A welcome addition to the historiographical literature on early Islam, its evolution and the development of Islamic thought on violence, conflict and war.

Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations

"Using historical sources to underscore the importance of Arab Christian foederati while offering a contextualized reading of Qur’anic verses relating to religious violence, Demichelis offers a provocative, insightful interpretation of the interplay between the slow emergence of Islam among the "Believers and the eventual articulation of a doctrine of jihad.”

- Steven C. Judd, Professor of Middle East History, Southern Connecticut State University, USA,

“Displaying extensive research and interdisciplinary methodological approach, Marco Demichelis convincingly recontextualizes the late process of sacralization of violence in early Islam. One of the many merits of this book is to put an end to the outdated representations of a Prophet’s life inextricably rooted in a form of religious violence. A much needed and timely work which breaks a number of cliches on a contentious issue.”

- Mehdi Azaiez, Professor of Islamic Studies, UC Louvain, Belgium,

Se alle

The academic vigour and evidence-based treatment of the subject by the author of the book under review is highly commendable.

The Muslim World Book Review

The concept of jihad holds a prominent place in Islamic thought and history. Beyond its spiritual meanings, the term has historically been associated with the sweeping Arab-Believers conquests of the 7-8th century BCE. But given advances in our understanding of the historicity and chronology of the Qur'an and early Islamic texts, is it correct to identify jihad and Islam with violent conquest? In this book, Marco Demichelis explores the history of the concept of jihad in the early proto-Islamic centuries (7-8th). Deploying an interdisciplinary approach which combines the hermeneutical study of the famous 'Verses of the Sword' within the Qur'an itself, with historical writing by Islamic chroniclers as well as non-Islamic sources, numismatics, epigraphical and architectural evidence, the book questions the relationship between the religious concept of jihad and the conquests. The book argues that Christian Byzantine Foederati forices who previously fought against the Persians may have had a formative effect on the later emergence of more bellicose rhetoric. In so doing, it calls into question assumptions about warlike attitudes inherent within Islamic doctrine, and reveals a more nuanced and complicated history of religious violence in the pre, proto and early Islamic period.
Les mer
PrefaceIntroductionPart 11. The Arabs outside Arabia before Islam 2. Ghazawat and Futuh: From rurality to urbanisation. 3. The religious factor: when did an Islamic identity emerge? 4. Can we still consider the Futuh Islamic? Part 25. Qur’an, Otherness and Jihad 6. Qur’an and militant violence in Chronology7. The process of Belligerency and the canonisation of Jihad in early IslamConclusionIndex Bibliography
Les mer
A history of the emergence and meaning of jihad in Early Islam
Takes an interdisciplinary approach combining hermeneutics and historical analysis of the emergence of the doctrine of jihad within Islam

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780755637997
Publisert
2021-04-22
Utgiver
Vendor
I.B. Tauris
Vekt
553 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
272

Forfatter

Biographical note

Marco Demichelis is Senior Research Fellow in Islamic Studies and the History of the Middle East at the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, Spain. His previous books include Salvation and Hell in Classical Islamic Thought (Bloomsbury, 2018), L’Islam contemporaneo (2016) and Etica Islamica (2016).