Islamic conversation : sohbet and ethics in contemporary Turkey / Smita Tewari Jassal

Introduction : Art of Ethical Conversation in Turkey -- Reading the Risale-Nur in a women's sohbet -- The "Modernity" of Zakat in Turkey -- Healing the Social Body : Sohbet with Ankara's Alevi Saint -- Art of Dreaming : At the Tombs of Saints -- Discourse in the Dorms -- On Places of Worship and Role of Diyanet

"The book evaluates on-going ethical conversations to learn how emotional communication is received, teachings internalized, and a religious world-view brought to life. Exploring how religious values saturate people's consciousness to induce subtle shifts in moral and ethical sensibilities, this book is about people's practices that illuminate how Islam is lived. Based on fieldwork conducted in Ankara between 2010-2016, the study enquires into people's ethical, religious, and moral motivations, through the use of the ethnographic method and "thick description". Conversations and interviews with officials, community leaders, students, entrepreneurs, professionals, and blue-collar workers, were subjected to close scrutiny to foreground societal change and churning...