Lost in the sacred: why the Muslim world stood still/
Dan Diner.
- Princeton: Princeton University Press, c2009.
- viii, 213 p. ; 25 cm.
Translated from the German.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [181]-209) and index.
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.