The encounter between Muslim and Hindu remains one of the defining issues of South Asian society today. It began as early as the 8th century, and the first Muslim kingdom in India, the Sultanate of Delhi, was established at the end of the 12th century. This power eventually reduced to vassalage almost every independent kingdom on the subcontinent. In Love's Subtle Magic, a remarkable and highly original book, Aditya Behl uses a little-understood genre of Sufi literature to paint a...

The mystical romance Madhumalati tells the story of a prince, Manohar, and his love for the beautiful princess Madhumalati. When they are separated they have to endure suffering, adventure, and transformation before they can be reunited and experience true happiness. A delightful love story, the poem is also rich in mystical symbolism and the story of the two lovers represents the stages on the spiritual path to enlightenment. Madhumalati was written in the sixteenth cent...

The headlines are filled with the politics of Islam, but there is another side to the world's fastest-growing religion. Sufism is the poetry and mysticism of Islam. This mystical movement from the early ninth century rejects worship motivated by the desire for heavenly reward or the fear of punishment, insisting rather on the love of God as the only valid form of adoration. Sufism has made significant contributions to Islamic civilization in music and philosophy, dance and literature. The ...

The War of the Three Gods is a military history of the Near and Middle East in the seventh century-with its chief focus on the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius (AD 610641)-a pivotal and dramatic time in world history. The Eastern Roman Empire was brought to the very brink of extinction by the Sassanid Persians before Heraclius managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Sassanids with a desperate, final gambit. His conquests were short-lived, however, for the newly co...

A shocking, riveting, intriguing re-discovery of history, culture, philosophy and the emerging of a key individual that became the instrument to catapult the Islamic religion. The impact of ancient Arabian folklore with its stone and astral cults, shamanism, various Judaic traditions, heretical sects within Christianity, and prevalent moon-god veneration, all rolled together in the mind of Muhammad, who carved out a kind of salad religion, taking bits and pieces and countering with his own...

Over the centuries the Middle East has confounded the dreams of conquerors and peacemakers alike. This now-classic book, fully updated to 2009, follows the historic struggles of the region over the last two hundred years, from Napoleon's assault on Egypt, through the slow decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the painful emergence of modern nations, the Palestinian question and Islamic resurgence.For this third edition, Economist journalist and Middle East correspondent Nicola...

The world's leading Islamicist offers a concise introduction to this rich and diverse tradition of 1.2 billion adherents.In this informative and clear introduction to the world of Islam, Seyyed Hossein Nasr explores the following topics in depth:•What Is Islam?•The Doctrines and Beliefs of Islam•Islamic Practices and Institutions•The History of Islam•Schools of Islamic Thought•Islam in the Contemporary World•I...

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.In The Heart of Islam one of the great intellectual figures in Islamic history offers a timely present...

An acclaimed Arab Studies scholar and bestselling author offers a groundbreaking new interpretation of the status and vision of Muslim women—and challenges our own sense of the meaning of feminism."Islamic feminism" would seem a contradiction in terms to most Westerners. We are taught to think of Islam as a culture wherein social code and religious law alike force women to accept male authority and surrender to the veil. How could feminism emerge under such a code,...

When the convulsions of the Arab Spring first became manifest in Syria in March 2011, the Ba'athist regime was quick to blame the protests on the "Syrian Muslim Brotherhood" and its "al-Qaeda affiliates." But who are these Islamists so determined to rule a post-Assad Syria? Little has been published on militant Islam in Syria since Hafez Assad's regime destroyed the Islamist movement in its stronghold of Hama in February 1982. This book bridges that gap by providing readers with the first ...

For years, many have debated the relationship between religion and politics. In Secularism in Afghanistan, author Shukoor Zardushtian directs the discussion to Afghanistan, examining the role of religion in society in general and in Afghanistan in particular and analyzing the conflicts that arise from the mix of government and religion.Gleaned from research and his personal experiences of living in Afghanistan, Secularism in Afghanistan studies the charact...

A sweeping history of Islam and the West from the seventh century to todayEurope and the Islamic World sheds much-needed light on the shared roots of Islamic and Western cultures and on the richness of their inextricably intertwined histories, refuting once and for all the misguided notion of a "clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and Europe. In this landmark book, three eminent historians bring to life the complex and tumultuous relations bet...