Mustansir Mir: IQBAL (2006. 157 pp. ISBN 184511 0943)

In this informative, accessible discussion of Iqbal's life and work, in particular his poetry and prose, Mustansir Mir presents him as an exemplary modern Muslim thinker. Iqbal combined a declared loyalty to his faith with a readiness to embrace modernity. Convinced that religion and science were mutually reinforcing, he urged Muslims to reconstruct their tradition in the light of recent developments in all fields of knowledge.

As this timely study shows, Iqbal's commitment to integrating elements from Islamic and Western traditions makes him worthy of serious attention from students of religion, philosophy and other fields, and of particular relevance to the pressing concern to define common ground between those two traditions.

Mustansir Mir, Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Center for Islamic Studies at Youngstown State University, Ohio, is the author of Tulip in the Desert: A Selection of the Poetry of Muhammad Iqbal (2000).

This book is no. 4 in the 'Makers of Islamic Civilization' series, run by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Published jointly by Oxford University Press (Delhi) and I.B. Tauris (London), these books are written by specialists for the general reader. They are intended to serve as an introduction to pivotal Islamic thinkers and actors, whose works and legacy make up the pool of cultural experiences and resources on which contemporary Muslims continue to draw.