Encounters with Islam : studies in the anthropology of Muslim cultures

Too often, Western encounters with the Islamic world commence with stereotypes and end with a renewed distance. Drawing from decades of experience studying the Muslim world, Lawrence Rosen challenges these narrow understandings. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, Rosen shows the wide-ranging significance of Muslim art, culture, and law around the world. Exploring political, economic, and social encounters within and with the Muslim world across the eras, he considers a wide range of contexts – from fifteenth-century mosaics in Central Asia that reveal a complex understanding of mathematics, to the political choices available to the youth of modern-day Morocco and Cairo. With in-depth analyses of art, law, and religion, and how they informed one another, Rosen develops a vibrant, nuanced portrait of the Islamic world. Drawing linkages across time, regions, and cultures, this is a significant anthropological study of the Islamic world from a seasoned scholar. Encounters with Islam: Studies in the Anthropology of Muslim Cultures Contents Plates and Figures Acknowledgments Note on Transcription Introduction Part 1. Expressive 1. Choice and Chaos: The Social Meaning of an Islamic Art Form Part 2. Legal 2. Tribal Law as Islamic Law: The Berber Case 3. The Meaning of the Gift 4. Islamic Conceptions of the Rule of Law Part 3. Political 5. Anthropological Assumptions and the Afghan War 6. Aging Out?: Moroccan Youth in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring 7. Missionary Encounters: Moroccan Engagement with the Western Other Part 4. Critical 8. Clifford Geertz, Observing Islam 9. Orientalism Revisited: Edward Said's Unfinished Critique Envoi Bibliography Index Plate Section "Exploring political, economic, and social encounters within and with the Muslim world across the eras, Lawrence Rosen develops a vibrant, nuanced portrait of the Islamic world that challenges existing stereotypes. Using a diverse range of illustrative case studies, Rosen draws previously unseen linkages across time, regions, and cultures"-- Provided by publisher