Between Muslims

Religious Difference in Iraqi Kurdistan

J. Andrew Bush

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781503614581, 9781503611436
• eBook ISBN: 9781503614598
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: Social Sciences

Within the broad contours of Islamic traditions, Muslims are enjoined to fast during the month of Ramadan, they are invited to a disciplined practice of prayer, and they are offered the Quran as the divine revelation in the most beautiful verbal form. But what happens if Muslims choose not to fast, or give up prayer, or if the Quran's beauty seems inaccessible? When Muslims do not take up the path of piety, what happens to their relationships with more devout Muslims who are neighbors, friends, and kin?

Between Muslims provides an ethnographic account of Iraqi Kurdish Muslims who turn away from devotional piety yet remain intimately engaged with Islamic traditions and with other Muslims. Andrew Bush offers a new way to understand religious difference in Islam, rejecting simple stereotypes about ethnic or sectarian identities. Integrating textual analysis of poetry, sermons, and Islamic history into accounts of everyday life in Iraqi Kurdistan, Between Muslims illuminates the interplay of attraction and aversion to Islam among ordinary Muslims.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Series Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Notes on Transliteration
• Preface
• Introduction: Fieldwork in Kurdistan: Islamic Traditions, Ordinary Relationships, and a Paradox
• 1. Quran and Zoroaster: Attraction and Authority in Muslim Ethics
• 2. Christians, Kafirs, and Nationalists in Kurdish Poetry
• 3. Mystical Desire, Ordinary Desire: Love, Friendship, and Kinship
• 4. Separating Faith and Kufir in an Islamic Society
• 5. Pleasure Beyond Piety: Religious Difference in Domestic Space
• Epilogue: “Dear Reader!”
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Series List