Muslim Journeys: Home

The University Libraries have recently acquired a set of books and films on the topic of Islamic society and culture.  These books were selected by scholars and reflect five broad themes as a way of exploring the diversity of Muslim thought and experience.  We hope that these resources and the public events that we are hosting this year will encourage you to learn and take your own 'Muslim Journey', no matter what your personal background.

The themes are explored more fully on the individual tabs of this guide and on the National Endowment for the Humanities' Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys website, each of which features the five books in the theme, an essay by the scholar that chose the books, more suggestions for further exploration from our library collections, and additional resources.  The five themes are:

• American Stories - books by and about Muslims living in the United States, from the 1800's to the present.
• Connected Histories - books about the scientific, commercial, and political interactions between the empires of the West and the Islamic East.
• Literary Reflections - Classic and contemporary works of Muslim writers in a variety of literary genres.
• Pathways of Faith - Works dealing with the Islamic faith itself, especially as examined by non-Muslims.
• Points of View - Personal reflections on Islamic culture from writers inside, on the margins, and outside.

Additional tabs have more details on Art and Film resources and the events being hosted by the University Libraries and our community partners.

As part of this grant, the University community will also have access to Oxford Islamic Studies Online until September 2014.

The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association, the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University, Oxford University Press, and Twin Cities Public Television. Support was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

Local programming partners include the Toledo Museum of Art, the Toledo Public Library, the University of Toledo Department of Philosophy & Religion, and the University of Toledo Muslim Student Association.