Cole M. Bunzel, B.A. 2008, Ph.D. 2018

An essential history of Wahhābism from its founding to the Islamic State.

In the mid-eighteenth century, a controversial Islamic movement arose in the central Arabian region of Najd that forever changed the political landscape of the Arabian Peninsula and the history of Islamic thought. Its…

Robert D. McChesney, B.A. 1967, Ph.D. 1973.

Waqfs, or religious endowments, have long been at the very center of daily Islamic life, establishing religious, cultural, and welfare institutions and serving as a legal means to keep family property intact through several generations. In this book R. D. McChesney focuses on the major…

Martin S. Kramer, Ph.D. 1982

In 'The War on Error', historian and political analyst Martin Kramer presents a series of case studies, some based on pathfinding research and others on provocative analysis, that correct misinformation clouding the public's understanding of the Middle East. He also offers a forensic exploration of how…

Co-edited by Robert D. McCesney, B.A. 1967, Ph.D. 1973.

Table of Contents

Preface by Farhad Kazemi & R. D. McChesney

Biography of Richard Bayly Winder

Bibliography of Richard Bayly Winder

The commerce of Mecca before Islam by F. E. Peters

Analyzes the results of an examination of 93 Saudi textbooks on various subjects for grades 1-10, mostly from the years 1999-2002. In all of these, Islam is presented as the only true religion, while all other religions are false. Consequently, Christians and Jews are denounced as infidels and enemies of Islam and Muslims. It is forbidden to…

Translated from the German and annotated by Eric Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981

In 1814, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a newly published translation by Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall. For Goethe, the book was a revelation. He felt a deep connection with Hafiz and Persian poetic…

Lawrence I. Conrad, Ph.D. 1981

The influence of Greek medical practices dating back to the fifth century B.C. has had an immeasurable impact on the development of medicine in the West over the subsequent centuries. This text is designed to cover the history of Western medicine from Classical Antiquity to 1800. As one guiding thread it…

Shahab Ahmed, Ph.D. 1999.

What is Islam? How do we grasp a human and historical phenomenon characterized by such variety and contradiction? What is "Islamic" about Islamic philosophy or Islamic art? Should we speak of Islam or of islams? Should we distinguish the Islamic (the religious) from the Islamicate (the cultural)? Or should we…

Translated by Eric L. Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981

For the public at large Shi’ism often implies a host of confused representations, suggesting more often than not obscurantism, intolerance, political violence and other ignominies running hot or cold in response to world events. In fact for many people, Shi’ism stands for "radical Islam", or –…

Recently, Arabic writings in the form of slogans on banners and bill boards carried by protestors or sprayed on walls have acquired even more loaded associations for those watching the political developments around the world – from hopes for democratic change to fears of an incipient Islamic extremist takeover. The sheer quantity of baggage…

David Selim Sayers, Ph.D. 2014.

The “wiles of women” are a timeless literary theme, treated from ancient Egyptian narratives to 21st-century TV series. The theme reaches its greatest flowering in the Islamic world, beginning with the Qur’an and inspiring entire literary traditions in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The Wiles of Women as…

Co-author Petra Sijpesteijn, Ph.D. 2004.

The Leiden Lectures on Arabic Language and Culture were initiated in 2013 on the occasion of the 400-year anniversary of the founding of the chair of Arabic at Leiden University. Each year an outstanding scholar in the field is invited to present a lecture on the rich and enjoyable variety of…

Celene Ibrahim, B.A. 2008

Edited by Lawrence I. Conrad, Ph.D. 1981

Modernising scientific medicine emerged in the nineteenth century as an increasingly powerful agent of change in a context of complex social developments. Women's lives and expectations in particular underwent a transformation in the years after 1870 as education, employment opportunities and…

Asma Sayeed's book explores the history of women as religious scholars from the first decades of Islam through the early Ottoman period (seventh to the seventeenth centuries). Focusing on women's engagement with ḥadīth, this book analyzes dramatic chronological patterns in women's ḥadīth participation in terms of developments in Muslim social,…

This novella interweaves the stories of five women who set out to escape the restrictions of family and social life in contemporary Iran. Through murder, suicide and even rape, as well as love, contemplation and spiritual transformation, they succeed, only to face new challenges.

Edited by Lawrence I. Conrad, Ph.D. 1981

The World of Ibn Ṭufayl" consists of ten essays by scholars in different fields in Arab-Islamic studies on Ibn Ṭufayl's “Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān,” one of the most extraordinary works of medieval Arabic literature, and a text with important dimensions in social and intellectual history, literature,…

Literature in the pre-modern Near East was an important conduit for the conveyance of didactic, ethical, and ideological concerns to rulers and other political leaders, and at the same time it served to secure the subsistence, status, and protection of authors. To counterbalance the greater power of their royal…