History Commons^™

God's Sabbath-Keepers: The Sabbatistai Inscription At Catioren, Robert Ogden

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Making Of Modern Egypt: The Egyptian Ulama As Custodians Of Change And Guardians Of Muslim Culture, Marai Boauod

Dissertations and Theses

Scholarship on the modern history of the Middle East has undergone profound revision in the previous three decades or so. Many earlier perceptions, largely based on modernization theory, have been either contested or modified. However, the perception of the Egyptian ulama (the traditionally-educated, religious Muslim scholars) in academic scholarship remains largely affected by the legacy of hypotheses of the modernization theory. Old assumptions that the Egyptian ulama were submissive to political power and passive players incapable of accommodating, let alone of fathoming, conditions of the modern world, and who chose or were forced to retreat from this world, losing much, …

The Consolidation Of The Consociational Democracy In Lebanon: The Challenges To Democracy In Lebanon, Micheline Germanos Ghattas

Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation looks at democracy in Lebanon, a country that has a pluralistic society with many societal cleavages. The subject of this study is the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon, described by Arend Lijphart as a "consociational democracy". The research question and sub-question posed are:

1- How consolidated is democracy in Lebanon?

2- What are the challenges facing the consolidation of democracy in Lebanon?

The preamble of the 1926 Lebanese Constitution declares the country to be a parliamentary democratic republic. The political regime is a democracy, but one that is not built on the rule of the majority in numbers, …

Visualizing Complexity : A Spatial Analysis Of Decorative Geometric Pattern In The Islamic World, 900-1400 Ad, Tracy Elizabeth Harrison

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores how the use of complex decorative geometric patterns in Islamic architecture spatially relates to advances in the fields of science and philosophy in the Islamic world between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. This project examines hypotheses developed by vario~s scholars on the forces that shaped the use of these patterns (known as the geometric mode) in Islamic architecture. The prevailing assumption that advances in mathematics contributed to the use of the geometric mode is used as a starting point for subsequent analysis.

For this study, two spatial databases were created. One contains over two hundred and twenty …

Succession To The Caliphate In Early Islam, Faisal H. Al-Kathiri

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis will examine the succession to the Islamic Caliphate as it existed during the time of the orthodox Caliphs (632-661).

The American Efforts To Modernize The Egyptian Army Under Khedive Ismail, Robin Joy Love Buxton

Dissertations and Theses

From 1869 to 1878 approximately fifty American military officers were invited to Egypt by Khedive Ismail for the purpose of modernizing the Egyptian army. During that time the American officers led by General Charles P. Stone designed a staff system for the Egyptian army and they established a series of technical schools not only for the staff officers but for the rank and file as well. In addition to the reorganization, the American officers led exploratory expeditions into central Africa, they refortified the Egyptian coastline and they built roads and lighthouses. In conjunction with their expeditions, the officers produced numerous …

Important Counsels To Kings And Imams By Shaykh ʻAlwan (ʻAli Ibn ʻAttiyyah Al-Hamawi) ; Translation, With A Historic Introduction, The Biography Of The Author And Commentaries On The Text, Abdullah S. Zaid

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is intended to be an analysis of a book entitled "Important Counsels to Kings and Imams." It is, in the same time, a research on the book's author, named Alwan Ibn Atiyyah al-Hamawi. Alwan was a Syrian muslim scholar, who lived in the sixteenth century. Alwan witnessed the Ottoman conquering of Syria, so, he wrote his book, Important Counsels to Kings and Imams, as a reflection of his views toward the Ottoman regime. Alwan addressed his book to Sultan Selim I, encouraging him to establish justice through the religious law, the Sharia.

The thesis is composed of four …

Implications Of American Missionary Presence In 19th And 20th Century Iran, Linda Colleen Karimi

Dissertations and Theses

When dealing with missionary endeavors abroad most writers tend to concentrate on the evangelical aspect. However, missionaries have played a much more extensive role than this. In the case of Iran, the evangelical impact of the missionary effort was minimal in comparison to both the medical and educational branches of their work. In spite of their original intent of revitalizing the native Christianity, it was through their educators and doctors that the missionaries had their greatest influence on 19th and 20th century Iran.

For centuries Iran had been relatively isolated from the outside world and its advances. Such conditions were …

The Policy Of Containment And The Middle East, 1946-1958, Ahed George Samaan

Dissertations and Theses

The main objective of American foreign policy in the Middle East, during the post-War period of 1946-1958, was to safeguard the area against Soviet intrusions. This thesis attempts to examine the causes for the failure of the United States to achieve this objective. It concludes that this failure is the result of an alienation of the major national forces in the Middle East. The United States alienated the Arab world by openly and unreservedly supporting Zionist aims in Palestine. She alienated newly independent states by establishing close cooperation with Britain and France, their former colonial masters. She alienated revolutionary nationalists …