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(Dis)Locating Meaning: Toward A Hermeneutical Response In Education To Religiously Inspired Extremism, Farid Panjwani

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

A key epistemological assumption in the ideologies of many of the groups termed extremist is that there is an unmediated access to a Divine Will. Driven by this assumption, and facilitated by several other factors, a range of coercive actions (including violence) to force others into submission to the perceived Will of God are seen as justified by some of these groups. A consideration of how religion is discussed in various contexts, from seminaries and schools to media and policy discourses, shows that this assumption about unmediated access to Divine Will is widely shared and that most children grow up …

Review Of Hans-Ulrich KüHn "Sultan Baibars Und Seine Söhne", Gowaart Van Den Bossche

Faculty & Staff Publications

Van Den Bossche, Gowaart. "Hans-Ulrich Kühn, Sultan Baibars und seine Söhne: Frühmamlūkische Herrschaftssicherung in ayyūbidischer Tradition, Bonn: V&R unipress/Bonn University Press 2019 (Mamluk Studies Vol. 18), 661 pp., including appendices (with 17 full colour photographs) and index, ISBN: 978-3-8471-0812-2." Der Islam, vol. 98, no. 2, 2021, pp. 621-626. https://doi.org/10.1515/islam-2021-0045

Kharijism In The Umayyad Period, Peter Verkinderen

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Destroying Churches By Performing Knowledge: Ibn Al-RifʿA’S Kitāb Al-Nafā’Is Fī Adillat Hadm Al-Kanā’Is (700/1301) And The Social Negotiation Of Legal Authority, Gowaart Van Den Bossche

Faculty & Staff Publications

In 700/1301 the Cairene scholar Najm al-Dīn Ibn al-Rifʿa wrote a short juridical treatise entitled Kitāb al-nafāʾis fī adillat hadm al-kanāʾis in which he argued for the destruction of all churches and synagogues in Cairo. Some chroniclers report that this text was used to legitimise popular attacks on and the destruction of churches, but shortly thereafter, Ibn al-Rifʿa’s opinion was declared invalid by a council of prominent jurists. In addition to its juridical arguments for church destruction, several statements found in the treatise suggest that it was meant to function as a challenge to the author’s peers. I argue that …

Secularism In The Arab World: Contexts, Ideas And Consequences, Aziz Al-Azmeh, David Bond

In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers

Explores secularism and secularisation in Arab societies since the mid-19th century.

This book is a translation of Aziz al-Azmeh’s seminal work Al-'Ilmaniya min mandhur mukhtalif that was first published in Beirut in 1992. Both celebrated and criticised for its reflections on Arab secularisation and secularism in the modern history of the Arab World, it is the only study to date to approach its subject as a set of historical changes which affected the regulation of the social, political and cultural order, and which permeated the concrete workings of society, rather than as an ideological discussion framed from the outset by …

The Governors Of Al-Shām And Fārs In The Early Islamic Empire, Peter Verkinderen

Book Chapters / Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

40 Years On: Reflections On The Iranian Revolution, Sevgi Adak, Touraj Atabaki, Kamran Matin, Valentine M. Moghadam

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

The three articles compiled here are based on a panel discussion held at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) on 23 May 2019.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, its aim was to revisit the debate on the causes and impact of the revolution for Iran and beyond.

Three questions in particular guided the interdisciplinary dialogue and political reflections on this world historical event: How should we analyse the conditions underpinning the revolutionary dynamics in Iran in the global context of the 1970s? How should the Iranian Revolution be analysed in an …

40 Years On: Reflections On The Iranian Revolution

Faculty & Staff Publications

Abdou Filali-Ensari Occasional Paper Series 1, edited by Sevgi Adak

Islamic Calligraphy (Book Review), Walid Ghali

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Volume 6: Contemporary Islamic Law In Indonesia : Sharia And Legal Pluralism, Arskal Salim

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Indonesia has probably the fastest changing legal system in the Muslim world. This book represents the first ethnographic account of legal pluralism in the post-conflict and disaster situation in Aceh. It addresses changes in both the national legal system and the regional legal structure in the province.

Focusing on the encounter between diverse patterns of legal reasoning advocated by multiple actors and by different institutions (local, national and international; official and unofficial; judicial, political and social cultural) it considers the vast array of issues arising in the wake of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh.

It investigates disputes …

Volume 5: Genealogy And Knowledge In Muslim Societies : Understanding The Past, Sarah Bowen Savant, Helena De Felipe

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Genealogy is one of the most important and authoritative organising principles of Muslim societies.

From the Prophet’s day to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped tribal, ethnic, sectarian and other identities. An understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.

This book addresses the subject through a range of case studies that link genealogical knowledge to the particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability served.

The Political Aesthetics Of Global Protest : The Arab Spring And Beyond, Pnina Werbner, Martin Webb, Kathryn Spellman-Poots

Independent Volumes

A remarkable feature of the Arab Spring and other protests that followed in Egypt, India, Botswana and the UK, among other places, has been the salience of images, songs, videos, humour, satire and dramatic performances.

This book explores the central role the aesthetic played in energising the mass mobilisations of young people, the disaffected, the middle classes, the apolitical silent majority, as well as enabling solidarities and alliances among democrats, workers, trade unions, civil rights activists and opposition parties.

Comparing the North African and Middle Eastern uprisings with protest movements such as Occupy, the authors bring to bear an anthropological …

Muslim Vs Islamic, Jan-E-Alam Khaki

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Islam And The Foundations Of Political Power, Ali Abdel Razek, Maryam Loutfi, Abdou Filali-Ansary

In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers

The publication of this essay in Egypt in 1925 took the contemporaries of Ali Abdel Razek by storm.

At a time when there was widespread turmoil over the abolition of the caliphate by Ataturk in Turkey, Ali Abdel Razek, a religious cleric trained at Al-Azhar University, argued in favour of secularism.

The abolition of the caliphate had re-ignited the question of Islam and its relationship to political power. This essay unleashed the Arab world’s first great public debate published in the press with polemics supporting or refuting Ali Abdel Razek’s ideas.

Volume 4: Cosmopolitanisms In Muslim Contexts : Perspectives From The Past, Derryl N. Maclean, Sikeena Karmali Ahmed

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Cosmopolitanism is a key concept in social and political thought, standing in opposition to closed human group ideologies such as tribalism, nationalism and fundamentalism. Much recent discussion of this concept has been situated within Western self-perceptions, with little inclusion of information from Muslim contexts.

This volume redresses the balance by focusing attention on instances in world history when cosmopolitan ideas and actions pervaded specific Muslim societies and cultures, exploring the tensions between regional cultures, isolated enclaves and modern nation-states. Models are chosen from four geographic areas: The Swahili coast, the Ottoman empire/Turkey, Iran and Indo-Pakistan.

Interpretations Of Law And Ethics In Muslim Contexts, Aptin Khanbaghi

Muslim Civilisations Abstracts

Law within Muslim societies is not uniform; even within Muslim majority regions it can be interpreted differently according to different denominations and legal traditions. As law forms an integral part of normative social practice, reflecting the moral and ethical principles of a society, it is important to highlight the diversity of interpretations to better enable the study of law along with the ethical principles of a community.

Volume 2 of the MCA series brings together some of the many unheard voices of scholars studying law and ethics in languages other than English. It features 200 abstracts with bibliographical details in …

The Construction Of Belief : Reflections On The Thought Of Mohammed Arkoun, Abdou Filali-Ansari, Aziz Esmail

Independent Volumes

Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism.

This festschrift honours Mohammed Arkoun’s scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun’s work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological …

Volume 3: Ethnographies Of Islam : Ritual Performances And Everyday Practices, Baudouin Dupret, Thomas Pierret, Paulo G. Pinto, Kathryn Spellman-Poots

Exploring Muslim Contexts

This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom.

This book counters such discourses by showing the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and by promoting reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.

Islam : Between Message And History, Abdelmadjid Charfi, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Sikeena Karmali Ahmed, David Bond

In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers

This book could easily be called ‘A Guide for the Modern Muslim’, someone for whom the sentiments of his or her ancestors resonate but who cannot accept the canonised formulas of a prescriptive education.

Charfi spells out what for him is the essential message of Islam, followed by a history of its unfolding through the person of the Prophet Muhammad, whom he perceives as a visionary seeking to change the ideals, attitudes and behaviours of the society in which he lived. Charfi delineates the message and its history as two separate elements, conflated by tradition.

Charfi confronts with great lucidity …

Volume 2: Development Models In Muslim Contexts : Chinese, 'Islamic' And Neo-Liberal Alternatives, Robert Springborg

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Recent discussions of the 'Chinese economic development model', the emergence of an alternative 'Muslim model' over the past quarter century and the faltering globalisation of the 'Washington Consensus' all point to the need to investigate more systematically the nature of these models and their competitive attractions.

This is especially the case in the Muslim world which both spans different economic and geographic categories and is itself the progenitor of a development model.

The 'Chinese model' has attracted the greatest attention in step with that country's phenomenal growth and therefore provides the primary focus for this book. This volume examines the …

Encyclopaedias About Muslim Civilisations, Aptin Khanbaghi

Muslim Civilisations Abstracts

Over the past 150 years, numerous encyclopaedias have been produced on Muslim civilisations, both by Muslims and non-Muslims, with different approaches to the organisation of knowledge and understanding of Muslim beliefs, cultures and societies. Access to and knowledge of these reference works and databases have until now been hindered by language barriers. The first volume in the MCA series seeks to overcome this obstacle by presenting material in three languages: English, Arabic and Turkish.

This is a unique reference catalogue containing 200 annotated bibliographies and abstracts of encyclopaedias published during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Volume 1: The Challenge Of Pluralism : Paradigms From Muslim Contexts, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Sikeena Karmali Ahmed

Exploring Muslim Contexts

The volume discusses notions of pluralism and its specific relevance to Muslim societies. Current popular and academic discussions tend to make certain assumptions regarding Islam and its lack of compatibility with notions of pluralism. Some notable liberal thinkers have even argued that pluralism itself is inherently antithetical to Islam.

These assumptions are challenged by discussing the broad spectrum of relevance and application of the notion of pluralism to modern day societies, examining securalism, multiculturalism, democracy, globalisation and the pivotal role of civil society.