Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam [Paperback]

Reuven Firestone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2002

While there exists no evidence to date that the indigenous inhabitants of Arabia knew of holy war prior to Islam, holy war ideas and behaviors appear already among Muslims during the first generation. This book focuses on why and how such a seemingly radical development took place. Basing his hypothesis on evidence from the Qur'an and early Islamic literary sources, Firestone locates the origin of Islamic holy war and traces its evolution as a response to the changes affecting the new community of Muslims in its transition from ancient Arabian culture to the religious civilization of Islam.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reuven Firestone has produced a book that should have been produced a long ago"--Journal of Near Eastern Studies

"In this book, Firestone had presented an attractive thsis which very much deserves to be read and debated by all who are interested in the subject."-- The Muslim World

"Firestone has done an admirable thing: he has written a brief, readable, carefully delineated, and scholarly study of a concept that is often bandied about in discussions of Islamic thought without reference to historical development or context."-- Journal of Near Eastern Studies

About the Author

Reuven Firestone is Professor of Judaism and Islam and Director of the Graduate School of Judaic Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195154940
• ISBN-13: 978-0195154948
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #783,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great contribution to a massive topic, October 13, 2006

By 

Lee L. (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Paperback)

The goal of Reuven Firestone's Jihad is to examine and explore the origins of the concept of holy war within Islam. He does so by looking at literature from the Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira. Firestone claims that the traditional evolutionary explanation for explaining jihad is not sufficient and that this concept did not evolve in a linear fashion, nor was there full agreement among the first Muslim community. The structure of his argument is easy to follow for the most part, even though sometimes the material itself is not.

Firestone handles his subject in a neutral way, and that is admirable. This is not a polemic; rather it is a sincere, scholarly attempt to provide greater understanding to an incredibly difficult subject. The only odd thing about this book is that Firestone presents an interpretation that is very similar to the one he's claiming to "fix." The book presents an evolution of the concept of jihad that is quite linear, regardless of the fact that there was not always agreement. Considering this factor, the conclusion he reaches is somewhat confusing. Not because of the content of the book, but because of the conclusion he presents very briefly at the end. This book is not for the beginner; at least some basic knowledge of Islam is required in order to fully grasp the material presented.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars worthy but not quite "there", January 23, 2004

By 

L. F Sherman "dikw" (Wiscasset, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Paperback)

Reuven Firestone of the Hebrew Union- Jewish Institute in L.A. provides a worthy and largely fair minded scholarly study of the roots of Jihad. It is not fair for a reviewer to criticize a book for what is missing, unless it is central and critical to the argument as here.

Firestone does well but is not "there". He describes views from nearly pacifist, to acceptance of self-defense, to justification of warfare (initially with Muslim, Jewish, and Pagan coalition of Medina against Mecca). He relates this to the growing growth of community sense of the Umma displacing ancient tribal allegiances. He argues that the energy of blood feuds, traditional raiding that was part of Arab culture of the age, and material need coalesced with a new religious identity to concentrate and redirect warfare. He implies, without much discussion or evidence, that this created a new religious aggressive warfare and ideology - although early in the book he does acknowledge those aspects that put personal striving to fight evil in ones own character as the `greater' Jihad and warfare as the `lesser' Jihad.

The failure is that he does not address the critical issues, critical in terms of his own argument about community and warfare, adequately. He does not discuss the deterioration of relations with Jewish tribes that were allies one after another or how the imagined orthodox aggressive ideology became consolidated as he implies. The potential evidence for this analysis for this is not much different than that he uses for the rest of the book. He does recognize that Muhammad was not himself particularly aggressive by nature but also neglects to attempt explanation of his admirable self restraint and restraint of his followers upon capturing Mecca.

The book is incomplete. But it is still worth reading and much better than the polemical multitude of works that claim Islam to be implicitly aggressive and evil. (One note in an early chapter points out that of 274 wars from 1484 to 1945 two thirds were in Christian Europe alone with few in the remainder of the world outside Europe - 187 to 91.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Modern analysis of the classical religious use of a word, October 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Jihad: The Origin of Holy War in Islam (Paperback)

This is not a book about current events. It is about the use of the word "jihad" in classical Islamic sources, mainly the Quran, but also in hadith and stories about the Prophet. The book is clearly written, and well organized, and gets down to business quickly. There is little jargon. The author explains the bases for his conclusions as to the different nuances in the literature of the word "jihad" clearly, so it is possible to read the book critically, and weigh the author's arguments. Because the arguments seem to be laid out fairly openly, I got the impression that the author approached the subject with an open inquiring mind. Even though the book is clearly academic and exegetical of the sources, I thought it was clear, well, explained, and thought provoking. Even though the book is not on current events, still, the consequences of what "jihad" meant then may still echo down to our time, and for that reason, I think the book is well worth reading, if current events in the Islamic world are of interest to you.