© Columbia University Press
Muhammad's Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society
May, 2007
Cloth, 416 pages, 7 illus.
ISBN: 978-0-231-13742-3
$38.00
/ £26.00
"Innovative . . . A welcome addition to undergraduate and graduate curricula, and an important source book for scholars." — Kathryn Kueny, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
"A welcome contribution . . . Muhammad’s Grave does more than fill the gap. " — Ian Straughn, American Anthropologist
"A truly impressive display of textual scholarship fused with historical anthropology and lit up by enthusiasm." — Barnaby Rogerson, Times Literary Supplement
"The definitive history of its subject before modern times." — Speculum
"Halevi’s book is highly recommended" — al-Qantara
"a masterful, well-written work filled with original research." — Middle East Quarterly
"This book will be highly valued by anyone who works on early Islam and the process
through which a distinctively Islamic community came about." — Martyn Smith, International Journal of Middle East Studies
"An erudite and engaging study." — Marion Katz, Islamic Law and Society
"An important contribution to our understanding of the crafting of social ritual in early Islamic society." — Christine D. Baker, Journal of World History
"Muhammad's Grave will be warmly welcomed by scholars and students of premodern Islam, including specialists in both history and religion, and will attract the attention of European medievalists and anthropologists as well. The topic is important, the scholarship solid and original, and the presentation elegant and lucid." — Everett K. Rowson, New York University
"The most exhaustive study yet on matters relating to death in early Islam. Leor Halevi meticulously demonstrates how particular beliefs and practices evolved, what sorts of contestation took place in debating these matters, how these beliefs and practices varied from one Islamic city (or community of scholars) to another, what larger questions of identity and authority were at stake, and how to interpret the literary remains that describe the beliefs and practices in question. A major contribution to our understanding of early Islamic history, Islamic religious thought, and the formation of Islam during its first centuries." — Muhammad Qasim Zaman, professor of Near Eastern studies and religion, Princeton University
"Leor Halevi persuasively argues that the development of Islamic practices and beliefs relating to death, burial, and the fate of the body was a relatively extended process crucial to the eighth century. He considers a wide range of issues, including matters of sexual propriety and the restriction of the social space available to women, and the way in which a body of rituals served to create an Islamic identity." — Gerald Hawting, professor of the history of the Near Middle East, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
"[A] signal contribution to the social history of early Islam. . . . Exceptionally rich in its documentation and evidentiary record, highly imaginative, and creative in its use of oral traditions and legal rulings, Muhammad's Grave is a seminal work." — 2007 Albert Hourani Book Award Committee