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Islamic History and Thought
The Islamic History & Thought series provides a platform for scholarly research on any geographic area within the expansive Islamic/Muslim world, stretching from the Mediterranean to China, and dated to any period from the eve of Islam until the early modern era. Scholars are invited to submit proposals for original monographs, translations (Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Greek, and Latin) and edited volumes related to these broad areas of research. All accepted submissions will be peer-reviewed by two specialists and the series is overseen by an editorial board made up of leading scholars in the field.
Various books published under this series have been recognised for their important contribution to field of Islamic Studies through journal reviews, academic awards and digital platforms. The first book in the series joined a prestigious list of previous winners of the 26th World Award for the Book of the Year, and two further titles from this series and another title from the Gorgias Islamic Studies series are ranked among the '94 Best Islamic History Books of All Time' by Book Authority.
Series Board
Prof. Dr Peter Adamson Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Prof. Dr Beatrice Gründler Freie Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr Ahmad Khan Universität Hamburg
Prof. Dr Isabel Toral-Niehoff (Chair) Freie Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr Jack Tannous Princeton University
Dr Manolis Ulbricht University of Göttingen
Advisory Editorial Board
Prof. Emeritus Dr Binyamin Abrahamov Bar-Ilan University
Prof. Dr Asad Q. Ahmed University of California, Berkeley
Dr Mehmetcan Akpinar University of Tübingen
Prof. Dr Abdulhadi Alajmi University of Kuwait
Prof. Dr Mohammad-Ali Amir-Moezzi École Pratique des Hautes Études
Dr Arezou Azad University of Oxford
Dr Farhad Daftary The Institute of Ismaili Studies
Prof. Dr Godefroid de Callataÿ Université catholique de Louvain
Prof. Dr Wael Hallaq Columbia University
Prof. Dr Konrad Hirschler Freie Universität Berlin
Prof. Dr Maher Jarrar American University of Beirut
Prof. Dr James Howard-Johnston University of Oxford
Dr Harry Munt University of York
Prof. Dr Marcus Milwright University of Victoria
Prof. Dr Gabriel Said Reynolds University of Notre Dame
Prof. Dr Walid A. Saleh University of Toronto
Prof. Dr Jens Scheiner Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Dr Delfina Serrano Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales, Madrid
Prof. Dr Georges Tamer Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
To submit a book proposal to the series, please contact submissions@gorgiaspress.com
A Guide to a Life of Moral Integrity
An Annotated Translation of Bustān al-ʿārifīn by Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī
By Peri Bearman
Series: Islamic History and Thought 35
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4639-6
A translation of al-Samarqandī's Bustān al-ʿārifīn – a tenth-century religio-legal primer to navigating the chaos and conflict of everyday life – accompanied by an introduction to its literary and historical contexts, and an accessible commentary exploring the larger themes encountered in the work.
$100.00 (USD) $60.00 (USD)
The Outrider
Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās
Series: Islamic History and Thought 34
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4621-1
A biography of Abū al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās, the half brother, diplomat, and negotiator of al-Ḥusayn.
$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)
Coherence of the Incoherence
Between Al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd on Nature and the Cosmos
Series: Islamic History and Thought 33
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4497-2
The debate recorded in al-Ghazālī’s Incoherence of the Philosophers, and Ibn Rushd’s response in Incoherence of the Incoherence, is one of the most philosophically interesting events in the history of classical Islamic thought. Here, the cutting edge of Ghazālī’s searching critique meets the depth of Ibn Rushd’s philosophical insight in a clash over the innovative synthesis of Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought represented chiefly by Ibn Sīnā. This critical commentary closely analyses and evaluates the arguments deployed by all three parties in the debate, wherein are raised questions about the origin of the universe and the reality of time, possibility, causality, and nature. Where opportunities arise, it actively engages in the discussion by suggesting alternative arguments and philosophical directions. It goes beyond the cliché construal of the Incoherence debate as simply a conflict between faith and reason, exposing it as a genuinely philosophical enterprise and a potential source of fresh perspectives on contemporary discussions in metaphysics and analytic theology.
$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)
A Critical Edition of Kitāb al-Sawād al-aʿẓam by al-Ḥakīm al-Samarqandī
By Maher Jarrar
Series: Islamic History and Thought 27
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4077-6
The book comprises an annotated critical edition and a detailed study of Kitāb al-Sawād al-a‘ẓam by al-Ḥakīm al-Samarqandī (d. 342/953).
$138.00 (USD) $82.80 (USD)
Langage et théologie chez Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī (543/1148)
Les informations subtiles de la somme de théorie légale (Nukat al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm al-uṣūl)
Series: Islamic History and Thought 31
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4384-5
An edition and commentary of the legal thought of the influential theologian, Qāḍī Abū Bakr Ibn al-ʿArabī.
$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)
Shiʿite Rulers, Sunni Rivals, and Christians in Between
Muslim-Christian Relations in Fāṭimid Palestine and Egypt
By Steven Gertz
Series: Islamic History and Thought 32
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4473-6
A historical study of the Fāṭimid caliphate in Palestine and Egypt during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries.
$95.00 (USD) $57.00 (USD)
Al-Ṭabarī’s madhhab jarīrī
A Paradigm of Natural Law and Natural Rights for the ʿAbbasid Caliphate
Series: Islamic History and Thought 30
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0649-9
The book analyses all extant works by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 224/839–310/923), referring to their individual methodologies; their legacy as al-madhhab al-jariri; and their scholarly and socio- political context. Through the study of al-Tabari’s works, the book addresses research debates over dating the legal and scholarly institutions and their disciplines; authorship and transmission of scholarly writings; political theory and administration; and ‘origins’ of the Qur’an and Islam.
$135.00 (USD) $81.00 (USD)
Gregory Barhebraeus' Mystical Hermeneutics of the Love of God in Dialogue with Islamic Tradition
Series: Islamic History and Thought 23
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4247-3
An inquiry into the mystical thought of Gregory Barhebraeus, offering a reading of Barhebraeus’ mystical texts by bringing them into conversation with critical religious studies and the hermeneutical tradition of philosophy.
$133.00 (USD) $79.80 (USD)
Islamic Origins, Arabian Custom, and the Documents of the Prophet
Series: Islamic History and Thought 17
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0644-4
Early Islamic historical literature attributes several hundred pragmatic documents to the Prophet Muḥammad. The consistent use of epistolary and legal formulae, which are found only in these documents, encourages us to treat these texts as a corpus. In addition to consistent terminology, formulaic structure, and formulae, these texts show remarkable stability through transmission. A comparison of these texts with Umayyad and ʿAbbasid papyri reveals that the Prophet's documents reflect obsolete or otherwise unattested formulae. This study will demonstrate through three case studies the particular functions of these documents in the history of social relations in late antique Arabia.
$149.50 (USD) $89.70 (USD)
Baghdad during the time of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī
By Pascal Held
Series: Islamic History and Thought 29
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4438-5
A study of the life and background of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, putative founder of the Qādiriyya order, investigating the sources for his life and attributed works. The book seeks to elucidate the ideas of al-Jīlānī, and to formulate a picture of the most prominent trends of pious and mystical thought in Baghdad during the twelfth century, providing a cultural and geographical angle to the study of Islamic mysticism and piety.
$115.00 (USD) $69.00 (USD)
Rediscovering al-Azdī and the Futūḥ al-Shām Narrative
Manuscripts, Parallel Texts, Research History
Series: Islamic History and Thought 28
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4382-1
The Futūḥ al-Shām (The Conquests of Greater Syria), usually attributed to Abū Ismāʿīl Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Azdī al-Baṣrī, is one of the primary sources used for historians studying the early Muslim expansion into Greater Syria. This study revaluates the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative and the question of its compiler-author, investigating the history of the narrative as text through an analysis of a new manuscript and important parallel texts, and revisiting the evidence and hypotheses previous scholars have put forward on both al-Azdī’s life and the Futūḥ al-Shām narrative’s text. It thus offers an overview of the history of Oriental and Islamic Studies on the basis of one work.
$140.00 (USD) $84.00 (USD)
Angels Hastening (paperback)
The Karbalāʾ Dreams
Series: Islamic History and Thought 22
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4408-8
When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or ğinn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs’ blood, was the Karbalāʾ event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmiḏī, stellar pupil of al-Buḫārī, and Ibn ʿAsākir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn Ṭāʾūs and Egyptian polymath al-Suyūṭī. But this was not Umm Salama’s only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-Ḥusayn’s fate disturb her nights. This is their story.
$48.00 (USD) $28.80 (USD)
The Exceptional Qur'an
Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric in Islam's Holy Book
Series: Islamic History and Thought 26
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0729-8
This monograph examines the principle of dispensation in the Qur’an, which seems to be, if not unique, articulated in a new manner compared to previous religions (cf. Deut 12,32). The Qur’anic dispensations have never been systematically studied and this monograph aims to fill this vacuum in the fields of Qur’anic studies and the Study of Religion.
$120.00 (USD) $72.00 (USD)
La Şaḥīfa de Médine (VIIe siècle)
Une relecture critique
Series: Islamic History and Thought 25
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4268-8
The Ṣaḥīfa of Medina is preserved thanks to two 9th century historiographers: Ibn Hishām and Abū ‘Ubayd. It clearly illustrates, through variants present in both the text and its chain of transmission, the challenges posed by sources that reach us by way of oral tradition. The present study sheds fresh light on the text of one of Islam’s most important documents by investigating its nuances, as adding greater clarity to the social and political context of this challenging and important text.
$198.00 (USD) $118.80 (USD)
Angels Hastening
The Karbalāʾ Dreams
Series: Islamic History and Thought 22
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4209-1
When, on an autumn Medina night in 61/680, the night that saw al-Ḥusayn killed, Umm Salama was torn from her sleep by an apparition of a long-dead Muḥammad, she slipped effortlessly into a progression of her co-religionists who, irrespective of status, gender or standing with God, were the recipients of dark and arresting visions. At the core of those Delphian dreams, peopled by angels or ğinn or esteemed forbears and textured with Iraqi dust and martyrs’ blood, was the Karbalāʾ event. Her dream would be recounted by an array of Muslim scholars, from al-Tirmiḏī, stellar pupil of al-Buḫārī, and Ibn ʿAsākir, untiring chronicler of Syrian history, to bibliophile theologian Ibn Ṭāʾūs and Egyptian polymath al-Suyūṭī. But this was not Umm Salama’s only otherworldly encounter and she was not the only one to have al-Ḥusayn’s fate disturb her nights. This is their story.
$95.00 (USD)
The Banisher of Madness
An Interpretation of Language as the Vessel of All Truths Sacred and Profane in the Teachings of Ibn al-Sarrāj of Baghdad
By Dunja Rašić
Series: Islamic History and Thought 18
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4162-9
Born in the late 9th century Baghdad, the ʿAbbāsid grammarian ‘Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Saḥl Ibn al-Sarrāj came to be remembered as the Banisher of Madness and the virtuous scholar whose life has exemplified the culture of Arabs in its fullness. Lauded as the arch-enemy of Hellenistic sciences and, at the same time, as the main source of transmission of Aristotelian logic from the 10th century philosophers to the grammarians of Baghdad; Ibn al-Sarrāj nonetheless remains a shadowy figure in the history of Arabic grammar studies up until today. This book addresses this issue by examining the problematic relationship between language, logic and grammar in Ibn al-Sarrāj’s teachings.
$153.00 (USD) $91.80 (USD)
The Shi'i Past in the Great Book of the Songs
A New Perspective on the Kitāb al-Aghānī by Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī and Shīʿī Islam in the Tenth Century
By I-Wen Su
Series: Islamic History and Thought 24
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0714-4
The Kitāb al-Aghānī (the Book of the Songs) stands as one of the most important extant sources for Arabic literature and Islamic history. Compiled during the first half of the tenth century, the Kitāb al-Aghānī emerges from a pivotal period in the formation of Islamic sectarian identities, a subject of keen and ongoing scholarly debate that is fundamental to our understanding of the later development of Shīʿī Islam. The present study addresses the question of whether or not its compiler, Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī’s, sectarian leanings can be discerned from the Kitāb al-Aghānī through an analysis based primarily on redaction criticism. By examining the compiler’s editorial interventions, this book argues that al-Iṣfahānī, to some extent at least, presents past people and events central to the Shīʿī worldview in accordance with his sectarian affiliation.
$156.00 (USD) $93.60 (USD)
Half of my Heart (paperback)
The Narratives of Zaynab, Daughter of ʿAlî
Series: Islamic History and Thought 13
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4236-7
As Abû ʿAbd Allâh al-Ḥusayn, son of ʿAlî and Fâṭima and grandson of Muḥammad, moved inexorably towards death on the field of Karbalâʾ, his sister Zaynab was drawn ever closer to the centre of the family of Muḥammad, the ‘people of the house’ (ahl al-bayt). There she would remain for a few historic days, challenging the wickedness of the Islamic leadership, defending the actions of her brother, initiating the commemorative rituals, protecting and nurturing the new Imâm, al-Ḥusayn’s son ʿAlî b. al-Ḥusayn b. ʿAlî b. Abî Ṭâlib, until he could take his rightful place. This is her story.
$58.00 (USD) $34.80 (USD)
Middle Eastern Encounters
Collected Essays on Visual, Material, and Textual Interactions between the Eighth and the Twenty-first Centuries
Series: Islamic History and Thought 21
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4193-3
This book focuses on interactions between the Islamic world and other regions from the late eighth to the twenty-first centuries. Some chapters consider the complex relationship between Islam and the cultures of Late Antiquity in the Middle East and Mediterranean basin. The reprinted chapters in this volume have been revised and updated. Topics include relief-moulded pottery production in Raqqa, the construction of palaces in Samarra, portraiture in Arabic manuscript painting, written descriptions of patterned marble in medieval Islam, images of Muslim rulers in early Modern printed books, and the broadcast of the medical examination of Saddam Hussein. Also included are a critical introduction that considers the challenges involved in the study of cultural interactions between Islamic and non-Islamic regions, a cumulative bibliography, and a previously unpublished study of recently discovered photographs, drawings, and writings relating to the Middle East made by soldiers during and after World War I.
$177.00 (USD) $106.20 (USD)
Ash‘arism Encounters Avicennism
Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī on Creation
By Laura Hassan
Series: Islamic History and Thought 19
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0719-9
This study of Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī’s (d. 631/1233) teachings on creation offers close analysis of all of his extant works of falsafa and kalām. Some of these were not known to previous scholars, yet they bear witness to key facets of the interaction between the historically inimical traditions of Hellenic philosophy and rational theology at this important intellectual moment. Al-Āmidī is seen to grapple with the encounter of two paradigms for the discussion of creation. On the one hand, Ibn Sīnā’s metaphysical concept of necessity of existence is the basis of his doctrine of the world’s pre-eternal emanation. On the other, for the mutakallimūn, the physical theory of atomism bolsters the view that God created the world from nothing. This study is of interest to scholars of Ibn Sīnā and Ash‘arism alike, as it advances our understanding of the ongoing tradition of rational theology in the Islamic world, long past Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī’s (d. 505/1111) famous attack on the philosophers.
$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)
A Place Between Two Places (paperback)
The Quranic Barzakh
Series: Islamic History and Thought 1
ISBN: 978-1-4632-3987-9
For believers in a resurrection of the body, there arises the question of what happens after death but before the Last Day: the intermediate state. For most Muslims, the intermediate state is the barzakh. It is a fantastical and frightening time in the grave. The present study will examine where the belief in the barzakh comes from through a study of the Qur'an.
$118.00 (USD) $70.80 (USD)
The Aqaba Khans and the Origin of Khans in Jordan
An Archaeological Approach
Series: Islamic History and Thought 9
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0651-2
A diachronic study of the development of Aqaba castle, an important Islamic khan at the junction of two major pilgrim routes, both based on Arabic and Crusader sources and the results of the excavations undertaken by Ghent University in Aqaba.
$208.00 (USD) $124.80 (USD)
The Making of the Mosque
A Survey of Religious Imperatives
By Essam Ayyad
Series: Islamic History and Thought 15
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0727-4
“In the absence of reliable archaeological evidence, the question of how the mosque was made represents a real challenge. Its origin remains moot despite many attempts to settle the question. This study sets out to explore whether early Islam, within the framework of the Prophet’s teachings and practices, as well as the Qurʾān, might have provided the necessary prompts for the making of the mosque and the shaping of its essential functional and architectural features. It also investigates how such religious prompts may have interacted with the political, cultural and socio-economic contexts in which the mosque type materialized. As such, this book scrutinizes two dominant tendencies regarding the mosque type, the modern Western views on its non-Islamic origins and the Islamic legalist views on what it should look like.”
$149.50 (USD) $89.70 (USD)
Fâṭima, Daughter of Muhammad (second edition - paperback)
Second Edition
Series: Islamic History and Thought 10
ISBN: 978-1-4632-3939-8
The only child of Muhammad to survive him, Fâṭima was from early times taken up by Shî’a Islam, for whose adherents she is the virgin mother, the heavenly intercessor with untold power before God’s throne, and the grieving mother of al-Husayn, the Shi’a's most important martyr. During her life she was impoverished and weak, neglected, marginalized, and divested of justice: but her reward in heaven comprises incalculable riches, all those in heaven will bow their heads to her, and her company will be the angels and the friends of God. Here, for the first time, her story is told.
$65.00 (USD) $39.00 (USD)
Women in Shiʿism
Ancient Stories, Modern Ideologies
By Amina Inloes
Series: Islamic History and Thought 11
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0726-7
What is the nature and social role of women? In today’s Shi‘ism, these questions are often answered through the “separate-but- equal” ideology which emphasizes the role of women as wives and mothers, and places men in authority. But is this the only ideology which can be derived from Shi‘i scriptural sources? This book takes a more nuanced approach to that question by exploring how women are portrayed in hadith on ancient sacred narrative – the stories of the prophets. It shows far more diverse views on what it means to be a woman (and, by extension, a man) – and that early Shi‘is held competing views about ideals for women.
$114.95 (USD) $68.97 (USD)
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