Table of Contents

An Inroduction to Islam, 4/E, Table of Contents, Preface, A General Introduction to Islam's Basic Teachings, Pronounciation Tips for key Arabic-Islamic Terms, PART ONE: Religion and Common Life in the Pre-Islamic Near East, Chapter 1: Early Civilizations and the Origins of Judaism and Christianity, Chapter 2: Pre-Islamic Arabia: Beliefs, Values, Way of Life, PART TWO: The Coming of Islam: The Prophet, His People, and God's Religion, Chapter 3: Muhammad and the Early Muslim Community, Chapter 4: The Arab Conquests and Islamic Rule: The Stuggle for a Unified Umma, PART THREE: The Islamic Religious System, Chapter 5: The Basic Beliefs and Worship Practices of Islam, Chapter 6: The Nature and Function of the Qur'an, Chapter 7: The Prophet's Sunna as Preserved in the Hadith, Chapter 8: Muslim Creeds and Theologies: Their Purposes and Varieties, Chapter 9: Law and the State in Classical Islamic Formulations, PART FOUR: The Sufi Way of Mysticism and Fellowship, Chapter 10: Islamic Mysticism and the Disciplines of Exoteric Piety, Chapter 11: Masters and Disciples: The Forms and Functions of Sufi Orders, PART FIVE: Patterns of Islamic Personal and Communal Life, Chapter 12: The Islamic Life Cycle and the Family, Chapter 13: Ideals and Realities of Islamic Community Life, PART SIX: Islam in the Modern World, Chapter 14: Major Movements and Trends in Renewal and Reform, Chapter 15: Three Forms of Islamic Revival: "Fundamentalism," Feminism, and Establishing the Umma in North America, Chapter 16: Whither Islam and the Muslims? Progressive Muslims with a Vision of an "Islam without Borders", Suggestions for Further Reading, Glossary, Acknowlegements, Index

About the Author

Frederick Denny, Professor Emeritus (Ph.D., University of Chicago), is the editor of the University of South Carolina Press scholarly book series "Studies in Comparative Religion", which currently has ca. 35 titles published. He is the author of An Introduction to Islam (4th edition Prentice-Hall, 2010) and numerous articles on Islamic and Religious Studies topics. He co-authored (with John Corrigan, Carlos Eire, and Martin Jaffee) Jews, Christians, Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (Prentice-Hall: 1998). His long-term areas of interest have been Qur'anic recitation, comparative ritual, and Muslims and their communities in Egypt, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and North America. His recent and current research and writing have been principally on Islam and human rights, religion and ecology, religion-focused cartography, and Unitarian Universalist history and thought.