Encyclopaedia Of Islam Research Articles

The Critique of the Entry of "Naskh" written by John Burton from the Encyclopedia of Leiden

The Qur'an is very important to Western Islamic scholars and the Qur'an researchers, so they have studied it and presented the results of their research to the world of science in the form of books and encyclopedias. Knowing these works and individuals is an undeniable necessity for Muslims, because behind some of them lies the goals of colonialism and evangelism. Among these works is the Encyclopedia of Islam "Leiden", in which the "Entry of Naskh" by John Burton is included. In this entry, the author, while misinterpreting the concept of Naskh, considers the grounds for the emergence of the Naskh idea among Muslims as a justification of the contradictions in the Qur'an, the difference between the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and the difference in the fatwas of the jurists, and raises all kinds of doubts without Critique, including the existence of contradictions in verses and hadiths and attributing forgetfulness to the Prophet with his misinterpretation of Qur'anic verses and hadiths, the claim of Naskh al-Tilāwa in the Qur'an by raising some issues such as removing verses from the Qur'an without critique and reviewing it, claiming the Naskh (i.e. abrogation) of verses from the Qur'an with the Qur'an and Sunnah, etc., only by focusing on Sunni study sources without researching and examining Shiite sources. In this article, we have reviewed the issues criticized by John Burton in the entry of abrogation, with the Qur'anic reasons and documents of rational narration, etc., and not just the claim without Critique.

O. Henry’s A Madison Square Arabian Night: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue

In this paper, the assertion of cross-culture in the American literature is studied and put for discussion. Aside from the inspiration of the American writers of the Arabian Nights, the inspiration of the Arabian Culture is inspired as well. O. Henry is given as an example in his short story “A Madison square Arabian Night”. The first part of this research is going to highlight the importance of the Arabian Nights in the American literature. It tries to give a brief idea about the Arabian nights and according to this it is divided into five parts to give enough information as possible about these nights. The first part includes the understanding of the Arabian nights from different perspectives those found in some encyclopaedias, like the Encyclopaedia Americana, the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Encyclopaedia of Islam. For the necessity of historical background about the contents of the Arabian Nights, the paper deals with the authorship of the stories of the Arabian nights and the contents which includes a short summary of the story of the Arabian nights. A general idea about the origins of the thousand nights and a night is widely explained. The last part is dedicated to stereotype something about the influence of the Arabian nights on the other literatures. O. Henry wrote most of his major works in short story. Thus the short story is the most outstanding literary genre in this age and its explanation has a space in this paper in the sense that it gives a comparison between Baghdad and New York from O. Henry’s point of view. This paper deals with his major work A Madison Square Arabian Night since it is the work in which a very clear example of comparison between Baghdad and New York is composed. His thesis in this story reveals the cross-cultural dialogue and his tendency towards the orientalism.

Introduction

Some Islamic traditions mention an enigmatic daughter of Adam named ʿAnāq. Little is known about her; for example, the corresponding entry in the Encyclopaedia of Islam simply states that ʿAnāq is the “name given by the Arabs to the daughter of Adam, the twin sister of Seth, wife of Cain and mother of ʿŪdj.” ʿAnāq is always mentioned in relation to her son, the giant ʿŪj, who was supposed to be the only creature outside the Ark to have survived the Flood in the time of Noah, and who was assumed to have been killed by Moses. We gather here the information and traditions about the Islamic ʿAnāq in order to draw a more coherent and historically contextualized portrait of this legendary first witch.

ʿAnāq bt. Ādam, the Islamic Story of the Very First Witch

Abstract Some Islamic traditions mention an enigmatic daughter of Adam named ʿAnāq. Little is known about her; for example, the corresponding entry in the Encyclopaedia of Islam simply states that ʿAnāq is the “name given by the Arabs to the daughter of Adam, the twin sister of Seth, wife of Cain and mother of ʿŪd̲j̲.” ʿAnāq is always mentioned in relation to her son, the giant ʿŪj, who was supposed to be the only creature outside the Ark to have survived the Flood in the time of Noah, and who was assumed to have been killed by Moses. We gather here the information and traditions about the Islamic ʿAnāq in order to draw a more coherent and historically contextualized portrait of this legendary first witch.

Critiques and Appreciation on Orientalism in the Study of Islam

This article describes critiques on orientalism as well as appreciates orientalist works which have positive values in Islamic studies that requires “reassessment”. This is because orientalism is a distinctive discipline that has a strong historical value between the West and the East (Islam) after the medieval European renaissance. This discipline was initially used as a Western political tool to exploit the East—both aggression and imperialism. However this discipline deserves careful attention by removing prejudices-geopolitical and historical revenge in the orientalists’ objective judgments. The work produced by such orientalists cannot be solely underestimated. Some orientalists merely using a scientific or semi-scientific approach have continuously produced “magnum opus” and contributed to the development of Islamic studies such as Hadith index, Quranic dictionary, and Encyclopedia of Islam.

Al-Maʿarrī’s Esteem in the Islamic West: A Preliminary Overview

ABSTRACT The blind poet and iconoclast Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 1058) is one of the most important figures in classical Arabic literature. He had an especially strong following in the Islamic west (Iberia and North Africa). But despite that following, and despite studies on the western response to other eastern Arabic poets, al-Maʿarrī’s legacy has thus far received inadequate attention in scholarship, a fact that obscures a major aspect of his reception. This article helps fill this knowledge gap by exploring al-Maʿarrī’s works that were popular in Iberia and North Africa, as well as responses to those works and the readers who did the responding. The results show rupture in some areas, as in the particular works singled out by Andalusī and Maghribī readers, and continuity in others, as in al-Maʿarrī’s overall reputation. The article concludes with a discussion about al-Maʿarrī’s importance to Arabic literary production in the Islamic west. Abbreviations: EI2 = Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition, ed. P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill online, 2012); EI3 = Encyclopedia of Islam, THREE, ed. Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas and Evertt Rowson (Leiden: Brill, 2015-2018); BA = La Biblioteca de al-Andalus, ed. Jorge Lirola Delgado, José Miguel Puerta Vílchez, volumes I–VII (Almería: Fundación de Ibn Tufayl de Estudios Árabes, 2004); TQ = Taʿrīf al-qudamāʾ bi-Abī l-ʿAlāʾ, ed. Ṭāhā Ḥusayn et al., (Cairo: Wizārat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUmūmiyyah, 1944, repr. 1965).

Recapturing the Meaning of Akhlāq Islāmiyyah: An Analysis of the Article “Akhlak” in the Encyclopedia of Islam

Abstract
 This paper will analytically study the Islamic meaning of akhlaq as portrayed by two Western writers in the article entitled “Akhlak” published in the Encyclopedia of Islam. The author highlights the contribution of Western scholars especially Walzer and Gibb to the understanding of history of the development of Islamic thought and disciplines. By employing the qualitative methodology, the author uses textual analysis and comparative method on the writings of both thinkers and others. Findings indicate that there are several weaknesses in the writing that include limiting the scope of akhlaq to practical ethics of selected virtues, the lacking of clear detachment between akhlaq and ethical thought, and others. 
 Key words: Ethics, Akhlaq, Philosophy, Islam, Encyclopedia of Islam.

V.V. Bartold and Russian Orientalism in Central Asia, Translated and prepared by Cengiz Buyar by B. V. Lunin

This book is a bibliographic study, containing very important and valuable information for academicians, doing scientific studies. In the bibliographic studies’ chapter, a detailed list including most importantly Barthold’s Encyclopaedia of Islam, more than 250 entries of articles, more than 500 articles published between the years of 1896 and 1930 and books of Barthold are presented. As this work includes personal information of Barthold and also his handwriting, photographs and book covers, it can be concluded that this work is a detailed rather than a superficial work. The work also informs the readers with detailed information on Soviet Regime and Central Asia policy of Russia. The work is not only a comprehensive bibliography, but also it includes the aims of 20th century Orientalism, its analysis and evaluations on its fields of study and represents the examples of orientalist activities in Central Asia done in this era to the readers. Cengiz Buyar’s studious efforts in transferring the Russian work into the Turkish by translating and preparing for publication, gives the opportunity for a smooth reading experience

Tales from the Crypt: On Some Uncharted Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor Introduction

IntroductionThe Seven Voyages of Sindbad, also known as the Seaman and the Landsman are among the most well known tales of the Arabian Nights. The tales were not part of the famed Galland Manuscript dating from the middle of the fijifteenth century (Marzolph and Van Leeuvan 2: 635). Rather, Antoine Galland (d. 1715) discovered manuscripts of the work during his travels in Turkey. (Mahdi 17-20; Marzolph Sindbad der Seefahrer, 701). Galland was sufffijiciently impressed with these tales to prepare a full translation that he placed at the beginning of the third volume of Les Milles et une Nuit published in 1704 (Galland 228-91).For the past three centuries scholars have attempted to date the collection. Enlightenment readers of the tales beginning with Galland argued for their antiquity focusing on particular themes such as Sindbad's encounter with a Cyclops that suggested their links to Homer's Odyssey. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars, such as Michail Jan de Goeje (1836-1909), Enno Littmann (1875-1958), and Richard Hennig (1874-1951) continued the search for the tales' remote origins, each positing dates in the tenth to thirteenth centuries drawing mainly on literary parallels (De Goeje Reizen van Sindebaad, 312; De Goeje La legende de Saint Brendan, 65; Littmann 6: 715-16; Hennig 196-99; Gerhardt 241).Geert Jan Van Gelder and Andras Hamori have pointed to various story motifs found in adapted from stories of the tenth-century author Tanukhi (Van Gelder 421; Hamori 210-15). Jean-Claude Garcin has recently offfered a closer reading of the use of terminology and language in various manuscript recensions as part of his ambitious attempt to fijind a historical context for various tales of the Nights, yet the results are far from conclusive (Garcin 259-80).The fundamental problem is that the textual history of the Voyages of is, as Ulrich Marzolph states in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, largely (Marzolph Sindbad). Recent work by Francesca Bellino on both the extant Arabic and Syriac manuscripts confijirms that there is none predating the seventeenth century (Bellino).This paper, tracing a single motif, may prove important for reconstructing the later travel of the stories before their translation by Galland in the seventeenth century. It follows one hitherto unknown textual route through which one of the voyages traveled.Scholars had long noted that the burial of the living spouse along with the deceased partner described in the fourth voyage of exhibited striking similarities to a story found in the tenth-century collection of Mu?assin b. ?Ali al-Tanukhi. Drawing on a maqama tale from a hitherto unknown and unstudied collection from the sixteenth century, the Maqamat ?Abbasiyya, authored by alSayyid ?Abd al-Ra?im al-?Abbasi (d. 1566), this article proposes that ?Abbasi played an important role in the transformation of a tale found in Tanukhi into a version of the tale similar to that found in the tales translated by Galland.Exploring ?Abbasi's transformation of this tale in detail, I consider whether it was ?Abbasi who set this tale in India while he was resident at the court of Suleiman the Magnifijicent in the years 1534-38. I further suggest that ?Abbasi's Maqama Basriyya may reflect Ottoman elite intellectuals' anxieties over their increasing involvement in the Indian Ocean trade during the mid-1530s and particularly their recent establishment of a Rumi trading colony at Diu in Gujarat in the 1530s (Casale 48). The fijinal section of the paper discusses the tale of Cogia Muzafffer, which appears to be yet another version of ?Abbasi's Maqama Basriyya heard by Galland while he was in Istanbul in 1673, nearly a quarter of a decade before he translated Sindbad.Escaping from the Crypt: Sindbad's Fourth VoyageThe Fourth Voyage of is one of the most dramatic and memorable tales of the cycle. …

An Early Modern Dialogue With Islam. Antonio de Sosa's Topography of Algiers (1612) by Antonio de Sosa (review)

Reviewed by: An Early Modern Dialogue With Islam. Antonio de Sosa's Topography of Algiers (1612) by Antonio de Sosa William Egginton Antonio de Sosa , An Early Modern Dialogue With Islam. Antonio de Sosa's Topography of Algiers (1612). Ed. María Antonia Garcés. Trans. Diana de Armas Wilson. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011. 400 pp. In 1581, the Portuguese-born cleric Antonio de Sosa returned to Spain from Algiers, where he had been held captive for some four years. During the time of his captivity he had observed the city that was his prison and its many and varied inhabitants with an anthropologist's eye, recording in extraordinary detail the customs, beliefs, physical appearance, and ways of speaking of its inhabitants. Those notes would be published posthumously, albeit under another man's name, in Spain in 1612 as the five-volume compendium titled Topographia, e Historia general de Argel, repartida en cinco tratados, do se verán casos estraños, muertes espantosas, y tormentos exquisitos que conviene se entiendan en la Christiandad: con mucha doctrina y elegancia curiosa. The Topografía serves to this day as one of the most valuable sources of insight both into everyday life in what was then one of the Mediterranean's most prominent sites of intercultural commerce, and into a European's view of a Muslim society at the time. This translation of the first volume, specifically titled the Topografía, by Diana de Armas Wilson, edited and with an introduction by María Antonia Garcés, represents not only the first available edition of his invaluable resource in English, but also an enormous improvement on the hitherto available editions in Spanish, which in addition to the rare princeps edition of 1612, include only an early twentieth-century edition that Garcés calls "inaccessible and deficient, lacking any sort of critical apparatus." This volume clearly addresses that deficiency by providing a truly thorough critical apparatus. The text of the Topography of Algiers is presented in its entirety, and is translated by de Armas Wilson into clear and direct English. Her "Note From the Translator," along with a helpful preface addressing the problem of "Transliteration and Translation" in the volume's front matter, take into account some of the thorny problems generated by de Sosa's transliteration of Arabic terms and names. De Armas Wilson has used the Encyclopedia of Islam as the basis for the transliterations she provides in the text, and Garcés provides a detailed, 13-page glossary at the end of the text, which is enormously helpful. The Topography itself is organized into 41 chapters dealing with such diverse topics as "Turks," "Renegades," "The Jews of Algiers," "Algerian Women's Fashions," and "Islamic Feast Days and Festivals in Algiers." There are also 18 illustrations, including a number of full-color plates. In addition to making the Topography available to a wider audience, this volume's chief contribution is the exhaustive and compelling introduction authored by María Antonia Garcés. "Introduction" may be selling short the almost 80-page monograph that delves with great insight into the circumstances of the writing and publication of the Topography and the life and times of its author. Garcés sets herself the ambitious task of presenting the Topography in the context of the history of interactions between Christendom and Islam, as well as of early modern Spanish and European perceptions of Islam as recorded in the literature of the day. She even has some interesting [End Page 473] remarks on the importance of the text in light of the reemergence of critical interest in dialogues between Islam and the West in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which she makes in the context of an informative review of recent scholarship on such intercultural dialogues. As she points out, furthering our knowledge of early modern European views of Islam is of great relevance for today's political reality: "Prejudices and outlooks, then, were not only amazingly similar in both societies and their views of each other, but also subsisted over time, conditioned by centuries of frontier life, war, and mutual mistrust. The current battles between Islam and the...

An Arabic Translation of Ignaz Goldziher's Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung

This article traces the history of the Arabic translation of Ignaz Goldziher's book Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung and its relationship with the studies on tafsīr published in Cairo before and after its translation. Two works were intimately related to this translation, the first was a long article by Amīn al-Khūlī which was published first as an entry in the Arabic translation of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the second a PhD dissertation written by Muḥammad al-Dhahabī at al-Azhar University which was one of the first comprehensive modern histories of the field of tafsīr. These books were fundamental to the studies of tafsīr in the Arab and Islamic world, and this article charts the history of their publication and the impact they occasioned.

Review of the Book Titled As: The Prophet of Islam (ﷺ) as the Messenger of Justice and Peace, Authored by Dr. Zuhoor Ahmad Azhar, Prof. Emeritus of Arabic, University of the Punjab

Many and multiple books in almost all the language of the world have been written to pay tribute to Hadrat Muhammad, the last Messenger of Allah (صلی اللہ علیہ و آلہ وسلم) but the present work is unique in many ways and the need of the time as well. A work by the masters of the subject is always more valuable as compared to those who cannot approach the original sources for lack of knowing the language. The author is Professor Emeritus of the oldest University in Pakistan, has taught Arabic and has full command over a dozen other languages being the Principal of the Oriental College, the Dean of the Arabic Department, the Supervisor of over 125 Ph. D. Thesis’s and dissertations and a thousand M.Phil papers, having contributed in the Encyclopaedia of Islam over 200 articles, and attended hundreds of local, national and international seminars, written hundreds of books and thousands of articles and despite being in his seventies he is enjoying sound health and bright face and enlightened vision and deep insight. His name is sufficient to get respective response in the sub-continent and middle eastern academic circles. Fluent in speech, prudent in writing, generous and lovely towards all, hailing from Skaiser Soon Velley of Khushab has all the good qualities of a teacher whose blessings have spread all around. His love for the Holy Prophet (صلی اللہ علیہ و ا لہ وسلم) reflects from every word he utters. Tears flow when he hears the great name of the Messenger of Allah (صلی اللہ علیہ و آلہ وسلم) and then there is reference over reference in telling his attributes and achievements unparalleled in the world history.The work in hand is a book consisting of 224 pages of which the first is the title page, the second is publishers page, then there are two pages (3 and 4) containing Index and further two pages (5 and 6) containing Foreword by the learned author. The main contents cover 46 topics spread over 207 pages (7 to 213). The book has become itself a book of reference for research purposes for all levels containing full references of the original sources, Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. It has been published by Zia-ul-Qur’an Publications, Lahore in October, 2011. The book is highly useful for the common readers, the scholars, the researchers, the member of the Bench and the Bar, at national and International level.

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States. 2 Vols. by Jocelyne Cesari, Ed

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States. 2 Vols. by Jocelyne Cesari, Ed

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States

Encyclopedia of Islam in the United States

Some scholars believe that the influence of Islam in the United States can be traced back to Thomas Jefferson. Today, Islam and American Muslim populations are growing in importance in this country, and demand for information about them is high, especially in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. This A-to-Z encyclopedia will help students and other readers get a fast grip on pertinent holidays, terms, beliefs, practices, notables, and sects of the Islamic faith and Muslim practitioners in the United States. The accompanying primary documents volume provides 93 crucial articles, speeches, essays, poems, songs, and more to flesh out the encyclopedia entries. This encyclopedia and primary documents set, the first on the topic and for the general reader, is a must-have for every library. The primary focus is contemporary but the entries are historically contextualized, so the fuller picture of origins outside the country and practice now in the United States is clear. Further reading suggestions accompany each entry. The primary documents volume enhances the encyclopedic entries with annotated selections such as an article from an entry on a leading Muslim American magazine or an essay by a Muslim American scholar to illuminate an entry on her. This will be a boon for students doing reports on Islam and for non-Muslims looking to learn about Muslims in an objective, broad way. It is clearly and authoritatively written and compiled by a host of scholars, primarily from Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. An introduction, chronology, selected bibliography, set index, and photos round out the set. Sample entries: African Americans; Bush, George W.; Calendar; Dietary Rules; Dress; Gulf War; Hate Crimes; Iranian Hostage Crisis; Media Coverage; The Message International Magazine; Mosques; Music; Muslim Students Association; Nation of Islam; Native Americans; New York City; Poetry; Prisons; Shi'a Communities; Sufism; World Trade Center; Young Professionals. Sample documents: Salah Al-Sawy, The Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America Fatwa Against the Danish Media and Government over the Cartoon Crisis, from The Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America; Michael Wolfe, Michael Wolfe, United States, 1990, from One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage; Waris and Wajid Syed, Top 10 Muslim Hip-Hop Lyrics, from Warbux Records, beliefnet.com

Gary Leiser and Noury Al-Khaledy (eds and transl.), Questions and answers for physicians: a medieval Arabic study manual by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Sulami, Sir Henry Wellcome Asian Studies, vol. 3, Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2004, pp. xii, 250, €59.00, US$74.00 (hardback 90-04-13671-1).

Gary Leiser presents in Questions and answers for physicians an edition of the Arabic text of the Imtiḥān al-alibbā’ li-kāffat al-aṭibbā' (‘The Experts' Examination for all Physicians’) by ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Sulamī (ca. 1155–1208) together with an English translation, a preface and an introduction. The latter is based on an earlier article by Leiser and the late Noury al-Khaledy published in 1987. Sulamī's text is divided into ten chapters, each containing twenty questions about a particular field of medicine (i.e. “On the pulse”, “On simple drugs”, “On what a surgeon should be asked”). In the corresponding answers the author usually quotes from one of the well-known sources of Arabic medicine like Galen, Ibn Sīnā and ‘Alī ibn ‘Abbās al-Majūsī. In his introduction Leiser mentions the most important of these sources (p. 10) and gives additional information in the footnotes to the translation. The quotations are usually not literal, but paraphrases, and it is regrettable that Leiser does not explore the relation between the sources and the Imtiḥān in detail. How Sulamī proceeded in selecting and using them remains therefore unclear. One of the most crucial questions concerning the Imtiḥān is its purpose. Leiser explains at the beginning of his introduction, that “examinations were sometimes given to determine a physician's qualifications” and that the Imtiḥān was such an examination (p. 1), yet at a later point he doubts that it was a real examination (p. 10). Leiser argues that it clearly falls into the genre of “questions and answers” (masā'il wa-ajwiba), a popular form for Arabic treatises on various subjects for didactical purposes. This conflicts with Leiser's earlier statement in the preface that he “had discovered no other work quite like” the Imtiḥān (p. ix). Moreover, he refers to Hans Daiber's article on the genre in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, yet fails to take into consideration a more recent publication by the same author which deals with Ibn al-‘Amīd's answers to the Buyid king ‘Aḍudaddawla (Die Naturwissenschaft bei den Arabern im 10. Jahrhundert n. Chr., Leiden, 1993) and would have provided a good opportunity to contextualize the Imtiḥān within the “questions and answers” genre. Leiser narrows the various possibilities of a didactic purpose of such texts somewhat unconvincingly down to two alternatives: self-taught physicians and physicians who studied with a master (p. 11). There is, however, at least a third option: that a student revises knowledge acquired from a teacher. Another interesting aspect which Leiser raises in his introduction is Sulamī's involvement in Ayyubid politics. Sulamī was appointed ra’īs al-ṭibb (literally “chief of medicine”) for Egypt by the Ayyubid Sultan al-‘Ādil and dedicated the Imtiḥān to al-‘Ādil's vizier, al-ṣāḥib. Unfortunately, Leiser does not expound on the potential duties of this office and what they might imply for the Imtiḥān and its purpose. If Leiser is right in suggesting that al-Ṣāḥib encouraged Sulamī to write the Imtiḥān, and that the latter endeavoured to improve the medical standard in Egypt, one should reconsider the question of a practical use of this text. Leiser's rather brief remarks on Sulamī's relation with the Ayyubids reveal another flaw of the book: the relative disregard of studies published after Leiser's and al-Khaledy's article of 1987. For generations, members of Sulamī's family were appointed as madrasa professors in Damascus, yet Leiser fails to refer to the thorough studies by Louis Pouzet (‘Les madrasas de Damas et leurs professeurs durant le VII/XIIIeme siecle’, Melanges de l'Universite Saint-Joseph [1991/2], 52: 121–96, and Damas au VIIe/XIIIe siecle, Beirut, 1988). These problems of the introduction notwithstanding, Leiser has presented a text which allows important insights into diverse aspects of medicine in Ayyubid Egypt.

The Qur'anic Employment of the Story of Noah

The view of Noah as being ‘the first prophet of punishment’ is stated categorically in both editions of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, and Bell includes the Noah story under the heading ‘Stories of Punishment’ in his Introduction to the Qur'an. More recently, David Marshall, in describing the punishment story in his article on the subject in the recently published Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an, remarks that ‘It is to be noted that these stories depict a punishment inflicted by God in this world rather than in the afterlife’, and comments that ‘their primary purpose was to warn of a punishment from God that would fall upon the Meccan unbelievers if they did not repent and accept Muhammad's message', before going on to claim that such accounts are ‘linked to form a chain of punishment stories suggesting that human history has been a sequence of such encounters between God, messengers and unbelievers’. However, a close reading of the Qur'anic accounts of the Noah story shows that such a view of the Qur'anic approach to prophetic history, specifically in terms of accounts of the prophet Noah, is, in reality, divergent from that found in the actual text of the Qur'an. To this end, the current article surveys the various Noah accounts in the Qur'an, each of which differs in length, form, content and tone according to their context.

Nationalizing a Universal Text: The Quran in Arafat's Rhetoric

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Basheer M Nafi, The Rise and Decline of the Arab Islamic Reform Movement (London: Crescent Publications for ICIT, 1998), pp.68–76. On the inimical relations between the two, see Basheer Nafi's analysis of the third Arab Nationalist–Islamic Conference (ANIC) held in January 2000. He writes: ‘Since the end of World War II, recurrent episodes of political conflict and intense currents of ideological polarization separated the Arab nationalists from their Islamist counterparts and created what appeared to be an unbridgeable gap between their respective positions. The ANIC was envisioned to put an end to the decades of inter-Arab political polarization and develop a common agenda for the most influential political and intellectual forces, the Arab nationalists and the Arab Islamists.’ ‘The Arab Nationalists and the Arab Islamists: Shadows of the Past, Glimpses of the Future’, Middle East Affairs Journal, Vol.6, Nos.1–2 (2000), p.110. A detailed report on the conference confirms these tensions. See ‘Al-Bayan al-Khitami lil-Dawra al-Thalitha lil-Mu'tamar al-Qawmi al-Islami’, Al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi, No.253 (March 2000), p.174. For a point of view placing the blame for the (unnatural) division between Islam and nationalism on the Islamists, see ‘Abd al-Illah Belqaziz, ‘Al-‘Uruba wal-Islam: Wasl Ta'rihi Lam Yunqata‘ Ila Fi Fasl Idiyuluji’, Al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi, No.254 (April 2000), p.124. On the harsh relationship between Islam and Palestinian nationalism, see Mahmud Zahhar, ‘Hamas Waiting for Secular Nationalism to Self-Destruct’, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol.24, No.3 (1995), p.79. Ghada Hashem Talhami, ‘Syria, Arab Nationalism and the Military’, Middle East Policy, Vol.8, No.4 (2001), p.113. Yehoshua Porath, The Emergence of the Palestinian Arab National Movement 1918–1929, (London, Frank Cass, 1974), p.81. Ibid. p.3. Basheer M. Nafi, The Rise and Decline of the Arab Islamic Reform Movement, pp.109, 120. For a detailed analysis of Husayni's use of Islamic symbols and messages to promote his causes, see Hillel Frisch. ‘The Evaluation of Palestinian Nationalist Islamic Doctrine: Territorializing a Universal Religion’, Canadian Review in Nationalism, Vol.21, Nos.1–2 (1994), pp.45–51. Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, ‘Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors’, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol.33, No.2 (2001), p.165. Ghassan al-Khatib. ‘One Way to Make Things Worse’, www.bitterlemons.org (2002). Hillel Frisch and Shmuel Sandler, ‘Religion, State and International System in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict’, International Political Science Review, Vol.25, No.1 (2004), pp.77–96. Hans Kohn, Nationalism: Its Meaning and History (New York: Van Nostrand 1965), pp.15–16. Abraham Geiger, Judaism and Islam (New York: Ktav, 1975), p.75. The chapters and verses cited in Genesis are merely the first two of several lists of genealogy that appear in the Bible. See S.D. Goitein, ‘Banu Isra'il’, Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol.1. (Leiden, Brill 1960), p.1021. All quotes from the Quran are taken from Arthur J. Arberry, The Quran Interpreted. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991). Mustafa Sabri, the last Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire commented that ‘Abraham divided the inheritance between the two sons: to Ishmael, the Arabian peninsula and within it Mecca, and Syria Al-Quds [Jerusalem] to Ishak…After Muhammad's appearance, God gave them [the people of Israel…the last chance to repent. They did not take the opportunity they would therefore be dislodged permanently from protecting the Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) and the inheritance of Israel will be joined to the inheritance of Ishmael. Quoted in Isaaac Hasson, Abu Bakr Muhammad Ahmad al-Wasiti: Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis, (Jerusalem: Magnes 1979), fn.29. The well-known fundamentalist Sayyid Qutb claimed that the night journey from Mecca to al-Aqsa Mosque was a clear indication that all the holy sites which preceded him fell to his inheritance. See ibid. Daniel Pipes, ‘Declaring Independence: Israel and the PLO.’ Middle East Quarterly, Vol.3, No.2 (1989), p.250. That Christians are part of the Palestinian people is a recurrent theme in Arafat's speeches. His remarks in his speech in Ramallah a town with a large Christian population is a typical example: I salute and welcome my brothers, my kin and the dignitaries of the Christian and Islamic faiths and I tell the Christian sons of my people may you have a good year and may the homeland prosper. Yes to Islamic and Christian national unity.’ (In Arabic it rhymes and serves as a chant – na'am, wahda wataniyya, islamiyya wa-masihiyya)Twice he repeated the slogan. For one striking example, see his Nakba speech, 15 May 1998. Muhammad ibn Ahmad Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli (d. 864/1459) and ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505), Tafsir al-Jalalayn, written in 870/1465, (Beirut: Dar al-Marafeh, n.d.) (on 23:51). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 28:14). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 17:6). J. Knappert, ‘Al-Mi‘radj’, Encyclopedia of Islam. (Vol.VII. ) (Leiden: Brill, 1993), p.1164. Hillel Frisch. ‘The Evaluation of Palestinian Nationalist Islamic Doctrine: Territorializing a Universal Religion’, pp.46–9. Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 2:246–253). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 70:5–6). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 65:64). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 47:1–3). Tafsir al-Jalalayn, (on 21:71).

The ‘Orphans’ Decree’ in Yemen: Two New Episodes

Among the harsh decrees which Yemenite Jewry suffered in their exile was the ‘Orphans’ Decree’, by which orphans who had not reached maturity were subject to forced conversion to Islam. During the ...

Public and Private as Viewed through the Work of the Muhtasib

THE muhtasib (also called ‘amil al-suq and sahib al-suq) was the inspector of public places and behavior in towns in the premodern Middle East and North Africa (and in some communities of Muslims elsewhere).* While the term muhtasib is usually translated as “market inspector,” this official’s actual charge was much broader. Based on the injunction “to command the right and forbid the wrong,” the history of which injunction is told with breathtaking scholarship by Michael Cook (2000), the muhtasib would patrol public spaces and enforce “laws” wherever he saw a violation . The muhtasib therefore gave Islamic law an immediate presence in public space and was an important face of the law in society. The commercial aspects of the muhtasib were useful enough that this position continued to exist under non-Muslim rule, as it did in Spain. Several types of writings are relevant to studying the work of the muhtasib, including theoretical writings on the role, function , and tasks of the muhtasib, and practical manuals to guide the muhtasib in his work in a particular place and time.1 In this essay we use a passage from a work of the first type, a treatise on ethics and law by the great theologian and jurist, Ghazali (d. 1111 A.D.),2 and passages from the practical manual for the muhtasib ascribed to Ibn al-Ukhuwah (d. 1329 A.D.)3 to illustrate the divisions between public and private as they appear in the SOCIAL RESEARCH, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Fall 2003) Public and Private as Viewed through the Work of the Muhtasib ROY MOTTAHEDEH AND KRISTEN STILT work of the muhtasib. These divisions show that the line between public and private was not rigidly fixed but, rather, shifted according to the relations among the people involved in any particular situation. An impermissible intrusion by one person into the private space of another may be permissible if taken by yet another person. Furthermore, what is considered outside the jurisdiction of the muhtasib because it is one person’s private space may not be considered private in relation to another official , such as the police (shurta) or judge.4 Taking this point yet further, this essay shows that relational standing seems the most important key to understanding public and private in Islamic legal thinking.5 The Muhtasib and Public and Private Divisions in Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (The Revivification of the Religious Sciences) is considered the most significant work of Abu Hamid Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Tusi, al-Ghazali, in terms of both its size and substance . Ghazali intended this text to be a guide for Muslims to all important aspects of religious life, emphasizing that the purpose of religious knowledge and obedience is eternal salvation (Encyclopedia of Islam, 1954: “al-Ghazali”). Ghazali meant his book to be a bridge between ethics and law. In the second of the book’s four parts, which covers ‘adat (social customs), Ghazali devoted a lengthy chapter to the order to “command the right and forbid the wrong.” The interesting part of this chapter for our purposes is the definition of the scope of behavior to which this order applies.6 Ghazali stated that the muhtasib’s concern is each wrong that is presently existing, manifest to the muhtasib without spying (tajassus),7 and whose wrongness is known without independent legal reasoning (ijtihad)8 (Ghazali, 1996: 437). According to Ghazali, “wrong” (munkar, literally “forbidden” or “to be forbidden”) includes but is larger than the category of “sin736 SOCIAL RESEARCH ful.” If the muhtasib sees two insane people having sex he should stop them although neither is legally responsible. We might infer that this is in part because the public is a realm of propriety, and in which the muhtasib should discourage the inclination to do wrong. (It might also be argued that the act should be stopped because illegitimate children may result, but Ghazali gives the further instance of a mad man having sex with a large animal.) But Ghazali explicitly says it is not stopped because of the “loathsomeness ” (tafahush) of the “picture of the act” and its being “in front of people”; if the muhtasib came across...