Finally read through what is likely the last review for Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab. Timothy Gutmann offered a generous review with thoughtful critiques in Marginalia Review of Books. Here is a preview: Petersen freshly and engagingly analyzes the complex theories and narratives Muslims have used to explore…
Very generous review of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab from Tristan G. Brown in Review of Religion and Chinese Society. Tristan G. Brown of Massachusetts Institute of Technology works on the social and cultural history of late imperial China and is working on a book titled The Prophets…
New review of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab published with the American Academy of Religion’s Reading Religion by Gang Li. Petersen contributes to the growing interest in the studies of the Han Kitab tradition with his new approach of historical hermeneutics, which enlarges and deepens our understanding of both…
One more review of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab has been published in ReOrient: The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies. Alexander Wain, International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, works on Islam in the Malay World, especially the role of Sino-Muslims within it. Wain offers some excellent ways to make the study…
I’m really excited about a new book by Christopher M. Driscoll and Monica R. Miller. They’ve co-written Method as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion, where they tackle how the study of religion has been constructed as a discipline over time and provide a rigorous critique of…
Another review of Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab has just been published in the Journal of Chinese Religions, sponsored by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions. Guangtian Ha, specialist on Islam in China, viewed the book as “excellent addition to the growing body of literature on the Sinophone…
I was very honored when I found out that Dr. Johanna Pink reviewed Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab in Review of Qur’anic Research, the official journal of the International Qur’anic Studies Association. I was even more pleased by what she had to say, especially since she is not a scholar of Islam…
I recently reviewed Sachiko Murata’s wonderful complete translation of the Real Commentary on the True Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮), the first major Chinese-language Islamic text, published in 1642, written by Wang Daiyu 王岱輿, for the AAR’s Reading Religion. If you are interested you can access the full review here. Here is a sneak peak: Murata has produced another…
I recently reviewed Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, China’s Early Mosques (Edinburgh University Press, 2015) for Religious Studies Review. Here is a sneak peak: The greatest strength is Steinhardt’s ability to bring her expertise in Chinese architecture to the Islamic domain. Chinese buildings share fundamental principles that govern placement and aesthetic construction, such as courtyards, gates, purposeful orientation in direction,…
I recently reviewed Kyle Conway, Little Mosque on the Prairie and the Paradoxes of Cultural Translation (University of Toronto Press, 2017) for the AAR’s Reading Religion. Here is a sneak peak: Altogether, Conway provides a great deal for the scholar of religion. His detailed focus on modes of production, distribution, and consumption serve as an effective model…
Dr. Kristian Petersen 