About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-101009098373

ISBN-139781009098373

eBay Product ID (ePID)5057262740

Product Key Features

Book TitleHeresy and the Formation of Medieval Islamic Orthodoxy : The Making of Sunnism, from the Eighth to the Eleventh Century

Number of Pages336 Pages

LanguageEnglish

TopicComparative Religion, Middle East / General

Publication Year2023

IllustratorYes

GenreReligion, History

AuthorAhmad Khan

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Length9.3 in

Item Width6.2 in

Additional Product Features

LCCN2022-026169

Dewey Edition23/eng/20220622

Reviews'In important parts of the Middle East and South Asia's vast Sunni Muslim population, Islam and the school of practice initiated by Abu anifa have long been nearly synonymous. However, for the medieval clerics who first spoke of 'Sunni Islam', Abu anifa was a heretic. This rich and careful study details how Sunni Islam expanded to admit Abu anifa and the broad diversity of thought and practice found in the Muslim world today.' Jonathan A.C. Brown, Georgetown University, 'This is a highly original and important study which challenges many assumptions about how ideas around heresy and orthodoxy were articulated by early Sunnis. The book is deeply researched, and its nuanced arguments are supported by an impressively wide range of sources. The conclusions have significant ramifications for the field.' Harry Munt, University of York, 'With mastery of a wide range of sources, clarity of expression and methodological insight, Ahmad Khan guides us through the intricate ways in which accusations of heresy were constructed during the early Islamic period, the defensive reactions they provoked and how such processes contributed to the emergence of classical Sunnism.' Maribel Fierro, Spanish National Research Council

Dewey Decimal297.09/02

Table Of ContentList of figures; List of tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Notes on the text; Part I. History of Orthodoxy: 1. Introduction; 2. Discourses of heresy I (800-850); 3. Discourses of heresy II (859-950); Part II. Heresy and Society: 4. Regionalism and topographies of heresy; 5. Ethnogenesis and heresy; 6. Politics: rebellion and heresy; 7. Religion and society; Part III. Unmaking Heresy: Orthodoxy as History-Writing: 8. Man'qib: narratives of orthodoxy I; 9. Mas'nîd: narratives of orthodoxy II; Part IV. The Formation of Classical Sunnism: 10. Consensus and heresy; 11. Conclusion; References; Index.

SynopsisExploring the evolution of the categories of orthodoxy and heresy in medieval Islam, Ahmad Khan offers an original examination of the formation of Sunni Islam. Using an interdisciplinary lens, Khan illuminates the significant yet often neglected transformations in Islamic social, political and religious thought that took place during this period., Between the eighth and eleventh centuries, many defining features of classical Sunni Islam began to take shape. Among these was the formation of medieval Sunnism around the belief in the unimpeachable orthodoxy of four eponymous founders and their schools of law. In this original study, Ahmad Khan explores the history and cultural memory of one of these eponymous founders, Abu anifa. Showing how Abu anifa evolved from being the object of intense religious exclusion to a pillar of Sunni orthodoxy, Khan examines the concepts of orthodoxy and heresy, and outlines their changing meanings over the course of four centuries. He demonstrates that orthodoxy and heresy were neither fixed theological categories, nor pious fictions, but instead were impacted by everything from law and politics, to society and culture. This book illuminates the significant yet often neglected transformations in Islamic social, political and religious thought during this vibrant period.

LC Classification NumberBP166.14.H2K435 2022