Islam and Contemporary World Literature

Carool Kersten is Research Professor in Islamic studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium and Emeritus Reader at King’s College London. He is also a senior research associate of the Institute for Philosophical and Religious Studies at the Science and Research Centre Koper in Slovenia. Carool Kersten is the author or editor of thirteen books, including Islam and Contemporary European Literature (EUP 2025), Contemporary Thought in the Muslim World: Trends Themes, and Issues (Routledge 2019), and multi-volume anthologies on Islamic statehood and law. His research interests include the intellectual and political history of the modern Muslim world, the history of Islam in Southeast Asia, contemporary literature and travel writing.

• AcknowledgementsPrologueIntroduction: Reading Religion Through World LiteraturePART I: PREMODERN HISTORICAL FICTION1. Narrating History2. Sufis and Sleuths3. Maverick Muslims4. Histories of ConnectivityPART II: NEW WORLDS5. Empire and Postcoloniality6. Betwixt and Beyond7. Aesthetic Interlude8. Pious Militants9. Islamic Spectrums in Africa10. Further and Farther ConnectivitiesPART III: RELIGION, IDENTITY, VIOLENCE11. Antecedents & trajectories12. False Messiahs13. Mesopotamian HorrorConclusionEpilogueBibliographyNotesIndex