Books by Sikeena Karmali Ahmed

Looks at moments in world history when cosmopolitanism pervaded Muslim societies.This volume focuses on instances in world history when cosmopolitan ideas and actions pervaded specific Muslim societies and cultures, exploring the tensions between regional cultures, isolated enclaves and modern nation-states. Models from the past are chosen from 4 geographic areas: the Swahili coast, the Ottoman Empire/ Turkey, Iran and Indo-Pakistan. Each region is covered in 2 chapters, proving a basis for the comparison of specific cosmopolitan instances in Muslim contexts.Cosmopolitanism is a key concept in social and political thought, standing in opposition to closed human group ideologies such as tribalism, nationalism and fundamentalism. Much recent discussion of this concept has been situated within Western self-perceptions with little inclusion of information from Muslim contexts; this volume redresses the balance.