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The Construction of Belief
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11 June 2013

Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. This Festschrift honors Arkoun's scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies, and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun's work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical, and theological dimensions. Published in association with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations.
Dr.Abdou Filali-Ansary was the founding Director of the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London from 20029 and of the King Abdul-Aziz Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences in Casablanca, Morocco, from 19842001. Prior to this, he served as Secretary-General of the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, teaching Modern Philosophy.
Professor Mohammed Arkoun (1928–2010) 7
Preface: Situating Arkoun 9
Abdou Filali-Ansary
Mohammed Arkoun:
A Personal Tribute and an Intellectual Assessment 17
Aziz Esmail
The Authenticity of Sacred Texts 45
R. Stephen Humphreys
Constructing Islam in the “Classical” Period:
Maqalat Literature and the Seventy-Two Sects 63
Josef van Ess
Modern Discourses of Superiority:
Muslims and Christians in Contact 75
Stefan Wild
The Political, Social and Technological Construction
of Understanding: An Essay in Analysis of the Disruptive 93
Mark Sedgwick
Believing and Belonging:
The Impact of Religion for “Muslim” Adolescents in a Pluralistic
Society – Empirical Findings from Hamburg, Germany 109
Ursula Günther
Veiling and Unveiling Muslim Women:
State Coercion, Islam, and the “Disciplines of the Heart” 127
Malika Zeghal
Coming to Believe:
The (Elusive) Time of Conversion 150
Souleymane Bachir Diagne
The Shadow of Terror on Distant Muslims 161
Akeel Bilgrami
Citational Exegesis of the Qur’an:
Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Construction
of Meaning in Classical Islamic Thought.
The Case of the Epistles of the Pure Brethren (Rasa’il Ikhwan al-?afa’) 168
Omar Alí-de-Ungaza
Afterword 195
Mohammed Arkoun: A Passionate Critic 207
About the Contributors 209
Index 215