Advances in the Study of Islam – serie

New Methods in the Study of Islam offers an international perspective on the field of Islamic studies. It seeks to push the study of Islam to the forefront of methodological considerations by revisiting classical topics for example the Qur'an, hadith and kalam using new lenses, as well as new subjects, such as lived Islam and Islamic critiques of the West. Taken as a whole, the collection provides new perspectives on the role and place of the academic study of Islam in contemporary scholarship.

Methods play a key role in how we access and subsequently organise data. There is a tendency, however, for scholars to focus primarily on their data at the expense of the methodological acts that bring such data into existence in the first place. The academic study of Islam is certainly no different in this regard. Indeed, many continue to employ established or classic methods that often echo (neo-)orientalist and other political inclinations. This collection, in contrast, offers an alternative, providing a set of multi-disciplinary approaches that focus on how we create, study and disseminate "Islamic data."

Contributing to scholarship studying Islam alongside other late antique religions, Traces of the Prophets highlights how early Muslims deployed sacred objects and spaces to inscribe and dispute Islam's continuities with, and differences from, Judaism and Christianity. The book argues that prophets' relics ritually and rhetorically shaped Muslim identities in the first centuries of Islam.Traces of the Prophets rewrites the history of holy bodies and sacred spaces in the emergence of Islam. Rather than focusing on theological controversies among early Muslims, this book is grounded in the material objects and places that Muslims touched and "thought with" in defining Islamic practice and belief. While often marginalized in modern scholarship, sacred relics and spaces stood at the disputed boundaries of emergent Islamic identities. Objects and spaces like Abraham's footprints in Mecca and Muhammad's tomb in Medina provided sites of shared Islamic ritual, as well as tools for differentiating Muslims from non-Muslims.

Contributing to scholarship studying Islam alongside other late antique religions, Traces of the Prophets highlights how early Muslims deployed sacred objects and spaces to inscribe and dispute Islam's continuities with, and differences from, Judaism and Christianity. The book argues that prophets' relics ritually and rhetorically shaped Muslim identities in the first centuries of Islam.Traces of the Prophets rewrites the history of holy bodies and sacred spaces in the emergence of Islam. Rather than focusing on theological controversies among early Muslims, this book is grounded in the material objects and places that Muslims touched and 'thought with' in defining Islamic practice and belief. While often marginalized in modern scholarship, sacred relics and spaces stood at the disputed boundaries of emergent Islamic identities. Objects and spaces like Abraham's footprints in Mecca and Muhammad's tomb in Medina provided sites of shared Islamic ritual, as well as tools for differentiating Muslims from non-Muslims.

Sufism, the spiritual, mystical, and esoteric dimension of Islam, is experiencing a renewal in the 21st century. Charismatic Sufi masters have been able to revitalise their language, attracting new disciples and going beyond their cultural-geographic framework. This book describes the development of Sufism in Western Europe, particularly in France and Italy, through extended empirical research based on participant observation in four Sufi orders. The author illustrates the different forms of hybridisation between the Islamic-Sufi tradition and Western esoteric discourses, in particular the Guenonian-Traditionalist and the New Age discourse. These hybridisations often involve the creation of new doctrines, rituals, and organizational structures, and produce different universalist discourses, which imply different Sufi politics in Europe, such as a lack of interest due to an imminent eschatology, civic engagement, and metapolitical elitism.

Sufism, the spiritual, mystical and esoteric dimension of Islam, is experiencing a renewal in the 21st century. Charismatic Sufi masters have been able to revitalise their language, attracting new disciples and going beyond their cultural-geographic framework. This book describes the development of Sufism in Western Europe, particularly in France and Italy, through extended empirical research based on participant observation in four Sufi orders. The author illustrates the different forms of hybridisation between the Islamic-Sufi tradition and Western esoteric discourses, in particular the Guenonian-Traditionalist and the New Age discourse. These hybridisations often involve the creation of new doctrines, rituals and organizational structures, and produce different universalist discourses, which imply different Sufi politics in Europe, such as a lack of interest due to an imminent eschatology, civic engagement, and metapolitical elitism.

The period of Arabo-Islamic domination of parts of Sicily, and the consequent large Muslim presence on the island from 800 to the mid-13th century constitutes a crucial epoch whose influence remains an integral part of the island's architectural and cultural landscape. This volume builds on existing scholarship and goes beyond the 'Arabo-Norman' construct to afford greater recognition to the island's Arabic and Islamic history. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the chapters examine Sicily's mercantile, artistic and architectural links to the Muslim world, including the subjects of the F??imids of Ifr?qiya and their Kalbid allies in Sicily. It also reflects upon the Arabo-Islamic philosophical legacy at the court of Frederick II, Muslim accounts of medieval Sicily, F??imid influence on the arts, women's textile production, discussions of linguistics and literature, and various other aspects of Sicily's diverse cultural and religious life during this period.??

The period of Arabo-Islamic domination of parts of Sicily, and the consequent large Muslim presence on the island from 800 to the mid-13th century constitutes a crucial epoch whose influence remains an integral part of the island’s architectural and cultural landscape. This volume builds on existing scholarship and goes beyond the ‘Arabo-Norman’ construct to afford greater recognition to the island’s Arabic and Islamic history. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the chapters examine Sicily’s mercantile, artistic and architectural links to the Muslim world, including the subjects of the Fāṭimids of Ifrīqiya and their Kalbid allies in Sicily. It also reflects upon the Arabo-Islamic philosophical legacy at the court of Frederick II, Muslim accounts of medieval Sicily, Fāṭimid influence on the arts, women’s textile production, discussions of linguistics and literature, and various other aspects of Sicily’s diverse cultural and religious life during this period.

This book empirically substantiates a re-conceptualization of Islam as produced and consumed by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Non-Muslim Islam is too often condemned and decried by scholars, rather than investigated. However, non-Muslim politicians, journalists, and public debaters preaching and missionizing their own interpretations of Islam to both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences, and venturing into theological debates with Muslims as non-Muslim Islamic authorities, cannot be reduced to cynical power politics, bigotry, political opportunism, prejudice, or apologetics (even if this may sometimes be the case). Neither do these labels increase our understanding of non-Muslim Islam as a phenomenon. This book argues the case for studying non-Muslim Islam and demonstrates the value of doing so through 11 case studies, opening up a new field of research, while also giving an insight into the many epistemologies at play in the production of different non-Muslim Islams.

This book empirically substantiates a re-conceptualization of Islam as produced and consumed by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Non-Muslim Islam is too often condemned and decried by scholars, rather than investigated. However, non-Muslim politicians, journalists, and public debaters preaching and missionizing their own interpretations of Islam to both Muslim and non-Muslim audiences, and venturing into theological debates with Muslims as non-Muslim Islamic authorities, cannot be reduced to cynical power politics, bigotry, political opportunism, prejudice, or apologetics (even if this may sometimes be the case). Neither do these labels increase our understanding of non-Muslim Islam as a phenomenon. This book argues the case for studying non-Muslim Islam and demonstrates the value of doing so through 11 case studies, opening up a new field of research, while also giving an insight into the many epistemologies at play in the production of different non-Muslim Islams.

This book examines contested Muharram practices, as well as the institutions and authorities that promoted or condemned them until 2011, when most Shi'is fled Syria. For 40 years, the Syrian shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab was a place of miracles, where violence engendered healing. To experience miraculous healing, Shi'is attended mourning gatherings, studied at seminaries, self-flagellated, and frequented spiritual healers. Supported by the political establishment, Shi'i institutions arose to serve Iraqi refugees and Iranian pilgrims. Seminaries promoted various practices, some highly controversial. Wounded, traumatized, impoverished, and oppressed, asylum seekers from Iraq who performed flagellations sought salvation - a worldly restoration requiring saintly beneficence. In Syria, where Shi'is were often asylum seekers from Iraq, daily concerns centred on the here and now, on survival, and on the bitterness they felt. They prayed for justice and retribution, as much as for physical and psychological healing.

This book examines contested Muharram practices, as well as the institutions and authorities that promoted or condemned them until 2011, when most Shi‘is fled Syria. For 40 years, the Syrian shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab was a place of miracles, where violence engendered healing. To experience miraculous healing, Shi‘is attended mourning gatherings, studied at seminaries, self-flagellated, and frequented spiritual healers. Supported by the political establishment, Shi‘i institutions arose to serve Iraqi refugees and Iranian pilgrims. Seminaries promoted various practices, some highly controversial. Wounded, traumatized, impoverished, and oppressed, asylum seekers from Iraq who performed flagellations sought salvation - a worldly restoration requiring saintly beneficence. In Syria, where Shi‘is were often asylum seekers from Iraq, daily concerns centred on the here and now, on survival, and on the bitterness they felt. They prayed for justice and retribution, as much as for physical and psychological healing.