New Books in Islamic Studies

Alaina M. Morgan, historian and assistant professor studying Black and Muslim diasporas. She explains the “Atlantic Crescent” linking Black, Afro-Caribbean, and South Asian Muslim encounters. Topics include newspapers as layered archives, transnational figures like Abdul Basi Naim, Nation of Islam internationalism and Malcolm X, and Bermuda as a hub for diasporic circulation and political organizing.

Adam Bursi’s Traces of the Prophets: Relics and Sacred Spaces in Early Islam (Edinburg University Press, 2024) uses writings by early Muslims to map a history of material objects, relics, and tombs of prophetic figures as they were conceptualized in the 8th and 9th centuries. The book draws from various genres of writings, including biographies and hadith of the Prophet Muhammad and Qur’an commentaries and juristic compilations to capture the tensions and practices around tomb and relic veneration. Some of the discussion of Muslim relic veneration are polemical as they aim to establish some boundaries around similar pious practices amongst Jewish and Christian communities. In the process, we learn that there were indeed debates with regards to the post-mortem “traces” or “athar” of Muhammad’s tomb, which then impacted how spaces associated with him were also perceived, as well as other prophetic figures like Ibrahim (Abraham) or Daniel. Such examples raise conceptual questions of absence and presence and Prophet Muhammad’s capacity for intercession and obligatory versus non-obligatory rituals. In charting these early Muslim debates and narratives, Bursi masterfully captures the differing approaches Muslims had to holy bodies and sacred spaces. The book will be of interest to scholars who think about early Islamic history and also for scholars who work on contemporary Islamic material and shrine cultures.Shobhana Xavier is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Queen’s University. More details about her research and scholarship may be found here and here. She may be reached at shobhana.xavier@queensu.ca. You can follow her on Twitter via @shobhanaxavier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

Christopher J. Bonura, an Assistant Professor of History and expert in late antique apocalyptic literature, discusses the influential Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius. He reveals how this seventh-century text reflected Christians' political realities under Islamic rule. The conversation dives into its Syriac origins, the narrative's impact across cultures, and how it reshaped perceptions of the Roman Empire in apocalyptic thought. Bonura also highlights the text's adaptations in Byzantine and Armenian contexts, showcasing its enduring relevance in political theology.

In The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims (U California Press, 2023), Khaled A. Beydoun details how the American War on Terror has facilitated and intensified the network of anti-Muslim campaigns unfolding across the world. The New Crusades is the first book of its kind, offering a critical and intimate examination of global Islamophobia and its manifestations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and regions beyond and in between. Through trenchant analysis and direct testimony from Muslims on the ground, Beydoun interrogates how Islamophobia acts as a unifying global thread of state and social bigotry, instigating both liberal and right-wing hate-mongering. Whether imposed by way of hijab bans in France, state-sponsored hate speech and violence in India, or the network of concentration camps in China, Islamophobia unravels into distinct systems of demonization and oppression across the post-9/11 geopolitical landscape. Lucid and poignant, The New Crusades reveals that Islamophobia is not only a worldwide phenomenon—it stands as one of the world's last bastions of acceptable hate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

Imran Mulla, a journalist at Middle East Eye and author with a history background from Cambridge, dives into the fascinating aftermath of the Ottoman caliphate's abolition in 1924. He discusses the bold attempts by Indian Muslims and the wealthy Nizam of Hyderabad to revive the caliphate. Topics include the cultural background of Abdülmecid II, the Khilafat movement's ties to anti-colonialism, and the intriguing marriage alliance intended to unite the Ottomans and Hyderabad's royal family. Mulla even speculates on what an Indian caliphate could have looked like.

Sri Lanka has long sat astride the monsoon winds between the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea – a small island at the centre of a very big story. For over a thousand years, Muslim pilgrims, merchants, scholars, and soldiers have passed through “Lanka” or “Sarandib”, leaving traces in Arabic, Tamil, Persian, Malay, Ottoman Turkish, Urdu, Dhivehi, and Sinhala. Serendipitous Translations: A Sourcebook on Sri Lanka in the Islamic Indian Ocean (University of Texas Press, 2026) brings together many of those voices for the first time in English. From medieval travellers marvelling at Adam’s Peak to modern novelists and newspaper editors wrestling with reform, nationalism, and civil conflict. Dr. Nile Green holds the Ibn Khaldun Endowed Chair in World History at UCLA. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he is the celebrated author of ten monographs and the editor of seven books and several journal issues, with a particular focus on Islam and the Indian Ocean world. He also hosts the excellent podcast Akbar’s Chamber: Experts Talk Islam. Dr. Ahmed AlMaazmi is Assistant Professor of History at the United Arab Emirates University. His research explores the intersections of empire, occult sciences, slavery, law, environmental infrastructures, and material culture in the Arabian Peninsula and the wider Indian Ocean world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

Youshaa Patel, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and author of The Muslim Difference, dives into the concept of imitation in Islam. He explores how a prophetic saying about imitation has shaped Muslims' understanding of identity across history. Patel discusses various examples, including forbidden practices and the differing views in Sunni and Shi'i traditions. He also touches on modern debates around cultural representation and the implications for Muslims living in non-Muslim contexts. Finally, he suggests rethinking how we define difference in plural societies.

Lin Hongxuan, an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore, dives into the surprising interplay between Islam and Marxism in Indonesian history. He reveals how these ideologies coexisted from 1915 to 1965, challenging the belief in their incompatibility. The discussion highlights key figures like SK Trimurti and S. Yati, the importance of women's roles, and how political labels often fail to capture the nuanced reality. Lin also shares insights from his research in local archives, including the use of historical fiction to enrich our understanding.

From the end of the American Civil War to the start of World War II, the Protestant missionary movement unintentionally tilled the soil in which American Islamophobia would eventually take root. What ideas did missionaries in Islamic contexts pass on to later generations? How were these ideas connected to centuries-old Protestant discourses about Muslims and gender beginning in the Reformation? And what bearing does this history have on the birth of Islamophobia and on Christian-Muslim dialogue efforts in the US today? In answering these questions, Re-inventing Islam traces the gender constructs that have informed historical Protestant perceptions of Islam, especially in the far-reaching textual, visual, and material influences of the American and British movement for missions to Muslims. This book first considers Protestant discourse about Muslim women and men from the Reformation to the Enlightenment. Then it turns to the colossal archive of literature, images, and cultural objects that missionaries--and particularly missionary women--collected from Islamic contexts and used to inform and motivate their constituents.Anglo-Protestants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries perpetually re-invented stereotypes about Muslims and used these negative images to achieve particular Protestant theological and political purposes, including missionary aims. They did so when disseminating gender critiques widely to Protestant men, women, and children. Why did they re-invent Islam? Deanna Ferree Womack argues that they did so to reinforce Protestant theological claims, to justify their evangelistic endeavors, to express both humanitarian concern and Eurocentric views of the world, and to support British and American cultural, economic, and military expansion. Simultaneously, however, this same missionary movement educated its constituents about diverse Islamic cultures, in part by providing humanizing images of Islam. Missionaries also formed personal relationships with Muslims that would open pathways toward formal efforts of Christian-Muslim dialogue after the mid-twentieth century. Americans have inherited all of these legacies. In revisiting this history readers will find new possibilities for building a more open and just future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

In this engaging discussion, Shabna Begum, the CEO of the Runnymede Trust and author of 'From Sylhet to Spitalfields,' dives into her efforts countering Islamophobia. She reflects on Runnymede's trailblazing work since 1997 and the impact of events like 9/11 on Muslim communities. Shabna emphasizes the importance of understanding structural causes rather than merely interpersonal hate. Highlighting the rise of far-right politics and the connections between local and global issues, she urges for community action and solidarity to combat racism.