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Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 1 Summer 2009, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Mosque Of Emir Altunbugha Al-Maridani In Light Of Mamluk Patronage Under Al- Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun, Diana Isaac Bakhoum

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Floriated Kufic On The Monuments Of Fatimid Cairo, Bahia Shehab

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Funeray Complex Of Taghri Bardi, Ahmed Kamal

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Natural Resources As A Source Of Conflict In The Middle East, Alanna C. Torres

Pitzer Senior Theses

The purpose of my thesis was to counter Samuel Huntington’s argument that the world’s conflict is over differing civilizations, religions, or cultures. Whether or not religion is declining or growing, it cannot be used to portray the world in a 'cosmic war,' or a battle between 'good and evil'. Natural resources, not religions, rest at the basis for the Islamic fundamentalist and militant movement due to its response to the Western structural pressures that are modernizing Muslim societies. Oil and water become vital tools for exercising power and authority of one nation over another, and are identified as the true …

Between Qur'an And Custom: Gendered Negotiations In Contemporary Sana'a, Anoush Tamar Suni

Pomona Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

Working The System: The Role Of Islam In Student Negotiations Of A Midwestern Charter School, Elizabeth J. Baer

Religious Studies Honors Projects

“What should the role of Islam be in American public life?” Rather than answer this question through broad, theoretical discourse, I turn to a case study of Somali Muslims in a Midwestern charter school. Through this case study, I analyze how individual Muslims, tied to communities and Allah in diverse ways, actively negotiate how to incorporate their religious practices into public space. I argue that by examining specific strategies used by individuals in an actual school setting, as opposed to making generalizing assumptions, one can better understand that Islam already plays a variety of constantly changing roles in American public …

Rise And Development Of Societal Obligation (Fardh Kifiiya) In Islamic Legal Philosophy, Nahla El-Haraki

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

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 …

Assia Djebars La Femme Sans Spulture As Postcolonial Primer, Dana Strand

French and Francophone Studies Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

The Ghosts Of Our Mothers: From Oral Tradition To Written Words—A History And Critique Of Jewish Women Writers Of Iranian Heritage, Farideh Goldin

English Faculty Publications

Throughout the 2,000 years of Iranian Jewish history, women usually were either illiterate or silenced. Iranian Jewish women in exile have been making up for their foremothers by creating prose literature at a fast pace in the last two decades. Through their poetry, novels and memoirs, they validate the claim that with financial security, access to education, and freedom of speech—rarely accessible to Iranian women until the twentieth century—they can shine. This article explores the history and background of Jewish women writers of Iranian heritage.

Traditional Architecture Of Asir Region- Saudi Arabia The Architecture Of Rujal Village As A Case Study Analytical Study, Manal Ibrahim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Trade On Sabil Decoration, Maryam Abd Al-Aziz Farrag

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Seeing The Unseen, Hebatallah Youssef

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Man as a being has always been concerned with seeing the unseen; each individual who ventures upon this search has a different trajectory. This research studies the path which seems to unite different travelers who seek the vision of the unseen, through analyzing Plato's allegory of the cave, which is an excerpt from The Republic, Heidegger's interpretation of the allegory which is from his book The Essence of Truth, and some of the works of Ibn 'Arabi which shed light on the Sufi path. It is my hope that the similarities that emerge from this analysis will help enunciate the …

Alexander In The Himalayas: Competing Imperial Legacies In Medieval Islamic History And Literature, Anna Akasoy

Publications and Research

In 1888, Rudyard Kipling published a collection of stories in a volume with the title The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Tales. The collection includes the short story The Man Who Would be King, in which Kipling's alter ego, a British journalist in India, makes the acquaintance of a pair of adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, who demand his help as a fellow Mason. The two shady characters have set out to take advantage of divisions among the natives and are determined to install themselves as kings in Kafiristan, a remote region inhabited by pagans in the north of the …

The Realization Of The Speech Act Of Refusal In Egyptian Arabic By American Learners Of Arabic As A Foreign Language, Nader Morkus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated how the speech act of refusal is realized in Egyptian Arabic by intermediate and advanced American learners of Arabic as a foreign language. It also compared the performance of the learners to that of native speakers of Egyptian Arabic and native speakers of American English. The study aimed to investigate the relationship between the learners' language proficiency and their pragmatic competence. In addition, it examined the extent of pragmatic transfer from L1 and whether there was a relationship between the degree of pragmatic transfer and the level of L2 proficiency. The study also examined how refusals are …

Political Science Fall 2008, Dan Sabia

Political Science Newsletter Fall 2008

No abstract provided.

Language Gain During Arabic Study Abroad: A Case Study Of A Semester Abroad In Amman, Jordan, Laila Lamani

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the 2006 Arabic study abroad in Amman, Jordan. This analysis aims to help organizers and participants of similar future programs to maximize language gain. The students' pre- and post-program language competencies in reading, speaking, listening, and writing are measured and compared. The students' daily journals during the period of the program are also analyzed. The quantitative analysis shows that statistically significant improvement has occurred in all four language skills. The qualitative analysis suggests that keeping a steady journal, setting daily or weekly language goals, doing volunteer work, having clear and reasonable …

Las Cuestiones Sicilianas De Ibn Sab‘Īn: El Texto, Sus Fuentes Y Su Contexto Histórico, Anna Ayşe Akasoy

Publications and Research

The Sicilian Questions are the earliest pre-served text of the philosopher and Sufi Ibn Sab‘īn of Murcia (c. 614/1217-668/1270). Even though the prologue of the text claims that it is a response to questions sent by Frederick II to the Arab world, it seems more likely that it was an introductory manual for Arab students of philosophy, dealing with four specific and controversial problems as away of presenting general concepts of Aristotelian philosophy. This article analyses the structure and way of argumentation in the Sicilian Questions. Particular attention is being paid to the relationship between mysticism and philosophy and …

Dialectic Of Past And Present In Eco's The Name Of The Rose And Al-Ghitani's Zayni Barakat, Martino Lovato

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This thesis compares an Italian and an Egyptian novel, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Gamal al-Ghitani's Zayni Barakat, paying particular attention to the way European and Arabic historiographies influence their composition. Both set at the end of the Middle Ages, the two novels are taken as representatives of the way contemporary European and Arabic literature portray the past in relation to their present. Starting with a reconstruction of the two historiographic patterns based on Salvation and Progress, and their influencing the notion of literary Medievalism, the two novels are treated separately in order to contextualize them in …

Arabic Rhetoric Discourse: An Analysis Of Opinion Newspaper Articles, Fatma Gad

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This study is a descriptive quantitative study which examines text superstructure patterns of opinion articles written in Arabic by native Arabic-speakers. It addresses three questions: 1) What is/are the rhetorical superstructure pattern(s) of Arabic argumentative texts represented in newspaper political/social opinion articles? And what are the frequencies of these patterns? 2) Where, in these opinion articles, do Arab writers prefer to introduce their "general thesis"? And 3) What are the argument constructions and forms used by Arab writers within opinion articles? By utilizing an adapted Problem-Solution analysis pattern to answer the study’s questions, the text superstructure of 26 opinion newspaper …

The Mut`Azilī Criteria For Evaluating Prophetic Traditions With Special Reference To Usụ̄L Al-Fiqh, Mohamed Ahmed Abdelrahman

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Narrative, Authority And The Voices Of Morality And Reason: An Intertextual Exploration Of Select Texts Of Mirror For Princes Literature & The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night With Select Sufi Literature, Sharon Allen

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Medical Healers In Ottoman Egypt, 1517-1798, Sherry Sayed Gad Elrab

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stylistic Analysis Of The Use Of Simile In Kalila Wa Dimna By Ibn Al-Muqaffa', Cynthia Brandenburg Harlow

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mamluk Carpets ( Cairene And Ottoman), Hala Mohamed Sayed

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The ḤĪran School: A Canonical Controversy In Pre-Islamic Poetry, Adam Talib

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Code Mixing In 'Ammiyat Al-Muthaqqafin: A Case Study On The Use Of The B-Prefix As A Tense Marker, Hanady Tawakol

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This study aims at investigating possible rules that govern code mixing between the two basic varieties (H and L; Ferguson, 1959) at the verbal phrase level (combining linguistic features of Fusha and ‘ammiya in spoken verbal sentences used in ‘ammiyat Al-Muthaqqafin). In this study, the feature of choice is the use of the b-prefix (an aspectual marker used as a prefix with present tense ‘ammiya verbs). In particular, this study aims at analyzing the possible rules that govern the use of the b-prefix from a linguistic perspective. Furthermore, this study attempts to determine whether morphological or syntactic factors affect its …

Dilemmas Of Islamic And Secular Feminists And Feminisms, Huma Ahmed-Ghosh

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper explores ways in which a multifaceted understanding of Islamic feminism can contribute to productive dialogue about the future of Muslim women in both Islamic and secular states. Towards that end I will discuss the numerous interpretations of Islamic, secular, collaborative and hybrid feminisms that have surfaced in Islamic and non-Islamic nations. There is a pragmatic value to developing a standard for Islamic feminism that can be “modern” and held up to more oppressive local conditions/politics and their extremes of patriarchy. To do this, one needs a comprehensive review of what local oppressions exist in specific countries and what …

Subverting Hegemonic Masculinity In Contemporary Arabic Literature: A Comparative Study Of Sonallah Ibrahim's Al-Lajna, Mourid Barghuti's Ra'aytu Ramallah, Hoda Barakat's Hajar Al-Dahik And Ahlam Mosteghanemi's Dhakirat Al-Jasad, Nesrin Helmy Allam

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.