Interpreting Islam in China

In his book Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Scripture, and Language in the Han Kitab, Kristian Petersen freshly and engagingly analyzes the complex theories and narratives Muslims have used to explore their place within the Chinese empire and among Chinese traditions * Timothy Gutmann, University of Chicago Divinity School, Marginalia Review of Books *
Kristian Petersen's new book, Interpreting Islam in China, is a masterful study of Sinophone Muslims in late imperial China. It synthesizes much recent work on Sino-Muslim intellectual networks of the Ming-Qing periods, while contributing new research, particularly on Ma Dexin (1794-1874), which will be of interest to historians and religious scholars alike. It will no doubt join the groundbreaking volumes of Zvi Ben-Dor, Jonathan Lipman, Ma Tong, Wang Jianping, and many others in bringing to light voices from an important historical corner of the Islamic world. * Tristan G. Brown, Review of Religion and Chinese Society *
The book is written in clear and accessible prose; there is no doubt that it can be used in classes for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students. To anyone interested in an alternative -- and rich -- Islamic tradition lodged in the Chinese-speaking world, this book would prove an invaluable reference; and those who do have a genuine commitment to understanding China cultural and religious heterogeneity that is under increasing attack from both Han nationalists and a repressive state apparatus will be grateful for Petersen's contribution. * Guangtian Ha, Journal of Chinese Religions *
We are still far from being able to write a history of Qur'an translation or, more broadly, non-Arabic Muslim engagement with the Qur'an. Books such as Petersen's are important steps on the way to this goal. His thoughtful analysis, his insightful conclusions, and his broad reflections on the authors' contexts, motives, and audiences provide ample potential for comparative readings. * Johanna Pink, Review of Qur'anic Research *
Undoubtedly, 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 the individual Muslim authors and the Han Kitab as a discursive tradition * Kristian Petersen, assistant professor of religious studies and co-director of Islamic Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Reading Religion *
This excellent and eminently well-researched book systematically elucidates the contextual development of the fascinating Sino-Islamic philosophical tradition known as the han Kitab ... Petersen seeks to not only facilitate a better understanding of this tradition, but also subvert conventional essentialized notions of Islam. * Alexander Wain, ReOrient *
In his monumental new book, Interpreting Islam in China: Pilgrimage, Language, and Scripture in the Han Kitab, Kristian Petersen...takes his readers on an unforgettable journey through the layers and complexities of Sino-Muslim intellectual and social history. On the way readers meet the major scholars and texts that played a formative role in the development of the Han Kitab tradition ... In addition to constituting a field turning contribution to the study of Islam in China, this book is also among the most dazzling interventions in translation studies. All students and scholars of Islam, Religion, Asian Studies, and Translation Studies will have much to benefit from this brilliant study. It will also make an excellent text in both undergraduate and graduate courses on Muslim intellectual history, Asian Religions, and theories and methods in Religion Studies. * SherAli Tareen, New Books Network *
Kristian Petersen contributes substantially to the intellectual and religious history of Islam in China by analyzing the Han Kitab through the lens of Religious Studies. Focused on themes of pilgrimage, scriptural translation, and the significance of the Arabic language, he skillfully attends to both the ideas and the contexts of three central Sino-Muslim thinkers. All three tried to reconnect their communities to what they perceived as a lost religious heritage, originally written in Arabic and Persian but lived and comprehended in Chinese. Petersen reconstructs an intellectual middle ground, a series of 'dialogic environments,' in which Islam made authentic and authoritative sense within Chinese culture at particular historical moments. Theoretically broad and contextually specific, he demonstrates that Chinese and Islamic civilizations have conversed, not simply clashed. * Jonathan Lipman, Professor Emeritus of History, Mount Holyoke College *
Through close readings, by turns contextual and deconstructive, of the writings of three leading Sino-Muslim scholars, Kristian Petersen unravels the translations and transfers that molded an Islam both in and for China. His case studies of the changing status of pilgrimage, scripture and sacred language among Han Kitab authors at once broadens the scope of Islamic Studies and deepens our understanding of world history by pursuing the intellectual traffic of inter-Asian interactions. * Nile Green, author of Sufism: A Global History *
With painstaking erudition and great care, Kristian Petersen uncovers and reconstructs many hitherto unknown bridges between Chinese Islam and the wider Islamic world. Interpreting Islam in China forges new ways of understanding and appreciating the Han Kitab, Chinese Islam's enormous corpus, and introduces for the first time its last great author, Ma Dexin. A beautiful study of one of the remote corners of the Islamic world of thinking. * Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, author of The Dao of Muhammad: A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China *