A reader on South East Asian Islam

 

Mint condition. PB. 389pp. Amazon selling this for over $40 plus postage. Our special price is $35 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Islam is a major religion in Southeast Asia, with Indonesian Muslims comprising the largest Muslim population in the world. Events and developments since 11 September 2001 have added greater attention to Islam and its adherents in this part of the world.

This general survey of Islam in Southeast Asia is intended to inform, explain and update readers about the more significant aspects of Islam in Southeast Asia, then and now. These include the following: the geographical origins and sources by which the faith spread in this region; the social, economic and political profiles of the Muslim communities; relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and between Muslims and the State; the strands and trends that shapes the role of Islam and the Muslims in the national body politic; and the challenges confronting Muslims in confronting the vicissitudes of their lives in this era of rapid change, characterized by modernization, capitalism, secularization and globalization.          

The discussion will begin with an overview of the broad picture of Islam and the Muslims in the region as a whole, covering both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority countries. This will be followed by case-study analysis of Islam and the Muslims in individual countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.           

Given the difficulty of writing on such a complex and contentious topic, this book attempts to present the subject matter in a manner that is sufficiently objective to scholars and yet simple and accessible enough to be readily understood by ordinary readers. 

Biography of a Jewish convert to Shi'ism in Azerbaijan during WWII

 

Mint condition. PB. 464pp. Amazon retails for $26 plus postage. Our special price $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

'Mixing memory with desire, this marvelous and original book once more reminds us of ways through which the imagination becomes a refuge from the uncontrollable cruelties of reality.'

Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany.

Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution, became celebrated across fascist Europe. His enduring masterpiece, Ali and Nino–a story of love across ethnic and religious boundaries, published on the eve of the Holocaust–is still in print today.

But Lev's life grew wilder than his wildest stories. He married an international heiress who had no idea of his true identity–until she divorced him in a tabloid scandal. His closest friend in New York, George Sylvester Viereck–also a friend of both Freud's and Einstein's–was arrested as the leading Nazi agent in the United States. Lev was invited to be Mussolini's official biographer–until the Fascists discovered his "true" identity. Under house arrest in the Amalfi cliff town of Positano, Lev wrote his last book–discovered in a half a dozen notebooks never before read by anyone–helped by a mysterious half-German salon hostess, an Algerian weapons-smuggler, and the poet Ezra Pound.

Tom Reiss spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and the deathbed notebooks. Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker, he pursued Lev's story across ten countries and found himself caught up in encounters as dramatic and surreal, and sometimes as heartbreaking, as his subject's life. Reiss's quest for the truth buffets him from one weird character to the next: from the last heir of the Ottoman throne to a rock opera-composing baroness in an Austrian castle, to an aging starlet in a Hollywood bungalow full of cats and turtles.

As he tracks down the pieces of Lev Nussimbaum's deliberately obscured life, Reiss discovers a series of shadowy worlds–of European pan-Islamists, nihilist assassins, anti-Nazi book smugglers, Baku oil barons, Jewish Orientalists–that have also been forgotten. The result is a thoroughly unexpected picture of the twentieth century–of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism and terrorism. Written with grace and infused with wonder, The Orientalist is an astonishing book.

Muslim women tell stories of rights, abuse, love and loss

 

Mint condition. PB. 402pp. Booktopia are selling this for $27.50 plus postage. Our special price including postage to anywhere in Australia is $25.

Andalusian scholar writes on Muslim interfaith relations

 

Rare book. PB. Mint condition. 231pp. Amazon sells this for over $40. Our price $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A study of excerpts from the classical Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm on Islamic theology as it pertains to other religions in the context of the unique convivencia experiment in multiculturalism of medieval Islamic Spain.

A guide for bringing up Muslim teems

 Mint condition. PB. 251pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

From the preface: “Teen years we are told by society are the time for school dances, house parties, and road trips, the time for underage drinking, for dating, for casinos and gambling, the time for exploring and discovering, discovering beer, discovering drugs, discovering the opposite sex, the time for finding yourself; teen years, we are told, are the time of your life.

Teen years are the paradoxical highlight of life in the western world. They are the time in which one is bombarded with knowledge and freed from responsibility. Teens have the privileges of an adult and the responsibilities of a child; teens rebel by conforming; the stand out by melting into their group of friends.

Being a teen means wanting independence but not having the wisdom it requires; it means having energy and conviction and needing a cause to which to devote them.

For those of you who, by the will of Allah, wish to instill knowledge and wisdom into their independent teens, to give their teens the Islamic cause into which they can pour their energy and conviction, those who wish to raise teens who can raise the Ummah, this book is for you."

SOLD Biography of Muhammad

 

SOLD

Mint condition. 268pp. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. Over the course of the following sixty years, he built a thriving spiritual community and laid out the foundations of a religion that has changed the course of world history. There is more historical data available about his life than that of the founder of any other major faith, and yet, particularly in the West, his is a consistently misunderstood story.

An acclaimed authority on religious and spiritual issues, Karen Armstrong offers a balanced portrait of this revered figure. Through comparison with other prophets and mystics, she illuminates Muhammad's spiritual ideas; she uses the facts of his life, from which Muslims have drawn instruction for centuries, to make the tenets of Islam clear and accessible for modern readers of all faiths. This vivid and detailed biography strips away centuries of distortion and myth to reveal the man behind the religion.

Karen Armstrong, bestselling author, scholar, and journalist, is among the world's foremost commentators on religious history and culture. Post-9/11, she has become a crucial advocate for mutual understanding between the world's major faiths. Her books include Buddha: A Biography, The Battle for God, and Islam: A Short History.

"Respectful without being reverential, knowledgeable without being pedantic, and, above all, readable. It succeeds because [Armstrong] brings Muhammad to life as a fully rounded human being." -The Economist

SOLD Primer on Islamic faith and culture

 

SOLD to a lawyer in Tasmania.

Mint condition. PB. 403pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Islam is the way of life for million of people around the world. Its teachings guide people to live harmoniously and in balance with themselves, others and the world around them. Everyday people come into contact with Islam and those who practice this faith. The need to know about the Islamic teachings has become more important then ever.

As Muslims assimilated the English language into their rainbow of languages, the need for clear and concise literature grows. This is especially true when one considers that there are millions of Muslims whose native language is now English. In addition many seekers of truth have been yearning for a book that would present the clear and precise Islamic view of life in a format that not only invites further study and research, but that also provides the path to achieve this goal.

"What Islam is All About" is a textbook designed to meet all of these needs. In one volume is included the basic history of the Prophet Muhammad, (peace be upon him), the teaching of Islam, the history of the ancient Prophets, the study of the Quran, the Islamic philosophy of the world and life within it, Islamic law, Hadith, contemporary issues and much more.

Perfect for Muslim schools, Sunday schools, adult study classes, independent learners, students of religion, seekers of truth and anyone interested to know more about Islam from an insider's point of view. You will not find a more complete, compelling, and pleasant presentation of Islam and what it teaches anywhere else!

SOLD Susan Carland writes on sexism in Muslim societies

 

SOLD to a lawyer in East Sydney, NSW.

Ex-library. Mint condition. PB. 182pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist’s playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility.

Yet between those two views there is a group of Muslim women many do not believe exists: a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within, as committed to the fight as they are to their faith. Hemmed in by Islamophobia and sexism, they fight against sexism with their minds, words and bodies. Often, their biggest weapon is their religion.

Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith. At a time when the media trumpets scandalous revelations about life for women from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Muslim women are always spoken about and over, never with. In Fighting Hislam, that ends.

SOLD What the West gained from the rest

 

SOLD to an uber driver in Arncliffe

Mint condition. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia

SOLD Introductory textbook on Muslim religious law

 

SOLD to a workplace psychologist in Arncliffe

Mint condition. PB. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD On mosque architecture

 

SOLD

Ex-library. Mint condition. HB. $50 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD Travels through Muslim lands

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 271pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Travel narrative and compelling adventure are blended in this collection of tales of Westerners who traveled to Islamic lands during the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, describing the experiences of John Reed, Walter B. Harris, Lowell Thomas, Freya Stark, and others.

SOLD A Muslim woman discovers her Jewish roots

 

SOLD

Mint condition. PB. 264pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

SOLD The Greatest

 

SOLD

Mint condition. HB. 481 pp. Heavy book - 1.07kg. $40 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Many regard Muhammad Ali simply as “The Greatest” heavyweight of all time.

Others admire his battles against racial injustice and religious intolerance.

A few just call him “Dad.”

They are all here in this book—fifty men and women of note coming together to celebrate the man Sports Illustrated crowned “Sportsman of the Century”: Angelo Dundee, Ali’s trainer; Billy Crystal, actor; Sir Henry Cooper, former British and European heavyweight champion; Bert Sugar, journalist and boxing historian; Hana Ali, Muhammad Ali’s daughter; Ferdie Pacheco, Ali’s fight doctor; and more.

This book will be treasured by anyone who has ever been inspired by “The Greatest.”

An objective but not reverential biography of the prophet of Islam

 

Mint condition. PB. 304pp. $20 including postage anywhere in Australia.

A life of the prophet Muhammad by best-selling religious writer Karen Armstrong

Most people in the West know very little about the prophet Muhammad. The acclaimed religious writer Karen Armstrong has written a biography which will give us a more accurate and profound understanding of Islam and the people who adhere to it so strongly. Muhammad also offers challenging comparisons with the two religions most closely related to it - Judaism and Christianity.

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. Over the course of the following sixty years, he built a thriving spiritual community and laid out the foundations of a religion that has changed the course of world history. There is more historical data available about his life than that of the founder of any other major faith, and yet, particularly in the West, his is a consistently misunderstood story.

An acclaimed authority on religious and spiritual issues, Karen Armstrong offers a balanced portrait of this revered figure. Through comparison with other prophets and mystics, she illuminates Muhammad's spiritual ideas; she uses the facts of his life, from which Muslims have drawn instruction for centuries, to make the tenets of Islam clear and accessible for modern readers of all faiths. This vivid and detailed biography strips away centuries of distortion and myth to reveal the man behind the religion.

Karen Armstrong, bestselling author, scholar, and journalist, is among the world's foremost commentators on religious history and culture. Post-9/11, she has become a crucial advocate for mutual understanding between the world's major faiths. Her books include Buddha: A Biography, The Battle for God, and Islam: A Short History.

"Respectful without being reverential, knowledgeable without being pedantic, and, above all, readable. It succeeds because [Armstrong] brings Muhammad to life as a fully rounded human being." -The Economist

A short scholarly biography

 

Published in 1983. Good condition. PB. 94pp. $15 including postage anywhere in Australia.

RESERVED On the architecture of mosques

 

RESERVED

Ex-library. Mint condition. HB. 142pp. Colour photos. $50 including postage anywhere in Australia.

The story of the world's great mosques is intrinsically related to the story and spread of Islam.

Against the canvas of the rise and fall of great Islamic dynasties, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey to ancient lands, where some of the greatest architectural marvels of history were created.

“Mosques" charts the development of the mosque in countries and kingdoms across the world, from the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, and the founding of the first Muslim congregational place of prayer, to the mosque's place in the modern age.

Accompanied throughout with stunning photography, highlighting the architectural features of these beautifully designed buildings, "Mosques" documents one of the most dynamic religious movements of all time.

A primer on Islam and modernity

 

Rare book. Slightly damaged. PB. 309pp. $25 including postage anywhere in Australia.

Most of the problems visible in the Muslim world stem from the gap created by a commitment to tradition and a wariness of modernity.

This book outlines the defining beliefs of Islam and the devotional practices of Muslims. It explains how and why the Islamic mood and the Muslim mind competes and, at times, conflicts with the promotion of modern popular culture and the propagation of contemporary liberal values.

The author, well-known Muslim theologian and writer Mehmet Özalp, is adamant that constructive and respectful dialogue across religious traditions is possible and that a clash of civilisations can be avoided.

He writes with sensitivity and insight about Islamic theology, history and social engagement, seeking to identify the major fault lines in relations between the Muslim World and the West while offering creative suggestions to relieve tension and restore goodwill.

This book will educate and enlighten a very broad readership and will help to fashion a future that neither rejects tradition nor resists modernity.