IIS Publishes A Companion to Muslim Cultures

The IIS is pleased to announce the publication of A Companion to Muslim Cultures, edited by Dr Amyn B. Sajoo. The third in the Muslim Heritage Series, this volume embarks on a journey that celebrates the many ways in which Muslims live and understand their faith.

At the heart of A Companion to Muslim Cultures is the idea that culture frames the relationship between God and the believer, as well as how believers relate to one another and to those amongst whom they live. The book takes the reader into the creative realms of architecture and book arts, music, technology and cosmopolitanism, the richly textured nature of the shari'a and even culinary styles and etiquette. With numerous images, it locates these themes in their historical context as well as in today’s Muslim landscapes, including the Western diaspora. Pluralism emerges as a core reality of what Islam has fostered in civilisations and communities across time — even as the umma seeks avenues of solidarity in an age of global dispersal.

An accomplished group of writers have strived to make the chapters in this Companion accessible in style, yet firmly grounded in sound scholarship. The book will appeal to both academics and students with an interest in how culture and faith have intertwined in shaping one of the world’s great religious traditions and indeed their shared experience of modernity.

The contributors include Abdullahi An-Na’im, Jonathan Bloom, Elena Caprioni, Morgan Clarke, Carl Ernst, Karim H. Karim, Hussein Keshani, Eva Sajoo, Amyn B. Sajoo, Jonathan Shannon, Earle Waugh and Mai Yamani.