An Introduction to Islam, 4th

by Frederick Denny

An Introduction to Islam, Fourth Edition , provides students with a thorough, unified and topical introduction to the global religious community of Islam. In addition, the author's extensive field work, experience, and scholarship combined with his engaging writing style and passion for the subject also sets his text apart. An Introduction to Islam places Islam within a cultural, political, social, and religious context, and examines its connections with Judeo-Christian morals. Its integration of the doctrinal and devotional elements of Islam enables readers to see how Muslims think and live, engendering understanding and breaking down stereotypes. This text also reviews pre-Islamic history, so readers can see how Islam developed historically.

Genres: Religion, Islam, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Frederick Denny, Professor Emeritus (Ph.D., University of Chicago), is the editor of the University of South Carolina Press scholarly book series "Studies in Comparative Religion", which currently has ca. 35 titles published. He is the author of An Introduction to Islam (4th edition Prentice-Hall, 2010) and numerous articles on Islamic and Religious Studies topics. He co-authored (with John Corrigan, Carlos Eire, and Martin Jaffee) Jews, Christians, Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions (Prentice-Hall: 1998). His long-term areas of interest have been Qur'anic recitation, comparative ritual, and Muslims and their communities in Egypt, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and North America. His recent and current research and writing have been principally on Islam and human rights, religion and ecology, religion-focused cartography, and Unitarian Universalist history and thought.

Reviews

[BJ Richardson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A better title for this book would be "An Introductory Apologetic For Islam"

90% of the time, what the author is presenting is fact. The other ten percent is either opinionated commentary or just outright lies. For example, you are likely to see sentences in here like: "The honorable Muhammad courageously decided to..." or "the greedy, deceptive Crusaders callously..." Rather than stating facts and history, Denny occasionally will color them with commentary intended to lean the reader towards his pro-Islamic bias.

The portion of that ten percent that does not fall into this category is simply outright lies. For example, Denny has the audacity to try and claim that men and women are equally balanced in the Quran (page 349). While not completely ignoring some of the Quranic verses that would claim this as a lie, he picks and chooses the one English translation that calls for men to beat their disobedient wives lightly. (page 377, see Surah 4:34) He does not bother to mention that this "lightly" is a parenthetical addition not in the original Arabic, nor is it included in other more widely read English translations. Instead, he will invest multiple paragraphs trying to explain it away. Kudos to Denny here for at least not glossing it over or completely ignoring it like he does so many other unfortunate truths.

I am using this as an example because it is near the end of the book so it is freshest in my mind. To be fair, Denny isn't quite as ridiculously biased as Karen Armstrong is. But this book can hardly be called objective. Unfortunately, most of the people reading it probably won't have the background in Islam that I do. So the coloration of some facts, the omission of others, and the complete alteration of even more will likely go completely unnoticed. My greatest hope is simply that this book will do little more than collect dust in the obscure corners of academic libraries with as few people reading it as possible. There are surely far better, more objective "Introduction to Islam" type books out there. If you know of one, please leave it in the comments below.

[Joanna VanDeWater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book provides useful information to anyone wanting to learn about Islam, the author tends to be biased toward the religion rather than providing purely fact-based information. Some of the history is dense, which slowed my interest and reading progress. Overall, the book is useful to anyone doing research on Islam.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars...A textbook, but a pretty well written one!