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Book Cover for: The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times, Christopher De Bellaigue

The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason, 1798 to Modern Times

Christopher De Bellaigue

Critic Reviews

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Based on 8 reviews on

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In this "stylishly written, surprisingly moving chronicle" (Harper's), Christopher de Bellaigue presents an absorbing account of the political and social reformations that transformed the lands of Islam in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. "The best sort of book for our disordered days" (Pankaj Mishra), The Islamic Enlightenment "is at once new, fascinating and extraordinarily important" (Wall Street Journal) as it challenges ossified perceptions in Western culture that self- righteously condemn the Muslim world as hopelessly benighted. This false perception belies the fact that Islamic civilization has long been undergoing its own anguished transformation, and that the violence of an infinitesimally small minority is the blowback from this process. In reclaiming the stories of the "fascinating . . . individuals who would grapple with reform and modernization" (New York Times Book Review), de Bellaigue's "eye-opening, well-written, and very timely" (Yuval Harrari) history shows the folly of Westerners demanding modernity from people whose lives are already drenched in it.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
  • Publish Date: Aug 14th, 2018
  • Pages: 432
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.40in - 1.10in - 0.80lb
  • EAN: 9781631493980
  • Categories: Middle East - GeneralIslam - HistorySocial History

About the Author

De Bellaigue, Christopher: - Christopher de Bellaigue has worked as a journalist in south Asia and the Middle East, writing for the Economist, the Guardian, and the New York Review of Books. He is the award-winning author of four books, has made several BBC television and radio documentaries, and has been a visiting fellow at the universities of Harvard and Oxford. He lives in London.

Critics’ reviews