Now all but forgotten, there exists within medieval Islamic political thought a coherent "realist" tradition analogous to its Western counterpart. In The Art of Jihad, Malik Mufti begins by analyzing contemporary debates on jihad designed to highlight the lacuna occupied by realism in other cultures. He explicates the features of medieval Islamic realism; those it shares with realism everywhere—a focus on power, for example, or the ubiquity of human conflict—but also those features that are distinctive: its insistence on the political centrality of religion, its rejection of scientific certainty, its valorization of hierarchy, and its adherence to empire as the optimal ethico-political framework. These features are fleshed out through the writings of medieval political thinkers such as Ibn al-Muqaffa`, al-Jahiz, and the anonymous author of a seminal military manual, as well as political philosophers such as Ibn Rushd and Ibn Khaldun. Finally, Mufti explores the prospects for a revival of Islamic realism in the context of the political and intellectual upheavals currently besetting the Middle East.

This work attempts to recapture the fluid relationship between ethics and such institutions as faith, politics and literary art not seen, according to the author, since the time of Muhammad. By exploring the narrative that Muhammad employs in the Qur'an, the author works to reestablish the spiritually and politically desiccated relationship and prove that if today's Arab-Muslims still deem him the ethico-political and religio-artistic model to emulate, as he has been in the past, it is because he relates art to life.

With appendices

Instructs readers about the religious contexts that nurtured ideas regarding statecraft, international law, and the aims and limits of peace and warfare--Introduction.

This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through multiple lines of communication. This book brings history, anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad that has declared war on the West and the world.

This book features two Chicago artists who have taken on the International Postal Authorities and really scored a bulls eye! Their unique and often hilarious home-made stamps have been sent from virtually every country in the world and arrived to tell the tale. This is their story. We have chosen them from the cream of the crop for this must-see book -- lavishly illustrated in full colour and complete with essays from leading authorities in both the stamp and art worlds. Sure to offer hours of viewing pleasure and provide a welcome addition to any coffee table.