The Culture of Islam: Changing Aspects of Contemporary Muslim Life

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 246 pages
• Published by: University Of Chicago Press
• Edition: 1st Edition June 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0226726150
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226726151
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 12.8 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Rosen, a professor of anthropology at Princeton and of law at Columbia and one of the first recipients of a MacArthur "genius" grant, offers a series of layered essays on North African culture. The book calls on both his own anecdotes from years of travel and research in North Africa, as well as his anthropological background. His pen is both literary and analytical - which makes the reading a pleasure, but sometimes difficult to follow. The essays, rather than building toward a single thesis, are largely unrelated to each other. Although its title suggests that the subject is Islamic culture, the book is more about the people of Morocco. For instance, Rosen is very persuasive in his arguments that ambivalence, corruption, and tribalism play a strong role in Moroccan society. However, he does not explain why conclusions about Moroccan Muslims can be extrapolated to constitute a universal "Culture of Islam." Yet the book has many strengths; an essay entitled "Marriage Stories," for example, shows how Muslim women can and do use legal reforms to empower themselves. The author's personal anecdotes (especially one about how a young bride's resistance to entering the car of her groom's family is not reluctance so much as a bargaining chip) are satisfying and enhance Rosen's successful efforts to enlighten the reader about Moroccan and North African society. Where others would dismiss the region's Muslims as antiquated, racist or extremist, Rosen challenges various hackneyed theories about Islam and swiftly rebuts them.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Review
"At a time when writers and commentators are discussing Islam so freely and often superficially, the need for a measured and accessible analysis of Islam is great. Lawrence Rosen's The Culture of Islam perfectly meets this need. Rosen's continuing interactions with the Muslim world, which began over three decades ago, allow us special insights into Islamic culture and have formed an intellectually stimulating and highly original book." - Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, and author of Discovering Islam: Making Sense of Muslim History and Society --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
As stated by Timothy R. Furnish, from Georgia Perimeter College: Drawing upon his experiences as an anthropologist in Morocco, Rosen analyzes several facets of modern Muslim society. The elusive thesis of his essays collected here would seem to be that all politics in the Middle East is personal. Power may grow out of the barrel of a gun but is only deemed legitimate when the leader takes into account the primacy of social relationships, especially tribal units. The chapter on tribes might have been worthwhile reading for U.S. military commanders heading to Iraq in 2003, in that Rosen rejects the idea that tribes are but a stage in political evolution and contends that they can coexist within other types of political systems. While one might find reason for optimism for democracy in Iraq from his view that Middle Eastern rulers are "more like paramount chieftainships than like states" because they "get their power from below-from other chiefs," Rosen also argues that "each leader is by definition legitimate if he succeeds in ... grasp[ing] the reins of power." Might, in other words, does make right. In this vein, Rosen holds that Daniel Pipes was wrong to assert in his 1983 book, In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power that Islamic expectations for good governance are set so high that no Muslim government is ever truly legitimate.[1] Instead, Rosen sticks to his assertion, acquired in Morocco, that simply seizing power legitimates a ruler. Rosen's interests take some essays in the direction of strictly cultural issues, such as Moroccans' view of corruption and mixed marriages (a chapter better suited to a legal textbook). Other of his chapters look more broadly at current issues, such as his views on the continuing relevance of Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses for having allowed a kernel of doubt to nose its way under the smugly righteous ideological tents of ulema and mullahs. Rosen's optimism about a kinder, gentler Islam developing in Europe seems anachronistic after the 2004 Madrid explosions, the ritualistic murder of Theo Van Gogh, and the 2005 London attacks. His contention that "deep cultural change is not going on" in the Islamic world remains to be seen, but it stands out for counter-intuitive boldness. Overall, while The Culture of Islam contains thought-provoking nuggets, finding them amidst the opaque dust of anthropological verbiage makes it often more trouble than it is worth. 1. New York: Basic Books, 1983, p. 55-63.