Muslim History Research Articles

Introducing Seaside Town Muslims

The majority of British Muslims live in cities such as London, Leicester, Birmingham and Bradford—and academic research thus far has reflected a city and post-manufacturing town emphasis. This paper investigates the as yet undocumented history and mosque politics of Muslims living in the small town of Eastbourne, East Sussex, using participant observation and unstructured and semi-structured interviews. Firstly, I conceptualise my case study group by highlighting some differences found in a small town in terms of the origins of its Muslims, their ethnic heterogeneity, and residential spatial distribution. Secondly, I explore mosque politics in terms of mosque planning, public reactions to mosque rebuilding, and mosque management issues.

The Tradition on Jihad of the Sword, Counter-Narratives, and Policy

AbstractThis article addresses two sets of issues, one historical and thematic, the other contemporary. The first is the normative tradition on jihad of the sword and its expression in different contexts. The second is the relation of religion to the formation of policy, where historical Muslim doctrine and practice has produced a significantly different perspective on this relationship from that in the West. This complicates efforts at mutual understanding and conceptions of present-day radical Islamist militant discourses and practices. My aim will be to identify the main issues at stake so as to provide a meaningful outline for possible engagement.

Medieval Muslim Historians and the Franks in the Levant, written by Alex Mallett

Medieval Muslim Historians and the Franks in the Levant, written by Alex Mallett

Establishment of a Migrant Community: The Story of the Jamahs in San Nicolas, La Paz, Iloilo City

This study was conceptualized to reconstruct the history of the Muslims in Iloilo City who attend worship at the San Nicolas mosque. The study employed the descriptive case study method. The in-depth and semi-structured interviews were the main tools. Other tools were informal and direct observations and focus group discussions. Inconsistencies in the narratives were straightened out in the focus group discussion. The key informants were five Maranao Muslim males from Marawi City. Reasons for migration are mostly economic and majorities are traders from Lanao Del Sur. In the 1970’s more migrants came most were single young males to avoid the then conflict between the Muslim rebels and the government troops during the Martial Law. All of the first generation migrants are males, the wives and female children followed once the males had established themselves. There were no concrete problems they have encountered as a community. The second and third generations have already adapted to the Ilonggo lifestyle. In general, they encountered no resistance from the Ilonggos, they feel accepted. They have no recollection of stories of resistance from the first generation migrants either.

Multiple modernities, modern subjectivities and social order

Taking its point of departure in the conceptual debate about modernities in the plural, this article presents a heuristic framework based on an interpretative approach to modernity. The article draws on theories of multiple modernities, successive modernities and poststructuralist approaches to modern subjectivity formation. In combining conceptual tools from these strands of social theory, we argue that the emergence of multiple modernities should be understood as a historical result of idiosyncratic social constructions combining global social imaginaries with religious and other cultural traditions. In the second part of the article we illustrate this argument with three short excursions into the history of Islamic reform in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this way we interpret the modern history of Muslim societies as based on cultural conflicts between different forms of social order and individual identities similar to those present in European history. Contrary to the European experience, however, religious traditions gradually assumed an important role in defining ‘authentic’ Muslim modernities, leading to a relatively hegemonic role of so-called Islamic modernities toward the end of the 20th century.

AN OUTLINE ON THE ISLAMIZATION OF THE BALKANS: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO OSMANLI COURT RECORDS (QADI SIJIL)

The Balkan Peninsula is an ancient historical region. As a consequence of its geopolitical position, the Balkan Peninsula, through the ages, displayed a distinct historical and cultural homogeneity. A history of the Balkans in general is an inseparable part of Muslim history. The common history of the Muslim Balkans, mainly with reference to the Osrnanli period, is documented and preserved in millions of written records presently kept in the Osmanli archives in Turkey, and in various Balkan countries and elsewhere.

Ibn Al-Athir’s Philosophy of History in Al-Kamil Fi Al-Tarikh

Ibn al-Athir was a Muslim historian in the 6-7th century AH/12-13th century AD and renowned for his masterpiece entitled al-Kamil fi al-tarikh. The content structure of al-Kamil is divided into two which are, first, ‘Muqaddimah’ section containing the principles and concepts of history of Ibn al-Athir and, second, narrative section containing information and historical events which dominate almost all of al-Kamil. This article is intended for discussion on the philosophy of history in the ‘Muqaddimah’ section to understand Ibn al-Athir’s ideas about history in al-Kamil. The discussion applies a document analysis method and historiography approach. Results found that there were three forms of philosophy of history of Ibn al-Athir. First, tazkirah (reminder) is a reminder for mankind of historical events that happened. Second, sahih (authentic) is a selection technique of factual historical content. Third, tamm (completeness or perfection) as a process of scrutiny and observation before a narration is chosen and written. These three indirectly underlie the whole historiography of al-Kamil and form Ibn al-Athir’s ideas of philosophy of history in al-Kamil fi al-tarikh.

Islam and Political Violence

The global threat of Al Qaeda post 9/11 and ISIL, increased Sunni-Shia conflicts, and violence in the Middle East and Pakistan dominate headlines and challenge governments in the region and globally. Both Muslim extremists and some Western experts and observers speak of a clash of civilizations or a culture war in Muslim-West relations. Both the discourse and violence yet again raise questions about the relationship of Islam to violence and terrorism: is Islam a particularly violent religion? Critics cite Quranic passages, doctrines like jihad and events in Muslim history as strong indicators and proof that Islam is the primary driver of Muslim extremism and terrorism. What do the Quran and Islamic law have to say about violence, jihad and warfare? What are the primary drivers of terrorism in the name of Islam today? This article will address these questions in the context of development of global jihadist movements, in particular Al Qaeda and ISIL, their roots, causes, ideology and agenda.

American Muslim (Un)Exceptionalism

Abstract The acceptance and performance of Americanness as defined by a dominant discourse is manifest in the ways Muslims express their religious identification and acquiesce to the issues that are important to the state. In this article, we choose one particular example to highlight a trajectory of responses that limits Muslim history in the United States to positive and uncritical representations of the self, thereby circumscribing avenues of dissent and challenges to authority.

Modern Muslim Thought in the Balkans: The Writings of Mehmed ef. Handžić in the El-Hidaje Periodical in the Context of Discrimination and Genocide

The withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries left a significant impact on the population of the region, especially on the Muslims. Muslim intellectual life was strongly influenced by the arrival of a new political and social order and cultural and religious value system. During this period, Balkan Muslims painfully and irreversibly became an administrative part of Europe. The aim of this paper is to examine the main themes which characterized the writings of Bosnian Muslim intellectuals in the post-Ottoman period, particularly on the eve of and during the Second World War. This work examines the writings of Mehmed Handžić, a prominent Bosnian scholar that were published in the El-Hidaje Periodical from 1939 to 1945. The paper brings the scholar's views and commentaries on a variety of topics such as the impoverished Muslim state, the history of Islam and Muslims, and patriotism and nationalism from the Muslim point of view. In most ofHandžić’swritings the focus is on Muslim intellectual responses to the new political and social changes as well as challenges of the ongoing Second World War. However, hiswritings and reflections continue to have far-reaching effects on Bosnian Muslims and remain relevant to the Bosnian Muslim situation at the beginning of the twenty-first century as the world observes the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in 2015.

Striving in the Path of God

The term jihad is perhaps the most contentious Arabic word to enter the Englishlanguage in recent decades. In public discourse it has become shorthandfor “holy war” and synonymous with violent Muslim extremism. This scholarlyexamination of jihad and martyrdom by Asma Afsaruddin, a professorof Islamic studies at Indiana University, carefully disentangles their multivalentmeanings within Islamic scholarship from early Muslim history up tothe present day. It also challenges the assertions of those who focus only uponmartial connotations. Instead, she argues that “conceptualizations of jihad asprimarily armed combat and of shahada as primarily military martyrdomare relatively late and contested ones and deviate considerably from theQur’anic significations of these terms” (p. 5). In this substantial, dense text,comprising nine chapters in addition to the introduction and conclusion, shedemonstrates an impressive command of materials by skillfully engaging arepresentative range of Qur’anic exegetical works, Prophetic sayings, andfaḍā’il literature.The first chapter is prefaced with a detailed discussion of the first term’setymological origin and semantic usage. Rooting her analysis in the Qur’an,she points out that its polyvalent nature cannot be reduced only to a combative ...

RECONSIDERING THE WAQF: Traditional Mechanism of Urban Regeneration in Historic Muslim Cities

Through the last century, historic Muslim Cities witnessed significant decay. The level of decay, while a number of those cities were inscribed in the WHL, created an international urge to intervene. With very limited exceptions, modern interventions did not create an obvious impact due to common factors: inefficient management, fragmented responsibilities on administrative levels, weak legislations, and lack of community awareness, participation, and absence of integrated mechanisms. However, those factors are mostly of operational nature. This paper sheds light on a socio-cultural aspect of deterioration through inquiring about a basic issue: “How was the historic Muslim city maintained for centuries?”The key answer refers always to “the Waqf”. Although its nature and role are quite different now, the Waqf institution was the main player in urban regeneration in Muslim cities until early 1900. How did it use to work? Within which value reference? In addition, what was the position of the local community in the process? Those are the key issues discussed in the paper arguing that reconsidering this traditional mechanism might add another layer to the understanding of the complexity of Muslim cities and accordingly, might lead to different approaches in future interventions.

Book review: Islamic Civilization in South Asia: A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent, written by Burjor Avari

South Asia is undoubtedly home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. The region has such a complex historical, ethnic, geopolitical, and economic dynamics that the fact that religion has been an essential element of South Asian cultures remains overlooked. Muslims are overwhelmingly linked with violence and terrorism, particularly in the West, in the post-9/11 scenario. Various nationalistic and religious standpoints have installed many ambiguities and misapprehensions about Muslims within and outside South Asia. Some of them are taken for granted without factual accuracy and pave the way to misleading interpretations of the history of Muslims in South Asia, the character of historical Muslims rulers, and the Pakistan Movement. Islamic Civilization in South Asia by Burjor Avari of Manchester Metropolitan University is particularly welcome to prompt an exploration of Muslims’ history in South Asia and to find answers to some of the most intriguing and complicated questions.

Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical AnthropologyBy Roman Loimeier

The stated aim of the volume is to engage with the history and development of African Muslim societies within African history. This is not to dissociate African Muslim history from European history but to look at the relation of the two histories from the southern perspective. From the vantage point of Africa and its adjoining regions, their history with the rest of the world according to the author can be viewed as a history of multiple entanglements. This study of African Muslim societies across times and places is not an exhaustive overview; rather, it selects some major regions of Islam in Africa through the lens of key historical periods. The focus is on local social dynamics and their relation to the wider world, and some key themes in the development of African Muslim societies, such as legitimacy of political rule, the role of outsiders in politically driven religious movements, the relationship between core and margin in the African Muslim empires, the centrality of trade and the social conflicts over control of long distance trade-routes. The author foregrounds the agency of African Muslims as traders and scholars, as leaders of states and religious movements, as both promoters and sufferers of Africa’s slave trade, and practitioners of different models of faith. As a historical anthropology, Muslim Societies in Africa delves into multiple legacies that inform different roles and positions in the given societies. In exploring the influence of the wider world, the author highlights Islam and how different regions become Muslim in diverse ways. The Introduction provides the geographical and anthropological context for the issues, themes such as: Is there an ‘African’ Islam? or Do different Muslim societies in Africa represent different expressions of Islam in distinct historical contexts, characterized by different relations with Christianity, Judaism and African indigenous faith traditions?

The History of Muslims and Christians in Papua: Tracing Cultural and Religious Heritage

This is article derived from a thesis study in the Sociology Department of the University of Indonesia in 2008 exploring socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural contexts playing their roles in the formation of the political and religious fields along with their respective ‘habitus’ of the social agents in the Papua land. This paper discusses the history of the term “papua” itself based on a historical study conducted by Solewijn Gelpke (1993). Based on historical approach, the relationship between Muslims and Christians in Papua can be traced as a religious and cultural heritage. Also, by using a sociological conception elaborated by Bourdieu (1992: 9), we may view the Papua land as a social space encompassing all conceptions of the social world. Bourdieu’s social space conception considers the social reality as a topology (Harker, 1990).

Ann Norton, on the Muslim Question

Historically, most Western nations, from the age of enlightenment, established a firm divide between church and state. This chasm engendered a concept that stressed the separation of religious morality from secular law. The assumption that the secularisation of the world is a necessary precondition for the establishment of modern, democratic form of government, has gained a lot of currency among many Western policymakers. Indeed, the need for reform is a necessity in the Muslim context, but the path towards realising it in the form of secularization is a debatable issue. Western history is characterised by the conflict between church and state, and this conflict has no precedent in the Muslim history. The nexus between religion and secular obligations, and a societal consensus is not as prominent in the Muslim context as it is in the Western societies. Ann Norton’s book, “On the Muslim Question” provides deeper political and philosophical insights into the intricate relationship between Muslims and the West. Norton asserts that in the contemporary times the Muslim question is as fundamental as the emancipation of Jews in the context of enlightenment philosophy. Norton organises her work efficiently and manages to weave together the distinct but related topics in 2 parts containing 10 chapters along with an introduction and an index.

The Effect of the Muhadithins’ Methodologies in Writing the Prophetic Biography (PB)

The Effect of the Muhadithins’ Methodologies in Writing the Prophetic Biography (PB) Dr. Saleh Ahmed Al-Busaidi Introduction All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the best of His Prophets and Messengers, the Prophet Muhammad and his family and Companions and those who followed him truthfully until the Day of Judgment. Writing the prophetic biography (PB) is essentially the job of the historians as they were the first to take interest in writing the prophetic biography (PB) as an integrated work. This was done either as a dedicated work like that of Ibn Hisham, Ibn Is’haq, Al-Halabi and others; or as a part of historic encyclopedias like those of Al Tabari, Ibn Al Atheer, Ibn Kuthair, Al-Mas’udi, Al Yaqubi, and others. The Muhaddithin have left on impact on highlighting some of the chief points in the prophetic biography (PB). It is well known that the writers of the prophetic biography tended to apply the methodologies of the historians in conveying the events of the PB, however, at times, they used to adopt the methodology of the Muhaddithin in weighing between the conflicting narrations, particularly those who had a wide scope of knowledge of the Muhaddithin’s methodologies. In fact, they may have considered themselves as muhaddithin like Ibn Kuthair and Ibn Al-Athir. This blending of the two methodologies (historians and Muhaddithin) created a strong bond between the Muslim historians and the Muhaddithin and contributed in filtering the BP from a lot of the forged narrations through which, some tried character assassination to the Prophet (PBUH) as we shall elaborate by examples. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jisc.v3n1a10

Political theory of Ibn Khaldun

Ibn Khaldun represents one of the most important personalities in the history of Islamic thought, but also one of the greatest thinkers of the Middle Ages. His best known work, al-Muqaddimah, is one of the most original analyses of the process of historical evolution of a society, state and human civilization in general. The essence of this monumental work lies in the identification of social, economic and psychological reasons which contribute to the development, rise and fall of the human civilization and therefore fundamentally shape historical flows. Ibn Khaldun undoubtedly made a big contribution to the historical science, but it is also important to emphasize his contribution to other social sciences, such as sociology, politicology and economy. This great thinker represents a unique appereance in the Muslim history and culture. Just like he never had any predecessors among Arab writers, he also did not have any successors in his fileds of research.

Ann Norton , on the Muslim Question

Historically, most Western nations, from the age of enlightenment, established a firm divide between church and state. This chasm engendered a concept that stressed the separation of religious morality from secular law. The assumption that the secularisation of the world is a necessary precondition for the establishment of modern, democratic form of government, has gained a lot of currency among many Western policymakers. Indeed, the need for reform is a necessity in the Muslim context, but the path towards realising it in the form of secularization is a debatable issue. Western history is characterised by the conflict between church and state, and this conflict has no precedent in the Muslim history. The nexus between religion and secular obligations, and a societal consensus is not as prominent in the Muslim context as it is in the Western societies. Ann Norton’s book, “On the Muslim Question” provides deeper political and philosophical insights into the intricate relationship between Muslims and the West. Norton asserts that in the contemporary times the Muslim question is as fundamental as the emancipation of Jews in the context of enlightenment philosophy. Norton organises her work efficiently and manages to weave together the distinct but related topics in 2 parts containing 10 chapters along with an introduction and an index.

Silabas De Viento/Syllables Of Wind by Xánath Caraza (review)

Reviewed by: Silabas De Viento/Syllables Of Wind by Xánath Caraza DaMaris B. Hill SILABAS DE VIENTO/SYLLABLES OF WIND. By Xánath Caraza. Lawrence, KS: Mammoth Publications. 2014. Syllables of Wind, Xánath Caraza’s second collection, is an in-depth examination of identity and collective memory, demonstrating how each rests in the tongue and is formed in language. In this volume, Caraza continues to impress the reader with her abilities to paint portraits of people and places, honoring modernist poets. Like Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and William Carlos Williams, Caraza privileges expression through [End Page 131] precise visual images. Additionally, she chooses language that frames her attention to visual details within the collective memory of “spaces” and “borderlands.” The collection is as deep and expansive as the sea and equally necessary for an intricate understanding of the complexity of American artistic/cultural production. Caraza’s poems illustrate a complex understanding and sense of knowing that casts the self as having a global identity that predates the recent attention to patriotism and national borders. One of the ways Caraza complicates popular notions of national borders and identity is that these poems bear witness to the sea being a connecting force. Rather than one that separates nations, the sea in her poems is the conduit between Mexico, United States, Spain and Morocco. In her poem Incalculable she captures the seascape to illustrate Costa Tropical, Andalusia, Spain. The lines in this poem help the reader to understand the Alboran Sea as a “Sea that found other cultures,” “sea that forged the cosmic race,” and “sea of linguistic currents.” In this way, Caraza reframes the sea and its shores as a welcoming space of hybridity, rather than privileging the sea and shore’s history of Roman and Muslim religious/political conquest. Therefore the sea images also acts as a space where the poems seem to brush upon the collective consciousness of readers. In addition to historic references and literary allusions, Caraza’s poems attend to the spiritual and divine presences associated with spaces. The collection does more to correct and rewrite the ways that time and identity are situated in a Western context; it incorporates the collective spiritual beliefs and practices of the Oaxaca, honoring the divine and indestructible energy that predates the discovery of the New World, Spanish colonization, and Catholic tradition. The opening poem The Serpent of Spring and accompanying image by Adriana Manuela foreshadows Caraza’s attention to the indigenous spiritual traditions that framed the Nahuatl mother tongue. Considering that the collection is written in at least three different languages, Nahuatl, Spanish, and English, I found myself slightly frustrated by the fact that I am not literate in Nahuatl and cannot enjoy the poems in her “mother tongue.” Due to the classical, historic, and religious allusions in Caraza’s work, I believe the collection has cultural currency in addition to its literary merit. Caraza’s framing of identity is one that speaks to the fluidity of borders and definitions of identity. In this substantive collection readers are permitted to extend notions of identity outside the context of nationality and recent her/histories. DaMaris B. Hill University of Kentucky Copyright © 2015 Mid-America American Studies Association