國立高雄大學圖資館 |

Language: English

Back

A culture of ambiguityan alternative history of Islam /

Record Type:	Electronic resources : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	A culture of ambiguityThomas Bauer ; translated by Hinrich Biesterfeldt and Tricia Tunstall.
Reminder of title:	an alternative history of Islam /
Author:	Bauer, Thomas,
other author:	Biesterfeldt, Hinrich,
Published:	New York :Columbia University Press,c2021.
Description:	1 online resource.
Notes:	Translation of: Die Kultur der Ambiguität : eine andere Geschichte des Islams.
Subject:	Religious toleranceIslam.
Online resource:	https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780231553322
ISBN:	9780231553322$q(ebook)

A culture of ambiguityan alternative history of Islam /
Bauer, Thomas,1961 September 27-

A culture of ambiguityan alternative history of Islam /[electronic resource] :Thomas Bauer ; translated by Hinrich Biesterfeldt and Tricia Tunstall. - New York :Columbia University Press,c2021. - 1 online resource.

Translation of: Die Kultur der Ambiguität : eine andere Geschichte des Islams.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Introduction -- 2. Cultural Ambiguity -- 3. Does God Speak in Textual Variants? -- 4. Does God Speak Ambiguously? -- 5. The Blessing of Dissent -- 6. The Islamization of Islam -- 7. Language: A Serious Business and a Game -- 8. The Ambiguity of Sexual Desire -- 9. The Serene Look at the World -- 10. In Quest of Certainty -- Bibliography.

"Islamic cultures seem to be ideal examples of cultures dominated entirely by religious norms. But in this sense the modern understanding of Islam differs markedly from that of the classical period (i.e., the premodern until well into the nineteenth century). Whereas modern fundamentalist movements aim at the greatest possible legitimization of religious norms throughout the entire society and see this as being the most Islamic structure (and are confirmed in this view by the western public opinion of Islam), a glimpse at premodern Islamic cultural forms offer a much more complex picture. Already the extraction of norms from the authoritative texts reveals itself to be an exacting process of disambiguation that included several subjective processes and rational procedures. The fact that these procedures led to a juxtaposition of competing norms was widely accepted--see the much quoted prophet's hadith "Difference of opinion is a mercy for my community." This kind of tolerance of ambiguity manifests itself not only in Islamic law but also in many other spheres of Islamic scholarship (for example, in Qur'an exegesis and in linguistics), in several literary genres, and also in the mentality of social conditions and of the people themselves, which included tolerance of religious minorities, sympathetic attitudes towards foreigners, and high social mobility). Symptomatic is also the considerably conflict-free coexistence of religious and secular discourses in classical Islamic culture, which stands in striking contrast to the inseparability of Islam and the worldly sphere postulated today. Under these specific conditions Islam was spared many of the crises of the Occident, but herein also lies an important cause of the current conflicts between Islam and the modern West. The collision of Islam with a culture that hardly knew such a tolerance of ambiguity and tended to reject it had to lead to a reformulation of the fundamentals of Islam in the form of ideologies that were more in conformance with modernity, which, in both their pro-western liberal form as well as in their Islamicist variation, are equally characterized by the rejection of their own cultural traditions. Beyond the investigation of cultural ambiguity in Islamic history, this interdisciplinary project tests out to what degree the investigation of the (in)tolerance of ambiguity allows relevant cultural-historical approaches to be established"--

Translated from German.

ISBN: 9780231553322$q(ebook)

LCCN: 2020039639Subjects--Topical Terms:

288239
Religious tolerance
--Islam.

LC Class. No.: BP171.5

Dewey Class. No.: 297.09/04

A culture of ambiguityan alternative history of Islam /
LDR:03899cmm a2200313 a 4500 001 650088
005 20210730171731.0
006 m o d
007 cr cnu---unuuu
008 240227s2021 nyu ob 001 0 eng
010 $a 2020039639
020 $a 9780231553322$q(ebook)
020 $z 9780231170642$q(hbk.)
020 $z 9780231170659$q(pbk.)
035 $a 21697489
040 $a DLC $b eng $c DLC
041 1 $a eng $h ger
050 0 0 $a BP171.5
082 0 0 $a 297.09/04 $2 23
100 1 $a Bauer, Thomas, $d 1961 September 27- $3 959858
240 1 0 $a Kultur der Ambiguität. $l English
245 1 2 $a A culture of ambiguity $h [electronic resource] : $b an alternative history of Islam / $c Thomas Bauer ; translated by Hinrich Biesterfeldt and Tricia Tunstall.
260 $a New York : $b Columbia University Press, $c c2021.
300 $a 1 online resource.
500 $a Translation of: Die Kultur der Ambiguität : eine andere Geschichte des Islams.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references and index.
505 0 $a 1. Introduction -- 2. Cultural Ambiguity -- 3. Does God Speak in Textual Variants? -- 4. Does God Speak Ambiguously? -- 5. The Blessing of Dissent -- 6. The Islamization of Islam -- 7. Language: A Serious Business and a Game -- 8. The Ambiguity of Sexual Desire -- 9. The Serene Look at the World -- 10. In Quest of Certainty -- Bibliography.
520 $a "Islamic cultures seem to be ideal examples of cultures dominated entirely by religious norms. But in this sense the modern understanding of Islam differs markedly from that of the classical period (i.e., the premodern until well into the nineteenth century). Whereas modern fundamentalist movements aim at the greatest possible legitimization of religious norms throughout the entire society and see this as being the most Islamic structure (and are confirmed in this view by the western public opinion of Islam), a glimpse at premodern Islamic cultural forms offer a much more complex picture. Already the extraction of norms from the authoritative texts reveals itself to be an exacting process of disambiguation that included several subjective processes and rational procedures. The fact that these procedures led to a juxtaposition of competing norms was widely accepted--see the much quoted prophet's hadith "Difference of opinion is a mercy for my community." This kind of tolerance of ambiguity manifests itself not only in Islamic law but also in many other spheres of Islamic scholarship (for example, in Qur'an exegesis and in linguistics), in several literary genres, and also in the mentality of social conditions and of the people themselves, which included tolerance of religious minorities, sympathetic attitudes towards foreigners, and high social mobility). Symptomatic is also the considerably conflict-free coexistence of religious and secular discourses in classical Islamic culture, which stands in striking contrast to the inseparability of Islam and the worldly sphere postulated today. Under these specific conditions Islam was spared many of the crises of the Occident, but herein also lies an important cause of the current conflicts between Islam and the modern West. The collision of Islam with a culture that hardly knew such a tolerance of ambiguity and tended to reject it had to lead to a reformulation of the fundamentals of Islam in the form of ideologies that were more in conformance with modernity, which, in both their pro-western liberal form as well as in their Islamicist variation, are equally characterized by the rejection of their own cultural traditions. Beyond the investigation of cultural ambiguity in Islamic history, this interdisciplinary project tests out to what degree the investigation of the (in)tolerance of ambiguity allows relevant cultural-historical approaches to be established"-- $c Provided by publisher.
546 $a Translated from German.
588 $a Description based on print version record.
650 0 $a Religious tolerance $x Islam. $3 288239
650 0 $a Islam $y 20th century $x Social aspects. $3 959861
650 0 $a Islamic sociology. $3 474679
650 0 $a Ambiguity. $3 233047
700 1 $a Biesterfeldt, Hinrich, $d 1943- $3 959859
700 1 $a Tunstall, Tricia. $3 959860
856 4 0 $u https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780231553322