Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices

Andrew Rippin's Muslims is essential reading for students and scholars alike. This new edition has been comprehensively updated and for the first time features a companion website with extensive links to additional reading and resources to help deepen students' understanding of the subject.

Muslims offers a survey of Islamic history and thought from the formative period of the religion to modern times. It examines the unique elements which have combined to form Islam, in particular the Qur'an and the influence of Muhammad, and traces the ways in which these sources have interacted historically to create Muslim theology and law as well as the alternative visions of Islam found in Shi'ism and Sufi sm.

Combining core source materials with coverage of current scholarship and of recent events in the Islamic world, Andrew Rippin introduces this hugely significant religion in a succinct, challenging and refreshing way. The improved and expanded fourth edition contains a new chapter on perceptions of Muslims today as well as a new series of text boxes to stimulate students' thinking about essay topics and research projects. Using a distinctive critical approach that promotes engagement with key issues, from fundamentalism and women's rights to problems of identity, Islamophobia and modernity, this text is ideal for today's students.

Review:

'Highly recommended. An introduction that stands out due to its comprehensive coverage from a critical historical perspective attuned to the dynamics of constructing religious identities both in the past and present. Just the right amount of challenge for undergraduate students.' - F. Volker Greifenhagen, University of Regina, Canada

'With his pedagogical clarity, critical academic approach and vast knowledge, Andrew Rippin's book is truly an authoritative and stimulating guide. The combination of classical and contemporary sources and a large number of examples from different epochs and regions provide the reader with a thorough introduction to Islamic studies.' - Goeran Larsson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

"This thorough work by Rippin is one of the best short introductions to Muslim thought...this is an excellent classroom textbook. Rippin lives up to his goal to treat Islam to 'the full rigor of analysis that humanistic and social-scientific study can provide.' Summing Up: Highly recommended." G.M. Smith, Deleware County Community College, USA in Choice

Praise for previous editions:

'Probably the best general account of what Muslims believe' - Robert Irwin, The Guardian

'Provides a scholarly and yet readable introduction to the Islamic tradition. Rippin presents a complex religious tradition in a condensed, well-documented and up-to-date work.' - Roxanne D. Marcotte, Studies in Religion