Published in 1885, Cherágh Ali’s A Critical Exposition of the Popular ‘Jihád’ makes a scholarly case that the wars of the Prophet Mohammad were defensive in nature and that compulsory conversion has no sanction in the Koran. Ali was a prominent Muslim reformer and this work represents an important voice in 19th-century Islamic intellectual history, engaging Western orientalism on its own terms.
This free EPUB edition is cleanly formatted for e-readers. It remains a significant primary text for understanding Muslim modernist thought and the contested history of the concept of jihad in both religious and political discourse.