A powerful reminder of the importance of women to the forging of community.
Khoja-Moolji explores the centrality of women to Ismaili diasporic communities.
As members of a sub-sect of Shia Islam, tightknit Ismaili communities make up part of the diaspora of Muslims throughout Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the West. Indeed, because of the legacies of colonialism—from territorial annexations to the partition of India and Pakistan—displacement has been a central theme of Ismaili life over the past century. A professor of Muslim Studies at Georgetown University, the author was born in Pakistan to an Ismaili family. The book begins with the story of her mother, Farida, who has taken care of fellow Ismaili immigrants to the United States for more than two decades. The book’s analysis focuses on the central role of women in maintaining Ismaili communities throughout the world through the grassroots creation of a “protective web, an infrastructure of care.” Their activities, from cooking during religious festivals and washing ritual objects to taking care of elders and emptying bedpans at refugee camps, the book convincingly argues, sustain Ismaili culture and communities by “producing sociability, repairing past trauma, and furnishing continuity from one generation to the next.” While traditional Ismaili histories focus on top-down narratives, “[w]e still know little, however, about the lives of ordinary Ismailis,” Khoja-Moolji notes. Though the book’s impressive inclusion of more than 570 endnotes and a 16-page bibliography speaks to the author’s solid grasp of printed primary sources and academic work on Ismailis, this book’s most striking feature is its centering of “more hidden and sometimes intangible practices of placemaking.” Various sources of information, including oral history interviews conducted by the author, family cookbooks, and unpublished journals, take readers into the kitchens, community centers, and clinic waiting rooms where Ismaili women share stories, recipes, and family photographs. The author of two previous academic books on Muslim women from Southeast Asia, Khoja-Moolji is an expert on the topic, but she’s careful to avoid academic jargon, embracing an accessible writing style that is supported by a wealth of photographs and maps.
A powerful reminder of the importance of women to the forging of community.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 978-0197642023
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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