Islamic History & Religion: History & Religion

Written in the form of a memoir, this historical novel explores the meeting of two worlds, Islam and Christendom, through the adventures of real-life Arab traveler and geographer Hassan al-Wazzan.

The story of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, a Muslim slave who, in 1807, was captured, sold to slave traders, and sent to America. where he worked on a plantation in Mississippi. Ibrahima finally gained freedom in 1828 and returned to Africa, but soon died there.

The remarkable true story of an African prince, who endured the humiliation of slavery without ever losing his dignity or hope for freedom.

The story of an Indian slave who traveled to the Middle East 700 years ago and lived in a small village in Egypt.

While European intellectual, cultural, and commercial life stagnated during the early medieval period, Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion. Linked together by a web of religious, commercial, and intellectual connections, the different regions of Asia's vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with commerce, international diplomacy, and the brisk exchange of ideas.

By combining the best of what the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures had to offer, literature, science, and tolerance flourished in medieval Spain for 500 years until the Renaissance, when non-Catholics were executed or expelled.

Provides introduction to the major aspects of Muhammad's life and importance, with both Muslim and Western historical perspectives. 2 copies

British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili unveils the Arabic legacy of science and philosophy by returning to its roots in the Arab innovation that would advance science and jump-start the European Renaissance. Inspired by the Koranic injunction to study closely all of God's works, rulers throughout the Islamic world funded armies of scholars who gathered and translated Persian, Sanskrit, and Greek texts. From the ninth through the fourteenth centuries, these scholars built upon those foundations a scientific revolution that bridged the one-thousand-year gap between the ancient Greeks and the European Renaissance.

Anthony Shadid is one of the New York Times reports who was captured as a prisoner of war in Libya in 2011. After he was released, instead of returning to the U.S. or Beirut, where he had lived, Shadid goes to his his family's ancestral home in Lebanon. His goal is to reconstruct the house his great-grandfather built there. In the process he learns and explains the modern Middle East and the people there who have survived generations of war.

View these YouTube videos of Shadid's renovation.

Fatima Mernissi describes growing up in a domestic harem. Through the women of the harem, deprived of access to the outside world, she provides a picture of gender and sex in her Muslim culture.

Explains the veils' and headscarves' resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, and provides a portrait of contemporary Islam.

This novel captures life in Libya in the wake of Muammar al-Qaddafi's revolution. Through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy named Suleiman, we witness a family's struggle for survival against political suspicion and daily danger.

In this novel of modern Pakistan, the country's greatest poet is brutally murdered and his wife Samina, a political activist, then disappears. Their daughter Aasmaani has always believed that her mother abandoned her, but now, as a worker at Pakistan's first independent televsion station, Aasmaani receives messages written in her mother's secret code. Can Aasmaani decode the letters and find her mother?

F. E. Peters explains the similarities and differences of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He points out that all three faiths, whom the Muslims themselves refer to as "People of the Book," have much in common. Most notably, all embrace the practice of worshiping a God who intervenes in history on behalf of His people.

Provides introduction to the major aspects of Muhammad's life and importance, with both Muslim and Western historical perspectives. 2 copies

This is an introduction to the Qur'an. It explains the doctrines and key themes of the Qur'an and their significance to individual Muslims and the communities in which they live. It also explores the influence of the Qur'an on Muslim society, such as popular culture, law, art and architecture, literature, politics, science, and personal relationships.

In this 80-minute documentary, three 10-year old children leave their native countries to participate in one of the Islamic world's most famous competitions, a test of memory and recitation known as The International Holy Koran Competition. As the competition reaches its climax, Koran By Heart offers a compelling and nuanced glimpse into some of the pressures faced by the next generation of Muslims.

Through this selection of essays, speeches, interviews, articles, editorials, song lyrics, and biographies, Edward Lewis show us Islam in the American experience. He begins with a history of Muslims in the United States, then examines contemporary issues such as Islam and gender, Muslims and American politics, and emerging forms of Islamic spirituality.

Jalalu'l-Din Rumi was one of the greatest of the Persian mystical poets. In his writings he explored the profound themes that had evolved with Sufi thinkers, such as the nature of truth, of beauty, and of our spiritual relationship with God. Professor Nicholson translated these poems directly from the Persian language. This collection contains versions of over 100 short passages from Rumi's greatest works, together with brief explanatory notes.

Acts of Faith is an account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit organization to develop the interfaith youth movement. His story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people, and of the world-changing potential of the interfaith youth movement.

Through this selection of essays, speeches, interviews, articles, editorials, song lyrics, and biographies, Edward Lewis show us Islam in the American experience. He begins with a history of Muslims in the United States, then examines contemporary issues such as Islam and gender, Muslims and American politics, and emerging forms of Islamic spirituality.

Explains the veils' and headscarves' resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, and provides a portrait of contemporary Islam.