In the Shade of the Sunna - by Aaron Rock-Singer (Paperback)

About the Book

"This book is an intellectual and social history of Salafism that moves beyond a focus on specific organizations or a commitment to the boundaries of particular nation states to trace the emergence of distinctly Salafi social practices between 1926 and the present. Salafis explicitly base their legitimacy on the word of the Qu'ran and the Sunna alone, and scholarship has taken them at their word by treating this movement as having sprung fully forth from Islam's original teachings. Their distinctive public practices--praying in shoes, long beards, and short pants, and observing gender segregation--are thus understood to have a similarly ancient pedigree. Aaron Rock-Singer powerfully demonstrates that contemporary Salafism is in fact a creation of the twentieth century and that the movement's signature practices emerged primarily out [of] Salafis' competition with other movements amidst the intellectual and social upheavals of modernity. Drawing on a range of media forms as well as on traditional religious texts, Aaron Rock-Singer offers a three-dimensional portrait of a group often dismissed as a reactionary throwback to the past. In the Shade of the Sunna takes readers beyond the surface claims of Salafism's own proponents--and the academics who often repeat them--into the larger sociocultural and intellectual forces that have definitively shaped Islam's fastest growing revivalist movement"--

Book Synopsis

Salafis explicitly base their legitimacy on continuity with the Quran and the Sunna, and their distinctive practices--praying in shoes, wearing long beards and short pants, and observing gender segregation--are understood to have a similarly ancient pedigree. In this book, however, Aaron Rock-Singer draws from a range of media forms as well as traditional religious texts to demonstrate that Salafism is a creation of the twentieth century and that its signature practices emerged primarily out of Salafis' competition with other social movements amid the intellectual and social upheavals of modernity. In the Shade of the Sunna thus takes readers beyond the surface claims of Salafism's own proponents--and the academics who often repeat them--into the larger sociocultural and intellectual forces that have shaped Islam's fastest growing revivalist movement.

From the Back Cover

"This book provides a new look at Salafism and an innovative approach to its study. Moving away from the common focus on politics and militancy, Rock-Singer turns our attention to Salafi social practices, their history in Egypt and the wider Middle East, and the ways in which the seeming ordinariness of life becomes both the site of intense contestation and, concomitantly, the means for reshaping the world in the Salafi image. As a guide to Salafism in its varied contexts and to the social history of the modern Middle East, this book is original, authoritative, and accessible." --Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Robert H. Niehaus '77 Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion, Princeton University

"A unique and insightful study of what makes a Salafi a Salafi. Rock-Singer turns many conventional assumptions on their head by showing that Salafi practices are not merely the result of a careful return to the Qur'an and the Sunna. A landmark book."--Henri Lauzière, Associate Professor of History, Northwestern University

"Through a careful reading of twentieth-century Egyptian Salafi thought and practice, Aaron Rock-Singer's work offers a potent corrective, indeed an outright challenge, to theories of Islam's discursive continuity. It warrants broad readership and will stimulate productive debate."--Emilio Spadola, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern & Islamic Civilization Studies, Colgate University

Review Quotes

"In this innovative new analysis of Salafism, Aaron Rock-Singer takes as his point of departure a series of publicly visible markers that are understood by Salafis and non- Salafis alike to differentiate the former from the latter. . . .This volume helpfully turns the study of Islamic reform toward the social - the everyday Salafi practices which are not profane even if they are mundane, but rather reflect a conception of Islam in which the concerns of religion move into new social domains."

-- "Islamic Law and Society"

"Aaron Rock-Singer's In the Shade of the Sunna: Salafi Piety in the Twentieth-Century Middle East is a signal contribution to the study of modern salafism qua movement as embedded in larger societies, with special reference to twentieth-century Egypt and to a lesser extent Saudi Arabia"-- "Bustan: The Middle East Book Review"

"The book's importance...lies in a dual shifting from the prevailing scholarship on Salafism: from ideology, law, and political participation to social practices; and from jihadist radicalism to social reform."-- "The Journal of Middle East and Africa"

"This text is an erudite, novel examination of the social history of Salafism and its project to fashion a distinct visual Salafi identity through a reconstruction of early Islamic history. It will be of interest to specialists and lay people interested in Islam and the Middle East and makes a valuable contribution to the field of Salafism studies."-- "The New Arab"

"Rock-Singer has done the field a great service by publishing this book.... Theoretically robust, empirically rich...[this is an] excellent book that advances our knowledge of Salafism both in Egypt and generally."-- "Die Welt des Islams"

"In the Shade of the Sunna [is] an indispensable reference for those interested in Salafism or Islam and, more broadly, for those intent on exploring the complicated but nevertheless constitutive entanglements between religious tradition and modernity."-- "Journal of the American Academy of Religion"

About the Author

Aaron Rock-Singer is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin--Madison and author of Practicing Islam in Egypt: Print Media and Islamic Revival.