Period Of Islamic History Research Articles

The Timeline of Zakah

Abstract This research aimed to (1) study the rates of different types of zakah and the time of their occurrence during the history of Islam (2) identify the rates and conditions of zakah according to the time period in Islam which is divided into the era of Prophet's companions, the era of Followers ( Tabieen ), and the era of Tabi-id Tabieen (3) study the social conditions at that time and the reasons explained by the Prophet, the rulers, and the scholars of the time. The scope of this research included the study of literature and evidences from the Qur’an, the Hadith , and the documents related to the rates and the duration for paying different types of zakah divided by the Islamic era. Another part of this research is the study of the different viewpoints of the leading Muslim scholars concerning the conditions and reasons in stipulating the rates of zakah in different periods of time in Islamic history. This part of the research was conducted by applying qualitative methods, which used interviews as a tool in order to gain insight information for the research. The results demonstrated that there were differences in the types and the rates of zakah in each period of Islamic history. The alternation that occurred can be observed in the time of the era of the Prophet's companions which was different from the era of the Prophet in the types and the rates of zakah for livestock. The rate of zakah for camel and horse, which were the types of livestock that required additional payment, were changed during the era of the Prophet's companions. The distinctive changes can be seen in the era of the Tabieen and the Tabi-id Tabieen. There were different viewpoints from the scholars concerning the rates, the conditions, and the regulations of zakah that were added from the era of the Prophet's and the era of the Prophet's companions. This has shown the clear distinction for the types and the rates of zakah in Islamic history. The research also revealed the viewpoints of the Muslim scholars concerning the additional types and rates of zakah that were added after the era of the Prophet, the era of Prophet's companions, the era of Tabieen , and the Tabi-id Tabieen , for example salary zakah , expertise wage zakah , partnership zakah , and so on. The information received from this research can be used for the development of additional research in zakah , the management of zakah , and the application of zakah money for the benefit of Thai Muslim development in the future.

Archers of Islam

The extant record of the Islamic conquests of Arabia and the Fertile Crescent (mid-seventh century AD) are composite accounts that portray an inconsistent, if plausible, picture of events. Images of meagre resources and stronger foes contrast with images of cavalry actions and ‘free-wheeling’ methods of battlefield engagement. The challenges with the main sources are that they are anachronistic and their authors write salvation history, not military history. Source criticism, although essential, is inadequate to reconstruct the military methods of the early Islamic state. This article examines the seams and layers of the Arabic works and considers the evidence of artifacts and external literary sources. It indicates that early battlefield successes should be attributed to the employment of foot archers in tight formations. The image and importance of horse-archer tactics remain valid—but only for a later period of Islamic history.

Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Legal History of the Ottoman Empire

Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Legal History of the Ottoman Empire

Between Chieftaincy and Knighthood: A Comparative Study of Ottoman and Safavid Origins

Tracing the history of the Ottoman and Safavid empires back to the Middle Period of Islamic history, this article focuses on their origins in the chieftaincies and the hybrid cultural formations of the Anatolian regions. While considering the inter/intracivilizational historical context of their respective rise to power, it is argued that the structural makeup of the empires differed primarily in their disparate forms of Sufi-knightly cultures, identified here as knightly-heroic (Ottoman) and millenarian-populist (Safavid), which is essentially tied to two distinctive types of tribal political organizations: frontierchieftaincy (Ottoman) and sectarian-chieftaincy (Safavid). Although the original Ottoman and Safavid chieftaincies, based on the militant Ghazi and Qizilbash orders, dissolved once the roaming bands of warriors were replaced by more settled military formations in the course of long-term state-building processes, the influence of their Sufi-knightly cultural heritages is still manifest in modern Iranian and Turkish societies.

THE POLITICS OF PATRONAGE: POLITICAL CHANGE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF DERVISH LODGES IN SIVAS

From the second half of the thirteenth century to the second half of the fourteenth, centralized rule broke down in Anatolia to be replaced by a largely independent local landed aristocracy. Research into the personal, political, and religious reasons for the support of building activity during this period usually argues from assumptions about building patronage and its history.2 One of these assumptions is that building activity was either a product or a reflection of political and economic change. As a result of this assumption, patronage as a topic of inquiry is generally analyzed either as an act of largess or a posthumous statement of the patron's political or religious ideology. Conclusions from such important studies as Howard Crane's work on Seljuq architectural patronage in thirteenth-century Anatolia, however, compel us to delve further into the relationship between changes in political power and the endowment of buildings. For example, Crane shows that at the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth architecture was patronized not by sultans but by amirs, and the types of institutions they chose to support changed from mosques, fortifications, and caravansarais to madrasas, tombs, and dervish lodges. His conclusion that this change paralleled the rise of regional administrative figures could suggest that the endowment of buildings was an important part of securing political power, especially if we consider that in the late Seljuq and early Beylik period, the patronage of architecture was one means by which amirs were able to control newly available land, one of the bases for their political power and economic security. A second assumption affecting studies of late Seljuq and early Beylik patronage stems from a static understanding of the nature of pious institutions. This viewpoint has led scholars to make a distinction between the religious and secular realms. In this framework, pious institutions affect only the religious topography of cities.4 For many periods of Islamic history, however, the patronage of pious buildings was a viable and often profitable form of investment as well as one that regulated the economic life of the city and its inhabitants.5 Although the lack of certain kinds of source material for the late Seljuq and early Beylik periods makes it extremely difficult to analyze building patronage as an investment tool and an instrument for urban transfor-

Petitions from the Ayyūbid period

During all periods of Islamic history, subjects with a grievance were free to address petitions to the ruler, one of whose traditional functions was to remedy injustice personally (al-naẓar fi'l-maẓālim). From Egypt we have a series of extant petitions from the Middle Ages. The practice of the Fāṭimids has been described in the detailed commentary accompanying my edition of three petitions from the time of that dynasty; the information which can be derived from the documents is there completed by accounts in literary sources. Here I publish all those petitions from the Ayyūbid period which are known to me. In another study I hope to perform the task carried out for the Fāṭimid period for the Mamlūk period also, comparing the detailed statements of the historians with the extant documents. For the Ayyūbid period there are no detailed descriptions of the procedure followed in submitting petitions, and the little which is known will be set out in the course of our discussion.