Monday, February 27, 2023

Transcendent God, Rational World: A Maturidi Theology

 Transcendent God, Rational World

Constructs a contemporary philosophical theology from the Māturīdī tradition of kalām

  • Reconstructs the theological system of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī
  • Explores the development of the early and classical Māturīdī tradition
  • Engages with contemporary philosophy and theology
  • Provides a systematic treatment of the divine nature and attributes
  • Advances the fields of Islamic philosophy of religion and kalām jadīd

Ramon Harvey revisits the Muslim theologian Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) from Samarqand and puts his system, and that of the Māturīdī school, into lively dialogue with modern thought.

Combining rigorous study of Arabic Māturīdī texts with insights from Husserl’s phenomenology and analytic theology, Harvey explores themes from epistemology and metaphysics to the nature of God and specific divine attributes (omniscience and wisdom, creative action, divine speech and the Qur’an). His systematic treatment of these topics shows that a contemporary Islamic philosophical theology, or kalām jadīd, can be true to the past, yet dynamic in the present, and can provide original and constructive answers to perennial theological questions.

 Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Tradition and Reason
2. Rational Reality
3. Natural Theology
4. Divine Nature
5. Omniscience and Wisdom
6. Creative Action
7. Divine Speech and the Qur’an
Conclusion
Glossary of Arabic Terminology
Bibliography
Index.

The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music

 The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music

Published in Association with the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations and the Aga Khan Music Programme

Examines how the making, marketing and performance of new Islamic music genres relate to Islamic discourse and thought

Listen to the Spotify playlist ‘The Awakening of Islamic Pop Music’, featuring 103 of the songs mentioned in the book

  • Analyses the contribution of popular music to the development of contemporary interpretations of Islam
  • Uses Awakening as a case study to explore the relationship between Islamic popular music genres and wider Islamic discourse
  • Supported by fieldwork (following tours), content analyses (of songs, videos, promotion material and social media) and interviews (with artists, business people and musicians)
  • Includes new perspectives on celebrity culture among Muslims and its connection with ethical Muslim masculinity

Awakening – an Islamic media company formed in London – has created the soundtrack to many Muslim lives during the last two decades. It has produced three superstars (Sami Yusuf, Maher Zain and Harris J.) among a host of other artists. As the company celebrates their first 20 years in the industry, Jonas Otterbeck examines their remarkable rise to success and their established reputation as one of the most important global enterprises producing pop music inspired by Islam.

  1. Hi and Welcome to the Field
  2. Awakening to the Music
  3. Awakening Takes to the Stage
  4. Setting the Stage, Ideas in Progress
  5. The Message and Its Media
  6. Performing an Ethical Islamic Masculinity
  7. The Politics of Entertainment
  8. Carefully Pushing Ahead
  9. Islamic Discourses on Popular Music: A Historical Footnote

 

 

 

Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey: Demanding a Seat at the Table

Women’s Political Representation in Iran and Turkey 

Provides a comparative study of women’s political participation and representation in contemporary Iran and Turkey

  • Draws on 140 interviews with past and present female politicians and candidates, party elites, and women’s rights activists in Iran and Turkey between 2009 to 2019
  • Investigates women’s political underrepresentation in Iran and Turkey by examining each respective country’s electoral system, political party structure, government framework and state gender ideology
  • Includes the voices, experiences and approaches of women’s groups and political parties across the ideological spectrum in its analysis – from the Justice and Development Party and Women and Democracy Association in Turkey, to the Zeinab Society and Islamic Women’s Coalition in Iran
  • Highlights Islamic women’s agency as they challenge the gender discriminatory behaviours and attitudes of their male party leaders
  • Includes data and statistics related to the rate of women’s candidacy and election to political office at the national level

How have women in many Muslim-majority countries been able to achieve surprising success despite the significant constraints imposed by conservative gender ideology and authoritarian political parties and systems? Through a comparative focus on Iran and Turkey, Mona Tajali examines the activities and strategies of women’s rights groups across the ideological spectrum. She explores how various groups have negotiated with political elites in order to bolster female political representation and identifies the conditions that stimulate greater support to ease women’s path to political office. Studying how women’s groups manoeuvre within these structures is important to help our understanding of the gendered politics of autocratic regimes.

  1. Introduction: Women and Politics in Muslim Countries
  2. Opportunity Structures: Strategizing for Women’s Political Representation in Turkey and Iran
  3. Turkish Women as Political Agents: Between Secularism and Islamic Revivalism
  4. Strategic Interactions: Multi-party politics and the lobby for female representation
  5. Framing for Political Inclusion: The Demand for Headscarved Women’s Candidacy
  6. Women and Politics in Iran: From Revolutionary to Reformist
  7. Organizing Against All Odds: Iranian Factionalism and Women’s Political Representation
  8. Piety and Agency: Framing Women’s Political Rights in a Theocratic State
  9. Conclusion: Demanding a Seat at the Table

 

 

 

 

Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem: The Library of Burhan al-Din

Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem 

Explores the only known private book collection from medieval Jerusalem

  • Translates, edits and discusses the most important Arabic medieval book list for Jerusalem – the largest known dataset on book prices
  • Rethinks the notion of archival and documentary practices in the Mamluk period
  • Provides a new angle on the economic history of the book in the late-medieval period
  • Combines social history and material philology in the field of Middle Eastern history

In the late medieval period manuscripts galore circulated in private collections and in educational libraries in the cities of the Middle East. Yet very few have left a documentary trail or have survived as an easily identifiable compact corpus. Writing their histories, understanding their social settings and comprehending their intellectual profiles is therefore a challenge.

This book discusses the only known private book collection from pre-Ottoman Jerusalem for which we have a trail of documents. It belonged to an otherwise unknown resident, Burhān al-Dīn; after his death, his books were sold in a public auction and the list of objects sold has survived.This list – edited and translated in this volume – shows that a humble part-time reciter of the late 14th century had almost 300 books in his house, evidence that book ownership extended beyond the elite. Based on a corpus of almost fifty documents from the Ḥaram al-sharīf collection in Jerusalem, it is also possible to get a rare insight into the social world of such an individual. Finally, the book gives a unique insight into book prices as it will make available the largest such set of data for the pre-Ottoman period.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements


Argument and Historiographical Setting: Books, Documents and
Social Practice

Part I The Narrative

1 Making a Living in Endowments

2 Beyond Endowment

3 Archival Practices and Pragmatic Literacy

4 Lists and Inventories: The Sale Booklet’s Documentary Logic

5 The Making and Unmaking of a Prestige Library

6 Book Prices

Looking Beyond Jerusalem: The Dynamics of the Written Word and
its Materiality

Part II The Documents

7 Analysis and Edition of the Sale Booklet

8 Analysis and Edition of the Documentary Network around the
Sale Booklet

Appendix 1 Overview of Documents Linked to Burhān al-Dīn’s Life
 and Estate
Appendix 2 Edition of Sixteen Documents Linked to Burhān al-Dīn’s
 Life and Estate
Appendix 3 List of Edited Ḥaram al-sharīf Documents


Bibliography
General Index
Index of Authors in Burhān al-Dīn’s Library
Index of Book Titles in Burhān al-Dīn’s Library
Index of Buyers in the Auction of Burhān al-Dīn’s Estate
Index of Subjects in Burhān al-Dīn’s Library
Index of Objects Other than Books in Burhān al-Dīn’s Estate
Index of Ḥaram al-sharīf Documents

Monday, February 20, 2023

Islamic manuscripts

Islamic manuscripts

This site is dedicated to the world of the Islamic manuscript. The manuscript literature of the Islamic world is a vast area of study. Islamic manuscripts contain an as yet almost untapped source of the rich Islamic heritage. Islamic manuscripts have been studied for quite a while and many are well-known. However, even more are as yet unknown or at least insufficiently appreciated. This site's ambition is to provide students and scholars, librarians and collectors, in short everyone who is interested in Islamic manuscripts, with a professional and functional platform of their own. The website maintains a scholarly level and applies academic ethics.

This site is moderated by Jan Just Witkam, Emeritus-Professor of Paleography and Codicology of the Islamic world in Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands. The site is sponsored by a number of private and corporate donors. Professor Witkam's personal website can be accessed here.

Ter Lugt Press For further information, please contact the editor.

In this site PDF files are in use. If you do not have Adobe's Acrobat Reader on your PC, you can download it here.

Publisher's address: Ter Lugt Press, Donkersteeg 19, NL 2312 HA Leiden, The Netherlands

 | Inventories | Courses | Reference | Pre-prints | E-publics | In the News |

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Die Residenz des Kalifen Hārūn Ar-Rašīd in Ar-Raqqa / Ar-Rāfiqa (Syrien)

 

Ulrike Siegel
Cover Raqqa 4

Mit der Publikation, die sich mit der Residenz des Kalifen Hārūn ar-Rašīd (reg. 786–809) in ar-Raqqa/ar-Rāfiqa in Nordsyrien befasst, werden neue Erkenntnisse zur frühislamischen Architekturentwicklung vorgelegt und eine fast ein Jahrhundert umfassende Überlieferungslücke (Mitte 8. bis Mitte 9. Jh. n. Chr.) zu einem großen Teil geschlossen.
Die Untersuchung arbeitet das Notgrabungsprojekt des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts auf, das aufgrund der Entwicklung der modernen Stadt ar-Raqqa von 1982 bis 1994 im akut gefährdeten Ruinengelände durchgeführt wurde. Forschungsschwerpunkt ist die Auswertung der feldarchäologischen Ergebnisse am Ostpalast, Ostkomplex, Nordkomplex und Nordostkomplex. Mit den Methoden der archäologischen Bauforschung werden die Baubefunde analysiert, die Bau- und Nutzungsgeschichte herausgearbeitet, die Gebäudekonzeptionen und funktionalen Bestimmungen geklärt sowie eine architektonische Wertung vorgenommen. Darüber hinaus werden anhand der Verknüpfung von historischen Luftbildern, Schriftquellen und bauforscherischen Einzelergebnissen Erkenntnisse zum Konzept der Residenz vorgelegt und die vier Gebäudekomplexe nicht als isolierte Baukörper, sondern als Teil eines städtebaulichen und architektonischen Großprojekts betrachtet. Die Untersuchung leistet somit Grundlagenforschung für die frühislamische Architekturgeschichte, deren frühabbasidischen Bauten bislang nur in geringer Zahl untersucht worden sind.

Schlagworte:

ar-Raqqa

Kapitel

  • Vorwort
  • Vorbemerkungen
  • 1 Einleitung
    1.1 Ziel und Methodik der Arbeit –1.2 Zur Lage von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rāfiqa – 1.3 Zur Geschichte von ar-Raqqa/ar-Rāfiqa
  • 2 Forschungsstand und Grabungsgeschichte
    2.1 Archäologische Ausgrabungen zwischen 1944 und 1970 – 2.2 Archäologische AUsgrabungen zwischen 1982 und 1994
  • 3 Quellen
    3.1 Historische Bilddaten – 3.2 Schriftquellen
  • 4 Die Residenz des Kalifen Hārūn ar-Rašīd
    4.1 Größe und Infrastruktur – 4.2 Aufbau der Residenz
  • 5 Ostpalast
    5.1 Grabungsgeschichte – 5.2 Baubeschreibung – 5.3 Baukonstruktion und Ausstattung – 5.4 Kleinfunde – 5.5 Metrologische Grundrissanalyse – 5.6 Baugeschichte und Rekonstruktion – 5.7 Interpretation – 5.8 Zusammenfassung
  • 6 Ostkomplex
    6.1 Grabungsgeschichte – 6.2 Baubeschreibung – 6.3 Baukonstruktion und Ausstattung – 6.4 Kleinfunde – 6.5 Metrologische Grundrissanalyse – 6.6 Baugeschichte – 6.7 Interpretation – 6.8 Zusammenfassung
  • 7 Nordkomplex
    7.1 Grabungsgeschichte – 7.2 Baubeschreibung – 7.3 Baukonstruktion und Ausstattung – 7.4 Kleinfunde – 7.5 Metrologische Grundrissanalyse – 7.6 Baugeschichte und Rekonstruktion – 7.7 Interpretation – 7.8 Zusammenfassung
  • 8 Nordostkomplex
    8.1 Grabungsgeschichte – 8.2 Baubeschreibung – 8.3 Baukonstruktion und Ausstattung – 8.4 Kleinfunde – 8.5 Metrologische Grundrissanalyse (Bau NOK I) – 8.6 Baugeschichte und Rekonstruktion (Bau NOK I) – 8.7 Interpretation (Bau NOK I) – 8.8 Zusammenfassung
  • 9 Baugeschichtliche Einordnung der Kalifenresidenz
    9.1 Städtebauliche Charakteristika – 9.2 Grundfläche und -form – 9.3 Äußere Erscheinung – 9.4 Grundrisskonzeptionen – 9.5 Zusammenfassung
  • 10 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick
    Summary – ملخص البحث
  • Literaturverzeichnis
  • Abbildungsnachweis
  • Tafelteil

 

Veröffentlicht

Februar 14, 2023

Reihe

Bibliographische Daten & Rezensionen

Veröffentlicht

Februar 14, 2023

Reihe

Bibliographische Daten & Rezensionen

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Hamid Naficy Middle Eastern Movie Posters Collection


"Hamid Naficy Middle Eastern Movie Posters Collection contains 249 posters, which have been digitized and cataloged individually. These posters document the social history of film in Iran and offer a unique visual representation of the political and social climate there between 1966 and 2014"

Digital Collection  from Northwestern University Libraries.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

OA Book: The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qurʾanic Manuscripts from the Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries

The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qurʾanic Manuscripts from the Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries




Authors: Rettig Simon Sana Mirza and Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.
Published: Washington D.C: Smithsonian Scholarly Press, 2022
ISBN: 9781944466589 (print)

"Diplomatic gifts, war prizes, or library treasures of royal and princely libraries—handwritten Qurʾans have also been endowed to mosques, tombs, and other religious complexes to perpetuate and transmit their baraka (divine blessing). Artistic, historic, and religious contexts and materiality of Qurʾans are investigated, from use of costly materials such as gold and parchment to development of special scripts, intricate illuminated designs, and meticulously tooled bindings. This edited collection resulted from a 2016 symposium at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sacker Gallery in conjunction with the exhibition The Art of the Qurʾan: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts."

The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qurʾanic Manuscripts from the Seventh to Seventeenth Centuries: https://smithsonian.figshare.com/articles/book/The_Word_Illuminated_Form_and_Function_of_Qur_anic_Manuscripts_from_the_Seventh_to_Seventeenth_Centuries/21948098/1