Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam - Couverture rigide

Firestone, Reuven

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0195125800 ISBN 13 : 9780195125801

Editeur : Oxford University Press Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Since the Islamic resurgence began to make news, the Islamic idea of holy war, or "jihad", has been the subject of tremendous media attention - much of it sensationalistic. This study attempts to discover where and when the idea of jihad originated, and to trace its early development. Firestone finds no evidence for religiously motivated warring in pre-Islamic Arabian cultures, or indeed for ideological warring of any kind, despite the common occurrence of intertribal raids and warring as a normal part of an ancient Arabian life. He seeks to discover the forces in early Islam that precipitated this powerful and successful war concept. Tracing the social and historical changes experienced during the transition from pre-Islamic Arabian culture to the religious civilization of Islam, Firestone concludes that, at base, jihad is an indigenous Arabian phenomenon. It resulted, he says, from the mixture of old Arabian culture with innovations in the traditional social structure and world view engendered by the introduction of Islamic monotheism. The cauldron in which this mixture produced its new product, says Firestone, was Medina, where the various forces came together in the formation of the religious community of Muslims known as the Umma. This historical reconstruction challenges the traditional "evolutionary theory" of holy war, which was first established by medieval Muslim scholars and has until now been accepted uncritically by Western scholarship. In its place Firestone offers a far more nuanced understanding, based on careful philological analysis of Islamic texts in conjunction with the application of contemporary methodologies in anthropology, history, and the study of religion. His analysis goes far towards explaining not only why the young Islamic polity was so successful militarily, but how the disparate populations that made up the followers of Muhammed came together as a cohesive movement in which religious identity replaced ancient kinship patterns as the basis of group loyalty.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Reuven Firestone is Professor of Judaism and Islam and Director of the Graduate School of Judaic Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press Inc
• Date d'édition: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0195125800
• ISBN 13: 9780195125801
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 208
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie