Published by De Gruyter

Islam – Thought, Culture, and Society

ISSN: 2628-4286

e-ISSN 2628-4294

Overview
Volumes

New series!

The new series Islam – Thought, Culture, and Society brings together innovative research dealing with any aspect of Islamic religion, civilization, and thought. It also takes into consideration non-Muslim majority societies as well as non-Muslim groups within Islamic contexts. The series is intentionally interdisciplinary with a broad regional scope, covering all eras from early Islam to the 21st century.

This peer reviewed series is a joint project with the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS); the winning manuscript of the annual De Gruyter-BRAIS prize will be published in the series.

Topics

Book Ahead of Publication 2025

Between God and History

Politics of Modern Muslim Qur'an Hermeneutics

Rahel Fischbach

Volume 17 in this series

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This book examines the political nature of contemporary Muslim Qur’ān Hermeneutics. In particular, it examines how a historical view of scripture – developed and canonized in a Western academic context – is debated by Muslim thinkers today. I argue that methodological discussions about the Qur’ān are used to negotiate farther-reaching ethical concerns, both societal and political. They hence offer a window into socio-religious change today.

Proponents of historical hermeneutics often consider them universally applicable – as a remedy for the partialities of tradition and a vehicle for progress. They interpret any opposition in binary categories: modern-premodern, outsider-insider, objective-subjective. Viewing the Qur’ān as a political object, however, sheds new light on these debates. The author contends that reading the Qur’ān as literature or as a historical document does not merely hinge on method or qur’ānic ontology but also on conceptions of human nature. Dissonances regarding epistemology and human nature lead to different sensibilities vis-à-vis the Qur’ān.

Examining in detail debates over historical Qur’ān hermeneutics is meant to discern ways for a rapprochement between Western academic and Islamic qur’ānic studies.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783111335407
ISBN:: 9783111335407
ISBN:: 9783111338682
ISBN:: 9783111338811
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Quran
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2024

The Barāhima’s Dilemma

Ibn al-Rāwandī’s ›Kitāb al-Zumurrud‹ and the Epistemological Turn in the Debate on Prophecy

Elizabeth G. Price

Volume 13 in this series

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When debating the need for prophets, Muslim theologians frequently cited an objection from a group called the Barāhima – either a prophet conveys what is in accordance with reason, so they would be superfluous, or a prophet conveys what is contrary to reason, so they would be rejected. The Barāhima did not recognise prophecy or revelation, because they claimed that reason alone could guide them on the right path. But who were these Barāhima exactly? Were they Brahmans, as their title would suggest? And how did they become associated with this highly incisive objection to prophecy?

This book traces the genealogy of the Barāhima and explores their profound impact on the evolution of Islamic theology. It also charts the pivotal role that the Kitāb al-Zumurrud played in disseminating the Barāhima’s critiques and in facilitating an epistemological turn in the wider discourse on prophecy (nubuwwa). When faced with the Barāhima, theologians were not only pressed to explain why rational agents required the input of revelation, but to also identify an epistemic gap that only a prophet could fill. A debate about whether humans required prophets thus evolved into a debate about what humans could and could not know by their own means.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111027203
ISBN:: 9783111027203
ISBN:: 9783111027241
ISBN:: 9783111027128
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Theology
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Ahead of Publication 2025

Itinerant Prophets

Rewritings, Appropriations and Metamorphoses of Prophetic Figures in the Religious, Literary and Historiographical Texts of Pre-modern Islam

Mehdi Azaiez, Rémy Gareil, Iyas Hassan

Volume 12 in this series

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The figure of the prophet circulates in all fields of the textual and visual production of premodern Islam. This volume focuses on two aspects of this phenomenon: On the one hand, it investigates the historical transformations of this figure in diverse social and political contexts and genres of Islamic culture. On the other hand, it explores how traits associated with prophets were ascribed to other historical or mythical figures.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.0000/9783110780727
ISBN:: 9783110780727
ISBN:: 9783110780765
ISBN:: 9783110779097
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2024

Les Empires berbères: constructions et déconstructions d'un objet historiographique

Mehdi Ghouirgate

Volume 11 in this series

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This work compares medieval and modern Arabic sources relating to the Berber Empires (11th-13th centuries) with the way in which European studies have apprehended this topic against the backdrop of the emergence of orientalism and the expansion of France in the Maghreb.
Indeed, the invocation and then the study of the Berber Empires served to characterize a great Other of proximity : the Maghreb at once so close and yet so different. Studying this past therefore amounted to giving perspectives to this radical difference. In the context of the colonized and then newly independent Maghreb, this yet distant past never ceased to serve as a reference and as a framework for a "roman national" which aimed to give these States a solid foundation.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111022994
ISBN:: 9783111022994
ISBN:: 9783111023175
ISBN:: 9783111017112
Subject:: History
Subject:: Historical Periods
Subject:: Medieval History
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: History
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Philosophy of Religion
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Islam
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2023

Literary Spectacles of Sultanship

Historiography, the Chancery, and Social Practice in Late Medieval Egypt

Gowaart Van Den Bossche

Volume 10 in this series

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The so-called Mamluk sultans who ruled Egypt and Syria between the late thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries AD have often been portrayed as lacking in legitimacy due to their background as slave soldiers. Sultanic biographies written by chancery officials in the early period of the sultanate have been read as part of an effort of these sultans to legitimise their position on the throne. This book reconsiders the main corpus of six such biographies written by the historians Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (d. 1293) and his nephew Shāfiʿ ibn ʿAlī (d. 1330) and argues that these were in fact far more complex texts. An understanding of their discourses of legitimisation needs to be embedded within a broader understanding of the multi-directional discourses operating across the texts. The study proposes to interpret these texts as "spectacles", in which authors emplotted the reign of a sultan in thoroughly literary and rhetorical fashion, making especially extensive use of textual forms prevalent in the chancery. In doing so the authors reimagined the format of the biography as a performative vehicle for displaying their literary credentials and helping them negotiate positions in the chancery and the wider courtly orbit.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110753028
ISBN:: 9783110753028
ISBN:: 9783110753134
ISBN:: 9783110752243
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Language and Literature
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2022

Conciliation in the Qurʾan

The Qurʾanic Ethics of Conflict Resolution

Shafi Fazaluddin

Volume 9 in this series

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Conciliation in the Qurʾan addresses an existing imbalanced focus in Islamic Studies on conflict in the Qurʾan, and moves beyond a restrictive approach to ṣulḥ (reconciliation) as a mediation process in fragmented social contexts. The book offers a critical analysis of conciliation as a holistic concept in the Qurʾan, providing linguistic and structural insight based on the renowned pre-modern Arabic exegesis of Al-Rāzī (d. 1209) and the under-studied contemporary Urdu exegesis of Iṣlāḥī (d. 1997). This ambitious thematic study of the entire Qurʾan includes an innovative examination of the central ethical notion of iḥsān (gracious conduct), and a challenging discussion of notorious passages relating to conflict. The author offers solutions to unresolved issues such as the significance of the notion of iṣlāḥ (order), the relationship between conciliation and justice, and the structural and thematic significance of Q.48 (Sūrat Al-Fatḥ) and Q.49 (Sūrat Al-Ḥujurāt). Conciliation in the Qurʾan offers a compelling argument for the prevalence of conciliation in the Islamic scripture, and will be an essential read for practitioners in Islamic studies, community integration, conflict-resolution, interfaith dialogue and social justice.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110747348
ISBN:: 9783110747348
ISBN:: 9783111358475
ISBN:: 9783110747461
ISBN:: 9783110747201
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Quran
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2024

Histoire, société et études islamiques au 21e siècle

Directions, connexions, approches

Vincent Legrand, Ayang Utriza Yakin

Volume 8 in this series

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This edited volume, which takes on the challenge of understanding Islam in a context built around issues related to otherness and norms, is original in three regards. First, through its trans-historical approach, in which past and present are intimately interrelated, the edited volume sheds light on contemporary phenomena through their historical roots and genesis. At the same time, past phenomena are presented from the perspective of contemporary issues. Next, several chapters embrace a trans-religious and trans-civilisational (Christian-Muslim) approach to Islam in its relations with minorities and its position as a minority in the European context. This is examined in a comparative manner with Christianity. Such a ‘mirrored experience’ approach enables an important contextualisation of a too-often essentialised Islam. Finally, in a multi- and inter-disciplinary perspective, the edited volume delivers a state of the art of the contribution of the diverse disciplines embracing Islam. In doing so, it highlights the most advanced knowledge of the field within the humanities and social sciences in the 21st century.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110720815
ISBN:: 9783110720815
ISBN:: 9783110720846
ISBN:: 9783110720785
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2024

The Topkapı Qurʾān Manuscript H.S. 32

History, Text, and Variants

Rami Hussein Halaseh

Volume 7 in this series

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This study presents a comprehensive and systematic examination of a revered Qurʾān manuscript, commonly attributed to the third Islamic Caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān (d. 35/656), housed at the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul, Türkiye (identified as H.S. 32). Halaseh offers a meticulous analysis of the manuscript’s codicological, paleographic, and orthographic characteristics, explores its emendations, production date, and traces the manuscript’s journey first to Cairo and then to Istanbul. Additionally, the study examines and categorizes its textual variants, including what are considered today as non-canonical and some that are not previously attested in the major qirāʾāt literature. This work not only sheds light on the transmission of the Qurʾānic text but also establishes a comprehensive framework for researching Qurʾān manuscripts. By integrating methods for examining these manuscripts as both physical artifacts and scriptural texts, Halaseh presents a holistic methodological approach to their scholarly study.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111467320
ISBN:: 9783111467320
ISBN:: 9783111467429
ISBN:: 9783111455259
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Quran
Subject:: Language and Literature
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2024

Kulturen des Sehens

Begriffsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zur Visualität im Islam

Berenike Metzler

Volume 5 in this series

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Cultures of Seeing examines the full bandwidth of Arabic terminology for processes of seeing. Taking a methodologically sound approach, it explores the significance of visuality through nine excerpts from Islamic cultural history, shedding light on the close connections between everyday life, literature, and natural philosophy. How does the process of seeing unfold, and what is ultimately considered the seat of knowledge: the heart or the brain?

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111433936
ISBN:: 9783111433936
ISBN:: 9783111434353
ISBN:: 9783111432618
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Text and Exegesis
Subject:: Philosophy
Subject:: Culture and Society
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2020

Before Sufism

Early Islamic renunciant piety

Christopher Melchert

Volume 4 in this series

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Christopher Melchert proposes to historicize Islamic renunciant piety (zuhd). As the conquest period wound down in the early eighth century c.e., renunciants set out to maintain the contempt of worldly comfort and loyalty to a greater cause that had characterized the community of Muslims in the seventh century. Instead of reckless endangerment on the battlefield, they cultivated intense fear of the Last Judgement to come. They spent nights weeping, reciting the Qur’an, and performing supererogatory ritual prayers. They stressed other-worldliness to the extent of minimizing good works in this world.

Then the decline of tribute from the conquered peoples and conversion to Islam made it increasingly unfeasible for most Muslims to keep up any such régime. Professional differentiation also provoked increasing criticism of austerity. Finally, in the later ninth century, a form of Sufism emerged that would accommodate those willing and able to spend most of their time on religious devotions, those willing and able to spend their time on other religious pursuits such as law and hadith, and those unwilling or unable to do either.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110617962
ISBN:: 9783110617962
ISBN:: 9783110991604
ISBN:: 9783110617719
ISBN:: 9783110616514
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Theology
Subject:: Religious Groups
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Religious Studies
Subject:: Islam
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2024

Qur’an Commentary and the Biblical Turn

A History of Muslim Exegetical Engagement with the Biblical Text

Samuel Ross

Volume 3 in this series

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The Qur’an and the Bible have been called "intertwined scriptures" due to the Qur’an’s frequent invocation of biblical narratives and figures. But what is the history of Muslims’ exegetical engagement with the biblical text? Through a comprehensive survey of more than 170 Qur’an commentaries, Samuel Ross traces the longitudinal history of the Bible in tafsῑr. Offering detailed case studies and rich in historical context, Ross’s narrative culminates in the remarkable late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century biblical turn. Global in scope, this development has not only generated new Muslim views of the Bible but even new interpretations of the Qur’an itself.

This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110669640
ISBN:: 9783110669640
ISBN:: 9783110669572
ISBN:: 9783110669718
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Quran
Subject:: Interreligious Studies
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: General Topics and Biblical Reception
Subject:: Biblical Reception
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book Open Access 2020

Barren Women

Religion and Medicine in the Medieval Middle East

Sara Verskin

Volume 2 in this series

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Barren Women is the first scholarly book to explore the ramifications of being infertile in the medieval Arab-Islamic world. Through an examination of legal texts, medical treatises, and works of religious preaching, Sara Verskin illuminates how attitudes toward mixed-gender interactions; legal theories pertaining to marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and scientific theories of reproduction contoured the intellectual and social landscape infertile women had to navigate.

In so doing, she highlights underappreciated vulnerabilities and opportunities for women’s autonomy within the system of Islamic family law, and explores the diverse marketplace of medical ideas in the medieval world and the perceived connection between women’s health practices and religious heterodoxy.

Featuring copious translations of primary sources and minimal theoretical jargon, Barren Women provides a multidimensional perspective on the experience of infertility, while also enhancing our understanding of institutions and modes of thought which played significant roles in shaping women’s lives more broadly.

This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110596588
ISBN:: 9783110596588
ISBN:: 9783110681628
ISBN:: 9783110593679
ISBN:: 9783110595673
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Religious Life
Subject:: History
Subject:: Culture and Society
Publisher:: De Gruyter

Book 2019

Harmonizing Similarities

A History of Distinctions Literature in Islamic Law

Elias G. Saba

Volume 1 in this series

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"Harmonizing Similarities" is a study of the legal distinctions (al-furūq al-fiqhiyya) literature and its role in the development of the Islamic legal heritage. This book reconsiders how the public performance of Islamic law helped shape legal literature. It identifies the origins of this tradition in contemporaneous lexicographic and medical literature, both of which demonstrated the productive potential of drawing distinctions.

Elias G. Saba demonstrates the implications of the legal furūq and how changes to this genre reflect shifts in the social consumption of Islamic legal knowledge. The interest in legal distinctions grew out of the performance of knowledge in formalized legal disputations. From here, legal distinctions incorporated elements of play through its interactions with the genre of legal riddles.

As play, books of legal distinctions were supplements to performance in literary salons, study circles, and court performances; these books also served as mimetic objects, allowing the reader to participate in a session virtually. Saba underscores how social and intellectual practices helped shape the literary development of Islamic law and that literary elaboration became a main driver of dynamism in Islamic law.

This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110605792
ISBN:: 9783110605792
ISBN:: 9783110763270
ISBN:: 9783110604399
ISBN:: 9783110604054
Subject:: Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
Subject:: Religious Life
Subject:: Law
Subject:: Theology and Religion
Subject:: Islamic Studies
Publisher:: De Gruyter