Brill Academic Publishers has published Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr (2016), edited by Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, Camilla Adang, Hassan Ansari, and Maribel Fierro. The present volume—the first of its kind—deals with takfīr: accusing one´s opponents of unbelief (kufr), a practice that originated in the first decades of Islam. It includes nineteen case studies, covering different periods and parts of the Muslim world, of individuals or groups that used the instrument of takfīr to brand their opponents—either persons, groups, or even institutions—as unbelievers who should be condemned, anathematized, or even persecuted. Each case presented is placed in its sociopolitical and religious context. Together the contributions show the multifariousness that has always characterized Islam and the various ways in which Muslims either sought to suppress or to come to terms with this diversity.
