A New Anthropology of Islam

John R. Bowen is the Dunbar–Van Cleve Professor in Arts and Sciences, Washington University, St Louis. His fieldwork in Indonesia, France and England, on topics ranging from poetics and political history to civil law reasoning and everyday forms of Islam, has spanned over thirty years. He has published widely on his research interests, and his Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia (Cambridge, 2003) won the prize for best work from the Law and Society Association.

'John Bowen's book is a model of scholarly honesty and acuity; it presents Islamic religious life as a range of activities and practices in which red threads of Islamic traditions interpenetrate local usages and exigencies. These usages and exigencies make Islam as diverse yet recognizable a tradition of faith and practice as any other of the major religious traditions, all reductive stereotypes to the contrary. A well-written and engaging effort to sketch out an intelligent 'anthropology of Islam' by presenting what particular Muslims 'do' and how those Muslims understand what they do.' William A. Graham, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University

• 1. How to think about religions - Islam, for example; 2. Learning; 3. Perfecting piety through worship; 4. Reshaping sacrifice; 5. Healing and praying; 6. Pious organizing; 7. Judging; 8. Migrating and adapting; 9. Mobilizing.