About QR
QR will put together essays, videos, book reviews, and references on various aspects of the Qur'an, the Islamicate, and the problems that peoples of the Islamicate confront today - in Muslim-majority countries and in the Western diaspora.
Distinctively, the Qur'an is a book that constantly engages in reasoning. It uses logic and rhetorical devices to make its case with the Muslims, pagans, hypocrites, peoples of the book, and even in dealings with the angels and Iblis. Among other things, this website will feature materials that draw attention to this neglected aspect of the Qur'an.
Note on 'Islamicate:' The eminent scholar of the history and civilization of Muslim societies, Marshall Hodgson, first proposed that we use the term 'Islamicate' -- instead of Islamic -- both as an adjective and a noun. As an adjective, 'Islamicate' pertains to the activities of Muslim-majority populations, where these activities may or may not be informed by the norms of Islam. The term 'Islamic,' on the contrary, should be used to identify activities that are informed by or derived from Islamic norms. As a noun, 'the Islamicate' refers to the world of Islam. This would be preferable to uses where 'Islam' substitutes for the polities, societies or civilization(s) created by Muslims.
Editor, Qur'anic Reason
M. Shahid Alam
Alam was born in Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan), to which country his parents had emigrated from Bihar, an eastern state of India. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of Dhaka, his masters at the University of Karachi and his PhD at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He has taught at the University of Karachi, Queens University, Concordia University and Colgate University. Since 1988, he has been teaching at Northeastern University in Boston.
Professionally, Alam is an economist but his intellectual interests have ranged beyond the boundaries of mainstream economics. In his economic writings, Alam has argued that mainstream economics, at its core, serves ideological aims: it upholds the interests of powerful classes and developed societies. Over the past decade, he has written several essays critiquing the clash of civilizations, Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Zionism, and America's global war against terror. Currently, he is working on a new book, Qur'anic Reasoning. Many of his essays have appeared in Al-Ahram, Dawn, The Daily Star, Khaleej Times, CounterPunch, Outlook India, Islamicity, etc. Alam is also a poet.
Alam has published four books: Governments and Markets in Economic Development (Palgrave, 1989), Poverty From the Wealth of Nations (Macmillan, 2000), Challenging the New Orientalism (IPI, 2006), and Israeli Exceptionalism (Palgrave, 2009).
His scholarly articles have appeared in American Economic Review, Cambridge Economic Journal, Kyklos, Economic Development and Cultural Change, World Development, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of World Systems Research, Science and Society, Review of Radical Political Economy, Journal of the Historical Society, Global Dialogue, Journal of Contemporary Islam, etc.
His translations of Ghalib have appeared in the Prairie Schooner, Chicago Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Marlboro Review, Paintbrush, Sufi, Salt River Review, Black Bear Review, etc.
For a list of his publications in professional journals, click here; for his political essays, click here; for some of his translations from Ghalib, click here and here.
Submit Links to Qur'anic Reason
I invite you to submit links (including articles, essays, books, lecture videos) that are relevant to the categories/sub-categories on this website. Please make sure that the material has scholarly merit and is well-written.
You may send these links by clicking on Contact Us; or you may send them to alqalam02760@yahoo.com.
