Product Description
`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.
Customer Reviews:
Check and see.......2007-06-21
I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.
Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22
Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.
Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05
We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:
a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;
b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;
c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.
Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:
It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.
- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.
- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.
Fomenko goes by the following axioms:
- Chronology is the basis of history;
- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;
- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;
- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;
- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;
- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.
Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?
The Russians:
Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.
The Westerners:
Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.
The Chinese:
Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.
The Arabs:
Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.
The Divinity:
Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.
According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.
St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."
Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09
After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.
However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:
- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.
I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.
The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.
It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?
Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.
Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30
If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?
Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.
Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..
Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.
Book Description
Before 9/11, few Westerners had heard of Wahhabism. Today, it is a household word. Frequently mentioned in association with Osama bin Laden, Wahhabism is portrayed by the media and public officials as an intolerant, puritanical, militant interpretation of Islam that calls for the wholesale destruction of the West in a jihad of global proportions. In the first study ever undertaken of the writings of Wahhabism's founder, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1702-1791), Natana DeLong-Bas shatters these stereotypes and misconceptions. Her reading of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's works produces a revisionist thesis: Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was not the godfather of contemporary terrorist movements. Rather, he was a voice of reform, reflecting mainstream 18th-century Islamic thought. His vision of Islamic society was based upon a monotheism in which Muslims, Christians and Jews were to enjoy peaceful co-existence and cooperative commercial and treaty relations. Eschewing medieval interpretations of the Quran and hadith (sayings and deeds of the prophet Muhammad), Ibn Abd al-Wahhab called for direct, historically contextualized interpretation of scripture by both women and men. His understanding of theology and Islamic law was rooted in Quranic values, rather than literal interpretations. A strong proponent of women's rights, he called for a balance of rights between women and men both within marriage and in access to education and public space. In the most comprehensive study of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's interpretation of jihad ever written, DeLong-Bas details a vision in which jihad is strictly limited to the self-defense of the Muslim community against military aggression. Contemporary extremists like Osama bin Laden do not have their origins in Wahhabism, she shows. The hallmark jihadi focus on a cult of martyrdom, the strict division of the world into two necessarily opposing spheres, the wholescale destruction of both civilian life and property, and the call for global jihad are entirely absent from Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's writings. Instead, the militant stance of contemporary jihadism lies in adherence to the writings of the medieval scholar, Ibn Taymiyya, and the 20th century Egyptian radical, Sayyid Qutb. This pathbreaking book fills an enormous gap in the literature about Wahhabism by returning to the original writings of its founder. Bound to be controversial, it will be impossible to ignore.
Customer Reviews:
A detailed exposition of the source of Wahhabism, slightly misleading title.......2006-08-31
First, this book is not about modern politics of terrorism or jihadi war or whatever, but it is about Ibn al-Wahhab and his writings.
Although the previous reviewer makes some very important points that call into doubt some of the author's choices of sources, I still feel that this is a very dynamic and thorough brush on this topic.
First, the book does not pretend to discuss the merits of those extremists who think they are or are labeled "Wahhabists" in the modern world, nor does it discuss what others currently view or percieve "Wahhabism" to be. Thankfully, such topics are not considered as they are highly political.
What is considered is the views, rulings, and opinions of the man who founded what is today, in my opinion, not "Wahhabism", but simply a more unifying and simplistic view of Islamic belief. The books demonstrates that the term "Wahhabism" is a complex term, and that the ideas of Ibn al-Wahhab were quite well developed. He was not an extremist or fundamentalists or zealot, but simply a religious interpreter who's views are often misunderstood. The books also shows, through its in-depth discussion of Wahhab's views, that the extremist and militant movements of today often labeled or known as "Wahhabism" should be called, and the author has firmly convinced me of this, Tamiyaism, who was a medieval islamic scholar that is cited by extremists as much as Wahhab.
I do not pretend to be a scholar on Islamic theology and thought, but this book is a great source for understanding the foundation beliefs of Islam and the interpreting view of Ibn al-Wahhab. He was a man that was principly concerned with "shirk", which was considered falsely believing in something. This was a concern similar to the iconoclast in Eastern Byzantine Orthodox in the middle ages. Here an example that concerned Wahhab was muslims praying to a certain tree, which he regarded as praying to something other than god.
The author writes very fluidly and does cite from Wahhab's works extensively and also does an analysis of Wahhab's own citations of preceeding islamic scholars in his original works, highlighting who he most often agreed/disagreed with.
I highly recommend this book for people with at least a basic understanding of Islamic thought such as Hadiths, Surahs, Fiqh, and the doctrine of Tawhid and even Sufiism and its veils.
I encourage the other reviewer to at least suggest some more books on the topic that can further clarify this topic.
Unveiling a Work of Pseudo-scholarship.......2004-11-05
Natana J. Delong-Bas's book, "Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad," which purportedly explains Wahhabism "accurately" and dispels "myths" propagated by "polemics" of all colors, media pundits and all, is a rather welcome contribution - or so it seems, at first glance. The three-page Introduction portrayed several people - including Stephen Schwartz (footnote 1,7,9,11), Khaled Abou El Fadl (footnote 3), and myself (footnote 6) -- as examples of misinformed individuals, in the least, who portrayed Wahhabism inaccurately in their works. To the author, their anti-Wahhabi rhetoric, like many others, flew in the face of the facts that she allegedly gathered in her more than 300 pages of research, much of it translated into English for the first time. Delong-Bas's point: Wahhabism just isn't the scary monster it is said to be. Maybe it really was a "pathbreaking" (Oxford Press), "groundbreaking" (John L. Esposito), endeavor, I thought.
Could the portrayal of Wahhabism as intolerant and fanatical by hundreds, maybe thousands, of Muslim and non-Muslim scholars, authors, activists, students, etc. in 200+ years past be flawed? Should their positions be construed merely as a load of sophisticated/polemical gobbledygook? Does the author really open "the way for historians to reconsider and revise the standard, perhaps mistaken, notions about it" (David Commins)? One need not go to far into the book to answer such questions. Because of the author's main sources, the book fails miserably as a work of diligent scholarship.
In the Preface,Delong-Bas says: "Thanks are due to Faisal bin Salman, Abd Allah S. al-Uthaymin, and Dr. Fahd al-Semmari, Director of the King Abd al-Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for making the full corpus of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's works available to me [...]." This same research foundation was also one of three sources that provided "financial support" for her book. What follows is a brief description of who the author is thanking.
The Foundation is named after King Abd al-Aziz (1902-1953), the Wahhabi founder of Saudi Arabia who slaughtered non-Wahhabi Muslims (and even Wahhabi Muslims of the Ikhwan) in his path to "victory".
Abd Allah S. al-Uthaymin, a Wahhabi, is the author of "History of Saudi Arabia: From the Movement Reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab to King Abd al-Aziz."
Faisal bin Salman, known as "H.R.H. (His Royal Highness)" in Saudi Arabia, is one of the princes of the Wahhabi Al-Sa'ud monarchy. Somehow, Delong-Bas (Oxford Press?) did not add the "H.R.H." acronym before the prince's name in the Preface -obviously a part of the book read by many. However, she remembered to add the acronym in a tiny-lettered footnote #8 (Introduction) hidden well in the back of the book that few readers would perhaps bother to read. Why did Delong-Bas/Oxford Press do this? Were they trying to hide something?
Dr. Fahd al-Semmari, a Wahhabi, was deputy secretary of the kingdom's 100th Anniversary Committee, in addition to his current role as general director of the King Abd al-Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives. The foundation's mandate is to glorify the heritage of Saudi Arabia, including Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab who is a part of the heritage.
On page 14, Delong-Bas states the four main sources of biographical information of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab:
(1) contemporary chronicles written by his supporters, the most important of whom were Husayn Ibn Ghannam and Uthman Ibn Bishr; (2) polemical works written by his opponents, the most important of whom was Ahmad bin Zayni Dahlan; (3) accounts written by Western travelers to Arabia; and (4) Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's own written works.
She then says, "Of all of these accounts, the chronicles contain the most biographical information and are considered to be the most accurate in terms of biographical information because of the proximity of the writers to their subjects."
Does close proximity to Ibn Abd al-Wahhab/"subjects" necessarily mean the sources will be the "most accurate in terms of biographical information"? Common sense says no because Ibn Ghannam and Ibn Bishr are clearly stated to be Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's "supporters". It's like contacting a pro-Nazi foundation for a biography of Adolph Hitler, and portraying sources by Hitler's admirers as the "most accurate" because they were among the closest in "proximity" to him. Is there not a high possibility that Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's "supporters" mainly focused on his peaceful biographical aspects, and concealed his more extremist/jihadist aspects? Is it not possible that they, like any other supporter, would care to cast the biography of a man they like in a positive manner than in a negative manner? Common sense, again, says: In all likelihood.
There is, in fact, a high probability of inaccuracy from those sources, though this somehow escapes Delong-Bas's mind. Moreover, according to my count, the author has footnoted Ibn Ghannam only 4 times, but Ibn Bishr no less than 45 times, meaning that the bulk of "most accurate" biographical information of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab comes almost entirely from one source - again, from a pro-Wahhabi. How, then, can Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's biography, as presented in Delong Bas's book, be taken seriously by any objective scholar? It cannot.
While pro-Wahhabis are used as "most accurate" sources, information from Wahhabi opponents "has not been used extensively" because they (1) are "extremely polemical in style rather than factual or straightforward"; (2) they address "later developments" of the Wahhabi movement; and (3) "because of their polemical nature, these accounts tend to be more useful in reconstructing impressions of the movement than in recounting events or teachings." And that's why "polemical works have been largely discarded" in giving the biography of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the "early teachings of the movement."
But what makes the sources of two Wahhabi supporters more accurate than the works of Wahhabi opponents? While the former are closer in time to Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, they are his biased supporters. The latter, however, though further away in time from the Wahhabi founder's period of existence, may - and indeed, do - have accurate information, especially on how Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's teachings contradicted the teachings that orthodox Sunni Muslims had been following for over 1,000 years.
For example, Delong-Bas provides Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's interpretations of intercession (tawassul) in his "Kitab al-Tawhid" without stating that he contradicted many verses of the Qur'an, hadeeth, and interpretations provided by Sunni orthodox scholars (ulema) throughout the history of Islam (except Ibn Taymiyah and his followers who were the first to deviate from mainstream Sunni Islam on the issue). With an unorthodox interpretation of a genuinely valid Islamic practice, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab accuses the vast lot of Muslims who do 'tawassul' of committing polytheism (shirk) -- the only unforgivable sin in Islam. He then allows his followers to massacre them, believing that they are doing a very noble deed and following the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad when, in fact, they are doing exactly the opposite.
From a source perspective, how, to any basic researcher, can this book be called a "pathbreaking" and "groundbreaking" work when sources for a book on Wahhabism are provided by Wahhabis, when the sources themselves are written by Wahhabis, and when the research endeavor is partially financed by Wahhabis? I'm sure you see how "objective" and "balanced" Delong-Bas's research is.
Contact me by e-mail for a more detailed unveiling of Delong-Bas's pseudo-scholarship and insult to the moderate/orthodox Muslims. (...)
Book Description
In November of 2002, the Justice and Development Party swept to victory in the Turkish parliamentary elections. Because of the party's Islamic roots, its electoral triumph has sparked a host of questions both in Turkey and in the West: Does the party harbor a secret Islamist agenda? Will the new government seek to overturn nearly a century of secularization stemming from Kemal Ataturk's early-twentieth-century reforms? Most fundamentally, is Islam compatible with democracy? In this penetrating work, M. Hakan Yavuz seeks to answer these questions, and to provide a comprehensive analysis of Islamic political identity in Turkey. He begins in the early twentieth century, when Kemal Ataturk led Turkey through a process of rapid secularization and crushed Islamic opposition to his authoritarian rule. Yavuz argues that, since Ataturk's death in 1938, however, Turkey has been gradually moving away from his militant secularism and experiencing "a quiet Muslim reformation." Islamic political identity is not homogeneous, says Yavuz, but can be modern and progressive as well as conservative and potentially authoritarian. While the West has traditionally seen Kemalism as an engine for reform against "reactionary" political Islam, in fact the Kemalist establishment has traditionally used the "Islamic threat" as an excuse to avoid democratization and thus hold on to power. Yavuz offers an account of the "soft coup" of 1997, in which the Kemalist military-bureaucratic establishment overthrew the democratically elected coalition government, which was led by the pro-Islamic Refah party. He argues that the soft coup plunged Turkey into a renewed legitimacy crisis which can only be resolved by the liberalization of the political system. The book ends with a discussion of the most recent election and its implications for Turkey and the Muslim world. Yavuz argues that Islamic social movements can be important agents for promoting a democratic and pluralistic society, and that the Turkish example holds long term promise for the rest of the Muslim world. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, this work offers a sophisticated new understanding of the role of political Islam in one of the world's most strategically important countries.
Customer Reviews:
re-contextualizing turkey.......2007-04-24
M. Hakan Yavuz's book Islamic Political Identity in Turkey claims that the reconstitution or re-imagining of identity is not contingent upon historical context and political forces, but rather constructed by them. Islamic movements in Turkey has developed when the state liberalized, filling the space by politicizing religion and changing the terms of politics to be applicable to their context. Yavuz offers an informative and readable scholarly work, but his re-contextualization of Turkish Islamic identity ultimately muddles his constructivist claims.
The historical background for the thesis is plentiful, though not always objective. Yavuz explains that the autocratic Kemalist regime of Ataturk embarked upon a modernization and secularization program that did not impact rural, traditional identities. Indeed, the state appeared to be completely hostile to religion and its thwarting of attempts at political and religious organization in the early days of the republic. Islam was initially a way of challenging the imposed secularism of the government and it remains "a debate about the boundary of state and society, the public and private" (31). Furthermore, economic and political liberalization over the history of Turkey allowed for "opportunity spaces" where "identities and lifestyles are performed, contested, and implemented" (24). Within these spaces, mechanisms such as the modern press, educational institutions and the Internet allowed for Islamic identity construction. Islam was also, at times, used as a tool of the parties in power, such as the military in the 1980s, who developed an Islamist-Turkish synthesis. Yavuz explains that Islamic groups articulate their version of "the good life" in a constant give and take with what the state offers. He does not suggest that Islam filled the so-called opportunity spaces because of piety and ethical concerns alone -- in fact, his schema for classifying movements seems to disapprove of internally focused groups who do not make social change their objective.
Yavuz's organization of the book, particularly his introductory chapters, were helpful for advancing the framework necessary for his conclusion, with the exception of some confusing technicalities. He claims his academic work is beyond the "essentialist" and "contextualist" scholarship that preceded it but goes on to give a period by period account of the politicization of Islamic identity in Turkey. In this sense, at least the first three chapters are "contextualist." That the historical context is a crucial factor leading up to his explanation of Islamic groups is evidence that the method is useful.
Yavuz's scholarship on Turkey seemed legitimate, though he could have used a bit more theory regarding identity construction rather than interspersing it repetitively within each case study. Also the text often borders on polemic when it discusses Kemalism and Yavuz repeats the same factors in the dissemination of Islamic groups information and growth and ends up with some superfluous discussion of print in Islamic discourse. The book could have been shorter, though it is still worthy of reading if one is an academic interested in an interdisciplinary take on the evolution of Islamic groups. It might be an arduous task for a person without an academic interest in Turkey. The book would also be particularly helpful for students looking for a unique take on Turkish modernity, provided they are prepared for Yavuz's subjectivity on Kemalism.
Yavuz's depiction of Kemalism is such that the state appears homogenous and monolithic while religion is described ad nauseam as fluid and evolving. Perhaps Islam in Turkey is more open to change than the state apparatus and ideology, but it is necessary to note that the re-imagination of which Yavuz speaks also operates in response to a state-controlled, political level when the government allows for intermittent democratization. The evolution of the Kemalist state seems a closed, well-defined project when it was really a mix of policies, sometimes ad-hoc, aimed at modernization. The beginning of the program certainly had specific objectives (the "Six Arrows") which profoundly impacted some elements of Turkish society, but the irony is that the evolution of the republican establishment was instrumental in the construction of the pluralistic Islam Yavuz applauds.
Thus the most memorable element of Yavuz's entire book in my opinion was not the Islamic political movements, but rather the impact of the Ottoman state and the continuity of state tradition aimed at rationalizing and homogenizing Turkey throughout the Kemalist regime. This lends itself not so much to the conclusion that Islamic groups are beneficial for society, but that they have developed uniquely in one particular case as the result of a continual history of cooptation and exclusion by the state. When identity is defined in the same political space as such a state, the difference between causation and construction is less straightforward. As in Said Arjomand's book, the Turban for the Crown, a government-led modernizing project appears to be the nexus around which social movements come into being and evolve, whether in opposition or in filling open space delegated to them by the government.
Leading theoretical work on Islam, politics, and democracy........2004-02-25
The illiterate readers, (considering their spelling and grammar),who gave this path breaking book negative reviews obviously have some axe to grind while lacking any graduate level training in political science or contemporary Turkish politics and society. While the bookshelves are filled with the pap produced by third rate journalist and instant pundits on Islam and politics, this contribution is a serendipitous discovery. Yavuz is the first to have conducted indepth field work on the gamut of Turkish Islamic political and social movements. He has obviously mastered the theoretical literature on political development and transitions to democracy. He applies these insights in a novel fashion in being the first Western based scholar to predict the rise of the current AKP party of PM Erdogan into power. Yavuz shows the conditions under which oppositional Islamic movements can move toward the promotion of democratic reforms and pluralism and liberalism more generally. Given the present mess in the Middle East and Iraq, the theoretical insights of this book are absolutely vital in discerning the conditions under which Islamic political and social movements may achieve compatibility with liberal democratic norms and modernity. In addition to scholars of modern Turkey and the Middle East, this book should be required reading for all American policy makers dealing with the wider region.
A PROMISSING TITLE BUT A WEAK CONTENT.......2003-12-02
The title gives you an idea of having a very promissing book, but after you read, it doesn't make any sense at all.The book is a repetition of Resat Kasaba, Nilufer Gole, John Esposito, Graham Fuller etc.So, instead of wasting $50 bucks and days of torture of reading, I would suggest to go for the scholars that are more relevant with the topic.It seems that Yavuz looks at every islamic movement through "political" glasses even the fact Gulen and Suleymanci movements have nothing to do with it.Or seing every single movement in Turkey through Naksibendi Sufi Order mind might be because he couldn't produce any idea but stick with his Ph.D thesis as a promissing future(!).Besides, the book was just relaesed but it's already outdated with the fast changing pace of Turkey.The Gulen movement is not "national" and "turkish" anymore or the RP's fast up-and-down move is not possible to explained with Yavuz's "constractivist" ideology, even he tries to cover that with AKP's success in the last chapter. He should get more help from his Pol-Sci students if he really want be a well-known scholar.
a window into Islamic movements in Turkey.......2003-11-27
Hakan Yavuz takes his reader's into a detailed journey into the largely unknown aspects of Islamic movements in Turkey. So far Islamic movements both in Turkey and elsewhere have been discussed with a bias on political movements. Yavuz' book is important in the sense that it also covers social Islamic movements, most specifically the Nurcu movement in Turkey. What I like about this book is its theoretical framework that takes on the traditional modernist perspective's dichotomous understanding of modernity and tradition. highly recommended to any student of Islam and Turkey.
Interesting and intelligent discussion on islam in Turkey.......2003-11-26
A well-crafted comprehensive look at the role of Islam in Turkey. The book offers some original and compelling explanations regarding the social transformation that Turkey has experienced since the 1980s. Specifically, the author mentions the role of opportunity spaces in the evolution of Islamic movements and ideas as a result of economic and political liberalization.I think anyone who is interested in Turkey, Islamic movements, and the relationship between Islam and modernity would get a great deal out of this book.
Book Description
Music in Egypt is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present. Visit www.oup.com/us/globalmusic for a list of case studies in the Global Music Series. The website also includes instructional materials to accompany each study. Music in Egypt provides an overview of the country's rich and dynamic contemporary musical landscape. It offers an in-depth look at specific Egyptian musical traditions, paying special attention to performers and the variety of contexts in which performances occur. The book acknowledges the pervasive presence of Islam by focusing on two Muslim performance genres and by considering the age-old issue of the compatibility of music and Islam. It accomplishes the latter by incorporating the voices of many of the performers featured on the accompanying CD. The volume features a variety of musics that reflect and help to create a number of distinct regional, national, and community identities co-existing in Egypt today. Drawing on more than twenty years of extensive fieldwork, Scott L. Marcus offers detailed ethnographic documentation of seven performance traditions found in Egypt today: the call to prayer; madh, a genre of Sufi religious music; southern Egyptian mizmar folk music; early twentieth-century takht-based art music; music by the acclaimed singer Umm Kulthum, which dominated the mid-twentieth century; wedding procession music; and music by the current superstar pop singer Hakim. The book is packaged with an 80-minute audio CD containing excellent examples of each tradition. All of the examples are based in a single melodic mode--maqam rast--to best engage students with the musical form, structure, and practice of the traditions. Separate educational tracks on the CD introduce maqam rast and the variety of rhythms found in the CD examples. In addition, the CD features a special solo improvisation (taqasim) in maqam rast by UCLA professor Ali Jihad Racy, to help students better understand this particular melodic mode. Enhanced by eyewitness accounts of performances, interviews with performers, listening examples, and song lyrics that enable students to interact with the text, Music in Egypt provides a unique and hands-on introduction to the country's diverse and captivating music.
Customer Reviews:
A Superb Survey and Introduction.......2006-12-11
[Actually 4.5 stars] The quality of the various books in the Global Music Series varies, of course, as much as with the author as with the form and location of the music examined. Some such books bog down in the nuances of the particular music; others spend too much time in social and historic matters. Similarly, the accompanying CD may offer examples that are too short or too involved in demonstrating form and not the overall effect. Marcus achieves the best balance of both text and example. His writing is engaging and the historical and sociological development of Egyptian music is clearly presented. The detailed analysis of Umm Kulthum and her musical example is so exciting that one is anxious to actually hear it. The CD itself is so good that it can stand alone; 65 minutes of samples of genre pass by before the didactic section begins, which are scales of maqam and rhythmic examples. A reader/listener can learn much quickly and easily from perusing this book. It can lead to further study and appreciation of Arabic music and thereby the culture as well.
Book Description
The Global Studies series is designed to provide comprehensive background information and selected world press articles on the regions and countries of the world. This edition of Global Studies: Islam and the Muslim World is a mini-encyclopedia on the subject. The Preface maintains that we are living in a globally interdependent world in which it is imperative for the non-Muslim world to understand the faith of 1.3 billion Muslims who live all over the world. Part I comprises two chapters: Chapter 1 is a timeline of the “Momentous Events And Influential Muslims That Have Shaped Islamic Civilization (570-1605 CE);” Chapter 2, “Understanding Islam, Muslims, Islamism, and Anti-Americanism,” comprises sections on the “Fundamentals of Islam,” “Islamism,” “Myths and Misconceptions About Islam and Muslims,” as well as “Islamophobia in the West and Anti-Westernism/Anti-Americanism in the Muslim World.” Chapter 2 also has several informative boxes and tables that present vitally important matters pertaining to Islam and Islamism at a glance. The two boxes are “The Ninety-Nine Names of God” and “Sensational Events in the Media about Islam and Muslims.” The six tables in the chapter are “Sunnis and Shi`as: A Comparison of Islam’s Two Major Sects,” “A Comparison of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity,” “Jesus and Muhammad: Founders of the World’s Two Largest Religions,” “Islam and the Nation of Islam: A Comparative Overview,” “Revolutionary Islamists and Muslim Secularists: A Succinct Comparison,” and “A Comparison of Revolutionary Islamists and Progressive Islamists.” Part II comprises informative “Country Reports” for the fifty-seven member states that represent the Muslim world’s interests through the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). Part III provides readers with world press articles on various aspects of the World of Islam. This book also provides readers with a list of annotated Internet sites on Islam. In addition, a list of articles and books on Islam and the Muslim world, a selected glossary of key terms, and a comprehensive and easy to access index are provided.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read Book.......2006-01-06
As a student of political science and international relations I always look for new publications that relates to the Middle East. When I first heard about this book from a friend of mine; I asked him if I can borrow it to go over the book quickly. I was amazed how the author was able to capture all the significant and important aspects of Islam and the Muslim world in the most simple and easy to follow method. I loved the tables in the book and how the author was able to compare and contrast between the different elements of Islam. This book has many important articles written by prominent scholars in the field of international politics and Middle Eastern Studies. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested to learn the surface and depth about Islam and the Muslim World. I have decided to buy this book and added it to my small library.
Customer Reviews:
A Must Read.......2006-01-09
The Author does an excellent job discussing relevant issues as they relate to issues surrounding Islam. The author explains important facts about Islam and how the religion has evolved over the centuries and explains the dynamics confronting Muslims, who are not fundamentalist or zealots. Great information for both students and readers interested in the dynamics facing the U.S. as it relates to Middle East policy.
Book Description
This wide-ranging set of essays explores the multi-faceted relationship between Islam and democracy. Each essayist's unique viewpoint on contemporary Islam provides insight into Islamic political thought and its connection to Western democracy.
Average customer rating:
- Essential reading for any who would understand opposing viewpoints in these issues
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The Islam/West Debate: Documents from a Global Debate on Terrorism, U.S. Policy, and the Middle East
David Blankenhorn
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
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| Nonfiction
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History & Theory
| Politics
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Relations
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Terrorism
| Current Events
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General
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Public Policy
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General
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Similar Items:
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Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
ASIN: 0742550079 |
Book Description
In 2002, sixty prominent American intellectuals released an open letter defending the use of military force against al-Qa'ida, sparking an impassioned international debate unlike any other, in which jihadists, journalists, liberal Muslims, and German pacifists engaged one another on the most pressing issues of our time: terrorism, U.S. policy, and Islam-West relations. This volume chronicles that debate and includes contributions from both sides of the political spectrum in America and the Middle East-and even from al-Qa'ida. Published in cooperation with the Institute for American Values.
Customer Reviews:
Essential reading for any who would understand opposing viewpoints in these issues.......2006-05-21
In 2002 sixty American intellectuals published an open letter defending the use of military force against terrorists - a letter which sparked an international debate in which liberal Muslims, journalists, and jihadists alike discussed terrorism, US policy and East/West relations. Documents from these global discussions are gathered in THE ISLAM/WEST DEBATE, a collection which should be considered a 'must' not only for college-level holdings but for public libraries seeking to include a representative sampling of discussions on Islam. Discussions cover what principles groups represent and why, what is being defended, and the reasons behind Muslim antagonism to others. Essential reading for any who would understand opposing viewpoints in these issues.
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
Average customer rating:
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The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact
John L. Esposito
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Revolutionary
| Historical Study
| History
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Iran
| Middle East
| History
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Islamic
| World
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General
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Relations
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| Ramadan
| Shi'ism
| Sufism
| Sunnism
| Theology
| Women in Islam
ASIN: 0813010179 |
Book Description
Marking the tenth anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini's triumphant return to the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1989 proved a benchmark year in Iran's history, with the condemnation of author Salman Rushdie to execution, the denunciation or Iranian liberals and the West, the removal of Khomeini's chosen successor, and the death of Khomeini himself.
John L. Esposito introduces The Iranian Revolution with an explanation of why the present is a turning point for Iran. He isolates the export of Islamic revolution as central to the Republic's character. A concise description of the complexities of that issue is followed by a discussion of its effects within and outside Iran, with the majority of the collection then devoted to insightful analyses of the Republic's impact throughout the Islamic world.
International experts from Iran, Europe, Africa, and the United States assess worldwide impact of the Iranian Revolution on other Muslim societies and give us a remarkable analysis of the status of Islamic revivalism in a far-flung array of Islamic statues and societies—Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria, Turkey, the USSR, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Iraq.
The book owes its quality not only to the currency of its subject matter but also to its distinguished contributors, who address such issues as the failure of the Iranian revolution to replicate itself in other countries and the extent to which Iran's experience has shaped the politics, economics, and cultures of other countries.
Sponsors of the book and of the 1989 conference that inspired it are the Middle East Institute, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Royal Institute of International Affairs.
This objective and thought-provoking assessment of the Islamic Republic of Iran's success to date in implementing its objectives, as well as its prospects for the future, makes timely reading for anyone seeking an understanding of the revolution's impact.
Books:
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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