For the “Understanding Islam” class I’m taking this summer, we were assigned Carole Hillenbrand’s text “Introduction to Islam: Beliefs and Practices in Historical Perspective.” I recommend this text to anyone interested in the subject. Here are a few thoughts.
This book provides a helpful historical and contemporary survey of the development and diversity of Islam. I was already familiar with most of the basic historical outlines, but Hillenbrand provides some useful reminders. I became interested in Arab and Islamic history more than twenty years ago when I first read Albert Hourani’s book A History of the Arab Peoples.[1] Over the years I have also done lots of reading on the history of the Crusades. Occasionally I teach a Church History class at a local seminary, in which I cover the rise of Islam and the Crusades. All of this left me with a deep respect for the achievements of Islamic societies along with a sense of the complexities of historical and contemporary relations between Arab states and the West and between Muslims and Christians.
Hillenbrand significantly added to my understanding of the diversity of religious movements within Islam. I had known of some the distinctions between Shiites and Sunnis, but Hillenbrand deepened that understanding. I had not previously known much about the role of Sufism or of the varieties of Sufism. This raises interesting questions because, as Hillenbrand notes, the role and “orthodoxy” of Sufism is questioned within various parts of Islam itself. As I read these materials I tried to consider how I would feel about reading an “outsider” account of “Christianity,” when I know as an “insider” that one’s location within Christianity often determines how broadly applicable that term could apply. I think this shows that there are many overlapping ways to define or describe a “religion”: doctrinal, sociological, historical, phenomenological, emotive, and so-on. This is true for Islam no less than for Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other variety of religion.
Hillenbrand also significantly added to my understanding of the Qur’an and its place within Islam. I had not appreciated the Qur’an’s uniqueness as a literary creation in its historical context, that is, before there was any significant written literature in Arabic. I loved reading the “Verses of Light” and I can relate to how the textures, cadences, and phrases of the Qur’an become part of a person’s cultural DNA, just as this is true for me with the Bible. I also appreciated Hillenbrand’s contextualization of the concept of jihad and the distinction between the lesser and greater jihad.
There are two aspects of Hillenbrand’s book that unfortunately are already outdated: (1) her repeated optimistic references to the Arab Spring; and (2) her focus on Al Qaeda rather than ISIS. I did appreciate the contextualization of Usama bin Laden, whom I had assumed was serious religious scholar (as Hillenbrand makes clear, bin Laden was not a scholar of any sort). I would be interested to learn more about how ISIS has exploited and amplified Al Qaeda’s ideology. It also would be helpful to understand the role of the military in contemporary Arab states and how military leaders exploit Islam to quell populist movements such as the Arab Spring.
[1] Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (Harvard Univ. Press 1992).