Across the worlds of Islam : Muslim identities, beliefs, and practices from Asia to America

Muslim people are found all over the world. Most live outside the Middle East, from Asia to the Americas. The vast majority of contemporary Muslims are not fluent in Arabic, and speakers of languages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish have made essential contributions to Islamic history and culture. However, typical courses on Islam tend to downplay areas beyond the Middle East, focusing on Arabic texts and elite theological and doctrinal arguments. This book offers an inclusive view of the diversity and complexity of the many worlds of Islam, investigating ethics and aesthetics as much as scriptures and theology. By paying attention to Muslims who are socially, culturally, doctrinally, or politically marginalized, it provides a comprehensive and all-embracing vision of the religion and its many interrelated communities. Contributors from a range of personal and intellectual backgrounds explore the capaciousness of Muslim identities, helping readers achieve a broader understanding of the past, present, and future of the Muslim world. This book includes communities such as the Nation of Islam and Alevi Muslims, and it goes beyond rituals like prayer and fasting to consider a wider array of practices, such as tattooing. Across the Worlds of Islam is at once student-friendly and cutting-edge, written with both introductory courses and general readers in mind. Examining Muslim identity and practice from the perspective of the margins, it offers nuanced portraits of Muslim life across geographic and sectarian divisions. "Unlike the majority of introductions to Islam, which all too often elide essential theological and legal debates in favor of presenting a homogenized Middle East-centric view of what Islam represents to all Muslims, this book provides a balanced perspective on Sunni, Shia, and Sufi Islam at the geographic, social, political, embodied, reproductive, and doctrinal margins. Its objective is to develop an inclusive vision of the religion and its many interrelated communities. By paying attention to the values, stories, and practices that characterize Muslim life across sectarian division we are able to render a nuanced portrait that transcends debates about orthodoxy and normativity and gives us more encompassing and accurate views of the forms that Islam takes and how Muslims think and act socially, culturally, theologically, and politically. It becomes apparent that inhabitants of regions beyond the Middle East are not heretics or infidels but rather central to the past, present, and future of the Muslim world. Chapter authors were commissioned by the editor specifically for the book. They include Farah Bakaari (English, Cornell) writing on Islam and its others, Michael Muhammad Knight (novelist and journalist, Philosophy, Central Florida) on rethinking the center of Islam, Tess Waggoner (Near Eastern Studies, NYU) on Turkish Alevi Ashiks, Holly Donahue Singh (Anthropology, Honors College, South Florida) on the ethical practices of Indian Muslim women, Henry Brill (policymaker, History, Georgetown) on 16th-century Mongol Sufi scholar Mirza Muhammad Haydar Dughlat, Kathryn Blanchard (Religious Studies, Alma) on teaching Islam as a non-Muslim, and Curtis himself on Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam, and Black liberation, among others"-- Provided by publisher Muslim people are found all over the world. Most live outside theMiddle East, from Asia to the Americas. The vast majority ofcontemporary Muslims are not fluent in Arabic, and speakers oflanguages such as Persian, Urdu, and Turkish have made essentialcontributions to Islamic history and culture. However, typicalcourses on Islam tend to downplay areas beyond the Middle East,focusing on Arabic texts and elite theological and doctrinalarguments. This book offers an inclusive view of the diversity andcomplexity of the many worlds of Islam, investigating ethics andaesthetics as much as scriptures and theology. By paying attentionto Muslims who are socially, culturally, doctrinally, orpolitically marginalized, it provides a comprehensive andall-embracing vision of the religion and its many interrelatedcommunities. Contributors from a range of personal and intellectualbackgrounds explore the capaciousness of Muslim identities, helpingreaders achieve a broader understanding of the past, present, andfuture of the Muslim world. This book includes communities such asthe Nation of Islam and Alevi Muslims, and it goes beyond ritualslike prayer and fasting to consider a wider array of practices,such as tattooing. Across the Worlds of Islam is at oncestudent-friendly and cutting-edge, written with both introductorycourses and general readers in mind. Examining Muslim identity andpractice from the perspective of the margins, it offers nuancedportraits of Muslim life across geographic and sectarian divisions