1,720,978 research outputs found
Opwis Felicitas, Maṣlaḥa and the Purpose of the Law. Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/ 10th to 8th/ 14th Century. Leyde, Brill (Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 31), 2010
No full textBenkheira Mohammed Hocine. Opwis Felicitas, Maṣlaḥa and the Purpose of the Law. Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/ 10th to 8th/ 14th Century. Leyde, Brill (Studies in Islamic Law and Society, vol. 31), 2010. In: Bulletin critique des annales islamologiques, n°27, 2012. pp. 27-31
Framing the Jurist: The Legal Persona of Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
No full textPh.D.This research looks at attempts by the Egyptian polymath Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505) to frame his authority as a jurist in his legal writings. The research aims to access the multi-faceted legal persona that the author constructs through his use of the written word. I suggest that al-Suyuti seeks to assert his authority as a superior scholar at a time in which claims to practice independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) were often met with hostility by members of the scholarly community.Each chapter is intended to analyze in detail a different aspect of al-Suyuti's legal persona as well as a different rhetorical strategy that the author uses to establish, defend, and maintain his authority. The texts examined as case studies include: a legal opinion (fatwa) concerning scholarly stipends funded by `public' endowments, a fatwa condemning the study of logic, independent treatises and sections of the author's autobiography dealing with the concepts of ijtihad and tajdid (religious renewal), and a book on legal precepts (qawa`id).I assume that the author's choice of form and genre is deliberate and that his use of language speaks to his pragmatic goals. In order to claim the rank of mujtahid (jurist capable of independent reasoning) and mujaddid (renewer of religion), al-Suyuti must speak and act as such. To understand how al-Suyuti uses language to accomplish these goals, I incorporate into my analysis theories and methodological tools from the realm of sociolinguistics, including framing techniques, interdiscursivity, communities of practice, critical discourse analysis, and pragmatics. Sociolinguistic theories are a valuable means with which to understand not only what the author wishes to convey but also how he says it and why he chooses to say it in the way that he does.Finally, this research allows me to evaluate, to some degree, the relative effectiveness of al-Suyuti's efforts to frame his persona as a jurist and to negotiate this identity in the world through practice. I conclude that, while al-Suyuti's framing effort may have failed to convince most of his contemporaries, he is vindicated by the continuing legacy of his works
Al-Fārābī's Theory of Science and His Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm
No full textPh.D.This study deals with the classification of the sciences in Arabic and Islamic philosophy. It does so through an examination of the tenth-century philosopher Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī (d. 339/950) and his treatise Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm (Enumeration of the Sciences). Scholarship to date has largely approached this influential text with a focus on the history of early Arabic classificatory systems, tracing their Greek roots and impact on subsequent Islamic, Christian, and Jewish writings. The present study builds on this work but foregrounds the ontological and epistemological bases of al-Fārābī’s treatise, offering a more comprehensive analysis of his division of knowledge.My central argument is that al-Fārābī’s notion of science (ʿilm) is far more nuanced than scholars have typically recognized, being broader than that of his Greek predecessors. His Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm provides a window onto the complex internal and hierarchical structures of knowledge. At the same time, I analyze this treatise by drawing on a number of his other works, such as the Kitāb al-burhān (Book of Demonstration) and the Taḥṣīl al-saʿāda (Attainment of Happiness), which open up new readings of the Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm. As I show, what seems a straightforward work—one that simply “enumerates” the sciences—contains, on closer inspection, a sophisticated approach to the division of knowledge. Ultimately, this study illuminates different aspects of al-Fārābī’s approach, identifying his influences, innovations, as well as contradictions that surface in considering his treatise as a whole
Divine Story-Telling as Self-Presentation: An Analysis of Sūrat al-Kahf
No full textPh.D.This dissertation explores the application of narrative analysis to five Qur'ānic stories in Sūrat al-Kahf, the eighteenth chapter of the Qur'ān. Traditional Qur'ānic exegesis treats the narratives atomistically, giving great attention to the historical details, whilst contemporary Western scholarship approaches Qur'ānic narratives from literary-textual analysis that focuses on plot, characters, and recently literary features such as chiasmus. These approaches do not shed light on the deeper aims and psyche of the Speaker except that God recounts them to offer moral lessons. The purpose of this study is to engage the question of how narratives are functioning in the Qur'ān. This dissertation specifically asks whether they are fulfilling didactic aims using history or whether they are serving as a medium through which we can come to know God? This study presents one way to possibly understand God's motives in telling the stories by applying narrative analysis. As such, the narratives of Sūrat al-Kahf are approached with these key questions: Why is the narrator telling the story? What is the point of the narrative? How does the narrator organize his story to make his point? In exploring these questions multiple new insights into the notion of Qur'ānic subjectivity emerge. This thesis argues that God, the sustained Speaker, is ultimately using His narratives to construct and develop His superior `Self-image.' In closely tracing the distribution of this Self-image throughout the narratives, various linguistic devices and strategies are discovered for how God constructs His narratives as `personal' narratives. Through such techniques, we find that a multifaceted presentation of God as al-walī, `The Protector,' alongside other virtues such as God as al-qādir, `The Omnipotent,' and God as khayr-un thawab-an wa `uqb-an, `The Best giver of reward and punishment' emerge as dominant attributes that also provide the sūra with coherency
Dreams of Alternative Modernities on the Nile
No full textPh.D.This study accounts for the ability of Egyptian cinema, as a modern art form and popular culture, to critique rigid social realities and imagine modern social experiences despite overt and covert censorship regimes, thereby pushing boundaries towards social change. Focusing on the inter-revolutionary period of 1919-1952, I examine the deep-seated problems and attempts to overcome overt and covert censorship by the colonial state, the Cairene bourgeoisie, and the ‘ulama’. I argue that censorship is a byproduct of a dominant false consciousness of modernity, which the colonial state, the Cairene bourgeoisie, and the ‘ulama’ reduced to sustaining an amour-propre of a modern civilizational image without the internalization of modern notions of equity and social justice. This false consciousness of modernity drove a number of passive colonialist cultural policies and anti-colonialist reactions, which reduced film to an instrument of cultural hegemony. Pioneer filmmakers, who witnessed the anti-British 1919 revolution with its limited success in advancing the project of modernity in Egypt, found in cinema a powerful new communication medium, which they used to present a counter-discourse. Filmmakers used the screen to construct a public sphere where subaltern social groups— such as working class Egyptians, peasants, women and performing artists— occupied a central position. A secularizing society—but not anti-religious society—, in which people enjoyed surprising levels of social liberties and social justice for the period, was the marker of that cinematic public sphere. In doing so, early Egyptian cinema amplified the unheard voices of the marginalized within the public sphere. At the same time, cinema critiqued the root causes—not the symptomatic policies—of the modernity discourses shaping overt and covert censorship. In a way, this study is an archaeology of the alternative forms of modernity prevalent in Egyptian popular culture through the lens of cinema, a modern art form negotiating overt and covert censorship in the public sphere
Nativism Contra Acculturation: The Formation of the Mālikī and Ḥanafī Schools of Law
No full textPh.D.Reconstructing the formation and evolution of the four Sunni Islamic schools of law is a precarious endeavor that requires investigating distinct, yet overlapping, factors. Notwithstanding the importance of the doctrinal differences among the madhāhib, understanding the sociopolitical and economic forces that contributed to their emergence is equally instrumental. Through a reading of the sociopolitical landscape in the Islamic empire from the middle of the 2nd/8th century till the middle of the 3rd/9th, this study reveals a set of sociopolitical forces that were intrinsic to the development of law and subsequently the schools of law. Ranging from fiscal policies to civil unrest and revolutions, this dissertation explores the historical context in which the Ḥanafī and Mālikī schools developed, both of which dominated and defined the conversation in the legal space for the generations to follow. Through a chronological approach, this project identifies some of the legally extraneous yet decisive forces and events that shaped Islamic law, among which are: sociopolitical relations between Arabs and non-Arabs; the progression towards the Islamization of law; the political activism of some of the ‘ulamā’ in light of the shifts in balance of power; the role of the students of Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfah; the evolution of the type of legal authority; and state patronage and institutionalization of the two schools. Central to this discussion is the tension between acculturation and nativism, the two defining discourses that shaped Islamic identity, constantly trading places between being the discourse of power and that of resistance
Tradition and Its Boundaries: A Diachronic Study of the Concept of Bidʿah (Religious Innovation) in Early Islam
No full textPh.D.This dissertation aims at problematizing and deconstructing the sunnah-bidʿah dichotomy, by reconstructing its early history. Bidʿah (religious innovation) in Islamic thought is conceptualized in opposition to sunnah, which is understood to be the tradition received from the prophet, and which is considered the most authoritative source of Muslim creed and jurisprudence after the Qurʾān. The two terms of the opposition are usually contrasted to each other with respect to the value bestowed on each, their temporal order (as sunnah is thought of as preceding bidʿah), and their sources (as sunnah is thought of as divinely prescribed, while bidʿah as following human and satanic whims). The work starts with a philological study of the term bidʿah, where it is argued that it originally signified the idea of uniqueness and independence and was a value-free concept. A shift in understanding the nature of this “independence” appeared in the Umayyad era, and especially in early Marwānid era. An action or judgment would be called bidʿah when it was perceived to be taken or conducted independently from practices set either by political authorities, as the Syrian usage would suggest, or by the Muslim community at large, as the Iraqi usage would. In both cases, a contrast with sunnah was established, reflecting the emergence of two conceptions of sunnah. Nevertheless, the element of temporality, and hence the sense of innovation, was only introduced later during Umar II era. By introducing this new understanding of bidʿah, the conception of sunnah started gradually to be defined as the tradition received from earlier generations. A critique of this conception of sunnah emerged first among the Šīʿites but was soon modified and adopted by aš-Šāfiʿī. With this, the sunnah-bidʿah dichotomy took its final shape. Earlier texts were reread to reflect this new understanding. The dissertation shows that this reflects not only an ahistorical tendency in early ʿAbbāsid period to synthesize incommensurable conceptualizations, but also a crucial shift from an early polity centered around charismatic figures to a late Umayyad polity based on tradition to a new ʿAbbāsid polity based on the centrality of law
Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373): His Intellectual Circle, Major Works and Qur'anic Exegesis
No full textPh.D.This dissertation focuses on one of the most popular medieval Muslim figures in modern times, Ibn Kathir. I argue that Ibn Kathir's work reflects a critical theological struggle in the history of Islam between those who emphasized the original sources of the Qur'an and prophetic practice (traditionalists) and those who insisted on the incorporation of scholastic theology and the accumulated experience of the community (Ash`aris). Previous scholarship considers Ibn Kathir simply a student of the great traditionalist jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). Ibn Taymiyya was the symbolic leader of the traditionalist movement and was imprisoned multiple times because of his attempts to challenge the established Ash`ari social order. Ibn Kathir's ardent support of Ibn Taymiyya led many Arabic biographers to subsume Ibn Kathir under the hagiography of Ibn Taymiyya. Modern Western scholarship builds off the Arabic biographical literature to the point that Ibn Kathir is perceived as the mere spokesperson for Ibn Taymiyya and his Qur'anic exegesis a simple implementation of Ibn Taymiyya's Qur'anic hermeneutic. Yet, through examining Ibn Kathir's intellectual circle, major works, and Qur'anic exegesis, this dissertation demonstrates that Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathir represent two different types of traditionalism. Ibn Taymiyya believed in an intellectualized traditionalism which delved deeply into philosophy and scholastic theology to argue for scripture's rationality. Ibn Kathir, on the other hand, subscribed to a fideist traditionalism which was content with the superiority of the transmitted sources and the use of rational tools to analyze scripture. Ibn Kathir's Qur'anic exegesis, his most famous work, was thus less a product of Ibn Taymiyya than that of his fideist traditionalism and his attempt to respond to the dominant Ash`arism
States of Change: Women, Islamic Reform, and Transregional Mobility in the Making of 'Modern' Afghanistan
No full textPh.D.This dissertation examines women, Islamic reform, and transregional mobility as they intersected to influence early Afghan state formation. Focusing on the reigns of three monarchs, Abd al-Rahman Khan (r. 1880-1901), Habib Allah Khan (r. 1901-1919), and Aman Allah Khan (r. 1919-1929), it traces reformist ideas and elite actors as they moved between regional hubs through the institutions of the press, education, and individual travel. The project draws on periodicals, educational materials, biographies, and legal texts in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Urdu. Rather than a comparative approach, it foregrounds connections between texts and actors to show how the Afghan state and its related modernist discourses were mediated by transregional elites and through horizontal exchanges that transcended simple metropole-periphery binaries. Focusing on horizontal links allows us to observe modernist Islamic movements — pan-Islamism, Salafi modernism, or Hanafization — not from the vantage point of anti-colonial reactions to western forms of governance but as part of longer traditions that were being transformed and reworked in light of contemporary political circumstances. Afghan women played a central and overlooked role in generating these Pan-Islamic solidarities and producing new frameworks for modernity. In order to excavate their contributions, this dissertation applies a “feminist curiosity” to the sources, locating women and their voices not as the subjects of historical inquiry but rather as actors. Attending to women’s contributions reveals that Islamic legal and social reforms in the early 20th Century were influenced by a small set of elite women. Drawing on transregional registers and the pan-Islamic press, these women narrated new forms of Islamic authority that neither directly reflected the state or its opposition, nor adhered neatly to the other examples of regional women’s reforms with which they were in dialogue. Taken in full, this project illustrates how Shahab Ahmed’s “Balkans-to-Bengal complex,” which has galvanized scholars of the early modern Islamic world to think through new spatial frameworks, endured in turn-of-the-century Middle East and South Asia
Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhshari's (d. 538/1144) Mutazilite Exegesis of the Quran
No full textPh.D.QuranAl-KashshafUsul al-khams
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