From the award-winning author of "The Master" comes a moving historical novel set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, concerning a young woman torn between her family and her past in Ireland and the American who wins her heart.
The Muqaddimah, often translated as "Introduction" or "Prolegomenon," is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), this monumental work laid down the foundations of several fields of knowledge, including philosophy of history, sociology, ethnography, and ...
He did not return to Morocco for another twenty-nine years, travelling instead through more than forty countries on the modern map, covering seventy-five thousand miles and getting as far north as the Volga, as far east as China and as far south as Tanzania. He wrote of his travels, and comes across as a superb ethnographer, biographer, anecdotal ...
Perhaps no mystic in the history of the world has delved as deeply into the inner knowledge that informs our being as did Ibn 'Arabi. He was born into the cultural and religious crucible of Andalusian Spain in 1165, a place and time in which Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars learned from each other and from the Greek classics that were then ...
From 16th-century Arabia, The Perfumed Garden - for the Repose of the Mind is a classic work of Arab erotica offering a uniquely entertaining collection of tales filled with frank and sound advice on sexual relations, accompanied by rare and previously unpublished erotic paintings and reproductions of exquisite tilework and friezes.
Those who practice the Muslim faith have resisted examinations of their religion. They are extremely guarded about their religion, and what they consider blasphemous acts by sceptical Muslims and non-Muslims alike has only served to pique the world's curiosity. This critical examination reveals an unflattering picture of the faith and its ...
In 1326, Ibn Battuta began a pilgrimage to Mecca that ended 27 years and 75,000 miles later. His engrossing account of that journey provides vivid scenes from Morocco, southern Russia, India, China, and elsewhere. "Essential reading . . . the ultimate in real life adventure stories." -- "History in Review."
Professor Guillaume's translation of the Sira of Ibn Ishaq is now reissued. The translator used Ibn Hisham's abridgement and also included many additions and variants found in the writings of early authors. The book thus presents in English practically all that is known of the life of the Prophet. In the introduction, the translator discusses ...
The Prolegomena of Ibn Khaldun are in many ways the most remarkable manifestation of Islamic philosophical thought. Not only did Ibn Khaldun sum up the accumulated knowledge and leading doctrines of his civilisation, but in many fields he broke new ground and anticipated the findings of Western social scientists of the last two centuries. The ...
Abu Abdalla ibn Battuta (1304-1354) was one of the greatest travellers of pre-modern times. This is his report of black Africa, a document of the high culture, pride and independence of black African states in the 14th century. He writes disapprovingly of sexual integration in families.
The volume comprises lightly annotated translation of a key medieval Arabic text that bears directly on the Crusades and Crusader society and the Muslim experience of them.
Those who practice the Muslim faith have resisted examinations of their religion. They are extremely guarded about their religion, and what they consider blasphemous acts by sceptical Muslims and non-Muslims alike has only served to pique the world's curiosity. This critical examination reveals an unflattering picture of the faith and its ...
"The Legacy of Jihad" provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented corrective to the genre of ahistorical assessments decried by Ellul. This unique, extensive compilation includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by pre-eminent scholars analysing jihad ...
Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi was born around 1154, probably in Northwestern Iran. Spurred by a dream in which Aristotle appeared to him, he rejected the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy of his youth and undertook the task of reviving the philosophical tradition of the "Ancients." His philosophy grants an epistemological role to immediate and ...
The most in-depth and scholarly panorama of Western spirituality ever attempted! In one series, the original writings of the universally acknowledged teachers of the Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic and Native American traditions have been critically selected, translated and introduced by internationally recognized scholars ...
This is the first systematic critique of Edward Said's influential work, "Orientalism", a book that for almost three decades has received wide acclaim, voluminous commentary, and translation into more than fifteen languages. Said's main thesis was that the Western image of the East was heavily biased by colonialist attitudes, racism, and more than ...
Islam has world-wide influence, and even in the United States is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth. Its sacred book, "The Koran", is the subject of voluminous commentary, yet it rarely receives the kind of objective critical scrutiny that has been applied to the texts of the Bible for over a century. To correct this neglect of ...
This is the first English translation of the famous risala, letters by the tenth-century traveler Ibn Fadlan, one of the great Medieval travelers in world history, akin to Ibn Batutta. Ibn Fadlan was an Arab missionary sent by the Caliph in Baghdad to the king of the Bulghars. He journeyed from Baghdad to Bukhara in Central Asia and then continued ...
Ibn 'Ajiba wrote his "fahrasa," or autobiography, not for the pleasure of talking about himself but "to celebrate God's kindness." It details his travels in search of both secular and spiritual knowledge, his entrance on a Sufi path strongly based within the Islamic tradition, and the social, intellectual, and spiritual struggles he encountered. ...
Written in the 16th Century, this volume is one of the oldest texts on the subject of erotica. Providing a fascinating look into the sexual customs and behavior of Arabia in the Middle Ages, much like the Kama Sutra reflects ancient Hindu culture, this work has been translated into English by the renowned explorer Sir Richard F. Burton, and ...
The Prophet Muhammad referred to his eloquent son-in-law Ali as the "gate to the city of knowledge." "Peak of Eloquence, Nahjul Balagha, " is both a compilation of Ali's sermons, letters, and sayings and a glimpse into his personality. Compiled by Sayyid al-Sharif ar-Radi more than 1,000 years ago, it is considered a literary masterpiece and, by ...
Presenting a mystical and theological analysis of our human urge to create idols for ourselves and out of ourselves, this medieval author carefully recounts the enlightening counsels of his own masters. He is most attentive to the subtle psychological working of our human ego, marshaling resources for his Islamic tradition that can confront and ...
A book of Aphoristic teachings on how to make one's way in the world--especially on how to bring spiritual insight to the affairs of daily life, this book contains 400 of Hadrat'Ali's teachings of worldly wisdom which show how people can use the everyday realities of their lives to cultivate wisdom and well-being, both temporal and eternal.
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