Jihadi Culture

Thomas Hegghammer is Director of Terrorism Research at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo. Trained in Middle East Studies at the University of Oxford and at Sciences Po, Paris, he has held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, New York and Stanford Universities, and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of the prize-winning Jihad in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge, 2010) and many other books and articles on jihadism. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Middle East, including interviews with former militants, and he has testified on jihadism in the US Congress and the British Parliament.

• Introduction: why study jihadi culture? Thomas Hegghammer; 1. Poetry in jihadi culture Robyn Creswell and Bernard Haykel; 2. A cappella songs (anashid) in jihadi culture Nelly Lahoud; 3. A musicological perspective on jihadi anashid Jonathan Pieslak; 4. The visual culture of jihad Afshon Ostovar; 5. A history of jihadi cinematography Anne Stenersen; 6. The Islamic dream tradition and jihadi militancy Iain R. Edgar and Gwynned de Looijer; 7. Contemporary martyrdom ideology and material culture David B. Cook; 8. Non-military practices in jihadi groups Thomas Hegghammer; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'A learned tour de force by top scholars in the field, this book reminds us that warrior culture is not the superfluous byproduct of violence but rather the matrix that sustains and nourishes it. For experts and lay readers alike, Jihadi Culture will be a revelation.' Will McCants, The Brookings Institution