Islamic Heartlands Research Articles

Global Shinqīṭ: Mauritania’s Islamic Knowledge Tradition and the Making of Transnational Religious Authority (Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century)

Today, Bilād-Shinqīṭ or Mauritania is often portrayed as an unparalleled center of classical Islamic tradition supposedly untouched by modernity. While previous scholarship has concerned itself mostly with Mauritania’s local intellectual history on one hand and its recent global fame on the other, in this paper, I document instead how, in less than two centuries, Mauritania has become not only a point of scholarly reference and symbolic/representational space of excellence in Islamic knowledge, but also one with an astonishing amount of global reach. Thus, I explore the ways in which Mauritania has continued to asserts its relevance and scholarly authority on a global scale. Drawing on a variety of historical, literary, and anthropological sources, I historicize the rise and mythologization of Mauritania as a peerless center of traditional sacred scholarship. I specifically examine how a number of widely different Muslim actors under changing circumstances continue to invoke, perform and re-invent Shinqīṭ/Mauritania. In documenting what I call Global Shinqīt over the longue durée, rather than simply illustrate how the so-called Muslim peripheries shape central traits of transnational normative Islamic authority, I argue instead that mobility, historical circumstances, and scholarly performance combined are at least as instrumental in the credible articulation of authoritative Islamic knowledge as normative discourses issued by supposedly central institutions, personalities, and religious bodies located in the so-called “heartland of Islam.” In so doing, I destabilize the center/periphery framework altogether in order to explore how Islamic religious authority is actually construed and operates under shifting cultural and political conditions.

Book review: Gagan D. S. Sood, India and the Islamic Heartlands: An Eighteenth-century World of Circulation and Exchange

Gagan D. S. Sood, India and the Islamic Heartlands: An Eighteenth-century World of Circulation and Exchange, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, 338 pp.

Islam in Imperial China: Sinicization of Minority Muslims and Synthesis of Chinese Philosophy and Islamic Tradition

Even though China is nowhere near the heartland of Islam, the country is not a stranger to the religion brought by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). In fact, Islam had reached China as early as 7th century ce and achieved its zenith during the era of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 ce), also known as the “Golden Age of Islam” in China. Not only were Muslims during the Ming era generally accepted by majority Chinese whose affiliations were predominantly Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism, Islam was legally recognised by the imperial government. The number of Islamic institutions such as mosques and learning centres increased, and so did the number of Muslim population in the country. In administration and politics, the Muslims equally received their share while Muslim intellectuals and scholars found themselves appreciated and acknowledged by Chinese rulers for their contributions. Nevertheless, as with minorities of other countries, the Muslims in China were subject to assimilation or integration into the culture of the majority, i.e., Han Chinese. This policy known as “sinicization” consequently affected Muslims in many ways, leading to changes in their lifestyle, custom and tradition. Using qualitative approach and library research method, this paper aims to assess the underlying reasons for the sinicization of Chinese Muslims apart from the obvious political necessity of the Chinese imperial government, and the effects of the process on the Muslim community. On the latter, focus will be given to Muslims’ attempt to synthesise Chinese philosophy and Islam during the imperial era (618–1912 ce) as it served to project the peaceable nature of Islam hence enabled Muslims to preserve their distinctive Islamic identity and tradition amidst the predominant non-Islamic cultural setting. In other words, the synthesis which was pioneered by Chinese Muslim scholars, particularly of the Ming until the Qing era, not only prevented full assimilation of Muslims into local Chinese culture but also ensured the survival of Islam and its tradition in China until the modern period.

ISLAM AND CULTURAL HERITAGE FROM TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE MALAY WORLD

Through trading activities the Malays had been, from time immemorial, as familiar with the region now known as the "Middle East" as they had been with India and China. To the Malays, however, until recently they did not have any specific word for the Islamic heartland, that is, the lands predominantly inhabited by Persian, Arab, and Turk. The earliest and probably the nearest equivalent for the name "Middle East" known by the Malays would perhaps be the phrase used in Sejarah Melayu which refers to the region as part of the "Negeri di Atas Angin" (The Land Above the Wind or The Lands to The Windward of the Southwest Monsoon), while Melaka was described as among the "Negeri di bawah Angin" (The Lands Below the Wind or The Lands to the Windward of the Northeast Monsoon).'

Perspectives from the Peripheries

Authors of local histories composed in Persia during the 10th-15th centuries deftly wove their lands and their communities into Islamic narratives rooted in the Islamic heartlands of Iraq, Syria, and Arabia. They positioned their communities to better fit into the scope of Islamic history and claimed privileged connections to Mohammad and divine or prophetic authority in various ways. City and regional histories from Persia challenge and reconfigure notions of what constitutes “central” or “peripheral” in the medieval Islamic world and articulate identities that are simultaneously deeply local yet enmeshed within the broader Muslimomma. Authors and compilers used several literary strategies that, amongst other things, “centered” their cities and regions by including narratives about thesayyedsandsharifsassociated with the region; incorporating narratives of legitimating dreams and visions; associatingsahābawith the land; highlighting sites of pious visitation (ziārat) and other sources of blessing or sacred power (baraka); and incorporating sacralizing etymologies.

A Contribution to the Understanding of Middle Eastern and Muslim Exceptionalism

The democratic deficit in the Middle East and the Muslim world is well-established. No study has, however, identified what it is about being a Middle Eastern or Muslim-majority country that impedes democracy. The explanatory deficit has given rise to an idea of Middle Eastern or Muslim exceptionalism. This article documents that when political and colonial history is accounted for, there is nothing exceptional about levels of democracy in these regions. Territories with comparatively developed precolonial state institutions were better able to resist European colonization and settlement. If they were colonized, territories with more developed state structures were more likely to experience an indirect form of colonial rule. Such territories, including the Islamic heartland in the Middle East, experienced less European settlement and colonial rule through local intermediaries and were therefore, in the long run, less likely to embark on a democratic regime trajectory.

Between Hellenism and Arabicization. On the formation of an ethnolinguistic identity of the Melkite communities in the heart of Muslim rule

The present paper deals with the Melkite community as a specific group with an ecclesiastical identity which arose in the Islamic period, in the heartland of Islam, and therefore not in Constantinople. Our aim is to describe those features of this community that arose from the Byzantine Orthodox faith, although formed from anti-Monothelite Syrian Chalcedonian groups, as distinct from the Jacobites, later identified with the Christians of the Umayyad Caliphate who accepted the teachings of the Sixth Ecumenical Council of the Royal Byzantine Church in 681. In this context the label Melkite should not be understood as a synonym of «Greek Orthodox» but rather of «Chalcedonian», which, for the Syrian Christians, identifies those who followed the Dyothelite dogma.

Democracy and countries with Muslim majorities: a reply and update

My empirical results in Potrafke (2012) confirm past conclusions that Muslim-majority countries are less likely to be democratic. Hanusch takes issue with my results—and by inference with all past empirical results on the relation between Islam and democracy. In his comment on my study, Hanusch indicates that he believes I was using the POLITY IV index. He has not realized, as I made most clear, that the purpose of my study was to show results based on new data from Cheibub et al. (2010). Hanusch claims to have reversed the conclusion that having a Muslim majority is associated with having autocratic government. He establishes his conclusion by excluding the heartland of Islam from the estimation sample. For his estimates, Hanusch moreover uses data that do not appear to exist, at least in the claimed sources. I update my estimates to address issues that Hanusch raises. My new results confirm the conclusion that countries with Muslim majorities are less likely to be democracies. In deriving this result, I do not follow the strategy proposed by Hanusch of excluding from the data sample the countries in the heartland of Islam.

Democracy and Countries with Muslim Majorities: A Reply and Update

My empirical results in Potrafke (2012) confirm past conclusions that Muslim-majority countries are less likely to be democratic. Hanusch takes issue with my results – and by inference with all past empirical results on the relation between Islam and democracy. In his comment on my study, Hanusch indicates that he believes I was using the POLITY IV index. He has not realized, as I made most clear, that the purpose of my study was to show results based on new data from Cheibub et al. (2010). Hanusch claims to have reversed the conclusion that having a Muslim majority is associated with having autocratic government. He establishes his conclusion by excluding the heartland of Islam from the estimation sample. For his estimates, Hanusch moreover uses data that do not appear to exist, at least in the claimed sources. I update my estimates to address issues that Hanusch raises. My new results confirm the conclusion that countries with Muslim majorities are less likely to be democracies. In deriving this result, I do not follow the strategy proposed by Hanusch of excluding from the data sample the countries in the heartland of Islam.

The Formation of the Arabic Pharmacology Between Tradition and Innovation

Summary The pharmacological tradition in the medieval Islamic world developed on the basis of the Greek tradition, with the works of Dioscorides and Galen being particularly popular. The terminology was influenced not only by Greek, but also Middle Persian, Syriac, and indigenous Arabic words. Through recent research into Graeco-Arabic translations, it has become possible to discern the evolution of pharmacological writing in Arabic: in the late eighth century, the technical terms were being developed, with transliterations being used; by the mid-ninth century, many standard Arabic translations for Greek words have been established. Various authors, however, expanded the pharmacology inherited from the Greeks. Galen had established a system of degrees of primary faculties (dry or moist, and warm or cold) that various physicians in the Islamic world modified. Al-Kindī, for instance, invented a theory of how to calculate these degrees in compound drugs, whereas ar-Rāzī criticised the epistemology that underlies Galen's theories. Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) complemented the various degrees in his description of simple drugs. Furthermore, both Ibn Sarābiyun and al-Kaskarī integrated new drugs from the Islamic heartland, and the Far East into the Greek system. In these ways, the Arabic pharmacology developed in a creative tension of tradition and innovation.

Inks in the Islamic Manuscripts of Northern Nigeria Old Recipes, Modern Analysis and Medicine

This study is concerned with what specific materials are used in fabricating the inks used in the surviving, largely undated Northern Nigerian manuscripts written in Arabic script. These manuscripts belong to the West African tradition of Islamic culture and scholarship, of which Timbuktu, Mali, was a key center. The manuscripts themselves, and 4500 km of road travel throughout Northern Nigeria, suggest a local tradition of dye, ink and pigment fabrication rather than one derived from the Mediterranean and the Islamic heartlands. Technical materials analysis, recipes from ethno-cultural studies, and replicative experiments revealed a reliance on local plants and materials. Botanical research uncovered a possible linkage between inks and medical treatments through the creation of charms in which ink was washed from the paper and drunk, or used as a body wash. They reflect a sustainable, durable and flexible tradition that overcame challenges of execution, using indigenous materials, astute observation, trial and error—a tradition documenting that people traveled as well as goods and ideas.

Beyond the Word: Ink in the Islamic Manuscripts of Northern Nigeria

ABSTRACTThis paper is focused on results of a survey and study in Northern Nigeria of the inks used in Islamic manuscripts and on related information on the extant traditional technologies of ink production. Knowledge of the specific inks used in the surviving, largely undated Northern Nigerian manuscripts written in Arabic script, often referred to as Islamic manuscripts, informs us about the society that created them and embeds their production within a specific cultural context. In a place such as Africa, where the historical record and archaeological heritage are so vulnerable, we look to all vestiges of material culture in order to expand out understanding of its people, its history and their culture. These manuscripts belong to the West African tradition of Islamic culture and scholarship, of which Timbuktu was a key center. Whilst another goal of the study was to establish a watermark chronology to provide information as to the papers‘ source, when particular papers were made, when manuscripts might have been copied, and their creators‘ paper preferences, the focus of this paper is on identifying and field-testing the inks used in these manuscripts. This study of over twelve thousand folios at fourteen manuscript Northern Nigerian repositories involved 4500 km of road travel and suggested a local, interrelated tradition of dye, ink and pigment fabrication. Preliminary data led to the hypothesis that the local technology provided the basis of the indigenous manuscript production, rather than one derived from the Mediterranean and the Islamic heartlands. Finally, the diversity of these manuscripts in Arabic script reflects a culture in which not everyone was Muslim but in which Islam played a dominant role.

Islam’s democracy paradox: Muslims claim to like democracy, so why do they have so little?

In this brush-clearing paper, we demonstrate that there is a deficit both of democracy and of freedom in Muslim-majority countries by comparison with the rest of the world. We further demonstrate that these deficits are not fully explained by poverty or by oil but seem to have something to do with Islam itself. We further demonstrate that the democracy and freedom deficits are larger in the Islamic heartland than elsewhere in Muslim-majority countries. We show that the democracy deficit is not driven by demands for autocracy in Muslim-majority countries, and indeed, that individual Muslims value democracy more than non-Muslims. We suggest that the lack of religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries (the supreme power concept) may be a significant variable in explaining the democracy deficit.

Comparative Perspectives on Islamic Identity and Issues of Education in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice edited by Barry van Driel. Stoke‐on‐Trent, UK: Trentham, 2004. xiii+209 pp. $27.50 (paper). ISBN 1‐85856‐340‐2.Islam and English in the Post‐9/11 Era edited by Sohail Karmani and Sinfree Makoni. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005. 95 pp. $30.00 (paper). ISBN 0‐8058‐9483‐7 (originally

Comparative Perspectives on Islamic Identity and Issues of Education in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001<i>Confronting Islamophobia in Educational Practice</i> edited by Barry van Driel. Stoke‐on‐Trent, UK: Trentham, 2004. xiii+209 pp. $27.50 (paper). ISBN 1‐85856‐340‐2.<i>Islam and English in the Post‐9/11 Era</i> edited by Sohail Karmani and Sinfree Makoni. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005. 95 pp. $30.00 (paper). ISBN 0‐8058‐9483‐7 (originally

In the heat of the moment: South Asian responses to the events of 11 September 2001

This review article looks at three books, published in 2002, which provide from different perspectives a response by South Asian Muslims to the new interest in Islam evoked by the events of 9/11. Written from different vantage points, they represent an intellectual effort to come to grips with the notion of an ‘Islamic’ identity – debating notions of jihad, and its connections with Islamic faith, with the notion of an Islamic umma or nation, and where Muslim societies are headed to in the 21st century. It is not only the emergence of the Taliban movement in the North‐western portion of South Asia that has brought the focus on South Asian Islam. As M.J. Akbar has observed, South Asia forms the demographic heartland of Islam. The books reviewed do not fall into the category of the myriad publications that have become a kind of apology for Islam, but represent an effort at understanding the connections between geo‐political concerns and intellectual academic approaches to the subject of Islam.

Questions of Context: Ibn Battuta and E. W. Bovill on Africa

arcus Wiener Publishers has distinguished itself by reprinting primary and secondary texts that have not lost their appeal over decades. Usually the original work is given a new introduction and an updated bibliography that address the historicity of the text and add new scholarly perspectives and additional background information. Under review are two such publications, one of which is a historical source, namely, Ibn Battuta's fourteenth-century account of his journeys to East and West Africa, and the other a scholarly study from 1958 focusing on the economic and political relations between North Africa and sub-Saharan regions. While the former is a welcome edition highly useful in a variety of classroom settings and appealing to a wide range of scholars interested in travel, Islam, and Africa, the rationale for the publication of the second title is not immediately evident, and even questionable, for reasons that I explain below. Ibn Battuta (1304-68/69) hailed from Morocco and traveled most of the known world in the course of twenty-nine years, holding a range of government posts in different territories. Later in life, his memories were written down by the scribe Ibn Juzayy. The resulting text offers detailed information about societies located in North Africa, Arabia, Asia Minor, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia, China, East and West Africa, and Muslim Spain. One of the foremost features of this account is that it allows the contemporary reader to gain an understanding of the cultural diversity of peoples living within the expanse of dar al-Islam, the lands of Islam. Let me review some of the principles that inform Ibn Battuta's view of the world and that make his portrayal of Africa especially worthwhile. One premise underlying Ibn Battuta's account and that generally defi ned medieval geographical handbooks and travel writings is the focus on the world of Islam, under avoidance of dar al-kufr, the non-Muslim lands. This focus refl ected the centrality of religion as the dominant organizing principle, but the Islamic perspective was also intermingled with notions about climate as a condition determining the level of civilization. The Islamic heartland was seen to be located in the moderate climate zone,

Islam and Peace

February 6-7, 1998. Sponsored by NonviolenceInternational and the Mohammad Said Farsi Chair of IslamicPeace at The American University, Washington, DC.At a time when the Muslim world is suffering from an unmitigated epidemicof violence, both from within and from without, Muslim scholarsand peace and social activists got together for two days to examine theIslamic tradition of peace and to explore strategies to once again realizethis Islamic ideal. The conference consisted of over 25 panelists withnearly 75 attendees in the audience. For reasons not divulged, the conferencewas closed and attendance was by invitation only. The hosts,Mubad Awad and Karim Crow of Nonviolence International andAbdul Aziz Said, the Mohammed Said Farsi Professor of Islamic Peaceat American University, were very gracious and managed to put up anexcellent show that was reminiscent of the hey days of Islamic civilization.In a land so far away from the Islamic heartland, for two days, theconference repduced a feeling that once again the world was under themerciful and benign shadow of Islamic traditions.The conference had an unusual format. Only a few of the participantswere invited to present papers on subjects that dealt with the meaning ofpeace in Islam, the barriers to peace in the Muslim world, and the tensionsbetween heightened religious identity and violence. The rest of thepanelists acted as discussants who contributed their own perspectives onthe subject. The audience was allowed extended time to interact with thepanel. The conference consisted of two keynote addresse- One on eachday- by Seyyed Hossein Nasr (Professor of Islamic Studies at GeorgeWashington University) and Seyyeda Rabab Sadr Chareffedine(Chaqerson of Imam Al-Sadr Foundation of Lebanon). However,Seyyeda Rabab Chareffedine could not make it, instead her son Raedread her speech.The participants came from the Muslim world as well as the West.Maulana Wahekduddin came from India, Jawadat Sa'id came fromSyria, Laith Kubba from London, Sakeena Yakoobi from Afghanistan,Kamal Hassan from Malaysia, Mokhtar Lamani represented OIC, Su'adal-Hakim from Lebanon, Mehmet Ersoy from Turkey and AmbassadorSadek Sulaiman from Oman. The American contingent consisted of M. ...

The Pomaks: A Religious Minority in the Balkans

A religious minority of Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, the Pomaks now live dispersed in five Balkan countries: Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Albania and Turkey. A living legacy of the complexities of Balkan history, the Pomaks represent a perfect case to study interstate political intricacies around the unsettled identity of small inter-communal groups. An examination of this community should enrich the knowledge about the nature of Balkan Islam that stands on the periphery of the Arab-Iranian-Turkic Islamic heartland, the three peoples who carried the major burden of Islamic history.

Central Asia: 130 Years of Russian Dominance, A Historical Overview. Edited by Edward Allworth. Durham, N.C. and London: Duke University Press, 1994. xiv, 647 pp. $68.50.

For centuries, been a leading civilization, an Islamic heartland, and a geographical link between West and East. After a long traditional history, it is now in a state of change. With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, five newborn Asian states have emerged in place of the former Soviet and Afghanistan. Central Asia provides the most comprehensive survey of the history of the impact of Russian rule upon the political, economic, social, intellectual, and cultural life of this diverse region. Together, these essays convey a sense of the region's community as well as the divisive policies that have affected it for so long.Now in its third edition (it was first published in 1967 and revised in 1989), this new edition of Central has been updated to include a new preface, a revised and updated bibliography, and a final chapter that brings the book up to 1994 in considering the crucial problems that stem from a deprivation of sovereign, indigenous leadership over the past 130 years. This volume provides a broad and essential background for understanding what led up to the late twentieth-century configuration of Asia.

Industrialization in Saudi-Arabia — a success story in the heartland of Islam

Industrialization in Saudi-Arabia — a success story in the heartland of Islam