February 2010
Introductory Books on Islam – Reading List
General:
- Abou El Fadl, Khaled. Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2001.
- Algar, Hamid. Wahhabism: A Critical Essay. Oneonta, NY: Islamic Publications International, 2001.
- Bulliet, Richard W. The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
- Ernst, Carl W. Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
- Firestone, Reuven. Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Lawrence, Bruce B. New Faiths, Old Fears: Muslims and Other Asian Immigrants in American Religious Life. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
- Mackintosh-Smith, Tim. Travels With a Tangerine: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2002.
- Nanji, Azim and Razia Nanji. The Penguin Dictionary of Islam. New York: Penguin, 2008.
- Rogerson, Barnaby and Rose Baring. Meetings With Remarkable Muslims. London: Eland, 2005.
- Safi, Omid. Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism. Oxford: Oneworld, 2003.
- Sells, Michael Anthony. Approaching the Qur’an: The Early Revelations. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press, 1999.
- Wallace-Murphy, Tim. What Islam Did for Us: Understanding Islam’s Contribution to Western Civilization. Watkins, 2006.
North America:
- Abdo, Geneive. Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America After 9/11. Oxford University Press, USA, 2006.
- Abdul-Ghafur, Saleemah. Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005.
- Afzal-Khan, Fawzia. Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out. New York: Olive Branch Press, 2005.
- Ahmed, Leila. A Border Passage: From Cairo to America–a Woman’s Journey. New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1999.
- Bullock, Katherine. Muslim Women Activists in North America : Speaking for Ourselves. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
- Cone, James H. Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream Or a Nightmare. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1991.
- Leonard, Karen Isaksen. Muslims in the United States: The State of Research. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2003.
- Webb, Gisela. Windows of Faith: Muslim Women Scholar-Activists in North America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
- X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1999.
Europe:
- Cesari, Jocelyne. When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
- Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck, (ed.) Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
- Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck and Jane I. Smith, (eds.) Muslim Minorities in the West: Visible and Invisible. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002.
Political Science:
- Abou El Fadl, Khaled, Joshua Cohen, and Deborah Chasman. Islam and the Challenge of Democracy: A Boston Review Book. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.
- Abou El Fadl, Khaled, Joshua Cohen, and Ian Lague. The Place of Tolerance in Islam. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.
- Devji, Faisal. Landscapes of the Jihad: Militancy, Morality, Modernity. Crises in World Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005.
- Dreyfuss, Robert. Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2005.
- Gerges, Fawaz A. America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures Or Clash of Interests. Cambridge, UK ; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
- Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002.
- Kepel, Gilles. The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2004.
- Little, Douglas. American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
- Mamdani, Mahmood. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror. New York: Pantheon Books, 2004.
- Roy, Olivier. Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
- Roy, Olivier. Secularism Confronts Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Interfaith:
- ‘Ashur, Radwá, and William Granara. Granada: A Novel. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 2003.
- Bill, James A., and John Alden Williams. Roman Catholics and Shii Muslims: Prayer, Passion, and Politics. Chapel Hill [N.C.]; London: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
- Kaltner, John. Inquiring of Joseph: Getting to Know a Biblical Character Through the Quran. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2003.
- Khalidi, Tarif. The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature. Convergences. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
- Mahfuz, Najib, and Peter Theroux. Children of the Alley. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
- Menocal, Maria Rosa. The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain. Boston: Little, Brown, 2002.
Not on CNN Islam:
- Daftary, Farhad. A Short History of the Ismailis: Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
- Ernst, Carl W. The Shambhala Guide to Sufism. Boston, Mass.: Shambhala, 1997
- Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. New York: Riverhead Books, 2003
- Hyder, Syed Akbar. Reliving Karbala: Martyrdom in South Asian Memory. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006
- Jalal al-Din, Rumi, and Coleman Barks. The Essential Rumi. San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1995
- Khan, Aga. Where Hope Takes Root: Democracy and Pluralism in an Independent World. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008
- Patel, Eboo. Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007
- Roberts, Allen F., Mary Nooter Roberts, Gassia Armenian, and Ousmane Guáeye. A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal. Los Angeles, Calif.: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2003
- Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2007
- Shah-Kazemi, Reza. Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali. Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006
- Subhani, Ja’far, Reza Shah-Kazemi. Doctrines of Shi’i Islam: A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices. London; New York London: I.B. Tauris Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001.
DVD:
- Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet
- Islam: Empire of Faith
- Inside Mecca
- Frontline: Muslim
- 13th Warrior
- Three Kings
- Malcolm X
- Kingdom of Heaven
- The Crusades – Crescent and the Cross
- The Crusades
- Persepolis
- Nazrah
Websites: