Violence in Islamic Thought from the Qur''an to the Mongols

From its earliest times, Islam has had an ambivalent relationship with violence. For many early Muslim authors, violence was a simple fact of life. In the Qur'an and in the later Muslim tradition, some forms of violence are condemned, while some, including the waging of holy warfare, are extolled as morally good.
What is clear from the early Islamic period is that there is no single Muslim attitude towards violence. Instead, there were many different portrayals and evaluations of violence in theology, law, poetry and prose. In this collection, you will find out how they processed violence as a social fact, and how they interpreted its role in the life of the early Muslim community. This background is essential to understanding current Muslim thinking about when violence is, and is not, justified.
Examines the portrayal of violence in a variety of different intellectual contexts Takes a broad understanding of violence from warfare between Muslims (and between Muslims and others) to individual acts of violence Enables a better informed debate about the nature of violence in early Islam Includes contributions from leading international experts including Andrew Rippin, Christopher Melchert, Michael Cooperson, Geert Jan van Gelder and Maribel FierroFROM APF _ JULY 2014
main description:
This volume brings together some of the leading researchers on early Islamic history and thought to study the legitimacy of violence. How was violence justified in early Islam? What role did violent actions play in the formation and maintenance of the Muslim political order? How did Muslim thinkers view the origins and acceptability of violence? These questions are explored through both general accounts of types of violence and detailed case studies of violent acts drawn from the early Islamic sources. Violence is understood widely, to include jihad, state repressions and rebellions, and also more personally directed violence against victims (women, animals, children, slaves) and criminals. From these, the diverse interpretations of violence and its role in Muslim society can be delineated and we can understand better the origins of legitimate and illegitimate violence in Islamic thought.
short description:
How was violence justified in early Islam? What role did violent actions play in the formation and maintenance of the Muslim political order? How did Muslim thinkers view the origins and acceptability of violence? These questions are addressed in this book by an international range of eminent authors. By examining not only who perpetrates violence, but also the victims, the studies describe different arena and contexts where violence takes place, and how this is incorporated into Muslim thinking in the first 5 centuries of Islam. By understanding the early development of Muslim thinking around violence, our understanding of subsequent trends in Islamic thought, during the medieval period and up to the modern day, become clearer.