on divine elusiveness and the contradictory attempt to nevertheless say something,

whilst ending up taking refuge in manneristic language games. Language games that
in any case have a truth-content for al-Maarr, since, for him, the Arabic language
constitutes a level of reality that is parallel (if not superior) to the world of phenomena
(the Heidegger quotation on p. 81 is highly appropriate in this sense).
In short, two important conrmations may be drawn from Peltzs work: the structuring
function of Semitic rhetoric, at least at the level of passages that, in their length, recall
the earlier and middle Meccan suras; and the strange marriage of rationalism and
religious issues that constitutes the driving force in al-Maarrs work. In Peltzs
analysis, however, such conrmations remain essentially implicit and are almost lost
in the wealth of technical observations that not infrequently risk disorienting the
reader. Indeed, Peltzs book certainly does not make for easy reading.
To conclude, it is to be hoped that the author will complete the full translation
of the ghyt of which this book offers only a taste. Some passages, such as ghya
163 (p. 232), have an artistic value in their own right. In any case, the analysis on the
lexicon and the careful study of the whole opus that Peltzs book presupposes ought
to allow this additional work to be completed rapidly.
MARTINO DIEZ
The Catholic University of Milan, and The Oasis International Foundation
DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2014.0153
NOTES
1 Al-Maarr, Kitb al-Ful wal-ghyt, ed. Mamd asan Zant (Cairo: n.p., 1938).
2 isha Abd al-Ramn Bint al-Shi (ed.), Rislat al-Ghufrn li Abl-Al al-Maarr
wa-maah na muaqqaq min Rislat Ibn al-Qri (Cairo: Dr al-Marif, 1977).

Sayyid Qutb: The Life and Legacy of a Radical Islamic Intellectual. By

James Toth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. x + 382. $ 35:00. ISBN
978-0-19-979088-3.
Once upon a time one could well expect academics to have fully acknowledged all the
relevant literature on any given matter in whatever language. Regrettably, those days
seem long since past, giving way to the illusion that English is the only academic
language worth of consideration, a fact that, in its ultimate consequence, has led to the
emergence of rather redundant publications, and in most cases still to a seriously
defective appraisal of the state of research. The book here under review appears
to be only a case in point: an acknowledgement of the easily available research
Book Reviews 159
literature in various European languages as well as in Arabic would have contributed
signicantly to maintaining a more humble stand in the authors endeavour to make
better sense of Sayyid Qub (executed in 1966), one of the most radical Islamic
thinkers of the 20th century (p. 3). Even a quick search of the internet would have
revealed almost instantly the existence of Sabine Damir-Geilsdorfs excellent study in
German Herrschaft und Gesellschaft: Der islamistische Wegbereiter Sayyid Qub und
seine Rezeption (Wrzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2003), the acknowledgement of which
would probably have resulted in a very different book.
The social anthropologist James Toth divides his work in two distinct parts, in order to
not exclusively focus on select prominent concepts in the writings of Qub, epitomised
in the two monographs by Sayed Khatab from 2006. The rst part is therefore devoted
to an extensive discussion of Qubs biography as the context in which his prominent
ideas have evolved. However, since the basic facts have well been covered in the
works of William E. Shepard and John Calvert, the readers attention can justiably be
focussed instead on matters that these two authors have treated in less depth.
One such issue is the brief exposition of the relationship between Qub and his South
Asian precursor Sayyid Abl-Al Mawdd (190379) on pp. 69f, which,
admittedly, was much more complex than earlier authors such as Leonard Binder
would want us to believe (see Toths critical note 72, p. 311), but the portrayal of
which is still highly decient in the book under review, and in places simply
inaccurate. Again, had Toth recognised Damir-Geilsdorfs work, or our own
monograph on Sayyid Abl-asan Al Nadv (191399) from 2004, he would
have been able to draw a much more precise picture of what emerges to have been a
triangular connection between Qub, Mawdd, and Nadv. Moreover, already an
acknowledgement of Nadvs readily available Arabic travelogue Mudhakkirt si
l-sharq al-Arab would have rectied the portrayal of the relationship between
Qub and the Indian lim, which was much more complex and much less amicable.
Another matter of concern is the rather unreective application of heavily
presuppositional labels of early Islamic theological orientations, such as Mutazil
and Kharij, as well as the supposed impact of the medieval anbal Ibn Taymiyya
on the formation of Islamist thought. Once again, a more careful research into
the academic literature available in languages other than English (e.g. Thomas
Hildebrandts, Neo-Mutazilismus? Intention und Kontext im modernen arabischen
Umgang mit dem rationalistischen Erbe des Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2007)) would have
contributed to a much more differentiating discussion. As it stands, however, Toth
apparently falls prey to the tendency for the rather polemical use of historically
concrete theological labels in contemporary Islamist circles.
Finally, for numerous fairly interesting points in this rst part of the book, such as
the details of the readings discussed in a circle around Qubs sister amda (p. 89),
160 Journal of Quranic Studies
Toth does not provide primary references that the interested reader could follow up,
which ultimately begs the question why these points have been made at all.
In contrast to the prosopographic rst part of the book, the expansive second part on
Sayyid Qutbs Islamic Concept (pp. 95232) appears much more useful. While
Islamic Concept seems to be either a misnomer for Conception of Islam, or should
have been put in plural to account for the numerous concepts discussed in the
following, it is this quite systematic treatment of core concepts in Qubs thought
that makes for a worthwhile reading. Setting out from a discussion of Qubs
theological ontology, epitomised in the concepts of divinity (rabbniyya),
immanence (thabt), one-ness (tawd), and comprehensiveness (shuml), and
the corresponding human epistemology and ethics (chapter 6), Toth continues with the
three core concepts of Qubs political theory; ignorance (jhiliyya), sovereignty
(kimiyya), and strife ( jihd), in chapter 7. Interestingly, though, while suggesting
viable alternative translations for kimiyya and the corresponding ubdiyya (pp. 138
and 140), Toths discussion does hardly take place against the backdrop of the
comprehensive analysis of jhiliyya and kimiyya in the above-mentioned two
monographs by Khatab. Rather, because he bases it almost exclusively on Qubs own
writings, as Khatab did before him, Toth does not yield many new or different
insights, which makes this chapter, at least in this extent appear rather redundant.
Chapters 8 to 10 present an elaboration of Qubs societal vision, discussing society,
economy and state with their constitutive elements respectively. Chapter 11 discusses
once again the concept of jhiliyya, although now more explicitly as a constituent of
a salvation-based concept of history. However, since this aspect of Qubs thought
plays a crucial role in the justication of jihd in its various forms, this discussion
could have well been included in chapter 7, instead of splitting up an analysis of one
and the same conceptual term.
The book is completed with four appendices, of which the rst one a dramatis
person seems a bit redundant, while the following three on further aspects of
Qubs conceptual universe (women, the People of the Book, and apologetics,
pp. 27584) are too brief and too little related to the so far very systematic portrayal
of Qubs thought in the second part of the book. However, even with regard to the
systemacy that Toth provides, a critical word seems appropriate. While this systemacy
greatly helps the initiate to make better sense of how Qubs theoretical concepts
interrelate, it nonetheless blurs the quite signicant fact that Qub, other than for
instance Mawdd, did not really develop a sober and self-referential systematic
outline of Islam. Rather, Qubs ideas of an Islamic societal framework were rather
scattered and, moreover, even changed over time, a fact which the researcher needs
at least to openly acknowledge, regardless of whether or not Qubs ideas are then
portrayed in a systematic fashion.
Book Reviews 161
Last but not least, the systematic exposition of Qubs core concepts are hardly
discussed as his legacy, which the subtitle of the book promises. While scholars like
Damir-Geilsdorf have given a lot of consideration to the reception and modication of
these concepts by posterity, including at the hands of radicalisers and later Egyptian
Muslim Brethren as well as those who provided alternative concepts, Toth connes
this discussion to the epilogue of his book (pp. 23348), moreover sparing highly
inuential thinkers like Ysuf al-Qaraw (b. 1926).
In conclusion, therefore, Toths monograph unfortunately seems to ll the gap in our
knowledge of Qub and his thought to a much lesser extent than the marketing
statements of the publisher and the endorsements by three academics on the back
cover would want us to believe. For researchers, the book hardly offers much new and
challenging insight apart from Toths attempt to systematise Qubs conceptual world.
For the general reader, who, after all, seems to be the target audience, it presents a
somewhat defective image, a fact that would need at least explicit acknowledgement,
if not rectication.
JAN-PETER HARTUNG
SOAS, University of London
DOI: 10.3366/jqs.2014.0154

162 Journal of Quranic Studies