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book: A Culture of Ambiguity
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A Culture of Ambiguity

An Alternative History of Islam
  • Translated by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2021

About this book

In this magisterial cultural and intellectual history, Thomas Bauer reconsiders classical and modern Islam by tracing differing attitudes toward ambiguity. Over a span of many centuries, he explores the tension between one strand that aspires to annihilate all uncertainties and a competing tendency that looks for ways to live with complexity.

Author / Editor information

Thomas Bauer is professor and director of the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Münster. He is the author of several acclaimed books in German.

Hinrich Biesterfeldt is a retired professor of Oriental philology and Islamic studies at Ruhr University Bochum.

Tricia Tunstall is an author, editor, and music educator.

Reviews

Konrad Hirschler, coeditor of The Damascus Fragments: Towards a History of the Qubbat al-khazna Corpus of Manuscripts and Documents:
In this wonderful book, Thomas Bauer offers a truly fresh history of how Islam was lived and interpreted before the nineteenth century. With a focus on 'ambiguity,' he tells a fascinating story well beyond hackneyed clichés of 'medieval' bigots and zealots. Elegantly written, often witty, and always erudite, this is an outstandingly enjoyable must-read for anyone interested in Islam.

Frank Griffel, author of The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam:
Thomas Bauer's A Culture of Ambiguity belongs to the rare class of books that can change our thinking about a whole era of history—here premodern Islam. It is highly innovative and offers new ways of understanding Arabic literature, from the Qur'an via Islamic law to the Arabian Nights.

Ahmed El Shamsy, author of Rediscovering the Islamic Classics: How Editors and Print Culture Transformed an Intellectual Tradition:
Thomas Bauer takes his audience on a delightfully opinionated and provocative journey through premodern Islamic cultural and intellectual history. His apt use of the theoretical lens of ambiguity will make readers look at both premodern and modern Islamic cultures—and beyond them at all cultural expressions—with new eyes.

Topics

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    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Foreword

    ix
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    Introduction

    1
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    Translators’ Note

    8
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    1. Cultural Ambiguity

    9
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    2. Does God Speak in Textual Variants?

    30
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    3. Does God Speak Ambiguously?

    74
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    4. The Blessing of Dissent

    94
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    5. The Islamization of Islam

    129
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    6. Language: A Serious Business and a Game

    151
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    7. The Ambiguity of Sexual Desire

    183
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    8. The Serene Look at the World

    214
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    9. In Quest of Certainty

    259
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    Sonderwege

    268
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    Notes

    281
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    Bibliography

    303
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    Index

    317
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
August 16, 2021
eBook ISBN:
9780231553322
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
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https://doi.org/10.7312/baue17064
eBook ISBN: 9780231553322
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
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