Islam: Its History, Teaching, and Practices

This compact introduction to Islam encapsulates the essential aspects of Islam as a living religion and social force. The book is organized around seven topics: the life of Muhammad; Islamic political development and territorial expansion; the important groupings of Islamic believers (Sunni, Shi'ite, and Sufi); the Qur'an (the Holy Book of Islam); Sunnah, Hadith (the record of the Prophet's actions and sayings), and Shari'ah (the compilation of Islamic law); the five Articles of Faith and the so-called Five Pillars of Islam that govern faith and action; and other binding religious observances and festivals. The presentation of these seven aspects of Islam strikes a balance between fact, tradition, current interpretation, and commentary. S. A. Nigosian underscores two fundamental points: that to understand Islam properly, it is necessary to see it as a major faith tradition, with Muhammad as the last of a series of messengers sent by God; and that to grasp the spirit of Islam, one must recognize its emphasis on an uncompromising monotheism, with strict adherence to certain social, political, and religious practices, as taught by the Prophet and elaborated by tradition.

History

Nigosian, S. A.

Middle East

Indiana University Press

Each major religious tradition, from African and American Indian, through Christianity and Islam, to Shinto and Zoroastrianism is presented. Nigosian considers each religious tradition's basic belief patterns, its history and development, and its contemporary conditions. This new and updated edition has a separate chapter devoted to each religion so that students can gain insight into how beliefs and rituals develop within a cultural context. It also includes a focus on the daily life, role and status of women. New features of this edition are additional excerpts from sacred texts, study questions, and updated maps and timelines.

World Faiths

Religion & Spirituality

Bedford/St.Martins

World Religions: A Historical Approach

A concise, balanced, and reasonably priced introductory text, World Religions (the revision of World Faiths, Second Edition) takes a historical approach to the ideological and cultural aspects of several religions. More than just a collection of facts about beliefs and mores, this unique text offers students a complex portrait of each religion, with scholarly viewpoints interspersed throughout.

Bedford/St.Martin's

This general survey of the world's religions, both currently practiced and extinct, provides an account of the development, doctrines, scriptures, and practices of 11 major religious traditions, including Roman religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, African traditions, and American Indian traditions. Nigosian (world religions, U. of Toronto, Canada) incorporates, b&amp;w photographs, maps, and time lines to enhance the descriptions in each chapter of the origins, historical growth, and major observances and festivals of each faith, using both traditional viewpoints and academic opinions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Religious Studies

St.Martins

From Ancient Writings to Sacred Texts: The Old Testament and Apocrypha

The books constituting the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, have a complex history of authorship, resulting in a variety of styles, perspectives, and meanings. The authors and editors of the books that became the Bible lived through the political vicissitudes of a region that was a cultural crossroads, subject to successive waves of invasion, settlement, and influence by a variety of civilizations. Consequently, their works reflect the diverse political, intellectual, and literary legacies of the ancient Near East and, in some cases, the incorporation of non-Hebrew texts.
S. A. Nigosian, a scholar of Biblical and Near Eastern religions, explores the diverse literary antecedents of the Old Testament as well as the Apocrypha―books excluded from the canonical Hebrew text but included in the Septuagint. Closely analyzing the formation and contents of these works, Nigosian compares them with the religious, philosophical, didactic, and historical works created by the neighboring Near Eastern civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor. Proceeding book by book, he highlights parallels in language, structure, and story among Hebrew and non-Hebrew and non-canonical Hebrew texts.
From the ubiquity of flood myths throughout the ancient Near East to similarities between seduction tales in Genesis and Egyptian mythology, Job-like stories from Babylonian legend, and the recycling of elements within the Hebrew Bible, this book offers a concise and accessible history of the composition and compilation of the Bible and the complex process of canonization. It also features a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a chronology of the composition of the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha.

Christian Books & Bibles

Johns Hopkins University Press

Islam: The Way of Submission

Islam

Harpercollins

World Religions Series

Mcdougal-Littell/Houghton-Mifflin

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Books by Nigosian, S. A.