The Islamic World is an outstanding guide to Islamic faith and culture in all its geographical and historical diversity. Written by a distinguished international team of scholars, it elucidates the history, philosophy and practice of one of the world's great religious traditions. Its grounding in contemporary scholarship makes it an ideal reference source for students and scholars alike.
Edited by Andrew Rippin, a leading scholar of Islam, the volume covers the political, geographical, religious, intellectual, cultural and social worlds of Islam, and offers insight into all aspects of Muslim life including the Qur’an and law, philosophy, science and technology, art, literature, and film and much else. It explores the concept of an ‘Islamic’ world: what makes it distinctive and how uniform is that distinctiveness across Muslim geographical regions and through history?
Part 1: The Geo-political Islamic World 1. The Arab Middle East 2. West Africa 3. East Africa 4.Turkey 5. Iran 6. Central Asia 7. Southeast Asia 8. Europe 9.The Diaspora in the West Part 2: The Religious Islamic World 10. The Qur’an 11. Muhammad 12. Sunni Law 13. Theology: Freewill and Predestination 14. Ritual Life 14. Sidebar Rites of Passage 15. Sufism 16. Shi’ism 17. The Iba’is 18. Relations with Other Religions Part 3: The Intellectual Islamic World 19. The Arabic Language 20. Philosophy 21. The Scientific Tradition 22. Education 23. The Transmission of Knowledge 24.Travel BIOGRAPHIES: 25. Abd al-Jabbar 26. Niam al-Mulk 27. Al-Ghazali 28. Ibn Arabi 29. Ibn Taymiyya 30. Nair al-Din al-usi 31. Al-Suyui 32. Shah Wali Allah 33. Bediüzzaman Said Nursi 34. Sayyid Qub 35. Fazlur Rahman Part 4: The Cultural Islamic World 36. Art 37. Architecture 38. Material culture 39. Military Organization and Warfare 40. Popular Piety and Cultural Practices 41. Music 42.Cinema Part 5: Social Issues and the Islamic World 43. Civilization 44. Social Change 45. Secularism 46. Public Ethics 47. Marriage, Family, and Sexual Ethics 48. Women, Gender and Human Rights 49. Religious Minority Rights 49. sidebar International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (extracts) Glossary. Index.
Biography
Andrew Rippin is Professor of Islamic History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Victoria Canada, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His publications include Muslims: their religious beliefs and practices (third edition Routledge 2005) and The Qur’an and its interpretative tradition (2001).
'Unlike many other works that attempt to look at the Islamic world from one perspective, the essays in this volume by well-known scholars in their respective fields shed light on the Islamic world from several perspectives: geo-political, religious, intellectual, cultural and social...Despite the challenges of dealing with such a vast geographical region crossing linguistic, ethnic and cultural boundaries over 1400 years , the essays presented here maintain superb academic rigour, comprehensive coverage and authoritativeness while keeping the material accessible to the student of Islam...This is a brilliant work, presented within a multidisciplinary framework, that both scholars and students of Islam will find exciting and stimulating.' – Abdullah Saeed, University of Melbourne, Australia
