Islam: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #007

by Malise Ruthven

Islam features widely in the news, often in its most militant versions. But few people in the non-Muslim world really understand the nature of Islam, both as Ideology and religion. A Very Short Introduction offers essential insight into the structure and beliefs of this major world
religion.
Malise Ruthven answers fundamental questions about the nature and scope of Islam such as why the greatest Jihad (holy war) is now against the enemies of Islam, rather than the struggle against evil, why Islam has such major divisions between movements such as the Shiis, the Sunnis, and the
Wahhabis, and how the Sharia (Islamic law) has become such an important aspect of Islamic life. In addition, he prompts further questioning into the ideas of Islamic resurgence as both an old and new concept, whether or not women can find fulfillment and equality within an Islamic framework, and
the sort of problems facing Islam and its confrontations with the modern world.
Offering fresh insights and new information, A Very Short Introduction provides a much needed discussion of Islam's past, present, and future, and its place in modern world religions.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Islam, History, Philosophy, Theology, Spirituality

161 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Malise Ruthven is the author of Islam in the World, The Divine Supermarket: Shopping for God in America, A Satanic Affair: Salman Rushdie and the Wrath of Islam and several other books. His Islam: A Very Short Introduction has been published in several languages, including Chinese, Korean, Romanian, Polish, Italian and German.

A former scriptwriter with the BBC Arabic and World Services, Dr Ruthven holds an MA in English Literature and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University. He has taught Islamic studies, cultural history and comparative religion at the University of Aberdeen, the University of California, San Diego, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and Colorado College.

Now a full-time writer, he is currently working on Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction and Arabesque and Crucifix, a study in comparative religious iconography.

Reviews

[GridGirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book 4/12 in my attempt to become a universal genius. If you want to read more about my approach to this very ambitious goal, click here!

I was looking forward to this one, because I find learning about other religions fascinating – even though I do not identify with any religious beliefs myself.
However, this book was disappointing in various ways. First, this book was very long for a short introduction, but I felt like I didn’t take a lot of valuable information from this. The reason for that is that this felt very philosophical and reading this felt like listening to a chatterbox. Not a fan of the writing style and I feel like the author could have kept this a lot simpler to actually make it a “Vey Short Introduction” rather than an “Introduction”.
The second problem I had with this, is that I developed trust issues with the author. I was not able to find information on the author’s own religious beliefs for starters. The position of the author is one of the most important details to truly understand non-fiction and its objectivity or lack thereof. The second thing, that actually made me cringe when I read it was in the Chapter “Women and family”. The author tries to make a point about how progressive Islam has become by stating that “[e]ven Saudi Arabia, bastion of Islamic sexual apartheid, has witnessed public demonstrations by women protesting against corruption and rulings forbidding them to drive motor vehicles.” Full stop. First of all, that has nothing to do with Islam being progressive, but with women stepping up for their basic human right to be treated equally to everyone who was born with a penis. Secondly, there is no mention at all of the fact that many of these women were imprisoned and worse for demonstrating. The author decided to completely gloss over this fact for the sake of his conclusion and that makes me wonder where else the truth was held back or bent to fit the narrative.
I had a very indifferent opinion on Islam before reading this book. I did not learn a lot from this book that I will remember, but overall, my opinion of the religion has not particularly improved. But frankly, I don’t have very high opinions on other religions either.

1/5

A complete list of all the “Very Short Introductions” I’m reading this year and the reviews on the ones I have already finished can be found here.

[Nikola Jankovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dešavalo mi se ovih godina da branim Islam. Razgovor bi otprilike otišao u pravcu "ali to ne piše nigde u Kuranu". Ispostavilo se da piše. "Po isteku svijetih mjeseca, ubijajte idolopoklonike svuda gdje god ih nađete, zarobljavajte ih, opsađujte ih i vrebajte ih u svakoj zasedi; ali ako se obrate (u islam), ako vrše molitvu, ako daju milostinju, tada ih ostavite na miru, jer je Bog blag i milosrdan." Da li može direktnije od ovoga?

Ima tu i gomila nesmisla vezano za položaj žena. "Vaše žene su vaša njiva. Idite na vašu njivu kako vam je volja." Savetuju te da ih tučeš, ali otprilike tako da ne ostaviš tragove, a i pre toga da pokušaš da ih urazumiš. Ima tu i licemerja, kada se na primer traže opravdanja kad žena zatrudni - ako je to žena odsutnog muža ili udovica, onda ona može objasniti trudnoću pravnom fikcijom "uspavanog fetusa", koji može da bude u tom stanju i do sedam godina, a ako je žena devica, onda je tu fikcija "parnog kupatila", nešto kao 'sela sam na spermu muškarca koji je bio ovde prethodni dan'.

Činilo mi se da ima smisla da pročitam dve stvari na putovanju u Egipat (i to za vreme Ramazana). Jedna je nešto od Nagiba Mahfuza, a druga nešto ovako. Islam doduše razumem bolje, znam šta je sunet i razumeo sam da je religija fanatičnija nego što sam smatrao. Vidim i ovde u Kairu da su ljudi spremni da do reči prate šta im kažu Kuran i suneti. Ipak, ima u ovom priručniku rupa. Mogla bi barem da mi bude potpuno jasna razlika između Šiita i Sunita. A nije.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poorly written, underwhelming, inconsequential and useless introduction to Islam, which frankly deserves better than 100+ pages of academic frottage disguised as accessible to the casual reader. Contains a lot of useless factoids, relies heavily on secondary texts for critical analysis and context, and is overall a dry, dull read. There is an excellent PBS documentary, narrated by Ben Kingsley, which covers the origins of Islam and follows its history; I would recommend watching that instead.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Ruthven does best here is to demonstrate how diverse Islam is. He details how some of the aspects of Islam that the West thinks are clearly heinous (burqas, jihad, sharia, etc.) are almost always more complex than we commonly think them to be. It's not that Ruthven ignores how often these aspects are harmful (he includes a few rather piercing passages about polygamy), but that he reveals how these aspects of Islam have been interpreted quite differently from country to country and from time to time, sometimes leading towards civility and peace, sometimes towards violence. According to this book, most of the hatred in radical Islam is stemming from new generations of scholars who are, in the face of an information age, ignoring the traditions of prior ulaama (learned Muslim scholars) and instead marrying their own interpretations of Islam to Marxist and other leftist ideology. Much of this is coming from Muslim scholars who spend time in European universities and then go back to their Muslim communities ready for a revolution. It seems that Islam has taken some horrible, radical turns in the past eighty years. Hopefully we'll see what Ruthven predicts in the book's conclusion: that the quieter side of Islam will win out in the coming years.

Ruthven also does a terrific job comparing and contrasting Islam to Christianity as he goes along, making it easier for a Western audience to comprehend what be unfamiliar (though, unfortunately, the history of Christianity is becoming as unfamiliar as Islam to many Western audiences).

It's short, but don't let that fool you. It's admittedly sometimes tough to wade through, mostly because nearly every other noun in the book stems from an Arabic word and therefore is hard to pronounce and contains an apostrophe or two.

[Amirography · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather good way to understand many aspects of Islam. Also, the author has a great grip on the middle east and the late Islamic revolutions.
What I can say that was missed in this book, was a day in the life of a Muslim, which was understandably eliminated from the content.

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very basic introduction to Islam. If you’re looking for a non-religious introduction, but you don’t want to do a lot of reading, then this might work. Think of it as a sampler. If you’re interested, then you can read longer (and better) introductions to Islam afterwards.

[Mohamed Shoaib · Rating 2 out of 5]

مجحف جدًا في حق الإسلام حتى ولو كان اسمه مقدمة قصيرة جدًا

[Sonic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nah, once again the scholarly approach to Religion is sometimes like
the coroner's description of a cadaver.
Instead of a friend or relative's loving portrayal
of a dynamic, changing, living, person.

This intellectual approach not only lacks the objectivity it pretends, but it seems in the case of writing about Religion to often altogether miss the point.

Yes, this is a "Very Short Intro..." but it lacks cohesion and focus IMO.

I appreciated the information within,
but I still feel I need to seek out an introduction elsewhere, ...

[Justin Tapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book (3 stars) and the Very Short Introduction to the Koran (4.5 stars) consecutively, I found the latter to be a better work. But the history in this "short" introduction is quite substantive. In comparison, I recently finished Tom Holland's The Shadow of the Sword (5 stars), Reza Aslan's The Origins and Future of Islam (2.5 stars), Mansfield's Brief History of the Middle East (3.5 stars), Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples (4.5 stars), and Tamim Ansary's Destiny Disrupted (4.5 stars). Robert Hoyland's In God's Path - The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire (4 stars) was probably the most helpful, and this book would be a good supplement with it and Mansfield's text. All of these books shaped my opinion of this particular book before I wrote this review.

My notes of interest from this Very Short Introduction:
The author compares the origins of the Koran received by an angel commanding Muhammad to "recite" to that of Joseph Smith Jr.'s Book of Mormon centuries later. Muhammad himself is hardly quoted in the Koran, so the Koran is sort of like the Epistles without the Gospels-- a history of events without the explanation behind the motivations of those events. There is no coherent narrative structure. There is also no concept of original sin, and therefore no Redeemer as in Christianity.
What is generally accepted about the life of Mohammad? Were activities like the Hajj and Ramadan already cultural activities that were present in Mecca in Muhammad's day? Valid questions.
The author explains the concept of Tawhid, the important idea of unity and obeisance to one god. Sunni Islam has no hierarchy, no supreme religious authority. The author makes the case that decentralized legal interpretation tends toward conservative (traditional) interpretations, interpreters being hesitant to add and more likely to rely on previous rulings and the authoritative text. The author then explains the difference between Shi'ia and Sunni interpretation processes in their current form.

Islamic Sharia law has five sources:
1. The Quran, of which only 10% can be converted into law.
2. The Sunna - the verbally transmitted record of Muhammad, later recorded. The author covers the Hadiths and their rank order of authority, examining problems in interpretation and reliability. Shiia include the sayings of the Twelve Imams.
3. Ijma - the community's interpretation, either the community of scholars or the community in general. This has less relevance in Shi'ia Islam but Sunni Islam's different schools consider different generations to be authoritative.
4. Qiyas - The systematic application of things not explicitly mentioned in the Quran, hadiths, or where there may be debate about something mentioned in a less-reliable hadith or a comparison made between statements in the Quran and hadiths. One example of this is the prohibition on alcohol, was it just some alcohol and was it a total prohibition? Analogical or syllogistic reasoning takes place, which some schools of Islam reject.
5. Ijtihad - the struggle for truth - the total expenditure of effort by an individual (a mujtahid), apart from any school, to find truth. This requires in-depth knowledge of the language of the Quran, and a great deal of reasoning (and great trust by the ones who adhere to the independent scholar's thinking).

There are mainly four different schools with different thoughts about whether and when the canon and doors to interpretation are open and whether and when they closed. The author includes some explanation of how Western ideas, including Greek thought, were incorporated into early Islamic scholarship and legal interpretation, including the ideas of logic and reason in interpretation. The modern buildings of Islam were influenced by modern thought, just as politics and theology today deal with different and evolving values and economies. He briefly touches on the theology of the Ayatollah Khomenei as well as the Sayyid Qutub, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood and violent jihad in Egypt.

Part V deals with women and Islam, of particular interest as I have been studying the role of women and views of women in Islam, looking at modern thought (by Ayan Hirsi Ali and Mona Eltahawy to name a couple). There are some differences between the Koran and hadiths about the life of Mohammad and his wives. While most accept that the prophet gave sanction to having four wives providing you can show equal attention to all, one hadith records that Muhammad had nine wives in one night. The author, incorrectly in my view, contrasts the sexual pleasure of the Koran and Islam with the asceticism of the Christian church. Perhaps the author is referring to Catholic teaching and ignoring the robust biblical theology of sex. It's clear that cultural applications and interpretations (see the Qiyas) have come into play regarding age of marriage, burqas and hijabs, (along with the Fez for men), and more. Interestingly, the author never mentions Aisha's age at marriage and consummation, seemingly wanting to avoid a relevant topic. He seems to argue that in the 20th-21st century signs of tolerant change toward women are apparent across Islam-centered countries, conveniently ignoring the works of many persecuted women reformers and the lives of women in countries like Yemen, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia; the growing expectation of women to be covered is something he does not ponder.

Oddly, the author also claims religious minorities are tolerated better in Islam than what is seen in Christianity, noting Papal bulls that excommunicate the unfaithful. As in Hoyland's In God's Path, there is evidence for this in how minorities were pacified and eventually assimilated in the rapid spread of Islam in the century after Muhammad's death. However, one only need to look at the early Islamic civil wars (not really covered in this book) or even turn on the TV to see fatwas and violence among competing schools of thought within Islam today, as well as the illegality of conversion in most Islamic countries. In contrast, it has been a long time since Christian churches have killed people for apostacy. The author's belief that media and the information age are "undermining" Islamic conservatives seems to not imagine an ultra-conservative group like ISIS using social media to recruit tens of thousands from the West to join their strict way of life. Nonetheless, the author admits that "more blood can be expected to be spilled along the way" as Islam moves into the 21st century.

In all, I give this book 3 stars out of 5. It is a decent companion, but the author reaches a bit trying to find western analogies or going out of his way to criticize the West while clearly ignoring counterfactuals to his claims. I enjoyed The Very Short Introduction to the Koran much better than this work for its depth and breadth.

[Alex J. O'Connor]

Informative, yet also subtly apologetic and at times seemingly self-contradictory.

[Ismoil Sadullozoda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short overview of the most important aspects of Islam. The author is well informed not only about the Islamic history of the people throughout the Islamic world but also about their ethnic histories, differences, and local cultures. Chapters in the book are organized to discuss the most relevant aspects of the subject for the reader with some previous knowledge about Islam. Discussions are engaging and include the main points of debates without going deep into historical details. I liked the author`s neutral approach to matters and how he avoids prejudices about theological and cultural elements. Now I am interested to read other of his works with a deeper delve into the topic.

[Jan vanTilburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful booklet for people, like me, who do not really know the roots and specifics of Islam. It helps to understand the current situation in the Middle East.

In it’s origin the Islam faith is a tolerant religion, is what I understood.
(The Islamic record of tolerance in pre-modern times compares very favourably with that of the medieval Church).
Fanatics these days have obscured that view. (To be sure, Islamism (islamic fundamentalism) is not Islam. It ideologizes the Islam values into a political ideology, like communism ideologizes the commune.)
That’s a wonderful thing to have learned.
Rutven stipulates that due to resistance of the Muslim world against colonial powers occupying their territory, since the 18th century there emerged an image of cruelty. And today this is compounded by modern media effect. The violent minority distorts the peaceful majority.

Chapter 1 is about the history of Islam and its politics. What struck me was (according to this author) that there is no church structure comparable to the catholic church.

What makes the Islam very liberating, in my (christian) view, is that there is no doctrine of orginal sin, so no redeemer neccesary. Jesus is merely a prophet.
No eternal corporation necessary to quarantee salvation, only obeying Gods commands, use of intelligence to discern truth from falsehood, using the Quran.

The Quran uses the ‘argument of design’ as evidences of God, in nature.

The book gives further the history of the Islam, its rise, the origin of the difference between Shi’a and Sunni. It gives background for the current politics. Talks about the position of women. (which was troubling for me to read). And the final chapter discusses the most recent political developments.

All in all a very insightful booklet about the Islam.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm surprised at how polarized the reviews of this text are. It isn't the most exciting book in the series, sure. I think a lot of that comes from trying to maintain an air of emotional detachment, and the need to carefully avoid common misconceptions about Islam. That might be helped if you get it on audio. I'm sure the mentions of Islam's historical brutalities and customary backwardness will bother hardcore Muslims, and I'm sure the mentions of Islam's intellectually rigorous and pragmatic nature of Islam will bother hardcore anti-Islamic people. So in that sense, writing it in an emotionally detached tone was pointless. I wish that it had discussed more of the philosophical differences between various Islamic schools of thought. It is mostly a history of Islam. But the sections of Islamic law, and the methodology of parsing Hadiths and coming to interpretive conclusions, ijtihad and taqlid, were the most interesting to me. I am not an expert in this area, but the book seems mostly accurate to me, and didn't contain any sections which I found wildly speculative or ideologically motivated. The section on women and sexuality, and on Jihad and violence were also interesting.

[Hinch · Rating 2 out of 5]

the focus on socio-political issues that are big in the wider culture right now is understandable, but not what i’d be looking for in a book introducing a major world religion.

we get little of the ‘spirit’ of islam come through, for lack of a better word, we don’t get much feel for what communal or private religious life actually looks like for the believer - not even what worship actually consists of.

we don’t even get told about the five pillars of islam in the main text, instead it is relegated to an appendix.

it is more suited to a person who sees islam in the news a lot, and wants to know about it mainly in reference to politics, the news-cycle, and modernity and the western world. but it’s disappointing for someone who is interested in islam on its own terms, and for its own sake.

[mkh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like this introduction. It covered way too many topics and as a corollary of its ambitious attempt to do so, the reader never gets a good understanding of the important foundations of Islam. The author jumps from topic to topic, often without any relation between each topic--it is not progressive--and the reader cannot create connections between the information. Overall, too cursory for my liking.

[Edin Selimović · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short introduction, ili ti ga Sažeti priručnik, a osim posljednjih 5 stranica može se sve u knjizi zanemariti. Ukoliko neko želi da zna o islamu kao početnik, zašto mu ovako davati priču o politici, Iranu, sektama, Arapskom proljeću i tome što samo zbuni publiku. Sreća pa sam upoznat sa temom, pa se nisam pogubio kao u Majstoru i margariti. Preskočite.

[Peter A. van Tilburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me it was a first acquintance with Islam and very usefull. Ruthven writes in a way that it is also understandable for an outsider like me. Most interesting for me were the following parts/items:
. Main differences between christianity and Islam as described:
. The sin plays a big role in christianity. Adam committed the first sin and redemption was necessary and that’s were Christ comes in. In the Islam this sin was forgiven easily and no redemption was needed so also no Christ was needed. Adam became the partner of God to rule the earth. This leads to the next two differences.
. In the Islam God is one. So no Trinity is needed. That is a complex christian dogma which took several 100 years to develop.
. In Christianity men are seen as sinful while in the Islam there is much more optimism on mankind. So checks and balances are less important for Islam which leads to less importance on independant institutes and separation of church and state.
. God stopped with revelations after Mohammed died according to the Sunni, the Sjii believe that God still works but only to the spiritual leaders. In christianity the God via the Holy Spirit leads every believer.
. There is no authority in the Islam above all parties like for instance the pope or synod in many non catholic churches. This implies that development of religious dogmas is difficult in the Islam since there are a lot of individual teachers. Combines with the stopped recelations this works strongly for conservatism in Islam.

. What to think of the agression of the Islam religion. Mohammed conquers Mekka and is founder of the caliphate. Since then the Islam was quite peacefull expanding via trade contacts. As colonalism came the agression increased since Moslims have a different view on how to govern a country. But classical Islam assumes that Islam will, conquer in the end (like Mohammed did). The extreme minorities like Al Qaeda promote return to the caliphate if needed with lots of violence.

Fortunately there are movements in the Islam. For instance on the treatment of women what states that the interpretation of the Quran is done by men and that the principles should prevail not the rules which are strongly time related. Further education is promoted by some critics and personal responsibility.

The writer sees the influence of extreme minorities increase but they do not get a real foot hold in the Islamitic countries. But he expects that the pietic and mystic traditions have a promise for the future. Religion will become more private and internalized due to individualism were all nations will be influenced with. But he also sees an entrenchment of violence for the time being.

For me it was an eye opener to understand more of the Islam. The basic agression frightens me but I am glad that there is hope that forces like individualism following internationalisation will mitigate this and will hopefully transform Islam to a personal internal belief.
This study also helps me to understand that there a more basic assumptions possible regarding religion and the way you see God and men.

[Brenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a surprisingly engaging and well-written volume. I was expecting--as I expect from the 20 or so books I have read in the Very Short Introduction series--an introduction to Islam, fairly basic and concise. This is not a good, entry-level introduction, but a series of 6 essays (Ruthven calls them essays). These essays read more like complex, sophisticated lectures with a broad swath of material, very much rooted in the social and political rather than the doctrinal or praxeological. For someone who has a good introduction to the basics of Islam, it's a brilliant next book.
It is, however, going to be terrible for the uninitiated, and is ridiculously out of date. I loved reading it and will use the gender and marriage chapter in a lecture (as well as one section in the "two Jihads" chapter).

A note: the Very Short Introduction series sometimes prints photographs and maps in these little b/w books, as this one does. They are invariably terrible. There should be a website with the pictures, updated maps, etc. Perhaps Kindles are better quality, but I doubt it.

[William Meadwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

My feelings are mixed; avoid chapter 1, the tone really put me off and I don’t think it serves as a suitable, objective introduction to a world religion. However, chapters 2-6 are a marked improvement and do act as an effective introduction. I’d say chapter 1 should be read last and this book might read better.

[Ocean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent overview of the basics. Learned a lot of concepts in here. It is a bit dated, with some observations clearly from over a decade ago (book was written in 2012). Enjoyed it, but the writing style made it a bit of an academic slog.

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent short introduction which deals with all sorts of aspects of the religion and its historical and political context. It avoids the nastiness normally encountered when Westerners talk about Islam and tries to dig out some truth from under the rubble of populism and prejudice.

[Erika · Rating 5 out of 5]

It condenses more than is introduces the topic; I'd need a few more reads (along with other materials) to unpack it.

[Benjamin Stahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consistent with this mostly excellent series, Malise Ruthven's short introduction to Islam offers a clear and objective insight into the religion. I have been very interested in Islam and Middle Eastern culture generally for the last few years, and have read a reasonable amount on both (I have even started learning Arabic these last few months). For a while my "Islamic reading" has been the audio lectures of a man named Moosaa Richardson, with a few other random Muslim writings thrown in here and there. This book is the first non-Islamic book about Islam I have read in ages - discounting Sam Harris's Islam and the Future of Tolerance, which was really just a conversation, 50% against the religion.

I was at first a little doubtful, especially as the book begins on the all-too-commonly-covered ground of Islamic terrorism ... but excluding the occasional inclusions that need to be there to appeal to your average Western reader, Ruthven (though, in my estimation, not a Muslim) treats the subject very thoroughly and respectfully. I couldn't help but feel surprised a Muslim hadn't been given the task of writing this entry in the series (those who wrote about Anglicanism, Catholicism, Judaism and atheism were of their respective faith, or lack thereof). But I cannot fault the writer, and in a way it was refreshing to read from a perspective spiritually detached from the religion itself.

[Joseph Sverker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I good and solid introduction to Islam. The very basics are there and well presented. There is also a balance between the traditional muslim interpretation of, for example, the life of Mohammad, and a critical reading. This is not to say that the latter is always withhold as the correct one, but that for an introduction like this both are needed. It is also strong on presenting various traditions within Islam and show the historical background to the different developments.

There are quite often references and comparisons with Christianity. At times these are justified, but I can also think that there is no need to make too many comparisons since Islams stands well on its on explanatory legs. A further critique is a certain lacuna of the so called middle period of Islam's history, around 1200 to 1800 perhaps. Certainly some names are mentioned, but the impression is the main emphasis is certainly on the first century and then our present century with some background in the 19th and 20th century. I'm not sure this could be in any other way, and I think there is a tendency to view the history of Islam in this way, but it is a shame. It feels like much surely must have been left out.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having very little understanding of Islam other than what is fed to us by the media, I read this book hoping to learn the basics of the religion without the information being muddied by political biases. For the most part, the book delivered on that, presenting what appears to be a balanced review of the religion and its history. I was hoping for a little more detail on the basics of what it means to be a Muslim, such as religious practices, fundamental beliefs, etc. That is covered to a degree, but often that takes a back seat to more detailed expositions on slightly more esoteric topics. The structure of the book is also a bit difficult, with some earlier chapters mentioning terms or ideas that aren't explained or defined well enough for a reader with very little base knowledge of Islam.

All in all, though, I did learn something about the religion and for the most part the book kept me interested.

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent book, balanced, extremely clear, detailed because concisely written, and wide-ranging. I read the first edition, which came out in 1997 and is inevitably dated, but there is a new edition which came out in 2012. Even so, I thought it was extraordinarily prescient about the future of Islam and the Islamist movement considering it was written over 20 years ago. But I will try to catch up with the later edition since so much has happened in the Islamic world in the recent past. Having recently been to Iran I was able to relate many things to this book to my own experience and found the book to be very accurate. Recommended as a sound introduction to Islam.

[Jason Coleman · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some good parts of this book. I think its important for people to know of the former glory and religious tolerance of Muslims. The book certainly outlines that well, but I would have liked a bit more information about how religious fundamentalism has hijacked this peaceful and entrepreneurial philosophy and turned it into this hyper-sensitive, intolerant dogma that strips women of nearly all human rights...at leas in many of the Arabic countries.

[Isabella Roh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this did provide a rather concise overview of Islam, I was eager for a clear historically based outline of the religion's development, which this book did not provide. Still, it gives good context for reading primary texts.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it as an intro, but she summarized too many complex issues in complex sentences that I had to reread many times to understand. It's short though, and pocketsize!

[Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reluctant three stars. Ruthven can be a very fussy writer and, perhaps more than any other volume in this series I have read to date, this one is in dire need of an update. First published in 1997 and reissued in 2000—that's light years in terms of developments within Islam and Islam's relation to the west. And obviously, this is a pre-9/11 text. In some ways, Ruthven's introduction can seem quite prescient, perhaps nowhere more so than in his final line, where he notes that "more blood can be expected to be spilt" in Islam's transition to a more modernized, internalized, voluntary set of religious commitments. Well, uh, true dat. Ruthven's own bailiwick, fundamentalism, makes him seem a reasonable candidate to update his own text sixteen years on. The title is perhaps a bit misleading. In the opening chapters there is a nuts and bolts introduction to the religion of Islam. Ruthven, however, takes his brief to be elucidating a distinction between Islam and Islamism, the former being the religion proper and the latter being that religion's encounter with political, legal and social impetuses toward modernization and the subsequent conflict that ensues, both within Islamic communities themselves and between those communities and the outside world. Given that brief, this text might be better renamed, Islamism, A Short Introduction. The material on the Koran and Muhammad takes up a very short portion of this text. To get a sense of why this might be strange, consider if the text was on Christianity. A chapter on Jesus and perhaps one more on the Pauline 'church'. Then the balance of the text, 3/4 perhaps, on Christianity's grappling with modernism. There's an argument to be made for such a text, but as an introduction to the faith, one could be forgiven for thinking it is lacking in some key respects, seeing the forest instead of the tree. That's my main complaint with Ruthven.