Muslims in the Western Imagination

Muslims in the Western Imagination PDF Author: Sophia Rose Arjana
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199324921
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
Islam in the Western imagination -- The Muslim monster -- Medieval Muslim monsters -- Turkish monsters -- The monsters of Orientalism -- Muslim monsters in the Americas -- The monsters of September 11th.

Muslims in the Western Imagination

Muslims in the Western Imagination PDF Author: Sophia Rose Arjana
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199324921
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Get Book Here

Book Description
Islam in the Western imagination -- The Muslim monster -- Medieval Muslim monsters -- Turkish monsters -- The monsters of Orientalism -- Muslim monsters in the Americas -- The monsters of September 11th.

Idols in the East

Idols in the East PDF Author: Suzanne Conklin Akbari
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801464978
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Representations of Muslims have never been more common in the Western imagination than they are today. Building on Orientalist stereotypes constructed over centuries, the figure of the wily Arab has given rise, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, to the "Islamist" terrorist. In Idols in the East, Suzanne Conklin Akbari explores the premodern background of some of the Orientalist types still pervasive in present-day depictions of Muslims—the irascible and irrational Arab, the religiously deviant Islamist—and about how these stereotypes developed over time. Idols in the East contributes to the recent surge of interest in European encounters with Islam and the Orient in the premodern world. Focusing on the medieval period, Akbari examines a broad range of texts including encyclopedias, maps, medical and astronomical treatises, chansons de geste, romances, and allegories to paint an unusually diverse portrait of medieval culture. Among the texts she considers are The Book of John Mandeville, The Song of Roland, Parzival, and Dante's Divine Comedy. From them she reveals how medieval writers and readers understood and explained the differences they saw between themselves and the Muslim other. Looking forward, Akbari also comes to terms with how these medieval conceptions fit with modern discussions of Orientalism, thus providing an important theoretical link to postcolonial and postimperial scholarship on later periods. Far reaching in its implications and balanced in its judgments, Idols in the East will be of great interest to not only scholars and students of the Middle Ages but also anyone interested in the roots of Orientalism and its tangled relationship to modern racism and anti-Semitism.

Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination

Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination PDF Author: Ebrahim Moosa
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807876453
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Abu Hamid al-Ghaz&257;l&299;, a Muslim jurist-theologian and polymath who lived from the mid-eleventh to the early twelfth century in present-day Iran, is a figure equivalent in stature to Maimonides in Judaism and Thomas Aquinas in Christianity. He is best known for his work in philosophy, ethics, law, and mysticism. In an engaged re-reading of the ideas of this preeminent Muslim thinker, Ebrahim Moosa argues that Ghaz&257;l&299;'s work has lasting relevance today as a model for a critical encounter with the Muslim intellectual tradition in a modern and postmodern context. Moosa employs the theme of the threshold, or dihliz, the space from which Ghaz&257;l&299; himself engaged the different currents of thought in his day, and proposes that contemporary Muslims who wish to place their own traditions in conversation with modern traditions consider the same vantage point. Moosa argues that by incorporating elements of Islamic theology, neoplatonic mysticism, and Aristotelian philosophy, Ghaz&257;l&299;'s work epitomizes the idea that the answers to life's complex realities do not reside in a single culture or intellectual tradition. Ghaz&257;l&299;'s emphasis on poiesis--creativity, imagination, and freedom of thought--provides a sorely needed model for a cosmopolitan intellectual renewal among Muslims, Moosa argues. Such a creative and critical inheritance, he concludes, ought to be heeded by those who seek to cultivate Muslim intellectual traditions in today's tumultuous world.

Muslims in the Western Imagination

Muslims in the Western Imagination PDF Author: Sophia Rose Arjana
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199324948
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A Choice 2015 Outstanding Academic Title Throughout history, Muslim men have been depicted as monsters. The portrayal of humans as monsters helps a society delineate who belongs and who, or what, is excluded. Even when symbolic, as in post-9/11 zombie films, Muslim monsters still function to define Muslims as non-human entities. These are not depictions of Muslim men as malevolent human characters, but rather as creatures that occupy the imagination -- non-humans that exhibit their wickedness outwardly on the skin. They populate medieval tales, Renaissance paintings, Shakespearean dramas, Gothic horror novels, and Hollywood films. Through an exhaustive survey of medieval, early modern, and contemporary literature, art, and cinema, Muslims in the Western Imagination examines the dehumanizing ways in which Muslim men have been constructed and represented as monsters, and the impact such representations have on perceptions of Muslims today. The study is the first to present a genealogy of these creatures, from the demons and giants of the Middle Ages to the hunchbacks with filed teeth that are featured in the 2007 film 300, arguing that constructions of Muslim monsters constitute a recurring theme, first formulated in medieval Christian thought. Sophia Rose Arjana shows how Muslim monsters are often related to Jewish monsters, and more broadly to Christian anti-Semitism and anxieties surrounding African and other foreign bodies, which involves both religious bigotry and fears surrounding bodily difference. Arjana argues persuasively that these dehumanizing constructions are deeply embedded in Western consciousness, existing today as internalized beliefs and practices that contribute to the culture of violence--both rhetorical and physical--against Muslims.

Veiled Superheroes

Veiled Superheroes PDF Author: Sophia Rose Arjana
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498536530
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This groundbreaking study examines Muslim female superheroes within a matrix of Islamic theology, feminism, and contemporary political discourse. Through a close reading of texts including Ms. Marvel, Qahera, and The 99, Sophia Rose Arjana argues that these powerful and iconic characters reflect independence and agency, reflecting the diverse lives of Muslim girls and women in the world today.

Islam in the West

Islam in the West PDF Author: Abe W. Ata
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199093660
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The bombings in New York and Washington in 2001 and subsequent terrorist attacks in different countries of the West have led to fast changing socio-cultural and political contexts where Islam has been depicted as a global threat. The meaning of being a Muslim has undergone rapid transformation with the interplay of perceptions and misperceptions impacted by, for instance, the Iranian Revolution of 1978–9, the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, the Gulf War of 1990–1, and the clash of civilizations thesis propagated by Samuel Huntington in 1993. This book examines the way Muslims and mainstream societies in the West perceive each other by taking into account themes like cultural pluralism, media, religious education, interfaith dialogue, and so on. It argues that Muslims are not defined solely by their faith but as an emerging group which is self-critical, reflective, and focused on clearing the misconceptions associated with their identity. Further, it posits that Westerners who are more knowledgeable about Muslims usually express positive opinions about Islam, thereby arguing that the knowledge about and attitudes towards Islam are interrelated.

Framing Muslims

Framing Muslims PDF Author: Peter Morey
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674048520
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In Framing Muslims: Stereotyping and Representation after 9/11, Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin dissect how stereotypes that depict Muslims as an inherently problematic presence in the West are constructed, deployed, and circulated in the public imagination, producing an immense gulf between representation and a considerably more complex reality.

Saracens

Saracens PDF Author: John Victor Tolan
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231123337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Medieval Christian writers distorted the teachings of Islam and caricatured its believers in a variety of ways. This book provides a comprehensive study of Christian polemical responses to Islam in the Middle Ages.

The Idea of the Muslim World

The Idea of the Muslim World PDF Author: Cemil Aydin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674050371
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
“Superb... A tour de force.” —Ebrahim Moosa “Provocative... Aydin ranges over the centuries to show the relative novelty of the idea of a Muslim world and the relentless efforts to exploit that idea for political ends.” —Washington Post When President Obama visited Cairo to address Muslims worldwide, he followed in the footsteps of countless politicians who have taken the existence of a unified global Muslim community for granted. But as Cemil Aydin explains in this provocative history, it is a misconception to think that the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims constitute a single entity. How did this belief arise, and why is it so widespread? The Idea of the Muslim World considers its origins and reveals the consequences of its enduring allure. “Much of today’s media commentary traces current trouble in the Middle East back to the emergence of ‘artificial’ nation states after the fall of the Ottoman Empire... According to this narrative...today’s unrest is simply a belated product of that mistake. The Idea of the Muslim World is a bracing rebuke to such simplistic conclusions.” —Times Literary Supplement “It is here that Aydin’s book proves so valuable: by revealing how the racial, civilizational, and political biases that emerged in the nineteenth century shape contemporary visions of the Muslim world.” —Foreign Affairs

The Book in the Islamic World

The Book in the Islamic World PDF Author: George N. Atiyeh
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 079149540X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The Book in the Islamic World brings together serious studies on the book as an intellectual entity and as a vehicle of cultural development. Written by a group of distinguished scholars, it examines and reflects upon this unique tool of communication not as a physical artifact but as a manifestation of the aspirations, values, and wisdom of Arabs and Muslims in general. The Islamic system of book production differed from that of the West. This volume shows the peculiarities of book making and the intellectual principles that governed a book's inner structure, mysteries, and impact on culture. Investigated and explained are the issues involved in printing; the compilation of the Koran, the most important book in Islam; attitudes toward books; the oral versus the written tradition; metaphors of the book in literature; biographical dictionaries, an important genre of Islamic books; the grammatical tradition; women's contribution to calligraphy; scientific manuscripts; the transition from scribal to print culture; publishing in the modern Arab World; and the new electronic media, a non-book vehicle of communication, and its impact on education.