Covering the origins, key features, and legacy of the Islamic tradition, the third edition of A New Introduction to Islam includes new material on Islam in the 21st century and discussions of the impact of historical ideas, literature, and movements on contemporary trends.Includes updated and rewritten chapters on the Qur’an and hadith literature that covers important new academic researchCompares the practice of Islam in different Islamic ...

The most comprehensive and up-to-date English-language guide on hadith scholarshipThe source of much of our knowledge of the first two centuries of Islamic history, the hadith literature is made up of thousands of traditions collected during the formative years of Islam. Alongside the Qur'an, the hadith forms a second major body of Islamic scripture, and much of Islamic belief and practice rests on the hadith including Islamic law, Islamic theology, Qur'anic interp...

We have men and we have rocks in plenty, but we have nothing else. - Dost Mohammad Khan to John LawrenceIn the 21st century, as NATOs operation against the Taliban and al-Qaeda has dragged on for over a decade, the old maxim that Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires has been revived. Indeed, the rugged, desolate, and mountainous region was a place that many Westerners likely could not have found on a map before the attacks of September 11, and now the nations border with Pakistan is one of...

Wars aren't always violent. Stealth Jihad exposes the silent, insidious, secret war jihadists are waging on our nation. A war fought not by violence, but by culture, is perhaps the most dangerous war of all.

First in the comprehensive, three-volume history of Islamic culture and religion from the award-winning scholar and world historian."This is a nonpareil work, not only because of its command of its subject but also because it demonstrates how, ideally, history should be written." — The New YorkerThe Venture of Islam has been honored as a magisterial work of the mind since its publication in early 1975. In ...

An engrossing study of Leo Africanus and his famous book, which introduced Africa to European readersAl-Hasan al-Wazzan--born in Granada to a Muslim family that in 1492 went to Morocco, where he traveled extensively on behalf of the sultan of Fez--is known to historians as Leo Africanus, author of the first geography of Africa to be published in Europe (in 1550). He had been captured by Christian pirates in the Mediterranean and imprisoned by the pope, then released...

The Arabic philosophical fable Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is a classic of medieval Islamic philosophy. Ibn Tufayl (d. 1185), the Andalusian philosopher, tells of a child raised by a doe on an equatorial island who grows up to discover the truth about the world and his own place in it, unaided—but also unimpeded—by society, language, or tradition. Hayy’s discoveries about God, nature, and man challenge the values of the culture in which the tale was written as well as those of every contempor...

A journalist explores his family’s history to reveal the hybrid cultural and political landscape of Pakistan, the world’s first Islamic democracyShahan Mufti’s family history, which he can trace back fourteen hundred years to the inner circle of the prophet Muhammad, offers an enlightened perspective on the mystifying history of Pakistan. Mufti uses the stories of his ancestors, many of whom served as judges and jurists in Muslim sharia courts of South Asia for man...

A popular edition of an excellent and affectionate account of life of the Prophet of Islam described as the most influential man in the history of the world.An orphan beckoned to the Call, persecuted by neighbours, driven from his home with a prize tag on his head, quickly establishing a strong community of believers ready to die for his teachings and finally returning triumphant only to forgive his tormentors.This biography does not merely recant the major events and turni...

As the Middle East descends ever deeper into violence and chaos, 'sectarianism' has become a catch-all explanation for the region's troubles. The turmoil is attributed to 'ancient sectarian differences', putatively primordial forces that make violent conflict intractable. In media and policy discussions, sectarianism has come to possess trans-historical causal power. This book trenchantly challenges the lazy use of 'sectarianism' as a magic-bullet explanation for the region's ills, focusin...

Sayyid Qutb is widely considered the guiding intellectual of radical Islam, with a direct line connecting him to Osama bin Laden. But Qutb has too often been treated maliciously or reductively-"the Philosopher of Islamic Terror," as Paul Berman famously put it in the New York Times Magazine. James Toth offers an even-handed account of Sayyid Qutb and shows him to be a much more complex figure than the many one-dimensional portraits would have us believe. Qutb first gained notice a...

Was Moses darker-skinned and could the Bible testify to this? Who is Fir'aun of the Qur'an? Was Pharaoh actually a single individual? Did the Red Sea split into one road or twelve? How did Balaam who was given divine knowledge turn to evil? Who was Haman? What happened to Zimri (Samiri)? Was the staff just a regular stick or did it come from somewhere special?'When God Spoke to Moses' is an attempt to gather a chronological story of the life and times of the Prophet Moses (Musa, Go...