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

NUS Press discounts books on Indonesia to November 8

In celebration of Indonesia as the Country of Honour at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair and NUS Press author Goenawan Mohamad as Chairman of the fair's organising committee, NUS Press is offering a selection of Indonesian titles at 35% discount.

Highlights include:

Islam, Nationalism and Democracy: a Political Biography of Mohammad Natsir, by editor and historian Audrey Kahin, who was managing editor of Southeast Asia publications and editor of the journal Indonesia at Cornell University from 1978 to 1995. She is currently a member of the journal's editorial advisory board (2012, ISBN: 978-9971-69-571-2, S$38). 

Mohammad Natsir (1908 to 1993) was a leading Muslim politician in Indonesia who went from heading the country's first post-independence government and largest Islamic political party to spending years in rebellion and in prison. After initially welcoming Soekarno's overthrow in 1965, he became an outspoken critic of the successor Suharto government's rule. Natsir's writings reveal a man struggling to harmonise his deep Islamic faith with his equally firm belief in national independence and democracy.

Drawing from a wide range of materials, including these writings and extensive interviews with the subject, this political biography of Natsir positions an important Muslim politician and thinker in the context of a critical period of Indonesia's history, and describes his vision of how a newly independent country could embrace religion without sacrificing its democratic values.

"Natsir has long deserved a serious biography, so Audrey Kahin's book is welcome and valuable." said Professor Merle Calvin (MC) Ricklefs, Professor Emeritus of the Australian National University. He was formerly Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and Monash University, and Director of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University.

The winner of the 2015 George McTurnan Kahin Prize, Islamisation and Its Opponents in Java: A Political, Social, Cultural and Religious History, c.1930 to Present by Ricklefs (2012, ISBN: 978-9971-69-631-3, S$45). This award is given biennially to an outstanding scholar of Southeast Asian studies from any discipline or country specialisation to recognise distinguished scholarly work on Southeast Asia beyond the author's first book.

The Javanese, one of the largest ethnic groups in the Islamic world, were once mostly 'nominal Muslims'. As times changed from colonial rule through Japanese occupation and revolution to the democracy of the Sukarno period, the Soeharto regime's aspirant totalitarianism and the democratic period since, that society has changed profoundly to become an extraordinary example of the rising religiosity that marks the modern age.

"One of the finest [books] ever written on religion and culture in Java and Indonesia a case study in Islamisation that is among the finest I know from any part of the Muslim world a brilliant book by a historian at the peak of his craft." comments Dr Robert Hefner about the book. Hefner is Professor of anthropology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University.

Islam and Nation: Separatist Rebellion in Aceh, Indonesia by Edward Aspinall, Senior Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (2009, ISBN: 978-9971-69-485-2, S$25) presents a study of the genesis, growth and decline of a nationalist movement.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with nationalist leaders, activists and guerillas, Aspinall reveals how the Free Aceh Movement went from being a quixotic fantasy to a guerilla army in the space of a generation, leading to a bitter conflict in which thousands perished. And by exploring the complex relationship between Islam and nationalism, Aspinall also explains how a society famed for its Islamic piety gave rise to a guerilla movement that ended up rejecting the Islamic goals of its forebears.

"Aspinall's book is scholarship of the highest order, and is likely to remain the reference point for subsequent reflections on the conflict in Aceh for years to come." said Dr Joseph Chinyong Liow, Dean and Professor of Comparative and International Politics at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He concurrently holds the inaugural Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asia Studies at the Brookings Institution, Washington DC, where he is also a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Program.

Kampung, Islam and State in Urban Java by Patrick Guinness, Head of School and Reader in Anthropology at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University (2009, ISBN: 978-9971-69-470-8, S$38), outlines how the nature of community in urban Java has changed during the economic and political transition that followed the fall of the Soeharto regime in Indonesia.

"This is a valuable resource book for anyone with an interest in community development, urban society and state-societal relations in modern Indonesia. More broadly, it will apeal to those interested in the changing phenomenon of the kampung across a rapidly urbanizing Malay world," comments Dr Michelle Ann Miller, Senior Research Fellow in the Asian Urbanisms Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Interested?

Browse the titles

Enjoy 35% off by entering the discount code ID35 at checkout. All prices shown are before discount. The offer ends 8 November 2015. Excludes delivery charges. While stocks last

*All images from the NUS Press website.

posted from Bloggeroid

Book on Masyumi party offers new perspective on political Islam

Source: NUS Press.

NUS Press has published Islam and Politics in Indonesia: The Masyumi Party Between Democracy and Integralism (ISBN: 978-9971-69-843-0). By Rémy Madinier and translated by Jeremy Desmond, the book chronicles the activities of the Masyumi Party, which was active in Indonesia from 1945 to 1960. 

Masyumi proposed a vision of society and government which was inspired by the values of Islam, with moderate policies which were favourable to the West and tolerant towards other religious communities in Indonesia. According to the publishers, Madinier offers a perspective on political Islam which provides an alternative to the more widely-studied model of Middle-Eastern Islam. 

Rémy Madinier is a senior researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and co-director of the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CASE-EHESS), while Jeremy Desmond teaches English at the Jean Moulin University in Lyon. Desmond has already translated a number of articles on Southeast Asian studies.

Interested?

Buy the book. The paperback costs US$40 or S$45. 

Abu Talib Ahmad explores museums, history and culture in Malaysia

Source: NUS Press website.
ISBN: 978-9971-69-819-5

In the half century following Malaysian independence in 1957, Malaysia's National Museum shifted from mounted butterflies, stuffed animals and accounts of the colonial experience to presenting an overarching national narrative. 

The narrative is often disputed, with many of the country's other museums offering alternative treatments of topics such as Malaysia's pre-Islamic past, the history and heritage of the Melaka sultanate, and cultural differences between states.

In Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia, published by NUS Press, Abu Talib Ahmad, Professor of Southeast Asian History at the School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, offers insights into differing versions of the country's character and historical experience, and of efforts to reconcile sometimes disparate accounts. 

The author's thoughts combine textual analyses of museum publications and interviews with both serving and retired museum officers to evaluate the changing approaches to exhibits. In addition to the National Museum, he considers museums and memorials in Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Kelantan and Trengganu, as well as memorials dedicated to national heroes. 

The paperback, published 2014, is 344 pages long and costs US$30, S$34, or RM48. Order the book here.