First published in Arabic in 1994, this book's controversial approach argued that conventional fundamentalist interpretations of the Quran and other Islamic religious texts are ahistorical and misleading. Conservative religious leaders accused this book's author of apostasy. Marking the first time a work by this author is available in its entirety in any Western language, this English edition makes the author's erudite interpretation of classical Islamic thought accessible to a wider audience at a critical historical moment. The book discusses the life and work of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943–20 ... More

First published in Arabic in 1994, this book's controversial approach argued that conventional fundamentalist interpretations of the Quran and other Islamic religious texts are ahistorical and misleading. Conservative religious leaders accused this book's author of apostasy. Marking the first time a work by this author is available in its entirety in any Western language, this English edition makes the author's erudite interpretation of classical Islamic thought accessible to a wider audience at a critical historical moment. The book discusses the life and work of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (1943–2010); the rise of the Islamist movement, a phenomenon that Islamists call the Awakening; religious discourse; the Islamic left; and the problematic aspects of reading the religious texts themselves.