Maxime Rodinson - Collected Works on Islam and Palestine (8 books)

* Maxime Rodinson - Collected Works on Islam and Palestine (8 books)

MAXIME RODINSON (1915–2004) was a French historian and sociologist whose work profoundly shaped twentieth-century Western scholarship on Islam and the Middle East. Trained in Oriental studies and influenced by Marxist historical materialism, Rodinson sought to analyze Islamic societies through social, economic, and political structures rather than through theological or civilizational essentialism. As the son of Jewish communists who died at Auschwitz, Rodinson’s intellectual outlook was marked by a lifelong engagement with questions of ideology, power, and historical injustice.

Rodinson is best known for his groundbreaking biography MUHAMMAD (1961), which remains one of the most widely read critical studies of the Prophet of Islam. It offered a secular, historically situated account of the Prophet that rejected both apologetic and polemical approaches. Treating Muhammad as a historical actor embedded in the material conditions of seventh-century Arabia, Rodinson examined the interaction between religious ideas, tribal organization, and economic life. While controversial for its demystifying tone, the book was widely praised for its scholarly balance and refusal to reduce religion to either pure revelation or crude economic causality.

In ISLAM AND CAPITALISM (1966), Rodinson further challenged culturalist explanations of Muslim societies by arguing that Islam, as a religious system, neither inherently promotes nor obstructs capitalist development. Through comparative historical analysis, he demonstrated that economic trajectories in Muslim-majority regions were shaped primarily by political power, global trade, colonialism, and state formation rather than by doctrine. This work became a key reference in debates on modernization, development, and the role of religion in economic life, reinforcing Rodinson’s broader critique of simplistic links between culture and historical outcomes.

Beyond these landmark texts, Rodinson produced a wide range of influential works exploring Islam’s encounter with modernity, Western perceptions of the Muslim world, and the political crises of the Middle East. These included MARXISM AND THE MUSLIM WORLD (1972), THE ARABS (1979), and EUROPE AND THE MYSTIQUE OF ISLAM (1980).

Rodinson's anti-Zionism and support for Palestinian self-determination was part of his broader universalist critique of nationalism, colonialism, and ethnic exclusivity. In ISRAEL: A COLONIAL-SETTLER STATE (1967), he argued that Zionism functioned in practice as a colonial-settler movement, even if it was driven by the genuine historical trauma and insecurity of European Jews rather than by classical imperial ambitions. He expanded these arguments in ISRAEL AND THE ARABS (1968, 2e 1982), where he analyzed the Arab–Israeli conflict through historical, social, and economic lenses, rejecting nationalist mythologies on both sides.


The following books are in PDF format – all courtesy of @Mohamed5438 – and one ePUB as noted:

* The Arabs [tr. Goldhammer] (Chicago, 1981)
* Cult, Ghetto, and State: The Persistence of the Jewish Question [tr. Rothschild] (Al Saqi, 1983)
* Europe and the Mystique of Islam [tr. Venius] (Washington, 1987)
* Islam and Capitalism [tr. Pearce] (Pantheon, 1973)
* Israel and the Arabs [tr. Pearl & Pearce, 2e] (Penguin, 1982)
* Israel: A Colonial-Settler State [tr. Buch] (Monad, 1973)
* Marxism and the Muslim World [tr. Pallis] (Zed, 1979)
* Muhammad [tr. Carter] (NYRB, 2021) – ePUB


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