The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600–1800

by Jonathan P. Berkey

• ISBN13: 9780521588133
• ISBN10: 0521588138
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-12-23
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Jonathan Berkey's book surveys the religious history of the peoples of the Near East from roughly 600 to 1800 CE. The opening chapter examines the religious scene in the Near East in late antiquity, and the religious traditions which preceded Islam. Subsequent chapters investigate Islam's first century and the beginnings of its own traditions, the 'classical' period from the accession of the Abbasids to the rise of the Buyid amirs, and thereafter the emergence of new forms of Islam in the middle period. Throughout, close attention is paid to the experiences of Jews and Christians, as well as Muslims. The book stresses that Islam did not appear all at once, but emerged slowly, as part of a prolonged process whereby it was differentiated from other religious traditions and, indeed, that much that we take as characteristic of Islam is in fact the product of the medieval period.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Glossary	xi
Maps	xvi
Part I The Near East before Islam	1	(54)
Introduction	3	(7)
The religions of late antiquity	10	(29)
Arabia before Islam	39	(11)
The early seventh century	50	(5)
Part II The Emergence of Islam, 600-750	55	(56)
Approaches and problems	57	(4)
The origins of the Muslim community	61	(9)
Early Islam in the Near East	70	(6)
The Umayyad period	76	(7)
The beginnings of sectarianism	83	(8)
The non-Muslims of early Islam	91	(11)
The cAbbasid revolution	102	(9)
Part III The Consolidation of Islam, 750-1000	111	(66)
Issues of Islamic identity	113	(11)
Religion and politics	124	(6)
Shicism	130	(11)
The formation of Sunni traditionalism	141	(11)
Asceticism and mysticism	152	(7)
The non-Muslim communities	159	(18)
Part IV Medieval Islam, 1000-1500	177	(82)
The medieval Islamic Near East	179	(5)
Characteristics of the medieval Islamic world	184	(5)
A Sunni ``revival''?	189	(14)
Common patterns in social and political organization	203	(13)
Modes of justice	216	(8)
The transmission of religious knowledge	224	(7)
Sufism	231	(17)
Popular religion	248	(11)
Epilogue	259	(11)
From medieval to modern Islam	261	(9)
Suggested reading	270	(6)
Index	276