This is an authoritative & comprehensive guide to Islam & Muslims, which allows readers to appreciate a diverse culture & understand real people in their everyday lives. While many books are devoted to the study of Islam, & dozens more to specific Muslim societies (usually Arab ones), this is the first to bring together both, explaining Islam in theory & in practice across the diverse Muslim world. Readers learn not just what Islam says about everything from the nature of God to marriage to politics, but also how individual Muslims (traditional or modern, devout or barely observant) apply teachings in everyday life. ...

In this deeply informed exchange, Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz present an antidote to the polarizing rhetoric & obscurantism that define our time: honest dialogue. Guided by a commitment to the belief that no idea is above scrutiny & no people beneath dignity, Harris & Nawaz challenge each other, & their readers, to discover common ground. ...

The meaning & message of Islam has been corrupted & perverted by a particularly virulent strain of Islam. But behind the stories of atrocities, strife & turmoil, there is a number of different versions & visions of Islam struggling to survive & make sense of a rapidly changing world. Writer & critic Ziauddin Sardar tells the stories of different interpretations of Islam & argues for a critical version of a religion that has a long & distinguished history
- but which appears to have been swept aside by a fundamentalist interpretation. Along the way, he answers a host of questions uppermost on the minds of most people. Is Islam inherently violent & misogynist? Why do young men & women go to join the Jihadi Caliphate? Does Islam need a reformation? Should we be frightened of Sharia? What part do Muhammad`s teachings play, or ought to play, in our own times? Ziauddin Sardar is a practising Muslim & he is as terrified by the rise of Islamic Jihadi groups as anyone else. In this remarkable book, he urges all those who feel the same way to work together to preserve the sanity of our world.
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Since September 11 2001 not a day passes without stories about ' Islam'
- the religion of about one-fifth of humanity
- appearing

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The recent prominence of Islamic politics in the Middle East, notably the Iranian revolution & its ramifications, has raised important questions about society, politics & culture. It has posed a challenge to the main theoretical approaches in the social sciences from Marxism to modernization theory & it has given some credence to the idea that the world of Islam is essentially distinct from Europe, & follows a course of development dictated by its own history & culture. In this book, Sami Zubaida challenges these diverse opinions in favour of a general political sociology capable of dealing with the historical & cultural personalities of societies & situations in the region. He argues that rather than being revivals of historical ideas & institutions, current political & social developments in the Islamic World are, in fact, uniquely modern phenomena. ...

Islamabad with Rawalpindi at 1:30, 000 from the Pakistani national survey organization, providing an overview map of the two cities. Principal traffic arteries are highlighted & selected streets & neighbourhoods are named. Within Islamabad sector numbers are also shown. Buildings are annotated with names of various organizations, educational establishments, embassies, services, etc. The map has no index. ...

This history of Islamic art surveys the magnificent achievement of Muslim arists & craftsmen over 1200 years, from the 7th to the 19th centuries AD. Architecture, manuscripts, ceramics & glass, metalwork, textiles & carpets, with their distinctive subtlety of outline & sumptuous decoration, formed the basis of a cultural heritage of extraordinary richness. & yet under different local conditions
- in Arabia or Turkey, central Asia or Spain, North Africa, India or Iran
- & in the hands of Arabs, Seljuks, Mamluks, Mongols, Timurid & Ottoman Turks, Safavids or Mughals, this shared heritage produced a great diversity of styles, which the author examines region by region. Also considered is the specific character of Islamic art & its influence in the West, as well as modern developments. The book contains a useful glossary of Arabic, Turkish & Persian terms.

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From the frontiers of Iran to the heart of India, architects, landscape gardeners, calligraphers, miniaturists & weavers have made their mark on the Islamic tradition. Turquoise marble cupolas; arches adorned with flowers & arabesques; motionless basins reflecting the slender minarets in the form of glittering stalactites; scintillating enamels of floral bouquets
- all of these components are an integral part of the luxury, refinement & spirituality that can be defined as ` Persian style`. Islamic Art & Architecture explores & celebrates the cities of Islam, from Tabriz & Yazd to Kerman to Khiva, from Lahore to Fatehpur Sikri & Sikandra. Henri Stierlin offers a key to an intimate understanding of this immense heritage in a thorough text closely allied to crisp, full-colour illustrations.
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The religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers & philosophers of the early Muslim world helped to shape the 1, 400-year-long development of today`s second-largest world religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives, & the ways in which they influenced their societies? Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, but weaves these ambitious lives together to create a rich narrative of early Islamic civilization, from the Prophet Muhammad to fearsome Tamerlane. Beginning in Islam`s heartl&, Mecca, we move across Arabia to follow Islam`s journey across North Africa, as far as Spain in the West, & eastwards through Central & East Asia; we see the rise & fall of Islamic states through the political & military leaders working to secure peace or expand their power, &, within this political climate, the development of Islamic law, scientific thought & literature through the words of the scholars who devoted themselves to these pursuits. Alongside the famous characters who coloured this landscape, including Muhammad`s controversial cousin, ` Ali; the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin; & the poet Rumi, the reader will also meet less well-known figures, such as Shajar al-Durr, slave-turned-Sultana of Egypt, & Ibn Fadlan, whose travels in Eurasia brought first-hand accounts of the Volka Vikings to the Abbasid Caliph. ...

The religious thinkers, political leaders, law-makers, writers & philosophers of the early Muslim world helped to shape the 1, 400-year-long development of today`s secondlargest world religion. But who were these people? What do we know of their lives, & the ways in which they influenced their societies? Chase F. Robinson draws on the long tradition in Muslim scholarship of commemorating in writing the biographies of notable figures, but weaves these ambitious lives together to create a rich narrative of early Islamic civilization, from the Prophet Muhammad to fearsome Tamerlane. Beginning in Islam`s heartl&, Mecca, we move across Arabia to follow Islam`s journey across North Africa, as far as Spain in the West, & eastwards through Central & East Asia; we see the rise & fall of Islamic states through the political & military leaders working to secure peace or expand their power, &, within this political climate, the development of Islamic law, scientific thought & literature through the words of the scholars who devoted themselves to these pursuits. Alongside the famous characters who coloured this landscape, including Muhammad`s controversial cousin, ` Ali; the first Sultan of Egypt, Saladin; & the poet Rumi, the reader will also meet less wellknown figures, such as Shajar al-Durr, slave-turned-Sultana of Egypt, & Ibn Fadlan, whose travels in Eurasia brought first-hand accounts of the Volka Vikings to the Abbasid Caliph. ...