In The Burhān Mohammad Hijab analyses Ibn Sīnā's argument for the existence of God. Regards as being most invulnerable to any type of counterattack, Ibn Sīnā's Burhān argument postulates that a world with only contingent existences is inconceivable, as a contingent existence cannot cause itself. Ibn Sīnā argues that the only way to explain the existence of anything is to postulate the existence of a uncaused necessary being, or a wājib al-wujūd ('necessary existence'). However, despite its impact, the Burhān has not been packaged for apologetic use for a modern audience. Hijab's novel contribution to the discourse surrounding God's existence is found in his re-articulation of this argument for theists attempting to make the case for religion to atheist audiences. Using the Burhān as his guide, Hijab provides his own proofs for the necessary existence of God and answers some of the most prominent objections. Hijab applies the arguments for a necessary being by referring to potential pastoral and apologetic settings using two fictitious characters, Richard and Betty.

“Istanbul, Istanbul turns on the tension between the confines of a prison cell and the vastness of the imagination; between the vulnerable borders of the body and the unassailable depths of the mind. This is a harrowing, riveting novel, as unforgettable as it is inescapable.” —Dale Peck, author of Visions and Revisions “A wrenching love poem to Istanbul told between torture sessions by four prisoners in their cell beneath the city. An ode to pain in which Dostoevsky meets The Decameron.” —John Ralston Saul, author of On Equilibrium; former president, PEN International “Istanbul is a city of a million cells, and every cell is an Istanbul unto itself.” Below the ancient streets of Istanbul, four prisoners—Demirtay the student, the doctor, Kamo the barber, and Uncle Küheylan—sit, awaiting their turn at the hands of their wardens. When they are not subject to unimaginable violence, the condemned tell one another stories about the city, shaded with love and humor, to pass the time. Quiet laughter is the prisoners’ balm, delivered through parables and riddles. Gradually, the underground narrative turns into a narrative of the above-ground. Initially centered around people, the book comes to focus on the city itself. And we discover there is as much suffering and hope in the Istanbul above ground as there is in the cells underground. Despite its apparently bleak setting, this novel—translated into seventeen languages—is about creation, compassion, and the ultimate triumph of the imagination.

This valuable treatise decribes the far-reaching movement and revolutionary reform of the greatest mystic Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, well known as the Mujaddid Alf Thani or the renewer of the second millennium of Islamic era. The main theme of this thesis dominates the Mujaddid's conception of Tawhid known as Wahdat-i-Shuhud, which was presented to contradict the widely accepted doctrine of Ibn Arabi's Wahdat-i-Wujud or unityism.Mujaddid's oppsition is not based on theological dogma but on direct mystic experience, which turned the tide, entirly, to the original Islamic teachings based on the works of the scholars of Ahl-as-Sunnah.This work also includes the scholarly receptions of this new doctrine by both mystics and theologians of outstanding eminence such as Shah Wali-Ullah Dehlwi and Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi, which are very interesting and helpful for deep study and careful scrutiny of Islamic Sufi philosophy.

Notable International Crime Novel of the Year – Crime Reads / Lit Hub From a prize-winning Turkish novelist, a heady, political tale of one man’s search for identity and meaning in Istanbul after the loss of his memory. A blues singer, Boratin, attempts suicide by jumping off the Bosphorus Bridge, but opens his eyes in the hospital. He has lost his memory, and can't recall why he wished to end his life. He remembers only things that are unrelated to himself, but confuses their timing. He knows that the Ottoman Empire fell, and that the last sultan died, but has no idea when. His mind falters when remembering civilizations, while life, like a labyrinth, leads him down different paths. From the confusion of his social and individual memory, he is faced with two questions. Does physical recognition provide a sense of identity? Which is more liberating for a man, or a society: knowing the past, or forgetting it? Embroidered with Borgesian micro-stories, Labyrinth flows smoothly on the surface while traversing sharp bends beneath the current.

This retrospective of the father of wall art covers 50 years of meaningful, passionate work by the renowned Turkish artist Burhan Dogançay. Since the early 1960s, Burhan Dogançay has followed the social, cultural, and political transformation of modern and contemporary culture through an examination of walls, which serve as templates for his art. Walls are mirrors of society, he says. From a wall, you can tell a lot about the people and the neighbourhood. I made an archive of our time. Whenever elections or important events happened in a country, I'd go. Walls serve as a testament to the passage of time, reflecting social, political, and economic change. They also bear witness to the assault of the elements and to the markings left by people. No other artist has explored urban walls as thoroughly and with the same passion as Dogançay. This catalog contains 126 illustrations of all the large- and small-scale works on canvas from the exhibition, in different media, including collages and installations, all drawn from 14 different series in the artist's oeuvre. ILLUSTRATIONS: 187 illustrations 150 in colour

Two young people from foreign lands meet in a shop in Cambridge: Brani Tawo, a Kurdish political refugee from Turkey, and Feruzeh, who had fled to the UK from revolutionary Iran. Slowly, their love begins to grow, fed by stories, a shared love of literature and a subtle recognition of their mutual displacement.

In recent studies of Indonesia's regional politics one important aspect has largely been neglected - the role of the local aristocracies which dominated many of the regions outside Java from the precolonial period through to the formation of the independent Republic of Indonesia in 1949. In his work Burhan Magenda has begun to remedy this neglect. He has studied the aristocracies in various regions of the Outer Islands from the colonial period through into the New Order government of President Suharto. In covering their history he has examined the strategies used by the local aristocrats to survive and attempt to continue their domination of political power in their regions. The focus of this present monograph is East Kalimantan, where the local aristocracy was commercial in nature, tracing its origin back to the establishment of a "spice trade" route in the sixteenth century. The decline in the nineteenth century of the main harbor principality of Borneo, Banjarmasin on the south coast, opened the way for other states on the island to play a greater role, in particular the sultanate of Kutai in eastern Borneo. Burhan Magenda's well documented study opens a new perspective of fundamental importance to our understanding of both the past and current political and economic development of East Kalimantan and of its relationship with the central power in Jakarta. It provides an illuminating analysis of strategies by which members of the aristocracy have succeeded in surviving under widely varying conditions. Clearly, despite the challenges they have encountered over the past 45 years, these aristocrats have shown a surprising political resilience. - Audrey Kahin Ithaca, August 1991