Culture and Civilization in the Middle East
About the Book Series
This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures and civilizations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys, it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law, history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture and language. While there is a plurality of views, the series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and stimulating fashion.
Ghazali's Politics in Context
1st Edition
By Yazeed Said
May 18, 2017
Imam Abü Hamid al-Ghazalı is perhaps the most celebrated Muslim theologian of medieval Islam yet little attention has been paid to his personal theology. This book sets out to investigate the relationship between law and politics in the writings of Ghazalı and aims to establish the extent to which ...
Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought: Theoretical Compromises in the Works of Avicenna, al-Ghazali and Ibn 'Arabi
1st Edition
By Maria De Cillis
January 27, 2017
The subject of "human free-will" versus "divine predestination" is one of the most contentious topics in classical Islamic thought. By focusing on a theme of central importance to any philosophy of religion, and to Islam in particular, this book offers a critical study of the intellectual ...
Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection
1st Edition
By Nahyan Fancy
July 22, 2015
The discovery of the pulmonary transit of blood was a ground-breaking discovery in the history of the life sciences, and a prerequisite for William Harvey’s fully developed theory of blood circulation three centuries later. This book is the first attempt at understanding Ibn al-Nafīs’s anatomical ...
Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism: Expanding the Crescent from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean (1880s-1930s)
1st Edition
By Amal N. Ghazal
March 27, 2014
Bridging African and Arab histories, this book examines the relationship between Islam, nationalism and the evolution of identity politics from late 19th Century to World War II. It provides a cross-national, cross-regional analysis of religious reform, nationalism, anti-colonialism from Zanzibar ...
Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazali's Theory of Mystical Cognition and Its Avicennian Foundation
1st Edition
By Alexander Treiger
March 19, 2014
It has been customary to see the Muslim theologian Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) as a vehement critic of philosophy, who rejected it in favour of Islamic mysticism (Sufism), a view which has come under increased scrutiny in recent years. This book argues that al-Ghazali was, instead, one of the ...
A History of Early Al-Andalus: The Akhbar Majmu'a
1st Edition
By David James
March 07, 2014
The Akhbār majmū‘a, or 'Collected Accounts', deal with the Muslim conquest of the Iberian peninsula in 711 and subsequent events in al-Andalus, down to and including the reign of ‘Abd al-Rahmān III (912-961), founder of the Umayyad caliphate of al-Andalus . No Arabic text dealing with the early ...
Being Human in Islam: The Impact of the Evolutionary Worldview
1st Edition
By Damian Howard
March 07, 2014
Islamic anthropology is relatively seldom treated as a particular concern even though much of the contemporary debate on the modernisation of Islam, its acceptance of human rights and democracy, makes implicit assumptions about the way Muslims conceive of the human being. This book explores how the...
Muslim Fortresses in the Levant: Between Crusaders and Mongols
1st Edition
By Kate Raphael
March 07, 2014
During much of the twelfth century the Crusaders dominated the military scene in the Levant. The unification of Egypt and Syria by Saladin gradually changed the balance of power, which slowly begun to tilt in favour of the Muslims. This book examines the development and role of Muslim fortresses in...
The UAE and Foreign Policy: Foreign Aid, Identities and Interests
1st Edition
By Khalid S. Almezaini
March 07, 2014
This book offers a concise and detailed analysis of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign aid as a main instrument in its foreign policy. Exploring the cultural factors that have impacted on the foreign policy behaviour of the UAE and its foreign aid, the author argues that Arabism and Islamic ...
The Muslim Conquest of Iberia: Medieval Arabic Narratives
1st Edition
By Nicola Clarke
August 14, 2013
Medieval Islamic society set great store by the transmission of history: to edify, argue legal points, explain present conditions, offer political and religious legitimacy, and entertain. Modern scholars, too, have had much to say about the usefulness of early Islamic history-writing, although this...
Al-Ghazali, Averroes and the Interpretation of the Qur'an: Common Sense and Philosophy in Islam
1st Edition
By Avital Wohlman
August 06, 2013
This book examines the contrasting interpretations of Islam and the Qur’an by Averroes and Al-Ghazali, as a way of helping us untangle current impasses affecting each Abrahamic faith. This has traditionally been portrayed as a battle between philosophy and theology, but the book shows that Averroes...
Mulla Sadra and Metaphysics: Modulation of Being
1st Edition
By Sajjad H. Rizvi
April 24, 2013
Mulla Sadra is one of the most important Islamic philosophers after Avicenna. In this exploration of his philosophy, Sajjad H. Rizvi examines the central doctrine of the modulation of being, and contextualises his work within the intellectual history of philosophical traditions in the Islamic East....