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Muslim Society (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)

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This is a disparate but classic collection of essays by an exceptional anthropologist well-deserving of the eminence and fame associated with his name, even after his death. Although the various articles-drawing upon observations from Gellner's field of choice, N. Africa-stand contained therein on their own merit, the real centerpiece-the most famous writing of Gellner on Islam is the first, "Flux and Reflux in the Faith of Men." This essay is by far the longest as well-comprising about 1/3 of the work. In it, he fuses the Hume's theories of religion with ibn Khaldun's cyclical view of history with its tense dialect between the nomadic and sedentary forms of human existence whereby he constructs an ingenious account of pre-modern Muslim Society. Also interesting is his discussion of how this oscillating pendulum has in a sense become `unhinged' since the advent of modernity. Classic reading.