100 Books on Islam in English: And the End of Orientalism in Islamic Studies

by Ghazi bin Muhammad

Overview

100 books on Islam in English is a companion guide for anyone who is interested in reading about the different aspects of Islam. The author, HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, has created three main lists to help readers find their way to titles that give a true explanation of Islam. In 100 Books on Islam in English, the reader will find three main lists: "25 Essential Books on Islam in English", "50 Excellent Books on Islam in English" and "25 Recommended books on Islam in English". These three lists cover: general introductions to Islam, Qur'anic studies, the life of the Prophet, doctrine, theology, philosophy, law, Sufism, history, culture, art, science and politics. Finally, there is an additional list of 40 general titles that Muslim — and many other — readers would find beneficial. Other books by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad include Love in the Holy Qur'an and War and Peace in Islam, both published at Islamic Texts Society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781903682883
Publisher:	Islamic Texts Society
Publication date:	01/01/2015
Pages:	46
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

HRH Prince Ghazi of Jordan is a Professor of Islamic Philosophy, and is well known as an interfaith activist and author. He obtained his BA from Princeton University in 1988 Summa cum laude, his first PhD from Cambridge University, UK, in 1993, and his second PhD from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 1997 he founded the National Park of the Site of the Baptism of Jesus Christ. In 2001 he established the Great Tafsir Project, the largest online project for exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and in 2008 he founded the World Islamic Sciences and Education University. He is the author of 'Three Articles of the Amman Message' in 2005; the author of the historic open letter 'A Common Word Between Us and You' in 2007, and the author of the World Interfaith Harmony Week United Nations General Assembly Resolution in October 2010.

Read an Excerpt

In 1978, the late Arab Christian Professor Edward Said published his famous work Orientalism. The book—followed by a smaller volume called Covering Islam—suggested a number of interesting things, but one of the main ideas was that the West's distorted view of Islam—in particular in the Western-dominated spheres of academia and the media—has insinuated itself into the Islamic world to such an extent, that Muslims (and/or 'Easterners' in general) had begun to see themselves not as they actually are, or as they have always seen themselves, but rather as the West sees them. In other words, Muslims had come to believe Western caricatures of themselves. To complicate matters further, in Western academia, whereas Christianity was always taught by Christians, and Judaism was always taught by Jews, Islam was never allowed to be taught by practicing Muslims (who were considered too 'biased'). Thus in Western academia, Muslims read, studied and to a certain extent, believed, purportedly 'academically-objective' Orientalist works about Islam. Worse still, leading universities in the Islamic world—in awe of the West's superior science and technology—imitated the West in all spheres and thus taught and studied these same Orientalist works. This issue was—and is—not a peripheral one, but central to the very future of Islam because 80% of all Muslims in the world cannot speak or read Arabic, and because more Muslims speak English than Arabic.

The old days of Orientalism, thankfully, are now largely over, or should be—at least for Muslims. There have now, wa'l-hamduLillah, been three generations of Muslim scholars in the West gradually debunking all the Orientalist prejudices and contrived theories on Qur'an, Hadith and Islamic Law, in English. The 'first generation' were (and are—God preserve them!) scholars from the Islamic World—like Ismail Faruqi; Fazlur Rahman; Seyyed Hossein Nasr; Taha Jaber Alwani; Syed Naquib al-Attas and Akbar Ahmad—who successfully made the transition into Western academia (virtually or in person). The 'second generation' are mostly now middle-aged scholars and translators who are Western converts—like Hamza Yusuf Hanson; T.J. Winter (Abd al-Hakim Murad); Sherman Jackson; Nuh Ha Mim Keller; Ingrid Mattson and the prolific Aisha Bewley—who travelled to the Islamic world and spent years studying Arabic and Usul sciences and later translated, published and taught the gems of Islamic thought in English. The 'third generation' are powerful younger scholars like Jonathan Brown; Faraz Rabbani; Feras Hamza; Joseph Lumbard and Caner Dagli who are as comfortable in traditional Islamic scholarship as they are in Western academia. It is true that many Western universities are still teaching the books that are essentially Orientalist—or 'Orientalist-lite'—in outlook; and it is true that most major academic and commercial publishing houses will generally only print these kind of books—HarperCollins occasionally, and SUNY Press being notable exceptions—but it cannot be denied that the tide has turned in Islamic Studies, and that naked Orientalist prejudice has generally moved from universities to conservative 'think-tanks'. It is equally true that this has largely come about through the work of Western Muslim scholars, translators, preachers, social activists, N.G.O.s and above all, perhaps, independent publishing houses and websites. And it is even more remarkable that they have done this, over the last twenty-five years, against a historical and political background where the West has been drawn into more confrontation with the Islamic world than any time before for centuries, and where, tragically, there has arisen in the Islamic world new extremist fringe groups (albeit openly rejected by 99% of Muslims in the West and in the Islamic world, who tellingly make up 90% of their victims) as violent, intolerant and inhumane as many Western prejudices feared.

Howbeit, it is not without significance that this year, 2014 CE, marked the first awarding of accredited BA degrees by the US's first Muslim Liberal Arts College, Zaytuna College (in Berkeley, California). Indeed, this event, though largely unnoticed by the world at large, can be taken to formally mark the beginning of the end of Orientalism in serious Islamic Studies in the West. And the fact that, despite being a predominantly Sunni College, they asked the great Islamic philosopher, Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr to be their commencement speaker, is undoubtedly an extremely positive, and hopeful sign, in sha Allah.

Table of Contents

Part I

The End of Orientalism in Islamic Studies

Part II

100 Books on Islam in English: 25 Essential & 50 Excellent Books on Islam in English

25 Recommended Books on Islam in English

Part III

33 General, Necessary Books and 7 Reference Works

About the Author