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  Volume 9: What is Islamic Studies?: European and North American Approaches to a Contested Field

  Leif Stenberg, Aga Khan University
  Philip Wood, Aga Khan University
  

  The study of Islam and Muslims in Europe and North America has expanded greatly in recent decades, becoming a passionately debated and divided field. This collection critically assesses the development of the field of Islamic Studies and its place in society. Featuring contributions from anthropologists, historians and scholars of religion, each chapter contains new empirical material and discusses approaches to the study of Islam, past and present.

  Key Features

  • Covers topics ranging from gender and secularism to pop music and modern science
  • Discusses contemporary and historical approaches in Islamic Studies
  • Features contributions from leading scholars studying Islam and Muslims, including Shahzad Bashir, Hadi Enayat, Juliane Hammer, Aaron Hughes, Carool Kersten, Susanne Olsson and Jonas Otterbeck
  • Addresses the role of both Muslims and non-Muslims in the ongoing construction of Islam

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  Volume 8: Gender, Governance and Islam

  Deniz Kandiyoti, University of London - School of Oriental and African Studies
  Nadje Al-Ali, Brown University
  Kathryn Spellman Poots, Columbia University
  

  Analyses the links between gender and governance in contemporary Muslim majority countries and diaspora contexts.

  Following a period of rapid political change, both globally and in relation to the Middle East and South Asia, this collection sets new terms of reference for an analysis of the intersections between global, state, non-state and popular actors and their contradictory effects on the politics of gender.

  The volume charts the shifts in academic discourse and global development practice that shape our understanding of gender both as an object of policy and as a terrain for activism. Nine individual case studies systematically explore how struggles for political control and legitimacy determine both the ways in which dominant gender orders are safeguarded and the diverse forms of resistance against them.

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  Volume 7: Shaping Global Islamic Discourses : The Role of al-Azhar, al-Medina and al-Mustafa

  Masooda Bano, Editor
  Keiko Sakurai, Editor
  

  Claims abound that Saudi oil money is fueling Salafi Islam in cultural and geographical terrains as disparate as the remote hamlets of the Swat valley in Pakistan and sprawling megacities such as Jakarta. In a similar manner, it is often regarded as a fact that Iran and the Sunni Arab states are fighting proxy wars in foreign lands.

  This empirically grounded study challenges the assumptions prevalent within academic as well as policy circles about the hegemonic power of such Islamic discourses and movements to penetrate all Muslim communities and societies.

  Through case studies of academic institutions, the volume illustrates how transmission of ideas is an extremely complex process, and that the outcome of such efforts depends not just on the strategies adopted by backers of those ideologies but equally on the characteristics of the receipt communities.

  In order to understand this complex interaction between global and local Islam and the plurality in outcomes, the volume focuses on the workings of three universities with global outreach (Al-Azhar University in Egypt, International Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, and Al-Mustafa International University in Iran) whose graduating students carry the ideas acquired during their education back to their own countries, along with, in some cases, a zeal to reform their home society.

  Masooda Bano is Associate Professor and University Research Lecturer at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford; Keiko Sakurai is Professor at the Faculty of International Research and Education, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

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  Volume 6: Contemporary Islamic Law in Indonesia : Sharia and Legal Pluralism

  Arskal Salim
  

  Indonesia has probably the fastest changing legal system in the Muslim world. This book represents the first ethnographic account of legal pluralism in the post-conflict and disaster situation in Aceh. It addresses changes in both the national legal system and the regional legal structure in the province.

  Focusing on the encounter between diverse patterns of legal reasoning advocated by multiple actors and by different institutions (local, national and international; official and unofficial; judicial, political and social cultural) it considers the vast array of issues arising in the wake of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh.

  It investigates disputes about rights to land and other forms of property, power relations, the conflict of rules, gender relationships, the right to make decisions, and prevailing norms. The cases involve various actors from villages, the courts, the provincial government and the legislature, the national Supreme Court and the central government of Indonesia.

  Arskal Salim is Senior Lecturer at the Religion and Society Research Centre, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Australia.

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  Volume 5: Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies : Understanding the Past

  Sarah Bowen Savant, Editor
  Helena de Felipe, Editor
  

  Genealogy is one of the most important and authoritative organising principles of Muslim societies.

  From the Prophet’s day to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped tribal, ethnic, sectarian and other identities. An understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.

  This book addresses the subject through a range of case studies that link genealogical knowledge to the particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability served.

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  Volume 4: Cosmopolitanisms in Muslim Contexts : Perspectives from the Past

  Derryl N. MacLean, Editor
  Sikeena Karmali Ahmed, Editor
  

  Cosmopolitanism is a key concept in social and political thought, standing in opposition to closed human group ideologies such as tribalism, nationalism and fundamentalism. Much recent discussion of this concept has been situated within Western self-perceptions, with little inclusion of information from Muslim contexts.

  This volume redresses the balance by focusing attention on instances in world history when cosmopolitan ideas and actions pervaded specific Muslim societies and cultures, exploring the tensions between regional cultures, isolated enclaves and modern nation-states. Models are chosen from four geographic areas: The Swahili coast, the Ottoman empire/Turkey, Iran and Indo-Pakistan.

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  Volume 3: Ethnographies of Islam : Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices

  Baudouin Dupret, Editor
  Thomas Pierret, Editor
  Paulo G. Pinto, Editor
  Kathryn Spellman-Poots, Editor
  

  This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom.

  This book counters such discourses by showing the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and by promoting reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.

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  Volume 2: Development Models in Muslim Contexts : Chinese, 'Islamic' and Neo-liberal Alternatives

  Robert Springborg, Editor
  

  Recent discussions of the 'Chinese economic development model', the emergence of an alternative 'Muslim model' over the past quarter century and the faltering globalisation of the 'Washington Consensus' all point to the need to investigate more systematically the nature of these models and their competitive attractions.

  This is especially the case in the Muslim world which both spans different economic and geographic categories and is itself the progenitor of a development model.

  The 'Chinese model' has attracted the greatest attention in step with that country's phenomenal growth and therefore provides the primary focus for this book. This volume examines the characteristics of this model and its reception in two major regions of the world - Africa and Latin America.

  It also investigates the current competition over development models across Muslim contexts. The question of which model or models, if any, will guide development in Muslim majority countries is vital not only for them, but for the world as a whole. This is the first political economy study to address this vital question as well as the closely related issue of the centrality of governance to development.

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  Volume 1: The Challenge of Pluralism : Paradigms from Muslim Contexts

  Abdou Filali-Ansary, Editor
  Sikeena Karmali Ahmed, Editor
  

  The volume discusses notions of pluralism and its specific relevance to Muslim societies. Current popular and academic discussions tend to make certain assumptions regarding Islam and its lack of compatibility with notions of pluralism. Some notable liberal thinkers have even argued that pluralism itself is inherently antithetical to Islam.

  These assumptions are challenged by discussing the broad spectrum of relevance and application of the notion of pluralism to modern day societies, examining securalism, multiculturalism, democracy, globalisation and the pivotal role of civil society.

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  Volume 10: Muslim cultures of the Indian Ocean : diversity and pluralism, past and present

  Stephane Pradines, Aga Khan University
  Farouk Topan, Aga Khan University
  

  Scholars are increasingly recognising the centrality of the Indian Ocean in the study of Muslim cultures.

  This volume explores the expanding and changing roles of these Muslim communities across the Indian Ocean World from the seventh century to the mediaeval period to the present day. The book goes beyond the usual focus on geographical sub-regions to highlight different aspects of interconnectivity in relation to Islam. By analysing textual and material evidence, the fifteen papers in this volume examine identities and diasporas, manuscripts and literature, as well as vernacular and religious architecture. It explores the networks and movements of peoples, ideas and ideologies, as well as art, culture, religion and heritage.

  Key Features:

  • Highlights the centrality of Muslim cultures in understanding interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean
  • Explores the role of Islam in forming and transforming global interactions and local agencies across the Indian Ocean
  • Offers intra-Muslim perceptions of beliefs, practices and activities, both religious and other
  • Presents 15 case studies across Ethiopia, Gujarat, Java, Kerala, the Malay-Indonesian archipelago, Maldives, Oman, Tanzania, Zanzibar and the Persianate cultural zone

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  Governance and Islam in East Africa: Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania

  Farouk Topan, Aga Khan University
  Kai Kresse, Freie Universität Berlin
  Erin E. Stiles, University of Nevada
  Hassan Mwakimako, Pwani University
  

  Explores the relationship between Muslim communities and the State in East Africa in political, institutional and legal contexts

  • Focuses on the relationship between Muslims and the State in Kenya and Tanzania
  • Asks which factors, both within and outside the Muslim community, shape and affect this relationship in contemporary times
  • Presents 13 case studies exploring governance issues within and across the categories of politics, institutions and law in Kenya and Tanzania
  • Identifies cross-cutting issues of governance and Muslim communities which are relevant beyond East Africa

  Recent studies of Muslims in Kenya and Tanzania have tended either to examine governance of Muslims in relation to security issues, or to discuss the reforms attempted within communities and their implications for Muslim theology, rituals and general welfare. Both these approaches are covered in this book, and a third is added – the study of Muslims as citizens or residents of their respective countries, looking at their activities and attitudes in relation to the various challenges they face together with their fellow compatriots and citizens.