Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction: approaching the subject
Who represents Islam?
What is Islam?
Is there a "true Islam"?
Empathetic understanding
Apologetics
Two problematic pairs
From Orientalism to Islamic Studies
The role of the media
Issues of language and related matters
Dates
An introductory overview of Islam
pt. I History of the community
2. On the eve of Islam: the Hellenistic
Iranian world
Two "superpowers"
Religion in Iran: Zoroastrianism
Other Iranian religions
Byzantine Christianity
Other forms of Christianity
Jews
Philosophers and Gnostics
The Axial Age
3. The beginnings of Islam: Muslim history to about 700 CE
The Arabs before Islam
The career of the Prophet Muhammad
Conflict and conquest after Muhammad
Some scholarly reservations
4. Expansion and flowering: the history of Islam from about 700 to 1700 CE
The later Umayyad period
The early Abbasid period.
Contents note continued: Independent or autonomous realms
The later Abbasid period
The Crusades and their effects
Mongol invasions and after
The three great empires: Ottomans, Safavids and Moghuls
Central Asia, China, Southeast Asia and Africa
pt. II Aspects of Islam
5. The Qur'an: God speaks
What is the Qur'an?
The Qur'an in Muslim culture
The main teachings of the Qur'an
Interpretation of the Qur'an
Modern critical approaches to the Qur'an
6. The Prophet Muhammad: "the best of all creatures"
Muhammad is human, but special
Sunna and Hadith
How authentic are the Hadith?
Muhammad as intercessor and spiritual being
Modernist views: Muhammad as hero
7. Rituals and ceremonies
Some basic distinctions and concerns
The Pillars
Other pilgrimages
The birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (Mawlid al-Nabi)
Life cycle rituals
Sibha
Halal food
8. Divisions in the umma: sects and political theory
Kharijis
Shi'is.
Contents note continued: Sunnis
Persian and Greek contributions
9. Those who know: scholars and learning
Who are the `ulama'?
The mosque
Education and learning
The sciences and higher level teaching
`Ulama' and government
10. To know God's will: Islamic law
Law: Shari'a and fiqh
The five Shari'a valuations
Usul al-fiqh, the roots of jurisprudence: the Sunni form
Sunni "schools" of jurisprudence, madhhabs
Usul al-fiqh: the Twelver Shi'i form
Muftis and fatwas
A brief history of fiqh
The Shari'a and popular appropriation
11. Theology and philosophy: "God talk", Muslim style
Theology (kalam, usul al-din)
Theological issues
Philosophy
Main teachings of the philosophers
12. The Sufi path to God: spiritual dimensions of Islam
Knowledge, love and remembrance of God
Tariqa, the path
The goal: fana' and baqa'
Walis (saints)
Sufism and Shari'a-mindedness
Historical outline
Poetry and theosophy.
Contents note continued: Some recent developments
13.A philosopher, a scholar-mystic and a reformer
Ibn Sina
Al-Ghazali
Ibn Taymiyya
14. Culture and counter-culture
Visual art
Architecture
Literature
Poetry
Prose
Music
pt. III Modern developments
15. Modern challenges: Western imperialism and Muslim response
European imperialism and colonialism
Modernization, Westernization, secularization
The challenge to Islam: "the great reversal"
Pre-modern reform
Responses to the challenge
Traditionalism
Islamic modernism
Secularism
Islamism
Resurgence of Islam
The special case of Israel and Palestine
The "Arab spring"
Post-Islamism?
16. Ideology and politics in Turkey: secularist reform
Ottoman defeats and reforms
Ottoman "pan-Islamic" policy and claim to the caliphate
"Turkism" in the early twentieth century
Nationalist and secularist republic established by Ataturk.
Contents note continued: Partial retreat from secularism from about 1950
The Nurcu and Gulen movements
Alevi revival
The Turkish experience
17. Ideology and politics in Egypt: between secularism and Islamism
The beginnings of modernization and secularization
Muhammad 'Abduh and Islamic modernism
Nationalism and secularization in the early twentieth century
The beginnings of Islamism: the Muslim Brothers
Revolution: support, control and repression
Resurgence of Islam
The "Arab spring" in Egypt
18. Ideology and politics in Iran: from secularism to Islamic republic
The Qajars: religion, foreign interference, constitution
The Pahlavis: Reza Shah and Iranian nationalism
Muhammad Reza Shah: White Revolution
Islamic opposition and revolution
Islamic republic
After Khomeini
19. Ideology and politics in Indonesia: Islamic society or Islamic state?
Islamization of Java, Sumatra and other islands.
Contents note continued: Dutch imperialism and continuing Islamization
Twentieth-century movements
Independence and the issue of an Islamic state
The events of 1965 and Suharto's regime
Post-Suharto: elections; violent Islamism
20. Globalization: challenge and opportunity
Globalization: meaning and examples
Global jihad
Why martyrdom operations?
Muslim diaspora in the West
Liberal/progressive Islam
21. Three cultural flashpoints: gender, democracy and human rights
Gender
Democracy
Human rights
Concluding problematic postscript: the myth of equality.