Possessed By The Right Hand

In Possessed by the Right Hand, Bernard K. Freamon offers a comprehensive legal history of slavery and slave-trading in Islam, considering the impact of Western abolitionism, its failure, and the implications of the rise of ISIS and Boko Haram.

What happens when authorities you venerate condone something you know is wrong? Every major religion and philosophy once condoned or approved of slavery, but in modern times nothing is seen as more evil. Americans confront this crisis of authority when they erect statues of Founding Fathers who slept with their slaves. And Muslims faced it when ISIS revived sex slavery, justifying it with verses from the Quran and the practice of Muhammad. Exploring the moral and ultimately theological problem of slavery, Jonathan A.C. Brown traces how the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions have tried to reconcile modern moral certainties with the infallibility of God’s message. He lays out how Islam viewed slavery in theory, and the reality of how it was practiced across Islamic civilization. Finally, Brown carefully examines arguments put forward by Muslims for the abolition of slavery.

The true story of how one Muslim woman shaped her own fate and escaped her forced wedding. Sumaiya Matin was never sure if the story of the Shaytan Bride was truth or myth. When she moved at age six from Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Thunder Bay, Ontario, recollections of this devilish bride followed her. At first, the Shaytan Bride seemed to be the monster of fairy tales, a woman possessed or seduced by a jinni. But everything changes during a family trip to Bangladesh, and in the weeks leading to Sumaiya’s own forced wedding, she discovers that the story — and the bride herself — are much closer than they seem. The Shaytan Bride is the true coming-of-age story of a girl navigating desire and faith. Through her journey into adulthood, she battles herself and her circumstances to differentiate between destiny and free will. Sumaiya Matin’s life in love and violence is a testament to one woman’s strength as she faces the complicated fallout of her decisions. A RARE MACHINES BOOK

One Friday night in Chicago, two friends leave their neighborhood bar, each heading home in a separate direction. Phillip Matt never makes it. When he stops to assist a man who appears to be in need of help, the crazed assailant stabs Matt in the heart. In another part of town, George Gilmer is experiencing some troubling problems of his own. The talented young carpenter's behavior drastically changes after several bouts of severe abdominal pains, and he begins displaying symptoms such as paranoia, forgetfulness, and violent mood swings. When both men wind up at the same hospital on that fateful October night, the pieces of the crime slowly fall into place-or so it seems. Though he remembers nothing, it was George's knife that killed the man and it's his blood on the dead man's body. With the evidence mounting against him, George is formally accused and must stand trial for first-degree murder. With its dramatic climax, Possessed leads the reader into a world where the human capacity for evil extends beyond belief-into a world where it's nearly impossible to draw the line between innocence and insanity.

The essays in this volume examine the resurgence of the Mother Goddess religion among contemporary Vietnamese following the economic "Renovation" period in Vietnam. Anthropologists explore the forces that compel individuals to become mediums and the social repercussions of their decisions and interactions.

Travis Holmes was a young man who had an all-consuming drive to succeed in the business world. It became a lifelong obsession that controlled his thoughts and actions throughout his career. At times, his ambition would betray him and impel him into doing things that were totally outside the limits of lawful or moral behavior. Success seemed to follow him throughout his turbulent career. Failure at any task to which he had committed himself was never an option. His ambition had at times influenced questionable decisions; however, he considered his choices to be justifiable when success was the reward. Holmes' career was launched as a trainee at Global Enterprises where he worked smarter than most of his colleagues. He progressed rapidly within the organization and, through a deviously orchestrated scheme, became a key executive with the firm. Global's chief executive took a special interest in his future. When Global Enterprises merged with Royal Kingdom Limited, Holmes' talent and commitment forged a path for further success; however, he was haunted by a conscience that knew that one day he would be accountable and judged for his unscrupulous behavior.

The Self Possessed is a multifaceted, diachronic study reconsidering the very nature of religion in South Asia, the culmination of years of intensive research. Frederick M. Smith proposes that positive oracular or ecstatic possession is the most common form of spiritual expression in India, and that it has been linguistically distinguished from negative, disease-producing possession for thousands of years. In South Asia possession has always been broader and more diverse than in the West, where it has been almost entirely characterized as "demonic." At best, spirit possession has been regarded as a medically treatable psychological ailment and at worst, as a condition that requires exorcism or punishment. In South (and East) Asia, ecstatic or oracular possession has been widely practiced throughout history, occupying a position of respect in early and recent Hinduism and in certain forms of Buddhism. Smith analyzes Indic literature from all ages-the earliest Vedic texts; the Mahabharata; Buddhist, Jain, Yogic, Ayurvedic, and Tantric texts; Hindu devotional literature; Sanskrit drama and narrative literature; and more than a hundred ethnographies. He identifies several forms of possession, including festival, initiatory, oracular, and devotional, and demonstrates their multivocality within a wide range of sects and religious identities. Possession is common among both men and women and is practiced by members of all social and caste strata. Smith theorizes on notions of embodiment, disembodiment, selfhood, personal identity, and other key issues through the prism of possession, redefining the relationship between Sanskritic and vernacular culture and between elite and popular religion. Smith's study is also comparative, introducing considerable material from Tibet, classical China, modern America, and elsewhere. Brilliant and persuasive, The Self Possessed provides careful new translations of rare material and is the most comprehensive study in any language on this subject.

'Possessed By The Virgin' is an ethnographic account of three Roman Catholic women in Tamil Nadu, South India who claim to be possessed by Mary, the mother of Jesus. The author follows the lives of these women over many years, investigating questions about gender, social power, agency, and authenticity.