BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Sandcastles: The Arabs in Search of the Modern World , by Milton Viorst.
Trick or Treason: The October Surprise Mystery , by Robert Parry.
Islam in History: Ideas, People and Events in the Middle East (New Edition, Revised and Expanded), by Bernard Lewis.
Islam and the West , by Bernard Lewis.
Muquddinuz fiilm al-istighrab (An Introduction to "Occidentalism") , by Hasan Hanafi.
Battle Lines: The American Media and the Intifada , by Jim Lederman.
Turmoil: The Druzes, Lebanon and the Arab-Israeli Conflict , by Najib.
The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity: Aleppo in the Eighteenth Century , by Abraham Marcus.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
In the Shadow of the Prophet: The Struggle for the Soul of Islam, by Milton Viorst
The Saudi File: People, Power, Politics, by Anders Jerichow.
Oil, God, and Gold: the Story of Aramco and the Saudi Kings, by Anthony Cave Brown. Boston
Algeria: A Study in Competing Ideologies, by Kay Adamson.
The Holocaust in American Life, by Peter Novick.
Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy, by Kathleen Christison.
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, by Norman G. Finkelstein.     

Western Images of Islam, 1700–1900

This paper traces fluctuating attitudes to Islam and its Prophet, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth. Western perceptions, as revealed by writers of the period, encyclopaedias, biographies and commentaries, were sometimes sympathetic, sometimes dismissive; sometimes celebrating Islam's piousness; sometimes accusing it of fraud. Sometimes Islam is seen as benign; sometimes its violence is seen as endemic. Often the cultural biases of western observers are obvious: the west is progressive and historically dominant, the east (and its cultural accoutrements) is degenerate and over-zealous. But we ought not judge religions or cultures by their worst manifestations alone. Oriental societies were never just Islamic or traditional. They comprise not only those who perpetuate oppressive practices towards women but also modernizers who seek change.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Civil Society in the Middle East, Volume I , edited by Augustus Richard Norton.
War and Peace in the Middle East: A Critique of American Policy , by Avi Shlaim.
Beyond Alliance: Israel and U.S. Foreign Policy , by Camille Mansour.
Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad , by Ziad Abu-Amr.
The Revenge of God: The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World , by Gilles Kepel.
Water Wars: Coming Conflicts in the Middle East , by John Bulloch and Adel Darwish.
Small Media, Big Revolution: Communication Culture and the Iranian Revolution , by Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi and Ali Mohammadi.
Don't Kill the Messenger: The Tragic Story of Wells Hangen and Other Journalistic Combat Victims , by Charles Arnot.
A Persian Requiem , by Simin Daneshvar, translated from the Farsi by Roxane Zand.     

Radical Islam: The Death of an Ideology?

Dr. Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Gvosdev is a senior fellow at the Nixon Center. The following is adapted from the conclusion of their recent book, The Receding Shadow of the Prophet: The Rise and Fall of Radical Political Islam (Praeger, 2004), reproduced with permission of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., Westport, CT.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Fima , by Amos Oz, trans. Nicholas de Lange.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Operation Shylock, A Confession , by Philip Roth.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Unsettled States, Disputed Lands: Britain and Ireland, France and Algeria, Israel and the West Bank-Gaza , by Ian S. Lustick.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Palestinians: The Making of a People , by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Arabs and Israel for Beginners , by Ron David. Illustrated by Susan David.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Egypt during the Nasser Years: Ideology, Politics, and Civil Society , by Kirk J. Beattie.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: The Middle East and Problems of Democracy , by Heather Deegan.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Islam and Arabs in Early American Thought: The Roots of Orientalism in America , by Fuad Shaban.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: Oil Monarchies: Domestic and Security Challenges in the Arab Gulf States , by F. Gregory Gause III.
REVIEW ESSAY: JERUSALEM DAZE: The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-Up, 1980-92 , by Branka Magas.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:
Saudi Arabia and the United States, Birth of a Security Partnership, by Parker T. Hart.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , by David E. Long.
Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent , by Mamoun Fandy.
Murder in the Name of God: The Plot to Kill Yitzhak Rabin , by Michael Karpin and Ina Friedman.
Islam in the United States of America , by Sulayman S. Nyang.
Contrasts and Solutions in the Caucasus , ed. by Ole Hoiris and Sefa Martin Yurukel.
Minorities and the State in the Arab World , edited by Ofra Bengio and Gabriel Ben-Dor
Arab National Communism in the Jewish State , by Ilana Kaufman     

Book Reviews

Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East , by Matt Rees
A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples , by Ilan Pappé
Bethlehem Besieged: Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble , by Mitri Raheb
Zionism: A Brief History , by Michael Brenner, translated by Shelley L. Frisch
Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle , by Mazin B. Qumsieh
Prophets Outcast: A Century of Dissident Jewish Writing about Zionism and Israel , edited by Adam Shatz
The Persian Puzzle: The Conflict Between Iran and America , by Kenneth M. Pollack
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam , by Reza Aslan     

Sufi Apologia in the Guise of Biography: The Case of Abū Nu‛aym al-Iṣfahānī’s Ḥilyat al-awliyā’ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyā’

?ilyat al-awliyā’ wa-?abaqāt al-a?fiyā’ by Abu Nu?aym al-Isfahani (d. 430/1038) is a remarkable and timeless manual of instructions conveyed to us through eminent figures of Islam, who have been known for their piety, asceticism and great learning. With its 689 entries, this biographical encyclopaedia covers a time span of almost 400 years; from the time of the Prophet until the fifth/eleventh century. The author’s intention is to present elements of Sufi thought and practice in complete compatibility with Muslim orthodoxy in an attempt to vindicate Sufism in the eyes of its opponents. This article is mainly a study of the apologetic nature of Sufi biographical tradition with focus on the ?ilya as representative material. Owing to its large scope, only an extract covering nine biographies has been selected for the purpose of this study.     

Policy Entrepreneurs: The Third Dimension in American Foreign-policy Culture

"The Great oil boom was an event so profoundly and broadly influential that it provides the key to understanding the surge of Islam." — Daniel Pipes, 1983.
"Yet it is naive to attribute the Islamic revival mainly to oil." — John Esposito, 1985.
"Yes, I did publish a book in 1983, In the Path of God , suggesting that the resurgence of Islam in the 1970s resulted from the boom in oil wealth. At this point I don't know what causes fundamentalism‥[It] may be too complicated for us to figure out." — Daniel Pipes, 1994.
"In the long run, many academics were proved right." — David D. Newsom, 1995-96.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisted , by Benny Morris
The Modern History of Iraq , by Phebe Marr
Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied , by Toby Dodge
Seeds of Hate: How America's Flawed Middle East Policy Ignited the Jihad , Lawrence Pintak
Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power , ed. Azza Karam
Islamic Political Identity in Turkey , by M. Hakan Yavuz     

The particular role of religion in Islamic State

Religion, specifically Islam, is central to the identity of Islamic State (IS). It was on the basis of religious doctrine that IS separated from Al Qaeda. It is on the basis of his belonging to the same tribe as the Prophet Muhammed that Al-Baghdadi has legitimised his claims of leadership of the Muslim ummah. Moreover each action undertaken by IS is justified on the basis of Islamic religious texts. Far from representing some sort of lunatic fringe, the ideology of IS finds resonance among mainstream Muslims. Despite international efforts at countering violent extremism, the pessimistic prediction of this paper is that such efforts will fail and the world is set for a confrontation between liberal democracies and Islamists globally.     

Yigal Allon,Native Son: A Biography

T. S. Sadibayev's Islam i obshchyestvo: opit istoriko‐sotsiologichyeskogo isslyedovaniya, Islam and Society: an Essay of Historical‐Sociological Research (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1984: 304 pp.).

Islam v SSSR: osobyennosti protsyessa syekulyarizatsii v Ryespublikakh Sovyetskogo Vostoka, Islam in the Soviet Union: Characteristics of the Process of Secularization in the Republics of the Soviet East (Moscow: Misl’ Press for the Institute of Scientific Atheism in the Academy of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1983: 176 pp.).

L. I. Klimovich's Kniga o Koranye: Ego proiskhodzhdyenii i mifologii, The Book about the Koran: Its Origins and Myths (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1986; 272 pp.).

Islam v sovryemyennoy politikye stran Vostoka (Konyets 70‐kh nachalo 80‐kh godov XX v.). Islam in the Contemporary Politics of the Countries in the East: Late 1970s to Early 1980s (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 280 pp.)

Sotsialno‐politichyeskiye pryedstavleniya v Islamye: Istoriya i sovryemyenost’, Socio‐political Notions in Islam: History and Present (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987: 120 pp.).

A. A. Ignatyenko's Khalifi byez Khalifata, Caliphs Without a Caliphate (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1988; 208 pp.).

N. V. Dzhdanov and A. A. Ignatyenko, is entitled Islam na porogye XXI vyeka, Islam on the Threshold of the 21st Century (Moscow: Political Literature Press, 1989; 352 pp.).

M. I. Philippova has written Obshchyestvyenniye funktsii Islama v sovryemyennom Amyerikanskom Islamovyedyenii, The Social Functions of Islam in Contemporary American Islamology (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 149 pp.).

Islam: Kratkiy spravochik, Islam: A Short Guide (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1983; 160 pp.)

Islam: Entsyklopyedichyeskiy slovar’, Islam: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1991; 316 pp.).     

Works on Islam in Russian

Islam v politichyeskoy dzhizni stran Sovryemyennogo Blidzhnyego i Sryednyego Vostoka, Islam in the Political Life of the Countries of the Contemporary Near and Middle East (Erevan: Academy of Sciences of Soviet Armenia, 1986; 230 pp.)

N. Oganyesyan's ‘Islamic Activism’ (pp.7–47)

Ye. A. Abgaryan's ‘The Religious and Political Organization of the Muslim Brethren in Egypt’ (pp.48–133)

P.A. Saradzhyan's ‘Activity of the Muslim Brethren in Syria, 1979–82’ (pp. 134–76)

R.P. Kondakchyan's ‘The Strengthening of the Islamic Factor and the Policy of the Military Authorities in Turkey in Religious Affairs After the 1980 Coup d'Etat’ (pp.177–209)

G.M. Yeganyan's ‘Mutual Relations Between Shah and Clergy, 1950–1960’ (pp.210–28).

Yu.M. Kobishchanov's Istoriya rasprostranyeniya Islama v Afrikye, The Spread of Islam in Africa (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1987; 220 pp.)

N.I. Voronchanina's Islam v obshchyestvyenno‐politichyeskoy dzhizni Tunisa, Islam in the Socio‐Political Life of Tunisia (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1986; 192 pp.).

L.V. Val'kova, is entitled Saudovskaya Araviya: nyeft’, islam, politika, Saudi Arabia: Oil, Islam, Politics (Moscow, Nauka Press, 1987; 256 pp.).

S.A. Kirillina's Islam v obshchyestvyennoy dzhizni Yegipta (vtoraya polovina XIX‐nachalo XX v.), Islam in Egypt's Social Life, Second Half of the 19th Century to the Beginning of the 20^th (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1989; 204 pp.).

A.V. Kudryavtsyev's Islamskiy mir i Palyestinskaya problyema, The Islamic World and the Palestinian Problem (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 134 pp.)

V.N. Spol'nikov's Afganistan: Islamskaya oppozitsiya. Istoki i tsyeli, Afghanistan's Islamic Opposition: Sources and Objectives (Moscow: Nauka Press, 1990; 189 pp.)     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this issue: Burning Issues: Understanding and Misunderstanding the Middle East, A 40‐Year Chronicle , by John Mahoney, Jane Adas and Robert Norberg, editors. Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization , by Akbar Ahmed. The Many Faces of Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Muslim World , by Mohammed Ayoob. Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen , by Jillian Schwedler. Blood and Belief: The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence , by Aliza Marcus. The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide , by Guenter Lewy. The Armenian Rebellion at Van , by Justin McCarthy, Esat Arslan, Cemalettin Taskiran, Ömer Turan.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969–1993 , by Edward W. Said.
Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years , by Israel Shahak. Foreward by Gore Vidal.
All That Remains: the Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Walid Khalidi, ed.
The Palestine Liberation Organization: From Armed Struggle to the Declaration of Independence , by Jamal R. Nassar.
Building Peace in the Middle East, Challenges for States and Civil Society, edited by Elise Boulding.
Crisis in the Arabian Gulf: An Independent Iraqi View , by Omar Ali.
America and the Iraqi Crisis, 1990–1992: Origins and Aflermath , by Lester H. Brune.
Iraqi Statesman: A Portrait of Mohammed Fadhel Jamali , by Harry J. Almond.
Broadcasting in the Arab World: A Survey of the Electronic Media in the Middle East , by Douglas Boyd.     

Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra (1898–1974) on international relations: the discourse of a contemporary mainstream Islamist

The literature on Political Islam has not devoted ample space to the intellectual contributions of contemporary moderate Islamists. This article attempts to rectify this by examining the international relations discourse of a twentieth-century Egyptian religious scholar: Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zahra. Despite Abu Zahra's prominence in the Islamic world, his writings have received scant attention from academics. The article provides a close reading of his three principal works on international relations: al-?Alaqat al-Duwaliyya fi al-Islam, Nazhariyat al-Harb fi al-Islam and al-Wihda al-Islamiyya; as well as a fourth work with a significant bearing on the subject: al-Mujtama? al-Insani fi Dhil al-Islam. It contends that Abu Zahra's international relations discourse is part of a more than a century-old tradition of theorizing on international relations that dates back to the religious reformers Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdu. Accordingly, Abu Zahra is treated here as an exemplar of what I refer to as the moderate and reformist school in contemporary Islam, in contradistinction to the radical school that is associated with salafi-jihadist figures and movements. A close analysis of Abu Zahra's international relations discourse thus provides penetrating insights on one pivotal, albeit understudied, dimension of this reformist/moderate current in contemporary Islam: its perspectives on international relations.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait , by Mary Ann Tétreault All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies , by Michael Herb. Saddam's Secrets: The Hunt for Iraq's Hidden Weapons , by Tim Trevan. Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem‐Once and for All , by Scott Ritter. The Arab Shia: The Forgotten Muslims , by Graham E. A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza , by Rex Brynen. Water Politics in the Middle East: A Context for Conflict or Cooperation? , by Mostafa Dolatrar and Tim S. Gray. Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace , eds. Hussein A. Amery and Aaron T. Wolfe. Water Conflict: Economics, Politics, Law and the Palestinian‐Israeli Water Resources , by Sharif S. Elmusa. New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel , ed. Geoffrey Wigoder. The Oxford History of Islam , ed. John Esposito Islam and Central Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving Threat ? eds. Roald Sagdeev and Susan Eisenhower.     

Book NOTES

BIOGRAPHICAL REGISTER OF THE QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT 1930–1980. By D.B. Waterson and John Arnold.
BLACK ARMADA: Australia and the Struggle for Indonesian Independence 1942–49.
PUBLIC POLICY AND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. By Helen Praetz.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE STUDIES: History and International Relations. Vol. 6:l. Edited by John W.M. Chapman.
AFRICA GUIDE 1982. Edited by Enver Carim.
INSIDE THE THIRD WORLD: The Anatomy of Poverty. Second edition. By Paul Harrison.
FROM EMBARGO TO OSTPOLITIK: The Political Economy of West German-Soviet Relations 1955–1980. By Angela Stent.
GROUND RULES: Soviet and American Involvement in Regional Conflicts. By Joanne Gowa and Nils H. Wessell.
WORLD POLITICS SINCE 1945. Fourth edition. By Peter Calvocoressi.
AN INVITATION TO THE LAW. By C. G. Weeramantry.
DECENTRALISATION: Options and Issues. A Manual for Policy Makers. By Edward P. Wolfers, Diana Conyers, Peter Larmour & Yash P. Ghai.
DISARMAMENT AND WORLD DEVELOPMENT. Edited by Richard Jolly.
CHANGE PROCESSES IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS. By Lawrence T. Farley.
ON THE AUTONOMY OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE. By Eric A. Nodlinger.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace , by Dennis Ross.
The Truth about Camp David: The Untold Story about the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process , by Clayton E. Swisher.
The 9/11 Report. Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Authorized Edition.
Turkey-Iran Relations, 1979-2004: Revolution, Ideology, War, Coups and Geopolitics , by Robert Olson.
A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post-Cold War Era , by Matthew Connelly.