In "Varieties of Muslim Experience", anthropologist Lawrence Rosen explores aspects of Arab Muslim life that are, at first glance, perplexing to Westerners. He ranges over such diverse topics as why Arabs eschew portraiture, why a Muslim scientist might be attracted to fundamentalism, and why the Prophet must be protected from blasphemous cartoons. What connects these seemingly disparate features of Arab social, political, and cultural life? Rosen argues that the common thread is the importance Arabs place on the negotiation of interpersonal relationships - a link that helps to explain actions as seemingly unfathomable as suicide bombing and as elusive as Quranic interpretation. Written with eloquence and a deep knowledge of the entire spectrum of Muslim experience, Rosen's book will interest not only anthropologists and Islamicists but anyone invested in better understanding the Arab world.
- ISBN10 0226726177
- ISBN13 9780226726175
- Publish Date 15 May 2011 (first published 1 December 2007)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Chicago Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 278
- Language English
- URL http://wiley.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=9780226726175