The NEH's list of books and recipient libraries

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Tomorrow WORLD will publish a story about the National Endowment for the Humanities promotion of Islam. During the past three days we’ve posted lists of books that provide a realistic view of Islam. To find out which libraries and humanities councils (there are 953) received the NEH’s “Muslim Journeys bookshelf,” download this PDF.

Here’s the list of the 25 books on Islam the NEH shipped out:

Minaret: A Novel by Leila Aboulela (Black Cat, Grove/Atlantic, 2005) A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America by Leila Ahmed (Yale University Press, 2012) The Conference of the Birds: The Selected Sufi Poetry of Farid Ud-din Attar by Farid al-Din Attar, translated by Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi (Interlink Pub Group, 2013) The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance by Jim Al-Khalili (Penguin Books, reprint edition; 2012) Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South by Terry Alford (Oxford University Press USA, 30th anniversary edition; 2007) Islamic Arts by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (Phaidon Press, 1997) Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan A.C. Brown (Oxford University Press, 2011) The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States, edited by Edward E. Curtis IV (Columbia University Press, 2009) In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler’s Tale by Amitav Ghosh (Vintage, 1994) When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East” by Stewart Gordon (Da Capo Press, reprint edition; 2009) Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, translated by Peter Sluglett (New Amsterdam Books, 1998) The Arabian Nights (anonymous), edited by Muhsin Mahdi, translated by Husain Haddawy (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008) In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar (Dial Press Trade Paperback, reprint edition; 2008) The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life by Ingrid Mattson (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain by Maria Rosa Menocal (Back Bay Books, reprint edition; 2003) Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi (Perseus Books, 1995) Rumi: Poet and Mystic, edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson (Oneworld Publications Ltd., 1995) Snow by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely (Vintage Books/Random House, 2005) Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel (Beacon Press, 2010) The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam by F.E. Peters (Princeton University Press, 2006) The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter (Interlink Publishing Group, 2012) House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid (Mariner Books, reprint edition; 2013) Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 2004) Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie (Harvest Books, 2005) The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman’s Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow (Wilson Grove Press, reprint edition, 2011)

As our article tomorrow will show, scholars Daniel Pipes and Alvin Schmidt sharply criticized this list. Vishal Mangalwadi, the Indian Christian philosopher, writer, lecturer, and social reformer, looked at the list and responded, “If the public funds are meant to help the public understand the version of Islam that inspires Muslims to lay down their lives for their faith (and take innocent lives in the process), here are a few titles that should be added to the list”:

Mawdudi: An Introduction to His Life & Thought by Khurshid Ahmad and Zafar Ishaq Ansari (The Islamic Foundation, 1979) The Islamic Movement: Dynamics of Values, Power and Change by Sayyid Abula’la Maududi and Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi (The Islamic Foundation, 2007) Princeton Readings in Islamist Thought: Texts and Contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden, edited by Roxanne L. Euben and Muhammad Qasim Zaman (Princeton University Press, 2009) Milestones by Sayyid Qutb (Dar al-Ilm, 2005)

Marvin Olasky

Marvin is the former editor in chief of WORLD, having retired in January 2022, and former dean of World Journalism Institute. He joined WORLD in 1992 and has been a university professor and provost. He has written more than 20 books, including Reforming Journalism.

@MarvinOlasky

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The NEH's list of books and recipient libraries

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