Massive demand for everyday Islamic conduct guidance spawned a media industry

Evidence

A huge market also exists for Islamic ethical and pedagogical literature, in the form of booklets and pamphlets, the primary purpose of which is to provide information on practical rules of pietistic conduct. The topics of these publications range from laws that govern the performance of religious obligations, to issues of character formation and moral uprightness, to the training of oneself in aural conventions of Quranic recitation. These manual— ke booklets represent a hybrid form of knowledge in which scholarly arguments and canonical sources are combined with vern commentaries on mundane concern of modem existence. The voluminous demand for information on how to conduct oneself in accord with Islamic precepts in day—to— y life has also spawned an industry in tape— sermons, religious lessons, and radio and television programs, which are available to those who lack the time or ability to consult the print literature. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 562

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to my interest in how religious/moral instruction gets commercialized and industrialized — parallels the self-help publishing industry and earlier mass-produced devotional literature.