Annemarie Schimmel

Former Professor Emerita Indo-Muslim Culture Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Annemarie Schimmel

"It is a splendid introduction--carefully researched and comprehensive, yet readable. It corrects many popular and erroneous notions about Islam that prevail in non-Muslim societies. For the general reader there are many profound insights of great consequence, for example, the passages on women, marriage, and inheritance, or the section on jihad, nearly always completely misunderstood in the press." -- BOOK JACKET.

An Introduction

Islam

The Qur'an constantly exhorts people to 'look at the signs of god,' signs that are hidden 'in the horizons and in themselves.' This book examines the mysteries of Islam using a phenomenological method to come closer to the true center of Muslim belief. Schimmel takes as her starting point the simplest 'signs of god' -- natural phenomena like stones, plants and animals, and their use in religious and symbolic language. She then moves on to less obvious signs, such as sacred time and space, ritual actions, forms of worship, the sacred individual, and the order of the community. She concludes with an examination of the individual's response to the mystery of the Divine. Based on both original classical sources and modern literature, as well as the author's considerable personal experience, this is not only a fascinating survey of Islamic practices and beliefs, but also a broad and intregrated overview of the phenomenology of Islam.

A Phenomenological Approach to Islam

Deciphering the Signs of God

Annemarie Schimmel has written extensively on India, Islam and poetry. In this comprehensive study she presents an overview of the cultural, economic, militaristic and artistic attributes of the great Mughal Empire from 1526 to 1857.

Former Professor Emerita Indo-Muslim Culture Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Annemarie Schimmel

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