Sufism Knysh, Alexander
2017, 2017., 20171031, 2017-10-31
eBook
A pathbreaking history of Sufism, from the earliest centuries of Islam to the present. After centuries as the most important ascetic-mystical strand of Islam, Sufism saw a sharp decline in the ...twentieth century, only to experience a stunning revival in recent decades. In this comprehensive new history of Sufism from the earliest centuries of Islam to today, Alexander Knysh, a leading expert on the subject, reveals the tradition in all its richness. Knysh explores how Sufism has been viewed by both insiders and outsiders since its inception. He examines the key aspects of Sufism, from definitions and discourses to leadership, institutions, and practices. He devotes special attention to Sufi approaches to the Qur'an, drawing parallels with similar uses of scripture in Judaism and Christianity. He traces how Sufism grew from a set of simple moral-ethical precepts into a sophisticated tradition with professional Sufi masters (shaykhs) who became powerful players in Muslim public life but whose authority was challenged by those advocating the equality of all Muslims before God. Knysh also examines the roots of the ongoing conflict between the Sufis and their fundamentalist critics, the Salafis--a major fact of Muslim life today. Based on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, Sufism is an indispensable account of a vital aspect of Islam --
The hijab is arguably the most discussed and controversial item of women’s clothing today. It has become the primary global symbol of female Muslim identity for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and is ...the focus of much debate in the confrontation between Islam and the West. Nowhere has this debate been more acute or complex than in France. In Hijab and the Republic, Bronwyn Winter provides a riveting account of the controversial 2004 French law to ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools. While much has been written on the subject, Winter offers a unique feminist perspective, carefully delineating its political and cultural aspects.
The Wolf King Balbale, Abigail Krasner
01/2023
eBook
The Wolf King explores how
political power was conceptualized, constructed, and wielded in
twelfth-century al-Andalus, focusing on the eventful reign of
Muhammad ibn Sad ibn Ahmad ibn Mardanīsh (r. ...1147-1172) .
Celebrated in Castilian and Latin sources as el rey lobo/rex
lupus and denigrated by Almohad and later Arabic sources as
irreligious and disloyal to fellow Muslims because he fought the
Almohads and served as vassal to the Castilians, Ibn Mardanīsh
ruled a kingdom that at its peak constituted nearly half of
al-Andalus and served as an important buffer between the Almohads
and the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
Through a close examination of contemporary sources across the
region, Abigail Krasner Balbale shows that Ibn Mardanīsh's
short-lived dynasty was actually an attempt to integrate al-Andalus
more closely with the Islamic East-particularly the Abbasid
caliphate. At stake in his battles against the Almohads was the
very idea of the caliphate in this period, as well as who could
define righteous religious authority. The Wolf King makes
effective use of chronicles, chancery documents, poetry,
architecture, coinage, and artifacts to uncover how Ibn Mardanīsh
adapted language and cultural forms from around the Islamic world
to assert and consolidate power-and then tracks how these
strategies, and the memory of Ibn Mardanīsh more generally,
influenced expressions of kingship in subsequent periods.
Review of:
The World has Forgotten US: Sinjar and the Islamic State’s Genocide of the Yezidis
, Thomas Schmidinger (2022)
London: Pluto Press, 257 pp.,
ISBN 978-0-74534-605-2, p/bk, £19.99
How do women in conservative religious movements expand spaces for political activism in ways that go beyond their movements' strict ideas about male and female roles? How and why does this activism ...happen in some movements but not in others?Righteous Transgressionsexamines these questions by comparatively studying four groups: the Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the ultra-Orthodox Shas, the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the Palestinian Hamas. Lihi Ben Shitrit demonstrates that women's prioritization of a nationalist agenda over a proselytizing one shapes their activist involvement.
Ben Shitrit shows how women construct "frames of exception" that temporarily suspend, rather than challenge, some of the limiting aspects of their movements' gender ideology. Viewing women as agents in such movements, she analyzes the ways in which activists use nationalism to astutely reframe gender role transgressions from inappropriate to righteous. The author engages the literature on women's agency in Muslim and Jewish religious contexts, and sheds light on the centrality of women's activism to the promotion of the spiritual, social, cultural, and political agendas of both the Israeli and Palestinian religious right.
Looking at the four most influential political movements of the Israeli and Palestinian religious right,Righteous Transgressionsreveals how the bounds of gender expectations can be crossed for the political good.
This volume provides the first collection of studies devoted to the binomial dār al-islām / dār al-ḥarb, offering new perspectives on this underexplored issue through the analysis of a wide range of ...contexts and sources, from medieval to modern times.
