HIST 4385: Global Islam

When the most famous producer in Hollywood plucks seventeen-year-old Elsa Emerson from a party and gives her a brand-new name, a star of the silver screen is born. Laura Lamont. Having spent the summers of her childhood at her father’s roadside theatre, all she has ever wanted is to act. Here, it seems, is her dream come true. Step by step – new figure, new wardrobe, new house, new husband – she succumbs to the consuming power of the studio. But her transformation is more profound than she could ever have foreseen . . . Taking us from the spotlight and into the shadows, Emma Straub’s sweeping and wildly enjoyable novel has all the glamour and tragedy of the movies. As the lights darken and the credits roll it asks: how many people can we be in a lifetime? And at what cost?

A History of The Encyclopaedia of Islam is the back story of the decisions that shaped the preeminent reference work in the field of Islamic Studies and of the labor that went into it, a story that has not yet been told. It is a record of a monumental, century-long project, undertaken by the greatest scholars of its time; of friendships and rivalries; and of the extraordinary circumstances in which it took shape. As a product of and a contribution to a century's evolving view of Islamic history, civilization, and religion, this history sheds light onto the world of academia, of the individual scholars who contributed to the encyclopedia's success, and of a time-Europe before and after two world wars-and an age of publishing that dramatically changed in its lifetime.

"The Qur'an is the primary religious text for one-fifth of the world's population and has been an object of reverence and of intense study for centuries. Drawing upon a rich scholarly heritage, Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an contains alphabetically arranged articles about the contents of the Qur'an. It is an encyclopedic dictionary of qur'anic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history, and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'anic studies. With over 750 entries, the EQ is the first comprehensive, multivolume reference work on the Qur'an to appear in Western languages."