Jihad: A History in Documents

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

4-12-2019

Publication Title

Terrorism and Political Violence

Volume

31

Issue

2

First page number:

428

Last page number:

429

Abstract

This is an updated edition of Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader (2005) which includes a section on the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). This is a particularly valuable book because it explains the concept of jihad from the classical and modernist perspectives and shows how modernists have attempted to redefine jihad in a more benign manner. To accomplish this task, Peters reproduces writings from classical and modernist scholars and offers his own perspective in several important essays. A particularly valuable aspect of this book is that it makes constant reference to the Quran, Islam’s sacred scripture. While the word jihad literally means to struggle in Arabic, so that it can have multiple meanings depending upon how it is used, contextually it has been understood when used in the military sense as fighting in Allah’s cause, popularly rendered in English as holy war

Disciplines

History of Religion | Islamic World and Near East History | Terrorism Studies

Language

English

UNLV article access

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