Research Catalog

Title

Lost in the sacred : why the Muslim world stood still / Dan Diner ; translated by Steven Rendall.

Author

Diner, Dan, 1946-

Publication

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Rendall, Steven

Description

viii, 213 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

"Lost in the Sacred poses questions about the Muslim world that no other book by a Western writer has dared to ask. Focusing on the Arab Middle East, Dan Diner asks what caused the Muslim world to lag behind so dramatically. Is Western dominance to blame? Or is the problem even with Islam itself? These questions, however unsettling, need to be asked - and they are being posed all across the Muslim world today. This book provides cautious answers that are no less disturbing than the questions."--Jacket.

Uniform Title

Versiegelte Zeit. English

Alternative Title

Versiegelte Zeit.

Subject

• Islamic countries > Civilization
• Islamic countries > History

Genre/Form

History

Note

• Translated from the German.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-209) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• 1. KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT: the state of the Arab world. "Orientalism" and its adversaries -- Rifa'ah at-Tahtawi and the "Arab Human Development Report" -- Language and social lifeworlds -- Knowledge and technology -- Freedom and prosperity -- Power and benefit -- Military and politics -- Mehmed Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser -- Ground rent and productivity -- Oil wealth and stasis -- 2. GEOPOLITICS AND RELIGIOUS ZEAL: Radicalizaiton in the Muslim East. Between Palestine and Kashmir -- Cold War and decolonization -- England and Russia -- Gladstone and Disraeli -- Caliphate and Pan-Islam -- Kemal Pasha and Enver Pasha -- Hindus and Muslims -- Colonialism and alienation -- Arabism and Islamism -- Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb -- Political theology and civil war -- 3. TEXT AND SPEECH: the rejection of the printing press. One God, one book -- Mechanical reproduction and profanation -- Consonants and vowels -- Arabic and Hebrew -- Baruch Spinoza and Walter Benjamin --^
• Romanization and secularization -- Recitation and reading -- Literacy and diglossia -- Fusha and Ammiya -- 4. RISE AND DECLINE: Ottoman perplexities in the early modern period. -- Europe and Asia -- Ottomans and the New World -- Gold and silver -- Piri Reis and Selim I -- Mamluks and Venetians -- The price revolution and mercantilism -- Janissaries and bureaucrats -- Merchants and craftsmen -- Inflation and rebellion -- Stasis or crisis -- Mustafa Ali and Katip Celebi -- 5. POLITICAL POWER AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT: Muslim social environment in the classical age. Desert and Steppe -- Tribute and tax -- Central power and urban culture -- Umayyads and Abbasids -- Mercenaries and traders -- Polis and Medina -- Public and private -- Benefices and capital -- Labor and property -- Time and liturgy -- Ethics and morals -- Sacred and profane -- 6. HISTORICAL THOUGHT AND DIVINE LAW: Converting sacred into profane time. Acceleration or deceleration -- Law and history -- Cyclical vs linear time --^
• Ibn Khaldun and Giambattista Vico -- Past utopias and future worlds -- Islam and Judaism -- Leo Strauss and Moses Maimonides -- Dual law and dual time -- Muhammad Asad and Moses Mendelssohn -- Law of the land and secularization.

ISBN

• 9780691129112 (hardcover : alk. paper)
• 0691129118 (hardcover : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2008035413

OCLC

231587418

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library