Suggested Readings

[This page is currently under development. More entries to follow]

The list below includes reading that may be assigned in class as well as suggestions for further readings on a range of topics and issues, including:

General Readings

Ernst, Carl W., Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World, Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization, San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2003.

Qur’an and Hadith

Click here to see a brief consideration of different English interpretations of the Qur’an.

Brown, Jonathan. Hadith : Muhammad’s Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oxford: Oneworld, 2009.

Mattson, Ingrid. The Story of the Qurʼan : Its History and Place in Muslim Life. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2008.

Sells, Michael Anthony. Approaching the Qurʼan : The Early Revelations. Ashland, Or: White Cloud Press, 1999.

Islamic Law

Hattox, “Wine, Coffee, and the Holy Law,” in Coffee and Coffeehouses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985), 46-60.

Powers, Paul R. “Interiors, Intentions, and the “spirituality” of Islamic Ritual Practice.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72, no. 2 (2004): 425-59.

Shi’a Islam

Dabashi, “Ta’ziyeh as Theatre of Protest,” The Drama Review 49 (2005), 91-99.

Gender & Sexuality

Muslims in America (and “the West”)

Curtis, Edward E. The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Malcolm X, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.

Ramadan, Tariq. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Islamophobia and Orientalism

Levey & Modood, “Liberal democracy, multicultural citizenship and the Danish Cartoon affair” in Levey, Modood, & Taylor. Secularism, Religion, and Multicultural Citizenship. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Trudeau, Garry. “The Abuse of Satire.” The Atlantic, April 11, 2015.