Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam: A Reader (Princeton Series on the Middle East)

The notion of Jihad ("Holy War") is very much alive in the Islamic world, and plays a prominent political role. In the West, Jihad is often associated with violence and fanaticism. Muslims, however, emphasize that the real meaning is "effort toward a religiously commendable aim" and that it can be applied to both defensive warfare and peaceful activities for the sake of religion.
The aim of the present book is to elucidate the concept of Jihad. It provides basic reading materials translated from Arabic and Turkish, an introduction, and two essays on modernist and fundamentalist interpretations and the significance of Jihad nowadays. The translations include hadiths (sayings and deeds of the Prophet Mohammed), excerpts from al-Muwatta' of Malik Ibn Anas (d. 796) exhorting Muslims to participate in Jihad, the legal doctrine of Jihad as expounded by the famous philosopher and jurist Averroes (d. 1198), and a treatment of its religious and moral aspects by Ibn Tamiyya (d. 1328). A treatise on Jihad by the late rector of the famous al-Azhar University in Cairo, Mahmud Shaltut (d. 1963), rounds out the collection.

Rudolph Peters is a professor at the University of Amsterdam.