God's Unruly Friends

God's Unruly Friends

Author: Ahmet T. Karamustafa

Publisher: ONEWorld

Published: 2006-06

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13:

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Wandering dervishes formed a prominent feature of most Muslim communities and although social misfits, were revered by the public yet denounced by cultural elites. This survey of this type of piety, traces the history of the different dervish groups that roamed the lands in Asia as well as the Middle East and Southeast Europe.


Tales of God’s Friends

Tales of God’s Friends

Author: John Renard

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2009-05-13

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0520258967

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"The works of Islamic mysticism are a crucial genre of Islamic piety, and the lives of the awliya (friends of God) have been and continue to be a crucial way in which the theoretical insights of Sufism are embodied and communicated to a wider audience. Traditionally, these genres would be deciphered by a living Sufi master. Here John Renard acts as our Sufi guide, transporting us to the marvelous world of Islamic piety."—Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Northern Carolina


Friends of God

Friends of God

Author: John Renard

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2008-02-19

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 0520251989

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"I know of no other work in Western scholarship and pedagogy of Islamic studies with the scope and depth of Friends of God. Renard does not only provide well organized, richly detailed, absorbing, and delightful coverage of the best known literature on Muslim saints and sainthood, but he also brings the reader into modern and contemporary contexts where the subject continues to be of considerable personal and communal spiritual importance. This book is new and urgently needed in today's world, whether in the university or across the global landscape of adult reflection on Islam and Muslims. "—Frederick Mathewson Denny, author of An Introduction to Islam and Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, at Boulder


Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth

Author: Sadakat Kadri

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2012-04-10

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0374168725

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Kadri brings lucid wit and analytical skill to the thrilling and turbulent story of Islam's foundation and expansion and the real meaning behind shari'a law.


The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam

The Sacred Foundations of Justice in Islam

Author: M. Ali Lakhani

Publisher: World Wisdom, Inc

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 1933316268

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This is the definitive introduction to the writings of 'Ali, who was the son-in-law to the Prophet Muhammad, the fourth caliph to Sunni Muslims, and the central figure in Shi'a Islam. Two essays in this anthology won awards at the International Congress on Iman 'Ali, Tehran, 2001. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, pronounced them, among the best writings on this extraordinary figure in Western languages and are obligatory reading for anyone interested in 'Ali.


Holy People of the World [3 volumes]

Holy People of the World [3 volumes]

Author: Phyllis G. Jestice

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2004-12-15

Total Pages: 1044

ISBN-13: 1851096493

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A cross-cultural encyclopedia of the most significant holy people in history, examining why people in a wide range of religious traditions throughout the world have been regarded as divinely inspired. The first reference on the subject to span all the world's major religions, Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia examines the impact of individuals who, through personal charisma and inspirational deeds, served both as glorious examples of human potential and as envoys for the divine. Holy People of the World contains nearly 1,100 biographical sketches of venerated men and women. Written by religious studies experts and historians, each article focuses on the basic question: How did this person come to be regarded as holy? In addition, the encyclopedia features 20 survey articles on views of holy people in the major religious traditions such as Islam, Buddhism, and African religions, as well as 64 comparative articles on aspects of holiness and veneration across cultures such as awakening and conversion experiences, heredity, gender, asceticism, and persecution. Whether exploring by religion, culture, or historic period, this extensively cross-referenced resource offers a wealth of insights into one of the most revealing—and least explored—common denominators of spiritual traditions.


God's Rule

God's Rule

Author: Patricia Crone

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 9780231132909

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Patricia Crone's God's Rule is a fundamental reconstruction and analysis of Islamic political thought focusing on its intellectual development during the six centuries from the rise of Islam to the Mongol invasions. Based on a wide variety of primary sources--including some not previously considered from the point of view of political thought--this is the first book to examine the medieval Muslim answers to questions crucial to any Western understanding of Middle Eastern politics today, such as why states are necessary, what functions they are meant to fulfill, and whether or why they must be based on religious law. The character of Muslim political thought differs fundamentally from its counterpart in the West. The Christian West started with the conviction that truth (both cognitive and moral) and political power belonged to separate spheres. Ultimately, both power and truth originated with God, but they had distinct historical trajectories and regulated different aspects of life. The Muslims started with the opposite conviction: truth and power appeared at the same time in history and regulated the same aspects of life. In medieval Europe, the disagreement over the relationship between religious authority and political power took the form of a protracted controversy regarding the roles of church and state. In the medieval Middle East, religious authority and political power were embedded in a single, divinely sanctioned Islamic community--a congregation and state made one. The disagreement, therefore, took the form of a protracted controversy over the nature and function of the leadership of Islam itself. Crone makes Islamic political thought accessible by relating it to the contexts in which it was formulated, analyzing it in terms familiar to today's reader, and, where possible, comparing it with medieval European and modern political thought. By examining the ideological point of departure for medieval Islamic political thought, Crone provides an invaluable foundation for a better understanding of contemporary Middle Eastern politics and current world events.


The Turks in World History

The Turks in World History

Author: Carter V. Findley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 0195177266

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Who are the Turks? This study spans Central Asia, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, & Europe, to explain the origins & the history of the Turkish people up until the present day.


Sufi Institutions

Sufi Institutions

Author: Alexandre Papas

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-11-30

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 9004392602

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This volume describes the social and practical aspects of Islamic mysticism (Sufism) across centuries and geographical regions. Its authors seek to transcend ethereal, essentialist and “spiritualizing” approaches to Sufism, on the one hand, and purely pragmatic and materialistic explanations of its origins and history, on the other. Covering five topics (Sufism’s economy, social role of Sufis, Sufi spaces, politics, and organization), the volume shows that mystics have been active socio-religious agents who could skillfully adjust to the conditions of their time and place, while also managing to forge an alternative way of living, worshiping and thinking. Basing themselves on the most recent research on Sufi institutions, the contributors to this volume substantially expand our understanding of the vicissitudes of Sufism by paying special attention to its organizational and economic dimensions, as well as complex and often ambivalent relations between Sufis and the societies in which they played a wide variety of important and sometimes critical roles. Contributors are Mehran Afshari, Ismail Fajrie Alatas, Semih Ceyhan, Rachida Chih, Nathalie Clayer, David Cook, Stéphane A. Dudoignon, Daphna Ephrat, Peyvand Firouzeh, Nathan Hofer, Hussain Ahmad Khan, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Richard McGregor, Ahmet Yaşar Ocak, Alexandre Papas, Luca Patrizi, Paulo G. Pinto, Adam Sabra, Mark Sedgwick, Jean-Jacques Thibon, Knut S. Vikør and Neguin Yavari


Caliphate Redefined

Caliphate Redefined

Author: Hüseyin Yılmaz

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-11-05

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 069119713X

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How the Ottomans refashioned and legitimated their rule through mystical imageries of authority The medieval theory of the caliphate, epitomized by the Abbasids (750–1258), was the construct of jurists who conceived it as a contractual leadership of the Muslim community in succession to the Prophet Muhammed’s political authority. In this book, Hüseyin Yılmaz traces how a new conception of the caliphate emerged under the Ottomans, who redefined the caliph as at once a ruler, a spiritual guide, and a lawmaker corresponding to the prophet’s three natures. Challenging conventional narratives that portray the Ottoman caliphate as a fading relic of medieval Islamic law, Yılmaz offers a novel interpretation of authority, sovereignty, and imperial ideology by examining how Ottoman political discourse led to the mystification of Muslim political ideals and redefined the caliphate. He illuminates how Ottoman Sufis reimagined the caliphate as a manifestation and extension of cosmic divine governance. The Ottoman Empire arose in Western Anatolia and the Balkans, where charismatic Sufi leaders were perceived to be God’s deputies on earth. Yılmaz traces how Ottoman rulers, in alliance with an increasingly powerful Sufi establishment, continuously refashioned and legitimated their rule through mystical imageries of authority, and how the caliphate itself reemerged as a moral paradigm that shaped early modern Muslim empires. A masterful work of scholarship, Caliphate Redefined is the first comprehensive study of premodern Ottoman political thought to offer an extensive analysis of a wealth of previously unstudied texts in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish.