Muslims

Teresa Bernheimer is currently Gerda Henkel Fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany, working on religious extremism in the early Islamic period. Andrew Rippin was Professor of History and former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria, Canada, and among the foremost scholars of the Qurʾān.

"Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices provides an authoritative overview to both historical and contemporary issues when it comes to how Muslims have understood, interpreted and applied Islam. By its emphasis on complexity, source criticism and internal variations, the book provides a nuanced description that explains past and present developments, as well as dividing lines among Muslims. In this edition, Teresa Bernheimer has carefully revised and updated the late professor Andrew Rippin’s earlier editions. By addressing contemporary affairs and how Muslims are perceived in the twenty-first century, this book provides a user-friendly introduction to the study of Islam and its fascinating, but also very complex history." Göran Larsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden."This fifth edition of Muslims continues to stand out due to its comprehensive coverage, critical historical perspective and attention to the dynamics of religious identity construction. It is gratifying to see the author’s legacy continue. Just the right amount of challenge for undergraduate students." F. Volker Greifenhagen, Luther College, University of Regina, Canada."This book remains a valuable and unmatched contribution to the field, with chapters that offer thematic, chronologically-based overviews of the key developments in the faith, scholarship, and practice of Islam. It offers highly readable prose and substantive, probing coverage of key issues from medieval to contemporary times. Undergraduates will find it challenging but eye opening, graduate students and the interested general reader will find it thought-provoking and insightful, and even experts in the field will find their knowledge enhanced and amplified. A tour de force." Andrea L. Stanton, University of Denver, USA."This textbook, while academic, remains respectful in tone, yet thoughtful in the issues raised throughout. It seems that the primary pedagogical purpose of Muslims is not only to inform, but to stimulate critical and reflective thinking, not only on questions of approach and method, but also on issues that are alive and well—and also alive and dangerous—in the contemporary situation today."Christopher Buck, Reading Religion.

• List of IllustrationsPreface to the fifth editionIntroduction Part I: Formative elements of classical Islam 1 Prehistory 2 The Qurān 3 Muḥammad Part II: Emergence of Islamic identity 4 Political action and theory 5 Theological exposition 6 Legal developments 7 Ritual practice Part III: Alternative visions of classical Islamic identity 8 The Shī a 9 Ṣūfī devotion Part IV: Consolidation of Islamic identity 10 Intellectual culture 11 Medieval visions of Islam Part V: Modern visions of Islam 12 Describing modernity 13 Muḥammad and modernity 14 The Qurān and modernity 15 Issues of identity: ritual and politics Part VI: Re-visioning Islam 16 Women, intellectuals, and other challenges 17 Perceptions of Muslims in the twenty-first century Glossary References General index Index of Qurʾān citations