Muslim Networks: From Medieval Scholars to Modern Feminists

Crucial to understanding Islam is a recognition of the role of Muslim networks. The earliest networks were Mediterranean trade routes that quickly expanded into trans-regional paths for pilgrimage, scholarship, and conversion, each network complementing and reinforcing the others. This volume selects major moments and key players from the seventh century to the twenty first that have defined Muslim networks as the building blocks of Islamic identity and social cohesion. Although neglected in scholarship, Muslim networks have been invoked in the media to portray post-9/11 terrorist groups. Here, thirteen essays provide a long view of Muslim networks, correcting both scholarly omission and political sloganeering. New faces and forces appear, raising questions never asked before in relation to Islam. This book ranges from Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth century to the new transnational communication pathways shaping Muslim women’s identities today. Invoking the past to understand the present and envision the future through the prism of Muslim networks, this major new book address-as never before-issues of faith, politics, and gender in Islamic civilization.