Nice to see the addition to the very fine Oxford series of Very Short Introductions of a text that manages to be straightforwardly sympathetic to what might be regarded as an Islamic perspective. The two previous numbers relating to the faith, whilst being very readable were hardly written in a manner that suggests Islam has much to offer the world, Michael Cook's The Koran being pretty much overtly antagonistic, and Malise Ruthven's Islam judiciously, critically distanced from the world it purports to explain. Not that I see anything wrong with that at a personal level. It's bracing to have one's faith examined and found wanting: it ensures you reach an understanding of what such critical observers have missed, or misunderstood. However, I do find it somewhat troubling that a reader presumably seeking to understand Islam and what it involves is being guided by what I think one might fairly term typical Orientalists, to adopt Edward Said's useful term, in a series that seeks to give basic introductions to thinkers and concepts, as if no other point of view exists other than that of the unthinking true believers which is, almost by definition, not worth giving space to.
At least Jonathan A. C. Brown in his Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction makes a determined effort to explore the perspective of the true believers in a sincerely sympathetic manner, and is genuinely illuminating on what the life of the Prophet - peace be upon him - means in terms of Muslim piety and devotion. And the chapter dealing with the historiography involved is clear and balanced, leaving you to make up your own mind, and pointing you in directions that will allow you to do so when you read on, as clearly you must in order to do the subject justice.
Mind you, it'd be nice to see Oxford inviting someone like Tariq Ramadan to pen one of these intros for them. Maybe they could offer him Orientalism?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment