Download or read book The Archetypal Sunni Scholar written by Aaron Spevack and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers the work of nineteenth-century theologian Ibrahim al- B?j?r? and contests the notion of intellectual decline in Islamic thought from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries. This is a rare study of a late premodern Islamic thinker, Ibrahim al- B?j?r?, a nineteenth-century scholar and rector of Cairo’s al-Azhar University. Aaron Spevack explores al- B?j?r?’s legal, theological, and mystical thought, highlighting its originality and vibrancy in relation to the millennium of scholarship that preceded and informed it, and also detailing its continuing legacy. The book makes a case for the normativity of the Gabrielian Paradigm, the study of law, rational theology, and Sufism, in the person of al- B?j?r?. Soon after his death in 1860, this typical pattern of scholarship would face significant challenges from modernists, reformers, and fundamentalists. Spevack challenges beliefs that rational theology, syllogistic logic, and Sufism were not part of the predominant conception of orthodox scholarship and shows this scholarly archetype has not disappeared as an ideal. In addition, the book contests prevailing beliefs in academic and Muslim circles about intellectual decline from the thirteenth through nineteenth centuries. “Spevack’s trailblazing book is a lucid survey and deep analysis of the works and ideas of al-B?j?r?. Spevack shows precisely how al-B?j?r? served as an ‘archetypal’ Sunn? scholar. In the process, he succeeds in evoking the subtlety, sophistication, and dynamism of the postclassical Islamic traditions of theology, mysticism, and jurisprudence.” — Robert Wisnovsky, McGill University “Here is a readable and comprehensive introduction to the intellectual production of one of the last giants of the Sunn? legal tradition in the nineteenth century. Sensitive to the scholar’s strong affiliation with a millennium-long tradition, this introduction will be appreciated by seasoned scholars and newcomers alike.” — Ahmad Atif Ahmad, University of California, Santa Barbara “Spevack’s book is an important corrective to Eurocentric narratives of the nineteenth century that focus solely on Islamic thinkers whose main concern is with European ‘modernity’ and its challenges while breezily ignoring the continuing tradition of madrasah scholarship in the modern period.” — Khaled El-Rouayheb, Harvard University

Download or read book Islamic Law in Circulation written by Mahmood Kooria and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Circulation networks -- Circulatory texts -- Architecture of encounters -- The Code -- The commentary -- The autocommentary -- The supercommentar -- The translations.

Download or read book Islamic Reform and Conservatism written by Indira Falk Gesink and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The famed reform debates at al-Azhar Madrasa in nineteenth-century Cairo, one of the most influential centres of religious study in Sunni Islam, were enormously influential for twentieth-century Islamic thought. Here Indira Gesink offers a revisionist history of these debates over curricular and administrative reforms, and challenges our understanding of the struggle between Islamic reform and conservatism. It has been assumed that famous Islamic modernists such as Muhammad 'Abduh instigated the reform movement and the ideas of modern religious life that emanated from al-Azhar and permeated Islamic society, a development that religious conservatives opposed. Gesink draws on obscure, but important, archival sources, legal manuals and ephemeral journals to tell the other side of the story, and to illustrate the important contributions of conservative scholars to the evolution of twentieth-century Sunni Islam. Conservative 'opponents of reform' engaged many of the same issues as reformers and actively pursued alternative visions of reform. In fact, texts of enacted reforms show greater attention to concerns of conservatives than to the original programmes of Muhammad 'Abduh, and conservatives led 'ulama committees that generated and implemented reforms. Had religious conservatives not contributed to the reforms of the early twentieth century, these reforms would have lacked the crucial cultural assonance that permitted them to become rooted in public life, in an environment of rising nationalist anti-British sentiment which saw 'Abduh as a willing agent of colonialists. The debates ultimately catalyzed public acceptance of secularism, Islamic modernism and radical Islamism. They also led to the practice of lay legal interpretation, the proliferation of competing interpretations within Sunni Islam and the rise of militant sects. By drawing on obscure archival sources and restoring conservative voices to the debate, 'Islamic Reform and Conservatism' presents a more nuanced picture of the al-Azhar debates and the forces that shaped Islamic religious life in the twentieth century than has become the norm. Its original scholarship and fresh analysis make this book indispensable for all those interested in the modern Middle East, religious history, Islamic studies, radical Islam and militancy, secularism, modernism and religious reform.

Download or read book Philosophical Theology in Islam written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-05-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophical Theology in Islam studies the later history of the Ashʿarī school of theology through in-depth probings of its thought, sources, scholarly networks and contexts. Starting with a review of al-Ghazālī’s role in the emergence of post-Avicennan philosophical theology, the book offers a series of case studies on hitherto unstudied texts by the towering thinker Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī as well as specific philosophical and theological topics treated in his works. Studies furthermore shed light on the transmission and reception of later Ashʿarī doctrines in periods and regions that have so far received little scholarly attention. This book is the first exploration of the later Ashʿarī tradition across the medieval and early-modern period through a trans-regional perspective. Contributors: Peter Adamson, Asad Q. Ahmed, Fedor Benevich, Xavier Casassas Canals, Jon Hoover, Bilal Ibrahim, Andreas Lammer, Reza Pourjavady, Harith Ramli, Ulrich Rudolph, Meryem Sebti, Delfina Serrano-Ruano, Ayman Shihadeh, Aaron Spevack, and Jan Thiele.

Download or read book Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia written by Michal Biran and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet, and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia reveals the individual stories of three key groups of people—military commanders, merchants, and intellectuals—from across Eurasia. These annotated biographies bring to the fore a compelling picture of the Mongol Empire from a wide range of historical sources in multiple languages, providing important insights into a period unique for its rapid and far-reaching transformations. Read together or separately, they offer the perfect starting point for any discussion of the Mongol Empire’s impact on China, the Muslim world, and the West and illustrate the scale, diversity, and creativity of the cross-cultural exchange along the continental and maritime Silk Roads. Features and Benefits: Synthesizes historical information from Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and Latin sources that are otherwise inaccessible to English-speaking audiences. Presents in an accessible manner individual life stories that serve as a springboard for discussing themes such as military expansion, cross-cultural contacts, migration, conversion, gender, diplomacy, transregional commercial networks, and more. Each chapter includes a bibliography to assist students and instructors seeking to further explore the individuals and topics discussed. Informative maps, images, and tables throughout the volume supplement each biography.

Download or read book Al Suy a Polymath of the Maml k Period written by Antonella Ghersetti and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of several papers devoted to Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505), presented on the First Conference of the School of Mamlūk Studies (held at Ca’ Foscari University,Venice, from June 23 to June 25, 2014). It aims to contribute to a reassessment of the scholarly profile of the controversial but fascinating polymath and intellectual, and, more generally, to a deeper understanding of the cultural, political and academic life of the last period of the Mamlūk empire. Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī's bibliography ranges from law to theology, and from linguistics to history. It includes medicine and geography. This polymath felt that his mission was to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the past, and knowledge in general, from widespread ignorance and decline. Considered for a long time to be an author devoid of any originality and a “simple” compiler, he was in fact an excellent teacher and a rigorous scholar who had a meticulous and accurate working method. With contributions by: Christopher D. Bahl; Mustafa Banister; Joel Blecher; S. R. Burge; Daniela Rodica Firanescu; Éric Geoffroy; Antonella Ghersetti; Francesco Grande; Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila; Takao Ito; Judith Kindinger; Christian Mauder; Aaron Spevack.

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology written by Sabine Schmidtke and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 833 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the field of Islamic Studies, scientific research of Muslim theology is a comparatively young discipline. Much progress has been achieved over the past decades with respect both to discoveries of new materials and to scholarly approaches to the field. The Oxford Handbook of IslamicTheology provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the current state of the field. It provides a variegated picture of the state of the art and at the same time suggests new directions for future research.Part One covers the various strands of Islamic theology during the formative and early middle periods, rational as well as scripturalist. To demonstrate the continuous interaction among the various theological strands and its repercussions (during the formative and early middle period and beyond),Part Two offers a number of case studies. These focus on specific theological issues that have developed through the dilemmatic and often polemical interactions between the different theological schools and thinkers. Part Three covers Islamic theology during the later middle and early modernperiods. One of the characteristics of this period is the growing amalgamation of theology with philosophy (Peripatetic and Illuminationist) and mysticism. Part Four addresses the impact of political and social developments on theology through a number of case studies: the famous mihna instituted byal-Ma'mun (r. 189/813-218/833) as well as the mihna to which Ibn 'Aqil (d. 769/1367) was subjected; the religious policy of the Almohads; as well as the shifting interpretations throughout history (particularly during Mamluk and Ottoman times) of the relation between Ash'arism and Maturidism thatwere often motivated by political motives. Part Five considers Islamic theological thought from the end of the early modern and during the modern period.

Download or read book Reforms in Islamic Education written by Charlene Tan and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent times, there has been intense global interest on and scrutiny of Islamic education. In reforming Islamic schools, what are the key actions initiated and are they contested or negotiated by and among Muslims? This edited collection brings together leading scholars to explore current reforms in Islamic schools. Drawing together international case studies, Reforms in Islamic Education critically discusses the reforms, considering the motivations for them, nature of them and perceptions and experiences of people affected by them. The contributors also explore the tensions, resistance, contestations and negotiations between Muslims and non-Muslims, and among Muslims, in relation to the reforms. Highlighting the need to understand and critique reforms in Islamic schools within broad historical, political and socio-cultural contexts, this book is a valuable resource for academics, policymakers and educators.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Sufism written by John Renard and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most broadly accepted explanation of Sufism is the etymological derivation of the term from the Arabic for “wool,” ṣūf, associating practitioners with a preference for poor, rough clothing. This explanation clearly identifies Sufism with ascetical practice and the importance of manifesting spiritual poverty through material poverty. In fact, some of the earliest “Western” descriptions of individuals now widely associated with the larger phenomenon of Sufism identified them with the Arabic term faqīr, mendicant, or its most common Persian equivalent, darwīsh. Sufism, as presented here embraces a host of features including the ritual, institutional, psychological, hermeneutical, artistic, literary, ethical, and epistemological. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Sufism contains a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, major historical figures and movements, practices, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Sufism.

Download or read book Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation written by Carl Sharif El-Tobgui and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-12-16 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation, Carl Sharif El-Tobgui offers the first comprehensive study of Ibn Taymiyya’s ten-volume magnum opus, Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql (Refutation of the conflict of reason and revelation). In his colossal riposte to the Muslim philosophers and rationalist theologians, the towering Ḥanbalī polymath rejects the call to prioritize reason over revelation in cases of alleged conflict, interrogating instead the very conception of rationality that classical Muslims had inherited from the Greeks. In its place, he endeavors to articulate a reconstituted “pure reason” that is both truly universal and in full harmony with authentic revelation. Based on a line-by-line reading of the entire Darʾ taʿāruḍ, El-Tobgui’s study carefully elucidates the “philosophy of Ibn Taymiyya” as it emerges from the multifaceted ontological, epistemological, and linguistic reforms that Ibn Taymiyya carries out in this pivotal work.

Download or read book Rediscovering the Islamic Classics written by Ahmed El Shamsy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how Arab editors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries revolutionized Islamic literature Islamic book culture dates back to late antiquity, when Muslim scholars began to write down their doctrines on parchment, papyrus, and paper and then to compose increasingly elaborate analyses of, and commentaries on, these ideas. Movable type was adopted in the Middle East only in the early nineteenth century, and it wasn't until the second half of the century that the first works of classical Islamic religious scholarship were printed there. But from that moment on, Ahmed El Shamsy reveals, the technology of print transformed Islamic scholarship and Arabic literature. In the first wide-ranging account of the effects of print and the publishing industry on Islamic scholarship, El Shamsy tells the fascinating story of how a small group of editors and intellectuals brought forgotten works of Islamic literature into print and defined what became the classical canon of Islamic thought. Through the lens of the literary culture of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Arab cities—especially Cairo, a hot spot of the nascent publishing business—he explores the contributions of these individuals, who included some of the most important thinkers of the time. Through their efforts to find and publish classical literature, El Shamsy shows, many nearly lost works were recovered, disseminated, and harnessed for agendas of linguistic, ethical, and religious reform. Bringing to light the agents and events of the Islamic print revolution, Rediscovering the Islamic Classics is an absorbing examination of the central role printing and its advocates played in the intellectual history of the modern Arab world.

Download or read book Islam in German East Africa 1885 1918 written by Jörg Haustein and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-07-14 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this rich and multi-layered deconstruction of German colonial engagement with Islam, Jörg Haustein shows how imperial agents in Germany’s largest colony wielded the knowledge category of Islam in a broad set of debates, ranging from race, language, and education to slavery, law, conflict, and war. These representations of ‘Mohammedanism’, often invoked for particular political ends, amounted to a serious misreading of Muslims in East Africa, with significant long-term effects. As the first in-depth account of the politics of Islam in German East Africa, the book makes an essential contribution to the history of religion in Tanzania before British rule. It also offers a template for re-reading the colonial archive in a manner that recovers Muslim agency beyond a European paradigm of religion.

Download or read book Repentance and the Return to God written by Atif Khalil and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-09-21 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first major study of the idea of repentance, or tawba, in Islam. This book offers the first extensive treatment in a European language of tawba in Islam. Conventionally translated as “repentance,” tawba includes the broader sense of returning to God. Khalil examines this wider notionin the early period of Sufism with a particular focus on the formative years of the tradition between Mu??sib? and Ab? ??lib al-Makk?. Beginning with an extensive survey of the semantic field of the term as outlined in Arabic lexicography, Khalil offers a detailed analysis of the concept in Muslim scripture. He then examines tawba as a complex psychological process involving interior conversion and a complete, unwavering commitment to the spiritual life. The ideas of a number of prominent figures from the first few centuries of Islam are used to illuminate the historical development of tawba and its role in early praxis-oriented Sufism. “In this exemplary study, Khalil lays bare the contours of the key concept of repentance in the spiritual psychology of early Islam with admirable sensitivity and ease—a remarkable achievement.” — Ahmet T. Karamustafa, author of Sufism: The Formative Period “Atif Khalil’s Repentance and the Return to God is an illuminating account of the idea of tawba as attested to in the early Sufi literature from the ninth through the tenth centuries. Starting with a painstaking semantic examination of the Qur’?nic passages related to repentance from sin and turning to God in remorse and search of pardon, the author traces the development of these motifs from early Sufi didactic adages to their subsequent rearticulation in the sophisticated psychological discourses of such major lights of classical Sufism such as al-Mu??sib?, Sahl al-Tustar?, al-Kharr?z, al-Junayd, and Ab? ??lib al-Makk?. A must read for both lay readers interested in comparative mysticism/religions and specialists on Islam, Sufism, and Islamic spiritual and intellectual history.” — Alexander Knysh, author of Islamic Mysticism: A Short History and Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism

Download or read book Honour Killing in the Second Decade of the 21st Century written by Shahnaz Shoro and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-21 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honour killing is considered the worst form of domestic violence against human beings, particularly against women. It is clear that societies across the world – through their laws and their courts – continue to countenance legal defences which overwhelmingly benefit males committing violence against females. Despite the statistics that honour killings are being reported from all over the world, the greatest number of shocking reports of honour killings come from Muslim countries. Unfortunately, Pakistan is among those countries where women are facing various forms of violence in the name of religion, customs and traditions, and cases of honour killing are regularly reported there. It is imperative to understand and see killings in the name of honour from the perspective of those who have been directly affected by the socio-religious cultural norms which condone them. The findings gathered here show that honour killing is not only family or community violence or a tradition to preserve honour, but that behind these killings ulterior purposes are being served and therefore the number of the killings is increasing every year in Pakistan. This book will allow the reader to understand precisely the menace of honour killing and to consider how it can be addressed to save innocent lives and to stop these severe violations of human rights.

Download or read book The Future Is Feminist written by Sara Rahnama and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future Is Feminist by Sara Rahnama offers a closer look at a pivotal moment in Algerian history when Algerians looked to feminism as a path out of the stifling realities of French colonial rule. Algerian people focused outward to developments in the Middle East, looking critically at their own society and with new eyes to Islamic tradition. In doing so, they reordered the world on their own terms—pushing back against French colonial claims about Islam's inherent misogyny. Rahnama describes how Algerians took inspiration from Middle Eastern developments in women's rights. Empowered by the Muslim reform movement sweeping the region, they read Islamic knowledge with new eyes, even calling Muhammad "the first Arab feminist." They compared the blossoming women's rights movements across the Middle East and this history of Islam's feminist potential to the stifled position of Algerian women, who suffered from limited access to education and respectable work. Local dynamics also shaped these discussions, including the recent entry of thousands of Algerian women into the workforce as domestic workers in European settler homes. While Algerian people disagreed about whether Algeria's future should be colonial or independent, they agreed that women's advancement would offer a path forward for Muslim society toward a more prosperous future. Through its use of Arabic-language sources alongside French ones, The Future Is Feminist moves beyond Algeria's colonial relationship to France to illuminate its relationship to the Middle East.

Download or read book From God s Nature to God s Law written by Abdul Rahman Mustafa and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-11-04 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the ways in which theological ideas regarding the nature of God shaped the jurisprudential and legal landscape of Islam. Focusing on the traditionalist theological and jurisprudential thought of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) and Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350), this study traces the way in which these towering scholars critiqued the dominant theological-jurisprudential tradition of their day, which was influenced by dialectical theology. Against the dialectical theologians, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim argued that an authentically fideist, consistent and rational theory of Islamic law could only emerge from an acceptance of the reality of God’s voluntary attributes.

Download or read book Routledge International Handbook of Charisma written by José Pedro Zúquete and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-29 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge International Handbook of Charisma provides an unprecedented multidimensional and multidisciplinary comparative analysis of the phenomenon of charisma – first defined by Max Weber as the irrational bond between deified leader and submissive follower. It includes broad overviews of foundational theories and experiences of charisma and of associated key issues and themes. Contributors include 45 influential international scholars who approach the topic from different disciplinary perspectives and utilize examples from an array of historical and cultural settings. The Handbook presents up-to-date, concise, thought-provoking, innovative, and informative perspectives on charisma as it has been expressed in the past and as it continues to be manifested in the contemporary world by leaders ranging from shamans to presidents. It is designed to be essential reading for all students, researchers, and general readers interested in achieving a comprehensive understanding of the power and potential of charismatic authority in all its varieties, subtleties, dynamics, and current and potential directions.