Download or read book Mecca and Eden written by Brannon Wheeler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2006-07 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteenth-century philologist and Biblical critic William Robertson Smith famously concluded that the sacred status of holy places derives not from their intrinsic nature but from their social character. Building upon this insight, Mecca and Eden uses Islamic exegetical and legal texts to analyze the rituals and objects associated with the sanctuary at Mecca. Integrating Islamic examples into the comparative study of religion, Brannon Wheeler shows how the treatment of rituals, relics, and territory is related to the more general mythological depiction of the origins of Islamic civilization. Along the way, Wheeler considers the contrast between Mecca and Eden in Muslim rituals, the dispersal and collection of relics of the prophet Muhammad, their relationship to the sanctuary at Mecca, and long tombs associated with the gigantic size of certain prophets mentioned in the Quran. Mecca and Eden succeeds, as few books have done, in making Islamic sources available to the broader study of religion.
Download or read book Mecca written by F. E. Peters and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the non-Muslim, Mecca is the most forbidden of Holy Cities--and yet, in many ways it is the best known. Muslim historians and geographers have studied it, and countless pilgrims and travelers--many of them European Christians in disguise--have left behind lively and well-publicized accounts of life in Mecca and its associated shrine-city of Medina, where the Prophet lies buried. The stories of all these figures, holy men and heathens alike, come together in this book to offer a remarkably revealing literary portrait of the city's traditions and urban life and of the surrounding area. Closely following the publication of F. E. Peters's The Hajj (Princeton, 1994), which describes the perilous pilgrimage itself from the travelers' perspectives, this collection of writings and commentary completes the historical travelogue. The accounts begin with the Muslims themselves, in the patriarchal age of Abraham and Ishmael, and trace the sometimes glorious and sometimes sad history of Islam's central shrine down to the last Grand Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, whose fragile kingdom was overtaken by the House of Sa`ud in 1926. Because of chronic flooding and constant rebuilding, there is little or no material evidence for the early history of Islam's holy cities. By assembling, analyzing, and fashioning these literary accounts of Mecca, however, Peters supplies us with a vivid sense of place and human interaction, much as he did in his widely acclaimed Jerusalem (Princeton, 1985). Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Roads to Paradise Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam 2 vols written by Sebastian Günther and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 1549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roads to Paradise: Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam offers a multi-disciplinary study of Muslim thinking about paradise, death, apocalypse, and the hereafter. It focuses on eschatological concepts in the Quran and its exegesis, Sunni and Shi‘i traditions, Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism, and other scholarly disciplines reflecting Islamicate pluralism and cosmopolitanism. Gathering material from all parts of the Muslim world, ranging from Islamic Spain to Indonesia, and the entirety of Islamic history, this publication in two volumes also integrates research from comparative religion, art history, sociology, anthropology and literary studies. Unparalleled and unprecedented in its scope and comprehensiveness, Roads to Paradise promises to become the definitive reference work on Islamic eschatology for the years to come.
Download or read book Mecca written by Ziauddin Sardar and published by . This book was released on 2014-09 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mecca is the heart of Islam. It is the birthplace of Muhammad, the direction towards which Muslims turn when they pray and the site of pilgrimage which annually draws some three million Muslims from all corners of the world. Yet Mecca's importance goes beyond religion. What happens in Mecca and how Muslims think about the political and cultural history of Mecca has had and continues to have a profound influence on world events to this day. In this captivating book, Ziauddin Sardar unravels the significance of Mecca. Tracing its history, from its origins as a 'barren valley' in the desert to its evolution as a trading town and sudden emergence as the religious centre of a world empire, Sardar examines the religious struggles and rebellions in Mecca that have powerfully shaped Muslim culture. Interweaving stories of his own pilgrimages to Mecca with those of others, Sardar offers a unique insight into not just the spiritual aspects of Mecca - the passion, ecstasy and longing it evokes - but also the conflict between heritage and modernity that has characterised its history. He unpeels the physical, social and cultural dimensions that have helped transform the city and also, though accounts of such Orientalist travellers as Richard Burton and Charles Doughty, the strange fascination that Mecca has long inspired in the Western imagination. And, ultimately, he explores what this tension could mean for Mecca's future. An illuminative, lyrical and witty blend of history, reportage and memoir, this outstanding book reflects all that is profound, enlightening and curious about one of the most important religious sites in the world.
Download or read book Religions of the World 6 volumes written by J. Gordon Melton and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 3788 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This masterful six-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive, global coverage of religion, emphasizing larger religious communities without neglecting the world's smaller religious outposts. Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices is an extraordinary work, bringing together the scholarship of some 225 experts from around the globe. The encyclopedia's six volumes offer entries on every country of the world, with particular emphasis on the larger nations, as well as Indonesia and the Latin American countries that are traditionally given little attention in English-language reference works. Entries include profiles on religion in the world's smallest countries (the Vatican and San Marino), profiles on religion in recently established or disputed countries (Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as profiles on religion in some of the world's most remote places (Antarctica and Easter Island). Religions of the World is unique in that it is based in religion "on the ground," tracing the development of each of the 16 major world religious traditions through its institutional expressions in the modern world, its major geographical sites, and its major celebrations. Unlike other works, the encyclopedia also covers the world of religious unbelief as expressed in atheism, humanism, and other traditions.
Download or read book A Stranger is Calling written by Anton Wessels and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abraham, the father of all believers, plays host to three strangers, one of whom is God, and thus sets an example for others to follow. Jews, Christians, and Muslims often treat each other as strangers. Their Holy Books are not the cause of their conflicts and enmity but rather show the way to solve them. They tell a common story of the lifelong journey of the human being to the promised city, the promised land, and the promised world where justice and righteousness reign.
Download or read book The Essentials of Ibadi Islam written by Valerie J. Hoffman and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-22 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ibadi Islam is a distinct sect of Islam, neither Sunni nor Shi‘ite, that emerged in the early Islamic period and remains active today in small pockets of North Africa and as the dominant sect of Oman. Despite its antiquity, it has often been misunderstood and remains little known. Seeking to redress this gap and to introduce this Islamic school to the non-Arabic-speaking world, Hoffman offers the first book-length overview of Ibad.i theology published in English. Beginning with a concise overview of Ibadi history, Hoffman delineates the movement’s role in the development of Islamic thought, tracing its distinctive teachings and literary history. In the second section, she provides annotated translations of two complementary modern Ibadi theological texts. This unique volume elucidates Ibadi religious and political thought by allowing its tradition to speak for itself. The Essentials of Ibadi Islam gives readers, specialists and nonspecialists alike, a rare opportunity to understand the major teachings of Ibad.i Islam.
Download or read book Conceiving Identities written by Kathryn M. Kueny and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how medieval Muslim theologians constructed a female gender identity based on an ideal of maternity and how women contested it. Conceiving Identities explores how medieval Muslim theologians appropriate a womans reproductive power to construct a female gender identity in which maternity is a central component. Through a close analysis of seventh- through fourteenth-century exegetical works, medical treatises, legal pronouncements, historiographies, zoologies, and other literary materials, this study considers how medieval Muslim scholars map the female reproductive body according to broader, cosmological schemes to generate a womans role as mother. By close consideration of folk medicine and magic, this book also reveals how medieval women contest the traditional maternal identities imagined for them and thereby reinvent themselves as mothers and Muslims. This innovative examination of the discourse and practices surrounding maternity forges new ground as it takes up the historical and epistemic construction of medieval Muslim womens identities.
Download or read book A Modern Pilgrim In Mecca written by A J B Wavell and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2023-07-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an enthralling account of a pilgrimage by the author to Mecca, one of the most sacred places for Muslims. The author describes in vivid detail the journey to Mecca, the rituals performed by pilgrims, and the historical significance of the holy city. This book is an excellent read for anyone interested in the Islamic faith or cultural events. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Tales of Darkness written by Robert Ellwood and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-12-10 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evil, an undeniable yet inexplicable force in human existence, is often defined as that which ought not to be, yet is - so it must be destroyed, or contained, or lived with. Myths of evil function to universalize the human condition, to show the tension between the ideal and the real, to reveal but not allegorize that condition, and to go some way to assist humanity in understanding, combating, and coping with evil within its societies. Tales of Darkness explores the causes of evil in myth, encompassing themes such as defilement, the figure of the trickster, evil people both within and outside the society, and traumatic initiations. Robert Ellwood then looks at "cures" for evil: laughter, sacrifice, the flood, the hero's quest, initiation, the savior, divine wisdom and the end of days. This is a fascinating examination of how people have dealt with evil, not philosophically but in terms of the myths, ancient and modern, which present stories convergent with our own, from creation myths to Star Wars.
Download or read book The Hajj written by F. E. Peters and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1996-01-11 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of first hand accounts of travellers on Muslim pilgramages provides a literary history of the central ritual of Islam, from its remote pre-Islamic origins to the end of the Hashimite Kingdom of the Hijaz in 1926.
Download or read book The Image of the Prophet between Ideal and Ideology written by Christiane J. Gruber and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Disziplinäre Grenzen überschreitend zielt der Band darauf ab, die Visualisierung Mohammeds in der westlichen Welt vis-à-vis mit dessen Darstellung im Islam zu untersuchen. Dabei wird das Material weder geographischen oder sprachlichen Sphären zugeordnet noch werden Textquellen isoliert von bildlichen Darstellungen betrachtet. Die Beiträge eröffnen vielmehr einen thematischen und theoretischen Dialog über die Frage, wie der Prophet in verschiedenen kulturellen Traditionen, in Europa und Amerika und in der Welt des Islam, vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart, vergegenwärtigt wurde.
Download or read book A Season in Mecca written by Abdellah Hammoudi and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-01-10 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sample Text
Download or read book Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art Architecture Three Volume Set written by Jonathan Bloom and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 1697 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture is the most comprehensive reference work in this complex and diverse area of art history. Built on the acclaimed scholarship of the Grove Dictionary of Art, this work offers over 1,600 up-to-date entries on Islamic art and architecture ranging from the Middle East to Central and South Asia, Africa, and Europe and spans over a thousand years of history. Recent changes in Islamic art in areas such as Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq are elucidated here by distinguished scholars. Entries provide in-depth art historical and cultural information about dynasties, art forms, artists, architecture, rulers, monuments, archaeological sites and stylistic developments. In addition, over 500 illustrations of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ceramics, architecture, metalwork and calligraphy illuminate the rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world. With the fundamental understanding that Islamic art is not limited to a particular region, or to a defined period of time, The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture offers pathways into Islamic culture through its art.
Download or read book The Concept of Territory in Islamic Law and Thought written by Yanagihashi Hiroyuki and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-28 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is Volume II of a planned six on Islamic Area Studies. Originally published in 2000. The Islamic Area Studies Project plans to do multidisciplinary research on Muslim societies in both the Islamic and non-Islamic worlds, by reflecting the fact that areas with close ties to Islam now encompass the world. This series presents the important new knowledge and debate achieved through international joint research about Islam as a religion and civilization, particularly emphasizing comparative and historical analysis. The series will hopefully provide multifaceted, useful information to deepen the reader's understanding of the Islamic world.
Download or read book Islam 4 volumes written by Cenap Çakmak and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 2003 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This expansive four-volume encyclopedia presents a broad introduction to Islam that enables learning about the fundamental role of Islam in world history and promotes greater respect for cultural diversity. One of the most popular and widespread religions in the world, Islam has attracted a great deal of attention in recent times, particularly in the Western world. With the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and a pervasive sense of hostility toward Arab Americans, there is ever increasing need to examine and understand Islam as a religion and historical force. Islam: A Worldwide Encyclopedia provides some 700 entries on Islam written by expert contributors that cover the religion from the birth of Islam to the present time. The set also includes 16 pages of color images per volume that serve to illustrate the diverse expressions of this important religious tradition. Each entry begins with a basic introduction, followed by a general discussion of the subject and a conclusion. Each entry also features a further readings list for readers. In addition to supplying a comprehensive, authoritative overview of Islam, this work also specifically addresses many controversial related issues, including jihad, violence in Islam, polygamy, and apostasy.
Download or read book Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam written by Mary Thurlkill and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-07-26 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Medieval scholars and cultural historians have recently turned their attention to the question of “smells” and what olfactory sensations reveal about society in general and holiness in particular. Sacred Scents in Early Christianity and Islam contributes to that conversation, explaining how early Christians and Muslims linked the “sweet smell of sanctity” with ideals of the body and sexuality; created boundaries and sacred space; and imagined their emerging communal identity. Most importantly, scent—itself transgressive and difficult to control—signaled transition and transformation between categories of meaning. Christian and Islamic authors distinguished their own fragrant ethical and theological ideals against the stench of oppositional heresy and moral depravity. Orthodox Christians ridiculed their ‘stinking’ Arian neighbors, and Muslims denounced the ‘reeking’ corruption of Umayyad and Abbasid decadence. Through the mouths of saints and prophets, patriarchal authors labeled perfumed women as existential threats to vulnerable men and consigned them to enclosed, private space for their protection as well as society’s. At the same time, theologians praised both men and women who purified and transformed their bodies into aromatic offerings to God. Both Christian and Muslim pilgrims venerated sainted men and women with perfumed offerings at tombstones; indeed, Christians and Muslims often worshipped together, honoring common heroes such as Abraham, Moses, and Jonah. Sacred Scents begins by surveying aroma’s quotidian functions in Roman and pre-Islamic cultural milieus within homes, temples, poetry, kitchens, and medicines. Existing scholarship tends to frame ‘scent’ as something available only to the wealthy or elite; however, perfumes, spices, and incense wafted through the lives of most early Christians and Muslims. It ends by examining both traditions’ views of Paradise, identified as the archetypal Garden and source of all perfumes and sweet smells. Both Christian and Islamic texts explain Adam and Eve’s profound grief at losing access to these heavenly aromas and celebrate God’s mercy in allowing earthly remembrances. Sacred scent thus prompts humanity’s grief for what was lost and the yearning for paradisiacal transformation still to come.
