Islam Today A Short Introduction to the Muslim World

by Ahmed, Akbar S.

• ISBN13: 9781860642579
• ISBN10: 1860642578
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-15
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

Although there are over one billion Muslims in the world, and over ten million in the West, most discussions of Islam are based on clichés or outright prejudice. This lively and compelling book sets out to bridge the gulf of misunderstanding. Islam, argues Akbar Ahmed, does not mean the subordination of women, contempt for other religions, opposition to the modern world, or barbaric punishments for petty crimes. One cannot fully come to terms with modern Islam without understanding its sources and traditions.

Author Biography

Akbars Ahmed is fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, UK, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton and Harvard Universities.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
1 Introduction: Raising Questions	1	(11)
Islam and the West	1	(3)
Locating the key to unlock Muslim society	4	(4)
Misunderstanding Muslims	8	(2)
Questions for our age	10	(2)
2 What is Islam?	12	(40)
The messenger: the Prophet of Islam	12	(16)
The Prophet's early life	13	(2)
The Prophet's marriage	15	(1)
The first words of the message	16	(1)
The journey across the desert: the hijra	17	(2)
The later marriages of the Prophet	19	(1)
The Prophet's last address	20	(1)
The role of the Prophet in Muslim social custom	21	(1)
Images of the Prophet	22	(1)
The Prophet of Islam and the people of the Book	23	(4)
The Prophet's critics	27	(1)
The message: the holy Quran	28	(14)
Understanding the Quran today	30	(2)
The five pillars of Islam	32	(7)
The Islamic calendar	39	(3)
Sunni and Shia divisions in Islam	42	(7)
The Shia	43	(1)
Differences between Shias and Sunnis	44	(3)
The other Shia groups	47	(1)
Shiism in the Western media	48	(1)
Sufism: the Muslim universal way	49	(3)
3 The Challenge of the Past: Empires and Dynasties	52	(44)
A Muslim view of history	53	(1)
Characteristics of the great Muslim empires	54	(1)
Early Muslim history: the great Arab dynasties	55	(7)
The Arabs carry the message of Islam to the world	55	(2)
Arab dynasties, Arab destinies	57	(2)
The Christian Crusades	59	(3)
The ideal model of European society: Muslim Spain	62	(10)
Muslim literature in Spain	64	(3)
The Andalus syndrome	67	(1)
The mosque at Cordoba	67	(1)
The fall of the Muslims	68	(2)
1492 and all that	70	(2)
The reawakening of Andalusia	72	(1)
The Ottomans (1300-1922)	72	(8)
The Topkapi palace	73	(1)
Women in the harem	74	(1)
Islam in the Topkapi	75	(1)
The Ottoman dynasty	76	(4)
The Safavids (1501-1722)	80	(3)
Isfahan: Nisf-e-Jahan	81	(1)
The Shia state	82	(1)
The Mughals (1526-1857)	83	(13)
The burden of history	83	(3)
The Mughal emperors	86	(1)
Babar, the founder of the Mughal dynasty	86	(2)
Mughal humanism	88	(3)
Muslim architecture in South Asia	91	(3)
Taj Mahal: monument of love	94	(2)
4 When Worlds Collide: Muslim Nations and Western Modernity	96	(67)
The dilemmas of modern Turkey	97	(8)
The rediscovery of the past	98	(2)
Kemal Ataturk	100	(1)
Islamic revivalism	101	(3)
Turkey's Kurds	104	(1)
Iran's Islamic quest	105	(16)
Palace versus shrine	105	(1)
The struggle for identity	106	(3)
Ayatollah Khomeini the scholar-activist	109	(2)
Islamic Iranian art	111	(2)
After the revolution	113	(2)
Khomeini's fatwa and Dante's Divine Comedy	115	(6)
India and the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh	121	(11)
1857 and the birth of Aligarh	122	(1)
Jinnah: The Quaid-i-Azam of Pakistan	123	(1)
Leading a Muslim movement	124	(1)
The Partition of India in 1947	125	(1)
The problem of identity	126	(2)
The first Muslim nuclear power	128	(2)
A school in Pakistan today	130	(1)
Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh	131	(1)
Issues in modernity: democracy, family and identity	132	(31)
The Arab predicament	132	(2)
The creation of Israel	134	(2)
Tensions in Arab society	136	(1)
Problems of democracy	137	(3)
Democracy and double standards: the case of Algeria	140	(3)
The Taliban of Afghanistan	143	(1)
The centralized state	144	(1)
Islamic punishment	145	(2)
Class, corruption and communism	147	(2)
Rulers then and now	149	(1)
The Muslim family	150	(2)
Polygamy in Islam	152	(2)
Arranged marriages	154	(1)
Muslim women	155	(1)
Women in the modern world	156	(3)
Muslim dress and the hijab	159	(4)
5 Muslims as Minorities	163	(53)
The `problem' of Muslim minorities	163	(8)
The inexplicable fear of Muslim minorities	167	(1)
The burden of the immigrant	168	(2)
The North Caucasus and the Muslim problem	170	(1)
Muslims in the West	171	(10)
The younger generation	172	(1)
The American versus the European experience	173	(3)
Muslim integration in Western nations	176	(2)
Islam and the Afro-American Community in the USA	178	(3)
Frontier Muslims: Islam in the Outer Hebrides	181	(3)
The Arain work ethic meets the Protestant work ethic	182	(1)
Islamic revivalism in Stornoway	183	(1)
Islam in Central Asia	184	(23)
Central Asia	185	(1)
Stalin and Ibn Khaldun: binding societies	186	(2)
The two poles of society: warrior and saint	188	(2)
Amir Taimur the warrior	190	(1)
Bahauddin Naqshband the saint	191	(2)
Seeing miracles	193	(1)
Architecture as a metaphor for society	193	(3)
Red star over Central Asia	196	(2)
The Sovietization of Central Asia	198	(2)
`Islamic fundamentalism' in Central Asia	200	(4)
The processes of Islamization	204	(2)
Into the future	206	(1)
The Muslims of India: a people in search of a destiny	207	(9)
Different kinds of Muslim society	207	(1)
The Muslim malaise	208	(3)
The Hindu response	211	(1)
India, the land of contrasts	212	(2)
The misuse of history	214	(2)
6 Islam in the Age of the Western Media	216	(22)
Islam and the West: confrontation or consensus?	216	(13)
The Muslim failure with the media	218	(3)
The Gulf War and the media	221	(3)
Media encouragement of Muslim orthodoxy	224	(2)
The Western bogeyman: Islamic fundamentalism	226	(3)
Concluding thoughts	229	(9)
Understanding Islam	230	(2)
The voices of Islam: at the crossroads	232	(3)
Building bridges	235	(3)
Glossary	238	(3)
References	241	(4)
Index	245