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About
Turkey's contemporary struggles with Islam are often interpreted as a conflict between religion and secularism played out most obviously in the split between rural and urban populations. The reality, of course, is more complicated than the assumptions. Exploring religious expression in two villages, this book considers rural spiritual practices and describes a living, evolving Sunni Islam, influenced and transformed by local and national sources of religious orthodoxy. Drawing on a decade of research, Kimberly Hart shows how religion is not an abstract set of principles, but a complex set of practices. Sunni Islam structures individual lives through rituals-birth, circumcision, marriage, military service, death-and the expression of these traditions varies between villages. Hart delves into the question of why some choose to keep alive the past, while others want to face a future unburdened by local cultural practices. Her answer speaks to global transformations in Islam, to the push and pull between those who maintain a link to the past, even when these practices challenge orthodoxy, and those who want a purified global religion.
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Reviews
"The book's greatest contribution lies in its approach. Hart refutes the assertion explicitly made by Islamists, and implicitly made by scholars, that rural Turkey is an isolated, backward, and inconsequential space. Rather, she approaches it as dynamic . . . Hart very convincingly proves that the village is also a site of dialogue and engagement through which orthodoxy is created . . . [R]ich in
The Muslim World Book Review
"This is an excellent study about the construction and interpretations of Islam in two different villages if Manisa, a town located in the Aegean region of western Turkey. The study offers a rich and nuanced explanation of how ordinary people interpret and understand Islam as they navigate their daily lives . . . Hart's ethnography challenges some of the core assumptions of modernization theory ab
Journal of Islamic Studies
"Her style, weaving in her own experiences in the field, draws the reader into the narrative. For anyone who thinks that villagers in Turkey are mired in the past or somehow do not know how to practice 'Islam', this book is a refreshing antidote."
Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life