Da'wa: A Global History of Islamic Missionary Thought and Practice (The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys)

In this engaging study, Matthew J. Kuiper tells the fascinating story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in Islamic missionary activism and widespread Muslim recovery of the classical concept of dawa (inviting to Islam, or Islamic mission) in recent times. Going back to Islams origins, Kuiper then carefully chronicles 14 centuries of history, from the 7th-century dawas of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad to diverse dawa initiatives in todays global religious marketplaces. Paying attention to changing contexts, and to themes like the interplay between the religious and the political, Islamic relations with other religions, and the transformations of modernity, he develops a nuanced and original portrait of the past, present and future of Islamic missionary thought and practice. Key Features "Matthew J. Kuiper tells the fascinating story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in Islamic missionary activism and widespread Muslim recovery of the classical concept of da'wa ('inviting' to Islam, or Islamic mission) in recent times. Going back to Islam's origins, Kuiper then carefully chronicles 14 centuries of history, from the 7th-century da'was of the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad to diverse da'wa initiatives in today's global religious marketplaces. Paying attention to changing contexts, and to themes like the interplay between the religious and the political, Islamic relations with other religions, and the transformations of modernity, he develops a nuanced and original portrait of the past, present and future of Islamic missionary thought and practice."--Publisher Contents 6 Expanded table of contents 7 List of illustrations 10 List of text boxes 11 Preface and acknowledgments 12 Note on transliteration and dates 15 Introduction 18 Part I: The pre-modern missionary history of Islam 34 1 The first invitation to Islam: Da‘wa in the Qur’an 36 2 The best inviter: Da‘wa in prophetic sira and hadith 56 3 Da‘wa after the Prophet, circa 632–1100 CE 82 4 Da‘wa in medieval and early modern Islamic history, circa 1100–1700 CE 108 Part II: The modern missionary history of Islam 148 Introduction to Part II 150 5 Contextualising modern da‘wa, eighteenth to twentieth centuries 160 6 The first phase of modern da‘wa, circa 1850–1950: a survey 181 7 The second phase of modern da‘wa, circa 1950–2020: a survey 220 Conclusion 274 Epilogue: COVID-19 and da‘wa 275 Bibliography 278 Index 317 In this fascinating study, Matthew J. Kuiper the story of how Islam became a world religion and cultural phenomenon of immense scale, astonishing diversity and global impact. His starting point is the dramatic upsurge in da'wa: 'inviting' to Islam, or Islamic missionary activism.