AKU-ISMC also publishes individual volumes which do not fall within the other three series. These publications include conference proceedings, festschrifts and other academic works that illustrate the dynamism of scholarship taking place in Muslim contexts.
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The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest : the Arab Spring and Beyond
Pnina Werbner, Editor
Martin Webb, Editor
Kathryn Spellman-Poots, Editor
A remarkable feature of the Arab Spring and other protests that followed in Egypt, India, Botswana and the UK, among other places, has been the salience of images, songs, videos, humour, satire and dramatic performances.
This book explores the central role the aesthetic played in energising the mass mobilisations of young people, the disaffected, the middle classes, the apolitical silent majority, as well as enabling solidarities and alliances among democrats, workers, trade unions, civil rights activists and opposition parties.
Comparing the North African and Middle Eastern uprisings with protest movements such as Occupy, the authors bring to bear an anthropological and sociological approach from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the debate by drawing on a wide array of disciplinary expertise.
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Understanding the Qur’an Today
Mahmoud Hussein
David Bond, Translator
In Islam, there is a long tradition of interpretation regarding the meaning and significance of Divine revelation, reflecting a plurality of views.
This book argues that whereas God transcends time, His Word is inscribed within time. It is not a monologue, but a living exchange, through which God reveals to His Prophet different orders of truth, weaving together the absolute and the relative, the general and the particular, the eternal and the contingent.
An international bestseller, Understanding the Qur’an Today offers a contemporary perspective on one of the world’s most influential texts and adds an invaluable contribution to the debate on Islam and modernity.
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The Construction of Belief : Reflections on the Thought of Mohammed Arkoun
Abdou Filali-Ansari, Editor
Aziz Esmail, Editor
Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism.
This festschrift honours Mohammed Arkoun’s scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun’s work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological dimensions.
The authoritative reference study on the work of Mohammed Arkoun, the volume is essential reading for students and scholars of Islam, Muslim societies and cultures, modernity, religious studies, philosophy and semantics.