Illustrating the trends in Quranic commentary worldwide

Source: OUP.

The OUP/Institute of Ismaili Studies has published The Qur'an and its Readers Worldwide: Contemporary Commentaries and Translations, edited by Suha Taji-Farouki (ISBN: 9780198754770) as part of its Qur'anic Studies Series.

Some 80% of Muslims in the contemporary world speak languages other than Arabic, the language of the Quran. To respond to the needs of their communities, Muslim scholars and laypersons must increasingly explain and communicate the meanings of the Quran in their own languages — including through the medium of Quran commentary and translation.

The Qur'an and its Readers Worldwide provides an introduction to this rich and expanding field. It brings together a selection of Quran commentaries and translations produced across the twentieth century to the present day, and ranging in provenance from the regions of the traditional Islamic heartlands to the new loci of global Islam. Individual chapters examine works in Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, English, German, Malay, Persian, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu, each viewed in terms of the impact of modernity on the encounter with the Quran.

Through these case studies this book illustrates the defining trends in Quran commentary worldwide, addressing evolving questions of authorship, message, intended readership and media of communication. It also samples debates concerning Quranic meaning in translation.

Taji-Farouki is Senior Lecturer in Modern Islam at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the University of Exeter. She was formerly at the University of Durham, and has held Visiting Fellowships in London, Berlin, Oxford and Amman.

Interested?

The hardback costs £60.

Fresh view into Islamic ethical thought from Sophia Vasalou

Source: OUP.

Ibn Taymiyya's Theological Ethics by Sophia Vasalou (ISBN: 9780199397839), Oxford University Press, is a new study on Islamic ethical thought in the classical period, detailing intellectual developments in Islamic theology, philosophy and legal theory.

Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya (ابن تيمية; ) was a prominent Islamic scholar, theologian and logician. The book aims to shed fresh light on Ibn Taymiyya's intellectual identity by investigating his ethical thought, considering right and wrong, and God's relationship to standards discerned by the human mind. 

Vasalou, a Library of Arabic Literature Fellow at NYU Abu Dhabi and an Honorary Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University, also explores Ibn Taymiyya's relationship to the intellectual landscape of his time (1263 to 1328), bringing us up against ethical discussions unfolding within theology, philosophy and legal theory in the classical period. 

Interested?

The hardback is priced at £47.99. This book is also available as an ebook

Reviewing Islam and democracy post-Arab Spring

Source: OUP.

In late 2010, the wave of civil resistance known as the Arab Spring stunned the world as dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya were overthrown, while the regimes of Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen suppressed their own revolutions. The Islamic political parties of Tunisia and Egypt have gained particular attention for their success in the national elections following the overthrow of their regimes, and similar electoral success has been seen in Morocco and is predicted throughout the Arab world and beyond in the broader Middle East and in Southeast Asia.

Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring by John Esposito, Tamara Sonn, and John Voll (ISBN: 9780195147988) expands upon ideas raised in by Esposito and Voll in their earlier book Islam and Democracy, as well as data from the Gallup World poll and Gallup polling throughout Egypt, Tunisia, and other loci of the Arab Spring. Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring applies a twenty-first century perspective to the question of whether or not Islam is "compatible" with democracy by redirecting the conversation towards a new politic of democracy that transcends both secular authoritarianism and 'Political Islam'.

The book provides historical context and insights into the broader political developments of the Muslim world. While the opposition movements of the Arab Spring are distinctive, each has raised questions regarding equality, economic justice, democratic participation, and the relationship between Islam and democracy in their respective countries.

The authors are established experts on Islam and democracy and have served as consultants to governments, the military, and think tanks in the US, Europe, and Asia. Esposito is University Professor and Professor of Religion & International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, while Sonn is the Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani Professor in the History of Islam in the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Voll is Professor Emeritus of Islamic History at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University.

Interested?

The hardback costs £20. An ebook version is also available

How Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions differ

Two books recently published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) cover comparisons between Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious thought. Natural Law: A Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Trialogue by Anver Emon, Matthew Levering, and David Novak, provides a sense for how natural law doctrine arises and functions in each tradition, while Shared Stories,Rival Tellings: Early Encounters of Jews, Christians, and Muslims by Robert Gregg reveals that Christians, Jews, and Muslims conscientiously differentiated themselves through debates over scriptural stories' meanings.

Source: OUP website.

In Natural Law each author has written an essay on natural law doctrine in one tradition and responds to the other two authors, revealing the particular points of tension/interest between the traditions. Readers will gain a sense for how natural law resonated with classical thinkers such as Maimonides, Origen, Augustine, al-Ghazali and others. There is extensive reliance on classical sources from each tradition, with clear explanations of the key sources and terms for natural law doctrine in the tradition. Footnotes provide key bibliographic resources for further study.

Anver Emon is Professor of Law, University of Toronto, Canada; Matthew Levering is Professor, Mundelein Seminary, Illinois in the US, and David Novak holds the J Richard and Dorothy Shiff Chair in Jewish Studies as Professor of Religion and Philosophy, University of Toronto.

Source: OUP
website.

For Shared Stories Gregg, who is Emeritus Professor in Religious Studies, Stanford University, emphasises that there was mutual curiosity between Christians, Muslims, and Jews, since all three religions had ancestral traditions and a commanding God in common, but also competitiveness, as each group was compelled to sharpen its identity against the other two. 

Gregg performs a comparative investigation of how Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters—both writers and artists—developed their distinctive and exclusionary understandings of narratives common to their three holy books: Cain and Abel, Sara and Hagar, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Jonah and the Whale, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Exposed in the process are the major issues under contention and the social-intellectual forces that contributed to the exchanges between Muslims, Christians and Jews.

Interested?

Natural Law (ISBN 978-0-19-87450 0-6, £16.99) is available as an e-book or a paperback

Shared Stories, Rival Tellings (ISBN 978-0-19-023149-1, £25.99 or US$39.95) is available as an e-book and as a hardback. To purchase the e-book, visit your preferred e-book provider

Oxford encyclopedias on Islam are ideal companion volumes

Source: OUP website.

Two sets of encyclopedias on Islam were published by the Oxford University Press (OUP) within months of each other last year. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics (ISBN: 9780199739356) provides in-depth coverage and discussion of the political dimensions of Islam and the Muslim world. 

Developments in Muslim societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have highlighted the need for a major reference work focusing primarily on these dimensions, says the OUP. The encyclopedia covers major turning points in contemporary Muslim history, including:

• The realisation of internal decay and relentless quest for reform
• The collapse of the Islamic caliphate
• The fall of most parts of the Muslim world under western colonialism
• The emergence of nation-states
• The dominance of secular ideologies
• The rise of Islamic revivalist movements and faith-based political, economic, and social alternatives
• The confrontation between Islamic movements and secular inspired regimes

Based on the 2009 The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics brings together over 400 new and updated entries to create a single, specialised reference source on this important topic. The two-volume set runs to 1,452 pages and costs US$395.

Source: OUP website. 

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam, first edition, was published May 2014 (ISBN: 9780199812578). This US$395. two-volume set runs to a total of 1,152 pages, and provides an overview as well as a comprehensive and detailed survey of the main features of philosophy, science, medicine and technology in the Muslim world. 

The more than 250 A-Z entries cover of Islamic philosophy, sciences, and technologies from the classical through contemporary periods. The tone is scholarly, based on primary and secondary sources, and aimed at advanced students of Islamic philosophy and science. The selection of entries as well as their content reflect the most recent research in the field, providing scholars and advanced students with an authoritative reference work.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers regularly-updated teaching and research resource

Source: Oxford Islamic Studies Online website.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online has been updated with over 300 new and revised articles from The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics, edited by Emed El-Din Shahim, in its Fall 2014 update. New entries include the Arab Spring, sovereignty, rebellion, as well as overviews of Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

The subscription-based service features articles written, selected, and interpreted by renowned scholars to aid research and teaching at any level. The site hosts over 3,000 articles integrated with chapter-based scholarly works, visual, geographic, and social perspectives on global Islam, including maps, illustrations, dynastic tables, and demographic charts, as well as timelines, glossaries, and other learning resources.

Available content includes the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (six volumes, 2009), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (four volumes), The Islamic World: Past and Present, The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Hanna Kassis' A Concordance of the Qur'an, two translations of the Quran published in the Oxford World's Classics series, and What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam. 

Monthly or yearly personal subscriptions are granted under the terms of a single-user, non-transferable license. Corporate subscriptions are available on an annual basis. Subscribers may access the site from any location. 

Request a 30-day free trial here. Sign up for a subscription here.