Overview

Abdelwahab Meddeb makes an urgent case for an Islamic reformation, located squarely in Western Europe, now home to millions of Muslims, where Christianity and Judaism have come to coexist with secular humanism and positivist law. He is not advocating ""moderate"" Islam, which he characterizes as thinly disguised Wahabism, but rather an Islam inspired by the great Sufi thinkers, whose practice of religion was not bound by doctrine. To accomplish this, Meddeb returns to the doctrinal question of the text as transcription of the uncreated word of God and calls upon Muslims to distinguish between Islam's spiritual message and the temporal, material, and historically grounded origins of its founding scriptures. He contrasts periods of Islamic history-when philosophers and theologians engaged in lively dialogue with other faiths and civilizations and contributed to transmitting the Hellenistic tradition to early modern Europe-with modern Islam's collective amnesia of this past. Meddeb wages a war of interpretations in this book, in his attempt to demonstrate that Muslims cannot join the concert of nations unless they set aside outmoded notions such as jihad and realize that feuding among the monotheisms must give way to the more important issue of what it means to be a citizen in today's postreligious global setting.

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Reviews

It is more urgent than ever to allow a voice such as Meddeb's to be heard, the voice of an Arab intellectual familiar with both Muslim civilization and Western culture. In this-and thanks to his immense knowledge and open-indedness-he is a precious translator capable of seeing both sides at the same time. -- -Marcel Henaff University of California, San Diego The philosophy of the future will draw upon all of humanity's collective accomplishments. In Islam and the Challenge of Civilization, Abdelwahab Meddeb proposes a scriptural hermeneutics that combines Spinoza and Ibn 'Arabi, an architectural style that blends Brunilleschi and Sinan, an ethos of competition expressed by the Qur'an and Claude Levi-Strauss, and many other hybrids. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to glimpse the cosmopolitan civilization on the horizon. -- -Nicholas Tampio Fordham University ... an important contribution to knowledge because it gives eloquent voice to a modern Muslim thinker who rejects the narrow legalism of the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia or the Puritanism of the Egyptian Muslim Brethren. -- -Patrick J. Ryan S.J. Fordham University This is the perfect handbook for deepening our understanding of both the incredible richness through time and the paradoxical present obtuseness of Islamic culture. Meddeb achieves this feat-how clear knowledge can disarm belligerent interpretations of a paradoxical faith-through his elegant and polyphonic use of Qu'ranic exegesis, advanced literary poetics, and a strong sense of democratic citizen politics, all of which are informed by a profound cosmopolitanism able to simultaneously draw on Ibn Arabi's eclectic Sufism and Voltaire's secular intellect, among many other sources. A necessary exploration,a must-read. -- -Pierre Joris author of The University of California Book of North African Literature Bold and fresh... Those well-versed in Islamic Studies will enjoy the erudite read, masterfully rendered into English by Kuntz. -Publishers Weekly Abdelwahab Meddeb's Islam and the Challenge of Civilization offers new perspectives on and fresh associations among historical events in a way that draws the curtain and adjusts the view among Muslim public intellectuals. Situated within the broad scholarship of Islamic thought, it engages critically and creatively with various doctrinal issues that are being manipulated by some Muslim opinion leaders to support their own bellicose positions. -American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences

This is the perfect handbook for deepening our understanding of both the incredible richness through time and the paradoxical present obtuseness of Islamic culture. Meddeb achieves this feat--how clear knowledge can disarm belligerent interpretations of a paradoxical faith--through his elegant and polyphonic use of Qu'ranic exegesis, advanced literary poetics, and a strong sense of democratic citizen politics, all of which are informed by a profound cosmopolitanism able to simultaneously draw on Ibn Arabi's eclectic sufism and Voltaire's secular intellect, among many other sources. A necessary exploration, a must read. --Pierre Joris, author of The University of California Book of North African Literature It is more urgent than ever to allow a voice such as Meddeb's to be heard, the voice of an Arab intellectual familiar with both Muslim civilization and Western culture. In this--and thanks to his immense knowledge and open-mindedness--he is a precious translator capable of seeing both sides at the same time. --Marcel Henaff ... an important contribution to knowledge because it gives eloquent voice to a modern Muslim thinker who rejects the narrow legalism of the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia or the Puritanism of the Egyptian Muslim Brethren. --Patrick J. Ryan S.J., Fordham University ... the trip he [Meddeb] takes readers on is worthwhile...recommended. --Choice Abdelwahab Meddeb's Islam and the Challenge of Civilization offers new perspectives on and fresh associations among historical events in a way that draws the curtain and adjusts the view among Muslim public intellectuals. Situated within the broad scholarship of Islamic thought, it engages critically and creatively with various doctrinal issues that are being manipulated by some Muslim opinion leaders to support their own bellicose positions. --American Journal of Islamic Studies

Abdelwahab Meddeb's Islam and the Challenge of Civilization offers new perspectives on and fresh associations among historical events in a way that draws the curtain and adjusts the view among Muslim public intellectuals. Situated within the broad scholarship of Islamic thought, it engages critically and creatively with various doctrinal issues that are being manipulated by some Muslim opinion leaders to support their own bellicose positions. * -American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences * Bold and fresh. . . . Those well-versed in Islamic Studies will enjoy the erudite read, masterfully rendered into English by Kuntz. * -Publishers Weekly * This is the perfect handbook for deepening our understanding of both the incredible richness through time and the paradoxical present obtuseness of Islamic culture. Meddeb achieves this feat-how clear knowledge can disarm belligerent interpretations of a paradoxical faith-through his elegant and polyphonic use of Qu'ranic exegesis, advanced literary poetics, and a strong sense of democratic citizen politics, all of which are informed by a profound cosmopolitanism able to simultaneously draw on Ibn Arabi's eclectic Sufism and Voltaire's secular intellect, among many other sources. A necessary exploration,a must-read. -- -Pierre Joris * author of The University of California Book of North African Literature * . . . an important contribution to knowledge because it gives eloquent voice to a modern Muslim thinker who rejects the narrow legalism of the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia or the Puritanism of the Egyptian Muslim Brethren. -- -Patrick J. Ryan S.J. * Fordham University * The philosophy of the future will draw upon all of humanity's collective accomplishments. In Islam and the Challenge of Civilization, Abdelwahab Meddeb proposes a scriptural hermeneutics that combines Spinoza and Ibn 'Arabi, an architectural style that blends Brunilleschi and Sinan, an ethos of competition expressed by the Qur'an and Claude Levi-Strauss, and many other hybrids. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to glimpse the cosmopolitan civilization on the horizon. -- -Nicholas Tampio * Fordham University * It is more urgent than ever to allow a voice such as Meddeb's to be heard, the voice of an Arab intellectual familiar with both Muslim civilization and Western culture. In this-and thanks to his immense knowledge and open-indedness-he is a precious translator capable of seeing both sides at the same time. -- -Marcel Henaff * University of California, San Diego *

Bold and fresh. . . . Those well-versed in Islamic Studies will enjoy the erudite read, masterfully rendered into English by Kuntz. * -Publishers Weekly * Abdelwahab Meddeb's Islam and the Challenge of Civilization offers new perspectives on and fresh associations among historical events in a way that draws the curtain and adjusts the view among Muslim public intellectuals. Situated within the broad scholarship of Islamic thought, it engages critically and creatively with various doctrinal issues that are being manipulated by some Muslim opinion leaders to support their own bellicose positions. * -American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences * . . . an important contribution to knowledge because it gives eloquent voice to a modern Muslim thinker who rejects the narrow legalism of the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia or the Puritanism of the Egyptian Muslim Brethren. -- -Patrick J. Ryan S.J. * Fordham University * The philosophy of the future will draw upon all of humanity's collective accomplishments. In Islam and the Challenge of Civilization, Abdelwahab Meddeb proposes a scriptural hermeneutics that combines Spinoza and Ibn 'Arabi, an architectural style that blends Brunilleschi and Sinan, an ethos of competition expressed by the Qur'an and Claude Levi-Strauss, and many other hybrids. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to glimpse the cosmopolitan civilization on the horizon. -- -Nicholas Tampio * Fordham University * This is the perfect handbook for deepening our understanding of both the incredible richness through time and the paradoxical present obtuseness of Islamic culture. Meddeb achieves this feat-how clear knowledge can disarm belligerent interpretations of a paradoxical faith-through his elegant and polyphonic use of Qu'ranic exegesis, advanced literary poetics, and a strong sense of democratic citizen politics, all of which are informed by a profound cosmopolitanism able to simultaneously draw on Ibn Arabi's eclectic Sufism and Voltaire's secular intellect, among many other sources. A necessary exploration,a must-read. -- -Pierre Joris * author of The University of California Book of North African Literature * It is more urgent than ever to allow a voice such as Meddeb's to be heard, the voice of an Arab intellectual familiar with both Muslim civilization and Western culture. In this-and thanks to his immense knowledge and open-indedness-he is a precious translator capable of seeing both sides at the same time. -- -Marcel Henaff * University of California, San Diego *

Author Information

Abdelwahab Meddeb (1946-2014) was novelist and poet who taught comparative literature at the Université Paris X (Nanterre). Meddeb published more than twenty books in French. His La maladie de l’islam, winner of the Prix François Mauriac, has been translated into English as The Malady of Islam.

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