Chapter 1: Scripture in the Modern Muslim World: the Qur an and Hadith

Further readings

Chapter 1: Scripture in the modern Muslim world: the Qur’an and Hadith

For more on how the Qur’an has been interpreted in the Muslim world in recent times, see Massimo Campanini’s short but concise The Quran: Modern Muslim Interpretations (New York: Routledge, 2011).The next step would be to look at the collection of essays in Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Qur’an (ed. SuhaTaji-Farouki, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).For an overall look at the Qur’an and how it has been understood and handed down by Muslims throughout history, see Ingrid Mattson’s The Story of the Qur’an (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008) and Anna Gade’sThe Qur’an: An Introduction (Oxford: Oneworld, 2010). To compare modern Muslim approaches to the Quran with the pre-modern, flip through the translation of the classic Tafsir al-Jalalayn, a product of fifteenth-century ulama (trans. FerasHamza, Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae, 2008).

For more on Hadith in both the pre-modern and modern Muslim traditions, see Jonathan Brown’sHadith: Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World (Oxford: Oneworld, 2009). Daniel Brown’s Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) is also very helpful.

Chapter 2: Ethical landscape: law, norms, and morality

KeciaAli (2006)Sexual Ethics and Islam: Feminist Reflections on Qur'an, Hadith, and Jurisprudence, Oxford: Oneworld.

Jonathan E. Brockopp(ed.) (2003)Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion, War, and Euthanasia, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

SadakatKadri(2012)Heaven on Earth: A Journey through Shari’a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ebrahim Moosa (2012)“Muslim Ethics and Biotechnology,” inJames W. Haag, Gregory R. Peterson, and Michael L. Spezio (eds)The Routledge Companion to Religion and Science,New York: Routledge, 455–65.

Amyn B. Sajoo (2004)Muslim Ethics: Emerging Vistas, London and New York: I.B. Tauris.

Chapter 3: Governance and government

Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori (1996) Muslim Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

The authors help one understand how Islam has become entangled in the language of politics in a broad spectrum of countries.No one authority effectively speaks for Islam in any single country, much less in the Muslim world as a whole.

Robert D. Lee. (2010) Religion and Politics in the Middle East, Boulder: Westview Press.

The study compares the relationship between religion and politics in a Jewish state with the relationship in three Muslim states: Turkey, Iran, and Egypt.The differences between Jewish and Muslim states may not be greater than the differences among the three Muslim states.

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart (2004) Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Based on survey research done in a number of Muslim and non-Muslim countries, the book demonstrates broad support for democratic political objectives but sharp divisions over rights of women and gays.The authors argue that the trend is toward secularization, despite apparent worldwide revival of religious influence.

Robert W. Hefner (2000) Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Hefner describes the impact of Islamist groups on politics in Indonesia and the transition toward democratic politics in a national atmosphere very different from that of the Middle East and North Africa.

Jenny White (2002) Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics, Seattle: University of Washington Press.

A highly readable and thoughtful account of Islamist political success in a suburb of Istanbul, this book helps explain the subsequent success of the Erdoĝan government at the national level. Together the White and Hefner volumes demonstrate a central theme of this chapter:that one must be cautious in generalizing about governance in the Muslim world.

Roy Mottahedeh (2001) The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran,New York: I.B. Tauris.

Mottahedeh’s book is an accessible and insightful study of religious education and the clerical class in revolutionary Iran.It has become a classic.

Chapter 4: From Isfahan to the internet: Islamic theology in the global village

Roxanne L. Eubenand Muhammad QasimZaman(eds)(2009)Princeton Readings inIslamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

This edited volume is an excellent resource for those who wish to dig deeper into the twentieth-century intellectual history of Islamist theologies. Includes translations and commentaries on important Islamist works, including Ayatollah Khomeini and Hasan al-Banna.

MajidFakhry(1997)A Short Introduction to Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism,Oxford: Oneworld.

As the title indicates, Fakhry useful study offers a readable introduction to the intellectual traditions of Islam.

Richard C. Martin and Mark R. Woodward with Dwi S. Atmaja(1997)Defenders of ReasonIn Islam: Mu‘tazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol, Oxford: Oneworld.

This useful guide to Islamic theology, focusing on Mu‘tazilism, juxtaposes a classical theological text with contemporary Muslim thinkers, highlighting the filiations between the two traditions.

AbdulazizSachednia(2001)The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism,Oxford: Oneworld.

This seminal text is by one of the most prolific liberal-democratic reformers in the Iranian tradition of Islamic theology. Topics include the twentieth-century history of Islamic reform, reason and rationality in Islam, democracy, and religious pluralism.

Chapter 5: Piety and devotion

KudsiErguner (2006) Journeys of a Sufi Musician, London: Saqi Books.

The autobiography of an imminent Turkish musician who has witnessed the revival of the performances of the whirling dervishes.

Carl W. Ernst (2011) Sufism: An Introduction to the Mystical Tradition of Islam,Boston: Shambhala Publications.

A contemporary survey of the origins, principles, practices, and contemporary manifestations of Islamic spirituality and mysticism.

Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence (2002) Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond, New York: Palgrave Press.

A detailed study of the most prominent Sufi tradition in South Asia, from the perspective of religious studies. It offers a critique of the “golden age and decline” view of Sufism and rethinks the notion of what a Sufi order is.

Nile Green (2012) Sufism: A Global History, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

The most comprehensive survey of Sufism to date, both in its geographical extent and its historical depth.

Klaus Kreiser (1992) “The Dervish Living,”in Raymond Lifchez (ed.)The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey, Berkeley: University of California Press, 49–56.

A description of what life was like in Sufi lodges in the Ottoman Empire.

Annemarie Schimmel(1975)Mystical Dimensions of Islam, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

A popular and enduring classical treatment of the subject, with a strong emphasis on mystical poetry.

Chapter 6: The multiple faces of Islamic education in a secular age

E. Doumato and G. Starrett(eds)(2007) Teaching Islam: Textbooks and Religion in the Middle East, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

This book examines the content and role of religious textbooks in a diverse sample of Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

R. Heffner and M.Q. Zaman(eds)(2007) Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

This collection of essays explores the cultural and political role of Muslim education in the Muslim world. It is particularly useful to get a sense of the latest academic debates on the subject.

Chapter 8: Women and gender in the Muslim world

Leila Ahmed (1992)Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate,New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

This book traces the competing discourses on Muslim womanhood since ancient pre-Islamic Middle Eastern civilization until the late twentieth century, focusing on the political and cultural self-determination of Muslim women and providing a history of the diversity of religious and secular feminists in Muslim-majority countries.

Margot Badran(2009)Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences, Oxford:Oneworld.

Badran sets up a complex dialogue between Islamic and secular feminists in Egypt since the late nineteenth until the twenty-first century, showing that while Islamic feminist approaches draw on the Qur’anic principles to dismantle fundamentalist religious approaches towards greater gender justice, secular feminists try to avoid giving religious texts the authority to determine social and political life.

SuadJoseph (ed.) (2000)Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Offering a feminist reading of citizenship in the Middle East, this collection critically examines the legal status and social positions of women, the rights and restrictions of women under family laws, and movements for legal reform.

DenizKandiyoti (ed.) (1991)Women, State and Islam,New York: New York University Press.

The focus of this collection and its case studies is on the role of the state in women’s subordination, including the state’s complicity in the spread of fundamentalist movements and in the implementation of conservative family laws.

Martin E. Martyand R. Scott Appleby (eds) (1993)Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance,Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Volume 3 of the editors’ Fundamentalisms project examines the ways in which fundamentalist movements have been successful in remaking political structures, including states, political parties, legal-juridical institutions, and regional politics.

RituMenon and KamlaBhasin(1998)Borders and Boundaries: Women in India’s Partition,New Delhi: Kali for Women.

Nearly 50 years after the partition of British India into the independent nation states of India and Pakistan, Menon and Bhasin set out to interview the survivors of partition violence, with a focus on the widespread sexual violence carried out against Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh women especially in regions where they constituted a religious minority.

Fatima Mernissi(1987)Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Muslim Society, 2nd edition,Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

With a focus on Moroccan society and culture, the author argues that women’s status has been shaped by patriarchal interpretations of the holy texts, sociopolitical dynamics, and national histories.

Valentine M. Moghadam (2003)Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East, 2nd edition,Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

The book offers a sociological examination of the ways in which women and gender issues have figured in historical and social change processes, and the ways in which state policies, forms of national development, and social structure affect women’s status and gender roles.

Chapter 8: #Islam, social networking, and the cloud

G.R. Bunt(2009)iMuslims: Rewiring the House of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

The writer’s third book on Islam in cyberspace looks at the impact of Web 2.0 and social networking, as well as reviewing issues associated with religious authority and practice in relation to the internet. More information can be found at

D.F. Eickelman and J.W. Anderson (2003) New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, 2nd edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

This comprehensive study explored the significance of diverse media—including the internet—within a variety of Muslim contexts.

M. El-Nawawy and A.S. Khamis (2009) Islam Dot Com, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

This focuses on the importance of online fatwas with Muslim discourse, offering case studies and insights from a range of perspectives.

C.W. Ernst (2005)“Ideological and Technological Transformations of Contemporary Sufism,” in M. Cooke and B.B. Lawrence (eds)Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop,Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 191–207.

This chapter includes reference to the impact on Sufi communities of “new media.”

W. Ghonim(2012)Revolution 2.0,London: HarperCollins.

Ghonim’s pivotal role in the Arab Spring is discussed from his personal perspective, offering insights into how the internet played a significant role in Egyptian societal shifts in 2011.

P.N. Howard (2010) The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam,Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This detailed study explores how Muslim politicalidentities have been shaped through the application of digital media.

G. Larsson (ed.) (2006)Religious Communities on the Internet, Stockholm: Swedish Science Press.

This edited volume includes chapters on jihadi cyberspace, Islamic knowledge online, identity issues, and Muslims and cyberspace in the UK.

A. Nunns(2011)Tweets from Tahrir: Egypt's Revolution as It Unfolded, in the Words of the People Who Made It, New York: OR Books.

This volume collected tweets from participants in the first phase of the Arab Spring, as it related to Egypt. It provides an extensive survey of primary “raw” data.

Arab Media and Society,

Published by the the Kamal Adham Center for Televisionand Digital Journalism at the American University in Cairo, this online journal regularly features articles on issues associated with Islam, Muslims, and electronic media.

CyberOrient,

This open-access online journal contains articles and case-studies from a range of authors, discussing the use of electronic media in the “virtual Middle East.”

Chapter 9: Islam: unbound and global

Bruce B. Lawrence (1989)Shattering the Myth: Islam beyond Violence,Princeton: Princeton University Press.

This book anticipated the Arab Spring by 20 years. It distinguishes different Islamic movements, from reform to revival to Islamist or fundamentalist. It examines pivotal countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia but also Pakistan, Tunisia, and Egypt, with a sidebar glance at the economic importance of Southeast Asia.

Abdullahi An-Na’im (2008)Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Can there be an overlapping consensus among believers and non-believers, Muslims and others, about the rights and responsibilities equivalent for all citizens in a liberal, secular democracy? That is a huge question, answered boldly and provocatively, in this major study by a pioneering Muslim scholar from the Sudan now teaching at Emory University School of Law.

Andrew F. March (2010)Islam and Liberal Citizenship: Search for an Overlapping Consensus, New York: Oxford University Press.

This revised Oxford D.Phil dissertation examines the same question as the previous book, but does so from the perspective of comparative political ethics and with attention to distinctions between modernist and revivalist Muslim scholars on a range of daunting issues, fromfriendship with non-Muslims to service in the military forces of a non-Muslim nation (e.g., the USA) combatting majority Muslim nations (e.g., Iraq and Afghanistan).

AsefBayat (2010) Life as Politics: How Ordinary PeopleChange the Middle East,Stanford: Stanford UniversityPress.

An Iranian sociologist trained in the UK and teaching in the US, Bayat has produced a book that looks at social non-movements in a variety of Muslim contexts. He engages the politics of fun, as also the everyday expressions of cosmopolitanism,with rapt attention to local detail and revealing anecdotes.

AsefBayatand L. Herrera (eds) (2010)Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North, New York: Oxford University Press.

Since the Arab Spring, many observers have alluded to the significant role of Muslim youth in the current, ongoing unrest. But what motivates, energizes and sustains these young people from diverse, seemingly unconnected backgrounds? No definitive answers, but lots of provocative observations, are to be found in this second book published within one year by the same prolific author.

Chapter 10: Militant movements

Jason Burke (2003) Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror, London: I.B.Tauris.

An excellent study of al-Qaeda up to the time of its publication.

Jason Burke (2011) The 9/11 Wars, London: Allen Lane.

Updates Al-Qaeda along with information on events in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

Roxanne Euben and, Muhammad QasimZaman(eds) (2009) Texts and Contexts from Al-Banna to Bin Laden, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

A good selection of texts by many of the figures mentioned in this chapter as well as others of interests.

Moshe Gammer (2006) The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule. London: C. Hurst & Co. Ltd.

Good on the historical background of the conflict.

Ahmad NizarHamzeh (2004) In the Path of Hizbullah, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Thorough account and analysis of the movements, its leaders and structure.

Bruce Lawrence (ed.) (2005) Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden, trans. James Howarth, London: Verso.

Bin Laden’s major statements on a wide range of topics.

R.P. Mitchell (l969) The Society of the Muslim Brothers, London: Oxford University Press.

The most thorough study of the Brothers, but carrying only up to the 1950s.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online,

Short entries and longer articles on a number of relevant topics. Some items are free but individual or institutional subscription required for most.

SayyidQutb (1978) Milestones, trans. S. BadrulHasan, Beirut: Holy Koran Publishing House. See also the revised translation (1990) with a forward by Ahmad ZakiHamad, Indianapolis: American Trust Publications.

Qutb’s best known and most radical work. Translations are acceptable.

Jessica Stern (2003) Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill, New York: HarperCollins.

A very informative study.

Chapter 11: Secularization and the search for an authentic Muslim modern

Secularism and Muslim societies/Islam

John L. Esposito and AzzamTamimi(eds)(2000)Islam and Secularism in the Middle East, NewYork: New York University Press.

Collection of essays that explore the history, theory, and practices of secularization and secularism in the Middle East.

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na‘im(2008)Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari‘a, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Argument for the need of a secular state in modern Muslim societies, based on a comparative analysis of the interaction of state, society, and religion in India, Turkey, and Indonesia.