This comprehensive introduction explores the landscape of contemporary Islam. Written by a distinguished team of scholars, it: provides broad overviews of the developments, events, people and movements that have defined Islam in the three majority-Muslim regions traces the connections between traditional Islamic institutions and concerns, and their modern manifestations and transformations. How are medieval ideas, policies and practices refashioned to address modern circumstances investigates new themes and trends that are shaping the modern Muslim experience such as gender, fundamentalism, the media and secularisation offers case studies of Muslims and Islam in dynamic interaction with different societies. Islam in the Modern World includes illustrations, summaries, discussion points and suggestions for further reading that will aid understanding and revision. Additional resources are provided via a companion website.

Is Islam compatible with democracy? Must fundamentalism win out in the Middle East, or will democracy ever be possible? In this now-classic book, Islamic sociologist Fatima Mernissi explores the ways in which progressive Muslims--defenders of democracy, feminists, and others trying to resist fundamentalism--must use the same sacred texts as Muslims who use them for violent ends, to prove different views. Updated with a new introduction by the author written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Islam and Democracy serves as a guide to the players moving the pieces on the rather grim Muslim chessboard. It shines new light on the people behind today's terrorist acts and raises provocative questions about the possibilities for democracy and human rights in the Islamic world. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the Middle East today, Islam and Democracy is as timely now as it was upon its initial, celebrated publication.

Contrary to popular opinion, the bulk of Islamic law does not come from the Quran but from hadith, first-hand reports of the Prophet Muhammad’s words and deeds, passed from generation to generation. However, with varying accounts often only committed to paper a century after the death of Muhammad, Islamic scholars, past and present, have been faced with complex questions of historical authenticity. In this wide-ranging introduction, Jonathan A. C. Brown explores the collection and criticism of hadith, and the controversy surrounding its role in modern Islam. This edition, revised and updated with additional case studies and attention to the very latest scholarship, also features a new chapter on how hadiths have been used politically, both historically and in the Arab Spring and its aftermath. Informative and accessible, it is perfectly suited to students, scholars and general readers interested in this critical element of Islam.

When the question is asked what are Islam’s contributions to civilization, often the focus is on scientific development, to the ancient world this is by far the most misleading standard for advancement and development. While Islam was certainly the most advanced civilization of the ancient world it’s social and moral development is what set it apart from the rest of the world. Social and moral development in the ancient world had a far more significant impact on a society than scientific development, although still important in many ways, this is because ideology changes how the entire community behaved and lived their lives. Moral development drives social development because it defines the framework for how that society should live and spend it’s time and energy, scientific development historically was a result of both of these because the backdrop in the ancient world for a society that did not develop socially and morally was either living as hunter gatherers or a nomadic life, they either never advanced as a community or degraded after advancement as the moral fabric of that society disappeared, the pyramids could not be built until the Egyptian religion and society demanded it which then directed mans scientific and engineering efforts. As the world at large moved away from this Islam was instrumental in shaping the development of the entire world as it shared it's scientific discoveries from one end of the empire to the other, it was a trade empire whose borders stretched from west Africa and southern Europe to China, it’s scientific advancements which surpassed the rest of the world where a direct result of changing communities and societies around the world and encouraging them to study nature and the world, this global effort would later spread around the world from Europe to Asia to the Americas. By only the 9th century for example muslim scientist’s had discovered the world was round and in comparison to Europe, the masses embraced the notion and took it for granted, Ibn Hazm said its proof was “that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth”, meaning if you where to follow the sun to where you perceived it to be setting, you would always find it vertical (up in the sky) to that location even though from your original location it may appear to be setting, that notion dawned on Galileo 500 years later. This book looks at what it is in Islam that encouraged this change in so many communities and it discusses the spirituality that shaped so many lives. Some of these societies where among the most primitive people on earth but in a short period of time they would set up large empires spanning multiple continents, this processes was seen numerous times in Islam’s history in different regions of the earth by communities of different backgrounds. From the Arab Ummayids who first invaded Europe, to the African Mali Empire whose most famous ruler was the richest person in History, to the Turkish Ottomans who had one of the largest Empires on earth and one of the longest lasting family dynasties, all had simple beginnings but one thing in common that changed their societies in a short period of time, Islam.