By Noon Prayer: The Rhythm of Islam

by Fadwa El Guindi

A groundbreaking anthropological analysis of Islam as experienced by Muslims, By Noon Prayer builds a conceptual model of Islam as a whole, while travelling along a comparative path of biblical, Egyptological, ethnographic, poetic, scriptural and visual materials. Grounded in long-term observation of Arabo-Islamic culture and society, the study captures the rhythm of Islam weaving through the lives of Muslim women and men.Examples of the rhythmic nature of Islam can be seen in all aspects of Muslims' everyday lives. Muslims break their Ramadan fast upon the sun setting, and they receive Ramadan by sighting the new moon. Prayer for their dead is by noon and burial is before sunset. This is space and time in Islam - moon, sun, dawn and sunset are all part of a unique and unified rhythm, interweaving the sacred and the ordinary, nature and culture in a pattern that is characteristically Islamic.

220 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Fadwa El Guindi is an Egyptian-born in 1941 professor of anthropology with a PhD in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin (1972).[1] At present she is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, as well as head of the department of social sciences.

El Guindi graduated from the American University in Cairo, with a BA in Political Science. She worked at the Social Research Centre and participated in the first full-scale ethnographic project to study the way of life of the Nubians of Egypt prior to their government-sponsored relocation due to the building of the Aswan Dam.[1]

In 1986, she made the film El Sebou': Egyptian Birth Ritual, which was sponsored by the Office of Folklife Programs at the Smithsonian Institution. She also guest-starred as Julian Bashir's mother, Amsha Bashir, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?", opposite Siddig El Fadil and Brian George.[2]
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