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A Student's Notes on Books Read and To Be Read
for the'Understanding Islam' Course
Contents
- Beverley, James. Understanding Islam, Nelsonwood Publishing Group, 2001
- required for our course (we all bought it on registration) and most of you, like me, have no doubt read it by now
- I found it very useful -- for what they're worth, here are my notes on Beverley
- The Holy Qur'an
- again required for our course and most of you will have gone through much of it by now
- the 'translation' ('interpretation') I've had around the house for some time was by N. J. Dawood (an Iraqui Jew), Penguin Books, 1978
- some of my Muslim friends say this translation is flawed
- our course syllabus had recommended Yusuf Ali or Arberry
- brief comments on the various translations can be found on on this website
- it says that Dawood is "marred by serious mistakes of translation"; that Arberry contains no explanatory notes or background information and does contain some mistranslations; that Yosuf Ali stands out as readable with copious notes "reflective of Yusuf Ali's vast learning" but that nonetheless it quarrels with his "Sufistic bias"
- a useful website is the The Muslim Students Association of the University of Southern California website
- if you scroll down and click on one of the 114 sura (chapter) links at the bottom of the page it will take you to that chapter verse-by-verse with each verse in 3 translations (Yusuf Ali, Pickthal, and Shakir) -- this can be useful in seeing the extent to which the translations of the highly condensed and allusive Arabic language can differ one from the other
- for what they're worth here are my notes on the Qur'an -- you'll see I have lots of perplexed questions
- Sardar, Ziaauddin and Meryl Wyn Davies. The No-Nonsense Guide to Islam. Toronto: New Internationalist Publications and Between The Lines, 2004
- I found this in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto
- I found it very useful as well -- for what they're worth here are my notes on this book
- Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Ornament of the World: how Muslims, Jews, and Christians created a culture of tolerance in medieval Spain. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002.
- I found this in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto and am looking forward to reading it -- this is the one about the Golden Age in Andalusia -- well, actually, I've only just started to read this -- still a long way to go -- for what they're worth here are my very preliminary notes on this book
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- I haven't as yet been able to locate any of the other recommended books on our course list
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- Toropov, Brandon and Father Luke Buckles. The Complete Idiot's Guide to World Religions. Beach Book Productions, 2004.
- I picked this up in the Avid Reader in Cobourg -- Part 4 (Chapters 14 to 18) on Islam seems to me succinct and quite well done
- for what they're worth here are my notes on Part 4 of this book
- Manji, Irshad. The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-up Call for Honesty and Change
- I stumbled across this in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto -- it's an absolutely wonderful and gutsy book and I wholeheartedly recommend it to each of you -- gutsy because she receives lots of hate mail (but lots of support too) and the occasional death threat for her views
- for what they're worth here are my notes on this book
- Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. New York: Random House,2003
- this is a wonderful, recent best-seller and many of you may have seen it -- it's a devastating account of life in Koumeni Iran -- Nafisi was fired from the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil -- she now teaches at Johns Hopkins University in Washington
- while I have not made notes on the book itself, Nafisi has established "The Dialogue Project" at John Hopkins University at her website at dialogueproject.sais-jhu.edu/ and here are a few extracts of material from that website
- Angha, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah. The Fragrance of Sufism. University Press of America, 1996.
- this one was recommended to me by a friend who is an Iranian Shia Sufi (and with very firm opinions) who feels Nader Shah Angha (and nobody else) is worth reading -- I ordered it from Amazon.ca and just recently received it
- Hazrat Pir, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha ("Pir Oveyssi") is the 42nd Spiritual Leader (Pir) of the MTO School of Islamic Sufism (Maktab Tarighat Oveyssi Shahmaghsoudi)
- This is an interesting book but will take quite a bit of re-reading (particularly the 'The Approaching Promise' and 'The Secret Word' poems) to get much out of it -- it's strongly anti-rationalist -- for what they're worth here are my notes on this book
- Angha, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah. Sufism: The Reality of Religion. M.T.O. Shahmaghsoudi Publications, 1998.
- another book by the above author
- this is a good book -- the essential message being the necessity of personal revelation (after personal effort) -- again there is a strong anti-rationalist focus
- for what they're worth here are my notes on this book
- ed Helminski, Camille Adams. Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2003.
- actually I've only just started this book -- I found it in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto -- Helminski is a co-founder of the Threshold Society in California, an educational foundation in the Mevlevi tradition based on the teachings of Rumi -- also the first woman to translate a substantial portion of the Qur'an into English -- I wanted to know something about Sufism (see more elsewhere)
- for what they're worth here are my first few notes on this book
- ed. El Fadl, Khaled Abou. The Place of Tolerance in Islam. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.
- I found this in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto - an initial essay by El Fadl, followed by a collection of commenting essays by various authors, followed finally by a reply from El Fadl -- El Fadl argues that Islam is deeply tolerant and violence comes from misreadings of the Qur'an but many of his essayists have contrary opinions
- for what they're worth here are my first few notes on this book
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- ed. El Fadl, Khaled Abou. Islam and the Challenge of Democracy. Princeton University Press, 2004.
- I haven't started this yet -- I found it in either Chapters or Indigo in Toronto -- this is a collection of essays by various authors and the subject looked critically timely -- El Fadl is a Professor of Law at UCLA
- Angha, Molana Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah. Sufism and Knowledge. don't know publisher yet
- same author as The Fragrance of Sufism and Sufism: the Reality of Religion. -- again, I ordered it from Amazon.ca but haven't received it yet
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These are the books (already listed above) for which, to date, I have made notes and comments:
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http://www.rodmer.com/UnderstandingIslam/Books.html -- Revised Jan 1, 2005
rod@rodmer.com