Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

3 1 0Islam i n World Cult u r e sries of essays that help to situate these writings in relation to the broader contextsof Islamic resurgence in the modern world.Ibn Ishaq. 1997. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s “Sirat RasulA l l a h . ” Translated by A. Guillaume. Karachi: Oxford University Press.This is a translation of one of the major traditional Muslim biographies ofthe Prophet. It is a rich resource for materials on Islam’s early period, includingthe text of the Constitution of Medina, discussed in the introduction tothis volume.Kurzman, Charles, ed. 1998. Liberal Islam: A Sourc e b o o k . New York: OxfordUniversity Press.———, ed. 2002. M o d e rnist Islam, 1840–1940: A Sourc e b o o k . New York: OxfordUniversity Press.These two readers are valuable resources for the study of Islam in the modernworld. Each contains translations of dozens of short excerpts not onlyfrom the Arabic lands of the Middle East but from many other societies as well.Renard, John, ed. 1998. Windows on the House of Islam: Muslim Sources on Spiritualityand Religious Life. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaP r e s s .This anthology provides a great selection of texts from all across the Muslimworld, covering the medieval as well as the modern periods.Safi, Omid, ed. 2003. P ro g ressive Muslims on Justice, Gender, and Pluralism. O x-ford: Oneworld.This volume contains essays by Muslim scholars dealing with some of today’smost complex and pressing social issues, including essays by some of thewriters quoted and referred to in the introduction to this volume, such as AhmetKaramustafa and Khaled Abou El Fadl.Sells, Michael. 1999. A p p roaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations. A s h l a n d ,OR: White Cloud Press.This book is the best introduction to the text of the Qur’an. Its fine translationsof some of the shorter chapters of the Qur’an are complemented by anintroduction, essays, and a CD containing recordings of several differentstyles of Qur’anic recitation by Muslims from around the world.Williams, John. 1994. The Wo rd of Islam. Austin: University of Texas Press.This reader presents a good selection of English translations from classicalIslamic texts in Arabic, including some from minority Muslim communitiessuch as the Ibadis and Ismai’lis.