Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (Library ... (ISBN 041534882X)

Suitable for instruction:
I gave this text only four stars out of five, because the first half on the origins of Islam through the seventeenth century could have been more thorough. The book is essentially divided into two parts. The first half covers the basic history and doctrines of Islam in the early period. The second half is dedicated to the Islam in the modern world with a focus on contemporary religion. The first half is superficial at best. Its primary utility is to point the reader to other sources. The text must be supplemented with a reader in primary sources like Rippin's Textual Sources for the Study of Islam, or Cragg and Speight's Islam from Within. The text is biased toward history and doctrine with very little attention paid toward ritual. However, there are some insights on Islamic architecture well worth reading. The second half on modern Islam is more useful. Rippin is provocative and less likely than some other authors to write in platitudes and parrot Edward Said's Orientalism. Here again though, the focus is on history, sociology, and doctrine, without much discussion of the rituals and practice of the religion and how it is experienced by the Muslim. Were I to choose a text for a class on Islam, I would probably choose Denny's Introduction to Islam (3rd edition). However, I might also supplement it with the second half of this text. Denny tiptoes around the consequences of comptemporary militant Islam. This text does not, however this text does not do justice to the religion of Islam as phenomenon.

Rippin provides much insight:
Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices is a condensed version of a two-volume work that was published in the early 1990s. Like its predecessors, this book provides readers with a synthesis of the development of Islam from the 7th century to the early 21st century and offers insight into future activity that would influence Islam's interpretation. Rippin strives to provide a spectrum of Muslims' perceptions of their religion through scholarly activity--by Muslims and non-Muslims--dedicated to it. The seventeen chapters are organized into six parts. Topics discussed include formative elements of Islam and an Islamic identity, classical Islam and alternative versions of classical Islam, reform movements within Islam in modern times, and possible trajectories in the foreseeable future. The work is well referenced and provides an extensive bibliography for further reading. In the introduction Rippin describes his attitude as: "Avoiding scholarly analysis in order not to appear 'anti-Islamic' or to make the subject 'easy' is neither academically responsible nor respectful of Islam itself which, it seems to me, simply deserves the full rigor of analysis that humanistic and social scientific study can provide: in doing that we are in fact saying that Islam is a subject worthy of study, something which is essentially denied when a less rigorous approach is undertaken (2)." This sentiment is echoed throughout the book. While essentially a work on Islamic history, Rippin chooses to deal with issues rather then present a historically styled narrative. Its usefulness is enhanced by its emphasis on the overarching issues that make specific facts important. It contains critical discussions of the nature of the sources and the received accounts. When approaching the work from the perspective of issues, the chapters discussing per-modern times mirror those discussing contemporary times. Issues discussed in Chapter 2, "The Quran (sic)" for example are re-visited in Chapter 14 "The Quran (sic) and modernity." Other extensions are more subtle such as Chapter 7 "Ritual practice" and Chapter 15 "Issues of identity." This book synthesizes a complex and vast phenomenon like Islam with rigorous analysis and projections into the future. Rippin's approach is useful for introducing Islam with its complexities without overwhelming the non-specialist reader. NOTE: Andrew Rippin, F.R.S.C. is Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is a specialist in Islamic Studies with an interest in the Qur'an and the history of its interpretation. Armchair Interview says: A rich and suggestive work on Islam.