Ibn Warraq's Books

Why I Am Not a Muslim

By: Ibn Warraq

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Those who practice the Muslim faith have resisted examinations of their religion. They are extremely guarded about their religion, and what they consider blasphemous acts by skeptical Muslims and non-Muslims alike has only served to pique the world's curiosity. This critical examination reveals an unflattering picture of the faith and its practitioners. Nevertheless, it is the truth, something that has either been deliberately concealed by modern scholars or buried in obscure journals accessible only to a select few.

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420

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Prometheus Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1615920293

ISBN 13

9781615920297

Virgins? What Virgins?

And Other Essays

By: Ibn Warraq

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Virgins? What Virgins?

And Other Essays

By: Ibn Warraq

In this wide-ranging collection of insightful, controversial, and often-witty essays, the renowned author of Why I Am Not a Muslim has created a representative selection of his best work on the Koran and various problems posed by the interaction of Islam with the West. The title of the collection comes from an article that originally appeared in the London Guardian on recent textual studies of the Koran. This research suggests that, contrary to a longstanding Muslim belief about the afterlife, a harem of beautiful virgins may not be waiting for the faithful male departed in heaven. For the many readers of his books who have wondered about his background, the author begins with a charming personal sketch about his upbringing in England and his unabashed Anglophilia. A section on Koranic criticism includes excerpts from two of his books, What the Koran Really Says and Which Koran? No stranger to controversy and polemics, the author devotes two sections to articles that consider the totalitarian nature of contemporary political Islam and explore the potential for an Islamic Reformation comparable to the Protestant Reformation in the West. The concluding section is composed of Ibn Warraq''s journalism, including a critique of reputed Muslim reformer Tariq Ramadan, a defense of Western culture ("Why the West Is Best)," an article about the Danish cartoons that provoked widespread Muslim outrage, and even a commentary on heavy metal music in a Muslim setting. This thoughtful, engaging collection on diverse topics will interest both longtime readers of Ibn Warraq and those new to his work.

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544

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Prometheus Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1616143126

ISBN 13

9781616143121

Early Muslim Polemic Against Christianity

Abu Isa Al-Warraq's 'Against the Incarnation'

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

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Early Muslim Polemic Against Christianity

Abu Isa Al-Warraq's 'Against the Incarnation'

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

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336

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521811325

ISBN 13

9780521811323

Against the Trinity

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

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Against the Trinity

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

Abu 'Isa al-Warraq's Against the Trinity is the longest sustained attack on the Trinity to survive from the early centuries of Islam, and is a key work in the history of the early relations between Islam and Christianity. It contains refutations of the arguments and explanations represented by the Nestorians, Melkites and Jacobites, and comprises the first part of an attack on the major Christian doctrines. It was composed during the early ninth century, and is the only known extant work of the Shi'ite scholar Abu 'Isa al-Warraq. Although his ideas met with scepticism and rejection his works were widely influential in the centuries after his death. David Thomas presents the Arabic text of this treatise, with a facing English translation. In the introduction he shows how the work is both more profound and better researched than other contemporary attacks and traces its influence upon later polemical works. He also draws together details of Abu 'Isa's life and thought from the works of contemporary writers and attempts to give an impression of what the author was trying to achieve in his teachings.

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240

Publisher

CUP Archive

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521412447

ISBN 13

9780521412445

Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal

Volume Two

By: Ibn al-Jawzī

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Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal

Volume Two

By: Ibn al-Jawzī

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855), renowned for his profound knowledge of hadith—the reports of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds—is a major figure in the history of Islam. Ibn Ḥanbal’s piety and austerity made him a folk hero, especially after his principled resistance to the attempts of two Abbasid caliphs to force him to accept rationalist doctrine. His subsequent imprisonment and flogging became one of the most dramatic episodes of medieval Islamic history. Ibn Ḥanbal’s resistance influenced the course of Islamic law, the rise of Sunnism, and the legislative authority of the caliphate. Virtues of the Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal is a translation of the biography of Ibn Ḥanbal penned by the Baghdad preacher, scholar, and storyteller, Ibn al-Jawzī (d. 597/1201). It includes insights into Ibn Ḥanbal’s childhood, travels, and teachings, as well as descriptions of his way of life. This second and final volume gives a vivid account of Ibn Ḥanbal’s legendary confrontation with the caliphal Inquisition, including his imprisonment, trial, and flogging. Ultimately, it recounts how the people of Baghdad came to admire him as a symbol of Sunni Islam. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

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446

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0814771955

ISBN 13

9780814771952

Kitab Al-qabasat

The Book of Blazing Brands

By: Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Dāmād

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Kitab Al-qabasat

The Book of Blazing Brands

By: Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Dāmād

Including Selections from Sayyed Ahmad 'Alawi's Sharoh Kitaab al-Qabasaat.

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634

Publisher

Alhoda UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

1592670687

ISBN 13

9781592670680

Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens

Ibn Sayy?r Al-Warr?q's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook

By: al-Muẓaffar Ibn Naṣr Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq

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Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens

Ibn Sayy?r Al-Warr?q's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook

By: al-Muẓaffar Ibn Naṣr Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq

This English translation of al-Warraq’s tenth-century cookbook offers a unique glimpse into the culinary culture of medieval Islam. Hundreds of recipes, anecdotes, and poems, with an extensive Introduction, a Glossary, an Appendix, and color illustration. Informative and entertaining to scholars and general readers.

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920

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004158677

ISBN 13

9789004158672

Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufism

Al-Risala Al-qushayriyya Fi 'ilm Al-tasawwuf

By: ʻAbd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin Qushayrī

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Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufism

Al-Risala Al-qushayriyya Fi 'ilm Al-tasawwuf

By: ʻAbd al-Karīm ibn Hawāzin Qushayrī

Provides an insight into the everyday lives of Sufi devotees of the eighth-eleventh centuries and the moral and ethical dilemmas they were facing. This work invites the reader to explore the world of Islamic ascetic and mystical piety.

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494

Publisher

Garnet & Ithaca Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1859641865

ISBN 13

9781859641866

Defending the West

A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism

By: Ibn Warraq

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Defending the West

A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism

By: Ibn Warraq

This is the first systematic critique of Edward Said's influential work, Orientalism, a book that for almost three decades has received wide acclaim, voluminous commentary, and translation into more than fifteen languages. Said's main thesis was that the Western image of the East was heavily biased by colonialist attitudes, racism, and more than two centuries of political exploitation. Although Said's critique was controversial, the impact of his ideas has been a pervasive rethinking of Western perceptions of Eastern cultures, plus a tendency to view all scholarship in Oriental Studies as tainted by considerations of power and prejudice. In this thorough reconsideration of Said's famous work, Ibn Warraq argues that Said's case against the West is seriously flawed. Warraq accuses Said of not only willfully misinterpreting the work of many scholars, but also of systematically misrepresenting Western civilization as a whole. With example after example, he shows that ever since the Greeks Western civilization has always had a strand in its very makeup that has accepted non-Westerners with open arms and has ever been open to foreign ideas. The author also criticizes Said for inadequate methodology, incoherent arguments, and a faulty historical understanding. He points out, not only Said's tendentious interpretations, but historical howlers that would make a sophomore blush. Warraq further looks at the destructive influence of Said's study on the history of Western painting, especially of the 19th century, and shows how, once again, the epigones of Said have succeeded in relegating thousands of first-class paintings to the lofts and storage rooms of major museums. An extended appendix reconsiders the value of 18th- and 19th-century Orientalist scholars and artists, whose work fell into disrepute as a result of Said's work.

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558

Publisher

Prometheus Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

161592020X

ISBN 13

9781615920204

Virgins? What Virgins?

And Other Essays

By: Ibn Warraq

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Virgins? What Virgins?

And Other Essays

By: Ibn Warraq

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544

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Prometheus Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1616143126

ISBN 13

9781616143121

The Exile's Cookbook

Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from al-Andalus and North Africa

By: Ibn Razīn Al-Tujībī Al-Tujībī

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The Exile's Cookbook

Medieval Gastronomic Treasures from al-Andalus and North Africa

By: Ibn Razīn Al-Tujībī Al-Tujībī

Of the many books written by thirteenth-century Muslim-Andalusian scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī, only his cookbook survives. This unique collection was compiled from al-Tujībī's new home in Tunis, having fled Murcia following the Christian reconquest of Spain, and reflects his rich multicultural Andalusi heritage. The Exile's Cookbook brings together 480 recipes, including roasts and stews, breads, condiments, preserves, sweetmeats, and even hand-washing soaps. It offers a fascinating insight into the cuisine of Muslim Spain and North Africa in the period – its regional characteristics and historical antecedents, but also its links to culinary traditions in other parts of the Muslim world. This elegant translation by Daniel L. Newman is based on all the manuscripts of the text that are known to have survived. It is accompanied by an introduction and extensive notes contextualising the recipes, ingredients, tableware and cooking practices.

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495

Publisher

Saqi Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0863569978

ISBN 13

9780863569975

The Sultan's Feast

A Fifteenth-Century Cookbook

By: Ibn Mubārak Shāh

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The Sultan's Feast

A Fifteenth-Century Cookbook

By: Ibn Mubārak Shāh

The Arabic culinary tradition burst onto the scene in the middle of the tenth century, when al-Warrāq compiled a culinary treatise titled al-Kitab al-Tabikh (The Book of Dishes) containing over 600 recipes. It would take another three and half centuries for cookery books to be produced in the European continent. Until then, gastronomic writing remained the sole preserve of the Arab-Muslim world, with cooking manuals and recipe books being written from Baghdad, Aleppo and Egypt in the East, to Muslim Spain, Morocco and Tunisia in the West. A total of nine complete cookery books have survived from this time, containing nearly three thousand recipes. First published in the fifteenth century, The Sultan's Feast by the Egyptian Ibn Mubārak Shāh features more than 330 recipes, from bread-making and savoury stews, to sweets, pickling and aromatics, as well as tips on a range of topics. This culinary treatise reveals the history of gastronomy in Arab culture. Available in English for the first time, this critical bilingual volume offers a unique insight into the world of medieval Arabic gastronomic writing.

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241

Publisher

Saqi Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0863561810

ISBN 13

9780863561818

Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies

By: Ibn Warraq

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Sir Walter Scott's Crusades and Other Fantasies

By: Ibn Warraq

Ibn Warraq makes an invaluable corrective contribution to our understanding of literature and its impact on popular conceptions of history. Warraq takes for his study the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and makes a facinating comparison between the novels (and Scott's sources) and what is known from the Arab sources and biographers of Saladin and the Crusades. Then he discusses the work of many other scholars of this period so the reader comes away with a well-rounded view, not only of the Crusades, but the scholarship of the period as well. Beyond that, Warraq discusses antisemitism and the Jewish plight during the Medieval era, (as well as their oppressed status under Islamic rule) on through to the early Christian Zionist movement in literature focusing especially on the work of George Eliot and Charlotte Elizabeth. Warraq ends by discussing the primary importance of freedom of expression and how that is threatened in the modern world. He holds up the South Park Affair as a prime example of the West's tendency of to fold before Islam "like some third rate poker player who throws in the cards at the first aggressive bluff when he is in fact holding the winning hand." Ibn Warraq is the rare scholar who still believes in objective truth and that that truth may be found (or at least approximated) by a thorough and dispassionate examination of the evidence. His is the calm voice of reason in a world carried away by hyperbole. Read him and be wiser.

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260

Publisher

World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0988477858

ISBN 13

9780988477858

Why I Am Not a Muslim

By: Ibn Warraq

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Why I Am Not a Muslim

By: Ibn Warraq

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420

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Prometheus Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1591020115

ISBN 13

9781591020110

Early Muslim Polemic Against Christianity

Abu Isa Al-Warraq's 'Against the Incarnation'

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

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Early Muslim Polemic Against Christianity

Abu Isa Al-Warraq's 'Against the Incarnation'

By: Muḥammad ibn Hārūn Warrāq

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336

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Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521811325

ISBN 13

9780521811323

The Islam in Islamic Terrorism

The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology

By: Ibn Warraq

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The Islam in Islamic Terrorism

The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology

By: Ibn Warraq

Ibn Warraq argues that we must take the beliefs of the jihadists seriously. He believes that the acts of ISIS or other Taliban are carefully and strategically planned operations that are a part of a long campaign by educated, affluent Muslims who wish to bring about the establishment of an Islamic state based on the Shari a, the Islamic Holy Law derived from the Koran, the Sunna and the Hadith. He doesn't believe that the United States was targeted because of its foreign policy, or that it has to do with their socioeconomic background, with poverty as the favorite explanation.

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395

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World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1943003084

ISBN 13

9781943003082

The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 31

The War between Brothers: The Caliphate of Muḥammad al-Amīn A.D. 809-813/A.H. 193-198

By: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī

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The History of al-Ṭabarī Vol. 31

The War between Brothers: The Caliphate of Muḥammad al-Amīn A.D. 809-813/A.H. 193-198

By: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī

This section of the History of al-Ṭabarī covers the caliphate of Muḥammad al-Amīn, who succeeded his father, Hārūn al-Rashīd on March 24, 809, and was killed on September 25, 813. The focus of this section is a single event, the civil war between al-Amīn and his half-brother al-Maʾmūn. Before his death, al-Rashīd had arranged for the succession in a series of documents signed at Mecca and deposited for safekeeping in the Ka'bah. Al-Amīn was to become caliph; al-Maʾmūn was to govern Khurasan with virtual autonomy from Baghdad. Al-Amīn could neither remove his brother from office nor interfere with his revenues or military support. Furthermore, al-Maʾmūn was named as al-Amīn's successor, and al-Amīn was forbidden to alter the succession. If either brother violated these conditions, he was to forfeit his rights. It soon became apparent that the good will to carry out these arrangements did not exist. Disagreement broke out when al-Amīn insisted that many of the forces that had accompanied al-Rashīd and al-Maʾmūn to Khurasan return to Baghdad. When the majority of army commanders obeyed the new caliph's orders, al-Maʾmūn was enraged and countered with measures to secure his position. Angry letters were exchanged, with al-Amīn pressing his brother to make concessions that al-Maʾmūn regarded as contrary to the succession agreement. By March 811, military conflict was imminent. Al-Amin demanded that certain border districts be returned to the control of Baghdad. When al-Maʾmūn refused, al-Amīn despatched an expedition to seize the districts. Al-Amīn's resort to force ended in disaster. Al-Maʾmūn's forces, led by Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn and Harthamah ibn A'yan, quickly closed in on Baghdad. In a siege lasting over a year, Baghdad suffered extensive damage from the fighting and from bombardment by siege engines. Gangs of vagrants and paupers, organized by al-Amīn into irregular units, fought a kind of urban guerrilla war. But, with Tahir and Harthamah enforcing the siege and with most of al-Amīn's associates having switched their loyalties to the winning side, the caliph was forced to sue for terms. These were worked out among representatives of al-Amīn, Tahir, and Harthamah. However, when the caliph boarded the boat that was to take him into Harthamah's custody, troops loyal to Tahir assaulted and capsized the boat. Al-Amīn fell into the Tigris, was apprehended, and was executed that night on orders from Tahir. Thus ended this phase of the civil war. Al-Maʾmūn was now caliph. Al-Ṭabarī's history of these years includes accounts by participants in the event, diplomatic letters betweenal-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn, Tahir's long letter toal-Maʾmūn on the circumstances of al-Amin's death, and a dramatic eyewitness account of al-Amīn's last hours. Also noteworthy is a 135-verse poem describing the devastation of Baghdad. The section ends with a series of literary anecdotes on the character of al-Amīn.

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Page Count

302

Publisher

SUNY Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0791410854

ISBN 13

9780791410851

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