The books that fall to our lot this Ramadan

Since the 1980s, book fairs have become indispensable events of the month of Ramadan. Lately we observe that Ramadan iftar tents and entertainments have almost taken the place of the fairs. The book fairs are still going on, but as far as I can see, the old enthusiasm is gone. We read less and less, our contact with books is diminishing. The fair held in Sultanahmet in Istanbul had been moved to Beyazıt for quite some time. It is said that it no longer has its old flavor, but still, it is a book fair.

In Ankara, the fair that has until now always been identified with the name Kocatepe has begun to be held in the courtyard of the newly opened Melike Hatun Mosque in Ulus, which is already a candidate to stamp its mark on Ankara's urban identity.

The decline of interest in book fairs is a sign of danger, let me say, and say nothing more.

For me book fairs are still one of the reasons why I look forward to the month of Ramadan. Ramadan months are times when I considerably raise my speed and intensity of book reading.

As I have said before, I do not readily recommend a book to people I do not know well, let alone to everyone collectively. There is no book that will do everyone good at the same time. The book(s) that each person will need and be nourished by, according to his own level and his own interests, differ. Books that are guidance for some (even the Holy Quran) can increase the misguidance of others. For not only what will be read but how it will be read, and who will read it, are very important. Still, sharing experiences about readings may have a distinct meaning and unexpected benefits.

My priority is studies on the Quran. I can say that in the literature on Quranic research a rather rich body has recently been accumulating. Very valuable books are coming out especially from the publishers İşaret, Ankara Okulu, Pınar, Beyan and Kuramer.

I have in hand a book from Kuramer Publications, announced to be published as a series under the title Toward Understanding the Quran, of which two volumes have so far been published. It consists of the papers and discussion transcripts of ten conferences on the Quran that Kuramer organized between 2013 and 2015. The papers of our scholars, each distinguished by academic work devoted to Quranic research, discuss various subjects in relation to one another and make their way toward the flash of truth. From the linguistic study of the Quran to its hermeneutics, its position vis-à-vis history, tradition and modernity, its metaphorical and textual dimensions, in many respects this book series is a modest work that is a candidate to be a kind of Quran Encyclopedia.

Also from Kuramer, "Hadith, History and Interpretation" by Dr. Muhammet Emin Eren of Ankara University Faculty of Theology, which takes up the famous hadith of the 73 sects, is an original work that draws one into the discussion from the very first moment.

I also look to see whether there is something new on the sociology of Islamism. From Vadi Publications I see Salman Sayyid's book "Recalling the Caliphate: Decolonization and World Order," translated by Mehmet Murat Şahin. In 2000 I myself undertook the translation and publication, again from Vadi Publications, of his book "The Fear of Fundamentalism: Eurocentrism and the Emergence of Islamism." In my view that book was the best book written on Islamism in the 2000s. The author defined Kemalism as a post-colonial model, not peculiar to Turkey but found throughout the Islamic world, of de-Islamizing political and social life. With its intellectual depth and its command of Western philosophical literature, Sayyid's book is a text that, in the name of Islamism, challenges the whole of European philosophy. "Recalling the Caliphate" takes on Islamism's self-expression and self-interpretation in the new period, again without compromising its depth and its challenging register. Of course the book deserves far more than being mentioned at this level here.

At the Pınar Publications stand I come across two newly published books. One is "Islamism and Democracy" by Dr. Ahmet Ayhan Koyuncu of Muş Malazgirt University, the other is "The Changing Language of Islamism: The Nineties and Politics" by Sinop Deputy Dr. Nazım Maviş. The first is an assessment, together with the change over the years, of the discourses and attitudes of Islamist writers or movements on democracy from the 1970s to the present. The data of an Islamist discourse that follows a course, or diversifies, between an understanding in which democracy, as a Western culture, was radically rejected because it was seen almost as an alternative to Islam, and an understanding that ultimately looks at democracy as a system of governance independent of religion and values, has been compiled from journals, writers and men of ideas. Islamism needs such an accounting. In order also to ask the question of how democracy manifested itself with a new practice in this course…

The second is likewise a study that follows the change of Islamist discourse on certain main subjects, as reflected especially in journals.

The most prominent book of the Beyan Publications stand this year is "İhsan Süreyya Sırma: From Pervari to Paris," a book in the style of a river-interview, carried out by İhsan Süreyya Sırma with his own student Prof. Dr. Adnan Demirci. The book is the story of both the Professor's scholarly adventure and his witness to a history through his journeys from the Southeast to Erzurum, from there to Paris, Tunisia and the whole Islamic world… In fact it was a work I had been expecting from İhsan Hoca for quite some time. Someone who has traveled much, seen much, struggled much, and of course lived all this as İhsan Süreyya, will be the one to tell it, and there is much that we too can take from what he tells.

The books I bought are not only these, but I have come to the end of my column. Still, in Ramadan, especially these days, one must certainly read something about Jerusalem too. Jerusalem is our unfading love. I hope our editor will be tolerant of our mentioning two books on Jerusalem as well. Ahmet Turgut's work "My Heart Stayed in Jerusalem," which he promotes as "the novel of a century-long separation," is an interesting essay on reading Jerusalem also through the novel, published by Kapı Publications. Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre's book "O Jerusalem" is an important work that treats in all its details the tragedy that began especially with the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, while also giving a comprehensive history of Jerusalem. It was published by Kronik Publications in Aydın Emeç's translation.

May you be among those who read books and who benefit from what they read in a beneficial way.