The Muslim Difference: Defining the Line between Believers and Unbelievers from Early Islam to the Present

by Youshaa Patel Narrated by Fajer Al-Kaisi

Overview

A sweeping history of Muslim identity from its origins in late antiquity to the present



How did Muslims across time and place define the line between themselves and their neighbors? Youshaa Patel explores why the Prophet Muhammad first advised his followers to emulate Christians and Jews, but then allegedly reversed course, urging them to "be different!" He details how subsequent generations of Muslim scholars canonized the Prophet's admonition into an influential doctrine against imitation that enjoined ordinary believers to embody and display their religious difference in public life.



Tracing this Islamic discourse from its origins in Arabia to Mamluk and Ottoman Damascus, colonial Egypt, and beyond, this sweeping intellectual and social history offers a panoramic view of Muslim identity, revealing unexpected intersections between religion and other markers of difference across ethnicity, gender, and status. Patel illustrates that contemporary debates in the West over visible expressions of Islam, from headscarves and beards to minarets and mosques, are just the latest iterations in a long history of how small differences have defined Muslim interreligious encounters.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

It is refreshing to read a work of such ambition and boldness. . . . Timely and suggestive.”—Philip Lewis, Islamochristiana

“Illuminating and well-written.”—Journal of Near Eastern Studies

“An engaging, stimulating, and incisive exploration of Muslim identity, providing a comprehensive account of the evolution of Muslim difference from the time of Prophet Muhammad to the modern era.”—Muhammad Yaseen Gada, Reading Religion

Finalist for the Excellence in the Study of Religion Book Award, Textual Studies category, sponsored by the American Academy of Religion (AAR)

Finalist for the Best First Book in the History of Religions Award, sponsored by the American Academy of Religion (AAR)

“Bodily difference is critical to defining culture, society and religion. The Muslim ‘difference’ has now been reimagined by Youshaa Patel in this lively, must read for all inquirers into embodied identity within and beyond Islam.”—Bruce Lawrence, author of Islamicate Cosmopolitan Spirit

“Youshaa Patel demonstrates the diversity among Islamic conceptions of the distinctions between Muslims and others—and, more importantly, shows why these differences matter.”—David Freidenreich, author of Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy

“How have Muslims drawn the line between themselves and others? This question was formative for Islam in its early days, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it remains crucial today. Clearly and engagingly, Youshaa Patel guides the reader through this hugely consequential history.”—Jonathan A. C. Brown, Georgetown University

“Few studies can compete with the depth and subtlety that Youshaa Patel has brought to the complex theological and religio-cultural subject of the need to display ‘Muslim difference’ from rival faiths and traditions. This will be required reading in the study of religion and Islamic studies.”—Ebrahim Moosa, University of Notre Dame

Bruce Lawrence

“Bodily difference is critical to defining culture, society and religion. The Muslim ‘difference’ has now been reimagined by Youshaa Patel in this lively, must read for all inquirers into embodied identity within and beyond Islam.”—Bruce Lawrence, author of Islamicate Cosmopolitan Spirit

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176731880
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	12/20/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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