esposito's utterly discredited reasoning. During a January, 1998 interview - Sheikh Qaradawi stated his beliefs, using unfettered Medieval terminology, that Islamic law divided the People of the Book - Jews and Christians - into three categories: 1) non-Muslims in the lands of war; 2) non-Muslims in lands of temporary truce; 3) non-Muslims protected by Islamic law, that is to say, the dhimmis. Sheikh al-Qaradawi, made it clear that Islamic law had established different rules for each of these categories. The good Sheikh had thus summarized concisely the theory of jihad war (unfortunately ignored by Feldman, Esposito, and their ilk) which regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims.

Feldman also appears to have great faith in disgruntled "former" Islamists who now profess to be "liberal Muslims"- at least in their writings. One such example is the Iranian writer Abdolkarim Soroush who previously participated in the forced Islamization of Iranian universities under Ayatollah Khomeini. But, perhaps most telling, is that Feldman provides no analysis of the human rights tragedy engendered by the failed Iranian theocracy, and its experimentation with Shari'a-inspired, "culturally authentic" Islamic democracy. We must hope that the scholarly insights of Professor Reza Afshari, an Iranian secularist,will penetrate Feldman's hubris. At any rate, this excerpt from the Preface, p. xvi, to Afshari's "Human Rights in Iran -The Abuse of Cultural Relativism", should be required reading for Feldman:

"...Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran has presented an almost perfect case. Who is more culturally and religiously authentic than the Ayatollah's? Who is more credible to say what relevance Shiite culture has or does not have for the major issues of our time? The issue is not Islam as a private faith of individuals. It is about what state officials claiming Islamic authority might have to say about the state's treatment of citizens. Islamic cultural relativism in human rights discourse addresses Islamic cultural preferences for the articulation of public policies within the contemporary state. In Iran , liberal Muslims or any other new interpreters of Islam did not come to power. When and if they do, we will have their record to examine. What we have from liberal Muslims today are only ideological claims punctuated by expressed good intentions. A sector of the traditional custodians of religion, the ulema, politicizing Islam did come to power; therefore it is logical to assume what we faced in the 1980s and 1990s was the result of Shiite Islam (at least an authentic version of it) injecting itself into the politics of a contemporary state. They created a record of what the "culturally authentic" rulers did. The Western cultural relativists deserve to know the details of that record...."

Militant Islam Reaches America by Daniel Pipes (W.W. Norton) One of the most far-reaching examinations of militant Islam written to date. Militant Islam Reaches America looks at the changing world since September 11. While some of the essays here were penned before that tragedy, all deal with the rise of Muslim militancy, and how the West should respond.

Long before September 11, Daniel Pipes publicly warned Americans that militant Islam had gone to war against America . Drawing on his thirty years of intensive research on Islam, he shows the vital distinction between the faith of Islam and the ideology of militant Islam. Among his findings: militant Islam has much in common with fascism and communism; about one in every eight Muslims worldwide supports militant Islam; 70,000 Al-Qaeda accomplices remain at large in over fifty countries; Michael Jackson and Madonna are, in the eyes of militant Islam, "cultural terrorists" who should be brought to trial; militant Islamic groups have raised $1.3 million for the defense of indicted murder suspect Jamil Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown). Militant Islam Reaches America is one of the important and readable books about the grave issues that now confront America .

Pipes begins by arguing that militant Muslims, or Islamists, do not represent all followers of Islam. The good news is they only comprise, at tops, fifteen per cent of the total. The bad news is, with one billion Muslims, 150 million are extremists. It is the Islamists that are the real threat, says Pipes, not traditional Muslims.

Pipes provides the historical backdrop for this new militancy. For their first six centuries, Muslims enjoyed huge success. By the 13th century however decline set in, and for the next six centuries they found themselves heading to the bottom of world affairs, as power and wealth slowly ebbed away. The loss of their golden age, and their sense of alienation and frustration resulted in three recent responses.

Secularism, the first response, is seen in countries such as Turkey . The second option, reformism, meant trying to live with the West. The third option, Islamism, is the focus of this book. Militant Islam seeks to reclaim its golden age, wants the total imposition of Shari'a law, and rejects completely Western influences.

Pipes shows that Islamism is in fact a radical, utopian ideology, of the same mould as Marxism-Leninism or fascism. It is totalitarian in nature, and seeks salvation in political power, not individual religion. Whenever Islamists take power, as in Iran , Sudan and Afghanistan , a bloody tyranny results.

Pipes argues that most traditional Muslims disagree with the premises of the Islamists. This is reflected in part by the fact that often traditional Muslims are the main victims of militant Islam. Algeria is a good case in point, with tens of thousands of Algerians killed (compared to some 80 foreigners).

Since its ascendancy almost three decades ago, Islamism has become they main threat to freedom and democracy. It seeks global hegemony, just as past ideologies did. Fueled by fanaticism and hatred, militant Islam has become the new focus of evil in the world.

There are two main ways in which Islamists can achieve their goal of world dominion: revolution or integration. The latter comes in the form of immigration to the West, high birth rates, and conversion. All three means are resulting in rising Muslim populations in most Western nations.

The other option, bloody struggle, is something the West is becoming all too familiar with. Suicide bombers and terrorist cells are active around the world, and this threat is one all Western governments must come to terms with. Indeed, Pipes shows how militant Islam has been targeting Americans well before September 11.

Pipes sees some hope, however. Muslim unity has often been seen as an oxymoron, with the Iraq-Iran conflict being but one example. Another issue is how moderate Islam deals with the threat. If modernism is embraced and Western values are seen as compatible with Islam, then the fanatical arm may be contained. But it is by no means clear in which direction the majority of Muslims will move in the future. It is Muslims themselves, argues Pipes, not the West, who will determine the outcome of this post-Cold War ideological battle.

Pipes also writes about Muslims living in the US . There may be 2 or 3 million of them there. Pipes argues that on every front, the US is doing all it can to be hospitable to Muslims. There is a de facto affirmative action mentality in place, with schools, governments, the media, even the military, all fearful of showing any disrespect for Muslims.

Tolerance and respect of course are in order, argues Pipes, but in many ways Muslims are being given preferential treatment, so much so that the US government has become "a discreet missionary for the faith. Without anyone quite realizing it, the resources of the federal government have been deployed to help Muslims spread their message." Pipes documents numerous examples of just how this is in fact happening.

Pipes argues that if Islamists get their way in Western nations, freedom of speech concerning Islam and militant Islam would all but cease. It is becoming increasingly difficult to say anything which might be regarded as critical of Islam.

Pipes briefly examines the question of whether Islamism and jihad are an integral part of Islam, or a distortion of it. He recognises that Islam, like all great religions, is made up of different schools and is subject to varieties of interpretation, "from the mystical to the militant, from the quietist to the revolutionary. Its most basic ideas have been susceptible of highly contrasting explications."

Thus Pipes sees a battle for the soul of Islam being waged, with moderates and militants competing for dominance. But he sees terroristic jihad against the West as but "one reading of Islam ... not the eternal essence of Islam".

He argues that if half the population of the Muslim world hates America , the other half does not. It is to these more moderate Muslims that the West must work with, along with its own Muslim populations, to see that the radical Islamists do not prevail. The struggle will be long and difficult, says Pipes, but an Islamist victory is by no means certain.  

Islamic, Hindu, and Christian Fundamentalism Compared: Public Policy in Global Perspective edited by Santosh C. Saha, Thomas K. Carr (Studies in Religion and Society, V. 61: Edwin Mellen Press) On September 11, 2001, a band of zealots who were acting, at least in part, on religious conviction brought a powerful nation to a standstill with devastating attacks on its preeminent symbols of wealth and military might. This event, along with similar other events in recent history, underlines the socio-political power of religious fundamentalism, and therefore the need for a deeper understanding of this increasingly widespread phenomenon.

Any longstanding religious tradition may experience outcroppings of the fundamentalist impulse, the desire to return to some imagined pristine social and cultural state by rigid adherence to a set of beliefs and practices deemed central, or fundamental, to that faith. This impulse has appeared most often and most clearly in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, the three "religions of the book," all of which appeal to authoritative scriptures and traditions to validate their struggle with modernity and pluralism. But as the following essays demonstrate, fundamentalism is not an exclusive property of Western religion; it properly belongs to all religious traditions and histories.

One can hardly read a weekly news magazine without encountering the term "fundamentalist" with reference to some group active on the world stage. In fact, the popularity of the term is part of the problem. Several scholars have noted the difficulty inherent in using an imprecise term like "fundamentalism" to describe groups as different as the Christian Coalition and the Nation of Islam.

In his 1992 work, Secularization and Fundamentalism Reconstructed, Jeffrey K. Hadden has identified four types of fundamentalism. First, theological fundamentalism denotes the theological and philosophical effort concerned to defend traditional religious doctrine over and against modern thinking. Political fundamentalism is a combination of theological fundamentalism and the personal commitments of religious adherents to combat what are understood to be socially accepted vices. These two types of fundamentalism combine to form a caricature of culturally unenlightened individuals bent on preserving tradition at the expense of progress, what Hadden calls cultural fundamentalism. The political activity engaged in by fundamentalists invites comparison to other religiously motivated groups around the world. Accordingly, global fundamentalism as a phenomenon denotes a kind of linked network of religiously motivated, politically active groups that exist in a variety of religious traditions. It is this last form on which the following essays primarily focus.

Given the many disparate uses of the concept, it is not surprising that fundamentalism has not been easy to define. Several recent works are helpful in developing a conceptual understanding of the phenomenon. One such work is the 1995 book by Bruce Lawrence, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age. Lawrence defines fundamentalism as:

the affirmation of religious authority as holistic and absolute, admitting of neither criticism nor reduction; it is expressed through the collective demand that specific creedal and ethical dictates derived from scripture be publicly recognized and legally enforced.

Lawrence argues here that fundamentalism is a specific kind of religious ideology intended to issue in public policy change. It is antimodern, but not antimodernist. In other words, it rejects the philosophical rationalism and individualism that accompany modernity, but it takes full advantage of certain technological advances that also characterize the modern age. The most consistent denominator of all forms of fundamentalism, argues Lawrence , is opposition to Enlightenment values. Lawrence believes that fundamentalism is a world-wide phenomenon and as such it must be compared in various contexts before it can be understood or explained with any clarity.

Lawrence ends his general discussion by listing five "family resemblances" common to fundamentalism in all its various forms.

1. Fundamentalists are self-consciously advocates of a minority viewpoint. They

see themselves as a righteous remnant. Even when they numerically comprise

the majority, they perceive themselves as a minority;

2. They are oppositional and confrontational towards both secularists and

"wayward" religious followers;

3. they are primarily led by charismatic males;

4. They generate their own technical vocabulary intended to be available only to

insiders: and

5. Fundamentalism has historical antecedents, but no ideological precursor.

Complementing Lawrence 's work is the 5-volume series edited by Martin Marty and Scott Appleby, The Fundamentalism Project. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences funded the multiyear project which brought scholars from around the world together to study fundamentalism. Ultimately they produced nearly 8,000 pages of material. Admitting some difficulty with the term, the project opts to use it anyway for a variety of reasons. The last chapter of Volume 1, "Fundamentalisms Observed," expands on Lawrence 's discussion of "family resemblances" among the varieties of fundamentalisms. These family resemblances include:

1. religious idealism as the basis for personal and communal identity;

2. fundamentalists understand truth to be revealed and unified;

3. they intentionally scandalous and/or obscurantist (similar to Lawrence 's point

about language – outsiders cannot understand it);

4. fundamentalists envision themselves as part of a cosmic struggle;
5. they seize on historical moments and reinterpret them in light of this cosmic struggle;

6. they demonize their opposition and are reactionary vis-a-vis the prevailing culture;

7. they are selective in what parts of their tradition and heritage they stress;

8. fundamentalists are led largely by charismatic males;

9. and they tend to oppose modernist, cultural hegemony and striving to overturn the distribution of power.

As the Fundamentalism Project suggests, and as the following essays narrate in detail, fundamentalism is an attempt to draw upon a religious tradition to cope with and reshape a rapidly changing world. Fundamentalists are commonly individuals who feel threatened by urbanization, industrialization, the rise of scientific cosmologies, sociologies and psychologies, and the modern secular values that attend these social transformations. Typically, fundamentalist beliefs are tied to political conservatism and authoritarian policy-making. The fundamentalist strategy tends not only to reject any accommodation, but also to propose a constructive, utopian vision for reconstructing society.

In the essays enclosed in this volume, which seek to make explicit the connections between religious fundamentalism and religiously motivated efforts to effect change in both social norms and public policy, we learn of several trends within the fundamentalist phenomenon that nicely complement the efforts of Marty 's and Appleby's multi-volume project. We learn, first, that the messianic or apocalyptic teachings of many fundamentalist religious groups include the idea of political domination of a state (or even the world) by their membership. Believers in such groups are often taught that the ideal of future greatness and domination can compensate for their current deprivation and persecution. In some cases, adherents translate messianic visions into plans for political action. In this process the religious ideology of fundamentalism transforms itself into a political ideology which seeks embodiment in populist political movements. By contrast to secularization, which calls for the separation of religion and politics, fundamentalism looks to the resacralization of politics and, conversely, the politicization of religion.

We learn further that fundamentalist movements often present a telling critique of late capitalist society, which they portray as being composed of alienated, atomistic, selfish individuals, engaged in the obsessive pursuit of pleasure without heed for its consequences. Fundamentalist ideologies boldly critique modernity and what are understood as its socially devastating consequences – materialism, greed, tolerance for uncontrolled sexualities, decline of family ties, drug abuse and urban crime. This cultural aspect accounts for some of the breadth of the fundamentalist appeal. The deprivations and stresses of modernity, be they economic, psychological, or cultural, feed fundamentalist movements as the crisis of global capitalism is felt in both center and periphery nation-states. As a solution to modernity's alienation and dislocation, fundamentalism prescribes a commitment to traditional gender-roles, family values, physical abstemiousness, and religiously cohesive communal structures. The fundamentalist ideology often appears in collectivist and populist guise – individual rights are seen as secondary to the interests of the community. Fundamentalists call for reversing the historical course of secularization and modernity, and recreating a pre-modern, (or pre-colonial) idealized past.

We learn in what follows, thirdly, that fundamentalism thrives in conditions of economic and social crisis. In countries on the periphery of the industrialization movement in particular, fundamentalism has often arisen where secular, authoritarian governments have held power and failed. In these circumstances, fundamentalism arises as an alternative project, and its anti-modern ideology assumes wide appeal because of its similarity to the ideology of anti-imperialism and the hostility to Western domination. In some cases, as we will read, fundamentalism has been supported and exploited by foreign countries in their efforts to influence local or regional politics.

Fourthly, the essays collected here demonstrate that politically charged fundamentalism tends to reject and oppose liberal democracy, proposing in its stead an elite ruling class made up of religious leaders or leaders sanctioned by the established religious authority. Fundamentalist regimes are authoritarian because a religious state must follow the religious authority invested in the clergy who alone can interpret the scriptures. Some may describe this as totalitarian, because religious law – whether it be the Hindu dharma, the Islamic sharia, the Jewish torah or the Christian logos – is applied to all aspects of life.

We are told, fifthly, that fundamentalism is inclined to suppress the rights of other religions or secular forces in society and even to organize violence against them. In India , for example, Hindu fundamentalist movements have attacked Muslims and burned mosques. In Israel , Jewish fundamentalists have demanded religious-based laws and practices (closing down all public transportation on the shabbath, for example) and some have violently attacked Palestinians. In the United States , fundamentalists have demanded religious prayers in public schools, demanded (successfully) the banning of evolution as a required part of public school curricula, and have been involved in the killing of doctors practicing abortions. Fundamentalists have supported the suppression of a women's right to work, vote and hold public office, and have encouraged the public outcry against the tolerance of homosexuality and those involved in new religious movements.

A looming question that underlines the studies collected below can be stated as follows: have fundamentalist-led movements and regimes, which seek to reverse secularization and to create a resacralization of the socio-political sphere, succeeded in their goal? In a few cases, and in the short term, the answer may be yes. But over the longer term, most evidence suggests they have not succeeded. Even where fundamentalism appears to have triumphed, its success has been transitory and based on a population still deeply religious and not yet secularized. As recent cases such as Iran and Afghanistan demonstrate, even when a fundamentalist clergy controls political power for several decades, they cannothold back secularizing trends. Eventually the demos opts for a more open and tolerant kind of politics, pushing religion back towards a more restricted, more

private sphere.

Fundamentalism may not be as potent a force as some thought in the 1980s,

but it remains an important religious, social and political phenomenon. In a world of wrenching change and uncertainty, millions of people will continue to turn to fundamentalist movements in their search for a more secure and morally-grounded social order. It is to the understanding of these movements in their historical and present incarnations that this collection of essays is devoted.

This edited volume by Professors Santosh C. Saha and Thomas K. Carr contains an eclectic study of over ten very lively and useful topics, which should be of unlimited importance to students and teachers-cum-researchers, who have interdisciplinary interests. From the introduction to the ten chapters, readers should find an assortment of topics, within the realm of several aspects of fundamentalism, all of which enliven and inform on the study of religiosity within the contexts of ideologies of varied persuasions.

Although there are several other astute and scholarly contributors to this significant volume, it is remarkable that co-editors Saha and Carr also provided two separate penetrating chapters (1-2) to the study, apart from the excellent introduction, in which they described the perpetrators of the sad and unfortunate September 11, 2001 bombings in America as "a band of zealots." What the two scholars have sought to do, as well, is to provide their readers with a transparent interpretation of the use of the terminologies ("fundamentalist", in its humanistic terms, and "fundamentalism", as a subject-matter) which, to them, is still "with reference to some group [that is] active on the world stage."

Superbly, Professors Saha and Carr have also painstakingly provided their readers with a forceful re-interpretation of the four types of fundamentalism that, in 1952, J.K. Hadden espoused in his own study. The four are listed as theological fundamentalism; political fundamentalism; cultural fundamentalism; and, indeed, global fundamentalism.

Furthermore, Saha and Carr advance the argument further by relying on a very recent source -- thus, Bruce Lawrence's 1995 study -- from which they provide a succinct definition of fundamentalism. To Lawrence , fundamentalism should be looked upon as "a specific kind of religious ideology intended to issue in public policy change." The co-editors also show how some scholars, including Lawrence , reject "the philosophical rationalism and individualism that accompany modernity...."

Apart from religious fundamentalism, readers have been treated to the secular aspects, which include the communist and the political types (i.e. as it pertains to warfare and politics in Lebanon ). Economic and social theorists should, therefore, find a lot to cheer about in this study, as Professors Saha and Carr have shown that, in totality, fundamentalism thrives in conditions of economic and social crisis, and that in certain situations -- including in countries on the periphery —fundamentalism, as the co-editors pointed out unequivocally, "has often risen where secular, authoritarian governments have held power and failed."

We learn from the various studies provided in this very readable and essential volume that although fundamentalism, in the words of Professors Saha and Carr, may not be a potent force as some people thought of it in the 1980s, it is still expected to remain, albeit, an important religious, social and political phenomenon. Above all, since many men and women are, as well, expected to turn to fundamentalism in today's world, the knowledgeable contributors to the volume are correct in their overall assessment -- provided thematically and buttressed by the contentions of the co-editors — that "millions of people will continue to turn to fundamentalist movements in their search for a more secure and morally-grounded social order." If so, it is imperative that all of us have a duty to take the time to peruse the excellent essays provided in this book in orderto have the fullest grasp of what fundamentalism, in its octopus variety and

definitions, really means in our day.

Without reservation, we commend the co-editors and the contributors for such an excellent discourse that illuminates our path to a true understanding of all aspects of fundamentalism. In the end, the existing scholarship on the subject should benefit tremendously from such a great volume, which does not mince words where fundamentalism is concerned.

The Malady of Islam by Abdelwahab Meddeb (Basic Books) In this impassioned, erudite, and deeply moving book, Abdelwahab Meddeb, born and raised in Tunis and now living in Paris, details the breadth and scope of the Arab intellectual tradition and dismantles common preconceptions held by the Islamic and Western worlds. He describes the growing resentment between the West and the Islamic world as being due, in large part, to Islam's drift away from its own pluralist tradition. Tracing the history of the "conquering" of the Arab world by the West, he provides a detailed history of the ways in which Islamic fundamentalism has come to compensate for Western dominance. Directly addressing the terrorist attacks of September 11, he challenges us to reconsider the presumption that the gulf between the Islamic world and the West is too wide to breach.

The "malady" of Islam lies in its alienation from the West and the corrosive influence that fundamentalism has wrought. This book is a correction of the historical record, a passionate description of the best of Islamic thought and culture, and an absolutely necessary read for those seeking a better understanding not only of Islam but also ourselves.

Najd Before the Salafi Reform Movement: Social Political and Religious Conditions During the Three Centuries Preceding the Rise of the Saudi State by Uwaidah M. Al Juhany (Ithaca Press) In the middle of the 12th/18th century, a religious reform movement arose in al-Digiyyah, a small town in Najd, Central Arabia. Founded by Shaykh Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, and politically and militarily supported by Muhammad Ibn Sa'ud, the chief of al-Dig iyyah, this movement, known as the Salafiyya, called for a return to the pure and original teachings of the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. In the later decades of the century, it spread to other parts of Najd, and by the death in 1229/1814 of its third political leader, Sauud Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, it controlled most of Arabia except for the Yaman and 'Uman, producing a formidable state that unified Arabia and imposed peace and order on its people for the first time since the early caliphs of Islam.

Despite the central role it has played in the creation of modern Saudi Arabia, the social, political, and religious conditions which led to the emergence of Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's Salafi movement are not well understood. They also present something of a historical puzzle, for the Najd of the pre-Salafis was not a center of religious learning, nor did it contain the kind of large urban communities which might be expected to produce such a movement.

In this pioneering book Professor Al Juhany brings skilful and painstaking scholarship to bear on the scant and often difficult sources available for the study of Najd during the three centuries preceding the rise of the Salafis. The result is a fascinating historical narrative that reveals phenomenal developments in the spheres of nomadic migration, settlement, the growth of the sedentary population, and the growth of religious learning, all of which combined to produce a new society, which had new prospects and expectations, by the middle of the 12th/18th century.  

Al-Yamama in the Early Islamic Era by Abdullah Al Askar (Ithaca Press) Al-Yamama, the ancient name of a region of the Arabian peninsula which is thought to have roughly coincided with today's administrative district of a]-Riyadh, was from the sixth/seventh century CE until the end of the Umayyad caliphate the centre of a diverse economy and thriving local culture.

This fascinating book documents the little known historical geography and political development of al-Yamama in the pre-Islamic era, drawing together a wealth of information on its geography, ecology, population, settlement patterns, economy and history.

Professor al-Askar argues that a marked regional identity emerged among the people of al-Yamama during this period and persisted until its economic productivity seriously declined in the third/ninth century, and the region lost much of its population. This identity owed a great deal to the ecology of al-Yamama, its economic structure, as well as to its control of trans-peninsular trade routes, which brought its population into frequent contact with Persians to the East and Hijazis to the West, and allowed them to perceive the cultural differences between themselves and their neighbours. Its existence also helps our understanding of political movements in al-Yamama such as the attempt by the Banu Hanifa to establish a state, the reign of King Hawdha b. 'Ali, the false prophet Musaylima's attempt to establish a theocratic state and, much later, the Kharijite revolt of Najda b. 'Amir.  

Other Religions

Jewish-Muslim Encounters: History, Philosophy, and Culture by Charles Selengut (Paragon House) is authored by a wide range of distinguished Muslim and Jewish scholars, including philosophers, historians, political scientists, and theologians. The essays examine the Muslim-Jewish encounter in history, philosophy, religious thought, and cultural life, as well as theological and religious elements from these traditions. The essays reveal the complex history of Islam and Judaism, and the interconnectedness of the two traditions.

Among the contributors, Lawrence Kaplan, a world famous Maimonides scholar, explores philosophical and theological links between the two traditions in his essay on the significant influence of the Arabic philosopher Al-Farabi on Moses Maimonides. Abdullah Noorudeen Durkee's essay paves the way for theological dialogue with his innovative notion of "multiple truths" and Irfan Ahmad Khan's essay shows the historical interconnectedness of the traditions in his treatment of the Koranic portrait of Moses. Charles Selengut and Yigal Carmon explore the critical theological issues at the root of religious violence in the Middle East .

The contributors include Prof. Lawrence Kaplan, Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan, Ms. Janice Rosen, Dr. Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Dr. Gilbert Kahn, Mr. Yigal Carmon, Dr. Rowena Hernandez Musquiz, Dr. Richard L. Rubenstein, Prof. Mustansir Mir, Prof. Sulaman Nyang and Abdullah Noorudeen Durkee.

  Sociology of Religion

Faith, Freedom, and the Future: Religion in American Political Culture edited by Charles W. Dunn, Jennifer W. Appel (Rowman & Littlefield) No subject arouses more passionate controversy than faith and freedom. From the rise of Islam and terrorism to the demise of America 's religious traditions, faith and freedom cut to the heart and soul of America and her position in the world. The issues spawned by faith and freedom spark untold controversies about our perception of history and our vision for the future. Recognizing the importance of faith and freedom to America 's future, Grove City College held a lecture series inviting renown scholars to discuss the intersection between religion and politics. Faith, Freedom, and the Future is the culmination of those lectures, including essays by James H. Billington, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Mark A. Noll, Marvin Olasky, George Marsden, Robert P. George, Michael J. Behe, and George Weigel. Addressing the issues from a wide variety of perspectives, Faith, Freedom, and the Future is essential reading for all interested in exploring the role of faith in public institutions.

Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion, Seventh Edition by Ronald L. Johnstone (Prentice Hall) for undergraduate students who have completed a general sociology course. First published in 1975 and here updated from the 1992 edition to encompass such phenomena as fundamentalism, the relationship between religion and politics, women's changing roles in churches, developments in the Catholic and black churches, and the growth of conservative and liberal churches. Also interprets recent attendance data. This book offers a sound analysis of religion as a social institution that is interdependent and in constant interaction with other societal units. It helps readers understand the role and function of religion in society that occur regardless of anyone's claims about the truth or falsity of religious systems. Balanced and unbiased, it shows the sociology of religion as a subject that is rich and bountiful. The focus is on American religious institutions, but includes many examples of the interaction of religion and society in other cultures both historic and contemporary; readers will encounter major discussions of Islam and other non-Western religions. For sociologists, clergy, and researchers in the fields of religion and religious studies

Religion, Law and the Role of Force: A Study of Their Influence on Conflict and on Conflict Resolution by Joseph I. Coffey, Charles T. Mathewes (Transnational) (PAPERBACK) debates an issue that mankind has always found troubling. Should religion-any religion-authorize the use of force by one people against another? If so, for what causes and in what ways? Scholars from the three Abrahamic traditions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism have contributed their views on a reality that is evident in conflicts endangering the world today. They have been joined by others asking to what extent the rule of law has superceded or modified religious tenets and imposed more stringent restrictions on the resort to arms and whether there is, in doctrine on the use of force, parallel thinking about self-imposed restraints. By focusing attention on three of the factors influ­encing policy choices and policy outcomes in this new and troubled world the contributors hope to alemorate the worst forms of extreamism and polarization. The editors: Dr. Joseph I. Coffey, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and is Director of the Program on Religion and Conflict Resolution at the Tanenbaum Center, and Dr. Charles T. Mathewes, Visiting Fellow, Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, under the auspices of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, ­have commissioned the chapters from academicians, analysts, policymakers, and theologians.

The essays in Religion, Law and the Role of Force discuss the Limits of War and Conflict Resolution under Judaism; The Use and Abuse of Jihad in the Muslim World; Humanitarian Intervention Post September 11; The Law of Nations; Changing the Practices of Statecraft; Operational Aspects; and Conflict, Strategy, and Ethics. They examine, in Part I, the ways in which religion, law and force work to generate, to curb and to help put an end to armed conflict. Next there is focus, in Part II, upon religions potential impact on the resolution of intra-state conflicts; and, in Part III considers the results of these essays inquiry, with particular ref­erence to their implications for policies that propose to achieve "peace with justice" through the use of force.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the first significant assault on mainland America in almost 200 years, had a drastic impact on both public thinking and public policy. For one, they shattered the "myth of invulnerability" that had persisted even during the Cold War, leaving peo­ple searching for reassurance. For another, they prompted the govern­ment to declare that the Cold War doctrines of deterrence and containment are largely irrelevant and that new threats require new thinking about defense policy. According to President George W. Bush, the gravest dan­ger is that even weak states and small groups could attain a catastrophic power to strike great nations with weapons of mass destruction; assur­ance that this threat can be blocked will require building up homeland defense, "transforming the military" and adopting a new strategy of strik­ing first at potential attackers.'

As Mr. Bush pointed out, these are not the only elements of a revised security policy, which will include gathering broad coalitions to promote peace, preventing the spread of violence and working for a just and peace­ful world---aspirations whose achievement will require a truly compre­hensive approach to the formulation of that policy. Many factors will enter into that formulation, ranging from definitions of the threat to definitions of justice, from determination of the measures needed to quell terrorism to selection of those required to promote regional security.