The Qur'an, morality and critical reason : the essential Muhammad Shahrur /
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This book presents the work and ideas of the Syrian writer Muhammad Shahrur to the English-speaking world. Shahrur is at the moment the most innovative intellectual thinker in the Arab Middle East. Often described as the 'Martin Luther of Islam,' he offers a liberal, progressive reading of Islam that aims to counter the influences of religious fundamentalism and radical politics. Shahrur's innovative interpretation of the Qur'an offers groundbreaking new ideas, based on his conviction that centuries of historical Islam, including scholarship in the traditional Islamic religious sciences, have obscured or even obliterated the Qur'an's progressive and revolutionary message. That message is one that has endured through each period of human history in which Islam has existed, encouraging Muslims to apply the most contemporary perspective available to interpret the Qur'an's meaning.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-570) and index. :
9789047424345 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Contemporary Muslim Qurʾānic Hermeneutics : Translations and Perspectives /
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This book brings together leading Muslim thinkers-from Egypt to Tunisia, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, to Indonesia-offering bold, diverse perspectives on how to interpret the Qurʾān in a changing world. From gender justice and interfaith relations to critiques of tradition and modernity, these essays tackle urgent questions facing Muslim communities. Many appear here in English for the first time. Whether defending classical methods or proposing reformist approaches, each author engages deeply with the Qurʾān's meaning and relevance. A unique resource for students, scholars, and all who seek to understand contemporary Qurʾānic hermeneutics from within the Muslim tradition.
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1 online resource (420 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004750692
Narratives of tampering in the earliest commentaries on the Qurʻan /
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The Muslim accusation of the corruption or deliberate falsification of pre-Qur'ānic scriptures has been a major component of interfaith polemic for a millenium or more. The accusation has frequently sought attestation from a series of \'tampering\' verses in the Qur'ān. Investigation of the interpretation of these verses in the earliest commentaries on the Qur'ān, however, reveals a discrepancy between the confident polemical accusation and the tentative understandings of the first Muslims. Of greater interest to early commentators was a story of deception and obstinacy by the \'People of the Book\' in response to the truth claims of Islam. Focusing on the eighth-century commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and the great exegetical compendium of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), this book sketches the outlines of the earliest Muslim approach to pre-Qur'ānic scriptures. The resulting discoveries provide a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain of doctrinaire claim and polemical debate.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-245) and index. :
9789004192393 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Formation of the Classical Tafsīr Tradition : The Qurʾān Commentary of al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035) /
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This work is both an introduction to the genre of classical tafsīr and a detailed study of one of its major architects, al-Thaʿlabī (d. 427/1035). The book offers a detailed study of the hermeneutical principles that governed al-Thaʿlabī's approach to the Qurʾān, principles which became the norm in later exegetical works. It is divided into three main sections; the first outlines the life and times of the author; the second is a detailed study of his major exegetical work, al-Kashf ; the third charts a brief history of the genre of tafsīr through documenting the reactions of later exegetes to al-Kashf. This work brings together material never examined before and tries to offer a new way of understanding the history of classical Qurʾān exegesis.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047412564
9789004127777
A Traditional Mu'tazilite Qur'ān Commentary : The Kashshāf of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d.538/1144) /
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This book deals with the life and work of Jār Allāh al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/144). The greater part of it, however, is devoted to an examination of his Qurʾān commentary, al-Kashshāf. The book is divided into five chapters, supplemented by nine appendices. After a chapter on the author's life and writings (an annotated list of which is given in an appendix), there follow four chapters that focus on the Kashshāf itself. These deal with the history of the text, its structure and method, the traditions it contains and the sources the author relied on for it. Although both al-Zamakhsharī's name and the title of his commentary are well known, very little is actually known about either the author or the work. This book presents a more complete and nuanced picture of each.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047417767
9789004147003
Christian apocalyptic texts in Islamic messianic discourse : the 'Christian chapter' of the Javidan-nama-yi kabir by Fadl Allah Astarabadi (d. 796/1394) /
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In Christian Apocalyptic Texts in Islamic Messianic Discourse Orkhan Mir-Kasimov offers an account of the interpretation of these Christian texts by Faḍl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 796/1394), the founder of a mystical and messianic movement which was influential in medieval Iran and Anatolia. This interpretation can be situated within the tradition of 'positive' Muslim hermeneutics of the Christian and Jewish scriptures which was particularly developed in Shıīʿī and especially Ismaīʿlī circles. Faḍl Allāh incorporates the Christian apocalyptic texts into an Islamic eschatological context, combining them with Qurʾān and ḥadīth material. In addition to an introductory study, the book contains a critical edition and an English translation of the relevant passages from Faḍl Allāh's magnum opus, the Jāvidān-nāma-yi kabīr .
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004330856 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Women in classical Islamic law : a survey of the sources /
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Drawing on legal and ḥadīth texts from the formative and classical periods of Islamic legal history, this book offers an overview of the development of the questions prominent jurists asked and answered about women's issues. All assumed a woman would marry and thus the book concentrates on women's family life. The introduction establishes the historical framework within which the jurists worked. A chapter on Qurʾān verses devoted to women's lives is followed by chapters on marriage and divorce which compare the views of jurists during the formative period. The fourth chapter describes the evolution from the formative to the classical periods. The fifth uses material from both periods to describe the array of legal opinion about other aspects of women's lives in and outside their homes. Throughout, jurists' opinions are juxtaposed with relevant quotations from contemporaneous ḥadīth collections.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-212) and indexes. :
9789047427810 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
In defense of the Bible : a critical edition and an introduction to al-Biqāʻī's Bible treatise /
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The history of the Islamic interaction with the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity has been studied extensively in academia. The prevailing view is that Muslims had hardly any religious appreciation to the Bible and when used by Muslims it was mainly in apologetic or polemical settings. The document presented here squarely contradicts such a view. The treatise argues for the permissiblity of using the Bible by Muslims for religious purposes. Al-Biqāʿī, the author of this treatise, wrote a huge Qurʾān commentary that used the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels to interpret parts of the Qurʾān. Al-Sakhāwī, a bitter enemy, opposed such a practice. The document preserves for us a fundamental argument inside Islam about the value of the Scriptures of other religions.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-223) and indexes. :
9789047433781 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christian doctrines in Islamic theology /
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By the tenth century Islamic theology had become an integrated system by which theologians constructed sophisticated accounts of the nature of the world and God's relationship with it. They also used it to establish proofs that Islam was the only rationally tenable form of belief, building these in part on proofs of the illogicalities in other faiths, including Christianity. Through excerpts from key works of the theologians al-Nashi' al-Akbar, al-Maturidi, al-Baqillani and ʿAbd al-Jabbar, this book shows how Muslim theologians in this period made use of Christian doctrines as examples of misguided thinking to help confirm the correctness of their own theology, and how among Muslim theologians Christianity had ceased to attract serious attention as a rival to Islam.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-383) and index. :
9789047442059 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Early Islamic legal theory : the Risāla of Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʻī /
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The Risāla of al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820), the earliest preserved work of Islamic legal theory, has been understood in previous scholarship as either the elaboration of a hierarchy of sources of law (Qurʾān, Sunna, consensus, and analogical reasoning) or an extended defense of the Sunna. Through a careful rereading of this celebrated text, this book offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the Risāla , in which Shāfiʿī formulated an all-encompassing hermeneutic that portrays the law as a tightly interlocking structure organized around defined interactions of the Qurʾān and the Sunna. Topics covered include Shāfiʿī's creative account of the law's architectonics, hermeneutical techniques, legal epistemology, relationship to kalām , and the role of consensus ( ijmāʿ ).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-399) and indexes. :
9789047423898 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The legend of Sergius Baḥīrā : eastern Christian apologetics and apocalyptic in response to Islam /
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From the eighth century onwards, Christians living under Islam have produced numerous apologetic and polemical works, aimed at proving the continuing validity of Christianity. Among these is the Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā, which survives in two Syriac and two Arabic versions, and appears here in edition and translation. Being a counterhistory of Islam, it reshapes early Muslim traditions about a monk recognizing Muḥammad as the final Prophet by turning this monk into Muhammad's tutor and co-author of the Qur'an. In response to Muslim triumphalist propaganda, it portrays Islam's political power as predestined but finite and unrelated to its religious message. This feature sets the legend apart from similar Christian accounts of the origin of Islam, East and West, which are reviewed in this study as well.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-560) and index. :
9789047441953 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Scripturalist Islam : the history and doctrines of the Akhbārī Shīʻī school /
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The Akhbārī School dominated the intellectual landscape of Imāmī Shiʿism between the Seventeenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Its principal doctrines involved a reliance on scripture (primarily the sayings or akhbār of the Shiʿite Imams) and a rejection of the rational exegetical techniques which had become orthodox doctrine in Imāmī theology and law. However, the Akhbārīs were not simple literalists, as they are at times portrayed in secondary literature. They developed a complex theory of exegesis in which texts could be interpreted, whilst at the same time remaining doggedly committed to the ability of the revelatory texts to provide answers to theological and legal questions arising within the Shīʿī community. This book is the first in-depth study of the intellectual development and historical influence of the Akhbārī School.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [321]-333) and index. :
9789047421627 :
0169-8729 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The spiritual background of early Islam : studies in ancient Arab concepts /
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In a series of essays devoted to key terms and ideas in Islam, Bravmann argues on the basis of pre-Islamic and early Islamic texts for an Arabian background to the rise of the religion. In pursuing a through philological examination of the evidence, Bravmann finds core values and ideas of Islam deeply embedded in ancient Arab linguistic expression. His work continues to provide a critical element in the debates about the emergence of Islam and cannot be ignored by anyone trying to assess the complex historiographical problems that surround the issue.
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Includes index.
Previously published in 1972. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047425328 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Negotiating Homosexuality in Islam : A Legal-hermeneutical Examination of Modern Shīʿī Discourse /
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To enrich the existing debates on Islam and sexual diversity, in the present book, I seek the potential discursive spaces on homosexuality in modern Imāmī legal debates. I have undertaken this research on the thesis that modern Imāmī legal tradition on homosexuality is more flexible and dynamic than one might expect. To address this essential issue, I build the study around the following constructive question: what are the discursive spaces on homosexuality in contemporary reflections within modern Shiʿi legal scholarship? Responding to this central query, the study is premised on the notion that Imāmī legal sources consist of a tradition of sacred (textual) sources, intellectual reasoning, a vast stockpile of (often contrasting) interpretations of these sources, and a distinguished methodological repertoire called ijtihad . Following the same methodology, in this work, I describe, analyse, and critique such textual-exegetical and intellectual-rational discursive aspects concerning homosexuality.
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1 online resource (370 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004697065
From the Greeks to the Arabs and Beyond : Volume 3: From God´s Wisdom to Science: A. Islamic Theology and Sufism, B. History of Science /
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From the Greeks to the Arabs and Beyond written by Hans Daiber, is a six volume collection of Daiber's scattered writings, journal articles, essays and encyclopaedia entries on Greek-Syriac-Arabic translations, Islamic theology and Sufism, the history of science, Islam in Europe, manuscripts and the history of oriental studies. The collection contains published (since 1967) and unpublished works in English, German, Arabic, Persian and Turkish, including editions of Arabic and Syriac texts. The publication mirrors the intercultural character of Islamic thought and sheds new light on many aspects ranging from the Greek pre-Socratics to the Malaysian philosopher Naquib al-Attas. A main concern is the interpretation of texts in print or in manuscripts, culminating in two catalogues (Vol. V and VI), which contain descriptions of newly discovered, mainly Arabic, manuscripts in all fields. Vol. I: Graeco-Syriaca and Arabica. Vol. II: Islamic Philosophy. Vol. III: From God's Wisdom to Science : A. Islamic Theology and Sufism ; B. History of Science. Vol. IV: Islam, Europe and Beyond: A. Islam and Middle Ages ; B. Manuscripts - a Basis of Knowledge and Science ; C. History of the Discipline ; D. Obituaries ; E. Indexes. Vol. V: Unknown Arabic Manuscripts from Eight Centuries - Including one Hebrew and Two Ethiopian Manuscripts: Daiber Collection III. Vol. VI: Arabic, Syriac, Persian and Latin Manuscripts on Philosophy, Theology, Science and Literature. Films and Offprints: Daiber Collection IV.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004441804
9789004441798
Pure gold from the words of Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh =al-Dhabab al-Ibrīz min kalām Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh /
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Around 1720 in Fez Aḥmad born al-Mubārak al-Lamaṭī, a religious scholar, wrote down the words and teachings of the Sufi master ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh. Al-Dabbāgh shunned religious studies but, having reached illumination and met with the Prophet Muḥammad, he was able to explain any obscurities in the Qurʾān, ḥadīth s and sayings of earlier Sufis. The resulting book, known as the Ibrīz , describes how al-Dabbāgh attained illumination and access to the Prophet, as well as his teachings about the Council of the godly that regulates the world, relations between master and disciple, the darkness in men's bodies, Adam's creation, Barzakh, Paradise and Hell, and much more besides. This 'encyclopaedia' of Sufism with its many teaching stories and illustrations provides a window onto social life and religious ideas in Fez a generation or so before powerful outside forces began to play a role in the radical transformation of Morocco.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [933]-944) and indexes. :
9789047432487 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Ẓāhirīs : their doctrine and their history : a contribution to the history of Islamic theology /
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Ignaz Goldziher wrote his book 'Die Zahiriten' in 1883. The English translation of this standard work on Islamic jurisprudence appeared in 1971. The book has been in print ever since. This new edition in the Brill Classics in Islam series shows that The Ẓāhirīs has not lost any of its actuality. The individual that adheres to the principles of madhhab al-Ẓāhir, the Islamic legal school, is called Ẓāhirī. Goldziher gives an extensive presentation of the Ẓāhirīte school, its doctrine and the position of its representatives within orthodox Islam. Ẓāhirism accepts only the facts clearly revealed by sensible, rational and linguistic intuitions, controlled and corroborated by Qurʾānic revelation. This history of Islamic theology sheds light on the Ẓāhirīte legal interpretation vis-à-vis other legal schools and gives an interesting insight in questions like 'are all prescriptions and prohibitions in Islamic law commanded or forbidden?'
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [212]-216) and index. :
9789047423881 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Economics of an Islamic economy /
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This book challenges the interventionist stance of Islamic economics as well as its presumption that riba equals interest. An Islamic economy, it argues, is essentially a market economy, but it differs from capitalist economies because both its institutions and the structure of, for example, property rights are specifically Islamic, deriving from Qurʾān and other sources of Islamic law. The book also focuses on the similarities and differences between riba and interest, establishes the often neglected connection between the two, and explores the ramifications of this connection for Islamic financial systems.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047441724 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.