Scattered across the globe, the Isma'ilis constitute the second largest Shi'i community in the Muslim World. This study traces their history and doctrinal developments from their origins to the present day over a period of twelve centuries.

This volume presents scholarship on Isma`ili history and thought from leading authorities in the field.

Invoking a concept as simple as it is brilliant, F. E. Peters has taken the basic texts of the three related--and competitive--religious systems we call Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and has juxtaposed them in a topical and parallel arrangement according to the issues that most concerned all these "children of Abraham." Through these extensive passages, and the author's skillful connective commentary, the three traditions are shown with their similarities sometimes startlingly underlined and their well-known differences now more profoundly exposed. What emerges from this unique and ambitious work is a panorama of belief, practice, and sensibility that will broaden our understanding of our religious and political roots in a past that is, by these communities' definition, still the present. The hardcover edition of the work is bound in one volume, and in the paperback version the identical material is broken down into three smaller but self-contained books. The first, "From Covenant to Community," includes texts and comments on the covenant and early history of the Chosen People and their post-Exilic reconstruction; the career and message of the Messiah Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad; the concept of holiness and of a "kingdom of priests"; and, finally, the notions of church and state and the state as a church. Throughout the work we hear an amazing variety of voices, some familiar, some not, all of them central to the primary and secondary canons of their own tradition: alongside the Scriptural voice of God are the words of theologians, priests, visionaries, lawyers, rulers and the ruled. The work ends, as does the same author's now classic Children of Abraham, in what Peters calls the "classical period," that is, before the great movements of modernism and reform that were to transform Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Islam in Historical Perspective provides readers with an introduction to Islam, Islamic history and societies with carefully selected historical and scriptural evidence that enables them to form a comprehensive and balanced vision of Islam’s rise and evolution across the centuries and up to the present day. Combining historical and chronological approaches, the book examines intellectual dialogues and socio-political struggles within the extraordinary rich Islamic tradition. Treating Islam as a social and political force, the book also addresses Muslim devotional practices, artistic creativity and the structures of everyday existence. Islam in Historical Perspective is designed to help readers to develop personal empathy for the subject by relating it to their own experiences and burning issues of today. It contains a wealth of historical anecdotes and quotations from original sources that are intended to emphasize its principal points in a memorable way. This new edition features a thoroughly revised and updated text, new illustrations, expanded study questions and chapter summaries.

This book is a welcome addition to an all too scant literature on the Ismaili communities of Syria. In addition to a wide reading of Arabic sources and a deep familiarity with the existing scholarly literature, Professor Mirza also brings to light new manuscripts illuminating this history. Syrian Ismailism tells the little-known story of the adaptability and survival of Ismailis in Syria in an era which seems as complex and difficult as our own. The late eleventh and twelfth centuries brought severe troubles, including the decline of the Fatimids, divisions among the Ismailis, the Saljuq-Sunni conquest of much of the Middle East, and the Crusades.

The Isma'ili Muslims, a major sect of Shi'i Islam, form a community that is intriguing in its deterritorialized social organization. Informed by the richness of Isma'ili history, theories of transnationalism and globalization, and firsthand ethnographic f

Muslims first appeared in the early seventh century as members of a persecuted religious movement in a sun-baked town in Arabia. Within a century, their descendants were ruling a vast territory that extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indus River valley in modern Pakistan. This region became the arena for a new cultural experiment in which Muslim scholars and creative artists synthesized and reworked the legacy of Rome, Greece, Iran, and India into a new civilization. A History of the Muslim World to 1405 traces the development of this civilization from the career of the Prophet Muhammad to the death of the Mongol emperor Timur Lang. Coverage includes the unification of the Dar a1-Islam (the territory ruled by Muslims), the fragmentation into various religious and political groups including the Shi'ite and Sunni, and the series of catastrophes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that threatened to destroy the civilization. Features: Balanced coverage of the Muslim world encompassing the region from the Iberian Peninsula to South Asia. Detailed accounts of all cultures including major Shi'ite groups and the Sunni community. Primary sources. Numerous maps and photographs featuring a special four-color art insert. Glossary, charts, and timelines.

Philosophy flourished in the Islamic world for many centuries, and continues to be a significant feature of cultural life today. Now available in paperback, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy covers all the major and many minor philosophers, theologians, and mystics who contributed to its development. With entries on over 300 thinkers and key concepts in Islamic philosophy, this updated landmark work also includes a timeline, glossary and detailed bibliography. It goes beyond philosophy to reference all kinds of theoretical inquiry which were often linked with philosophy, such as the Islamic sciences, grammar, theology, law, and traditions. Every major school of thought, from classical Peripatetic philosophy to Sufi mysticism, is represented, and entries range across time from the early years of the faith to the modern period. Featuring an international group of authors from South East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America, The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy provides access to the ideas and people comprising almost 1400 years of Islamic philosophical tradition.

Considered the most authoritative single-volume reference work on Islam in the contemporary world, the German-language Der Islam in der Gegenwart, currently in its fifth edition, offers a wealth of authoritative information on the religious, political, social, and cultural life of Islamic nations and of Islamic immigrant communities elsewhere. Now, Cornell University Press is making this invaluable resource accessible to English-language readers. More current than the latest German edition on which it is based, Islam in the World Today covers a comprehensive array of topics in concise essays by some of the world's leading experts on Islam, including: • the history of Islam from the earliest years through the twentieth century, with particular attention to Sunni and Shi'i Islam and Islamic revival movements during the last three centuries; • data on the advance of Islam along with current population statistics; • Muslim ideas on modern economics, on social order, and on attempts to modernize Islamic law (shari'a) and apply it in contemporary Muslim societies; • Islam in diaspora, especially the situation in Europe and America; • secularism, democracy, and human rights; and • women in Islam Twenty-four essays are each devoted to a specific Muslim country or a country with significant Muslim minorities, spanning Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. Additional essays illuminate Islamic culture, exploring local traditions; the languages and dialects of Muslim peoples; and art, architecture, and literature. Detailed bibliographies and indexes ensure the book's usefulness as a reference work.

Incorporating a rich series of case-studies covering a range of geographical areas, this collection of essays examines the history of modern intellectuals in the Islamic world throughout the twentieth century. The contributors reassess the typology and history of various scholars, providing significant diachronic analysis of the different forms of communication, learning, and authority. While each chapter presents a separate regional case, with an historically and geographically different background, the volume discloses commonalities, similarities and intellectual echoes through its comparative approach. Consisting of two parts, the volume focuses first on al-Manar, the influential journal published between 1898 and 1935 that inspired much imagination and arguments among local intelligentsias all over the Islamic world. The second part discusses the formation, transmission and transformation of learning and authority, from the Middle East to Central and Southeast Asia. Constituting a milestone in comparative studies of the modern Islamic world, this book highlights the range of and transformation in the role of intellectuals in Islamic societies.