"Having worked for several decades in North Africa, anthropologist Lawrence Rosen is uniquely placed to ask what factors contribute to the continuity and changes characterizing the present-day Muslim world. In The Culture of Islam, he brings his erudition and his experiences to illuminating key aspects of Muslim life and how central tenets of that life are being challenged and culturally refashioned.Through a series of poignant tale--from the struggle by a group of friends against daily corruption to the contest over a saint's identity, from nostalgia for the departed Jews to Salman Rushdie's vision of doubt in a world of religious certaint--Rosen shows how a dazzling array of potential changes are occurring alongside deeply embedded continuity, a process he compares to a game of chess in which infinite variations of moves can be achieved while fundamental aspects of "the game" have had a remarkably enduring quality. Whether it is the potential fabrication of new forms of Islam by migrants to Europe (creating a new "Euro-Islam," as Rosen calls it), the emphasis put on individuals rather than institutions, or the heartrending problems Muslims may face when their marriages cross national boundaries, each story and each interpretation offers a window into a world of contending concepts and challenged coherence."

The University of Chicago Press paperback edition is 2004 reprint, 23 cm.

Ambivalent culture. The circle of beneficence : narrating coherence in a world of corruption -- Ambivalence towards power : approaches to authority in postcolonial Morocco -- What is a tribe, and why does it matter? -- Constructing institutions in a political culture of personalism -- Memory worlds, plausible worlds. Contesting sainthood -- Memory in Morocco -- Have the Arabs changed their mind? -- Shifting concepts, Discerning change. Marriage stories : crossing the boundaries of nation, gender, and law -- Euro-Islam -- Never in doubt : Salman Rushdie's deeper challenge to Islam.