Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics

Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a social anthropologist, works as a freelance researcher and consultant. She is the author of Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law in Iran and Morocco and the co-director of a documentary, Divorce Iranian Style, filmed in Tehran. Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the re-introduction of Sharica law relating to gender and the family, women's rights in Iran suffered a major setback. However, as the implementers of the law have faced the social realities of women's lives and aspirations, positive changes have gradually come about. Here Ziba Mir-Hosseini takes us to the heart of the growing debates concerning the ways in which justice for women should be achieved. Through a series of lively interviews with clerics in the Iranian religious center of Qom, she seeks to understand the varying notions of gender that inform Islamic jurisprudence and to explore how clerics today perpetuate and modify these notions. Mir-Hosseini finds three main approaches to the issue: insistence on "traditional" patriarchal interpretations based on "complementarity" but "inequality" between women and men; attempts to introduce "balance" into traditional interpretations; or a radical rethinking of the jurisprudential constructions of gender. She introduces the debates among the commentators by examining key passages in both written and oral texts and by narrating her meetings and discussions with the authors. Unique in its approach and its subject matter, the book relates Mir-Hosseini's engagement, as a Muslim woman and a social anthropologist educated and working in the West, with Shii'i Muslim thinkers of various backgrounds and views. In the literature on women in Islam, there is no account of such a face-to-face encounter, either between religion and gender politics or between the two genders.

Roxanne L. Euben is the Ralph Emerson and Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. She is the author of Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism (Princeton). The contemporary world is increasingly defined by dizzying flows of people and ideas. But while Western travel is associated with a pioneering spirit of discovery, the dominant image of Muslim mobility is the jihadi who travels not to learn but to destroy. Journeys to the Other Shore challenges these stereotypes by charting the common ways in which Muslim and Western travelers negotiate the dislocation of travel to unfamiliar and strange worlds. In Roxanne Euben's groundbreaking excursion across cultures, geography, history, genre, and genders, travel signifies not only a physical movement across lands and cultures, but also an imaginative journey in which wonder about those who live differently makes it possible to see the world differently. In the book we meet not only Herodotus but also Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth-century Moroccan traveler. Tocqueville's journeys are set against a five-year sojourn in nineteenth-century Paris by the Egyptian writer and translator Rifa'a Rafi' al-Tahtawi, and Montesquieu's novel Persian Letters meets with the memoir of an East African princess, Sayyida Salme. This extraordinary book shows that curiosity about the unknown, the quest to understand foreign cultures, critical distance from one's own world, and the desire to remake the foreign into the familiar are not the monopoly of any single civilization or epoch. Euben demonstrates that the fluidity of identities, cultures, and borders associated with our postcolonial, globalized world has a long history--one shaped not only by Western power but also by an Islamic ethos of travel in search of knowledge. "A path breaking book. . . . [Euben] makes clear the unsatisfactory nature of the representational categories of 'Islam' and the 'West', which have come to have such dangerous weight for extremist thinkers, both Western and Islamic, in the contemporary world. . . . The arguments of this book are important, persuasive and nuanced."---Francis Robinson, Times Literary Supplement "Thoroughly grounded in Arabic as well as Western sources, Euben has produced a remarkable book of great value both for its contribution to specialist scholarship, and for its relevance to the urgent public policy debates of our troubled times."---Donald Malcolm Reid, International History Review "In this highly stimulating book . . . Roxanne Euben examines the role of travel in the formation of one's picture of societies Islamic and Western. She is one of the rare scholars who can demonstrate thorough knowledge of both the Islamic and European material--classical Greek, English and French literature (the last in translation)."---Ahmad Gunny, Journal of Islamic Studies "This well-argued book breaks new ground in the conceptualization of travel relevant to political theory and cultural studies, and provides arguments that are rooted in close analysis of texts across time about how the politics and mechanisms that inform travel could be relevant to bridging the gap between the so-called West and the world of Islam. Through this analysis, Euben challenges the misconceptions that frame the Islamic world as insular and immobile and the West as the realm of mobility and cosmopolitanism; in this she provides a critical and timely corrective, especially in the post-9/11 world where pundits and proselytizers alike prefer broad and unexamined stereotypes rather than historicized critical readings."---Ahmed Idrissi Alami, Studies in Travel Writing "In this unusually elegant book, Roxanne Euben engages comparative political theory, an enterprise she has shaped decisively-one might well argue that she has conceived it in its present form. Here, she wears her erudition lightly, but it is very much present. She moves easily between language

Emile Nakhleh was a senior intelligence service officer and director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program in the Directorate of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. He holds a PhD in international relations and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In A Necessary Engagement, the CIA's former point man on Islam makes a vigorous case for a renewal of American public diplomacy in the Muslim world. Offering a unique balance between in-depth analysis, personal memoir, and foreign policy remedies, the book injects much-needed wisdom into the public discussion of long-term U.S.-Muslim relations. Intelligence insider Emile Nakhleh argues that an engagement with the Muslim world benefits the national interest of the United States. Therefore, the next administration should discard the terrorism prism through which the country has viewed political Islam since 9/11 and focus instead on the common interests of America and mainstream Muslims. Nakhleh investigates recent U.S. policy toward Islamic nations and offers the new administration a ten-point plan for rebuilding America's relationship with the Muslim world. The author demonstrates that winning over Arabs and Muslims requires a thorough knowledge of Arab and Muslim cultures and languages within our intelligence community, as well as a long-term American commitment of personnel and resources. While the success of these efforts will be incremental and hard to measure, Nakhleh believes that the current low standing of the United States in most Arab and Muslim countries can be reversed. Stressing that effective public diplomacy must be a serious, coordinated effort pursued at the highest political levels, A Necessary Engagement charts a new course for future ties between the United States and the Islamic world. "[A] thoughtful book. . . . Nakhleh makes a strong case for the importance of constructive engagement with all Islamists except the global jihadists."---Jonathan Benthall, Times Literary Supplement "Nakhleh, former director of the CIA's Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program, draws on nearly three decades of experience, current research and extensive polling to argue that the majority of Muslims strongly oppose terrorism and want good governance and a functional relationship with the U.S." "In an informative and revealing book, A Necessary Engagement, Emile Nakhleh, a former director of Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program in the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, says that although midlevel U.S. officials knew better than to frame the war in black-and-white terms, ever-expanding the territory of the enemy, they had little say and input in decision-making. . . . Nakhleh paints a grim and stark portrait of the failures of U.S. policy makers to understand the most basic attitudes that Muslims have of themselves, each other and the West."---Fawaz A. Gerges, The National Interest "This book should be required reading for the non-expert who wants a real understanding of militant Islam and how the United States should deal with it. Even experts in Islam, foreign policy and public diplomacy would find it worth reading. The author has marshaled persuasive arguments and presented a systematic analysis that is carefully grounded in fact and sensible conclusions. . . . Nakhleh's years of careful study have been distilled into a highly readable 146 pages. Because of the nature of the issues he discussed, this book will be relevant to understanding our world for some time to come."---William A. Rugh, Middle East Policy "Nakhleh draws extensively on his government background in this slim, must-read volume, which combines cogent and balanced analysis with well-reasoned policy recommendations culminating in a useful 'blueprint' for US public diplomacy that offers some novel suggestions."---Mona Yacoubian, Middle East Journal "In this slender volume, Nakhleh examines the relationship between the U.S. and the Muslim world, presents cogen

Robert W. Hefner is Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University. His recent books include Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton). There is a struggle for the hearts and minds of Muslims unfolding across the Islamic world. The conflict pits Muslims who support pluralism and democracy against others who insist such institutions are antithetical to Islam. With some 1.3 billion people worldwide professing Islam, the outcome of this contest is sure to be one of the defining political events of the twenty-first century. Bringing together twelve engaging essays by leading specialists focusing on individual countries, this pioneering book examines the social origins of civil-democratic Islam, its long-term prospects, its implications for the West, and its lessons for our understanding of religion and politics in modern times. Although depicted by its opponents as the product of political ideas "made in the West" civil-democratic Islam represents an indigenous politics that seeks to build a distinctive Islamic modernity. In countries like Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, and Indonesia, it has become a major political force. Elsewhere its influence is apparent in efforts to devise Islamic grounds for women's rights, religious tolerance, and democratic citizenship. Everywhere it has generated fierce resistance from religious conservatives. Examining this high-stakes clash, Remaking Muslim Politics breaks new ground in the comparative study of Islam and democracy. The contributors are Bahman Baktiari, Thomas Barfield, John R. Bowen, Dale F. Eickelman, Robert W. Hefner, Peter Mandaville, Augustus Richard Norton, Gwenn Okruhlik, Michael G. Peletz, Diane Singerman, Jenny B. White, and Muhammad Qasim Zaman. "This is a most interesting and serious book on Islam. It is perhaps one of the most scholarly books on the topic since September 11."---As'ad AbuKhalil, Perspectives on Politics "Remaking Muslim Politics remains . . . an important work. It captures the wide breadth of civic-democratic Islamic voices with exhaustive detail in cross-national contexts."---Sean L. Yom, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences "9/11 not only drove home the magnitude of the threat of global terrorism but also brought into sharp focus and contention the question of Islam's compatibility with pluralism and democracy. Robert Hefner's Remaking Muslim Politics assembles a group of scholars who provide insightful case studies that shed new light on the process of democratization as witnessed in the experiments and experiences of diverse countries across the Muslim world: from Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to Iran, Afghanistan, Malaysia, and Indonesia."-John L. Esposito, University Professor and Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Georgetown University, author of Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam "Remaking Muslim Politics makes a compelling case for both a far more nuanced and variegated understanding of Islam and politics than is conventional and a more sanguine view of the prospects for a pluralist, even democratic, politics in the Muslim world. Given the high-decibel debates about Islam and politics these days, it should find a wide readership-but unlike many of the books on the market today, it will deserve this."-Lisa Anderson, Columbia University, past president of the Middle East Studies Association

John R. Bowen is the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. His books include Why the French Don't Like Headscarves (Princeton) and Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia. Can Islam Be French? is an anthropological examination of how Muslims are responding to the conditions of life in France. Following up on his book Why the French Don't Like Headscarves, John Bowen turns his attention away from the perspectives of French non-Muslims to focus on those of the country's Muslims themselves. Bowen asks not the usual question--how well are Muslims integrating in France?--but, rather, how do French Muslims think about Islam? In particular, Bowen examines how French Muslims are fashioning new Islamic institutions and developing new ways of reasoning and teaching. He looks at some of the quite distinct ways in which mosques have connected with broader social and political forces, how Islamic educational entrepreneurs have fashioned niches for new forms of schooling, and how major Islamic public actors have set out a specifically French approach to religious norms. All of these efforts have provoked sharp responses in France and from overseas centers of Islamic scholarship, so Bowen also looks closely at debates over how--and how far--Muslims should adapt their religious traditions to these new social conditions. He argues that the particular ways in which Muslims have settled in France, and in which France governs religions, have created incentives for Muslims to develop new, pragmatic ways of thinking about religious issues in French society. "Mr. Bowen's latest book has a broader and more ambitious canvas. As a good anthropologist, he wants to know not just what the politicians and the media are saying about Islam in France, but what is actually happening on the ground. . . . Mr. Bowen thinks that Muslim values and French secularism could be compatible. But accommodation requires give-and-take on both sides. . . . Can Islam be French? After reading this book, one is inclined to say, 'Yes, but not yet.'" "[A] major contribution to understanding the real world of Islam in France. . . . An insightful and informative study." "The book is richly documented, explicitly supportive of the Muslim point of view and deeply sympathetic to them."---Vaidehi Nathan, Organiser "Bowen's study of Islam [in] a lesser-known social context is very welcome."---Jack David Eller, American Anthropology Review "The great merit of this book is not only that it empirically answers the question it asks, but in doing so, it opens up a series of questions pertaining to the place of Islam in France and the complex and different relations between citizenship and French religions in a postcolonial society."---Abdelmajid Hannoum, Contemporary Sociology "[Bowen] makes an important contribution to both the anthropology of France and the anthropology of Islam in the West through his detailed discussion of different Islamic schools of religious interpretation and traditions of jurisprudence. By examining the myriad debates that define a global Islamic space, Bowen challenges stereotypes about the monolithic religion that prevail in the media and across the political spectrum. . . . Bowen does a remarkable job of sifting through and making sense of a vast array of approaches to Islamic norms and of differentiating meaningfully among different Islamic schools."---Susan Terrio, Anthropological Quarterly "Bowen's study gives no quick and easy answers to this question; rather, it does an excellent job of examining the historical background and current developments that highlight the potentials for--as well as the challenges of--a pragmatic convergence between the norms and ideas of Islam and France."---Lee Ann Bambach, Journal of Law and Religion "Bowen once again strengthens his position as one of the leading commentators on the French social landscape. What the study lacks in theoretical rigour is off set by a rigorous and vivi

Roxanne L. Euben is the Ralph Emerson and Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. Muhammad Qasim Zaman is the Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion at Princeton University. The most authoritative anthology of Islamist texts This anthology of key primary texts provides an unmatched introduction to Islamist political thought from the early twentieth century to the present, and serves as an invaluable guide through the storm of polemic, fear, and confusion that swirls around Islamism today. Roxanne Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman gather a broad selection of texts from influential Islamist thinkers and place these figures and their writings in their multifaceted political and historical contexts. The selections presented here in English translation include writings of Ayatollah Khomeini, Usama bin Laden, Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna, and Moroccan Islamist leader Nadia Yassine, as well as the Hamas charter, an interview with a Taliban commander, and the final testament of 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Ata. Illuminating the content and political appeal of Islamist thought, this anthology brings into sharp relief the commonalities in Islamist arguments about gender, democracy, and violence, but it also reveals significant political and theological disagreements among thinkers too often grouped together and dismissed as extremists or terrorists. No other anthology better illustrates the diversity of Islamist thought, the complexity of its intellectual and political contexts, or the variety of ways in which it relates to other intellectual and religious trends in the contemporary Muslim world. "Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought presents representative writings of that radical minority of Muslims who reject political quietism, resist alien intrusions, and call for a divinely mandated state and society as set out in the Koran and as exemplified in the early Muslim community." "There is no other anthology that better demonstrates the multiplicity of Islamist thought, the intricacy of its intellectual and political contexts, or the variety and diversity of ways in which it relates to other intellectual and religious trends in the contemporary Muslim world."---Tauseef Ahmad Parray, Islam and Muslim Societies "This book is an excellent primer on the key ideas and prominent thinkers that have shaped Islamism over the past century. Euben and Zaman provide the reader with both text and context by pairing selections from key Islamist works with their own incisive analysis. The result is a most useful and timely intellectual history of Islamism."-Vali Nasr, author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of a New Muslim Middle Class and What it Means for Our World "One could find no better guide to this difficult, dangerous, and deceptive terrain."-Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania "This splendid volume literally opens the door to Islamic political thought for Western scholars and teachers of politics. Brilliantly introduced and contextually framed by the editors, the selections represent remarkable geographic and historical range. We are all in the debt of Euben and Zaman for this immense labor and for the subtlety of their own thinking about politics, interpretation, violence, theory, gender, translation, and more."-Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley "This volume is a real contribution. The selection of texts is first-rate, and the biographical introductions to the individual texts are extremely impressive."-Noah Feldman, author of The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State "A superb volume. No other anthology on Islamism provides this depth or breadth. The biographical notes that precede each selection are exceptionally beneficial. These notes do more than just introduce the authors; they explore the background, networks, and issues that link each writer with broad patterns of Islamic political thought."-Bruce Lawrence, editor of Messages to the Wo

Robert W. Hefner is Director of the Program on Islam and Civil Society at the Institute on Culture and Religious Affairs at Boston University. Muhammad Qasim Zaman is Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion at Princeton University. Since the Taliban seized Kabul in 1996, the public has grappled with the relationship between Islamic education and radical Islam. Media reports tend to paint madrasas--religious schools dedicated to Islamic learning--as medieval institutions opposed to all that is Western and as breeding grounds for terrorists. Others have claimed that without reforms, Islam and the West are doomed to a clash of civilizations. Robert Hefner and Muhammad Qasim Zaman bring together eleven internationally renowned scholars to examine the varieties of modern Muslim education and their implications for national and global politics. The contributors provide new insights into Muslim culture and politics in countries as different as Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. They demonstrate that Islamic education is neither timelessly traditional nor medieval, but rather complex, evolving, and diverse in its institutions and practices. They reveal that a struggle for hearts and minds in Muslim lands started long before the Western media discovered madrasas, and that Islamic schools remain on its front line. Schooling Islam is the most comprehensive work available in any language on madrasas and Islamic education. "Hefner provides the reader with an excellent historical background which can help in appreciating the scale of the change now taking place in Islamic education, and their implications for public culture and politics. . . . This book is highly recommended for American and European media pundits and politicians to read and be honest with themselves and their constituents about the positive nature of mainstream madrasas throughout the Muslim world, and stop demonizing them, and the education they provide."---Mohammed M. Aman, Ph.D., Digest of Middle East Studies "This is a major contribution to the field. Over the past twenty years there has been growing public concern about Islamic education in general and Muslim madrasas in particular. The latter have come to be seen as nurturers of Islamic radicalism, indeed, as training centers for jihadi militants and terrorists. This book makes the enormously important point to those who would wish to essentialize Islam or madrasas that Islamic education is profoundly shaped by local contexts as Muslims seek the best possible ways to grasp, live, and communicate a Muslim life."-Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London "This book is outstanding in the breadth and maturity of scholarship it assembles on a subject of surpassing importance at once academically and in the wider world of public policy. The editors and contributors lay out a thought-provoking set of studies of educational practices, institutions, intellectual content, and debates about the past, present, and likely futures of Islamic education. The richness of these accounts should put paid to scholarly as well as political stereotyping of Islamic education-from the shibboleths of 'rote learning' to the association of madrasa with terrorism. This book is a must read for all scholars and researchers on Islam."-Jon W. Anderson, Catholic University of America

Muhammad Qasim Zaman is Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion at Princeton University. He is the author of Religion and Politics under the Early Abbasids and the editor, with Robert W. Hefner, of Schooling Islam: The Culture and Politics of Modern Muslim Education (Princeton). From the cleric-led Iranian revolution to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, many people have been surprised by what they see as the modern reemergence of an antimodern phenomenon. This book helps account for the increasingly visible public role of traditionally educated Muslim religious scholars (the `ulama) across contemporary Muslim societies. Muhammad Qasim Zaman describes the transformations the centuries-old culture and tradition of the `ulama have undergone in the modern era--transformations that underlie the new religious and political activism of these scholars. In doing so, it provides a new foundation for the comparative study of Islam, politics, and religious change in the contemporary world. While focusing primarily on Pakistan, Zaman takes a broad approach that considers the Taliban and the `ulama of Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, and the southern Philippines. He shows how their religious and political discourses have evolved in often unexpected but mutually reinforcing ways to redefine and enlarge the roles the `ulama play in society. Their discourses are informed by a longstanding religious tradition, of which they see themselves as the custodians. But these discourses are equally shaped by--and contribute in significant ways to--contemporary debates in the Muslim public sphere. This book offers the first sustained comparative perspective on the `ulama and their increasingly crucial religious and political activism. It shows how issues of religious authority are debated in contemporary Islam, how Islamic law and tradition are continuously negotiated in a rapidly changing world, and how the `ulama both react to and shape larger Islamic social trends. Introducing previously unexamined facets of religious and political thought in modern Islam, it clarifies the complex processes of religious change unfolding in the contemporary Muslim world and goes a long way toward explaining their vast social and political ramifications. "A detailed, carefully researched monographic study. . . . Among other things, it demonstrates that the received image of Muslim clerics . . . as passive, unworldly reactionaries bound to an atemporal, socially withdrawn Islam is thoroughly misconceived. In many places, by now perhaps most, they are seen as members of vanguard groups in the renovation of traditional Islamic society and belief."---Clifford Geertz, The New York Review of Books "Muhammad Qasim Zaman [writes] . . . with a magisterial command of both the internal discourses the ulama use among themselves and the dynamics of national and international developments. In addition, he builds his arguments with an extraordinarily rich mix of relevant examples, rarely seen and well referenced documentation, plus discerning support from other researchers, theorists, and commentators. . . . Zaman offers what amounts to a new working definition of the ulama that locates them not at the edge but at the center of discussions charting the course of Islam in the next century.""---Patrick Gaffney, American Historical Review "This book, a shining example of thorough and deliberate scholarship, forces us to re-evaluate commonly held misperceptions of the religious class and madrasa education more generally. . . . With this unique volume, Qasim Zaman has finally provided something long missing in the field of Islamic studies: a comprehensive analysis of contemporary ulama as dynamic interpreters and producers of religious knowledge--and an analysis of the absolutely highest quality at that."---Peter Mandaville, International Sociology "Muhammad Qasim Zaman's book de-stereotypes the ulama, especially the view that they are in

Robert W. Hefner is Professor of Anthropology at Boston University, where he directs the Program in Civic Culture at the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture. The author of The Political Economy of Mountain Java and Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam (Princeton), he is also editor of Democratic Civility: The Cross-Cultural Possibility of a Modern Political Ideal and Market Cultures: Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms. Civil Islam tells the story of Islam and democratization in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation. Challenging stereotypes of Islam as antagonistic to democracy, this study of courage and reformation in the face of state terror suggests possibilities for democracy in the Muslim world and beyond. Democratic in the early 1950s and with rich precedents for tolerance and civility, Indonesia succumbed to violence. In 1965, Muslim parties were drawn into the slaughter of half a million communists. In the aftermath of this bloodshed, a "New Order" regime came to power, suppressing democratic forces and instituting dictatorial controls that held for decades. Yet from this maelstrom of violence, repressed by the state and denounced by conservative Muslims, an Islamic democracy movement emerged, strengthened, and played a central role in the 1998 overthrow of the Soeharto regime. In 1999, Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid was elected President of a reformist, civilian government. In explaining how this achievement was possible, Robert Hefner emphasizes the importance of civil institutions and public civility, but argues that neither democracy nor civil society is possible without a civilized state. Against portrayals of Islam as inherently antipluralist and undemocratic, he shows that Indonesia's Islamic reform movement repudiated the goal of an Islamic state, mobilized religiously ecumenical support, promoted women's rights, and championed democratic ideals. This broadly interdisciplinary and timely work heightens our awareness of democracy's necessary pluralism, and places Indonesia at the center of our efforts to understand what makes democracy work. "Hefner describes brilliantly the Muslim's role in democratizing, if not civilizing, Indonesia. The work, long overdue, is significant. . . . [Hefner] clearly knows his way around Indonesia and is fully aware of what it means to be an Indonesian."---Dicky Sofjan, Studies in Contemporary Islam "Robert Hefner's important book, Civil Islam, is the most detailed study of Islam in the Suharto Period to appear to date. . . . Hefner writes with special sympathy on those influential currents in Indonesian Islam."---Martin Van Bruinessen, Times Literary Supplement "In this book, Robert W. Hefner . . . argues . . . that Islamic states and civil society are compatible, and he adduces considerable evidence from Indonesian political history . . . to make his case. He makes an important contribution to our knowledge of the dynamics of contemporary Islam in Indonesia."---Richard C. Martin, The Journal of Asian Studies "What is interesting about the text is that despite his training as an anthropologist, Hefner draws on different disciplines such as history, political science and sociology to provide this major contribution to the literature of Indonesia. Anyone interested in the nature of democracy, for instance, should read the brilliant conclusion . . . a powerful warning against civilizational intolerance in the modern world. The challenge of change and, specifically, democratic change within Indonesia and within an Islamic context provides larger meaning in a world so easily dominated by easy and simple assumptions. This text lucidly brings this point to life."---Kenneth Christie, International Affairs "A powerful and rich study of the micro-foundations of political democracy in Indonesian Islam; its institutions, its practices, its varied beliefs and tumultuous history. Hefner supplies the indispensable sub-structure for a real unde

Lara Deeb is a cultural anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut, An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible, but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity, and specifically an enchanted modernity, may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern, cosmopolitan, and pious. In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut, Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated, contested, and reformulated. Women take center stage in this process, a result of their visibility both within the community, and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived, debated, and shaped by "everyday Islamists," this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims. "Lara Deeb successfully argues that Islamism is not static or monolithic, and that Islam and modernity are entirely compatible."---Nancy E. Gallagher, Digest of Middle East Studies "Lara Deeb's expansive and eloquent ethnography focuses on the community of Lebanese Shi'i who identify with Hizbullah. It is an excellent analysis of the way that women, in particular, live and define a modern, 'authenticated' Islam in the neighborhoods of al-Dahiyya.... Both theoretically and ethnographically, Deeb offers nuanced and thorough analyses, all the while being attentive to overlapping, contradictory, and shifting viewpoints."---Anne Bennett, Middle East Journal "In a well-organized manner, Lara Deeb conveys a multiplicity of ideas that challenge the existing stereotypes of Hizbullah and the Lebanese Shi'i.... I would recommend this book for a variety of classes, ranging from undergrads to doctoral candidates, as well as for anyone interested in political and religious issues in Lebanon and the Middle East."---Bridget Blomfield, American Journal of Islamic Social Scientists "An American anthropologist of Lebanese descent and raised Christian, Lara Deeb . . . provides a novel interpretation of modern Shi'ism. Her book is written in an academically and scholarly fashion, yet her writing style is easy to understand. In a well-organized manner, she conveys a multiplicity of ideas that challenge the existing stereotypes of Hizbullah and the Lebanese Shi'i. Since she is not Shi'i, she does not express a religious agenda but instead wholeheartedly represents a group of people who have been widely misunderstood in the West. I would recommend this book for a variety of classes, ranging from undergrads to doctoral candidates, as well as for anyone interested in political and religious issues in Lebanon and the Middle East."---Bridget Blomfield, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences "Deeb provides insights into the complex understandings of the religious and the secular that inform individual and collective expressions of piety among Shia Muslims."---Amina Jamal, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies "A remarkable book that opens new vistas on Shi'I Islam and offers the reader a richly textured and insight-filled excursion into a contemporary Shi'I community. It will become the source on contemporary Shi'ism in Lebanon."-A. R. Norton, Boston University "Well-written, timely, original and extremely interesting. This book is at the cutting edge of scholarship on Muslim communities, particularly with respect to Shi'i Muslim women."-Nadje S. Al-Ali, University of Exeter

Michael Laffan is professor of history at Princeton University. He is the author of Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma Below the Winds. Indonesian Islam is often portrayed as being intrinsically moderate by virtue of the role that mystical Sufism played in shaping its traditions. According to Western observers--from Dutch colonial administrators and orientalist scholars to modern anthropologists such as the late Clifford Geertz--Indonesia's peaceful interpretation of Islam has been perpetually under threat from outside by more violent, intolerant Islamic traditions that were originally imposed by conquering Arab armies. The Makings of Indonesian Islam challenges this widely accepted narrative, offering a more balanced assessment of the intellectual and cultural history of the most populous Muslim nation on Earth. Michael Laffan traces how the popular image of Indonesian Islam was shaped by encounters between colonial Dutch scholars and reformist Islamic thinkers. He shows how Dutch religious preoccupations sometimes echoed Muslim concerns about the relationship between faith and the state, and how Dutch-Islamic discourse throughout the long centuries of European colonialism helped give rise to Indonesia's distinctive national and religious culture. The Makings of Indonesian Islam presents Islamic and colonial history as an integrated whole, revealing the ways our understanding of Indonesian Islam, both past and present, came to be. "This well-written, deeply erudite history by Princeton historian Laffan, a prominent scholar of Islam in Southeast Asia, explores the development of Islamic learning in the islands of what is now Indonesia as well as how the faith came to be understood and explained by Dutch scholars during the colonial period. As such, the book offers a compelling parallel history of Indonesia, setting up an engaging new narrative separate from the one most commonly presented, wherein the imposition of colonial rule and later emergence of nationalist consciousness follows a more secular path. . . . The analysis of this intellectual life, along with the thorough understanding of local religious authorities' deeply felt faith, offers a new vision of Indonesian lives under colonial rule." "With its meticulous scholarship and its wealth of insights into European and Indonesian Muslim understandings of Islam, however, there can be no doubt that this is a path-breaking study. It is a book that should be welcomed and read by all scholars of Islam and all specialists of Indonesia."---Robert W. Hefner, Indonesia "The Makings of Indonesian Islam is an impressive and important scholarly contribution that provides a wealth of information and critical perspectives to scholars and students alike. A glossary, index, and eleven figures (including maps and photographs) enrich the text and are helpful resources for the reader. As an ethnomusicologist with research interests in Javanese arts and culture, I very much look forward to using this book in my own research projects and rereading this book with students in advanced seminars."---Christina Sunardi, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences "This book offers an original reflection on the factors that have contributed to the faces of Islam in Indonesia today. It is fascinating, and brilliant in the lines of argument and interplay of themes that it develops, and despite the liveliness, at times playfulness of style, is dense and closely argued in its texture. . . . [T]his is a wonderful book."---Anthony H. Johns, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies "Lafffan's very rich account . . . [is] an original and richly detailed contribution to writing the history of an Indonesian Islam."---Carool Kersten, Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania "Laffan displays great erudition throughout the volume. . . . The overriding impression left with the reader is that Laffan is right on top of all the relevant literature as well

"Winner of the 2013 Hubert Morken Award for Best Book, Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" "Co-Winner of the 2013 Best Book Award in Migration and Citizenship, American Political Science Association" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2012" Jonathan Laurence is associate professor of political science at Boston College. The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, Jonathan Laurence challenges the widespread notion that Europe's Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democracy. He documents how European governments in the 1970s and 1980s excluded Islam from domestic institutions, instead inviting foreign powers like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Turkey to oversee the practice of Islam among immigrants in European host societies. But since the 1990s, amid rising integration problems and fears about terrorism, governments have aggressively stepped up efforts to reach out to their Muslim communities and incorporate them into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims places these efforts--particularly the government-led creation of Islamic councils--within a broader theoretical context and gleans insights from government interactions with groups such as trade unions and Jewish communities at previous critical junctures in European state-building. By examining how state-mosque relations in Europe are linked to the ongoing struggle for religious and political authority in the Muslim-majority world, Laurence sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority's transition from outsiders to citizens. This book offers a much-needed reassessment that foresees the continuing integration of Muslims into European civil society and politics in the coming decades. "The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims . . . looks at the largely unnoticed ways in which European governments have begun to integrate Muslims and Muslim organisations into public life. . . . Relying on extensive research and a wide range of interviews, Mr. Laurence has written an original and thought-provoking study." "[Laurence's] book is perhaps the subtlest and most solidly researched analysis of European policies toward Islam. . . . Laurence establishes firm ground for hope."---Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs "Laurence examines the transformation of the relations between Western European states and their Muslim populations. This ethnographically rich, well-documented book successfully reveals that European states (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK) have more similarities than differences in terms of their interactions with Muslims. . . . [The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims] is very informative; it includes several figures and tables about Muslim demography, organizations, and representation in Western Europe. By emphasizing the complexity of state-Islam relations in Europe, it goes beyond simplistic dichotomies and clichés, and provides a much-needed, broad perspective on this important subject." "Laurence's book is filled with thoughtful reflections and deep insights about one of the most fundamental political issues of our time and presents the result of a meticulous study of a long and complex political process, masterfully documented and made vivid with the help of a substantial body of evidence collected from a number of countries across Europe."---Reza Azarian, European Societies "Laurence's study is rigorously researched and a noteworthy contribution to the field."---Sanam Vakil, International-Spectator "The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims is a very impressive book. It is histo

Bruce K. Rutherford is associate professor of political science at Colgate University. Which way will Egypt go now that Husni Mubarak's authoritarian regime has been swept from power? Will it become an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran? Will it embrace Western-style liberalism and democracy? Egypt after Mubarak reveals that Egypt's secularists and Islamists may yet navigate a middle path that results in a uniquely Islamic form of liberalism and, perhaps, democracy. Bruce Rutherford draws on in-depth interviews with Egyptian judges, lawyers, Islamic activists, politicians, and businesspeople. He utilizes major court rulings, political documents of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the writings of Egypt's leading contemporary Islamic thinkers. Rutherford demonstrates that, in post-Mubarak Egypt, progress toward liberalism and democracy is likely to be slow. Essential reading on a subject of global importance, this edition includes a new introduction by Rutherford that takes stock of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood's victories in the 2011-2012 elections. "A fascinating and timely book. . . . [Rutherford] details the long and persistent struggle of the judiciary to carve out an independent role for itself, even under a military dictatorship."---Fareed Zakaria, Time "[Readers will] be rewarded by Rutherford's ambitious effort to explain how significant political actors, specifically, the Muslim Brotherhood, the judiciary, and the business sector, can work in parallel, if not exactly together, to influence the country's trajectory over time. This is a novel approach to analyzing Egyptian politics."---Steven A. Cook, Foreign Affairs "[Egypt after Mubarak] clearly offers both an insightful account of Egyptian politics and a potentially fruitful framework for future comparative research on political change in the Arab world."---Waleed Hazbun, Perspectives on Politics "Bruce Rutherford thoroughly analyzes the dynamics and personalities of Egyptian politics and the prospects for Egypt once its pro-Western president, Hosni Mubarak, passes on."---Sheldon Kirschner, Canadian Jewish News "The author has studied closely the Brotherhood's campaign documents, and the book is based on primary sources. No student of the region can afford to ignore it."---A. G. Noorani, Frontline "An important work, filled with valuable information and insight. Beyond the rich detail about Egypt, Rutherford's study deepens our understanding of how the characteristics of both an authoritarian and a democratic political order come together and persist in the hybrid regimes of the Arab world."-Mark Tessler, University of Michigan "Bruce Rutherford helps us make sense of the voices emerging in Egyptian politics and understand how they resonate. Neither denying Egyptian authoritarianism nor accepting its inevitability, Rutherford draws deeply on theoretical debates among scholars to elucidate politics in this vital-and surprisingly complicated-country."-Nathan J. Brown, author of The Rule of Law in the Arab World "Egypt after Mubarak offers a unique look at Egypt's most promising and most hopeful future. Rutherford argues that the major oppositional forces are converging on a platform of reform that will produce in Egypt a hybrid regime with liberal but circumscribed democratic characteristics. This book will have a serious and productive impact on the field."-Raymond W. Baker, Trinity College "This book provides a superb analysis of the domestic constituencies and agendas for political reform in Egypt, highlighting their distinctive features and their common ground. Rutherford accomplishes this with a high degree of analytic sophistication, and backs it with rich supporting evidence. This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of contemporary Egyptian politics and society by deftly identifying-and capturing the nuances of-the alternate political visions in Egypt."-Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, Emory University

"Winner of the 2014 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Prize in Middle Eastern Studies" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014" Lara Deeb is associate professor of anthropology at Scripps College and the author of An Enchanted Modern (Princeton). Mona Harb is associate professor of urban studies and politics at the American University of Beirut and the author of Le Hezbollah à Beyrouth. How the rise of leisure is changing contemporary Lebanon South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, Leisurely Islam provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? Lara Deeb and Mona Harb highlight tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The authors elucidate the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examine leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, Leisurely Islam offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today. "This outstanding ethnography of contemporary urban Middle Eastern life focuses on Hezbollah young adults, about whom people are generally misinformed, an effort of critical value to scholars of religion and politics as well as anthropologists. . . . The authors brilliantly illustrate the variety and complexity of moral choice, ethnic insularity, and worldliness with respect to other neighborhoods and populations." "Leisurely Islam provides an interesting study of an area many people know very little about. It will interest scholars and students alike. While the book speaks particularly to those working on Lebanon and the Middle East, it will also be relevant to researchers dealing with issues regarding youth, morality, space and diversity in general."---Marianne Holm Pedersen, Social Anthropology "Overall, Leisurely Islam [is] a powerful, important, and well-researched text, the significance of which extends far beyond the realm of leisure. I attribute a great deal of the book's success to its multidisciplinary approach. The book doesn't neatly fall within the discipline of either author but instead draws upon the expertise of both. Perhaps more importantly, the book nicely integrates multiple forms of data, from religious texts: ethnographic data (both detailed observations and interviews); and market research (on cafes in Dahiya, size, location, etc.): to urban spatial analysis and so on. Brought together in a masterful way, this cornucopia of data enables the authors to paint a richer picture of Dahiya than would have been possible using any one methodology or data source alone."---Jane Lief Abell, Allegra "Particularly well referenced, with an unprecedented amount of information, this book is an important tool for those interested in this region."---Erminia Chiara Calabrese, REMMM "Café culture has been an integral part of life in the Middle East for centuries, but Deeb and Harb present it as a lens through which to understand the shifting morality of the people of southern Lebanon. This is an important and fasc

"One of ForeignAffairs.com's Best International Relations Books in the Best Books on the Middle East category for 2012" Jenny White is professor of anthropology at Boston University. She is the author of Islamist Mobilization in Turkey and Money Makes Us Relatives: Women's Labor in Urban Turkey. Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring. In this book, Jenny White reveals how Turkish national identity and the meanings of Islam and secularism have undergone radical changes in today's Turkey, and asks whether the Turkish model should be viewed as a success story or a cautionary tale. This provocative book traces how Muslim nationalists blur the line between the secular and the Islamic, supporting globalization and political liberalism, yet remaining mired in authoritarianism, intolerance, and cultural norms hostile to minorities and women. In a new afterword, White analyzes the latest political developments, particularly the mass protests surrounding Gezi Park, their impact on Turkish political culture, and what they mean for the future. "[E]xcellent. . . . White makes a number of nuanced arguments, most significantly about the secularization of Turkish Islam and what she terms the sanctification of its secular sphere."---Kaya Genç, Los Angeles Review of Books "[P]iercing and original analysis." "[A]deeply insightful book. . . . [T]he writing is . . . clear and straightforward, and the book is chock-full of rich tidbits from Turkish society. . . . Filled with insight, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks is sure to become a leading text for those looking to read the Turkish tea leaves."---David Lepeska, The National "Even for those already familiar with contemporary Turkey, this sometimes disturbing book will be an eye opener"---.John Waterbury, Foreign Affairs "This anthropological work is grounded in a deep knowledge of Turkey, nourished by White's successive long stays and periods of fieldwork in the country; yet it is also a judicious compilation of key secondary sources."---Clémence Scalbert-Yucel, Times Higher Education "Jenny White has provided readers with insightful and nuanced access to the complexities of Turkish society and a first look at a newly emerging class of individualist Muslim nationalists."---Zeynep Kosereisoglu, Muftah "[T]his is a good book worth reading by those concerned with Turkey and broader issues of democratic transitions in the Muslim world." "In this multilayered, theoretically sophisticated, and analytically rich examination of the contradictions and convergences found in contemporary expressions of 'Turkishness,' especially with respect to Muslim and secular forms of nationalisms, White offers an interpretation that reinforces Barth's emphasis on pluralism, choice, and negotiation, while also demonstrating greater understanding and synthesis of the constraints of gender, class, ethnicity, and religion." "It's a reviewer's job both to critique the book at hand and to detail and summarize its most salient points. It's a tribute to Boston University anthropologist Jenny White's excellent Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks that it makes the latter extremely difficult to do, simply by doing justice to the enormous complexity of Turkish society."---William Armstrong, Hurriyet Daily News "I would definitely recommend it to both Western scholars and Turks themselves. White's book is an extensive analysis of the Turkish nationality issue. In my opinion it is original that White also researched the female image of 'belonging to the Turkish nation', this is a view one seldom encounters. Inter alia therefore Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks is a valuable addition to other books already written on the subject of Turkish nationality."---Anouk Willemsen, International Review of Turkish Studies "As a student of Turkiye for more

Diane Singerman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, School of Public Affairs, at The American University. Intentionally excluded from formal politics in authoritarian states by reigning elites, do the common people have concrete ways of achieving community objectives? Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book demonstrates that they do. Focusing on the political life of the sha'b (or popular classes) in Cairo, Diane Singerman shows how men and women develop creative and effective strategies to accomplish shared goals, despite the dominant forces ranged against them. Starting at the household level in one densely populated neighborhood of Cairo, Singerman examines communal patterns of allocation, distribution, and decision-making. Combining the institutional focus of political science with the sensitivities of anthropology, she uncovers a system of informal networks, supported by an informal economy, that constitutes another layer of collective institutions within Egypt and allows excluded groups to pursue their interests. Avenues of Participation traces this informal system from its grounding in the family to its influence on the larger polity. Discussing the role of these networks in meeting fundamental needs in the community--such as earning a living, reproducing the family, saving and investing money, and coping with the bureaucracy--Singerman demonstrates the surprising power these "excluded" people wield. While the government has reduced politics to the realm of distribution to protect itself from challenges, she argues that the popular classes in Cairo, as consumers of goods and services, have turned exploiting the government into a fine art. "Political anthropology of a high order. Singerman shows how family ties empower people....Her picture of women black marketeers is especially revealing. As a social scientist, she is determined to challenge the stereotype of the passive urban poor, and she makes a largely successful case for seeing politics in other than elite terms." "[An] outstanding piece of scholarship that forces us to rethink and broaden our understanding of political participation to better appreciate the alternative institutions that marginalized communities create in order to satisfy their political and economic needs. . . . [Singerman's] vivid account is one of only a handful of studies that provide a detailed picture of the daily political and economic experiences of lower-class communities in the Middle East."---Guilain Denoeux, American Journal of Sociology "Singerman's work cuts across a variety of disciplines--comparative political science, anthropology and sociology, women's studies, and economics--and all are handled deftly. . . . She is a superb writer and has produced an enjoyable, informative, and challenging piece of scholarship."---Denis J. Sullivan, Middle East Journal

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Books of 1996" Tone Bringa has a permanent lectureship in Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen, Norway. "I have been able to follow a Bosnian community over a period of six years, during which it has undergone dramatic changes. In the late 1980s people were working hard against economic crisis. In 1990 they were full of optimism for the future. In January 1993 the village was in fear, surrounded by war on all sides. In April 1993 it was attacked by Croat forces. In October 1993 none of the Muslims in the village remained. They had either fled, been placed in detention camps, or been killed." Thus begins Tone Bringa's moving ethnographic account of Bosnian Muslims' lives in a rural village located near Sarajevo. Although they represent a majority of the population in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Muslims are still members of a minority culture in the region that was once Yugoslavia. The question of ethno- national identity has become paramount in this society, and the author focuses on religion as the defining characteristic of identity. Bringa pays particular attention to the roles that women play in defining Muslim identities, and she examines the importance of the household as a Muslim identity sphere. In so doing, she illuminates larger issues of what constitutes "nationality." This is a gripping and heartfelt account of a community that has been torn apart by ethno-political conflict. It will attract readers of all backgrounds who want to learn more about one of the most intractable wars of the late twentieth century and the people who have been so tragically affected. "At long last, there is a book which captures both the quiddity of Bosnian village life and the peculiar nature of Muslimhood in that part of Europe. . . . [A] lucid and marvelously informative book."

Esra Özyürek is an associate professor at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. She is the author of Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey. Every year more and more Europeans, including Germans, are embracing Islam. It is estimated that there are now up to one hundred thousand German converts-a number similar to that in France and the United Kingdom. What stands out about recent conversions is that they take place at a time when Islam is increasingly seen as contrary to European values. Being German, Becoming Muslim explores how Germans come to Islam within this antagonistic climate, how they manage to balance their love for Islam with their society's fear of it, how they relate to immigrant Muslims, and how they shape debates about race, religion, and belonging in today's Europe. Esra Özyürek looks at how mainstream society marginalizes converts and questions their national loyalties. In turn, converts try to disassociate themselves from migrants of Muslim-majority countries and promote a denationalized Islam untainted by Turkish or Arab traditions. Some German Muslims believe that once cleansed of these accretions, the Islam that surfaces fits in well with German values and lifestyle. Others even argue that being a German Muslim is wholly compatible with the older values of the German Enlightenment. Being German, Becoming Muslim provides a fresh window into the connections and tensions stemming from a growing religious phenomenon in Germany and beyond. "The result of her research is a fascinating exploration of the dynamics of Islam in contemporary Germany, seen through the prism of its capital, Berlin. Her account provides a multifaceted profile of the many faces of Islam in one Western European country, and it offers readers a good sense of the diversity of contemporary Sunni Muslims in Germany. . . . [A]n excellent study."---Ursula King, Times Higher Education "This book provides a judicious and well thought-through consideration of such contradictions and challenges in the lives of German Muslims and offers a fascinating discussion on blurring boundaries between Germans and Muslim, and the changing realities of European identity."---Dr. Digdem Soyaltin, Turkish Review "This book is remarkable."---Ruth Mandel, History and Anthropology "Özyürek's Being German, Becoming Muslim makes a welcome and distinctive contribution to--as the subtitle sums up--the study of Race, religion and conversion in the New Europe."---Nasar Meer, History and Anthropology "An engaging, poignant study of how the different paths taken by converts converge in life-long, collective practices of self-pedagogy that involve learning how to negotiate German secular-Christian social norms and institutions."---Paul A. Silverstein, History and Anthropology "A powerful work about the politics of inclusion and exclusion, security and threat, and recognition and fairness."---Joel Robbins, History and Anthropology "A groundbreaking book that sheds much light on the lives of German converts to Islam, their ways of becoming Muslims and being German in the aftermath of conversion, their ambivalent relationships with immigrant Muslims, their strategies and struggles with respect to broadening a space of Islam, and even making it a German religion, and finally their curious relationship with the Salafis in Germany."---Erdem Dikici, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations "An excellent book and fills a very important gap in research on con- version to Islam in Europe. It will be of interest not only to academics and students in a diverse range of subject areas such as Islamic Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, but also to the wider public interested in Islam and the role of converts in shaping Islam in Europe."---Yafa Shanneik, Journal of Muslims in Europe "Through thoughtful portraits, Özyürek explores the dilemmas faced by converts to Islam in Germany, where new Muslims are seeking nonethnic

"Winner of a Washington Post Abu Aardvark 2015 Middle East Book Award" "Winner of the 2017 Hubert Morken Award for Best Book, Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" "Co-Winner of the 2016 Book Award, Religion and International Relations Section, International Studies Association" Avi Max Spiegel is associate professor of political science and international relations at the University of San Diego. How the competition for young recruits is creating rivalries among Islamists today Today, two-thirds of all Arab Muslims are under the age of thirty. Young Islam takes readers inside the evolving competition for their support-a competition not simply between Islamism and the secular world, but between different and often conflicting visions of Islam itself. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research among rank-and-file activists in Morocco, Avi Spiegel shows how Islamist movements are encountering opposition from an unexpected source-each other. In vivid and compelling detail, he describes the conflicts that arise as Islamist groups vie with one another for new recruits, and the unprecedented fragmentation that occurs as members wrangle over a shared urbanized base. Looking carefully at how political Islam is lived, expressed, and understood by young people, Spiegel moves beyond the top-down focus of current research. Instead, he makes the compelling case that Islamist actors are shaped more by their relationships to each other than by their relationships to the state or even to religious ideology. By focusing not only on the texts of aging elites but also on the voices of diverse and sophisticated Muslim youths, Spiegel exposes the shifting and contested nature of Islamist movements today-movements that are being reimagined from the bottom up by young Islam. The first book to shed light on this new and uncharted era of Islamist pluralism in the Middle East and North Africa, Young Islam uncovers the rivalries that are redefining the next generation of political Islam. "This book offers a fascinating look at the competition between different Islamist groups in Morocco. Spiegel presents a rich political narrative, but also a nicely textured look at the lived experience of Islamist political participation by young Moroccans." "Spiegel is that rare creature, an academic who presents serious fieldwork in a totally accessible form. This book is therefore not only a valuable contribution to understanding Moroccan youth today but has relevance to the entire Islamic world."---Jonathan Fryer, Interlib "[E]legantly written. . . . Instead of simplistic dichotomies between secularism and its Islamist critics, readers discover a range of perspectives. The author is conversant with sophisticated scholarly debates, but the book is nonetheless engaging and readable." "Spiegel breaks new ground in the study of Islamic political parties by moving beyond the framework of opposition-state dynamics that focus on either repression or inclusion/exclusion dynamics of Islamic political participation. Instead, he focuses upon the interrelationship, competition, and coevolution of Islamic parties and movements with one another and the ramifications these processes hold for Islamic activism and the future of political Islam. . . . A unique contribution to the field and to the study of Islamic political movements within an ever increasingly complex environment."---Payam Mohseni, Journal of Church and State "An impressive ethnographic account which breaks successfully with simplified binary perceptions of Islamism. For all scholars interested in Islamist organizations and Arab demography, the author delivers a well-informed micro-analysis of contemporary Islamism in North Africa and opens a usually locked door into the real life of young Islamists."---Tanja Eschenauer, Democratization "Written in an engaging style."---Lawrence Rosen, Bustan: The Middle East Book Review "Finally, an examination of Islamism that e

"Runner-Up for the 2016 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies" Nadav Samin is visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College. Why do tribal genealogies matter in modern-day Saudi Arabia? What compels the strivers and climbers of the new Saudi Arabia to want to prove their authentic descent from one or another prestigious Arabian tribe? Of Sand or Soil looks at how genealogy and tribal belonging have informed the lives of past and present inhabitants of Saudi Arabia and how the Saudi government's tacit glorification of tribal origins has shaped the powerful development of the kingdom's genealogical culture. Nadav Samin presents the first extended biographical exploration of the major twentieth-century Saudi scholar Ḥamad al-Jāsir, whose genealogical studies frame the story about belonging and identity in the modern kingdom. Samin examines the interplay between al-Jāsir's genealogical project and his many hundreds of petitioners, mostly Saudis of nontribal or lower status origin who sought validation of their tribal roots in his genealogical texts. Investigating the Saudi relationship to this opaque, orally inscribed historical tradition, Samin considers the consequences of modern Saudi genealogical politics and how the most intimate anxieties of nontribal Saudis today are amplified by the governing strategies and kinship ideology of the Saudi state. Challenging the impression that Saudi culture is determined by puritanical religiosity or rentier economic principles, Of Sand or Soil shows how the exploration and establishment of tribal genealogies have become influential phenomena in contemporary Saudi society. Beyond Saudi Arabia, this book casts important new light on the interplay between kinship ideas, oral narrative, and state formation in rapidly changing societies. "Of Sand or Soil is a pertinent, rich, and beautifully written book about Saudi Arabian identity politics. Samin offers anthropologists, historians, political scientists, and others the tools to analyze a contemporary Saudi debate in the field of genealogy and belonging. His book is, by all standards, a groundbreaking piece of academic research."---Marieke Brandt, American Ethnologist "Samin has produced one of the best monographs on Saudi culture and society and their relationship with the state."---Jörg Matthias Determann, Comparative Islamic Studies "An outstanding addition to the literature of modern Saudi Arabia that also serves to put the whole contemporary analysis of retribalization into a much broader context. Samin successfully demonstrates that despite religious, political, and economic forces that diminished tribal institutions, cross-pressures countered those trends, and in the process a culture of genealogy combined with a bureaucratic genealogical rule of governance to lead Saudis to assert tribal descent . . . and so establish their ancient roots in the Arabian Peninsula."---Calvin H. Allen, Jr., PhD, Middle East Media & Book Reviews "Of Sand or Soil is guaranteed to set one thinking. . . . [I]t is a measure of the book's worth that it suggests several lines of inquiry. [Samin] is to be congratulated . . . on a very well-written book, [and] . . . to be commended for productive fieldwork [in Saudi Arabia] requiring moral stamina."---P. Dresch, American Historical Review "The detailed historical and archival work and the deep ethnographic research shine throughout the book. . . . Of Sand or Soil is a welcome contribution to scholarship on Saudi Arabia, one that challenges the arguments of some of the most recent works in the field."---R. Bsheer, Arab Studies Journal "Samin's book . . . forces us to see Saudi society with new eyes. It shatters many stereotypes abundant among people in the west and the Arab world about the kingdom and leads us to reconsider outdated anthropological myths. . . . An indispensible tool for better understanding Saudi Arabia."---S. Maisel, SOAS Bulletin

"Honorable Mention for the 2019 Laura Shannon Prize in Contemporary European Studies, Nanovic Institute, University of Notre Dame" John R. Bowen is the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. His books include A New Anthropology of Islam and Blaming Islam. On British Islam examines the history and everyday workings of Islamic institutions in Britain, with a focus on shariʿa councils. These councils concern themselves with religious matters, especially divorce. They have a higher profile in Britain than in other Western nations. Why? Taking a historical and ethnographic look at British Islam, John Bowen examines how Muslims have created distinctive religious institutions in Britain and how shariʿa councils interpret and apply Islamic law in a secular British context. Bowen focuses on three specific shariʿa councils: the oldest and most developed, in London; a Midlands community led by a Sufi saint and barrister; and a Birmingham-based council in which women play a leading role. Bowen shows that each of these councils represents a prolonged, unique experiment in meeting Muslims' needs in a Western country. He also discusses how the councils have become a flash point in British public debates even as they adapt to the English legal environment. On British Islam highlights British Muslims' efforts to create institutions that make sense in both Islamic and British terms. This balancing act is rarely acknowledged in Britain-or elsewhere-but it is urgent that we understand it if we are to build new ways of living together. "Bowen has produced yet another valuable study. . . . [On British Islam] helps combat distorted generalizations about Islam and Muslims." "A very valuable resource for readers interested in the workings of Shari'a councils."---Silke Elrifai, Esq., International Journal of Constitutional Law "This is a marvelously crafted ethnography. Bowen makes excellent use of interviews and observation, and skillfully knits together a variety of separate specialties in Islamic jurisprudence, British colonial history, and immigration in contemporary Europe."---Hakan Erdagoz, Sociology of Islam "On British Islam is the latest installment in Bowen's ambitious comparative ethnographic project. In many respects, it is also the most impressive. Above all, On British Islam is a rich depiction of the deliberations of several British Shari'a councils. . . . The four chapters that constitute 'Practices' are an ethnographic tour de force, an exemplary study in legal anthropology, the anthropology of Islam and the 'anthropology of public reasoning' in general."---Jeremy Walton, Islamic Law & Society "This is a very well-researched book that accurately tries to portray the everyday life of Muslims and the problems they encounter. It is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the study of Muslims living in the West."---Abdur Rashid Saddiqui, The Muslim World Book Review "[This book cements] Bowen's reputation as distinguished expert on Islam and anthropology. . . . Bowen . . . [shows] how religious law is socially constructed and how it is less fixed than popular assumptions suggest. This not only has the potential to transform the academic and popular debate allying concerns but also underscores the possibility of social, political, and legal change."---Russell Sandberg, Journal of Law and Society "In On British Islam, John Bowen's careful work, informed by anthropological insight and a comparative perspective, puts paid to oversimple stories of a clash of civilizations. Bowen shows that attempts by British Muslims to reach convergence with the wider society have varied, and often successful, results, and how these have been influenced by cultural characteristics unique to Britain versus other European nations. This is essential reading for anyone interested in issues of social integration."-Charles Taylor, McGill University "Understanding how Muslims can be accom

Gilles Kepel is professor of political science at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His books include Beyond Terror and Martyrdom: The Future of the Middle East, The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, and Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. The virulent new brand of Islamic extremism threatening the West In November 2015, ISIS terrorists massacred scores of people in Paris with coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, cafés and restaurants, and the national sports stadium. On Bastille Day in 2016, an ISIS sympathizer drove a truck into crowds of vacationers at the beaches of Nice, and two weeks later an elderly French priest was murdered during morning Mass by two ISIS militants. Here is Gilles Kepel's explosive account of the radicalization of a segment of Muslim youth that led to those attacks-and of the failure of governments in France and across Europe to address it. It is a book everyone in the West must read. Terror in France shows how these atrocities represent a paroxysm of violence that has long been building. The turning point was in 2005, when the worst riots in modern French history erupted in the poor, largely Muslim suburbs of Paris after the accidental deaths of two boys who had been running from the police. The unrest-or "French intifada"-crystallized a new consciousness among young French Muslims. Some have fallen prey to the allure of "war of civilizations" rhetoric in ways never imagined by their parents and grandparents. This is the highly anticipated English edition of Kepel's sensational French bestseller, first published shortly after the Paris attacks. Now fully updated to reflect the latest developments and featuring a new introduction by the author, Terror in France reveals the truth about a virulent new wave of jihadism that has Europe as its main target. Its aim is to divide European societies from within by instilling fear, provoking backlash, and achieving the ISIS dream-shared by Europe's Far Right-of separating Europe's growing Muslim minority community from the rest of its citizens. "A surprisingly lively account of where France is at." "Mr Kepel has long been at the forefront of scholarship of Islamist radicalism. . . . His work bears studying." "No other book portrays in such granular detail the evolution of Islamist terror in [France], and the implications that that evolution has for the rest of the world, including and especially the United States."---Christopher Dickey, Daily Beast "Kepel deftly orients the reader in the complex history of European jihad."---Lauren Sarazen, Los Angeles Review of Books "Kepel offers the most cogent, nuanced, and complete portrait of the French context to date. He outlines the social fractures that have left swaths of alienated youth vulnerable to the call of holy war; he traces the rise of its latest iteration, driven by a horizontal organizing model and an obsession with accelerating ethno-religious divides in the West; and, finally, he unpacks the roots of specific terrorist networks in France, each of them increasingly nourished by war in Syria. This is vital work. At a time when most public considerations of terrorism are colored by nefarious political ambitions--Trump, Putin, Erdogan, and many others are to thank for that--sensitive and good-faith analyses like Terror in France are all the more valuable."---Cole Stangler, Commonweal "Kepel's research is admirable, and the details he provides about particular terrorists and their trajectories are extremely interesting and useful, not least in respect of the French-Muslim milieus that spawned them."---Mahir Ali, Dawn "Authoritative. . . . Gilles Kepel has contributed a well-written and balanced study of the subject. Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West deserves to be read by anyone who wants a better grasp of what is really going on."---Christine Graf, interLib "Brilliant."---James Kirchick, Commentary "An excellent addition to the body of knowledge

"Winner of the EuroSEAS Social Science Book Prize, European Association for Southeast Asian Studies" David Kloos is a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden. How do ordinary Muslims deal with and influence the increasingly pervasive Islamic norms set by institutions of the state and religion? Becoming Better Muslims offers an innovative account of the dynamic interactions between individual Muslims, religious authorities, and the state in Aceh, Indonesia. Relying on extensive historical and ethnographic research, David Kloos offers a detailed analysis of religious life in Aceh and an investigation into today's personal processes of ethical formation. Aceh is known for its history of rebellion and its recent implementation of Islamic law. Debunking the stereotypical image of the Acehnese as inherently pious or fanatical, Kloos shows how Acehnese Muslims reflect consciously on their faith and often frame their religious lives in terms of gradual ethical improvement. Revealing that most Muslims view their lives through the prism of uncertainty, doubt, and imperfection, he argues that these senses of failure contribute strongly to how individuals try to become better Muslims. He also demonstrates that while religious authorities have encroached on believers and local communities, constraining them in their beliefs and practices, the same process has enabled ordinary Muslims to reflect on moral choices and dilemmas, and to shape the ways religious norms are enforced. Arguing that Islamic norms are carried out through daily negotiations and contestations rather than blind conformity, Becoming Better Muslims examines how ordinary people develop and exercise their religious agency. "Becoming Better Muslims is an important contribution to the study of state-Islam relations in Indonesia and beyond. It is beautifully written and therefore provides easy access to a complex topic."---Michael Buehler, Politics, Religion & Ideology "Kloos' and Hew's beautifully written ethnographies present different faces of Indonesian Islam that are equally complex, contrasting and plural in their own ways."---Charlotte Setijadi, Contemporary Southeast Asia "Becoming Better Muslims provides an engaging, sophisticated, and meticulously documented account of the ways ordinary Muslims negotiate the complex entanglements of religious authority, ethical self-fashioning, and moral uncertainty in a precarious world. David Kloos's clear, crisp prose and carefully crafted arguments make significant contributions to current debates on subjectivity, ambivalence, everyday religiosity, and lived Islam. Scholars in a number of different disciplines will greatly appreciate this important book."-Michael G. Peletz, Emory University "In this rich ethnography, David Kloos argues for ways of taking 'inner' dimensions of Islam seriously, in which the contingencies of everyday living are set in dynamic relation to, rather than as a foil for, long-term projects of religious engagement. These insights speak well beyond the specific context of Aceh to make important contributions to the academic study of Islam, and to current debates in the anthropology of ethics."-R. Michael Feener, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies "Becoming Better Muslims is unique in being at once theoretically informed, with its own clear argument to make, and ethnographically superior to many of the anthropological works available on Islam and ethics. Polished and compelling, it will be widely read."-Joel Robbins, University of Cambridge "Providing an eminently well-balanced historical introduction to Islam and society in Aceh, this comprehensively researched book examines the question of how ordinary Muslims respond to the pervasive efforts of the state and religious establishment to promote more standardized varieties of Islam. Offering a deeply important and novel perspective, Becoming Better Muslims is a major achievem

"A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year" Muhammad QasimZaman is the Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion at Princeton University. His books include The Ulamain Contemporary Islam (Princeton) and Modern Islamic Thought in a Radical Age. The first book to explore the modern history of Islam in South Asia The first modern state to be founded in the name of Islam, Pakistan was the largest Muslim country in the world at the time of its establishment in 1947. Today it is the second-most populous, after Indonesia. Islam in Pakistan is the first comprehensive book to explore Islam's evolution in this region over the past century and a half, from the British colonial era to the present day. Muhammad Qasim Zaman presents a rich historical account of this major Muslim nation, insights into the rise and gradual decline of Islamic modernist thought in the South Asian region, and an understanding of how Islam has fared in the contemporary world. Much attention has been given to Pakistan's role in sustaining the Afghan struggle against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, in the growth of the Taliban in the 1990s, and in the War on Terror after 9/11. But as Zaman shows, the nation's significance in matters relating to Islam has much deeper roots. Since the late nineteenth century, South Asia has witnessed important initiatives toward rethinking core Islamic texts and traditions in the interest of their compatibility with the imperatives of modern life. Traditionalist scholars and their institutions, too, have had a prominent presence in the region, as have Islamism and Sufism. Pakistan did not merely inherit these and other aspects of Islam. Rather, it has been and remains a site of intense contestation over Islam's public place, meaning, and interpretation. Examining how facets of Islam have been pivotal in Pakistani history, Islam in Pakistan offers sweeping perspectives on what constitutes an Islamic state. "Zaman's excellent study will remain indispensable to any student who seeks to understand Islam in Pakistan, while the methodologies, themes, and archives to which it does not attend invite scholars to build on this insightful monograph."---Ali Altaf Mian, Reading Religion "Thematically organized, deeply detailed, urgently relevant history of leading figures, groups and movements. . . . No other book offers a guide to ways in which the meaning and significance of Islam have been understood by proponents in South Asia. Essential."---G.R. Thursby, Choice Reviews "This book presents an unprecedented study of the sometimes violent debates about Islam in Pakistan. Zaman is refreshingly original in showing how such debates continue being shaped by modernist thinking, even among its enemies and while modernism's liberal spokesmen have themselves been increasingly marginalized in Pakistani society."-Faisal Devji, University of Oxford "Surveying moral, intellectual, and legal debates between clerics, Sufis, politicians, and terrorists, Zaman's peerlessly comprehensive book grapples with such contested issues as the retraction of Islamic modernism and the consequences of Islamist violence. Via archives and texts in Arabic and Urdu, this work of courageous and meticulous scholarship lays bare Pakistan's competing conceptions of Islam."-Nile Green, author of Terrains of Exchange: Religious Economies of Global Islam "The strength of this book lies in its broad and deep engagement with a wide variety of interpreters of Islamic thought in Pakistan, tracking the contours of the debates and arguments among them. A tour de force."-David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University "Islam in Pakistan is an excellent book that explores the distinctive features of the religious ideas and practices, legislation, and policy reforms in the modern state carved out of colonial India."-Ebrahim Moosa, University of Notre Dame

Augustus Richard Norton is professor of international relations and anthropology at Boston University and a fellow of the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies. A former U.S. Army officer and West Point professor, he has conducted research in Lebanon for more than three decades. With Hezbollah's entry into the Lebanese government in 2009 and forceful intervention in the Syrian civil war, the potent Shi'i political and military organization continues to play an enormous role in the Middle East. A hybrid of militia, political party, and social services and public works provider, the group is the most powerful player in Lebanon. Policymakers in the United States and Israel usually denounce Hezbollah as a dangerous terrorist organization and refuse to engage with it, yet even its adversaries need to contend with its durability and resilient popular support. Augustus Richard Norton's incisive account stands as the most lucid, informed, and balanced analysis of Hezbollah yet written--and this fully revised and updated edition features a new prologue and conclusion, as well as two new chapters largely devoted to the group's recent activities, including its involvement in Syria. Hezbollah is a work of perennial importance and remains essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East. "In this remarkably thorough, articulate portrait of Hezbollah, Norton . . . analyzes how the organization was formed, how it evolved and its current role in Lebanese politics." "Augustus Richard Norton's timely Hezbollah chronicles [a] dramatic evolution and its sweeping implications for the region and beyond. His lucid primer is the first serious reappraisal of the radical Shiite group since [the 2006] war shattered six years of relative calm on one of the world's most volatile frontiers."---Jonathan Finer, Washington Post Book World "Norton, who has been studying Lebanon, and especially the Lebanese Shiites, for longer than Hezbollah has been in existence . . . offers here a brisk and balanced history . . . of Hezbollah while situating the party in the larger Lebanese and regional contexts."---L. Carl Brown, Foreign Affairs "The best recent study of Hezbollah."---Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek "Augustus Richard Norton, an American academic and former U.S. army officer, has studied that Islamic fundamentalist organization since its formation. And now, in Hezbollah . . . he offers a cogent analysis of its emergence and impact on Lebanese politics."---Sheldon Kirsher, Canadian Jewish News "A clear, concise history of Hezbollah with specific reference to its relevant sociopolitical context. Piquant anecdotes and richly textured details make the book enjoyable reading."---Kristian P. Alexander, Middle East Policy Council "This short, authoritative book, based on first-hand experience, efficiently analyses [Hezbollah's] status."---Iain Finlayson, The Times "This excellent short history of Hezbollah . . . demonstrates that dismissing it as a 'terrorist organization' is both glib and dishonest. . . . . Everyone who wants to understand the complexities of the Middle East, and particularly those of Lebanon and Israel, and wants to reach the truth beyond the political rhetoric, should read this book."---Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald "How do you classify and develop policy toward an organization that has committed acts of terrorism in the past, that currently provides important social services . . . that defends its country from occupation . . . that plays by the rules in official Lebanese national politics? . . . Norton elucidates these domestic and international complexities in Hezbollah: A Short History. . . With other similarly complex organizations on the rise, such as Hamas in Palestine, Norton provides a model of how we might begin to think through their multidimensional, seemingly contradictory natures."---Allen McDuffee, In These Times "In his new book Hezbollah, Augustus Richard Norton . . . provides a succinct account of the grou

Walter Armbrust is the Albert Hourani Fellow and associate professor in modern Middle Eastern studies at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt. An important look at the hopeful rise and tragic defeat of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 began with immense hope, but was defeated in two and a half years, ushering in the most brutal and corrupt regime in modern Egyptian history. How was the passage from utmost euphoria into abject despair experienced, not only by those committed to revolutionary change, but also by people indifferent or even hostile to the revolution? In Martyrs and Tricksters, anthropologist and Cairo resident Walter Armbrust explores the revolution through the lens of liminality-initially a communal fellowship, where everything seemed possible, transformed into a devastating limbo with no exit. To make sense of events, Armbrust looks at the martyrs, trickster media personalities, public spaces, contested narratives, historical allusions, and factional struggles during this chaotic time. Armbrust shows that while martyrs became the primary symbols of mobilization, no one took seriously enough the emergence of political tricksters. Tricksters appeared in media-not the vaunted social media of a "Facebook revolution" but television-and they paved the way for the rise of Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi. In the end Egypt became a global political vanguard, but not in the way the revolutionaries intended. What initially appeared as the gateway to an age of revolution has transformed the world over into the age of the trickster. Delving into how Egyptians moved from unprecedented exhilaration to confusion and massacre, Martyrs and Tricksters is a powerful cultural biography of a tragic revolution. "In Martyrs and Tricksters, Armbrust examines the public surfaces of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, linking them to deeper political, economic, and social structures operating on local, regional, and global scales. This ambitious and well-researched book demonstrates once again the author's deep fluency in Egyptian popular culture and history."-Gregory Starrett, University of North Carolina, Charlotte "Martyrs and Tricksters offers an original, compelling framework for comprehending the 2011 uprisings in Egypt and their aftermath. With encyclopedic knowledge of Egyptian popular culture and sophisticated mass media analysis, Armbrust shows how these liminal figures embody the tensions of political change. This book is crucial reading for anyone seeking to understand the downfall of Mubarak and the resurgence of authoritarianism in Egypt, and the role of liminality in revolutions more generally."-Jessica Winegar, Northwestern University

Ismail Fajrie Alatas is assistant professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University. Twitter and Instagram @ifalatas An anthropologist's groundbreaking account of how Islamic religious authority is assembled through the unceasing labor of community building on the island of Java This compelling book draws on Ismail Fajrie Alatas's unique insights as an anthropologist to provide a new understanding of Islamic religious authority, showing how religious leaders unite diverse aspects of life and contest differing Muslim perspectives to create distinctly Muslim communities. Taking readers from the eighteenth century to today, Alatas traces the movements of Muslim saints and scholars from Yemen to Indonesia and looks at how they traversed complex cultural settings while opening new channels for the transmission of Islamic teachings. He describes the rise to prominence of Indonesia's leading Sufi master, Habib Luthfi, and his rivalries with competing religious leaders, revealing why some Muslim voices become authoritative while others don't. Alatas examines how Habib Luthfi has used the infrastructures of the Sufi order and the Indonesian state to build a durable religious community, while deploying genealogy and hagiography to present himself as a successor of the Prophet Muḥammad. Challenging prevailing conceptions of what it means to be Muslim, What Is Religious Authority? demonstrates how the concrete and sustained labors of translation, mobilization, collaboration, and competition are the very dynamics that give Islam its power and diversity. "Through this highly original study of such articulatory labours in Java, Alatas has written one of the most important books on Islam in Indonesia in years, and crafted a work that deserves to become a central reference for all scholars of Islam and Islamic authority."---Robert W. Hefner, Journal of Islamic Studies "Successfully argues that what is known as "Islam the universal religion" does not reside in the consistency of its teachings. However, one aspect of Islam that is universal is the work of congregational building."---Hasan Mustapa, International Journal of Asian Studies "Provides rich insights for readers who wish to gain a better understanding of comparative Islamic authority. The author's success in blending historical, anthropological and political analyses together makes this book a worthwhile read and a useful source of reference for scholars interested in Islam in Indonesia." "A groundbreaking contribution. . . . The book will certainly find its ways to become an important reference in the historical and anthropological study of Islam and religious authority in Indonesia from the premodern to the present times."---Wahyuddin Halim, Religion and Social Communication "A theoretical contribution that presents not only a refined understanding of Islamic authority but also the universality of Islam as a 'concrete universality.'"---Zacky Khairul Umam, International Quarterly for Asian Studies "An extraordinary accomplishment. Alatas possesses a singular vision, informed by the historian's deep sense of the past and the ethnographer's nuanced insight into the present. He has accomplished a rare feat, doing justice to both the universal claims of prophecy and the thoroughly human struggle to realize them."-Webb Keane, author of Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories "A pleasure to read. Alatas places Java in a web of relations that connects the Islamized Indian Ocean, bringing Java to the forefront while telling a much broader history."-Chiara Formichi, author of Islam and Asia: A History "This pathbreaking book develops a unique analytical approach to understanding the ongoing processes through which Muslim communities are established by authoritative persons acting within broader political and cultural contexts. What Is Religious Authority? is destined to become a classic."-Magnus Marsden, author of Trading Worlds: Af

"One of Foreign Affairs' Best Books on the Middle East (Lebanon) 2016" Bernard Rougier is professor of Arab civilization and society at Sorbonne Paris III University. He is the author of Everyday Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam among Palestinians in Lebanon. An unprecedented look at social breakdown and Sunni-led jihad in northern Lebanon Northern Lebanon is a land in turmoil. Long under the sway of the Assad regime in Syria, it is now a magnet for Sunni Muslim jihadists inspired by anti-Western and anti-Shi'a worldviews. The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East describes in harrowing detail the struggle led by an active minority of jihadist militants, some claiming allegiance to ISIS, to seize control of Islam and impose its rule over the region's Sunni Arab population. Bernard Rougier introduces us to men with links to the mujahidin in Afghanistan, the Sunni resistance in Iraq, al-Qaeda, and ISIS. He describes how they aspire to replace North Lebanon's Sunni elites, who have been attacked and discredited by neighboring powers and jihadists alike, and explains how they have successfully positioned themselves as the local Sunni population's most credible defender against powerful external enemies-such as Iran and the Shi'a militia group Hezbollah. He sheds new light on the methods and actions of the jihadists, their internal debates, and their evolving political agenda over the past decade. This riveting book is based on more than a decade of research, more than one hundred in-depth interviews with players at all levels, and Rougier's extraordinary access to original source material. Written by one of the world's leading experts on jihadism, The Sunni Tragedy in the Middle East provides timely insight into the social, political, and religious life of this dangerous and strategically critical region of the Middle East. "Rougier masterfully guides readers deep into the complex terrain of northern Lebanese politics. It is a wondrous, if difficult, voyage." "More than anything else, this volume amply illustrates the impossibly labyrinthine nature of armed politics in Lebanon. . . . Rougier takes readers from the 1980s through the period of Syria's withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005. . . . Rougier draws a striking picture of the chaos and dangers of the current situation." "Fascinating and nuanced. . . . This book is a significant addition to the scholarship on modern Lebanon, political Islam in the Levant and the wider Middle East and Arab world, and Sunni jihadism."---Christopher Anzalone, The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences "Rougier's book is based on first-hand acquaintance with the Lebanese Islamic scene, an impressive array of interviews with major actors in both the security services and the Sala arena, and hard-to-come-by documents. This combination on has resulted in an invaluable 'thick description' of the tapestry of local, regional and global forces that in their intricate and ever-shifting interactions and conflicts shaped the trajectory of jihadi-Salafism in North Lebanon. . . . [An] excellent study."---Itzchak Weismann, Journal of Global Analysis "Rougier's impeccable scholarship and profound knowledge of the Arabic-language sources guided his watershed fieldwork in the Sunni Levant years before the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. There is no better reading than this milestone book to decipher what is presently at stake in the devastating wave of jihadism we are witnessing today."-Gilles Kepel, Sciences Po, Paris "This is a rare and wonderful book. Rougier makes a truly original contribution to the study of the modern Middle East."-Roger Owen, author of The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life "This is an extraordinary book by an accomplished scholar. Rougier has been researching in Lebanon for years, and he has established a level of rapport and trust that is quite amazing. There is no other book

Lihi Ben Shitrit is an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. A comparative look at female political activism in today's most influential Israeli and Palestinian religious movements How do women in conservative religious movements expand spaces for political activism in ways that go beyond their movements' strict ideas about male and female roles? How and why does this activism happen in some movements but not in others? Righteous Transgressions examines these questions by comparatively studying four groups: the Jewish settlers in the West Bank, the ultra-Orthodox Shas, the Islamic Movement in Israel, and the Palestinian Hamas. Lihi Ben Shitrit demonstrates that women's prioritization of a nationalist agenda over a proselytizing one shapes their activist involvement. Ben Shitrit shows how women construct "frames of exception" that temporarily suspend, rather than challenge, some of the limiting aspects of their movements' gender ideology. Viewing women as agents in such movements, she analyzes the ways in which activists use nationalism to astutely reframe gender role transgressions from inappropriate to righteous. The author engages the literature on women's agency in Muslim and Jewish religious contexts, and sheds light on the centrality of women's activism to the promotion of the spiritual, social, cultural, and political agendas of both the Israeli and Palestinian religious right. Looking at the four most influential political movements of the Israeli and Palestinian religious right, Righteous Transgressions reveals how the bounds of gender expectations can be crossed for the political good. "Interested observers could learn much from the rare, up-close look at hugely influential political movements."---Dahlia Scheindlin, Haaretz "Ben Shitrit demonstrates a deep understanding of the movements under study and uncovers a wealth of primary and secondary research on the topic. . . . [Righteous Transgressions] is an excellent study of women involved in conservative religious movements." "A well-written, insightful, and important contribution to the intersecting fields of gender, religion, and politics. It should be read by all concerned with the study of women and extremism, especially those interested in violent conflict and authoritarian ideology."---Anissa Hélie, Journal of Church and State "Using a dynamic fusion of political theory and anthropological method, Lihi Ben Shitrit illuminates the increasing and unpredictable role of conservative religious women in contemporary politics. Her succinct and powerful text reflects the courage, insight, and tact needed to conduct this extraordinary research."-Ann Braude, Harvard Divinity School "This excellent and rigorously researched book enhances our understanding of Jewish and Muslim religious-political movements and women's attendant roles in ways that have remained largely unaddressed until now. By providing a window into a world seldom seen, let alone traversed, it challenges common understandings about these movements and women's agency therein."-Sara Roy, author of Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector

"Winner of the 2012 Academic Palestine Book Award, Middle East Monitor" "Winner of the 2012 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies" "One of Choice's Top 25 Titles for 2012" Sara Roy is senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. Her books include Failing Peace: Gaza and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development. A revealing look at Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank Many in the United States and Israel believe that Hamas is nothing but a terrorist organization, and that its social sector serves merely to recruit new supporters for its violent agenda. Based on Sara Roy's extensive fieldwork in the Gaza Strip and West Bank during the critical period of the Oslo peace process, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows how the social service activities sponsored by the Islamist group emphasized not political violence but rather community development and civic restoration. Roy demonstrates how Islamic social institutions in Gaza and the West Bank advocated a moderate approach to change that valued order and stability, not disorder and instability; were less dogmatically Islamic than is often assumed; and served people who had a range of political outlooks and no history of acting collectively in support of radical Islam. These institutions attempted to create civic communities, not religious congregations. They reflected a deep commitment to stimulate a social, cultural, and moral renewal of the Muslim community, one couched not only-or even primarily-in religious terms. Vividly illustrating Hamas's unrecognized potential for moderation, accommodation, and change, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza also traces critical developments in Hamas's social and political sectors through the Second Intifada to today, and offers an assessment of the current, more adverse situation in the occupied territories. The Oslo period held great promise that has since been squandered. This book argues for more enlightened policies by the United States and Israel, ones that reflect Hamas's proven record of nonviolent community building. "Ms. Roy strives not to speak for Palestinians, but to let their voices reverberate. . . . [Hamas and Civil Society is] rigorous and precise. . . . This is an important book, which challenges lazy views about the Palestinians and highlights how they go about securing basic services." "A focused study of how the Islamist organization turned itself into the most powerful political entity in the southern Palestinian territory, Roy's portrait of Hamas is every bit the multifaceted portrait it ought to be. Emphasizing the organization's civic activities, Hamas comes off sounding far more secular than it is generally portrayed in the media, characterized, as it often is, as an Iranian-style agent of religious coercion. If you want to understand why its base of support became so broad, Roy has the answer."---Joel Schalit, Forward "Resolutely unbiased, Roy sets the tone of the book from the very beginning. She has always made it a priority to live among Palestinians and even 'walk in their shoes.' This empathy, present throughout the book, helps the author go beyond the usual stereotypes and falsities so often portrayed in the foreign press. . . . Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza shows the Palestinian Islamist movement in a new light. The author analyzes a complex subject with a sound judgment and a remarkable, unbiased approach. By recognizing Hamas' potential for moderation, adaptation and change, Roy uncovers the wall of lies and deceit built around the Islamist movement as well as the need for just, non-discriminatory and fair-minded policies." "Sara Roy has chosen to write about Hamas from the wholly original perspective of the organization's relations with civil society in Gaza. What she has found is a profound challenge to the very basis of US and European policy towards p

"Winner of the 2016 JMEWS Book Award, Journal of Middle Eastern Women's Studies and Association of Middle East Women's Studies" Ellen McLarney is assistant professor of Arabic literature and culture at Duke University. The unheralded contribution of women to Egypt's Islamist movement-and how they talk about women's rights in Islamic terms In the decades leading up to the Arab Spring in 2011, when Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime was swept from power in Egypt, Muslim women took a leading role in developing a robust Islamist presence in the country's public sphere. Soft Force examines the writings and activism of these women-including scholars, preachers, journalists, critics, actors, and public intellectuals-who envisioned an Islamic awakening in which women's rights and the family, equality, and emancipation were at the center. Challenging Western conceptions of Muslim women as being oppressed by Islam, Ellen McLarney shows how women used "soft force"-a women's jihad characterized by nonviolent protest-to oppose secular dictatorship and articulate a public sphere that was both Islamic and democratic. McLarney draws on memoirs, political essays, sermons, newspaper articles, and other writings to explore how these women imagined the home and the family as sites of the free practice of religion in a climate where Islamists were under siege by the secular state. While they seem to reinforce women's traditional roles in a male-dominated society, these Islamist writers also reoriented Islamist politics in domains coded as feminine, putting women at the very forefront in imagining an Islamic polity. Bold and insightful, Soft Force transforms our understanding of women's rights, women's liberation, and women's equality in Egypt's Islamic revival. "Women's roles in the intellectual, organizational and political development of Islamist movements have rarely received the attention they deserve. McLarney focuses in depth on the writings of a wide array of Egyptian women involved with Islamist movements, presenting a nuanced and careful reading of their religious and political thought." "McLarney offers a different and highly important . . . perspective, refreshingly free of the shadows of neo-orientalism."---Caron E. Gentry, Times Higher Education "McLarney (Arabic literature and culture, Duke Univ.) provides an intellectual history of women's ideas within the Islamist movement in Egypt over the past century. . . . This work will be of interest to a wide variety of scholars in Islamic studies, women's studies, political science, and literary theory. It illuminates the essential role of women in the modern Islamist movement in a unique way." "Through her eloquent, sophisticated and careful analysis, McLarney offers a very important but somewhat overlooked contribution to the in depth understanding of the various roles of women in the historical and current developments within the Muslim world. . . . The wealth of information in this volume makes it an important contribution to the study of Islamic revivalism, women and Islam within the context of 20th and 21st century developments in Egypt and the wider Middle East."---Katherine Ranharter, Ph.D., Journal of Global Analysis "Ellen Anne McLarney's Soft Force: Women in Egypt's Islamic Awakening is an ambitious study that seeks to incorporate women as key contributors to the story of religious change in Egypt. McLarney's approach is both unconventional and necessary. . . . By bringing Muslim women across the ideological spectrum together as part of an extended conversation of gender, ethics, and politics, [Soft Force] challenges historians and anthropologists to appreciate the ways in which women continue to shape the relationship between religion, politics, and society in Egypt."---Aaron Rock-Singer, Bustan "McLarney brings to our attention the thinking and life practices of women across the decades in Egypt who have used an Islamic discourse o

Sean R. Roberts is associate professor of the practice of international affairs and director of the International Development Studies Program at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. He lives in Washington, DC. Twitter @robertsreport How China is using the US-led war on terror to erase the cultural identity of its Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region Within weeks of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Chinese government warned that it faced a serious terrorist threat from its Uyghur ethnic minority, who are largely Muslim. In this explosive book, Sean Roberts reveals how China has been using the US-led global war on terror as international cover for its increasingly brutal suppression of the Uyghurs, and how the war's targeting of an undefined enemy has emboldened states around the globe to persecute ethnic minorities and severely repress domestic opposition in the name of combatting terrorism. Of the eleven million Uyghurs living in China today, more than one million are now being held in so-called reeducation camps, victims of what has become the largest program of mass detention and surveillance in the world. Roberts describes how the Chinese government successfully implicated the Uyghurs in the global terror war-despite a complete lack of evidence-and branded them as a dangerous terrorist threat with links to al-Qaeda. He argues that the reframing of Uyghur domestic dissent as international terrorism provided justification and inspiration for a systematic campaign to erase Uyghur identity, and that a nominal Uyghur militant threat only emerged after more than a decade of Chinese suppression in the name of counterterrorism-which has served to justify further state repression. A gripping and moving account of the humanitarian catastrophe that China does not want you to know about, The War on the Uyghurs draws on Roberts's own in-depth interviews with the Uyghurs, enabling their voices to be heard. "Timely and important." "Harsh Chinese policies have provoked some reactive violence from Uighurs and have driven what is estimated to be tens of thousands of them to join jihadis in Syria. Roberts provides fascinating new details on that relatively marginal phenomenon, revealing that organized Uighur militancy is almost entirely illusory. Beijing's policy of repressive assimilation has now reached such an intense stage that Roberts labels it 'cultural genocide.'" "This timely, thought-provoking, and significant book should thus be of utmost interest to any reader who wants to live in the rules-based international order, however imperfect it may often seem to be."---Prof. Konstantinas Andrijauskas, The Rest Journal "This is the backstory behind one of the biggest stories in China-the incarceration of more than one million Uyghurs in a dystopian network of what are claimed to be reeducation camps. Who the Uyghurs are and how they came to be classified as terrorists is a story authoritatively told by Sean Roberts, who has spent three decades studying the Uyghurs and speaks the language. The publication of The War on the Uyghurs could not be more timely."-Barbara Demick, former Beijing bureau chief, Los Angeles Times, author of Nothing to Envy "Sean Roberts has done an immense service for all those who need to put headlines about Chinese repression of Uyghurs in recent years in proper context. Describing how the rhetoric and practices of 'global war on terror' since 2001 have led to the mass internment, persecution, and surveillance of the population, Roberts shows that the Chinese campaign has chillingly aimed at nothing less than the destruction of Uyghur identity. This account is masterful, and educational and enraging by turns."-Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World "This book should act as a wake-up call for policymakers worldwide. Armed with the piercing and detailed analysis of the recent past in East Turkistan, and the

An innovative analysis that traces the continuity of the state's custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion in the Middle East and North Africa In The Making of the Modern Muslim State, Malika Zeghal reframes the role of Islam in modern Middle East governance. Challenging other accounts that claim that Middle Eastern states turned secular in modern times, Zeghal shows instead the continuity of the state's custodianship of Islam as the preferred religion. Drawing on intellectual, political, and economic history, she traces this custodianship from early forms of constitutional governance in the nineteenth century through post–Arab Spring experiments in democracy. Zeghal argues that the intense debates around the implementation and meaning of state support for Islam led to a political cleavage between conservatives and their opponents that long predated the polarization of the twentieth century that accompanied the emergence of mass politics and Islamist movements. Examining constitutional projects, public spending, school enrollments, and curricula, Zeghal shows that although modern Muslim-majority polities have imported Western techniques of governance, the state has continued to protect and support the religion, community, and institutions of Islam. She finds that even as Middle Eastern states have expanded their nonreligious undertakings, they have dramatically increased their per capita supply of public religious provisions, especially Islamic education-further feeding the political schism between Islamists and their adversaries. Zeghal illuminates the tensions inherent in the partnerships between states and the body of Muslim scholars known as the ulama, whose normative power has endured through a variety of political regimes. Her detailed and groundbreaking analysis, which spans Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon, makes clear the deep historical roots of current political divisions over Islam in governance. Malika Zeghal is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor in Contemporary Islamic Thought and Life in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University. She is the author of Gardiens de l'Islam, Les Oulémas d'al-Azhar dans l'Egypte Contemporaine and Islamism in Morocco: Religion, Authoritarianism, and Electoral Politics. "An original and outstanding contribution to our understanding of the connection between religion and the state in the Middle East and North Africa. While the subject of her research has been treated by a number of other scholars and is an almost classical issue in political history and political science, Zeghal's method is entirely new. The volume of empirical material she gathered and analyzed is truly amazing."-Lucette Valensi, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales "Fantastic."---Alice Evans, Rocking Our Priors

"One of Foreign Affairs' Picks for Best of Books 2018" Alexander Thurston is visiting assistant professor of African studies at Georgetown University and the author of Salafism in Nigeria: Islam, Preaching, and Politics. A comprehensive history of one of the world's deadliest jihadist groups Boko Haram is one of the world's deadliest jihadist groups. It has killed more than twenty thousand people and displaced more than two million in a campaign of terror that began in Nigeria but has since spread to Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well. This is the first book to tell the full story of this West African affiliate of the Islamic State, from its beginnings in the early 2000s to its most infamous violence, including the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls. Drawing on sources in Arabic and Hausa, rare documents, propaganda videos, press reports, and interviews with experts in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Niger, Alexander Thurston sheds new light on Boko Haram's development. He shows that the group, far from being a simple or static terrorist organization, has evolved in its worldview and ideology in reaction to events. Chief among these has been Boko Haram's escalating war with the Nigerian state and civilian vigilantes. The book closely examines both the behavior and beliefs that are the keys to understanding Boko Haram. Putting the group's violence in the context of the complex religious and political environment of Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, the book examines how Boko Haram relates to states, politicians, Salafis, Sufis, Muslim civilians, and Christians. It also probes Boko Haram's international connections, including its loose former ties to al-Qaida and its 2015 pledge of allegiance to ISIS. An in-depth account of a group that is menacing Africa's most populous and richest country, the book also illuminates the dynamics of civil war in Africa and jihadist movements in other parts of the world. "A highly useful, timely, illuminating work about a little-understood terrorist group." "Thurston's Boko Haram is lucid, nuanced and authoritative. It is candid about the many remaining uncertainties in the group's story, and navigates these gaps adeptly, urging that the Nigerian government should politically engage with Boko Haram."---Azadeh Moaveni, Times Literary Supplement "Remarkable. . . . [Thurston] breaks from the prevailing narrative that Boko Haram emerged solely because of the poor governance, poverty, and economic misfortune in Nigeria's northeast. Instead, Thurston appropriately places religion, and specifically the interaction of religion and localized politics, at the center of his thesis."---Sam Wilkins, War on the Rocks "Absorbing."---Robert Fulford, National Post "A number of solid journalistic accounts of the rise of Boko Haram have appeared in recent years, but Thurston's scholarly works stands out and deserves a wide readership. It offers an authoritative take on the group's murky origins and wisely situates its rise within the context of Nigerian political history."---Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Affairs "Thurston's account of Boko Haram's rise and how it 'interacted dynamically with the political dysfunction and economic malaise that surrounded it' is key to understanding its survival."---Siona Jenkins, Financial Times "Thurston's text is . . . a must for anybody interested in Nigeria's recent past as well as the dynamics of political and religious development in the larger West African religion."---Roman Loimeier, Africa Spectrum "We now have what may well become the definitive work on the group in the form of Alexander Thurston's superbly detailed new book. . . . Thurston convincingly debunks theories of Boko Haram that would deny its uniquely Nigerian nature . . . [and] sets straight those who think Boko Haram is primarily an extension of jihadist operations from elsewhere."---James H. Barnett, The Weekly Standard "Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihad

Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily. Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.