Ninety-Nine: A Kaleidoscopic Portrait of Allah

According to Islamic tradition, God has at least ninety-nine names. In Ninety-Nine, Amira Mittermaier presents ninety-nine short chapters based on her fieldwork and interviews with over one hundred Egyptians about who God is to them. In Egypt's turbulent twenty-first century--the Egyptian uprising, a military coup, a pandemic, a climate crisis, wars across the region--God is talked about endlessly yet remains elusive. Ninety-Nine follows Allah into different spaces and conversations without ever claiming to get the full picture. We meet a Cairo beggar, an enigmatic dervish, a queer agnostic, and a Salafi housewife. We meet a depressed God, a cute God, a God who has stopped caring, a loving God, and a God who is a bully. We learn about divine interventions, big and small, and about daily struggles, even fights, with God. An intimate mosaic of Allah, Ninety-Nine celebrates the multiplicity inherent to the Islamic tradition and offers insight into how present-day Muslims grapple with big theological questions amidst their busy lives.

Author: Amira Mittermaier
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 10/06/2026
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.62d
ISBN13: 9781478039068
ISBN10: 147803906X
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Islam | General
- Social Science | Cultural & Ethnic Studies | Middle Eastern Studies
- Social Science | Anthropology | Cultural & Social

About the Author
Amira Mittermaier is Professor of Religion and Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Giving to God: Islamic Charity in Revolutionary Times and Dreams that Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination.