Arab Geographers Research Articles

KUZEY AFRİKA MİNARELERİ

Kuzey Afrika günümüzde Fas, Cezayir, Tunus, Libya, Mısır ve Sudan’ı kapsayan coğrafya olarak kabul edilmektedir. Bu bölgede tarih boyunca Antik Mısır, Kartacalılar, Romalılar, Emevîler, Abbasîler, Rüstemîler, Tolunoğulları, İdrisîler, Fâtımîler, Murabıtlar, Muvahhidler, Memlüklüler, Osmanlılar gibi birçok hanedanlık hâkimiyet kurmuştur. Çoğunlukla Müslümanların hüküm sürdüğü Kuzey Afrika’da, zamanla değişen yöneticilerin mensubu oldukları milliyetleri, dinî ve dünyevî algıları ve kültürel birikimleri, inşa ettikleri şehirlerin mimarisine etkili bir şekilde yansımıştır. Bu değişen ve gelişen mimarî ile sanat anlayışının zuhur ettiği en göze çarpan yapılardan biri de zamanla câmilerin ana unsurlarından biri haline gelen minarelerdir. Doğudan batıya tüm İslam coğrafyasında farklı zamanlarda farklı devletlerce inşa edilen câmilerin minareleri mimari bakımdan çeşitlilik gösterir. Minare, her ne kadar dinî bir yapıya ait mimari unsur olsa da yapıldığı coğrafyanın İslamiyet öncesi kültürel birikiminden etkilenmiş olabilir. Bölgelere göre farklılık gösteren farklı minare tarzları, araştırmacıları minarenin kökeni ve ilk minare örnekleri üzerine araştırmaya yöneltmiş ve birçok farklı görüş ortaya atılmıştır. Biz de bu çalışmamızda, minarenin mimari bir unsur olarak ortaya çıkışına dair olan görüşlerle ilgili kısa bir giriş yaptıktan sonra asıl konumuz olan Kuzey Afrika minarelerini tarihî, mimarî ve tezyînî açılardan ele alacağız. Mısır, Tunus, Cezayir, Fas bölgelerine ait minareleri bizzat ziyaret edip gözlemlediğimiz için daha ayrıntılı şekilde ele alarak değerlendirmeye çalışacağız.

İCMA’IN SİYASÎ VE MEZHEBÎ YÖNÜ

İcmâ başlangıçta dinî bir müessese olarak doğmuştur. Fıkıh usulü kitaplarında icmâ (ittifak) dinî konularda olur kaydı sürekli geçer. Mutezileden Nazzam icmâ’ın siyasî olarak icat edildiğini iddia eder. Onun görüşüne katılmasak da icmâ’ın zaman zaman siyasî ve mezhepsel amaçlarla da kullanıldığına rastlanmaktadır. Başta Ebu Ya’la el-Ferra’nın el-Udde adlı usul kitabında ve Serahsî’nin Usul’ünde icmâ bahsinde Ebu Bekir’in halife seçiminde icmâ olduğundan söz edilmektedir. Halife seçimi aslında siyasî bir konudur, fakat dinî bir konu haline getirilmiştir, daha çok da kelam kitaplarının sonunda imamet bölümünde tartışılmıştır. Ancak Cüveynî İrşad adlı kelam kitabının imamet bölümünün başında bu konunun usul-i dinden olmadığını itiraf etmiştir ama alışılageldiği için o da imamet konusunu tartışmıştır.Ehl-i sünnet kabul edilen fıkıh usulcülerinin usul kitaplarında Ehl-i bidat denen mezhepler özellikle Hariciler icmâ’ın dışında tutulmuştur. Bunu sadece Ehl-i sünnet usulcüleri değil bazı Mutezile usulcüleri de yapmıştır. Böylece icmâ’ın siyasî ve mezhebî olarak kullanılmasıyla bazı muhalif siyasî gruplar yerilmiş, bazı muhalif mezhepler itibarsızlaştırılmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışma icmâ’ın siyasî ve mezhebi kullanımını tarafsız olarak tespit etmektedir. Zira icmâ’ya dahil edilmeyen veya icmâ için görüşleri itibara alınmayan ve ehl-i bidat diye kınanan mezhepler de toplumda çoğunluğu elde etseydi büyük bir ihtimalle onlar da icmâ’yı muhaliflerine karşı kullanacaktı. Nitekim Haricilerin daha ileri giderek kendilerinden olmayanları açıkça tekfir ettiği bilinmektedir. İçtihadî meselelerde tüm ümmetin icmâ’sı azdır; genelde çoğunluğun ittifakına icmâ denmiştir. Fiilî durum budur. Tarihî bir realitedir ki az da olsa Ebu Bekir’in halife seçiminde de muhalifler vardı.İcmâ’ın çağımızdaki durumuna gelince, dağınık ve kalabalık İslam coğrafyasında icmâ edecek bütün müçtehitleri tespit kolay olmasa da icmâ’ın imkânından bahseden ve bunun gerçekleşmesi için önerilerde bulunan Müslüman düşünürler ve fıkıh usulcüleri vardır. Çalışmalarını 20.asrın başlarında da sürdüren Muhammed Abduh ve Reşid Rıza gibi İslam düşünürleri icmâ’ın nasıl işlevsel hale geleceği hususunda imal-i fikirde bulunmuşlardır. Fıkıh usulü kitabı sahibi Abdulvahhab Hallaf ve Abdülkerim Zeydan icmâ’ın imkânı için öneriler yapmışlardır. Bunların yaptıkları önerilerin siyasete taalluk eden yönleri de vardır. Bunların yanı sıra kelimenin tam anlamıyla icmâ olmasa da veya usuldeki icmâ tanımına tam uymasa da İslam dünyasında yer yer icmâ havasında toplantılar yapılmaktadır. Bunlar icmâ fikrinin çağımızda hala önemini koruduğunu göstermektedir. Diğer bir ifadeyle icmâ, üzerine ilgi çekmeye devam etmektedir. Biz bu konuda durum tespiti yaparak icmâ’ın siyasî ve mezhebî yönüne dikkat çektik. Bu bağlamda icmâ’ın dışa karşı stratejik yönü de vardır.

Nizâmülmülk Etkisi: Otorite Sahibi Bir Vezir Portresi

One of the breaking points in Turkish and Islamic history is the Battle of Dandanakan, which took place between the Seljuks and the Ghaznavids in 1040. After the war, the Seljuks became an effective and decisive power, especially in the Sunni Islamic geography with a rapid rise. The Great Seljuk Empire, which came from a nomadic culture and irrepressibly expanded its domination from Turkistan to Anatolian territory in a very short time while it was in the nature of a nomad group, started to mature institutionally as well. At this point, the Persian origin statesmen, many of whom previously served in the state organization of Ghaznavid, met the need for trained personnel that emerged both in the central government and in the provinces. One of these names is Hasan b. Ali b. Isḥāq al- Ṭūsī, who will become famous with the name of Niẓām al-Mulk and will get ahead of his original name. Niẓām al-Mulk has been an extremely effective name in the institutionalization of the Great Seljuk State with the steps and actions which he tookin the military, administrative, scientific, and economic fields at a time when the state power was depended on victories in the military field. As a result of that event, he gained a respectable place among both public and statesmen. Within the scope of this study, the position of Niẓām al-Mulk in the state bureaucracy, his relations with the rulers and dynasty members, and the reflections of the actions taken by him from his period of vizier to the Seljuk history will be discussed.

Review: Gardens of Renaissance Europe and the Islamic Empires: Encounters and Confluences, edited by Mohammad Gharipour

Mohammad Gharipour, ed. Gardens of Renaissance Europe and the Islamic Empires: Encounters and Confluences University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017, 272 pp., 55 color and 67 b/w illus. $94.95 (cloth), ISBN 9780271077796 This edited volume from Mohammad Gharipour presents research on cross-cultural influences in garden design between Renaissance-era Europe and three Islamic empires: Mughal, Safavid, and Ottoman. It begins with a prologue by D. Fairchild Ruggles that summarizes relevant work on Islamic garden traditions, including themes of poetry and metaphor, form and typology, agricultural production, environmental concerns, and gardens as agents for cultural production. The book concludes with an epilogue in which Anatole Tchikine asks whether the term “global Renaissance” allows for new perspectives on the study and comparative understanding of gardens produced by European and Islamic rulers. Between prologue and epilogue are eight essays. In comparison to Renaissance gardens of Italy, France, England, and Portugal, two of the essays explore Ottoman gardens, four look at Mughal gardens, one examines the Safavid gardens established by Shah Abbas in and around the city of Isfahan, and another considers varied gardens of Islamic geography. The book's first essay, “Embracing the Other: Venetian Garden Design, Early Modern Travelers, and the Islamic Landscape,” by Christopher Pastore, documents the travel of several Venetians who went east from the later fifteenth through the late seventeenth centuries. Pastore discusses their observations of multiple cultures and sites in Egypt, Syria, the Indian subcontinent, Ethiopia, the Arabian desert, Baghdad, the Ottoman and early Safavid Empires, and Al-Andalus. Venetians embraced novel garden ideas derived from these cultures and applied them to the designs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century estates in the Veneto, alongside their borrowings from the classical villa tradition. The essay includes references and plans showing how Venetian gardens were expanded and updated through the use of novel hydraulics and vegetation, and how they were influenced by illustrations of landscapes encountered by those traveling abroad. Pastore argues that Venetian gardens served as experimental nodes of transformation and change, and as …

What Can the Arab Geographers Deliver on Slavic Historical Phonology?

The article offers a comprehensive survey of the Arabic transcriptions of Slavic geographical and personal names in early medieval Arab-Muslim geographical literature. The linguistic structure of Arabic and its orthography are briefly discussed in order to substantiate the relevance of Arabic evidence despite paleographic and systemic shortcomings in the transmission of Slavic names like Rusь, Dirь and Kyjevь by such geographers and historians as al-Mas'ūdī, Ibn Fađlān, al-Iṣṭakhrī, Ibn Ḥawqal and others. The article argues that the transcriptions furnish compelling evidence to be used in the historical phonology of Slavic and some adjacent disciplines.

ЖИЗЗАХ ШАҲРИ МАДАНИЯТИНИНГ ШАКЛЛАНИШИ

This article provide that Uzbekistan is one of the oldest centers of culture, in particular, the works of Greco-Roman historians, Arab and Chinese travelers and geographers serve invaluable source for studying the ancient history of Jizzak

LAND TENURE ARRANGEMENTS IN DAGESTAN
 IN PROFESSOR A.R. SHIKHSAIDOV’S WORKS

The article is devoted to the contribution of a well-known historian-orientalist, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Amri Rzaevich Shikhsaidov to the study of land tenure in Dagestan. The authors of the article studied three monographs and a number of articles by A.R. Shikhsaidov, dedicated to the history of the region and its southern part in the VII – XIX centuries. It is important to note that A.R. Shikhsaidov was one of the first to analyze the works of Arab historians and geographers, as well as local Arabic-speaking sources, and extensively studied land arrangements in Dagestan in the early Middle Ages, from the X – XV centuries to the XIX century inclusive. The article analyzes the classification of A.R. Shikhsaidov forms of agriculture. He singled out a number of forms (state land, diya, ikta, waqf and freehold land), which experienced the known influence of political and socio-economic processes in the region and changed during the historical process. The authors of the article show the contribution of the scholar in identifying and characterizing changes in the status of land tenure forms in the historical process. The authors emphasize the importance of the material, introduced by A.R. Shikhsaidov in the scientific circulation, for each of these forms of land ownership. The scientific value of the analogies carried out by Professor Shikhsaidov for various forms of land ownership that existed in Dagestan with various forms of land ownership in the countries of Western Europe, Russia and the South Caucasus countries is emphasized.The article is of an overview nature and will be useful both for the study of the work of a prominent Dagestan scholar and for researchers in the development of land relations in Dagestan.

Systematization as a Method of Description in Medieval Islamic Geography

The paper discusses the ways of systematization used by medieval Islamic geographers to create images of earthly space. To this end, a comparative analysis of Arab geographical works of various genres created in the 9th—14th centuries was carried out. As a result, it was found that the system of dividing the earth’s surface into latitudinal climatic zones, inherited from antiquity, turned out to be very productive in Islamic geography. It was used not only to organize information, but also to interpret it, including its value characteristics, when it turned into a social tool for dividing ecumene into zones of barbarism and civilization, which allowed to build a hierarchy of world space. The theory of climates was transferred from astronomical geography to descriptive geography, due to which a new type of geographical description was formed — zonal-climatic in form and cultural-historical in content.

Outer and Inner Bashkirs in the Arab-Muslim Geographic Tradition

The article analyzes the information of the Arab-Muslim historical-geographical literature of the 10th–13th centuries regarding the settlement of two groups of medieval Bashkirs, called “outer” and “inner”. This classification was introduced into Arab-Muslim literature by the Central Asian geographer Abu Zeid Ahmad Ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (between 850 and 934). The reason for its appearance were the reports about the existence of groups representing different peoples, in particular the Bashkirs and the Bulgars, isolated from each other. This issue was fleetingly touched in the works of Russian and foreign scholars, but did not become a subject of a special study. On the one hand, this was hampered by the influence of the long-obsolete Ugric theory of the Bashkirs’ origin, and on the other hand, by the poor knowledge of the original sources and the lack of integrated approach to their interpretation. As the analysis of sources showed, in the 10th–11th centuries there were simultaneously two groups of Bashkirs – in the Southern Urals and in the Black sea coast. The appearance of the western group of Bashkirs in the southern Russian steppes is connected with the war between two coalitions of the Turkic tribes: the Pechenegs, the Bashkirs, the Yadjnis and the Naukerdes on the one hand, and the Oguzes, the Kimaks, the Karluks and the Khazars – on the other. The first ones were defeated and were forced to migrate from the steppes of the Aral sea region to the Black sea coast at the end of the 9th century. After a 150-year stay in the southern Russian steppes, the Pechenegs and Bashkirs were pushed aside by the next wave of Turkic nomads to the Balkans and further to Hungary. Therefore, the classical school of Arab-Muslim geography, represented by such authors of the 10th century as al-Istakhri and Ibn Haukal, began to call the Western group of Bashkirs “inner” and the South Ural group – “outer”. Similarly, mentioned authors divided the Bulgars into the “inner” and the “outer” ones. The first ones corresponded to the Danube Bulgars, and the second – the Volga ones. This classification was based on the so-called “geographical egocentrism”, according to which close objects were designated as “inner”, and distant as “outer” ones. The 12th-century Arab geographer al-Idrisi extended this classification of peoples, arbitrarily transferring it to the Kumans, Russians and Armenians. As he did not find the Black Sea Bashkirs in the ethnogeography of his time, he similarly transferred that classification to the South Ural Bashkirs. Thus, the division of ethnic groups into “outer” and “inner” ones in his work was only a tribute to the old tradition and did not reflect the real historical picture.

Development Aid in Tumultuous Times: A Perspective from Muslim Geographies

Geographies of the Islamic world manifest stark disparities in terms of social and economic development. While some of the countries of the Ummah (Islamic community) benefited from Western donors a...

Chinese Muslims’ daily food practices and their geographies of encounter in urban Guangzhou

ABSTRACT This article aims to understand how Chinese Muslims negotiate their identities and how they are included and excluded in urban Guangzhou – a multicultural and multi-ethnic city in south China – through the lens of food. This empirical research consists of intersectional and interactional analysis based on narratives of both the ethnic majority and minority groups. Drawing on a qualitative analysis, this research sheds light on both Muslim geographies of encounter and geographical studies on food consumption in China’s multicultural context. Focusing on daily food practices of Chinese Hui Muslims who are immigrated to Guangzhou from Islamic communities in northwest China, this research elucidates how these Muslims use food to sustain their religious identities, how they manage their food practices when eating with Han Chinese and how such daily food practices integrate them into or exclude them from the mainstream Han Chinese culture in relation to wider socio-political issues. The key argument of this research indicates that public food spaces, on the one hand, can enable the social interactions between Chinese Muslims and non-Muslims, and on the other hand, gain new meanings through the encounters of these two groups.

Exploration Of The Geographical Location Of Waq Waq Islands In The Light of Islamic Arab Geographical Sources (3-7 A.H./ 9-14 A.D.)

The study investigates Waq waq islands and the exploration of their geographical location through reviewing opinions and texts that emerged in the Islamic Arab geographical heritage. They are criticized and analyzed in order to know the location of these islands or the geographical location approximate to them. These islands have attracted the attention of a number of Muslim Arab geographers. The islands are considered one of the geographical signposts which the Arab geographers put beyond the equalizing line and beyond the borders of the world known by them. Hence, the paper aims at examining the challenges that faced the Arab Muslim geographers.

Getting comfortable to feel at home: clothing practices of black muslim women in Britain

This article explores the role of comfort as an affective encounter across bodies, objects (namely clothing) and spaces. I focus on how bodies that are marked as strange and a source of society’s discomfort negotiate this positioning through the presentation of one’s body. What does it mean for these bodies to be comfortable or uncomfortable? This question is answered through work done with Black Muslim women in Britain. By exploring how comfort is felt in relation to racially marked bodies, this article develops work on emotional geographies. Comfort is understood as both an emotional product and process that changes as bodies move across different spaces. In noting this movement, I also explore how boundaries around the body (enacted through e.g. the multi-dimensional hijab) presents a particular form of territorialisation that facilitates comfort as we present our bodies across different spaces. These boundaries can be both a source of comfort and discomfort through their positioning as deviant from social norms. In understanding the different roles of boundaries, I explore the social processes that construct comfort (or discomfort) as we move through different spaces. This is intertwined with furthering work on Muslim geographies by challenging the overwhelming focus placed on ‘public’ facing garments like the headscarf and abaya. Such a focus limits an understanding of the fluidity of Black Muslim women’s identities, and how these changes in our clothing practices affect and are affected by the relationships built across spaces.

What Does the Slave Trade in the Saqaliba Tell Us about Early Islamic Slavery?

The Saqaliba—a term that in medieval Arabic literature denoted the Slavic populations of central and eastern Europe (and possibly some of their neighbors)—offer a particularly insightful case study of the mechanisms of the early Islamic slave trade and the nature of the Muslim demand for slaves. What makes them such an ideal case study is their high visibility in texts produced in the Islamic world between the early 9th and early 11th centuries. Arab geographers and diplomats investigated their origins, while archaeological material, primarily hundreds of thousands of dirhams found in Scandinavia and the Slavic lands, contains traces of the trade in them. By combining these strands of evidence, we can build an exceptionally detailed image of slave trade systems that supplied Saqaliba to the Islamic markets, which, in turn, can be used to illustrate more general mechanisms governing the trade in and demand for slaves in the medieval Islamic world.

Silver production at al‐Radrad: archaeometallurgical analysis of ore, slag and technical ceramics from early medieval Yemen

The zinc‐lead‐silver deposit of al‐Jabali, about 65 km north‐east of Sana'a in Yemen, has been identified as the location of the late antique/Islamic period silver mine al‐Radrad. Exploitation of the mine is known from the account of al‐Hamdani, an Arab geographer of the tenth century AD. The al‐Jabali area has been the focus of geological and archaeometallurgical surveys, and extensive metallurgical remains have been discovered. Samples of ore, slag and technical ceramics were collected for archaeometallurgical analysis. The technology of silver production is discussed in relation to the historical record, and elemental and lead isotope characterisation of ore and slag provides a basis for future provenance studies.

In ampitζatru Carthaginis: the Carthage amphitheatre and its uses

The amphitheatre at Carthage lies on the W edge of the ancient city just south of the decumanus maximus as it heads inland (fig. 1). Modern investigation dates back to the late 19th c. when A.-L. Delattre spent several years (1894-96) excavating the building, but, apart from a handful of inscriptions and minor objects recovered, few details were ever published. In the decades following, parts of the amphitheatre were reconstructed but no further archaeological work was undertaken (fig. 2). It was not until the 1980s that a detailed study of the building was attempted, at which time not one but two important publications appeared, one by J.-Cl. Golvin, the other by D. L. Bomgardner. The building history is not known with much certainty, but Golvin and Bomgardner are generally in agreement on the following key points. It was originally built in the early 1st c. A.D. but was extensively rebuilt in the 2nd c., probably under the Antonines. At this time its capacity was nearly doubled and a new limestone façade added. A description of the façade by the 11th-c. Arab geographer al-Bakri mentions three levels of arcades embellished with engaged columns and with relief sculptures depicting ‘craftsmen, animals, and ships’.

Prodigality in Islamic lifestyle: a new scale development

Purpose – This study aims to propose a new construct – prodigality and develop a measurement scale to support the construct. Design/methodology/approach – Combining the paradigms of Churchill, Malhotra and Birks, the item generation and content validity yielded the development of a modified scale. Three main steps in assessment of the scale: dimensional structure, reliability and validity led to the development of a prodigality scale. A total of 32 items were generated, through assessing Qur’anic verses that are related to Muslim consumption patterns linked to in Islam. Findings – In total, 23 items remained after content validity. A pre-test using exploratory factor analysis on the 23-item scale created a two-factor scale. According to extracted validity and reliability scores, prodigality scale was statistically supported. A pool of nine items is proposed for the eventual measurement of the prodigality. Research limitations/implications – The proposed measurement scale warrants further exploratory study. Future research should assess the validity across different Muslim geographies and Islamic schools of thought and practice. Originality/value – Prodigality is proposed as a new construct that focuses primarily on the Qur’an and seeks to achieve relevance and acceptance by both Sunni and Shia denominations. The measurement scale is believed to extend the existing body of literature and contribute new knowledge on Muslim consumption.

Halal banking in post-soviet central Asia: Antecedents and consequences

With the fall of Soviet Union in 1991 the whole Central Asian region perceived a considerable rise in Muslim identity, a call back to Islamic legacy. Nowadays, lots of Central Asian Muslims need to be aware of what Islam has termed legal (Halal) and illegal (Haram). The process of Islamic revival occurred rapidly soon after the unification of Central Asian republics with other Muslim geographies through the membership of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other similar organizations. This interaction tended to be an essential push factor to the previously existing indigenous reviving trends and sentiments. Besides many other needs, Muslim customer demand appeared as navel movement in the market generally and in banking and financial sector particularly. To satisfy this need, the governments of Muslim majority Central Asian states, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan presented Halal banking and financial goods in the market. In this work, it has been attempted to recognize the causes that lead to the emergence of Islamic banking and finance industry in the region and also to investigate the effect of these causes considering the development and progress of Halal banking and financial industry.

The <I>halal</I> phenomenon: An extension or a new paradigm?

‘Halal’, an Arabic word from the Muslim holy book of the Qur’an, can be translated simply as meaning permissible, according to the teachings of Islam. However, the call to certify products and practices formally, and subsequently then label them has given rise to a new cultural phenomenon. Demands to carry overt labels and messages; and expectations as to what Halal is and should be are on the increase inside and outside of Muslim geographies across the globe. For economic and technological reasons, this is also transferring the domain of halal more and more to a vanguard of businesses; as opposed to being just a religious imperative driven by the clergy. Furthermore, the current landscape of the halal industry has arrived at a crossroads: where debates consider whether halal offers opportunities for product and brand extensions, rendering it as a niche marketing approach; or if in fact it presents the opportunity to create a new business paradigm. This article offers practitioners and academics an overview and insight into an industry that has been assessed as having a worldwide value of USD $2.3 trillion.

Provincializing Geographies of Religion: Muslim Identities Beyond the ‘West’

AbstractMost of the research on Islam and on Muslims, within geographies of religion, focuses on Muslims in diaspora. A trend in geographic research on non‐Western places has emerged, however, illuminating the global variance of Muslim communities and identities. Yet in spite of scholarly efforts to draw attention to the development of research in these ‘other’ contexts, there has been little explicit examination of how studies of Muslim geographies in non‐Euro‐American places contribute to geographies of religion, beyond an empirical or topical diversification of the field. This paper argues that geographic research on religion is situated knowledge that reflects the social and political contexts within which it is conceived and conducted. As such, it reflects particular cultures and priorities of place. The paper begins by situating Anglophone geographic literature about Muslim communities and identities by examining how the ‘West’ operates as a geographic imaginary that implicitly but powerfully conditions research contexts in Europe and the United States. This research responds to the popular and political discursive framing of Muslims as minorities, and as separate from others. As a result, Muslims appear to constitute bounded and distinct (albeit internally diverse and contextually dependent) communities. By contrast, research conducted in predominantly Muslim societies illuminates the relational, historical and cultural dynamics that bring Muslims of different sects, and Muslims and non‐Muslims, into co‐constitutive identity relationships. Indeed, the sites, practices, and things that constitute or represent identity for Jews and Muslims, for Sunni and Shi'a, or for pious and secular people, are the same: what it means to be Muslim is contextually specific and formed through relationships with others. This approach involves a more dynamic and productive theoretical conceptualization of place than operates in most Anglo‐European geographies of religion. By illuminating the specific empirical and theoretical contributions of Muslim/non‐Muslim geographies beyond the West, this paper provincializes geographies of religion and offers observations that may extend the field in new directions.