Angels Tapping at the Wine-Shop’s Door
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A01=Rudi Matthee
Age Group_Uncategorized
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alcohol
Author_Rudi Matthee
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBTB
Category=JBCC4
Category=JFCV
Category=JFSR2
Category=NHTB
Category=QRPP
Category=WBXD
consumption of alcohol
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_food-drink
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Islamic life
Islamic studies
Language_English
Muslim
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
wine
Product details
- ISBN 9781787388154
- Dimensions: 138 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 20 Apr 2023
- Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Islam is the only major world religion that resists the juggernaut of alcohol consumption. In many Islamic countries, alcohol is banned; in others, it plays little role in social life. Yet, Muslims throughout history did drink, often to excess—whether sultans and shahs in their palaces, or commoners in taverns run by Jews or Christians.
This evocative study delves into drinking’s many historic, literary and social manifestations in Islam, going beyond references to ‘hypocrisy’ or the temptations of ‘forbidden fruit’. Rudi Matthee argues that alcohol, through its ‘absence’ as much as its presence, takes us to the heart of Islam. Exploring the long history of this faith—from the eight-century Umayyad dynasty to Erdoğan’s Turkey, and from Islamic Spain to modern Pakistan—he unearths a tradition of diversity and multiplicity in which Muslims drank, and found myriad excuses to do so. They celebrated wine and used it as a poetic metaphor, even viewing alcohol as a gift from God—the key to unlocking eternal truth.
Drawing on a plethora of sources in multiple languages, Matthee presents Islam not as an austere and uncompromising faith, but as a set of beliefs and practices that embrace ambivalence, allowing for ambiguity and even contradiction.
Rudi Matthee is the John A. Munroe and Dorothy L. Munroe Chair of History at the University of Delaware. He is the author of four prize-winning monographs on Iranian history, and the editor or co-editor of another six books. He is currently President of the Persian Heritage Foundation.
