Intellectual History Research Articles

Sufi Archipelago:Biography and Thoughts of Hamzah Fansuri

This research aims to explore the ulama tradition through the biography and thoughts of Hamzah Fansuri, a leading scholar and writer during the Aceh sultanate in the 16th century AD. Through a qualitative and historical approach, this research analyzes Hamzah Fansuri's works and explores his Sufism thoughts. includes the concepts of metaphysics, ethics and theology. Data was collected from a variety of primary and secondary sources, including classic manuscripts and contemporary academic studies. The results of this research show that Hamzah Fansuri not only played a role as a propagator of Sufism but also as a pioneer in Malay literature who succeeded in integrating local and Islamic elements in his work. It is hoped that this research can make a significant contribution to the study of Islamic intellectual history in the archipelago and inspire further research on other classical scholars.

Building An Abolition Movement for International Criminal Law?

Abstract International criminal law is a carceral system, which responds to mass atrocities by holding some individuals criminally responsible for these events and then, generally, imprisoning those individuals. I ask what alternative responses might be envisaged, and if we can build a carceral abolitionist movement for international criminal law. Such a movement would refuse imprisonment and policing as the main responses to mass atrocity, and instead would seek to understand the social causes and conditions that cause such mass atrocity, and also how (and why) criminal law has become the preeminent ‘legitimate hand of justice’. In this article, I attempt to bring into conversation two particular intellectual movements: the collective scholarship and praxis of domestic carceral abolition movements; and those critical scholars of international criminal law who have already set out some of the limits and possibilities of the field. I set out the structural conditions of international criminal law, particularly its ideological grounding in neoliberalism and its relationships to race, global capital and colonialism and imperialism, which result in a legal system that criminalizes some and exonerates others. I then particularly examine some tools that already exist for building an abolition movement for international criminal law. These include the defence of duress, transformative reparations and the role of defence lawyers. These tools are admittedly part of the carceral system, and therefore cannot be the key to an abolition movement for international criminal law. However, they may assist us in the short or medium term as we imagine and work towards a better world without the need for a carceral system of international criminal law that relies on police and prisons.

Learning From the Global Experience in Conflict Prevention

This article identifies some of the central blind spots in the Western understanding of conflict prevention. On the one hand, this is achieved by referencing research that contrasts elements of Western conflict prevention approaches with more successful non-Western methods. On the other hand, the article summarizes research indicating which framings and social realities predict conflict onset and escalation, exposing intellectual approaches that are detrimental to conflict prevention. Throughout this exploration, the article also unveils my personal intellectual history and development in the field of peace studies.

Remembering a “Worthy Son of Siberia”: Representations of the Image of N.M. Yadrintsev as a Public Figure in the “Oriental Review” Newspaper (Based on the Material of Obituaries from 1894)

The purpose of the study involves representing the image of the outstanding Siberian public figure N. M. Yadrintsev through textual analysis of necrologies dedicated to him, published in the newspaper “Eastern Review”, 1894. The edition was a great success among the provincial and metropolitan public. The choice of chronological framework is explained by the year of the enlightener’s death. The ongoing research is based on the methodology of “new intellectual and cultural history”, revealing the facets of a historical figure and his ideological heritage in the perception of the worldview of his contemporaries and colleagues. To implement research plans, the theory of historical memory was used. The anthropological approach emphasizing the individual with his way of thinking and characteristic behavioral traits was important for this study. Also, content analysis as a form of historical research was widely used in the work. Such tools made it possible not only to identify the content of written sources, but also to show their social context. The author emphasizes that after the death of N.M. Yadrintsev, many obituary texts were published in memory of the public figure. The work shows that obituary materials reveal N.M. Yadrintsev as a talented journalist, traveler, writer, and expert on the Siberian frontier. In this vein, the social significance of the enlightenment’s heritage is emphasized and his social and professional status is noted.

On the Paradoxical Structure of the Concept of Style. A Theoretical Framework

<p>In addition to his famous concept of the style of life or lifestyle, Simmel develops a more general concept of style in his writings on art and aesthetics. He makes clear in this context that the concept of style has a paradoxical structure that mediates between the general and the particular and that it always stands for the general. This concept of style allows Simmel to apply it in different research fields: sociology and social philosophy, ethics, art and aesthetics or intellectual history. In developing a theoretical framework for understanding Simmel’s concept of style, we will need to cross these disciplinary boundaries. We will examine the fields of arts and aesthetics as well as intellectual history so as to illustrate how Simmel applies the concept of style. This will also make the paradoxical structure of this concept clear</p>

The Typologies of Islamic Thought: Mapping The Contemporary Intellectual Movements in Indonesia

The Typologies of Islamic Thought: Mapping The Contemporary Intellectual Movements in Indonesia

Analytical Concepts for Transcultural Settings

In global intellectual history, there exists a tension between analytical concepts often carrying a Western or colonial pedigree andtheir ability to capture the multifaceted reality of historical actors who cannot be placed in one language or culture alone. The thematic section titled ‘Analytical Concepts for Transcultural Settings’ highlights the role of global intellectual historians as mediators who balance local realities with global narratives. It emphasises how rethinking the crucial role of analytical concepts can help historical actors challenge and transcend conventional categories, urging historians to adapt their analytical frameworks for transcultural settings accordingly.

Just 'a Strange Polish Muslim'?

By concentrating on the case study of Seyfeddin Thadée Gasztowtt (1881–1936)—a peripatetic activist, journalist and convert to Islam of Polish origin, who tied the issue of Poland’s independence to the Ottoman Empire and the Muslim world in the wake of the 1905 Japanese victory over Russia, this paper discusses opportunities of biography for global intellectual history. Focus on mobile individuals who operated in transcultural settings can help us to understand how major turning points in international history become global moments as these moments gain global significance only by virtue of activists seizing them and employing them in the service of their respective causes. A biographical approach gains us insights into how individuals were shaped by these watershed moments and at the same time were productive in them. A microscale analysis offered by biography can elucidate the processes of cross-cultural intellectual transfer and transregional entanglement in all their complexity.

Lost in Anti-Imperialist Translation

This article uses translation analytically in order to address the issue of context. This can be elusive in global intellectual history, especially when the ideas at stake claim to be valid anywhere, with no regard to circumstances. Examples are drawn from the oeuvre of the universalist Indian thinker M. N. Roy in order to argue that his ‘contingent contexts’ of personal political circumstances and tactical decisions can illuminate historical arguments, as well as positing that contexts were not merely what Roy operated in, but also what he operated with.

Рец. на кн.: Xenia A. Cherkaev. Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice. Ithaca, NY; L.: Cornell University Press, 2023. XV+189 p.

The book Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice by Xenia A. Cherkaev analyzes the concept of socialist property and its impact on grassroots economic practices. By analyzing how the “Soviet” appears in the narratives of workers and employees of former Soviet enterprises recorded during fieldwork in St Petersburg in the 2010s, Cherkaev offers us an anthropological view of Soviet everyday life through political economy and ethics. According to Cherkaev, the major periods of Soviet history (War Communism, NEP, Stalinism, the Thaw, and Perestroika) can be viewed through the prism of an ethical understanding of socialist property embedded in changing legislation. To understand how Soviet society emerged and how the Soviet state suddenly vanished into thin air, she examines the evolution of these regimes from 1917 to the early 1990s. At the same time, Cherkaev makes an important contribution to the history of ideas and intellectual history as she consistently traces the emergence, development, transformation, and decline of the concept of “socialist property” (“socialist economy”) from the early post-revolutionary years to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Cherkaev’s work will be an important contribution to scholarship on late-Soviet social and economic history.

Творчество и религиозность как проблема философии русской культуры

This review presents an analysis of the fundamental work “Creativity and religiosity in Russian culture. Philosophical Research” was written by the Russian philosopher and cultural scientist O.A. Zhukova who has been fruitfully researching the history of Russian culture and national thought for many years. The new book is the third part of a trilogy devoted to discussing the line of succession in Russian cultural and intellectual history, which is characterized by a religious understanding of creativity. The author formulates important theoretical positions, as well as methodological approaches to the study in philosophy of Russian culture and history. The large scale work is highlighted by the original interpretation of the plots considered in it. In the book, O.A. Zhukova develops the thesis about the ideal-centering of Russian culture, she offers a philosophical-culturological model of the historical dynamics of Russian culture. The basis of this model is the creative experience of a personality.

Łukasz Wróbel. Józef Jerzy Hylzen. Studium kariery magnackiej w XVIII wieku. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2022

The book review evaluates the biography of the Inflantian (Polish Livonian) nobleman (szlachcic), prominent politician of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century, Józef Jerzy Hylzen, written by Łukasz Wróbel, published in 2022. This work is an important contribution to the history of both Poland and Latvia, since it is the first comprehensive research dedicated to a representative of a noble family closely connected with Latvia. The structure of the book is based on the five criteria proving one’s belonging to the informal nobility elite, magnates: the family's ancient origins, education, including European travel (the so-called Le Grand Tour), political activities, property, and lifestyle. This monograph outlines the perspectives for further studies: border in the consciousness of the nobles of Inflantia in the context of politics, religion, and intellectual movements. Wróbel’s work is unique, factually rich, conceptually interesting, and easily readable. It also presents a very useful source of information for any future researchers of Inflanty.

Yakut Department of the Imperial Orthodox Church Palestinian Society in the History of Yakutia

The relevance of the research topic lies in the analysis of the historical experience of the activities of the Yakut department of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), which contributed to identifying the characteristics of communications between the authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church, the clergy and believers, as well as identifying its educational and translation work. For the first time, the purpose of the research is to study the characteristics and role of the IOPS department in the history of Yakutia. The article uses materials from the periodical “Yakut Diocesan Gazette”: orders of the leadership of the IOPS, reports, lists of members, texts of bishops’ speeches, information on meetings, etc., as well as published letters of Bishop Dionysius. The article uses the methodology of intellectual history, civilizational approach, methods of cultural transfer and statistics. A fivefold increase in the number of the Yakut department of the IOPS by 1900 and the active involvement of the indigenous population in its composition amounting to 36 percent of the community were revealed. It has been established that despite the dispersed type of settlement, the absolute lack of roads and the widespread poverty of the Yakuts, the proportional amounts of donations on their part exceeded similar indicators in the center of Russia. The origin of the Yakut pilgrimage to Palestine and Greece is considered, which had a beneficial effect on the development of the intellectual and creative abilities of the pilgrims themselves. The influence of the IOPS on the genesis of imperial identity among indigenous peoples was determined, which for a long period allowed the Yakuts to resist the propaganda of exiles. We draw a conclusion on the role of the IOPS in the formation of the monarchical, conservative and anti-Zem movement of the Yakuts led by M. S. Shelomov by 1905, as a serious alternative to the liberal movement of the intelligentsia led by V. V. Nikiforov

The Hybrid Reformation: A Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History of Contending Forces by Christopher Ocker (review)

The Hybrid Reformation: A Social, Cultural, and Intellectual History of Contending Forces by Christopher Ocker (review)

The (Mal)Functionality of Vernacular

Abstract Continuing a dialogue with Ülo Valk on the value of the etic term vernacular in folk-loristic scholarship, this essay responds to his claim that despite the stigma of the word’s past usage and its rejection by other fields it holds promise for folkloristics because of its conceptual flexibility, which he finds is especially conducive to the study of belief and religious practices. Pointing out that flexibility – or “fuzziness” to quote other critics – suggests imprecision, residualism, hierarchy, and lack of analytical instrumentality, this essay contends that use of vernacular reveals more about its users than the groups and practices it purports to describe. Recounting the intellectual history of the term and its adoption in folkloristic circles as well as the author’s own scholarship, this essay maintains that the term has limited, if any, use in folkloristics and ethnology because of its negative assumptions and “fuzzy” logic. It can be reflexively analyzed, however, to understand scholars’ perceptions of cultural phenomena and their conflicts with cognitive categories of practice and belief enacted by cultural participants.

The Intellectual History of Romanian Feminism from Early Transition to Democratic Deconsolidation and Illiberalism

The Intellectual History of Romanian Feminism from Early Transition to Democratic Deconsolidation and Illiberalism

Beyond Humanity

Abstract Posthumanism stands as a complex and interdisciplinary intellectual movement that challenges and broadens conventional notions of human identity and existence, particularly in light of advancements in science and technology. It emerged in response to the swift evolution of technology and its profound impact on our understanding of what it means to be human. Embarking on a posthumanist inquiry, this research delves into the rich fabric of Charles Stross’ Singularity Sky (2003), meticulously unraveling the complexities of human transcendence amidst advanced technology. The article's objective is to unveil the nuanced layers of the author's exploration of posthumanist ideas. The analysis explores the dynamic interplay among characters and their technological surroundings, emphasizing moments where the amalgamation of humanity and cutting-edge technology acts as a catalyst for transcendence.

Romanticizing Sufism: Tracing Spiritual Echoes of the Divine between Sufism and Romanticism

The paper is a comparative study exploring the shared spiritual resonances between Sufism, a mystical branch of Islam, and Romanticism, a Western intellectual movement. Sufism, originating within Islam in the 7th century, seeks divine truth through direct personal experience, while Romanticism, emphasizing emotion and individual expression, emerged in the West. This research investigates how these seemingly disparate traditions echo similar themes of transcendence, love, and mystical experience. Through a comparative analysis of literary, philosophical, and historical sources, the study uncovers their interconnectedness, shedding light on mutual influences and contributions to spiritual discourse. By examining key texts and poetry, this research aims at deep understanding of the universal quest for divine connection while offering unique perspectives on this eternal pursuit.

A Memoir of London: A Reading on Ghazi AlQosaibi’s Bye-Bye London and Anna Quindlen’s Imagined London

This paper aims to present impressions of London “indisputably the capital of literature”, by two culturally diverse novelists and their works: the first is the Saudi diplomat, novelist, and poet Dr. Gazi AlQosaibi’s (1940-2010) Bye-Bye London (2002) and the American renowned Pulitzer Prize winner Anna Qindlen’s (1953) Imagined London (2004). The researcher used a textual analysis approach to analyze the novels. This study is an add-value to the body of knowledge by contributing to the literature of A Memoir of London and Imagined London. It addresses the manifold concept and diverse determinations of images related to the identity of London. In addition, it examines the different representations that reflect the different circumstances, defined by time and place in London. A thorough reading of both works will not only provide many insights about London, the city, but also a literary and intellectual biography of the writers themselves. Thus, a reading of their works, comparing, and contrasting them will be ostensible to further highlight their recollections, reminisces, and experiences of “the capital of the world”. The results showed that Bye, Bye London, and Imagined London are examples of honor to a metropolitan that includes one of the greatest fictional and ancient pasts. These novellas are not as thorough as Peter Ackroyd’s London: a Biography (2001) which Quindlen positions in the volume.

Bioactive Compounds Produced by Macromycetes for Application in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Patents and Products

It is widely known that mushrooms present several properties with applications in the medicinal and pharmaceutical sectors, including antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, hypotensive, neuroprotective, and anti-inflammatory activities. This article aims to review examples of the bioactive metabolites responsible for those activities, such as polysaccharides, phenols and polyphenols, terpenes, peptides, alkaloids, and steroids, which are produced by several relevant mushroom species. It also discusses their production through solid-state fermentation and submerged fermentation, as well as the processes of obtention of mushroom bioactive extracts and considerations on their stability aiming industrial applications. In addition, the article examines the patent landscape surrounding mushroom-derived bioactives, shedding light on the intellectual property history and innovations driving this field forward. Examples of recently deposited patents in the field are highlighted, as well as the main depositors. China and the United States are the major depositor countries in this field (52% and 35% of patents, respectively), and the principal compounds on the patents are polysaccharides and alkaloids. The article also provides insights into the current market landscape, showcasing mushroom-derived products in the pharmaceutical field available to consumers. From dietary supplements to skincare formulations, the market offerings reflect the growing interest in harnessing the health benefits of mushroom bioactives.