Routledge Library Editions: Politics of Islam brings together as one set, or individual volumes, a series of previously out-of-print classics from a variety of academic imprints. With titles ranging from Holy Wars: the Rise of Fundamentalism (1989) to Islam and Politics in Afghanistan (1995) and Traditional Islam in the Modern World (1987), this set provides in one place a wealth of important reference sources from a wide range of authors expert in the field.

This is a study of the structure and composition of the official learning current in medieval Arabic culture. This comprises natural sciences both exoteric and esoteric (medicine, alchemy, astrology and others), traditional and religious sciences (such as theology, exegesis and grammar), philosophical sciences such as metaphysics and ethics, in addition to technical disciplines like political theory and medicine, and other fields of intellectual endeavour.

The book identifies and develops a number of conceptual elements common to the various areas of official Arabic scientific...

The recent resurgence of Islam in the Middle East is a far more complex phenomenon than is often suggested by those analyses which reduce recent developments in the area to no more than an intensification of religiosity.

Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East challenges that perception of the contemporary Middle East. It explores the nature of the Islamic revival and attempts to establish the original impulse behind particular instances of Islamic resurgence. It also examines the degree to which religious institutions have served as a mechanism for expressing secular...

The 1970s witnessed a mushrooming of Islamic movements and ideas which was described variously as Islamic revival, Islamic resurgence and Islam on the march. Whether as part of the majority or minority, whether under capitalist or socialist regimes, Muslims have been moved by this reawakening. But what really are the causes and nature of this Islamic resurgence? Is it a purely religious revival? Or is it a social and political movement that must be understood in the context of the Muslim's conditions and milieu? Will it really lead to the establishment of an Islamic socio-political order...

The intention of this book is to explore the relationship between an ideological idiom and the changing social movement in which it operates. The basic question is that of what roles an Islamic symbol complex played in different phases of the Palestinian nationalist movement, and what were the socio-economic factors which help to explain, and are themselves partially explained by, the appearance of these roles. Islam was ideologically 'appropriate' at different stages in the development of the movement, and this study examines in what way, and why.

First published in 1982.

There has been a significant upsurge of western interest in the political manifestations and significance of Islam in the last decade, fuelled by the notion of Islamic 'revival', the Iranian revolution and by events in countries as diverse as Egypt, Pakistan and Sudan.

Oil power and its effect on the international economic order, the relationship of Muslim countries with the superpowers and the continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict have also served to focus attention on Islamic politics and, in particular, on the notion of Islamic reassertion.

As the author of this book...

In recent years, events in the Islamic world have captured the attention of the West to an unprecedented degree. However, much of the media coverage of events like the Islamic revolution in Iran has merely reinforced current prejudices and misconceptions about Islam.

This collection of essays, by specialists in a variety of disciplines, gives an impressionistic overview of contemporary Islam. Different areas of Islamic life are singled out for special attention; these include the problem of relations between Islam and the West, the role of the Sufi orders and the revival of religious...

Islam is a burning topic in modern scholarship and contemporary world affairs. It is a subject poorly understood by Western observers, and in this book Professor Montgomery Watt takes a significant step towards its demystification.

Montgomery Watt examines the crucial questions of traditional world-view and self-image which dominate the thinking of Muslims today. This traditional self-image causes them to perceive world events in a different perspective from Westerners - a fact not always appreciated by the foreign ministries of Western powers. Professor Watt presents a brilliant...

This book underlines the mutability of Islamic law and attempts to relate its substantive and institutional varieties and transformations to social, political, economic and other historical circumstances. The studies in the book range from discussion of the received wisdom in Islamic law to studies of legal institutions and the theoretical means employed by Islamic law for the accommodation of changing historical circumstances.

First published in 1988.

The basis of Muslim philosophy and science is the instruction buried in the Quran. At an early date this tradition was enlarged and strengthened by the infiltration into Muslim culture of Greek philosophy and science through the translation of Greek classics by Muslims. The Indian tradition of thought also made its contribution to this intellectual leaven.

This book traces the development and interaction of these strands in Muslim thinking. The author is concerned to show both how philosophy and science are related to specifically religious thought, and how they have made...