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Europe and the Islamic Worldsheds much-needed light on the shared roots of Islamic and Western cultures and on the richness of their inextricably intertwined histories, refuting once and for all the misguided notion of a \"clash of civilizations\" between the Muslim world and Europe. In this landmark book, three eminent historians bring to life the complex and tumultuous relations between Genoans and Tunisians, Alexandrians and the people of Constantinople, Catalans and Maghrebis--the myriad groups and individuals whose stories reflect the common cultural, intellectual, and religious heritage of Europe and Islam. Since the seventh century, when the armies of Constantinople and Medina fought for control of Syria and Palestine, there has been ongoing contact between the Muslim world and the West. This sweeping history vividly recounts the wars and the crusades, the alliances and diplomacy, commerce and the slave trade, technology transfers, and the intellectual and artistic exchanges. Here readers are given an unparalleled introduction to key periods and events, including the Muslim conquests, the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, the commercial revolution of the medieval Mediterranean, the intellectual and cultural achievements of Muslim Spain, the crusades and Spanish reconquest, the rise of the Ottomans and their conquest of a third of Europe, European colonization and decolonization, and the challenges and promise of this entwined legacy today. As provocative as it is groundbreaking, this book describes this shared history in all its richness and diversity, revealing how ongoing encounters between Europe and Islam have profoundly shaped both.

\"In an insightful blend of feminist, critical race and post-colonial theory, Sunera Thobani examines how Islam has contributed to the formation of Western identity at critical points in history such as the Crusades, the Reconquista and the colonial period. More specifically, she explores how masculinity and femininity are formed at such pivotal junctures and what role feminism plays in the fight against 'radical' Islam. Engaging with leading thinkers and multi-disciplinary ideas, Thobani explores how the return of 'religion' has created the racial, gender and sexual politics by which Western society defines itself, and more specifically defines itself against Islam\"-- Provided by publisher.

No detailed description available for \"Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater\".

Diverging Paths? investigates an important question, to which the answers must be very complex: \"why did certain sorts of institutionalisation and institutional continuity characterise government and society in Christendom by the later Middle Ages, but not the Islamic world, whereas the reverse end-point might have been predicted from the early medieval situation?\" This core question lies within classic historiographical debates, to which the essays in the volume, written by leading medievalists, make significant contributions. The papers, drawing on a wide range of evidence and methodologies, span the middle ages, chronologically and geographically. At the same time, the core question relates to matters of strong contemporary interest, notably the perceived characteristics of power exercised within Islamic Middle Eastern regimes.Contributors are Stuart Airlie, Gadi Algazi, Sandro Carocci, Simone Collavini, Emanuele Conte, Nadia El Cheikh, Maribel Fierro, John Hudson, Caroline Humfress, Michel Kaplan, Hugh Kennedy, Simon MacLean, Eduardo Manzano, Susana Naroztky, Annliese Nef, Vivien Prigent, Ana Rodrìguez, Magnus Ryan and Bernard Stolte.

Pakistan's presence in the outside world is dominated by images of religious extremism and violence. These images--and the narratives that interpret them--inform events in the international realm, but they also twist back around to shape local class politics. In The New Pakistani Middle Class, Ammara Maqsood focuses on life in contemporary Lahore, where she unravels these narratives to show how central they are for understanding competition and the quest for identity among middle-class groups. Lahore's traditional middle class has asserted its position in the socioeconomic hierarchy by wielding significant social capital and dominating the politics and economics of urban life. For this traditional middle class, a Muslim identity is about being modern, global, and on the same footing as the West. Recently, however, a more visibly religious, upwardly mobile social group has struggled to distinguish itself against this backdrop of conventional middle-class modernity, by embracing Islamic culture and values. The religious sensibilities of this new middle-class group are often portrayed as Saudi-inspired and Wahhabi. Through a focus on religious study gatherings and also on consumption in middle-class circles--ranging from the choice of religious music and home dâecor to debit cards and the cut of a woman's burkha--The New Pakistani Middle Class untangles current trends in piety that both aspire toward, and contest, prevailing ideas of modernity. Maqsood probes how the politics of modernity meets the practices of piety in the struggle among different middle-class groups for social recognition and legitimacy. -- Provided by publisher

The rise and fall of the Islamic scientific tradition, and the relationship of Islamic science to European science during the Renaissance.The Islamic scientific tradition has been described many times in accounts of Islamic civilization and general histories of science, with most authors tracing its beginnings to the appropriation of ideas from.

The crusades are often seen as epitomising a period when hostility between Christian West and the Muslim Near East reached an all time high. As this edited volume reveals, however, the era was one which saw both conflict and cohabitation. Tackling such questions as whether medicinal and architectural innovations came to Europe as a direct result of the Crusades, and why and how peace treaties and intermarriages were formed between the different cultures, this distinguished group of contributors reveal how the Holy Wars led on the one hand to a reinforcement of the beliefs and identities of each side, but on the other to a growing level of cultural exchange and interaction. This volume breaks new ground in not only exploring the conflict between the Christian and the Muslim worlds, but also the impact of this conflict on the cultural evolution of European and Near Eastern thought and practices. Utilising the latest scholarship and original studies of the sources, this survey sheds new light on the cultural realities of East-West relations and marks a new departure for studies of the crusades. Contributors include John France, Yehoshua Frenkel, Chris Wright, Natasha Hodgson, A.V. Murray, Sini Kangas, Léan Ní Chléirigh, Susan Edgington, Jürgen Krüger, Yvonne Friedman and Bernard Hamilton. 'The articles published here aim to explore a relatively neglected area: the cultural history of the Crusades and how they shaped European identities. All ten are lively and accessible but they are also exhaustively footnoted. They both synthesise previous work and bring new insights of their own ... So while this book will be of interest to researchers in the field, it will also be useful for teaching the crusades especially to those teachers who wish to go beyond the stereotyped ‘clash of cultures’ and explore complexity and diversity in the ways that human societies interact.' – Jonathan Harris, Reviews in History 'Conor Kostick should be congratulated for gathering such a stimulating, varied yet unified collection.' - Christopher Tyerman, Hertford College, University of Oxford, UK 'Kostick has produced a useful collection that shows how much and how little the Crusades impacted on all the peoples involved. The articles should be useful to anyone who needs to know that the Crusades were never an all-or-nothing proposition.\" - Laurence W. Marvin, Canadian Journal of History 'A volume that spans subjects as diverse as warfare, propaganda, diplomacy, medicine, architecture, literature, and \"national identity.\" Refreshingly, the volume embraces a range of perspectives - not only the Latin/Frankish one but also Byzantine, Islamic, and even Armenian... The essays themselves will certainly be useful to graduate students and scholars who are focusing on the Crusades.' - Brian A. Catlos, Religious Studies Review Conor Kostick teaches on the crusades at Trinity College Dublin. A former winner of the Dublinia Medieval Essay Competition and holder of a Trinity College Gold Medal, his historical works include The Social Structure of the First Crusade (2008) and The Siege of Jerusalem (2009). Introduction Conor Kostick 1. Warfare in the Mediterranean Region in the Age of the Crusades 1095-1291: A Clash of Contrasts John France 2. Muslim Responses to the Frankish Dominion in the Near East (1098-1291) Yehoshua Frenkel 3. The Crusades and the Byzantine Empire Chris Wright 4. Conflict and cohabitation: marriage and diplomacy between Latins and Cilician Armenians c.1097-1253 Natasha Hodgson 5. National Identity, Regional Identity and Language in the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1096-1192 A.V. Murray 6. Inimicus Dei et Sancti Christianitatis? Saracens and their Prophet in Twelfth-century Crusade Propaganda and Western Travesties of Muhammad’s Life Sini Kangas 7. Western perceptions of the Byzantine Empire in the aftermath of the First Crusade Léan Ní Chléirigh 8. Oriental and Occidental Medicine in the Crusader States Susan Edgington 9. Architecture of the crusaders in the Holy Land: the First European Colonial Architecture? Jürgen Krüger 10. Peacemaking: Perceptions and Practices in the Medieval Latin East Yvonne Friedman Afterward Bernard Hamilton