The Temptation of Graves in Salafi Islam: Iconoclasm, Destruction and Idolatry

In various parts of the Islamic world over the past decades virulent attacks have targeted Islamic funeral and sacral architecture. Rather than being random acts of vandalism, these are associated with the idea of performing one's religious duty as attested to in the Salafi/Wahhabi tradition and texts. Graves, shrines and tombs are regarded by some Muslims as having the potential to tempt a believer to polytheism. Hence the duty to level the graves to the ground (taswiyat al-qubūr).
In illuminating the ideology behind these acts, this book explains the current destruction of graves in the Islamic world and traces the ideological sources of iconoclasm in their historical perspective, from medieval theological and legal debates to contemporary Islamist movements including ISIS.

Author: Ondřej Beránek,Pavel Ťupek
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 08/07/2019
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9781474452632

About the Author

Ondřej Beránek is Director of the Oriental Institute at the Czech Academy of Sciences. He is editor of Arab Revolutions: Democratic Challenges, Political Islam (Academia, 2013) and co-author (with Pavel Tupek) of The Two Faces of Islamic Charity (CDK, 2008). Both publications are in Czech.

Pavel Ťupek is a Researcher and Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern and African Studies at Charles University, Prague. He is author of Salafi Islam (Academia, 2015) (in Czech).