Jamal J. Elias – författare

Islam is a concise and readable survey of the history of Islam, from the birth of Muhammad in seventh-century Arabia to the differing situations of Muslim's throughout today's world. Focusing particularly on the modern period, it provides a valuable introduction to contemporary Muslim beliefs and practices and looks at the ways in which this rapidly growing religion is meeting the challenges of the modern world.

These 115 poems introduce readers in English to Sultan Bahu (d. 1691), a Sufi mystical poet who continues to be one of the most beloved writers in Punjabi. Bahu, whose name translates as "With God", remains highly popular in Pakistan and India today - even illiterate Punjabis can recite his poetry by heart.

Alef Is for Allah is the first groundbreaking study of the emotional space occupied by children in modern Islamic societies. Focusing primarily on visual representations of children from modern Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, the book examines these materials to investigate concepts such as innocence, cuteness, gender, virtue, and devotion, as well as community, nationhood, violence, and sacrifice. In addition to exploring a subject that has never been studied comparatively before, Alef Is for Allah extends the boundaries of scholarship on emotion, religion, and visual culture and provides unique insight into Islam as it is lived and experienced in the modern world.

Alef Is for Allah is the first groundbreaking study of the emotional space occupied by children in modern Islamic societies. Focusing primarily on visual representations of children from modern Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, the book examines these materials to investigate concepts such as innocence, cuteness, gender, virtue, and devotion, as well as community, nationhood, violence, and sacrifice. In addition to exploring a subject that has never been studied comparatively before, Alef Is for Allah extends the boundaries of scholarship on emotion, religion, and visual culture and provides unique insight into Islam as it is lived and experienced in the modern world.

Media coverage of the Danish cartoon crisis and the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan left Westerners with a strong impression that Islam does not countenance depiction of religious imagery. Jamal J. Elias corrects this view by revealing the complexity of Islamic attitudes toward representational religious art. Aisha’s Cushion emphasizes Islam’s perceptual and intellectual modes and in so doing offers the reader both insight into Islamic visual culture and a unique way of seeing the world.Aisha’s Cushion evaluates the controversies surrounding blasphemy and iconoclasm by exploring Islamic societies at the time of Muhammad and the birth of Islam; during early contact between Arab Muslims and Byzantine Christians; in medieval Anatolia and India; and in modern times. Elias’s inquiry then goes further, to situate Islamic religious art in a global context. His comparisons with Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu attitudes toward religious art show them to be as contradictory as those of Islam. Contemporary theories about art’s place in society inform Elias’s investigation of how religious objects have been understood across time and in different cultures.Elias contends that Islamic perspectives on representation and perception should be sought not only in theological writings or aesthetic treatises but in a range of Islamic works in areas as diverse as optics, alchemy, dreaming, calligraphy, literature, vehicle and home decoration, and Sufi metaphysics. Unearthing shades of meaning in Islamic thought throughout history, Elias offers fresh insight into the relations among religion, art, and perception across a broad range of cultures.

A preeminent scholar of Islamic history chronicles the rise of the Mevlevis, the influential Sufi community founded by Rumi.The thirteenth-century Persian poet and scholar Rumi is revered to this day. However, less attention has been paid to the Sufi community he founded: the Mevlevis, sometimes called the “Whirling Dervishes.” Centered on the descendants of Rumi and the disciples of his thought, the Mevlevis flourished in Anatolia during a period of extraordinary political, religious, and linguistic change. By the seventeenth century, they had become the recognizable bearers of Rumi’s tradition across the Ottoman world.Jamal J. Elias argues that the Mevlevis are best understood as a community rooted in kinship and emotional affinity, anchored by multiple generations of partnership between Rumi’s descendants, known as Chelebis, and scholars devoted to his works. These collaborations shaped the religious, artistic, and social priorities of the Mevlevis, while also establishing the status of both Rumi and the Persian language in Ottoman society. As Turkish became the dominant literary and administrative language in the Ottoman world, Persian literacy faltered despite continued reverence for canonical Persian texts. Over time, the Mevlevis became the most important authorities on Rumi’s works—especially his multivolume epic poem called the Masnavi, which gradually assumed a significant quasi-scriptural status.A revelatory account of religious formation, After Rumi illuminates the affective dimensions of spiritual life and the dynamics of cultural exchange in the premodern eastern Mediterranean.

This book constitutes a comprehensive investigation of the life and teachings of one of the most famous Sufis of the Iranian world. Simnānī spent his early life as a courtier at the Ilkhanid Mongol court and was a cherished companion of the emperor Arghun. After a mystical experience on the battlefield, he turned his back on a life of luxury and became a Sufi. He advanced rapidly in his spiritual quest and soon became one of the most influential Sufi masters in Iran.Working primarily from the most Arabic and Persian manuscripts of Simnānī's writings, the author has analyzed Simnānī's thinking to show the overall coherence of his world-view and to demonstrate the importance of his ideas to the development of Islamic mysticism. Along with this analysis, the author provides a detailed account of Simnānī's life and times, as well as a systematic description of Simnānī's instructions for Sufi practioners of all levels.

This book constitutes a comprehensive investigation of the life and teachings of one of the most famous Sufis of the Iranian world. Simnānī spent his early life as a courtier at the Ilkhanid Mongol court and was a cherished companion of the emperor Arghun. After a mystical experience on the battlefield, he turned his back on a life of luxury and became a Sufi. He advanced rapidly in his spiritual quest and soon became one of the most influential Sufi masters in Iran.Working primarily from the most Arabic and Persian manuscripts of Simnānī's writings, the author has analyzed Simnānī's thinking to show the overall coherence of his world-view and to demonstrate the importance of his ideas to the development of Islamic mysticism. Along with this analysis, the author provides a detailed account of Simnānī's life and times, as well as a systematic description of Simnānī's instructions for Sufi practioners of all levels.

A collection of essays that examines literature in seven languages from across the Islamic world and explores the place of religion in society This volume contributes to a vibrant ongoing debate about the degree to which religion is treated as a defining feature of Muslim-majority societies. The first book of its kind focusing on literature from across the Islamic world to explore the question of what the concept of the "Islamic" means, this collection of well-researched and highly readable essays by renowned experts in their fields examines different time periods, places, and languages. Individually and collectively, the essays ask and answer questions such as how being "Islamic" is articulated, how such particularities help shape a universal concept of the Islamic, and how are they themselves shaped by it.The essays tackle literature from the medieval to the modern period in a broad range of languages: Arabic, Bengali, Persian, Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu, and Turkish. They deal with several genres of prose and poetry, including romantic, courtly and religious verse, epics, ethical treatises, satire, erotica, metaphysics, and politics. Taken together, they answer important questions about the place of religion in society, secularity and literature, the complexities of treating religion as a stable category, and its relationship to virtue, ethics, legitimacy, and social hegemony.Contributors: Jamal J. Elias, Matthew L. Keegan, Pasha M. Khan, Oscar Aguirre Mandujano, Afsar Mohammad, Austin O'Malley, Tony Stewart, Sarah R. Bin Tyeer.

Key Themes for the Study of Islam examines the central themes and concepts indispensable to an informed understanding of Islamic religion and society. This book will become the first choice for students and experts in religion from disparate fields who wish to know how Islam relates to vital concepts in religion and society today.

Key Themes for the Study of Islam examines the central themes and concepts indispensable to an informed understanding of Islamic religion and society. This book will become the first choice for students and experts in religion from disparate fields who wish to know how Islam relates to vital concepts in religion and society today.