Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys: Pathways of Faith

In 2004, the noted scholar of comparative religion F. E. Peters produced a new edition of his well-regarded Children of Abraham. When initially published three decades ago, the book was one of the first scholarly works to place Islam alongside Judaism and Christianity to explain their commonalties and connections. In a concise volume of less than 300 pages, Peters reviews the Abrahamic tradition from the sixth century BCE to the thirteenth century CE, exploring the intertwined relationships among the three faiths’ holy scriptures, rituals, communities of believers, laws, theological systems, and traditions of mysticism, discussing, for example, the response of all three religions’ great thinkers to Greek philosophy.

To the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, the founder of their faith, the Prophet Muhammad, is history’s most significant figure. Born in 570 CE in the city of Mecca, on the Arabian Peninsula, Muhammad underwent a series of mystical experiences, believed by Muslims to be revelations from the archangel Gabriel. The holy book of Islam, the Qur’an, is a compilation of these revelations, and is thus regarded by Muslims as divinely inspired. In a “very short” study, Jonathan A. C. Brown analyzes the Prophet’s life and his place in Islamic scholarship (siras) and traditions (sunnah). Brown also explains some of the different interpretations of Muhammad’s life within Islamic and Western thought.

The Story of the Qur’an begins with an accessible account of the origins of the Qur’an that places Muhammad, the Muslim holy book, and the first adherents to Islam in historical context. Ingrid Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies, uses translated passages from the Qur’an, as well as scholarly sources and stories from the time of Muhammad, to give readers a sense of the language, imagery, and rhythm of the Qur’an. Mattson also explains how the Qur’an has been transmitted both as recitation and scripture, “the voice and the pen,” from Islam’s formative days to the present. She describes the Qur’an’s role in Muslim culture and daily life, and provides a guide to its traditions and sources of interpretation, cautioning casual readers and others who might pull verses out of context to take care in trying to ascertain what all Muslims believe or are mandated to do.

In the Qur’an, Muslims are instructed that at least once in their lives they must take part in the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the spiritual center of the Islamic world . Over the centuries, artists, craftspeople, and others have found innumerable ways to articulate the experience, from calligraphy to decorative tiles and textiles, even scientific instruments, maps, and metalwork. These and other media of expression are captured in this profusely illustrated book by distinguished curator Venetia Porter.

Jalal al-Din Rúmí (1207–73), popularly known simply as Rúmí, was the greatest Sufi mystic and poet in the Persian language, famous for his lyrics and for his didactic epic Masnavi-yi Maʿnavi [Spiritual couplets], which widely influenced mystical thought and literature throughout the Muslim world. Rúmí's poetry is widely popular with American readers, and collections of his poetry are available in a variety of editions. The complier of the poems in this edition, Reynold A. Nicholson, translated them directly from the Persian language. They are among the most authentic versions of these poems available to English-language readers.