Islamic World and Near East History Commons^™

The Battle Of Beersheba: Strategic And Tactical Pivot Of Palestine, Zachary D. Grafman

Senior Honors Papers

The Battle of Beersheba, fought on October 31, 1917, was a vital turning point in the British campaign against the Ottoman Turks. The battle opened a gap in the Turkish line that eventually resulted in the British takeover of Palestine. The British command saw the cavalry charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade as a new tactical opportunity, and this factored into the initiative for new light tank forces designed around the concepts of mobility and flanking movements. What these commanders failed to realize was that the Palestine Campaign was an anachronistic theater of war in comparison to the rest ...

Repurposed Narratives: The Battle Of Ṣiffīn And The Historical Memory Of The Umayyad Dynasty, Aaron M. Hagler

Mathal/Mashal

The Battle of Ṣiffīn (36/657) is the flash point in the emergence of sects within Islam. The presentation of the Ṣiffīn story in Arabic historical writing therefore changed over time as the sectarian split among Sunnīs and Shīʿites became increasingly defined. This paper will trace the development of the presentation of the Ṣiffīn story in Arabic histories across developing Sunnī and Shīʿite identity crystallization and the region of origin of their authors, as well as literary and stylistic developments in the field of Arabic historical writing.

The specific historians examined have been chosen in part because they demonstrate a ...

The Evolution Of The Story Of Julian The Apostate In Early Islamic Sources = Tabalwur QiṣṢAt Al-QayṣAr Yūliyānūs Fī Al-Fikr Al-Islāmī Al-Ta’Rīkhī, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara

Modern Languages Faculty Publications

The article examines the representations of the story of Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate (r. 361-363), in early Islamic historical writing and the channels of information that Muslims writers used to construct this narrative. The study is a comparative analysis of pertinent Islamic accounts in terms of narrative strategies, sources (Arabic, Persian, Syriac, and Greek), and methodology. In so doing, this study provides a constructive framework that enhances our understanding the historical agendas of these Muslim historians as well as the cultural discourses against which they wrote. The study also reflects on the early stages of the incorporation of Greco-Roman ...

Clay-Potter Imagery In The Bible: Theological And Practical Implications For Daily Christian Life, Karl Stelzer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

God, the Master Potter, uses clay-potter imagery to explain spiritual truth. These passages are ignored, explained superficially, or misinterpreted and have not had the divinely intended impact. Theologically, doctrines of Theology Proper, Bibliology, and Anthropology have been compromised. Practically, the Holy Spirit has been hindered. To demonstrate the need for clay-potter instruction, research will include a comparative analysis of information gathered through questionnaires to churches that have held a clay-potter conference and those that have not, and an examination of written material and popular presentations. This author combines professional pottery expertise and biblical training to present accurate exposition. This thesis ...

Disease, War, And Famine In The Sudan And Haiti: A Crisis Noticed And A Crisis Ignored, Melissa Whalen

Masters Theses

The media acts as a gatekeeper and decides what material to cover and what not to cover. In order to better understand why one disaster receives media coverage and another crisis is virtually unnoticed by the media, the motives behind covering one story over another is analyzed in this study. Three major American newspaper articles concerning the Haitian earthquake and the crisis in Darfur are examined in order to discover the media's motives for covering Haiti over Darfur.

Origin Narratives And The Making Of Dynastic History In Al-Dīnawarī’S Akhbār, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara

Modern Languages Faculty Publications

Born of Iranian or Kurdish origin,1 Abū anīfa al-Dīnawarī (d. 895) was a multifaceted Muslim scholar, but only a few scant facts of his life are known to us. He was a prolific writer in various scholarly areas, but he is remembered in early Islamic biographical dictionaries primarily for his writings in astrology, Arabic grammar, and philology.2 Unfortunately, from the long list of works ascribed to al-Dīnawarī only two have survived: Kitāb al-nabāt (the Book of Plants), which reached us in fragmentary form, and al-Akhbār al- iwāl (Extended Narratives). Modern scholarship lacks a serious discussion of these two ...

Prophethood And The Making Of Islamic Historical Identity, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara

Modern Languages Faculty Publications

As monotheistic and scriptural religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share many of the same beliefs and doctrines. Yet certain differences between these religions reflect to a great extent their religious distinctiveness and justify their moral existence.2 Islam, the last among the monotheistic religions, formed a unique religious identity as the final and, therefore, true manifestation of the divine message that began with Adam. But this distinctiveness is nowhere more evident than in the Islamic concept of prophethood (nubuwwa).

The Evolution Of The Term ‘Qarn’ In Early Islamic Sources, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara

Modern Languages Faculty Publications

In modern standard Arabic, recurrences of the term qarn (pl. qurun), of the root q-r-n, revolve around two meanings: a "horn" or "one hundred years."2 The association of qarn with "horn" is borrowed from the animal domain due to the eye-catching sight oft he animal's horns. Hence, the etymology of qarn is based on the notion that two things are situated parallel to each other. This study, however, will not examine the first meaning of qarn, but instead focus on the second. The attestations of qarn in early Islamic sources point to a composite term that retained a ...

India-Pakistan Relations: International Implications, Alka Jauhari

Government and Politics Faculty Publications

India’s independence in 1947 from the British colonial rule and its subsequent division into two nations – India and Pakistan - has sowed the seeds of continuing conflict between the two countries since their independence. The partition of India was primarily based on the religious divide between the two communities – the Hindus and the Muslims. After India’s partition, the major issue of conflict between the two countries has been the Muslim dominated northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, currently a part of India. This bilateral conflict has had international implications over the years. Decades of conflict, which includes three major ...

Shadows Of Kabul: Qiam Amiry Now Ponders Afghanistan's Troubles From Afar, John Campbell

Colby Magazine

A few years ago, Qiam Amiry ’09 was walking the streets of Kabul working as an interpreter for the British military. Now, on Mayflower Hill, Amiry has found sanctuary but has not escaped the issues facing his country.

Sickness, Scoundrels And Saints: Tanta In The World And The World In Tanta 1856-1907, Stephanie Anne Boyle

History Dissertations

My dissertation is an investigation of the Egyptian Delta city of Tanta during its period of rapid urbanization, modernization and development (1856-1907). It determines that in an effort to modernize Tanta—along with Cairo and Alexandria—the Cairo-based state authorities exponentially increased Tanta's bureaucracy and physically transformed Tanta through public work and building projects. Local elites collaborated in this endeavor by joining the new administrative and judicial bureaucracies. Reforms to institutions that focused on physical and spiritual health (new forms of Sunni orthodoxy) became a vehicle to incorporate the governed classes into the project. Specifically, this project underlines the ...

Dual Intransigence: An Assessment Of The Us-Iran Conflict And Prospects For Rapprochement, Chad Lama

Master Theses

In the months leading up to the 2012 Presidential Election, a number of Republican candidates that were vying for the nomination against the incumbent, Barack Obama, made sensational claims regarding the “Nuclear Iran Question”. This study discusses the issue of a nuclear Iran, what this means for regional stability, and what America’s options are in dealing with the Islamic Republic. Specifically the researcher addresses the consequences of a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, conducting a discourse analysis for the purposes of demonstrating the polarizing affect this issue has had on some of the leading scholars, theorists and practitioners ...

The Fourteenth Century Meets The Twenty-First: An Engaged Learning Experience In Historical Geography, Monica L. Ward

Undergraduate Research Posters 2012

Our goal was to develop an application that would enable students to use the Map Walk to “walk” through world traveler Ibn Battuta’s itinerary of his trips throughout the Muslim world between 1325 and 1354. On the day of the Map Walk, students will be able to use their smart phones to access the blogs and follow Ibn Battuta on his travels around the world.

Prisons Before Modernity: Incarceration In The Medieval Indo-Mediterranean, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.

Power, Piety, And Rebellion In Al-Andalus: The Reception And Influence Of Al-Ghazali's Political Philosophy In Islamic Iberia, Patrick Harris

The Hilltop Review

Dissident Muslims have utilized discourses of pious rulership to justify their revolt against centralized authority at least as far back as the Kharijite rebellion in the 1st/7th century, which, in turn, resulted in the first major schism within the Islamic community. One may, indeed, interpret the very founding of Islam, in part, as a pietist response to a Meccan regime which fostered an environment of injustice and iniquity. Thus, the need for a pious rulership has been at the heart of Islamic political sensibility, if not from its very foundation, then at least from its first division. Rebels and ...

Allegory And The Critique Of Sovereignty: Ismail Kadare’S Political Theologies, Rebecca Gould

Rebecca Gould

No abstract provided.