Robert Irwin

Maxime Rodinson

Anne Carter

Maxime Rodinson, both a maverick Marxist and a distinguished professor at the Sorbonne, first published his biography of Muhammad in 1960. The book, a classic in its field, has been widely read ever since. Rodinson, though deeply versed in scholarly studies of the Prophet, does not seek to add to it here but to introduce Muhammad, first of all, as “a man of flesh and blood” who led a life of extraordinary drama and shaped history as few others have. Equally, he seeks to lay out an understanding of Muhammad’s legacy and Islam as what he called an ideological movement, similar to the universalist religions of Christianity and Buddhism as well as the secular movement of Marxism, but possessing a singular commitment to “the deeply ingrained idea that Islam offers not only a path to salvation but (for many, above all) the ideal of a just society to be realized on earth.”

Rodinson’s book begins by introducing the specific land and the larger world into which Muhammad was born and the development of his prophetic calling. It then follows the steps of his career and the way his leadership gave birth to a religion and a state. A final chapter considers the world as Islam has transformed it.

Muhammad

الإسلام سياسة وعقيدة

Islam and Capitalism

Mohammed

For centuries the Islamic world has, by turns, been both reviled and admired in the West. Since the time of the Crusades, Europeans have viewed Muslim culture and religion through the unique distorting lens of Orientalism, colouring all aspects of their perception and generating a curious blend of fascination and distrust. Historian, sociologist and Middle East specialist Maxime Rodinson presents an account of this relationship, in a history that is balanced and concise yet insightful.

Europe and the Mystique of Islam

This volume provides an introduction to the life and message of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as a study of the effects of Islam. This edition is published with a new prologue by the author, a scholar of Islamic history and society.

Prophet of Islam

Bernard Lewis

Claude Cahen

Francesco Gabrieli

Mohammed Arkoun

Alain Roussillon

الاستشراق بين دعاته ومعارضيه

A definitive and fascinating introduction to the life, ideas, and impact of the founder of Islam. Maxime Robinson's Muhammad has long been regarded as one of the touchstones of scholarship on the founder of Islam. Thirty years after first being published in English, it remains the definitive introduction to the Prophet's life. Drawing on wide-ranging scholarship and imaginative insight into the Prophet's personality, family, background, and wider society, Rodinson's Muhammad offers a vivid account of how he spread the word of Islam, created a sect and state, and defeated his enemies, establishing the first great Muslim military power -- a power which was soon to control territory stretching all the way from the Pyrenees to the borders of China. For anyone who wants to understand the historical roots of one of the world's great religions, Rodinson's Muhammad provides the ideal guide to a fascinating and timely subject. -- Description from http://www.amazon.com (Jan. 26, 2012).

Maxime Rodinson's Muhammad has long been regarded as one of the touchstones of scholarship on the founder of Islam. Thirty years after its first publication in English, it remains the definitive introduction to the Prophet's life. Drawing on wide-ranging scholarship and imaginative insight into the Prophet's personality, family, background, and wider society, Rodinson's Muhammad offers a vivid account of how he spread the word of Islam, created a sect and state, and defeated his enemies, establishing the first great Muslim military power -- a power that was soon to control territory stretching all the way from the Pyrenees to the borders of China. For anyone who wants to understand the historical roots of one of the world's great religions, Rodinson's Muhammad provides the ideal guide to a fascinating and timely subject.

Transl. from the French by Anne Carter

Muḥammad

"Examining the Zionist colonization of Palestine, Maxime Rodinson explains that Israel's formation was part of the pattern of 19th and 20th century colonial conquest. The Zionist movement received active support from the major imperialist powers and -like other colonialist movements- employed a nationally exclusive, racist ideology to justify the subjugation of native farmers and workers."--P. [4] of cover.

A Colonial-Settler State?

Israel--

"The Arabs is an interpretative essay based upon a great deal of reading and research, and like other writings of the author, brilliant and insightful. Rodinson's response to the question Who are the Arabs? traces the career of the Arab people from their first appearance about twenty-nine centuries ago up to the present day. The purpose of the book is to make the reader aware of an undeniable Arab being, of its historic performance and its contemporary situation, on the basis of a scientifically careful but sympathetic study and statement."--Back cover.

The Arabs

Jewish Studies, Maxime Rodinson writes in Cult, Ghetto and State: The Persistence of the Jewish Question, has been a field in which ideological delirium has long had virtually free rein. In this collection of lively and provocative essays, he tries to redress the balance, bringing his impressive expertise and sharp wit to bear on Jewish problems past and present: How have the Jews survived throughout history? Do they constitute a religious community, a people, a nationality? What are the ideological foundations of Zionism? Is anti-Semitism a unique and eternal phenomenon, or does it share features with other forms of oppression? How has the establishment of the state of Israel changed the nature of the 'Jewish question'? What are the underlying reasons for the Arab rejection of Israel, and to what extent are they, too, laden with ideological distortions? In addressing these questions, Rodinson's prime concern is to avoid any form of ethnocentrism, fight anti-Semitism without denying the reality of Jewish suffering and defend the legitimate grievances of Arabs without succumbing to the comforting myths of Arab nationalism. This book also contains a bitingly candid self-criticism of the author's twenty-one years in the Communist movement. In it, he extends his critique of Stalinism to all ideological constructions - among them Zionism and systematized anti-Communism - which, he argues, exhibit similar intellectual structures and lead to similar aberrations. A searching consideration of the relationship between political engagement and intellectual honesty, Rodinson exposes the inner workings of the French Communist Party in the 1950s but equally denounces the 'creeping Stalinism' of conservative conformism.

The Persistence of the Jewish Question

Cult, Ghetto, and State

" La vie du monde qui professe la religion musulmane ne peut pas s'expliquer entièrement, loin de là, par la doctrine musulmane. Je me refuse à considérer l'Islam comme une totalité conceptuelle, un système d'idées, de pratiques, qui serait le noyau de tous les comportements, publics et privés. C'est pour cela que j'aime mieux parler des musulmans que de l'Islam, quoique j'accorde également un grand intérêt, sur un autre plan, à la doctrine, à la foi et aux rituels qui leur sont liés. " Cette série d'articles s'inspire de ces idées générales pour essayer de démontrer les mécanismes des rapports entre la doctrine de l'Islam et le comportement, les structures politiques, sociales, culturelles de ce qu'on appelle le monde musulman. Mais la " doctrine musulmane " elle-même est rarement conforme en tous points à l'Islam de départ. Je ne me borne donc pas à une période particulière de l'histoire musulmane. Certains articles traitent de la structure de l'ensemble des sociétés musulmanes, depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours. D'autres traitent plus particulièrement des sociétés musulmanes contemporaines. " M.R.

L'Islam, politique et croyance

Marxism and the Muslim World

Examines the Zionist colonization of Palestine and how the State of Israel was formed.

Maxime Rodinson

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