Islamic Myths and Memories: Mediators of Globalization

Islamic myths and collective memory are very much alive in today’s localized struggles for identity, and are deployed in the ongoing construction of worldwide cultural networks. This book brings the theoretical perspectives of myth-making and collective memory to the study of Islam and globalization and to the study of the place of the mass media in the contemporary Islamic resurgence. It explores the annulment of spatial and temporal distance by globalization and by the communications revolution underlying it, and how this has affected the cherished myths and memories of the Muslim community. It shows how contemporary Islamic thinkers and movements respond to the challenges of globalization by preserving, reviving, reshaping, or transforming myths and memories.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction: Islamic myth and memories. Facing the challenge of globalization, Itzchak Weismann, Mark Sedgwick and Ulrika Mårtensson. Part I The Past in the Present: Modern and Islamic icons in Arab-Islamic popular historical memory, Mark Sedgwick; The Ottoman Empire as harmonious utopia: a historical myth and its function, Martin Riexinger; From a Red Guard to a Jahrinya: a Chinese author’s return to Islam, Xiaofei Tu; Satan and the temptation of state power: medieval Islamic myth in global society, Ulrika Mårtensson. Part II Sacred Places and Persons: The glocalization of al-Haram al-Sharif: designing memory, mystifying place, Nimrod Luz; The myth of perpetual departure: Sufis in a new (age) global (dis)order, Itzchak Weismann; Shaykh Osama Bin Laden: an evolving global myth, Anne Birgitta Nilsen. Part III Preaching, New and Old: The post-modern reconstitution of an Islamic memory: theory and practice in the case of Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s virtual umma, Uriya Shavit; The rating of Allah: the renaissance of preaching in the age of globalization, Shosh Ben-Ari; The reception of Islamic prophet stories within Muslim communities in Norway and Germany, Gerd Marie Ådna. Select bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
Itzchak Weismann is professor of Islamic Studies at Haifa University, Israel. He works on Islamic movements, Sufism, the preaching of Islam, modern Syria, and Islam in the Indian subcontinent. His books include The Naqshbandiyya: Orthodoxy and Activism in a Worldwide Sufi Tradition (2007) and Taste of Modernity: Sufism, Salafiyya, and Arabism in Late Ottoman Damascus (2001) Mark Sedgwick is professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark, and previously taught for many years at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He works primarily on Sufism, Islam and modernity, Islam in Europe, and terrorism. His books include Muhammad Abduh: A Biography (2009), Saints and Sons: The Making and Remaking of the Rashidi Ahmadi Sufi Order, 1799-2000 (2005), and Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century (2004). Ulrika Martensson teaches Religious Studies at NTNU, Norway, and previously spent a year at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in the program on Modernity and Islam. Her main work focuses on relations between institutions and Islam in medieval and contemporary contexts. Her recent works include Tabari (2009, in the series Makers of Islamic Civilization), and she has recently co-edited Fundamentalism in the Modern World (2 volumes, I.B. Tauris 2011) and a special issue of the Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 'Challenging Culturalism: 'Materialist' Approaches to Islamic History' (2011).

Review :
'Myths and collective memories that transcend specific places and historical contexts have powerful and often unpredictable impacts on Muslim societies and communities worldwide, especially in an era of rapid circulation of words and images. The lively style and accessibility of this book make it ideal for a wide range of audiences.' Dale F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College, USA, co-author of Muslim Politics `Myths and collective memories that transcend specific places and historical contexts have powerful and often unpredictable impacts on Muslim societies and communities worldwide, especially in an era of rapid circulation of words and images. The lively style and accessibility of this book make it ideal for a wide range of audiences.’ Dale F. Eickelman, Dartmouth College, USA, co-author of Muslim Politics