non-Muslim World Research Articles

Strategies For Presenting And Marketing Islamic Branded Products To Non-Muslim Consumers

Buying behavior of consumers and decision-making process and criteria of Muslim and non-Muslim consumers are fundamental in spreading the brand of Islamic ethical marketing. Many factors including environment, globalization, purchasing power, consumer population, religious and ethical considerations are essential in increasing the worldwide acceptance of Islamic marketing to all races regardless of religious belief. Hence, the paper attempts to identify the appropriate strategies for presenting these Islamic brands and logos to non-Muslim consumers across the global- space. The paper shall provide insight into how Islamic distribution strategies are displayed to every consumer regardless of their faith or cultural practices. The paper likewise builds upon previous scholarly efforts and research outcomes focusing on management approaches and business strategies suitable for increasing the chances of accepting Islamic brands and logos in Muslim and non-Muslim countries. Previous studies helped in understanding the concepts, current business practices, managerial and theoretical perspectives of Islamic branding. The findings indicate that the usage of Islamic brands played a mediating role in strengthening Islamic branded products across non-Muslim countries. Islamic brand was found to create positive impressions about Islam for non-Muslim consumers. It was also discovered that Islamic brands uniquely secured consumers and customers for Islamic products more than non-Islamic products. The study recommends that Islamic marketing designers should build a monitoring logistic to track the level of Islamic product acceptance across the Muslim and non-Muslim world.

Islamic Higher Education as a Part of Kazakhs’ Cultural Revival

Kazakhstan is currently going through a phase of national and cultural renaissance. This began in the 90s when political and spiritual independence had been obtained. The process of national or cultural revival entails a shift in the paradigm, a reevaluation of prior ideas, and a return to long-forgotten customs, beliefs, or traditions that are distinctive to contemporary Kazakhstani culture. Undoubtedly, a return to religious origins via freedom from the burden of the Soviet ideology of atheism and the expansion of Islamic education is the fundamental trend in the development of national-cultural awareness. Kazakhstan has experienced a spiritual vacuum because of the rapid shift from the ban on religion to religious freedom. This has resulted in a surge in the number of religious denominations and religious organizations in the nation and the emergence of radical movements. The issue is particularly significant for the post-USSR nations that are now experiencing hardships. Evidence of this is shown in two ways: (1). many people in the CIS countries have begun to show a keen interest in religious values and traditions, and (2). new sociopolitical and socio-cultural realities brought about by the fall of communism and the dissolution of the USSR have sparked the growth of national consciousness and altered spiritual guiding principles in the post-Soviet society, particularly in Kazakhstani society. The establishment of relations with the Muslim and non-Muslim world has incorporated the opening of borders, allowed missionaries to enter freely, and allowed current citizens to go abroad for religious education and general education in both religious and non-religious-oriented countries. In addition, the liberal legislation in relation to religion in general in the early 2000s opened up new horizons for representatives of religious and pseudo-religious communities. Therefore, religious education, namely Islamic, given that population of the state is predominantly Muslim, is an absolute necessity.

POLITICAL ISLAMOPHOBIC NARRATIVE: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EAST-TO-WEST MEDIA

Mediacy (mediateness), meditation (medialization and re-medialization) and focalization (point of view) occur on political agendas. Islamophobia’s political agenda is presently mediated by cultural, intellectual, social, and religious perspectives. This political agenda aligns with Chatman’s narrative focalization, which is most compatible with Stanzel’s narrative scenario (first person, authorial, and figural narrative situation). Both eastern and western narratives mediate via distinct story situations that reflect their perspectivization of the agenda of Islamophobia. The current study qualitatively examines four (4) speeches by eastern and western political leaders. These speech instances of Muslim and non-Muslim world leaders, accessed through the purposive sampling technique, are analyzed with the help of the theoretical background of Mediacy, Mediation, and Focalization. It is concluded that mediacy lies in the Islamophobic narrative. The mediation also changes the narrative, which is also affected by Chatman’s three forms of point of view, which filter the narrative from perceptual, conceptual, and interest-based points of view.

İslam ve İktisadi Büyüme

Islam's ultimate aim for Muslims is to render Muslims to achieve the salvation (falah) in afterlife as well as their temporary life in earth. A moderate welfare in this life is required for Muslims in order for them to fulfil their responsibilities in terms of their personal religious life. What is meant by a moderate economic life standard is that the welfare of the entire society should not be accumulated in some certain classes of the society, and instead, it should circulate among all of the people, which in turn leads these people to achieve an average life standard. Thus, some certain rules and organizations were designed and created in order to reach the said ultimate aim and almost all Islamic states, which had reigned during this long period of Islamic history tried to practice these rules in a right way and aimed to ensure their citizens to live through the said moderate welfare. It is natural that the Islamic economic system that includes all these rules and institutions is different from the western (conventional) economic systems. In this chapter (that I have translated into Turkish) Barro and Cleary have been primarily and implicitly questionning Islam's approach of moderate wealth from a viewpoint of western oriented economic growth, and also asserting that Islam has an economic doctrine that can be defined as “status quoist” and thus leading economic activities and economic growth slowing down. In order to do so, authors use the concept of economic growth which is measured in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) and compare GDPs of some contempopary Muslim states that had constituted Ottoman Empire in the past and of OECD counties which some of them, especially European ones, had been historical opponents of Ottoman Empire. By doing so, authors question why Muslim states remained behind, although they were scientific and economic leaders of the world in the past. In brief, other phenomena that the authors discuss throughout the text can be listed as follows: The generation and rise of Islam and how Islam changed Arabic political system; the role of madrasas and waqfs first in the rise and the second in the decrease of Islam in terms of science and civilisation; the role of Islamic jurisprudence; Muslim effects on European conflicts in terms of political and military situations; the effect of Ramadan on economic growth of Muslim countries; economic courses of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism; the comparison of Islam with other world religions in terms of economic courses and implications. In the end, the authors conclude that Christendom have succeeded a transformation within its internal structure by letting the emergence of Protestantism, and Jewish people concentrated on so called earthly success of this world and also on human capital instead of concentrating on spiritual values. These together constituted reasons why Christian and Jewish nations are scientific and economic leaders of this age. Unlike them, Muslims were not able to perform enough scientific and economic progress since they did not succeeded a similar transformation and remained stuck to original religious values, rules and corporate structure of Islam. Of course, this kind of approach which only relies on limited criterion like economic growth and excludes other elements such as political and military contexts and worldwide conjunctures is defective and should be challenged by experts and academicians by evaluating this approach in terms of Islamic economics, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), political, military and economic, cultural and civilisation history of both Islamic states and Ottoman Empire. It is only possible to constitute a counter-view against these type of approcahes to Islam in general and Islamic economics in particular, by generating such kind of all-inclusive academic works. Eventually my aim in translating this work into Turkish is to make negative approaches and dissertations against Islam's economic and financial order which have been longly become widespread in a harmony, especially those which appeared in the non-Muslim world and English-written academic literature, accessible in Turkish and to make the way to scholarly rebuttals and refutations of Turkish academicians against aforesaid negative approaches and dissertations.

Дар ал-ислам / дар ал-харб: категории пространства в средневековом исламе

The article deals with some issues related to the conception of space/territory in medieval Islam. At the turn of XX–XXI centuries within the framework of various humanitarian disci-plines has been widely discussed a new understanding of space which came to be realized as a heterogeneous social and cultural phenomenon, reflecting political, legal and social norms spe-cific to a particular culture. At the first centuries of the history of Islam there appeared the idea of two geo-religious regions: Dar al-Islam ("Territory of Islam") and Dar al-Harb (Territory of war) or otherwise Dar al-Kufr ("Territory of unbelief"). On the one hand, these concepts reflect the real boundaries of the Muslim / non-Muslim world and the criteria by which those belonging to it were determined, and at the same time it contains an indication of certain non-spatial cultur-al symbols, categories and values. Special attention here is paid to the history of the origin and evolution of the concepts Dar al-Islam / Dar al-Harb (both in sunni and shi‘ite traditions) repre-sented in the foundational texts of Islam, medieval Arabic dictionaries, travelogues, and essays on Islamic law (fiqh).

Osmanlı Müelliflerinin Çalışmalarında Zeyd-Zeyneb Hadisesi Bağlamında Voltaire’in “Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı” Adlı Tiyatro Eseri Üzerine Değerlendirmeler

İslamiyet, tarih sahnesine çıkışından kısa bir süre sonra bu yeni dini kendilerine en büyük rakip olarak gören diğer din mensubu çevrelerin hedefi haline gelmeye başlamıştır. Kısa süre içerisinde İslam’ın Arap Yarımadası’ndan Çin’e ve Ortadoğu’dan Avrupa içlerine kadar yayılması neticesinde başta Hıristiyanlık olmak üzere gayrimüslim dünya İslam’a karşı bir mücadele içerisine girmişlerdir. Girişilen bu mücadele siyasi ve askeri alanda olduğu gibi, ilmî ve kültürel alanda da kendisini göstermeye başlamış ve yalnızca dinin kendisine karşı değil onu tebliğ eden peygamberine yani Hz. Muhammed’e karşı da yürütülmüştür. İslam’ın Doğu’da ve Batı’da kısa zaman içerisinde hızlı bir ilerleyiş sağlaması, Batı toplumunun dikkatlerini bu yeni din üzerine çekti ve onları İslam ve İslâmî ilimler üzerinde birtakım araştırmalara sevk etti. Ancak Avrupalıların bu ilgisi İslam’a olan hayranlıklarından değil, onu yakından tanımak suretiyle hem İslam’a hem de Müslümanlara zarar vermek istemelerinden ileri gelmekteydi. İşte bu doğrultuda Batı dünyası, İslam peygamberi Hz. Muhammed’i küçük düşürmek için haksız ithamlarla karalamaya çalışmışlar ve bu yönde çok sayıda eser yazmışlardır. Bu noktada en çok kullandıkları konu ise Hz. Peygamber’in aile hayatı olmuştur. Hz. Peygamber’in çok eşliliği ve özellikle de evlatlığı Zeyd b. Hârise’nin boşamış olduğu hanımı Zeyneb bint Cahş ile gerçekleştirdiği evlilik, Batılı yazarlar tarafından Hz. Peygamber’i ve onun özelinde de İslamiyet’i eleştiri ve hatta İslam’a saldırı amacıyla kullanılmıştır. İşte bu şekilde Hz. Peygamber ve İslamiyet hakkında tarihî gerçekleri çarpıtarak bir eser ortaya koyanlardan birisi de Fransız yazar Voltaire olmuştur. Voltaire’in kaleme aldığı ve birkaç kez Avrupa tiyatrolarında da sahnelenen Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı adlı piyesi başta Osmanlı kamuoyu olmak üzere İslam toplumunda büyük bir infial uyandırmıştır. Bu araştırmamızda konuyla ilgili rivayetler ve yorumlar üzerinden Osmanlı’nın son döneminde yazılmış veya bu dönemde yetişmiş müelliflerin Cumhuriyet döneminde kaleme almış olduğu eserlerde konuya nasıl yaklaşıldığı tespit edilmeye çalışılacak ve onların bir değerlendirmesi yapılacaktır.

Comparative Analysis of Terrorists’ Objectives Hierarchies

To develop effective counterterrorism strategies, it is important to understand the capabilities and objectives of terrorist groups. Much of the understanding of these groups comes from intelligence collection and analysis of their capabilities. In contrast, the objectives of terrorists are less well understood. In this article, we describe a decision analysis methodology to identify and structure the objectives of terrorists based on the statements and writings of their leaders. This methodology was applied in three case studies, resulting in the three objectives hierarchies of al-Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and Hezbollah. In this article, we propose a method to compare the three objectives hierarchies, highlight their key differences, and draw conclusions about effective counterterrorism strategies. We find that all three terrorist groups have a wide range of objectives going far beyond the objective of killing and terrorizing people in the non-Muslim world. Among the shared objectives are destroying Israel and expelling Western powers from the Middle East. All three groups share the ambition to become a leader in the Islamic world. Key distinctions are the territorial ambitions of ISIL and Hezbollah versus the large-scale attack objectives of al-Qaeda. Objectives specific to ISIL are the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria and the re-creation of the power of Sunni Islam. Hezbollah has unique objectives related to the establishment of a Palestine State and to maintain the relationship with and support of Iran and Syria. Al-Qaeda’s objectives remain focused on large-scale attacks in the West. We also note a recent shift to provide support for small-scale attacks in the West by both al-Qaeda and ISIL. Our method can be used for comparing objectives hierarchies of different organizations as well as for comparing objectives hierarchies over time of one organization.

LIFE-CYCLE HYPOTHESIS OF HYBRID SUKUK

The development of financial system recently has been contributing to the economic growth of the nation. Its vital role helps many financial institutions to advance their financial services, particularly in investment systems such as Sukuk. As seen in recent years, the involvement of Sukuk in many industries ranging from sovereigns to corporates for both Muslim and non-Muslim world companies. Although its popularity increases, it seems to be widely accepted that the insufficient structures of Sukuk become a big challenge to serve the public needs to be in compliance with Shari’ah principles. In an attempt to fulfil many financial companies in issuing Sukuk and the needs of the Muslim world, this study aims to provide the new structure of Sukuk. The study proposes a design of securitization by combining two contracts of Sukuk into one Sukuk structure. The constructed idea will use a model of life cycle hypothesis to support the Sukuk issuing companies in maintaining their incomes. It also explains the cycle cash flow and asset movement as well as the calculation of Net Present Value (NPV) of the project.

A A Question of Presence and Agency: Mosques in the West, North and South

New scholarship, covered by the books in this review essay, include studies of mosques in the UK, Canada, Spain and Australia and demonstrate that the proclamation of presence of the architecture of the mosque works on a number of levels. The exterior façade, of course, functions to symbolize some sort of landmark and identity in a variety of possible architectural languages. However, the interior, is where the differences truly lie between the mosque in constructed in the Muslim world and those constructed outside of the Muslim world. For minority communities, the mosque program necessarily includes facilities for education, recreation, festive gathering and dining in addition to other specific programs such as funeral preparation, food bank collection and so forth.
 The contemporary mosque in the non-Muslim world, regardless of how west, north or south it is located, is loaded with much more programmatic demand in addition to the perceived politics of creating presence and identity in a perceived foreign landscape.
 To download full review, click on PDF.

A Question of Presence and Agency

New scholarship, covered by the books in this review essay, include studies of mosques in the UK, Canada, Spain and Australia and demonstrate that the proclamation of presence of the architecture of the mosque works on a number of levels. The exterior façade, of course, functions to symbolize some sort of landmark and identity in a variety of possible architectural languages. However, the interior, is where the differences truly lie between the mosque in constructed in the Muslim world and those constructed outside of the Muslim world. For minority communities, the mosque program necessarily includes facilities for education, recreation, festive gathering and dining in addition to other specific programs such as funeral preparation, food bank collection and so forth.
 The contemporary mosque in the non-Muslim world, regardless of how west, north or south it is located, is loaded with much more programmatic demand in addition to the perceived politics of creating presence and identity in a perceived foreign landscape.
 To download full review, click on PDF.

The implications of the Caliphate

ABSTRACTRegardless of the outcome of the military campaign, the “Islamic State” is a watershed. Its regime derives from the personage of the Caliph as the “Substitute of the Prophet of Allah” and “Commander of the Believers.” But it seeks not to restore the model of previous Caliphates, but to resurrect the regime of the Prophet who spread Islam “with the sword” so that “the word of Allah becomes supreme.” The Caliphate paradigm is incompatible with tolerance of heterodox Muslim communities or non-Muslim citizens or with peaceful relations with other Muslim states or the non-Muslim world. It precludes a “Westphalian” order; will exacerbate the Sunni–Shiite conflict, radicalize Muslim communities across the globe, fan the flames of Islamist terrorism and will give birth to “Caliphate Archipelagos”—small groups that swear their loyalty to the Caliph and are willing to act in his name in their territories.

Reactive Co-Radicalization: Religious Extremism as Mutual Discontent

Extremist rhetoric and behaviour, including violence, emanating from those fearing and opposed to Islamic extremism—and typically generalising that to Islam or Muslims—is undeniable. Equally, there is evidence of Muslim rhetoric that fires up fears of a threatening West and antipathy to religious ‘others’ as damned infidels, including Christians and Jews who are otherwise regarded as co-religionists—as ‘peoples of the Book’. Mutual discontent and antipathy abound. On the one hand, Islamic extremism provokes a reactionary extremism from parts, at least, of the non-Muslim world; on the other hand, Muslim extremism appears often in response to the perception of an aggressive and impositional colonising non-Muslim world. ‘Reactive Co-Radicalization’, I suggest, names this mutual rejection and exclusionary circle currently evident, in particular, with respect to many Muslim and non-Muslim communities. This article discusses reactive co-radicalization as a hermeneutical perspective on religious extremism with particular reference to two European cases.

Contributing to World Peace - An Examination of the Life of Prophet Muhammad as a Leader

The purpose of this study is to closely examine the life and leadership skills of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in order to discover conflict resolution strategies adopted by the leading figure of Islam and evaluate those lessons to ascertain possible solutions to the contemporary global problems and challenges across the globe. Understanding is the catalyst for peace. This paper also aims to contribute to world peace and interfaith dialogue albeit its limited capacity in scope through the illustration of the exemplary character of this well-known persona who is not otherwise very well understood in largely the non-Muslim world but also within the Muslim world. Particular attention is paid to the identification of key attributes of a successful leader in the light of Muhammad (pbuh)'s success. A cross-examination of the evidence available to us, it is strongly noteworthy that Muhammad (pbuh) showed great respect for other faiths, cultures and ideas; even when he did not agree on certain matters, he listened and engaged with tolerance and sensitive care. His service of what he ardently believed to be the truth and his style and approach in dealing with would oppose those beliefs provides an acute insight on the character of this leading figure of Islam whose success in overcoming almost impossible barriers and conflicts at many layers of society becomes a strong case-study for modeling conflict resolutions beyond its theoretical frameworks and examine this applied science in the art of leadership and peace building. This paper would then conclude that one of the greatest legacies of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is the essential appreciation of the dignity of all living beings irrespective of their gender, race or societal status; with Muhammad's followers from diverse socio-cultural and socio-lingual backgrounds, ethnicities, civilizational development - this essential attribute becomes noteworthy to examine closely the veracity of his appreciation, respect and dignity afforded to all.

“Far Beyond the Western Sea of the Arabs...”: Reinterpreting Claims about Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas

This article employs a historiographical approach to examine the controversial premise that Muslim explorers reached the Americas well before Columbus. Interestingly, those who originally conceived this premise in the early-to-mid twentieth century were not Muslims, and they emphasized the cultural or geographical (African and/or Arabian) rather than religious origins of alleged explorers to the New World. By the mid-to-late twentieth century, other proponents of the premise had created a popular literature that presented additional “evidence,” including language similarities, narratives, maps of exploration, and material culture artifacts. This evidence, which is described and evaluated herein, involves a number of fields or disciplines such as archaeology, history, and linguistics. Given the fragmentary and sometimes contradictory nature of this evidence, most professionals in varied fields are unconvinced that Islam predates Spanish exploration in the New World. That, however, has not deterred proponents, which now includes a growing number of Muslims who actively use religious magazines and websites to promote it. One can debate the premise, but perhaps a more productive way of addressing it may not be to determine whether it is “true” or “false,” but rather to examine it as socio-political narrative that serves several purposes. First, the premise is clearly revisionist in that it directly challenges the timeline of the European Age of Exploration. Second, it builds upon the commonly-held belief that a “Golden Age of Islam” (ca. 750 to 1275 ce) represented a superior culture that had accomplished great things before it was overwhelmed by western colonialism. By asserting the presence of Islam in the Americas before the arrival of Christians (and Jews), its supporters transform Islam into an indigenous American faith, thereby re-defining the ummah (worldwide community of Muslims) as predecessors, rather than recent arrivals, in the non-Muslim world.

PARTAI POLITIK DALAM PERSPEKTIF ISLAM

A political party is a tool for human person or group of people to reach the power that can be set in accordance with the provisions of the country in the political parties. Originally Islam does not recognize political parties in determining the executive and state power, but in tune with the times difficult for Muslims who inhabit countries today to not wear a political party in control and manage the state. Islamic political experts differ between one another with respect to whether or not the state should Muslim majority wear and use political parties as one of the attributes of the state, they allow and others do not. Eventgouh conditions and situations often affect to something new that matters dealing with Islam and Muslims. In this age where the world is ruled by non-Muslim world institutions of the United Nations (UN) then be mistaken for Muslims not to accept and use the political parties in the Muslim majority country. The most important note in the atmosphere as it is the practice of the Muslims belong to a party must not follow the practice of non-Muslims who justify the means. Islamic Ummah must maintain originality of morality in politics so that the political party that sponsored the non-Muslims in Muslim practice became Islamic.
 
 Kata Kunci: Partai, politik, perspektif, Islam

The Origin and Journey of Qawwali

This article deals with origin, evolution and the heritage of Sufi music. The objective of this article is to trace the journey of Sufi musical practices and traditions across the world, their forms, and how Sufi music has created a heritage and subculture across the Muslim as well as non-Muslim world carving an identity for itself as liberal or spiritual Islam rather than legal Islam. Philosophic Qur’anic verses, such as ‘Poverty is my pride’, are the bedrock of Sufism and quoted in every manual of Sufi doctrine. Such verses are limitless in their depth, scope and meaning, and the reader/listener may draw as much mystical meaning as s/he has the capacity to understand. The propagation of Sufism started from its origin in Baghdad, Iraq, and spread to Persia, Pakistan, North Africa, Central Asia and Muslim Spain. Sufism has produced a large body of poetry in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi and even Bangla, from which the genre of Sufi music, lyrics and qawwali has emerged. The Sufi poetry has integrated with the local musical culture of the various parts of the world and created a rainbow of variations down the ages. This article draws upon published literature from several languages on the origins of Sufi music, including qawwali, and collates samples of Sufi music from across the world and synthesizes the results.

Status and Rights of Women Under Islamic Law

In the entire literary history of the world there has been a comical distortion of the Islamic law on the status and rights of women. Muslim woman is today visualized by the non-Muslims as miserable creature secluded from the rest of the world and devoid of all natural and human rights. Ironically, this disgraceful image of women is baselessly ascribed to a socio-religious philosophy which has the credit of once picking up womanhood from the nether regions of human society and elevating it to the highest pedestal of dignity and honour. Very unfortunately, this travesty of truth is mistaken for truth in all parts of the contemporary non-Muslim world. Reflected in the widely prevalent misconceptions regarding women’s rights in Islam are of course, both deliberate distortions and naive misunderstandings – motivated misrepresentations and honest misgivings. this brief paper attempts to explain how women really enjoy more rights under the Islamic law than granted to them under any other legal system.

The Poetics of Home:

The Poetics of Home:

Sexual offences in a Muslim world: a socio-ethical reflection on Zamfara State (Nigeria) v. Bariya I. Mugazu

On Friday morning, 29 January 2001, Bariya Ibrahima Mugazu was given 100 lashes. Zamfara state of Nigeria tried and punished this young woman for having had sex unlawfully in the previous year. Until this case between Zamfara state of Nigeria and unmarried Bariya Mugazu, controversies surrounding the full adoption of Islamic law (Shari'ah) in northern Nigeria seemed to have remained only a local issue. Section 10 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria bars any of its federating units from adopting a ‘state religion’. These states are, however, at liberty to adopt any suitable legal regime. So in 1999, when 12 states in the north of the federation opted for theocracy by adopting Shari'ah as state law, the predominantly Muslim public of the region claimed to be acting within the confines of the municipal law in embracing religiously based regimes. As such, the relationship between this religious and legal order and Nigeria's human-rights-friendly constitution remains controversial. Fornication or adultery may well not constitute an offence deserving criminal prosecution in the non-Muslim secular world. As shall be made apparent in this study, however, individuals' sex lives are highly regulated within the world of Islam. Since Islamic regimes strongly condemn fornication and adultery, this paper is concerned with reviewing Zamfara v. Bariya in order to establish whether the case succeeded in reflecting an Islamic concept of justice. If so, to what extent was the administration of justice by Shari'ah court(s) of law in Zamfara consistent with the ideals and teaching of Islam?

A Military history of India and South Asia: from the East India Company to the nuclear era

Since September 2001, the Western public has found a renewed interest in South Asia. On the border between the Muslim and non-Muslim world, the region has seen its strategic importance to the West heightened, while the fact that the two major competing regional powers, Pakistan and India, each possess nuclear weapons has raised new anxieties. Given the importance of South Asia to current global conflicts, A Military History of India and South Asia provides a much-needed overview of the military history of the region since 1700, covering the areas that later evolved into the states of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. In chapters devoid of academic jargon, the book provides lucid introductions to various topics, from the rise of the British East India Company, to the Indian Army in the First World War, to the current tensions between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. With chapters written by established experts, the book makes important contributions to the study of modern South Asian history, British Imperial history, and the history of war and society. It will appeal to students, scholars and laypersons alike with an interest in the social, political and military history of the region. Chapters in the book document the rise of the British East India Company and the uprising of 1857-59, in which the largely Bengali army rose up against the British officer corps, and the subsequent decision by the British Crown to take direct control of India and its army. Further chapters document the colonial Indian Army's role in British imperial wars in Afghanistan and in World Wars I and II. Half of the book explores the development of national armies for India, Pakistan, and, later, Bangladesh, giving accounts of the wars that have torn South Asia since independence, including the Indo-Pakistani wars, the India-China War, and the Sri Lankan War, the continuing conflicts over Kashmir, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.