This book examines how an elite group of traditionists, historians and theologians shaped Muslims' perceptions of their prophet, their community and their behavior by retelling and interpreting the story of Muhammad's ascent to heaven (the mi'raj).

Improving the dire health problems faced by many Native American communities is central to their cultural, political, and economic well being. However, it is still too often the case that both theoretical studies and applied programs fail to account for Native American perspectives on the range of factors that actually contribute to these problems in the first place. The authors in Medicine Ways examine the ways people from a multitude of indigenous communities think about and practice hea...

*Includes maps of the Middle East and pictures of important leaders*Includes an introduction for each country*Includes a Table of ContentsBefore World War I, the West was largely unfamiliar with the Middle East, but in less than 100 years it has become the world's hotspot, a turbulent and volatile tinder box full of sectarian, nationalist and cultural strife. In 2012, the Middle East is home to the Arab Spring, civil war in Syria, NATO operations in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian confli...

Beginning in December 2010 popular revolt swept through the Middle East, shocking the world and ushering in a period of unprecedented unrest. Protestors took to the streets to demand greater freedom, democracy, human rights, social justice, and regime change. What caused these uprisings? What is their significance? And what are their likely consequences? In an engaging question-and-answer format, The Arab Uprisings explores all aspects of the revolutionary protests that have rocked the Mid...

There is much more to the Qur'an than the selective quotations favoured by Islamic fundamentalists. This book provides a student-friendly guide to the many ways in which the Qur'an can be read.Designed for both Muslims and Western non-Muslim students, it examines the Qur'an in Western scholarship as well as giving an overview of the rich interpretive traditions from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day.This guide is a concise introduction to all aspects of th...

This book examines the relationship between jihad and genocide, past and present. Richard L. Rubenstein takes a close look at the violent interpretations of jihad and how they have played out in the past hundred years, from the Armenian genocide through current threats to Israel. Rubenstein's unflinching study of the potential for fundamentalist jihad to initiate targeted violence raises pressing questions in a time when questions of religious co-existence, particularly in the Middle East,...

Here you'll find such classics as:"Tie your camel and trust in God""I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak""Sit crooked and talk straight""A monkey, in the eyes of its mother, is a gazelle""Love is neither sold nor bought"Each quote and proverb is accompanied by an illustration of it written in flowing Arabic Diwani script. This volume also features the work of comic artist Zahra Malki and includes some beautifully illumin...

"I grew up reading the Qur'an on my mother's lap," writes Ziauddin Sardar. "It's an experience I share with most Muslim children. And so it is that our connection to the Qur'an is infused with associations of the warmest and most enduring of human bonds." In Reading the Qur'an, Sardar--one of Europe's leading public intellectuals--laments that for far too many Muslims, the Qur'an he had learned in his mother's lap has become a stick used for ensuring conformity and suppressing dis...

The fertile land of the five rivers (punj+ab in Persian) has persistently stirred the imagination of its peoples. Its story is the story of invasion. In 326 BCE Alexander the Great marched through the Hindu Kush, conquered the verdant plains now divided between India and Pakistan, and stamped Greek cultural and linguistic influence on the region. Over the centuries the lure of the Punjab attracted further waves of outsiders: Scythians, Sassanians, Huns, Afghans, Turks, Mughals and - closer...

The nineteenth century was, for many societies, a period of coming to grips with the growing, and seemingly unstoppable, domination of the world by the “Great Powers” of Europe. The Ottoman Empire was no exception: Ottomans from all walks of life—elite and non-elite, Muslim and non-Muslim—debated the reasons for what they considered to be the Ottoman decline and European ascendance. One of the most popular explanations was deceptively simple: science. If the Ottomans would adopt the new sc...

Allah, the 'God' Of Islam ExposedAlmost all Muslims unrepentantly believe that they are worshipping the same God the Christians worship only in a different way.But is Allah, the 'God' the Muslims worship, the Almighty God?This book reveals the answer to this burning question and unveils one of the greatest deceptions ever conceived in the history of the existence of mankind.