Malise Ruthven - Islam: A Very Short Introduction

Islam: A Very Short Introduction

VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.

The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.

Very Short Introductions available now:

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas

THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair

ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia

ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn

ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne

ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

ART HISTORY Dana Arnold

ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin

ATHEISM Julian Baggini

AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick

BARTHES Jonathan Culler

THE BIBLE John Riches

BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright

BUDDHA Michael Carrithers

BUDDHISM Damien Keown

CAPITALISM James Fulcher

THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe

CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham

CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson

CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson

CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard

THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon

CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley

COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins

DARWIN Jonathan Howard

DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

DESCARTES Tom Sorell

DRUGS Leslie Iversen

THE EARTH Martin Redfern

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Geraldine Pinch

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford

THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

EMOTION Dylan Evans

EMPIRE Stephen Howe

ENGELS Terrell Carver

ETHICS Simon Blackburn

THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder

EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

FASCISM Kevin Passmore

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle

FREUD Anthony Storr

GALILEO Stillman Drake

GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger

HEGEL Peter Singer

HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood

HINDUISM Kim Knott

HISTORY John H. Arnold

HOBBES Richard Tuck

HUME A. J. Ayer

IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden

INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton

INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary

ISLAM Malise Ruthven

JUDAISM Norman Solomon

JUNG Anthony Stevens

KANT Roger Scruton

KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner

THE KORAN Michael Cook

LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews

LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler

LOCKE John Dunn

LOGIC Graham Priest

MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner

MARX Peter Singer

MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers

MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

MODERN IRELAND Senia Paeta

MOLECULES Philip Ball

MUSIC Nicholas Cook

NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner

NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew

NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland

PAUL E. P. Sanders

PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha

PLATO Julia Annas

POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young

POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler

POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey

PREHISTORY Chris Gosden

PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Catherine Osborne

PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne

ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway

ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler

RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith

SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway

SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just

SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce

SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

SPINOZA Roger Scruton

STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

TERRORISM Charles Townshend

THEOLOGY David F. Ford

Available soon:

THE TUDORS John Guy

TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan

WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling

WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman

AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone

ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

THE BRAIN Michael OShea

BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown

CHAOS Leonard Smith

CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead

CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy

CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Robert Tavernor

CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko

CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass

THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman

DERRIDA Simon Glendinning

DESIGN John Heskett

DINOSAURS David Norman

DREAMING J. Allan Hobson

ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta

THE END OF THE WORLD Bill McGuire

EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard

FREE WILL Thomas Pink

FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven

HABERMAS Gordon Finlayson

HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson

HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson

HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson

JAZZ Brian Morton

MANDELA Tom Lodge

MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope

THE MIND Martin Davies

MYTH Robert Segal

NATIONALISM Steven Grosby

PERCEPTION Richard Gregory

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot

PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

THE RAJ Denis Judd

THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton

RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine Johnson

SARTRE Christina Howells

THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham

TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Martin Conway

For more information visit our web site

www.oup.co.uk/vsi

A Very Short Introduction

Malise Ruthven

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship,

and education by publishing worldwide in

Oxford New York

Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai

Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata

Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi

So Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto

Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press

in the UK and in certain other countries

Published in the United States

by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

Malise Ruthven 1997

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1997

Reissued 2000

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate

reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction

outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,

Oxford University Press, at the address above

You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Ruthven, Malise.

Islam / Malise Ruthven.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Islam. I. Title.