Böcker av Sachiko Murata

The first study in English of Islamic thought in China, this book shows that this tradition was informed by both Sufism and Neo-Confucianism; translations of two classic works are included.

The Tao of Islam is a rich and diverse anthology of Islamic teachings on the nature of the relationships between God and the world, the world and the human being, and the human being and God. Focusing on gender symbolism, Sachiko Murata shows that Muslim authors frequently analyze the divine reality and its connections with the cosmic and human domains with a view toward a complementarity or polarity of principles that is analogous to the Chinese idea of yin/yang.Murata believes that the unity of Islamic thought is found, not so much in the ideas discussed, as in the types of relationships that are set up among realities. She pays particular attention to the views of various figures commonly known as "Sufis" and "philosophers," since they approach these topics with a flexibility and subtlety not found in other schools of thought. She translates several hundred pages, most for the first time, from more than thirty important Muslims including the Ikhwan al-Safa', Avicenna, and Ibn al-'Arabi.

Liu Zhi (ca. 1670-1724) was one of the most important scholars of Islam in traditional China. His Tianfang xingli (Nature and Principle in Islam) focuses on the roots or principles of Islam. The annotations here explain Liu's text and draw attention to parallels in Chinese-, Arabic-, and Persian-language works as well as differences.

Exploring the fundamental religious beliefs held by Muslims, this introduction to Islam for Western readers covers the four dimensions of Islam - practice, faith, spirituality, and the Islamic view of history, as in the Hadith of Gabriel. Introducing the essentials of each dimension, it describes how they are manifest in Islamic institutions.