In all the current alienating discourse on Islam as a source of extremism and fanatic violence this new publication takes a timely and refreshing look at the traditions of Islamic mysticism, philosophy and intellectual debate in a series of diverse and stimulating approaches. It tackles the major figures of Islamic thought as well as shedding light on hitherto unconsidered aspects of Islam utilizing new source material. The contributors are impressive list of scholars and experts.

Le Messie et son prophète: Aux origines de l’Islam. By Édouard-Marie Gallez. Studia Arabica, vols. 1 and 2. 2 vols., 3rd ed. Versaille: Éditions de Paris, 2007. Pp. 526, 588. €35 and €39.

Revelation and Falsification: The Kitāb al-qirāʾāt of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Sayyārī. Edited by Etan Kohlberg and Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi. Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān, vol. 4. Leiden: Brill, 2009. Pp. viii + 363 + 201. $259.

Recognition in the Arabic Narrative Tradition: Discovery, Deliverance and Delusion. By Philip F. Kennedy. Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Pp. xii + 356. $130, £80.

Structure and Qurʾanic Interpretation: A Study of Symmetry and Coherence in Islam’s Holy Text. By Raymond Farrin. Ashland, Ore.: White Cloud Press, 2014. Pp. xvii + 163. $17.95.

The Quran’s sacred myth of the primordial covenant recounted at Q 7:172, it is suggested here, is the most immediate source for the distinctive and sometimes otherwise puzzling technical term al-aʿyān al-thābita in the ontological discourse of Muḥyī l-Dīn Ibn al-ʿArabī, al-shaykh al-akbar.

L’Ésotérisme shi‘ite: Ses racines et ses prolongements / Shi‘i Esotericism: Its Roots and Developments. Edited by M. A. Amir-Moezzi, M. de Cillis, D. de Smet, and O. Mir-Kasimov. Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Etudes, sciences religieuses, vol. 177. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2016. Pp. v + 870. €95.