The author recounts his cross-country pilgrimage through America's religious sects and shares the insights he gained into how, what, and why Americans worship

The Divine Supermarket: Shopping for God in America

Malise Ruthven

Religion & Spirituality

Vintage

Islam in the World (2nd, 00) by Ruthven, Malise [Paperback (2000)]

Penguin

This is an exploration of the influence of far-right preachers on the Reagan administration. In its analysis of the melting-pot of religious cults in America, the book covers high-mindedness and moral angst, sexual humbuggery and corruption. As the world's oldest secular state, America has proved uniquely adept at hatching new creeds and producing variations on more familiar themes from Latter-Day Saints to snake-handlers. Its citizens enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world and the country is undergoing a major religious revival. Fundamentalist groups in the South challenge the teaching of evolution in schools, television preachers such as Jerry Falwell are undermining the liberal reforms of postwar years, and cults such as the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh flourish. Part travel book, part history, part cultural analysis, this book follows Malise Ruthven from Puritan New England to the Reaganite right wing areas of the sun belt and middle America in what is intended to be a study of the soul of modern America. Malise Ruthven is also author of "Islam in the Modern World".

The divine supermarket: Travels in search of the soul of America

Chatto&Windus

Explores the land and the people of one of the most celebrated cities on earth--the "Mother of the World"--surveying the relics of Cairo's fabled past

Cairo (The Great Cities)

History

Americas

Time-Life-Books

Encounters with Islam: On Religion, Politics and Modernity (Library of Modern Religion)

For many years Malise Ruthven has been at the forefront of discerning commentary on the Islamic world and its relations with the predominantly secularised and Christian societies of the West. Well known for his bold interventions on such issues as the Rushdie affair and publication of "The Satanic Verses"; the many unresolved questions relating to the Lockerbie bombing; and the globe-changing terrorist attack of 9/11, Ruthven's perceptive writings, particularly those that have appeared in the "New York Review of Books", reliably re-frame difficult issues and problems so that his readers are prompted to look at the challenges afresh. Ruthven is here at his most compelling: he offers astute and topical insights across the whole spectrum of Middle East and Islamic studies. Whether questioning the involvement of Libyan agents in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103; exploring the contested place of women in Islam; or discussing the disputed term 'Islamofascism' (his own), the author's probing, searchlight intelligence aims always to get at the truth of things, regardless of attendant controversy. Representing the 'best of Ruthven', these lucid essays will be widely appreciated by students, specialists and general readers. They transform our understandings of contemporary society.

[Encounters with Islam: On Religion, Politics and Modernity (Library of Modern Religion)] [By: Ruthven, Malise] [May, 2012]

Middle East

I.B.Tauris

For Freya Stark her experiences in Iraq must count amongst her most romantic. She first arrived by car in the late 1920s, driving across the open desert in the company of pilgrims bound for Mecca. On a return visit in 1930 the desert was in full bloom with tulips, anemones and marigolds and, as the guest of a Bedouin sheikh, she stayed in a tent filled with white mattresses and purple cushions. Introduced to a visiting Yezidi sheikh, she visited Yezidi villages and captured some unique photographs of their often-misunderstood 'devil-worshipping' ceremonies. In 1932 she took her first and only steady job, as a sub-editor on the Baghdad Times, and published her first book, Baghdad Sketches. Baghdad thronged with different cultures and nationalities, and Freya provoked scandal by choosing to live in the 'native quarters' where she could observe the bustle of the city at first hand. She also made excursions to Mosul, Nineveh and Takrit and, protected by a veil, visited the holy shrines of Najaf and Kadhimain. In the 1940s she travelled to the marshes north of Basra, and made a ten-day tour of Kurdistan. Her visit ended in high drama when she was caught in the siege of the British Embassy. On her various expeditions to Kuwait she again visited the marsh Arabs and also witnessed the bustle of the fishing fleets and pearl divers' boats. She enjoyed the bazaars of Kuwait City, and leaves us with a photographic record from before the oil boom which replaced much of the old city's architecture and way of life.

Freya Stark in Iraq & Kuwait

Travel

Asia

Garnet Pub Ltd

Unlike Syria and Iraq, where Europeans were well protected, Persia in 1930 was an independent country only recently recovering from years of lawlessness. Despite its apparent dangers, Freya Stark's romantic soul found an affinity with people who seemed to prefer poverty with freedom to sub-colonial affluence. Before venturing into Mazanderan Dame Freya spent a month in Hamadan. She set out for Alamut in the middle of May heading for the castle of Hassan-i Sabbah. She returned to the valleys the following year, in August 1931, to explore the castle of Lamasur, one of the last of the Ismaili strongholds. She sojourned briefly in Tehran in September 1931, before the prospect of buried treasure took her to Luristan. In March 1943, while employed by the Ministry of Information, she was invited to spend her leave with Lord Wavell in Tehran. She received permission to use an official car to make the journey from Dehli and set off from Quetta. She travelled for several days across Baluchistan to Meshed, from there a detour of some 1200 miles took her to Tehran by way of Kerman and at last allowed her to visit Isfahan.

Freya Stark in Persia

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

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Books by Malise Ruthven