Islam, Science Fiction And Extraterrestrial Life (the Culture Of Astrobiology In The Muslim World)

Description

By (author) Determann, Jörg Matthias

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The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the most authoritarian Muslim-majority countries have produced highly imaginative accounts on one of the frontiers of knowledge: astrobiology, or the study of life in the universe.
This book argues that the Islamic tradition has been generally supportive of conceptions of extra-terrestrial life, and in this engaging account, Jörg Matthias Determann provides a survey of Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu texts and films, to show how scientists and artists in and from Muslim-majority countries have been at the forefront of the exciting search. Determann takes us to little-known dimensions of Muslim culture and religion, such as wildly popular adaptations of Star Wars and mysterious movements centred on UFOs. Repression is shown to have helped science fiction more than hurt it, with censorship encouraging authors to disguise criticism of contemporary politics by setting plots in future times and on distant planets. The book will be insightful for anyone looking to explore the science, culture and politics of the Muslim world and asks what the discovery of extra-terrestrial life would mean for one of the greatest faiths.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction: Islam and Extraterrestrial Imaginations

2. Missions and Mars: Scientific Journals and Popular Magazines

3. Trips to the Moon: Cold War Cinema and Science Fiction

4. Islamic UFO Religions: Popular Literature and Religious Scripture

5. Building Nations and Worlds: Science Fiction as Genre and the Postcolonial Nation

6. Muslim Futurisms: Technological Advances and Socio-Political Change

Acknowledgements

Bibliography

Interviews

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Index

Review quote:
This is a rare excursion into a little explored region of Islamic culture… Most readers of the West will be riveted by the imaginative and futuristic explorations of possible extra-terrestrial life in the universe by Muslim writers and filmmakers.

Review quote:
Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life provides a kaleidoscopic view of the rich variety of ways in which Muslims have imagined, sought, and encountered life beyond our planet.

Review quote:
This original and much-needed book fills a huge gap in the subject of astrobiology and society.Never before have the relations between astrobiology and Muslim science, culture, and politics been rendered in such vivid detail and with such solid scholarship.A must read for historians, theologians, and the general public interested in both Muslim culture and alien life.

Review quote:
Determann’s book, thus, through meticulous research, presents a remarkable history of dialogue and cross-pollination between nations and cultures in the fields of science and science fiction, and points out how, in spite of Islamic opposition to science fiction in many places and its complex relationship with the state, SF has not only thrived, but it continues to be reimagined by Muslim authors from across the world.

Review quote:
Jörg Determann presents readers with an engaging, in-depth and scholarly investigation into the ways in which Islamic writers, over the centuries, have written, thought about and engaged with the concept of extraterrestrial life.Determann breaks much new ground and makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the relationship between out-of-this-world ideas and religion, in particular Islam.

Review quote:

Jörg Matthias Determann … has given us a well-researched tour