ABSTRACT

Andrew Rippin’s Muslims is essential reading for students and scholars alike. This new edition has been comprehensively updated and for the first time features a companion website with extensive links to additional reading and resources to help deepen students’ understanding of the subject.

Muslims offers a survey of Islamic history and thought from the formative period of the religion to modern times. It examines the unique elements which have combined to form Islam, in particular the Qur’ān and the influence of Muhammad, and traces the ways in which these sources have interacted historically to create Muslim theology and law as well as the alternative visions of Islam found in Shi’ism and Sufi sm.

Combining core source materials with coverage of current scholarship and of recent events in the Islamic world, Andrew Rippin introduces this hugely significant religion in a succinct, challenging and refreshing way. The improved and expanded fourth edition contains a new chapter on perceptions of Muslims today as well as a new series of text boxes to stimulate students’ thinking about essay topics and research projects. Using a distinctive critical approach that promotes engagement with key issues, from fundamentalism and women’s rights to problems of identity, Islamophobia and modernity, this text is ideal for today’s students.

chapter |4 pages

Introduction

part |2 pages

Part I: Formative elements of classical Islam

chapter 1|13 pages

Prehistory

chapter 2|22 pages

Th e Qur ān

chapter 3|15 pages

Muh. ammad

part |2 pages

Part II: Emergence of Islamic identity

chapter 4|13 pages

Political action and theory

chapter 5|16 pages

Th eological exposition

chapter 6|16 pages

Legal developments

chapter 7|15 pages

Ritual practice

part |2 pages

Part III: Alternative visions of classical Islamic identity

chapter 8|15 pages

Th e Shī a

chapter 9|15 pages

S. ūfī devotion

part |2 pages

Part IV: Consolidation of Islamic identity

chapter 10|11 pages

Intellectual culture

chapter 11|15 pages

Medieval visions of Islam

part |2 pages

Part V: Modern visions of Islam

chapter 12|24 pages

Describing modernity

chapter 13|30 pages

Muh. ammad and modernity

chapter 14|28 pages

Th e Qur ān and modernity

chapter 15|26 pages

Issues of identity: ritual and politics

part |2 pages

Part VI: Re-visioning Islam