Muḥammad the Prophet and Arabia

̇ ayrı̄-ʿAlawı̄ studies is analytical, encyclopaedic and well-written. In addition to challenging misunderstandings of Nus ̇ ayrı̄ beliefs, Friedman demonstrates how the migration from Iraq to Syria, a series of charismatic leaders during the fourth/tenth and fifth/eleventh centuries, and autonomy during the Crusades enabled a small and sometimes reviled sect to survive to the present. Despite persecution in their earliest years, Nus ̇ ayrı̄s have been tolerated by their Shı̄ʿı̄ and Sunnı̄ neighbours for most of their history. The only written attacks on Nus ̇ ayrism were penned by Ibn Taymiyya, the H ̇ anbalı̄ scholar of the eighth/fourteenth century, who was part of a short-lived Mamlūk effort to convert Nus ̇ ayrı̄s to Sunnism and later to destroy their communities. Both efforts failed. Even in modern times, ʿAlawı̄tes have been integrated into Syrian and Arab nationalist movements. Only since the 1980s have neo-H ̇ anbalı̄ Islamists resurrected Ibn Taymiyya’s charges of heresy. At least one major portion of this story remains unexplained. As Friedman’s sources demonstrate, the esoteric knowledge that is at the core of Nus ̇ ayrism is the preserve of a male elite (al-khās ̇ s ̇ a). How did Nus ̇ ayrism develop beyond this minority and encompass the mass of adherents (al-ʿāmma) that would make it a viable social and political group? The book under review calls for a study of Nus ̇ ayrı̄ history during the 400 years between the Mamlūk failure to liquidate the sect and the early thirteenth/nineteenth century, when European scholars began to study it. Like any excellent work of research, Friedman’s answers big questions and inspires more.