A picture of Baghdad

Writing about the People of Iraq

by Catherine Cobham and Fabio Caiani 23 March 2023 marked the twentieth anniversary of the attack on Iraq. Predictably, western mainstream media made little or no reference to contemporary Iraqi culture. Recently, however, there has been a growing interest in…

Five Essentials of Friday Preaching in Modern Turkey

by Elisabeth Özdalga The core of her new book Pulpit, Mosque and Nation, author Elisabeth Özdalga explores five key aspects of Turkey’s Friday preaching. 1. A Secular State Housing Thousands of Mosques and Pulpits Every Friday, millions of Muslims all…

Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology

by Ramon Harvey Ramon Harvey introduces his approach to Islamic theology in his new book Transcendent God, Rational World: A Māturīdī Theology. Thinking today has become dizzying. Attention spans are diminished. No sooner does someone have an idea, but it…

Opium in Afghanistan, a glimpse from the past

By Sara Peterson In recent years, the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan has become a news item, with reports from the United Nations and the United States Government documenting record highs (no pun intended) in opium production. Now we…

Five Essentials of Muslim Preaching

To celebrate the release of Muslim Preaching in the Middle East and Beyond: Historical and Contemporary Case Studies, editors Simon Stjernholm and Elisabeth Özdalga take us through five essential things you should know about Muslim preaching. 1. Synchronised sermons When…