This new study presents Islam in ways that emphasise practices, from praying and learning to judging and political organising. Starting at the heart of Islam - revelation and learning in Arabic lands - Bowen shows how Muslims have adapted its texts and traditions to ideas and conditions in Asia, Africa and Europe.

1. How to think about religions - Islam, for example; 2. Learning; 3. Perfecting piety through worship; 4. Reshaping sacrifice; 5. Healing and praying; 6. Pious organizing; 7. Judging; 8. Migrating and adapting; 9. Mobilizing.

'John Bowen's book is a model of scholarly honesty and acuity; it presents Islamic religious life as a range of activities and practices in which red threads of Islamic traditions interpenetrate local usages and exigencies. These usages and exigencies make Islam as diverse yet recognizable a tradition of faith and practice as any other of the major religious traditions, all reductive stereotypes to the contrary. A well-written and engaging effort to sketch out an intelligent 'anthropology of Islam' by presenting what particular Muslims 'do' and how those Muslims understand what they do.' William A. Graham, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University'For those who would drive a wedge between textual Islam and local practice, or simply reduce the one to the other, this insightful study will come as a vital corrective. In such crucial domains as learning, law, and ritual, Bowen both synthesizes and reconfigures the study of Islamic cultures in ways that ordinary readers - as well as journalists, politicians, and scholars - will find immeasurably valuable.' Lawrence Rosen, Princeton University