Overview

Conflicts in cities that have particular religious significance often become intense, protracted, and violent. Why are holy cities so frequently contested, and how can these conflicts be mediated and resolved? In Power, Piety, and People, Michael Dumper explores the causes and consequences of contemporary conflicts in holy cities. He explains how common features of holy cities, such as powerful and autonomous religious hierarchies, income from religious endowments, the presence of sacred sites, and the performance of ritual activities that affect other communities, can combine to create tension. Power, Piety, and People offers five case studies of important disputes, beginning with Jerusalem, often seen as the paradigmatic example of a holy city in conflict. Dumper also discusses Córdoba, where the Islamic history of its Mosque-Cathedral poses challenges to the control exercised by the Roman Catholic Church; Banaras, where competing Muslim and Hindu claims to sacred sites threaten the fragile equilibrium that exists in the city; Lhasa, where the Communist Party of China severely restricts the ancient practice of Tibetan Buddhism; and George Town in Malaysia, a rare example of a city with many different religious communities whose leaders have successfully managed intergroup conflicts. Applying the lessons drawn from these cities to a broader global urban landscape, this book offers scholars and policy makers new insights into a pervasive category of conflict that often appears intractable.

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Reviews

Power, Piety, and People is a tour de force. Dumper explores the politics of contemporary holy cities through rich and thoughtful case studies of Jerusalem, the Mezquita of Cordoba, Banaras, Lhasa, and George Town. His analysis highlights the complex ways belief, institutions, politics, and economies can interact to support exclusionary claims of communal priority or encourage more pluralist and integrative urban societies. -- Rex Brynen, McGill University Power, Piety and People brings together both political insights into the key dynamics that comprise religious conflicts in cities and detailed studies of relevant cases across two continents. Dumper examines the patterns of urban conflict that flow from the way key religious sites are used and how they are managed, financed, and protected. The result is a fascinating and informative analysis of the complexity and the intractability of religious conflicts which will inform those concerned with the growing challenges of an increasingly urbanized world. -- Lynn Meskell, author of <i>A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace</i> Highly original and fascinating empirical research, combined with theoretical depth, positions this book on high ground. Dumper adroitly and expertly examines the nexus between religion and urbanity in five holy cities in Israel/Palestine, Spain, India, China, and Malaysia. The book foregrounds the intersection of structural determinants and street-level phenomena as key to understanding whether dominance or tolerance takes hold in urban space. -- Scott Bollens, University of California, Irvine

Power, Piety and People brings together both sharp political insights into the key dynamics that comprise religious conflicts in cities with detailed studies of relevant of cases across two continents. Dumper examines the patterns of urban conflict that flow from the way key religious sites are used and how they are managed, financed and protected. The result is a fascinating and informative analysis of the complexity and the intractability of religious conflicts which will inform those concerned with the growing challenges of an increasingly urbanized world. -- Lynn Meskell, author of <i>A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace</i> Highly original and fascinating empirical research combined with theoretical depth positions this book on high ground. Dumper adroitly and expertly examines the nexus between religion and urbanity in five holy cities in Israel/Palestine, Spain, India, China, and Malaysia. The book foregrounds the intersection of structural determinants and street-level phenomena as key to understanding whether dominance or tolerance takes hold in urban space. -- Scott Bollens, University of California, Irvine

Highly original and fascinating empirical research combined with theoretical depth positions this book on high ground. Dumper adroitly and expertly examines the nexus between religion and urbanity in five holy cities in Israel/Palestine, Spain, India, China, and Malaysia. The book foregrounds the intersection of structural determinants and street-level phenomena as key to understanding whether dominance or tolerance takes hold in urban space. -- Scott Bollens, University of California, Irvine

Author Information

Michael Dumper is professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter. His many books include Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City (Columbia, 2014). His most recent edited volume is Contested Holy Cities: The Urban Dimension of Religious Conflicts (2019).

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