The Construction of Belief
Edited by Dr Aziz Esmail, Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary
About the Book
Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic Studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism.
This Festschrift honours Arkoun’s scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun’s work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological dimensions.
The authoritative reference study on the work of Mohammed Arkoun, The Construction of Belief is essential reading for students and scholars of Islam, Muslim societies and cultures, modernity, religious studies, philosophy and semantics.
About the Contributors
Dr Abdou Filali-Ansary was the founding Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 2002–9 and of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco, from 1984–2001. Prior to this, he served as Secretary-General of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, teaching Modern Philosophy. He has written extensively on Islam and modernity, democratization and civil society in the Muslim World, and on trends of thought in contemporary Muslim contexts.
Dr Aziz Esmail is a governor of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, where he was the Dean from 1988–98. He has held teaching and research positions at various American universities, and has been associated with Harvard University’s Centre for the Study of World Religions and Graduate School of Education. In addition to many articles, his writings include The Poetics of Religious Experience: The Islamic Context and A Scent of Sandalwood: Indo-Ismaili Religious Lyrics.
