Kathryn A. Miller's Guardians of Islam is an excellent and valuable study, one that is also notably innovative. -- Tom Burman, associate professor of history, University of Tennessee at Knoxville Guardians of Islam is a veritable model for writing history in a way that combines thorough archival research with scrupulous methodological awareness, clarity, and precision. The book is a significant contribution to the study of scholarly networks in medieval Islamic societies. In addition to giving us a sense of Muslim scholars' lived experience, it represents a critical element in understanding the construction and transmission of religious authority and prestige in medieval societies. The historical context is far removed from us, but the compassionate way in which Kathryn A. Miller tells the story makes the jurists come alive as people struggling with issues that beset all human beings. -- Shahzad Bashir, associate professor of religion, Stanford University "Kathryn A. Miller's Guardians of Islam is an excellent and valuable study, one that is also notably innovative." -- Tom Burman, University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Muslim enclaves within non-Islamic polities are commonly believed to have been beleaguered communities undergoing relentless cultural and religious decline. Cut off from the Islamic world, these Muslim groups, it is assumed, passively yielded to political, social, and economic forces of assimilation and acculturation before finally accepting Christian dogma. Kathryn A. Miller radically reconceptualizes what she calls the exclave experience of medieval Muslim minorities. By focusing on the legal scholars (faqihs) of fifteenth-century Aragonese Muslim communities and translating little-known and newly discovered texts, she unearths a sustained effort to connect with Muslim coreligionaries and preserve practice and belief in the face of Christian influences. Devoted to securing and disseminating Islamic knowledge, these local authorities intervened in Christian courts on behalf of Muslims, provided Arabic translations, and taught and advised other Muslims. Miller follows the activities of the faqihs, their dialogue with Islamic authorities in nearby Muslim polities, their engagement with Islamic texts, and their pursuit of traditional ideals of faith. She demonstrates that these local scholars played a critical role as cultural mediators, creating scholarly networks and communal solidarity despite living in an environment dominated by Christianity.