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Steve Tamari
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
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In the to Islam,
preface Robinson says his book is aimed specifically at college
students preparing for tests: "In many colleges and universities, course tutors
are required to recommend preparatory reading to be undertaken during the va
cation. Despite the ever-increasing number of introductory texts on Islam, there
is none which really meets their needs" (p. xiii). Robinson has written thirteen
tory texts on the market,1 the question that strikes this reviewer is: does the au
thor filla niche that needs to be filled?
This book was first published in Britain and may serve the purposes of
British university students as they prepare for their exams. Robinson's chapter on
Islamic history provides the beginning student with a handy means of memoriz
ing the key phases of Islamic history. Nevertheless, the American college instruc
tor, at least, is just as interested in an engaging introductory text that can be
used in class. Some, but not all, of Robinson's chapters serve this purpose.
The chapter on defining Islam clarifies the use of key words such as 'Mus
lim,' 'muslim,' and 'Islamic' and the substantive issues related to these semantic
distinctions. In this short chapter, Robinson demonstrates his command of the
original Islamic sources—the Quran and the hadith—and the degree to which he
relies on these to explain Islam. His chapter
on the Quran both the ad reveals
vantages and pitfalls of this kind of expertise in writing an introductory text. Rob
inson successfully uses Quranic passages to explain the collection, meaning, in
terpretation, and coherence of the Quran. However, he lets his expertise get the
better of him in adding a section on English translations of the Quran that is not
necessary in an
introductory text.
Thechapters on Islamic worship will be the most useful for beginning
students because they provide concrete specificity without being overly aca
demic. For example, the book provides a description of performance of sa/at as
well as a map of the hajj itinerary. In sum, Islam is not consistently concise or
sufficientlyintroductoryto set it above other similar books.
Finally, many typographical errors mar the text. Here are just a few:
"Russian" should be "Russia" (p. 49); "hale from" should be "hail from" (p. 29);
"Arab lands east of Iraq" should be "Arab lands west of Iraq" (p. 80); and some
places (such as Carlowitz and Diyarbakir) are spelled more than one way (pp. 40,
41, 28, 30).
Steve Tamari
Southern Illinois University
1
Frederick Denny, Islam and the Muslim Community {Waveland Press, 1998); and John
Sabini, Islam: A Primer (Middle East Editorial Association, 1990) are just two that come
to mind.