New Methodological Perspectives in Islamic Studies: (20 Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion)

This volume draws attention to and moves beyond the traditional methodological frames that have governed knowledge production in the academic study of Islam. Departing from Orientalist and largely textual studies, the chapters collected herein revolve around three main themes: gender, the political, and what has come to be known as "lived Islam." The first involves ascertaining how to read gender and gender issues into traditional sources. The second encourages an attunement to the often delicate intersection between the spheres of religion and politics. The final provides a corrective to our traditional over-emphasis on the interpretation of texts and a preoccupation with studying (mainly male) elites. Taken as a whole, this volume encourages a multi-methodological approach to the study of Islam. Contributors include Abbas Aghdassi, Aaron W. Hughes, Eva Kepplinger, Taira Amin, Betül Avcı, Ali Abedi Renani and Seyyed Ebrahim Sarparast Sadat, Meral Durmuş and Bahattin Akşit, Walid Ghali, Isabella Crespi and Martina Crescenti, Brian Arly Jacobsen, Pernille Friis Jensen, Kirstine Sinclair, and Niels Valdemar Vinding, Magdalena Pycińska, Zahraa McDonald, Emin Poljarevic, Abdessamad Belhaj.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgements List of Tables Notes on Contributors Note on Transliteration 1 Introduction: Moving Beyond  Aaron W. Hughes and Abbas Aghdassi 2 “Islam and…” Thinking about Islam through the Act of Comparison  Aaron W. Hughes Part 1: Gender 3 Toward a “Hermeneutics of Trust” in the Current Discussion on a Gender-Just Interpretation of Islamic Primary Texts  Eva Kepplinger 4 The Discursive Construction of Women’s Guile in the Muslim Exegetical Tradition  Taira Amin Part 2: The Political 5 Contemporary Turkish Academic Approach to Christianity The Case of the New Turkish Encyclopedia of Islam (DİA)  Betül Avcı 6 New Methods for Understanding Political Islam Tradition-Constituted Rationality and the Theory of the Spirit of Meaning in the Work of Naʾini  Ali Abedi Renani and Seyyed Ebrahim Sarparast Sadat 7 Recontextualizing Islam in the Social and Collective Memory Tracing the Sociogenesis of Martyrdom in Türkiye  Meral Durmuş and Bahattin Akşit Part 3: Lived Islams 8 Old, New or Digital Philology Working towards an Amalgamated Work Frame  Walid Ghali 9 New Lenses for an Ethnography of Islam The Case of Mevlid Ceremonies  Isabella Crespi and Martina Crescenti 10 Lived Institutions in the Study of Islam  Brian Arly Jacobsen, Pernille Friis Jensen, Kirstine Sinclair and Niels Valdemar Vinding 11 Everyday Islam Moving beyond the Piety and Orthodoxy Divide  Magdalena Pycińska 12 Moving from a Madrasa Situation to the Process of Doctrinal Development An Explication of the Extended Case Method in the Study of Islam  Zahraa McDonald 13 A Phenomenological Approach to the Study of Lived Islam and Muslimness  Emin Poljarevic 14 Back to Critique Islamic Studies and the Vicious Hermeneutic Circle  Abdessamad Belhaj Index

About the Author :
Abbas Aghdassi, (Ph.D.) is Assistant Professor of History and Civilization of Muslims Societies at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. He has published on Muslim minorities, methods in Islamic studies, and academic Persian, including Perspectives on Academic Persian (Springer, 2021). Aaron W. Hughes, Ph.D. (2000), is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester. He is the author of numerous books, edited collections and articles on Islam, Judaism, and theory and method in the study of religion.