Jihad: From Qu'ran to Bin Laden [Hardcover]

Richard Bonney (Author), Zaki Bedawi (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2005

Jihad, ranging in concept from personal inner struggle to outright holy war, dates to the earliest manifestations of Islam. This book locates the origin of jihad, traces its evolution as an idea, and provides an intellectual history of the concept of jihad in Islam as well as how it has been misapplied by modern Islamic terrorists and suicide bombers. The book provides unique and balanced coverage of the historical evolution of the concept of jihad, and mainstream moderate Islamic views of the concept from the Qu'ran to the twenty-first century.
Bonney covers topics such as interpretations of the Qu'ran, historical reactionaries, Sufi alternatives to political Islam, colonialism, twentieth century Jihadists, the Shia depiction of jihad and martyrdom, the jihadi ideology of the 1980s and 1990s, the Palestine Intifada, Osama Bin Laden, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This remarkably comprehensive presentation combines depth of historical detail with breadth of interpretive vision. It provides an in-depth alternative to alarmist and simplistic discussions that concentrate on current headlines. Bonney presents a fair and balanced picture of the full range of Muslim thought from medieval mystics to contemporary activists and militants." - John Voll, Director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

"Richard Bonney's work on Jihad presents the most comprehensive analysis of the topic ever written, covering the time period from the revelation of the Quran up through contemporary events. Bonney effectively demonstrates that there is no single interpretation of jihad, but that interpretations have varied according to historical circumstance, geographical location, and political need. Exhaustively researched and highly detailed, it adds an important historical dimension to the ongoing debates about contemporary interpretations and distortions of jihad as holy war." - Dr Natana DeLong-Bas, author of Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad and Notable Muslims: A Biographical Dictionary

"Richard Bonney, in this timely and important work, studies the evolution of the concept of jihad, or struggle in the way of the Lord, in Muslim history. ... Bonney makes a major step forward in bringing much real learning to our understanding of jihad, which is too often distorted by sheer ignorance. This book should give journalists and politicians pause for thought, as well as the public in general."--Francis Robinson, Royal Holloway, University of London.

About the Author

Richard Bonney is the head of the department of history, and director of the Centre for the History of Religious and Political Pluralism, Institute for the Study of Indo-Pakistan Relations, University of Leicester.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (February 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403933723
• ISBN-13: 978-1403933720
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,056,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Impressive Array of Material But Seems at a Loss as to What to do With It, January 27, 2007

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Jazz It Up Baby - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Jihad: From Qu'ran to Bin Laden (Paperback)

R. Spencer, from [...], said that Bonney acknowledges that "the traditional reading of the Qur'an outlines four `stages'" in the development of the concept of jihad within Islam. These "arose from the historical development in which the Prophet found himself. ... The final stage came with the Divine command of Allah enjoining the Prophet and his followers to wage war against the unbelievers unconditionally." He then provides a generally useful survey of the historical and juridical development of this concept in Islamic history, including an examination of the idea of jihad in the hadith (accounts of Muhammad's words and deeds) and the classical jurists; the development of jihad as a state system by the Ottomans, Safavid Persians, and Mughals; Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Wahhab and Wahhabism; and the much-overlooked area of jihad in the period of the colonial powers. Bonney concludes his survey with an evaluation of the jihad theories of Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Abu A`la Mawdudi, Osama bin Laden, and other pivotal figures of the modern era.

The author amasses an impressive array of material but seems at a loss as to what to do with it. He is at his best when reporting the facts and at his worst when evaluating their significance. His analysis is superficial as when he dismisses the idea that Islam is a "religion of the sword" because it "contravenes the clear Qur'anic precept that `there is no coercion in religion' (Q.2:256)," but he does not even mention Qutb's argument contending that this verse in no way contradicts his overall schema of jihadist imperialism and Shari`a supremacism. In a volume such as Bonney's, ostensibly dedicated to bringing to light how modern-day mujahideen such as bin Laden situate their Islamic appeals within traditional Islamic thought, this is a gaping omission--and it is by no means the only one. Bonney's book, while useful as a guide to various sources, ultimately fails and even misleads as it consistently underestimates the power of the jihadist appeal among modern Muslims even while demonstrating the strong traditional roots of that appeal.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Reading Bonney's Jihad was a struggle(jihad), October 19, 2005

By 

Student of Islamics - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jihad: From Qu'ran to Bin Laden (Hardcover)

Reading Bonney's book on the history of Jihad for the past few weeks has made me come to the conclusion that his objective to cover the whole history of the idea and practice of Jihad was too ambitious given the means that are available to him. Some of these limitations include but are not limited to his inability to go to primary sources because of language restrictions and his limited understanding of the subject (Islamic studies) because it is not his area of specialty. Given these limitations, what he ends doing in his book is streamlining the political history of Islam through secondary sources for the most part and provides an overly generalized and non-coherent reading on Jihad that ends up reinforcing the polemical and simplistic narrative of Jihad that already exists in the West without adding nuance to the discussion.
Often, he has summarized discussion of Muslim political history, case in point is his discussion of Colonial Africa Jihad movements (Somali and Ethiopian Muslim takeover of Christian Ethiopia, Shaikh Uthman's movement, Shaikh Umar's Movement, Shaikh Abdul Ghadir's struggle, etc), without providing historical contexts for the conflicts or maps of places mentioned which leaves one rather bewildered and then follow this up with a discussion on doctrines of Jihad that were proposed by certain Muslim thinkers assuming that the juxtaposed assortment of information somehow makes a coherent narrative about Jihad. Instead, the uninitiated reader feels a sense of confusion of how this political history and history of ideas about Jihad all fits together.
On a whole, the work seems unoriginal and not well thought out. His cut and paste approach to creating a continuous narrative on Jihad (this can be easily assessed by looking at his footnotes and seeing how he used singular secondary sources to create this history) only seems to add more blur to the topic. Reading this book is certainly a Jihad.

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Masterpiece, April 10, 2005

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Chris Carl (texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jihad: From Qu'ran to Bin Laden (Hardcover)

As a muslim convert who served in the US army fighting in the war on terrorism in iraq and who has been trying to devote his life to understanding traditional islamic scholarship, I must say this is truely one of the most remakable unbaised books i read on the topic. It is very balanced and objective. It writes about how muslims usualy viewed the word jihad and how the terrorist ideology that sprawns from ignorant religous reformers view it. It is as I agree with the MYsterious reviewer, will take critisicm for its objective aproach of writing from the view points of the MAJORITY of the muslims not the minority who is trying to appear as the majority. And it is not used as a proprganda tool for Daniel Pipes overly biased prozionist approaches or the reviewer below who trys to make a overly pro zionist approach to the book by making the book just a game of politics. It shows the approach from a sincere outsider on the history of the normative muslims view of the word jihad not the from the fanatics approach. It is a must read for muslims and non muslims. Because not only non muslim dont know what is going on in the intellectual arena of muslims scholars but as a muslim observer i think muslims are just as confused as the non muslims are cause of all the propraganda of hertics of supporters of MAldudi and Qutb. Only some portions i dont agree with like his friendly protrayal of muhammad abdul wahab but i do like the fact he shows that not all wahabis view him as a genocidal killer so therfore they dont see such killin as a favorable thing. Another must read is Islam, Fundamentalism and the Betrayal of Tradition' edited by J. Lumbard.