The Construction of Belief (eBook)

Dr Aziz Esmail is a governor of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he was the Dean from 1988C98. He has held teaching and research positions at various American universities, and has been associated with Harvard University AZs Centre for the Study of World Religions and Graduate School of Education. In addition to many articles, his writings include The Poetics of Religious Experience: The Islamic Context and A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics. Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary was the founding Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 2002C9 and of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco, from 1984C2001. Prior to this, he served as Secretary-General of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, teaching Modern Philosophy. He has written extensively on Islam and modernity, democratization and civil society in the Muslim World, and on trends of thought in contemporary Muslim contexts.

Contents: Professor Mohammed Arkoun (1928C2010) 7 Preface: Situating Arkoun 9 Abdou Filali-Ansary Mohammed Arkoun: A Personal Tribute and an Intellectual Assessment 17 Aziz Esmail The Authenticity of Sacred Texts 45 R. Stephen Humphreys Constructing Islam in the Classical +- Period: Maqalat Literature and the Seventy-Two Sects 63 Josef van Ess Modern Discourses of Superiority: Muslims and Christians in Contact 75 Stefan Wild The Political, Social and Technological Construction of Understanding: An Essay in Analysis of the Disruptive 93 Mark Sedgwick Believing and Belonging: The Impact of Religion for Muslim +- Adolescents in a Pluralistic Society C Empirical Findings from Hamburg, Germany 109 Ursula GA'nther Veiling and Unveiling Muslim Women: State Coercion, Islam, and the Disciplines of the Heart +- 127 Malika Zeghal Coming to Believe: The (Elusive) Time of Conversion 150 Souleymane Bachir Diagne The Shadow of Terror on Distant Muslims 161 Akeel Bilgrami Citational Exegesis of the Qur AZan: Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Construction of Meaning in Classical Islamic Thought. The Case of the Epistles of the Pure Brethren (Ras AZil Ikhw n al-af AZ) 168 Omar Al*-de-Ungaza Afterword 195 Mohammed Arkoun: A Passionate Critic 207 About the Contributors 209 Index 215