David S. Powers, Ph.D. 1979
The Islamic claim to supersede Judaism and Christianity is embodied in the theological assertion that the office of prophecy is hereditary but that the line of descent ends with Muhammad, who is the seal, or last, of the prophets.
While Muhammad had no natural sons who reached the age of maturity,…
Taking natural disaster as the political and legal norm is uncommon. Taking a person who has become unstable and irrational during a disaster as the starting point for legal analysis is equally uncommon. Nonetheless, in Law in Crisis Ruth Miller makes the unsettling case that the law demands an ecstatic subject and that natural…
This anthology of key primary texts provides an unmatched introduction to Islamist political thought from the early twentieth century to the present, and serves as an invaluable guide through the storm of polemic, fear, and confusion that swirls around Islamism today. Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman gather a broad selection of texts from…
Co-authored by Norman Itzkowitz, Ph.D. 1959.
Explore the life of Vlad "the Impaler" Dracula, the fifteenth-century Romanian prince who served as a model for Bram Stoker's infamous vampire. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
Since 2007, five volumes of the collection of Modarressi's early (pre-1979) Persian articles have been published. These include volumes entitled Ijtima'iyat, Qummiyat, Sanadiyat, Kitabiyat, and Tarikhiyat. Having access to these reprints is most welcome given the fact that most of the articles…
This groundbreaking study illuminates the Egyptian experience of modernity by critically analyzing the foremost medium through which it was articulated: history. The first comprehensive analysis of a Middle Eastern intellectual tradition, Gatekeepers of the Past examines a system of knowledge that replaced the intellectual and…
Since 2007, five volumes of the collection of Modarressi's early (pre-1979) Persian articles have been published. These include volumes entitled Ijtima'iyat, Qummiyat, Sanadiyat, Kitabiyat, and Tarikhiyat. Having access to these reprints is most welcome given the fact that most of the articles…
The multi-volume chronicle of the Cairo scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (1753-1825), known in Arabic as caja-’ib al-atha-r fi- al-tara-jim wa-al-akhba-r, which translates roughly as The Most Wondrous Achievements: Biographies and Reports of Events, is the single most important primary source for the history of Egypt over nearly four…
The design principles necessary to create functional and dynamic contemporary mosques can be hard to grasp for those unfamiliar with the Islamic faith. Design Criteria for Mosques and Islamic Centers provides an easy-to-use and practical set of guidelines for mosque design, illustrated with 300 line drawings.
Case studies of…
This second volume in the series Minnesota Studies in Early Modern History brings together eleven original studies in the history of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. One of world history’s largest, longest-lived, and most influential empires, the Ottoman Empire controlled the Balkans, Anatolia, and most of the Middle East throughout…
Co-authored by Norman Itzkowitz, Ph.D. 1959.
Explore the life of a poor peasant who became one of the most powerful men in Russia by claiming to have mystical powers. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
Special issue of Radical History Review (No. 105, Fall 2009).
Contents
Editors' Introduction -- Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi; Mansour Bonakdarian; Nasrin Rahimieh; Ahmad Sadri; Ervand Abrahamian
Features
The Crowd in the Iranian Revolution -- Ervand Abrahamian
…Yusuf al-Qaradawi is one of the most influential Islamic scholars living in the Middle East today. Though classically trained in Islamic studies at al-Azhar, his religious and political thought has been heavily influenced by modernity. Using the ideas of prominent philosophers such as Kant and Hegel, as well as of…
Advanced Turkish DVD-ROM is comprehensive multimedia language courseware. This DVD-ROM package is the equivalent of a textbook and workbook, with audio and video.
It can be used either by independent learners or by students in a traditional or self-instructional classroom setting, and covers material…
Co-edited by Onur Yıldırım, Ph.D. 2002.
Suraiya Faroqhi, yasaminin buyuk bolumunu Osmanli toplumunun koylulerinden eskiyalarina, dervislerinden zanaatkrlarina kadar uzanan farkli kesimlerini incelemeye adadi. Faroqhi, bu kesimlerin hem devletle hem de kendilerini cevreleyen toplumsal, ekonomik ve siyasal kosullarla nasil basa cikmaya…
Why did the Ottoman Empire enter the First World War in late October 1914, months after the war's devastations had become clear? Were its leaders 'simple-minded,' 'below-average' individuals, as the doyen of Turkish diplomatic history has argued? Or, as others have claimed, did the Ottomans enter the war because War Minister Enver Pasha,…
This book contains the papers that were presented at the Isfahan International Congress on Islamic Arts and Crafts. The papers are on various subjects including Islamic architecture, the art of calligraphy, arts and cultural dialogue, Islamic paintings and miniature, the influence of Islamic arts and crafts on…
“In a book with a bold new view of medieval Jewish history, written in a style accessible to nonspecialists and students as well as to scholars in the field, Marina Rustow changes our understanding of the origins and nature of heresy itself. Scholars have long believed that the Rabbanites and Qaraites, the two major Jewish groups under Islamic…
Ashraf `Ali Thanawi (1863-1943) was one of the most prominent religious scholars in Islamic history. Author of over a thousand books on different aspects of Islam, his work sought to defend the Islamic scholarly tradition and to articulate its authority in an age of momentous religious and political change. In this authoritative biography,…
The Other Iraq challenges the notion that Iraq has always been a totalitarian, artificial state, torn by sectarian violence. Chronicling the rise of the Iraqi public sphere from 1921 to 1958, this enlightening work reveals that the Iraqi intellectual field was always more democratic and pluralistic than historians have tended to…
The Iranian revolution of 1979 overhauled not only the foundations of Iranian society, religion and politics, but also our understanding of the role of religion in modern government. Here Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi takes us on an enlightening journey, showing that the revolution unintentionally opened up the public sphere to competing…
Explore the life and accomplishments of the Mongol conqueror who established the largest empire in history. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
Eric L. Ormsby, Ph.D. 1981
This fascinating work profiles Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111), the foremost Islamic scholar and mystic of the medieval period. Attracting the patronage of the vizier Nizam al-Mulk early in his career, he was appointed head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad, and attracted audiences from across the…
Edited by Fred McGraw Donner, B.A. 1968, Ph.D. 1975.
This volume presents a selection of the key studies in which leading scholars since the beginning of the 20th century attempt to explain the phenomenally rapid expansion of the early Islamic state during the 7th century CE. The…
Since 2007, five volumes of the collection of Modarressi's early (pre-1979) Persian articles have been published. These include volumes entitled Ijtima'iyat, Qummiyat, Sanadiyat, Kitabiyat, and Tarikhiyat. Having access to these reprints is most welcome given the fact that most of the articles…
In this seminal study, Jane Hathaway presents a wide-ranging reassessment of the effects of Ottoman rule on the Arab Lands of Egypt, Greater Syria, Iraq and Yemen - the first of its kind in over forty years.
Challenging outmoded perceptions of this period as a demoralizing prelude to the rise of Arab nationalism and Arab nation…
Islamicate Sexualities: Translations across Temporal Geographies of Desire explores different genealogies of sexuality and questions some of the theoretical emphases and epistemic assumptions affecting current histories of sexuality. Concerned with the dynamic interplay between cultural constructions of gender and sexuality, the…
Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action Best Book Award 2010
Muslim beliefs have inspired charitable giving for over fourteen centuries, yet Islamic history has rarely been examined from this perspective. In Charity in Islamic Societies, Amy Singer explains the basic…
Descriptions of dreams abound in the literatures of the Near East and North Africa. The Prophet Muhammad endowed them with a theological dimension, saying that after him “true dreams” would be the only channel for prophecy. Dreams were often used to support conflicting theological and political arguments, and the local chronicles contain many…
A provocative retelling of the story of political corruption in the modern period.
In this provocative retelling of the story of political corruption in the modern period, Ruth A. Miller argues that narratives of political corruption rely upon an explicitly pornographic rhetoric and have been instrumental in carving out…
John H. Lorentz, Ph.D. 1974.
Iran is a country with a deep and complex history. Over several thousand years, Iran has been the source of numerous creative contributions to the spiritual and literary world, and the site of many remarkable manifestations of material culture. The special place that Iran has come to hold in contemporary…
Identity and Identity Formation in the Ottoman World is a collection of articles authored by the students and colleagues of Norman Itzkowitz. The contributors include Engin Deniz Akarli, Karl K. Barbir, Cornell H. Fleischer, Jane Hathaway, Cemal Kafadar, Metin Kunt, Rudi Paul Lindner, Heath W. Lowry, Scott Redford, Vamik D. Volkan, and…
Leor Halevi, B.A. 1994
Winner of MESA’s 2007 Albert Hourani Award
Winner of the American Academy of Religion 2008 Award for Excellence in the category of Analytical-Descriptive studies
Winner of Phi Beta Kappa Society’s 2008 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award
Looks at the emergence of Shiism as a distinct communal identity within Islam.
The Charismatic Community examines the rise and development of Shiite religious identity in early Islamic history, analyzing the complex historical and intellectual processes that shaped the sense of individual and communal religious vocation. The…
Since the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, the public has grappled with the relationship between Islamic education and radical Islam. Media reports tend to paint madrasas — religious schools dedicated to Islamic learning — as medieval institutions opposed to all that is Western and as breeding grounds for terrorists. Others have claimed that…
Co-authored by Norman Itzkowitz, Ph.D. 1959.
From property forfeiture to public flogging to burning at the stake, persecution and torture were all in a day's work for Tom?s de Torquemada-- a monk without mercy for anyone who broke the laws of the Church. Age Range: 11 to 17 years.
This volume argues that legislation on abortion, adultery, and rape has been central to the formation of the modern citizen. The author draws on rights literature, biopolitical scholarship, and a gender-studies perspective as a foundation for rethinking the sovereign relationship. In approaching the politicization of reproductive space from…
Bridging the pragmatic and the theoretical, leading scholars and policy analysts delve into the critical issues facing Afghanistan today. Their exploration of questions relating to security and peacekeeping, the rule of law, institutional design, mobilization of the economy,…