New Books Network
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies November 27, 2020

Muslim Women's Rights

Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada

Tabassum Fahim Ruby

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Muslim Women’s Rights: Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada (Routledge 2019) By Tabassum Fahim Ruby follows the legal debates and public discussions that surrounded the proposed shari‘ah tribunals in Canada from …

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Middle Eastern Studies November 25, 2020

Vision or Mirage

Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads

David Rundell

Hosted by James M. Dorsey
David Rundell brings to his book, Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads (I. B. Tauris, 2020), a granular analysis and insider’s understanding of the inner workings of the …
Islamic Studies November 20, 2020

Minding their Place

Space and Religious Hierarchy in Ibn al-Qayyim’s Aḥkām ahl al-dhimma

Antonia Bosanquet

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
How was the relationship between Muslim and non-Muslim communities theologically and spatially imagined in the premodern world? How did religious hierarchies map onto notions of place and spatial distinction and …
Mobilities and Methods November 18, 2020

Beyond Exception

New Interpretations of the Arabian Peninsula

Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Over the nearly two decades that they have each been conducting fieldwork in the Arabian Peninsula, Ahmed Kanna, Amélie Le Renard, and Neha Vora have regularly encountered exoticizing and exceptionalist …
Islamic Studies November 13, 2020

The Sufi Paradigm and the Makings of a Vernacular Knowledge in Colonial India

The Case of Sindh (1851–1929)

Michel Boivin

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
The Sufi Paradigm and the Makings of a Vernacular Knowledge in Colonial India: The Case of Sindh (1851-1929) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) by Michel Boivin maps the construction of a vernacular …
Middle Eastern Studies November 12, 2020

Muhammad's Body

Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage

Michael Muhammad Knight

Hosted by Asad Dandia
Muhammad's Body: Baraka Networks and the Prophetic Assemblage by Michael Muhammad Knight (UNC Press, 2020) joins the emerging subfield of literature in Islamic Studies exploring embodiment and materiality as concepts …
Middle Eastern Studies November 9, 2020

Ibn Taymiyya

Jon Hoover

Hosted by Elliot Bazzano
Ibn Taymiyya is one of the most prolific and influential Islamic thinkers to date, and was even the only pre-modern Muslim author cited in the 9/11 Report. His supporters and …
Islamic Studies November 6, 2020

Faces of Muhammad

Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today

John Tolan

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
John Tolan’s latest book Faces of Muhammad: Western Perceptions of the Prophet of Islam from the Middle Ages to Today (Princeton UP, 2019) is a fascinating and rich survey of …
Islamic Studies October 30, 2020

Interrogating Secularism

Race and Religion in Arab Transnational Art and Literature

Danielle Haque

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In many popular accounts of contemporary “Western” society there is an inherent contradiction between the principles underlying liberal secularism and Islam. This type of binary discourse about “religion” and “secular” …
Eastern European Studies October 22, 2020

Useful Enemies

Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750

Noel Malcolm

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Sir Noel Malcolm’s captivating new book, Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2019), tells the story of Western European fascination with …
American Studies October 16, 2020

Here, There, and Elsewhere

The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World

Tahseen Shams

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Here, There, and Elsewhere: The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World (Stanford University Press, 2020) by Tahseen Shams (Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto) reconceptualizes …
History October 9, 2020

Al Rashid Mosque

Building Canadian Muslim Communities

Earle H. Waugh

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
In the early 20th-century Muslims, primarily with roots in Lebanon, began to settle in Canada’s interior plains. In 1938, the small community in Edmonton opened the first mosque in the …
Gender Studies October 2, 2020

Decoding the Egalitarianism of the Qur’an

Retrieving Lost Voices on Gender

Abla Hasan

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
Is it possible to interpret the Qur’an using the Qur’an alone? Is a feminist interpretation of controversial verses such as 4:34, the notorious “wife-beating” verse, possible? What evidence is there …
Indian Ocean World September 28, 2020

Banishment and Belonging

Exile and Diaspora in Sarandib, Lanka and Ceylon

Ronit Ricci

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Lanka, Ceylon, Sarandib: merely three disparate names for a single island? Perhaps. Yet the three diverge in the historical echoes, literary cultures, maps and memories they evoke. Names that have …
South Asian Studies September 25, 2020

Far from the Caliph’s Gaze

Being Ahmadi Muslim in the Holy City of Qadian

Nicholas H. A. Evans

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
A sustained and compelling critique of the doubt/belief binary in the anthropology of religion and Islam, Nicholas H. A. Evans’ Far from the Caliph’s Gaze: Being Ahmadi Muslim in the …
American Studies September 23, 2020

Muslims in a Post-9/11 America

A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs and Their Implications for U.S. National Security Policy

Rachel M. Gillum

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Muslims in a Post-9/11 America (University of Michigan Press, 2018) examines how public fears about Muslims in the United States compare with the reality of American Muslims’ attitudes on a …
American Studies September 18, 2020

Varieties of American Sufism

Islam, Sufi Orders, and Authority in a Time of Transition

E. Bazzano and M. Hermansen

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Sufism in America is now a developed sub-field of study that exists at the intersection of Islamic Studies, American religions, and popular spirituality. Varieties of American Sufism: Islam, Sufi Orders …
Middle Eastern Studies September 15, 2020

Studying the Qur’an in the Muslim Academy

Majid Daneshgar

Hosted by Asad Dandia
“Consider the works of the renowned Nobel-prize-winning African American writer, literary and social critic, and activist Toni Morrison (b. 1931),” writes Majid Daneshgar. “Hers—like Said’s—are popular in the West and …
Central Asian Studies September 11, 2020

The War on the Uyghurs

China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority

Sean Roberts

Hosted by Shehnaz Haqqani
In today’s new episode, we speak with Sean Roberts about his brand new book The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority (Princeton University Press, 2020) …
African American Studies September 9, 2020

America’s Other Muslims

Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam

Muhammed Fraser-Rahim

Hosted by Beth Windisch
America's Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam explores the oldest and perhaps the most important Muslim community in America, whose story has received …