A deep dive into Sino-Islamic culture.
A scholar illuminates a well-known minority.
Readers concerned about China’s treatment of its Muslims or curious about Islam’s eastward spread (it arrived in China in the Yuan dynasty, 1279-1368 C.E.) should consult a general history such as Karen Armstrong’s. Historian Thum, author of The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History, is writing for other scholars of religion or perhaps pious Muslims seeking to learn about their co-religionists in the Far East. He opens by denouncing the traditional division of Asia into two zones with names such as “Western or Mohammedan Asia” and “Eastern or Buddhist Asia” and the view of Islam in China as an isolated development with little external influence. Until the communist takeover, China’s elite tolerated most religions but believed that they were a superior race and the object of envy from all men of good sense. Although Muslims, like Christians, believe that they follow the only true faith, Chinese Muslims had no problem with this, and their teachers devoted themselves to refining Islamic doctrine, correcting backsliding, and explaining that Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist concepts were salient elements of a Chinese Islam. Books preserve their teaching, and Thum has written a scholarly book about scholars and the books they wrote. Many authors appear, but Thum devotes much of his text to Ma Lianyuan (1841-1903), who taught, wrote, and traveled extensively. Most readers will be surprised to learn that, until the 20th century, Persian and Arabic texts served as the primary Islamic educational curriculum in China. Ma supported the move toward Chinese texts but also acknowledged a significant South Asian contribution. While this book is not aimed at a general audience, readers searching for insights into doctrine and religious education of China’s Muslims need go no further.
A deep dive into Sino-Islamic culture.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9780674976801
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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