Islamic World and Near East History Commons^™

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.

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 …

I Am A Yakhchal, Scott M. Shafer

Student Publications

A description of the history and function of a traditional Iranian ice house, known as a Yakhchal, as told through the eyes of one such ice house surviving into the present day.

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.

The Marwani Musalla In Jerusalem: New Findings, Beatrice St. Laurent, Isam Awwad

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

Shortly after Caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab’s (579-644, caliph 634-644) arrival in Jerusalem in 638, he is said to have constructed a rudimentary mosque or prayer space south of the historical Rock now contained within the Dome of the Rock (completed 691) on the former Temple Mount or Bayt al-Maqdis known popularly since Mamluk and Ottoman times as the Haram al-Sharif. Though later textual evidence indicates that ‘Umar prayed somewhere south of the “rock” and later scholars suggest that he constructed a rudimentary prayer space on the site, there is no surviving physical evidence of that initial structure. After his appointment …

Review Of Murat Birdal, The Political Economy Of Ottoman Public Debt: Insolvency And European Financial Control In The Late Nineteenth Century, Bedross Der Matossian

Department of History: Faculty Publications

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire along with Egypt and Iran emerged as debtor states. This was the direct result of the extensive social, political and economic transformations that were taking place in the region. Extensive reforms under the rubric of defensive modernization aimed at saving these countries from political decline. Economic reforms aimed at preventing the encroachment of European powers within the political economy of these countries. However, drastic changes in the capitalist world economy led to mounting pressure over these economies and transformed them from economically self-sufficient countries to peripheral debtor states. By …

Polemic, Redaction, And History In The Mandaean Book Of John: The Case Of The Lightworld Visitors To Jerusalem, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

It is unclear whether there is anything of historical usefulness that can be gleaned from the details of the depictions of figures such as John the Baptist, Miriai, and Jesus in the Mandaean Book of John. This does not mean, however, that the text cannot provide useful information about the history of the Mandaeans, and of their interactions with other religious communities. By analyzing the evidence for redaction in certain key sections, and by distinguishing between core elements and peripheral additions to the stories recorded in it, it is possible to draw conclusions about the tradition history of the material, …

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.

Inscriptional Evidence Of Pre-Islamic Classical Arabic: Selected Readings In The Nabataean, Musnad, And Akkadian Inscriptions, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book investigates the ancient roots of Classical Arabic through detailed tracings and readings of selected, Pre-Islamic, ancient inscriptions from the Northern and Southern Arabian Peninsula. It provides detailed readings of important Akkadian, Nabataean, and old Arabic Musnad inscriptions, including Namarah and the Epic of Gilgamesh inscriptions. The book provides clear inscriptional evidence indicating that Classical Arabic was predominantly utilized in the major population centers of the greater Arabian Peninsula, including Mesopotamia and the Levant regions, many, many centuries before Islam. In his book, the author presents several important new readings. Among them, a new reading of two important Classical …

India-Pakistan Relations: International Implications, Alka Jauhari

Political Science & Global Affairs 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 …

[Chapter 1 From] The Faithful Scribe: A Story Of Islam, Pakistan, Family, And War, Shahan Mufti

Bookshelf

A journalist explores his family’s history to reveal the hybrid cultural and political landscape of Pakistan, the world’s first Islamic democracy. Shahan Mufti’s family history, which he can trace back fourteen hundred years to the inner circle of the prophet Muhammad, offers an enlightened perspective on the mystifying history of Pakistan. Mufti uses the stories of his ancestors, many of whom served as judges and jurists in Muslim sharia courts of South Asia for many centuries, to reveal the deepest roots—real and imagined—of Islamic civilization in Pakistan.

More than a personal history, The Faithful Scribe captures the larger story of …

Between Two Jailers: Women's Experience During Colonialism, War, And Independence In Algeria, Adrienne Leonhardt

Anthós

After a nearly 130-year regime of violence and oppression under French colonialism, Algerians began their struggle for independence in 1954. Nearly one million people were killed, centuries-old traditions were broken, and the country was torn apart. The Algerian war has also been described as a “moment in which gendered, religious, and ethnic identities were challenged.” Within Algerian society and the French colonial regime at the time, expectations were deeply ingrained regarding the status and rights of women. Particularly significant is the impact that the war had on shaping Algerian women’s role in society. Both sides used women during the conflict …

The African-American Islamic Renaissance And The Rise Of The Nation Of Islam, Patrick Denis Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines African-American Islamic culture from 1920 through 1959, a period I label the "African-American Islamic Renaissance" (AAIR). The AAIR is characterized by a significant increase in interest in Islam, extreme diversity in views about Islam, and the absence of a single organization dominating African-American Islamic culture for a significant amount of time. Previous works dealing with African-American Islam in this period have failed to fully recognize these features, particularly the last of these. As a result, explanations for the rise of the Nation of Islam (NOI) have not satisfactorily explained why it was only the NOI--and not other …

Resource-Sharing And Genealogical Research On Islamic Chinese Names In Guilin, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao

Publications and Research

Jiapu家譜, the Chinese Family Register, has been used for thousands of years to trace the genealogical history of a clan and lineage, including a family’s origin, its collateral lines, the migration history of the clan, names and ages of the members, records of marriages, births and deaths, merits and deeds, ancestral biography and ancestral locality. This paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names found in Jiapu and used by the people living in Guilin, Guangxi Province. It provides the historical background of genealogical records and analyzes the …

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

Master's 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 central …

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

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures 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 …

Urbanism In The Northern Levant During The 4th Millennium Bce, Rasha El-Endari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of urbanism in the Near East during the 4thmillennium BCE has been an important debate for decades and with recent scientific findings, a revival of this intellectual discussion has come about. Many archaeologists suggested that urban societies first emerged in southern Mesopotamia, and then expanded to the north and northwest. With recent excavations in northern Mesopotamia, significant evidence has come to light with the finding of monumental architecture and city walls dated to the beginning of the 4th millennium BCE, well before southern Mesopotamian urban expansion. These discoveries reflect important administrative systems and stratified sociopolitical structures within these …

Unnecessary Evil: An Examination Of Abu Ghraib Torture Photographs As Postcolonial Resistance Rhetoric, Patrick Gerhardt Richey

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the rhetorical nature of visual artifacts in a postcolonial context. In order to examine the nature of visual artifacts as a form of resistance against static ideologies and prevailing power structures, the author uses both media and cultural artifacts created in response to photographs taken of abused prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib Correctional Facility. The dissertation adds to scholarly knowledge of communication by addressing the intersections of iconographic visual communication and postcolonial resistance rhetoric. The dissertation provides a scholarly review of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, as well as of literature explicating …

The Coverings Of An Empire: An Examination Of Ottoman Headgear From 1500 To 1829, Connor H. Richardson

Student Publications

This paper investigates the socio-economic and religious implications of hats worn in the Ottoman Empire from the mid-sixteenth century to 1829, when they were all replaced with the legendary fez. It acts as an initial compendium, drawing heavily from primary sources to explain who wore which style of headgear and why.

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.

The Spiritual Reformist Thought Of The Amīr ʿAbd Al-Qādir Al-JazāʾIrī In The Eyes Of His Western Interpreters: A Critical Historiographical Review, Daanish Faruqi

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

The Prevention Of Victory: How The U.S. Government Crippled Support For The Iraq War, Jacob M. Petrarca

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

A history of how the beginning stages of the War in Iraq were handled so poorly, from its misleading onset to the ill-fated concept of De-Ba'athification and the horrors at Abu-Ghraib and how the subsequent public out lash led to the impossibility for a positive outcome.

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 reformers …

Coffee And Dates: Perceptions Of Life In The Modern Middle East, Patrick Edward Thevenow

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Old men were everywhere. The Nizwa Souq was crawling with them as they wandered through the labyrinth of shops to converse, eat dates, and drink coffee. Instantly, scenes from Wilfred Thesiger's "Arabian Sands" came to mind as the old men of the souq went about their daily business. This was the first time I had truly been on my own in Oman-away from my school and the Americans there, away from the modern conveniences of Muscat-yet as my initial sense of bewilderment subsided, I began to realize this research was going to change the course of my life. The men …

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Contemporary Islamic House, Hanna Ibrahim

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Architectural design thesis-- proposes a contemporary house that is a manifestation of the practices of the Islamic religion.

The Bionic Self: Unveiling The Phantom Of The East, Christopher J. Jarmark

English Theses

The existence of Palestine is a question that has haunted the East ever since Israel’s occupation laid roots there in the mid-twentieth century. Occupation allowed for Israel not only to conquer the land of Palestine for itself but also, through bloodied battles and harsh socio-political expectations, to squeeze the essence of cultural identity from the Palestinians. As the occupation stripped the cultural heritage from the Palestinians, they were placed into roles of refugees and exiles, leaving them to wander blankly with only the painfully scarred memories of what used to be their home and culture. Ghassan Kanafani and Sahar Khalifeh …

The Problem With Nuclear Diplomacy: Jimmy Carter And Pakistan's Nuclear Program, Brittany Raymer

Masters Theses

A detailed history of Pakistan's attempt to build the atomic bomb in the 1970s and Jimmy Carter's reaction to the tense diplomatic situation.

Creating A Nation In Adversity: Advent Of Egyptian Nationalism In British Occupation, Kathryn Louise James

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nationalism is the process through which the groupings of ethnicity, nationhood, and statehood successfully merge into a nation-state. This study seeks to identify the cause of nationalism in Egypt and its characteristics.

Islam In Central Asia: A Religion And A Heritage, Jordan Pahl

Young Historians Conference

Despite the growing relevance of the Central Asian region to modern-day foreign affairs, little is generally understood by the public about these countries. Few people can name the five Central Asian republics and even fewer understand the complicated social, political, and religious history of the region. This paper explores the prevalence of Islam in the Central Asian states and the influence of the former Soviet Union's anti-religious policies on the region. Through extensive research as well as interviews conducted with modern-day Central Asian students living in the region, the unexpected implications of the anti-religious policies are revealed, and the current …