audiobook Hiroshima: Three Witnesses by From Princeton University Press in History

Description

Based on two years of ethnographic research in the southern suburbs of Beirut; An Enchanted Modern demonstrates that Islam and modernity are not merely compatible; but actually go hand-in-hand. This eloquent ethnographic portrayal of an Islamic community articulates how an alternative modernity; and specifically an enchanted modernity; may be constructed by Shi'I Muslims who consider themselves simultaneously deeply modern; cosmopolitan; and pious. In this depiction of a Shi'I Muslim community in Beirut; Deeb examines the ways that individual and collective expressions and understandings of piety have been debated; contested; and reformulated. Women take center stage in this process; a result of their visibility both within the community; and in relation to Western ideas that link the status of women to modernity. By emphasizing the ways notions of modernity and piety are lived; debated; and shaped by "everyday Islamists;" this book underscores the inseparability of piety and politics in the lives of pious Muslims.