No comments about The Battle of Karbala (Forgotten Books).

No comments about The Alawite Book (Forgotten Books).

No comments about Inquiries About Shi'a Islam.

2 comments about The Just Ruler in Shi'ite Islam: The Comprehensive Authority of the Jurist in Imamite Jurisprudence.

1. This book is a good history of development of the power of Muctehids in shi'ite Islam. Author takes from the time of fifth Imam to current day and explains the development of the concept of Vilayat. Various forms of Vilayat is discussed as they are developed in time due to socio-political and theological reasons. Author dwells consifdearly on few major Muctehids, Tusi, Hilli, Mufid and Al-Murtada, with whom all started. The current interpretation by Sabzawari, Burujurdi or Humeyni are not covered with necessary depth. At the end the book has a nice appendix regarding the Khums and whom it belongs. I wish the book was to finalaze more exposition of current conditions and rulings. the concept of Vilayat had too many dimensions and author covers all of them with patient. Time to time you think that you already read that concept in prior paragraph but they all have small nuances depending on their definition. One needs to read very slowly. The best part of the book is that, Author with full patient when he uses a phrase that has a concept associated in it and was covered before repeats same in brackets to remaind readers what it was, so you do not have to refer any dictionary in the back of the book.



2. One of the worst books on the subject. A major disappointment.

1 comments about Islam in Tibet: Including Islam in the Tibetan Cultural Sphere; Buddhist and Islamic Viewpoints of Ultimate Reality; and The Illustrated Narrative: Tibetan Caravans.

1. The title of this book is deceptive. It comes off as a heavy academic treatment of the prescence of Islam in Tibet, which is presented in a couple of short opening essays. They are good essays, sufficiently anecdotal and eye-opening, dismissing the popular notion of Tibetan culture as homogenous. And the acceptance and even promotion of Islam is a testimony to the religious tolerance espoused by Tibetan Buddhism.
   
   But as I said, this is deceptive, because the segment that gets last billing in the title, that is "The Illustrated Narrative, Tibetan Caravans," is nearly the entire book. It's a lively first hand account of the last caravans to travel over the Himalayas, from Leh, the capital of the primarily Buddhist area of Ladakh in NW India, to Lhasa. One purpose of this caravan was to take tribute to the Dalai Lama, which was somewhat problematic since the route was operated primarily by Moslems. Why the publisher thought it was necessary to make this end-around in promoting the book I don't know. I think a lively account of the last Tibetan caravan would outsell an academic treatise on Islam any day.
   
   Still, it's a great adventure tale, expanded from the memoirs of the last old man to lead the excursion. The caravan, three months on the road to Lhasa, was the only contact with the outside world that many of the small villages on the route had. Then, three months in Lhasa before the return trip home. On the way they encounter bandits, war lords, hospitable villages, disease, hardship, and joy. It is revealing because it shows not only the positive aspects of Tibetan society that are exalted through the culture in exile, but its warts as well. If you want an entertaining, realistic historical account of life in the Himalayas, this is a good read.

No comments about A Portrait of Pluralism: Aga Khan's Shia Ismaelis.

No comments about In the Name of Certitude: The Pursuit of Juridical and Political Infallibility in Shi`ite Islam.

4 comments about Know Your Islam.

1. this a good book for those who want a very general scope of islam and shiism



2. Synopsis: Poorly written, many definitions not explained, NOT representative of Islam and all of its traditions.

   This book touts itself as an authority on the subject of Islam as a whole, but its author has definate slants towards Shiism and makes statements that are biased, unsupportive, and in some cases directly contrary to stories detailed in the Qur'an.

   When I thumbed through this book at the bookstore I realized that the text and format was not of high quality, but it did provide the reader with 'quick study' pages that shared the overall structure of Islam. Upon thorough reading, I found many arabic names, words, and traditions not translated making it difficult to figure out what the author was describing. Additionally, the author was incapable from seperating his personal viewpoints from factual content about Islam when presenting his case. The book is an editor's nightmare, and should have never been written.

   This reader came away with a poor experience that painted Islam as narrow-minded, oppressive, and intellectually unrespectable - All of which it is not.

   Spend your pennies on other sources.




3. I have read this book perhaps over 50 times and have enjoyed it everytime! This book is intended for those who practice Shiaism and is a great insight to those of other sects and denominations to get a glimps at the core values that surround Shiaism. This book is not making any attempts to focus on Sunni practices, it is clearly a Shia book containg prescribed methodologies for Shias. I cannot read Arabic fluently so the translations and Roman-English make this book very useful. This book is simple to read and well-rounded without getting too focused on theory and history. It sticks to the basics like how to pray, fast, pay alms, ect. I have had previous editions of this book. The reading is simple enough for a second/third grader to understand.



4. This is not a bad book if you realize its inherent limitations, which may not be immediately obvious to the untrained observer.

   First of all, the title is misleading; it should be called "Know your Shiite Islam." I have nothing against Shiites - far from it, I think that they are a valid and necessary manifestation of that sea of spirituality known as Islam - but calling this book "Know your Islam" is like calling a book on Lutheranism "Know your Christianity."

   Secondly, I suspect that the book was primarily designed for people from a Shiite Islamic background who for one reason or another have become secularized, either due to long residence in the West or because they received a Westernized education. Seen from this point of view the book fulfills a useful niche.

   But for the average Westerner the book is a bit of a chore to understand without some experience of Islam on the ground. Be advised.

No comments about The Formative Period of Twelver Shi'ism: Hadith as Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad (Culture and Civilisation in the Middle East).

2 comments about The Vanished Imam: Musa Al Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon.

1. Though the place is Lebanon and the time is mid-20th century, the story it tells offers a lot of insight into the present situation in Iraq. Ajami gives a brief, cogent history of Shi'a religious beliefs, history and politics. Musa al-Sadr, the vanished imam of the title, is a tantalizing individual who tried to bridge the abyss between the Shi'a past and its future. I found the book and the bespoke imam fascinating. Lebanon in the 1970s was a misunderstood religious, political and international disaster and there are frighening parallels to the events of today.



2. This book is Ajami's best. It creates the ideological, sociological and historic context for the career of one of the most illustrious Iranian-born Lebanese Shiite mullahs in Lebanon. Ajami also provides clear genealogy of the roots of Mussa Sadr.
   
   In 1959, Sadr had arrived in Lebanon to succeed the mufti of Tyr in southern Lebanon. Unlike religious men of his time, Sadr took his position to unprecedented levels as he started preaching a reverse in the fortunes of the Shiite community of Lebanon that had presumably been until the arrival of Sadr a marginalized and impoverished group living under the grip of its unsympathetic feudal lords.
   
   Ajami skillfully captured the revolutionary and untraditional discourse of Sadr as he painted his importance in Shiite minds by comparing him to Shiite legendary imams. Ajami also highlighted the contradiction in Sadr's message upon the breakout of Lebanon's civil war in 1975. While Sadr first announced that he was opposed to violence, realities had in fact forced him to start forming his own armed militia.
   
   The book is informative while Ajami's entertaining style adds much value to this work.