Arab-Islamic Tradition Research Articles

Self-Destruction of Idols in Arab Muslim Historiography

Abstract The article deals with a potential source and the subsequent borrowing of the motif of the self-destruction of the pagan idols. This motif is common in Eastern Christian apocrypha and hagiographic tales and also in the Arab Islamic tradition. In Muslim historiography, among stories about the destiny of ancient Arabian images, such a motif is found only twice. Both legends are connected with pre-Islanic Ḥaḍramawt, the autonomous region in Yemen. One legend deals with the idol called al-Djalsad, an object of veneration mostly by a tribe of al-Sakūn. It was represented in the shape of a white anthropomorphic rock with a black head. The other tale narrates about the domestic statue made of cornelian that belonged to the local notable Wā’il b. Ḥudjr. The subject of the spontaneous fall of idols appears to reflect a rivalry, especially in the spiritual sphere, between the tribal confederation al-Sakūn and the descendants of the indigenous sedentary population of Ḥaḍramawt. Their struggle for power in the early Islamic empire manifested in the most apparent way in Egypt, where they could borrow the motif of idols’ self-destruction from the Copts. Thus, in Chapter LXXIX of the Chronicle by John of Nikiu compiled in the late 7th–early 8th century AD obviously in Greek a tale about the childhood of St Theophilus, the Coptic Patriarch in AD 385–412, is preserved. According to it, in his presence, the statues of Artemis and Apollo became overthrown in a shrine situated in the district of Memphis.

Modern Muslim Intellectuals and the Quest for an Islamic Episteme: Humanism as a Case Study

Looking for an Islamic humanism in the Western sense of the word is utterly irrelevant to the spirit of Islam which poses man as a vicegerent of God, not as his structural opposite. The essence of all values in Islam issues from God and obedience to God frees man from superstitions and systems that limit his potential by endowing him as a moral agent with the freedom to choose between good and evil. Al-Faruqi & al-Faruqi (1986) show the epistemological biases of Western intellectual traditions which distinguish between two realms of knowing the world: the secular, rational mundane world and the fantastic, irrational religious world. This distinction is not problematic in Arabic Islamic religious tradition and is not the outcome of the separation of church and state.

Aenigmatic Names

Abstract The corruption of personal names in Arabic, especially those borrowed from foreign languages (such as Greek), goes back to the specific features of its script and often results in the multiplication of historical figures and hagiographic characters. In this article, is analysed the orthography and functional features of the name of the Jewish king of Ḥimyar Yōsēf called Y(w)sf/’s’r/Yṯ’r in the South Arabian epigraphic documentation and Yūsuf Dhū Nuwās in Arab Islamic tradition. The article deals with several sobriquets and epitheta, under which he is known in Eastern Christian historiographical and hagiographical traditions and some of them have received new interpretations. The derivation of the unusual Ethiopic form of his name Ṭamnus is attested in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu. It can be identified as “Dimnos” found in the Chronography of John of Malalas (c. 491–578). The same name in the form Dīmnōn appears in the Chronicle of Ps.-Dionysius of Tel-Maḥrē (sed. 818–45). In the article it is cautiously suggested that these three similar names came into being as a result of a corruption of the Greek “δαιμων” or “demon”. The title nəgusä aḥzab, which the Jewish monarch bears in the Chronicle of John of Nikiu, proves to be very close to the original title of Yōsēf, the mlk/kl/’š‘b-n, viz. “the king of all the communities” (Arab. malik al-shu‘ūb). The author proposes an assumption that this is rare evidence of the influence of South Arabian historical tradition upon Byzantine historiography.

Adab as a Way of Life: Towards an Ethical Turn in History

Abstract Like ancient philosophy in Pierre Hadot’s conception, the polysemic notion of adab in the Arabic-Islamic tradition was a way of life, and not merely a scholarly discipline or cultural field. This essay explores this proposition in reference to the life and work of the Palestinian historian Ṭarīf al-Khālidī, where adab has been a central locus of reflection. Although steeped in present-day historical, literary, and philosophical discussions, we argue that al-Khālidī’s approach has an uncanny resemblance to classical conceptions of adab and thereby invites a re-examination of current scholarly practices, presaging an ethical turn in the study of history.

Aesthetic Interpretation of the Qur'an Sarah R. Bin Tyeer: A Critical Study

This study discusses Sarah R. Bin Tyeer’s views concerning Al-Qur’an aesthetics. This article emphasizes that people who read pre-modern Arabic-Islamic literature often encounter themes of binary opposition within them, for example, the conflict between the sacred and the profane, the pious and the godless. In the Arab-Islamic tradition, literary and aesthetic elements are pre-modern, modern, and contemporary literary expressions that show the continuity of the influence of Al-Qur’an as a sacred entity. Tyeer thinks that there have been many scientific studies placing Al-Qur’an in the history of literature and investigating its influence on Arabic literature. Through critical discourse analysis method, this study has tried to describe, interpret, and critically explain Al-Qur’an esthetics discourse. This method has proven that Tyeer’s ideas concerning Al-Qur’an aesthetics are considered appropriate in elaborating and exploring the relationship between Tyeer’s thoughts on Al-Qur’an aesthetics with the cultural and social contexts that surround it. Tyeer also succeeded in explaining the relationship between the use of the beauty of Al-Qur’an language and Arab social and cultural practices. In this case, Tyeer’s view is focused on the text and context, not on the scientific paradigm.

Losing Freud

Losing Freud

The Rise of the Arab Spring through a Sense of Agency

ABSTRACT Upon the Arab Spring’s rise (2010–11), Arabs started expressing a sense of confidence in their capabilities as agents of change (a sense of agency). The emergence of that sense appears to have pushed Arabs to protest in the streets across their region. I draw on theories of agency, affects, and rhetorical ecologies to illuminate the emergence of the sense of agency in the Tunisian revolution. I explicate that Arab cultures and Islamic tradition inspired the emergence of the sense of agency and its interrelation with a sense of vulnerability and a sense of responsibility among Arabs, which pushed them to revolt. Thus, I offer a decolonial theory that affirms the Arab Spring as an authentic movement led by its people. The theory contributes a new answer to the long-standing dispute over agency, which is essential to understand how structurally marginalized groups arrive at the moment of resistance across cultures.

The Etymological Path to Moral Meaning: Adam and the Names

Abstract This paper advances the claim that an investigation into the significance of Qurʾānic terms must consider the semantic etymology of the elements under investigation, especially terms that have developed into technical concepts in Islamic theology and philosophy like the ethical variety investigated in this volume. The present article will give some of the salient reason for this imperative and demonstrate the value of semantic etymology in understanding the anthropological dimensions of theological concepts. Semantic etymology, the practice of uncovering the ‘original’ imposition of a word-thing relation (aṣl al-waḍʿ) by deducing the meaning of a word from the meaning of other words sharing the same lexeme was more than a descriptive linguistic science in the Arab-Islamic tradition. In late antiquity the Greek and Latin science of etymologia, like the Arabic ishtiqāq al-maʿná (later ʿilm al-waḍʿ), was a fully-fledged instrument of conceptual analysis for the reader and a powerful tool of discursive authority for both author and reader. Semantic etymology offers an account, not only of the original word-thing relation, but also the essential nature of the object. In our current moment in the history of philosophy where ‘essences’ and ‘essential qualities’ have lost almost all currency, the article opens the door for a reconsideration of the worth of ‘etymologies’ as sound and useful anthropological and philosophical objects of analysis.

How to Pickle a Dragon: Classic Arabo-Antique Recipe

This article focuses on systematization and presentation of slightly scattered information concerning two amazing “creations of Allah” — Tinnin and Su‘ban, which can be considered as two “classic” dragons of the Arab-Islamic tradition. Despite the fact that these creatures were mentioned in folklore, fairy-tale material, and also legends about them were transmitted using oral tradition, the information about the Tinnin and Su‘ban can be gleaned only in medieval treatises over the centuries. Such sources, perhaps, deprive the reader of the opportunity to get acquainted in detail with these amazing creatures as an element of the beliefs of the ordinary inhabitants of the Caliphate, but this allows tracing cross-cultural ties: the Tinnin and Su‘ban are closely intertwined not only with the Semitic tradition, but also with the ancient one. Even though these two creatures have something in common with the Semitic and ancient Greek dragons (and moreover, with the winged reptiles we are used to from the legends of Western Europe, and with the mustachioed beasts from China), they are not devoid of a certain authenticity. Not only the legends associated with them, but also which contain archetypal plots are original. The main body of the article consists of three sections — the first one looks into the characterization of Tinnin, the third one into the description of Su‘ban. The second section contains legends about Tinnin, which look like complete storylines. The basic source of information was the “Miracles of Creations” by Zakariya al-Qazwini, but several details and plot twists were borrowed from other authors — beginning with the great populist of Islamic science al-Jahiz and ending with the authors of geographical and biological treatises of the 14th–15th centuries. In conclusion the authors give some considerations regarding the role of Tinnin and Su‘ban in the development of Islamic cosmology, as well as assumptions are made about how the two “dragon” traditions developed in parallel in the Arab-Muslim environment, and whether it is worth identifying or separating the creatures mentioned in the article.

Order in the House: Epilogue

Abstract The contributions to this Special Issue of the Journal of Abbasid Studies show that the later third/ninth to the early fifth/eleventh century witnessed the output of a variety of voluminous books, not only in the Arabic-Islamic tradition, but in chronologically parallel cultures as well. For an overall understanding of the writerly culture of the era, further exploration of the organisation of information and the development of tools to locate data is called for. My epilogue offers a step in this direction against the backdrop of fourth/tenth-century caliphal administration and the organisation of archives on the one hand, and a comparison with the later and much more studied Mamluk writerly culture on the other.

Jihad and Hijra Concepts Emergence in Face of Globalization and Postmodernism

The hypothesis of our work is that the concepts of globalization, the information technology boom and Postmodernism are closely linked and that somehow eroded the ontological concepts of identity, individual and cultural diversity, in terms of the relationship I and the other. In the international strategic framework that other has fallen on Arab-Islamic culture. The thought of the Western world, with its logic of instrumental rationality has built stereotypes about that culture, ignoring its archetype. This reality is the one that perceives the concepts of the Arab-Islamic tradition of Jihad and Hijra only as ideas that lead to the destruction and not as a heritage of the philosophical and religious thought for the development of humanity. From a Jungian interpretation, both concepts and the psychic behaviors that derive from them, outside the fallacious and violent interpretations, are valuable contributions to humanity in the current situation.

Mahoma, las viejas y el Paraíso: de antiguo hadiz a cuentecillo en colecciones españolas del XIX

Tras los Siglos de Oro, el interés hacia los cuentos jocosos o cuentecillos en la literatura española se reaviva con fuerza en el s. XIX. Se imprimen entonces numerosas colecciones de relatos breves concebidas con el único objeto de hacer reír. Los gustos de la época se ven fuertemente impregnados por el orientalismo y, en consecuencia, abundan en dichas colecciones los materiales de temática árabe-islámica. El presente artículo se propone desvelar la trayectoria de un antiguo hadiz de la tradición árabe-islámica hasta alcanzar la literatura española decimonónica convertido en cuento. Se partirá de las versiones encontradas en El libro de los cuentos de Rafael Boira y El mundo riendo de Roberto Robert para, a partir de ellas, exponer el desarrollo en su tradición de origen y analizar la posible vía de llegada hasta los literatos españoles de un relato muy difundido por la tradición escrita europea del s. XIX.

İslam Düşüncesinin Demokrasi Problematiğini “Mağrip Düşüncesi” Çerçevesinde Çözümleme: Câbirî’nin Yaklaşımı

Faslı düşünür Câbirî, Arap-İslam dünyasının uyanışı (Nahda) için Arap-İslam düşüncesinin yeniden yapılandırılmasını kaçınılmaz görür. Çünkü bu düşünce çağın siyasal, toplumsal ve kültürel sorunlarına çözüm bulamamaktadır. Bu düşünceyi (akıl, kültürel miras, gelenek) dinamik hale getirmek için onun referans çerçevesini eleştirmek ve yeniden inşa etmek gereklidir. Câbirî’ye göre Arap-İslam düşüncesinin referans çerçevesi Abbasiler döneminde başlatılan tedvin faaliyetiyle oluşmuştur. Bu çalışmanın konusunu, Câbirî’nin yeni bir tedvin asrı teorisinden hareketle Arap-İslam düşüncesinin demokrasi problematiğinin tahlili oluşturmaktadır. Çalışma, yapı itibariyle biri diğerinin hazırlayıcısı olan iki bölümden oluşmaktadır. Çalışmanın birinci bölümünü, Câbirî’nin Arap-İslam düşüncesini hangi yöntemlerle ele aldığı ve bu yöntemin kılavuzluğunda söz konusu düşünceyi nasıl tahlil ettiği konuları oluşturacaktır. İkinci bölümde, yeni bir tedvin asrı teorisinde hareketle Arap-İslam düşünce geleneği içerisinde demokrasi problematiğini nasıl çözümlediği incelenecektir. Çalışmanın amacı, Câbirî’nin mevcut Arap-İslam realitesine uygun demokrasinin tesisi için teorik bir model oluşturma iddiasında olduğunu ortaya koymaktır.

Islam, State and Modernity: Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World

Islam, State and Modernity: Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World

Islam, State and Modernity: Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World

Islam, State and Modernity: Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and the Future of the Arab World

Solomon and Mythic Kingship in the Arab-Islamic Tradition: Qaṣīdah, Qurʾān and Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ

This article contrasts techniques from non-narrative, poetic and Qurʾānic texts with the narratives of Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ (the Stories of the Prophets) in order to interpret passages on Sulaymān/Solomon in pre- and early Arabic-Islamic texts. Beginning with the renowned non-narrative Sulaymān passage in the pre-Islamic poet al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī’s ode of apology to the Lakhmid king al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir and several Qurʾānic passages concerning Sulaymān, the article compares these to the eminently narrative prose renditions of Solomonic legend that appear in Qurʾānic commentary and the (related) popular Stories of the Prophets (Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ). I argue that verbal structures and rhetorical techniques characteristic of non-narrative forms such as poetry and the Qurʾān have the effect of preserving and stabilizing the essential panegyric (poetic) or salvific (Qurʾānic) message in a manner that the constantly mutating popular narrative forms neither strive for nor achieve.

Jost Bürgi's method for calculating sines

For a long time it has been known that in the 16th century the Swiss mathematician Jost Bürgi found a new method for calculating sines, but no information about the details has been available. Recently a manuscript written by Bürgi himself has come to light in which he explains his algorithm. It is totally different from the traditional procedure which was used until the 17th century. In the first part of the article the standard method is explained which was rooted in Greek antiquity with Ptolemy's computation of chords and which was used in the Arabic-Islamic tradition and in the Western European Middle Ages for calculating chords as well as sines. The main part of the article deals with Bürgi's way. By only using additions and halving, his procedure is elementary and it converges quickly. Bürgi does not explain why his method is correct, but in the last part of the article a modern proof for the correctness of his algorithm is provided.

Taha Abderrahmane’s Trusteeship Paradigm

This paper synthetically introduces “trusteeship paradigm” of Taha Abderrahmane (b. 1944), a leading philosopher of language, logic, ethics and metaphysics in the Arab-Islamic world. The core of his argument is that the four entities of revelation, reason, ethics and doing (or practice) are neither separable nor antagonistic to each other in the Islamic philosophy he aims at re-grounding; their centripetal force is essentially ethical. Islamic philosophy is primarily ethical. It is only this ethical force that can regenerate the politico-philosophical awakening of the Arab-Islamic world in particular, and can contribute to the formation of a pluralist civilization of ethos in general. Otherwise put, Abderrahmane envisions an ontological-epistemological revisionary revolution in the Arab-Islamic tradition to overcome what may be referred to as “classical dichotomous thought” that dominates some classical and contemporary Islamic thinking as well as much of the Greek heritage and Western modern thought. This ethical revolution is summarized in what he has developed as trusteeship paradigm (al-iʾtimāniyyah) or trusteeship critique (al-naqd al-iʾtimānī), a paradigm the heart of which is a theory of ethics that overcomes dichotomies like religion vs. politics, divine vs. secular, physical vs. metaphysical.

Al Kindi y la universalización del conocimiento a través de las matemáticas

La tradición árabe-islámica está fundada en la siguiente nueva actitud epistémica que reinventa el conocimiento: aprender de las aportaciones de las civilizaciones anteriores a través del estudio sistemático de todos los trabajos científicos existentes; contribuir al desarrollo del conocimiento mediante la vinculación, a través de la utilidad, a la práctica y la necesidad práctica de la sociedad; esto facilita su aprendizaje para las generaciones más jóvenes y su transmisión a las futuras civilizaciones puesto que es concebido no como un producto final, sino como un proceso continuo. El desarrollo mundial de los conocimientos reinventados ha llevado a su universalización y la rápida expansión de las matemáticas y dado lugar en particular a la completa deshelenización de la concepción griega de la ciencia y la filosofía.

The Literature of Love by Three Theologians in the Arab Islamic Tradition

In the Arab and Islamic tradition, encyclopedic books have traversed the axis of the emotion of love in all its forms. Theologians in particular have had a principle role in this endeavor and have addressed the phenomenon of love for centuries. Some have praised it and some have disapproved of it. This rich literary assemblage has helped to appreciate the social life and to understand human relationships in a manner that positively influenced the early Arab Islamic society. There is a need today to resurrect this literary memory. This may benefit the culture of contemporary generations of Arab and non-Arab youth.