Tombs Of Saints Research Articles

Visioning Pesantren Istana Quran as an Eco-Religious Edu-Tourism Destination in Indonesia

Abstract. This study aims to bridge the gap among the religious, environmental, and tourism aspects by suggesting a comprehensive framework for transforming Islamic boarding schools into environmentally friendly religious-based tourism destinations. Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia which are commonly known as “pondok pesantren” are pivotal institutions in providing education and religious guidance to the students (“santri”). However, the idea of transforming it into a religious-based edu-tourism destination is something new. Using qualitative field research, a participatory case study, and a survey, this research was run in Muhammadiyah-owned Pondok Pesantren Istana Qur’an (literally means “The Palace of Holy Qur’an”) located in Banjarnegara, Central Java. This study found that the idea of edu-tourism originally came from the stakeholders’ vision to create a distinct and attractive boarding school. Nevertheless, Muhammadiyah as a modern and progressive Islamic movement prefers to emphasize the futuristic image of distinction rather than the old-fashioned religious tourism destinations that rely on memories of their founders or the tombs of saints (“walis”). Therefore, the idea is developed to integrate three main dimensions: religious enrichment, tourism development, and environmental sustainability. Conclusively, this paper serves as a foundation for further research and practical initiatives aimed at actualizing the vision.

MITOS DAN RITUAL DIBALIK TRADISI ZIARAH WALI: STUDI KASUS DI MAKAM SYAIKHONA KHOLIL BANGKALAN

The Indonesian Muslim community continues to uphold its religious traditions to this day. One of the religious traditions carried out is the pilgrimage of saints. Religious traditions are practiced as a basic moral against the influence of modernization. The existence of the Wali pilgrimage is inseparable from the growing faith among the Indonesian Muslim community. The purpose of this study is to explore the phenomenon of religious tradition, namely the pilgrimage of saints. In particular, it examines the myths that have evolved in the Muslim community to continue the Wali pilgrimage tradition to this day. In addition, the study also aims to examine whether the rituals performed by pilgrims are based on cultural or religious values. The location of the Guardian Tomb that is the subject of this investigation is the tomb of Syaikhona Kholil in Bangkalan, Madura. This study is a field survey using descriptive and qualitative ethnographic research techniques. The results of this research show that a myth has developed in which pilgrims believe that if they pray at a saint's tomb, their prayers will be easily answered. Apart from that, pilgrims believe that if they pray at the tomb of a saint, they will easily overcome all difficulties in life. It's a ritual. These rituals include: ablution, praying, reading greetings, praying, reading Yasin and tahlil, reading dhikr and sholawat, reading prayers and listening to lectures.

Ciklus Svetog Dimitrija u Pećkoj patrijaršiji - III

Ciklus Svetog Dimitrija u Pećkoj patrijaršiji - III

Pilgrims, Prostitutes, and Ritual Seks

Abstract The general fixation on globally spreading forms of Islam and other religions (agama) has contributed to an undervaluing of the current and parallel boom in local, often heterodox ritual practices (adat). These ritual practices include forms of pilgrimage that encourage the performance of a sexual act on the tombs of saints, which is regarded as conducive to the redemption of the wishes and hopes associated with such a pilgrimage. The possible sexual partners involved in ritual seks (ritual sex) include not only husband and wife, but also other pilgrims to whom one is not married; even prostitutes are regarded as completely legitimate partners. For a number of years, pilgrimage sites known for this remarkable conjunction of religion and sexuality have been experiencing an unprecedented boom, in sharp contrast to the often diagnosed Islamization of Indonesian society. Against this background, this article examines the media discourses that are controversially related to ritual seks and supports the thesis that the current religious boom (‘religionization’) not only involves globalized Islam, but all religious forms, even the deviant.

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum, and Sarcocystis Species DNA in the Heart and Breast Muscles of Rock Pigeons (Columbia livia).

Little is known about the prevalence of protozoan parasites in the muscles of rock pigeons (Columbia livia). The muscles from 54 (heart from 45 and breast from 54) rock pigeons were examined for DNA of Toxoplasma gondii, Neospora caninum, and Sarcocystis species using PCR. Twenty-four were female and 30 were males. The birds were part of flocks of pigeons housed at the tombs of saints in Lahore, Pakistan. Birds that died or were euthanized due to poor health were submitted for necropsy at the Department of Parasitology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, where DNA isolations and PCR were conducted. Nineteen (35.1%) of the birds were positive for T. gondii DNA. Seven males and 12 females were positive. Breast tissue was always infected in T. gondii positive birds, while the heart was infected in 13 (28.8%) of breast positive birds. Five (9.2%) of the pigeons, 2 males and 3 females, were positive for N. caninum. The distribution of N. caninum DNA was more variable in the muscles of pigeons than T. gondii and was found only in the heart of 1 (female), heart and breast muscle of 2 (male), and only the breast muscle of 2 birds (female). One of the 54 rock pigeons (female) was positive for both T. gondii (heart and breast) and N. caninum (heart only). Two of the positive Neospora caninum amplicons were sequenced and had 97% nucleotide identity with N. caninum isolates. Sarcocystis DNA was not found in any bird. The prevalence of T. gondii in rock pigeons and their predation by cats suggest that they may play an unrecognized role in maintaining environmental contamination with T. gondii oocysts by cats. Our study indicates that rock pigeons are intermediate hosts of N. caninum and this information will aid in understanding the epidemiology of N. caninum.

The quintessential Christian tomb: saints, professors, and Riccio's tomb design

This article examines Andrea Riccio's design of the Della Torre tomb monument in Verona – one of Riccio's major commissions that long merited further study. In this design the artist challenged the modes of contemporary funerary art. Although the absence of Christian iconography and the strict all'antica visual language may appear to break with the decorum of Christian funerary art, I argue that Riccio drew on an overtly Christian design – the tombs of saints. By drawing upon the typology of the tombs of saints, the structure of the Della Torre monument signalled to the viewer the didactic nature of Riccio's narrative programme. Understanding the design of the monument casts greater light on the tomb's programme and the sophisticated nature of Riccio's work.

Reassessing Salona's Churches: Martyrium Evolution in Question

Using the extramural basilicas at Salona as a testing ground, this article seeks to examine a central historiographical and methodological issue in early Christian archaeology: the narrative of evolutionary development of martyria sites from saint's tomb to monumental center of burial, worship, and pilgrimage. While the widely accepted model may accurately describe the steps of monumentalization at some cult places, it can also deceptively streamline much more complicated, and less predictable, site histories. At Salona, a site often held up as exemplifying the conventional pattern of martryium development, the archaeological evidence does not substantiate many of the model's central principles. Moreover, I suggest that adopting a more critical perspective on the model itself helps us to recognize other possible narratives of cult development suggested by the archaeological, epigraphic, and hagiographic evidence.

The Significance of St Cuthbert’s Vestments

Sanctity is a quality first perceived, then acclaimed, contested or affirmed. Most commonly the visual perception of sanctity took the form of witnessing miracles: individuals saw with their own eyes divine power working through another human being. The development of the cult of the saints in western Europe, however, gave rise to a rich visual and material culture. The tombs of saints and the churches dedicated to them were adorned with precious works of art intended to glorify the holy patron. This essay considers quite intimate gifts: articles of clothing laid on the body of a saint. It moves from a particular set of vestments left at a saint’s shrine to wider considerations of what the clergy wore during the central Middle Ages. Liturgical attire might not only honour the sanctity of a long-venerated individual but might also be used to claim sanctity for others.

THE IDENTITY OF A MYSTIC: THE CASE OF SA'ID SARMAD, A JEWISH-YOGI-SUFI COURTIER OF THE MUGHALS

AbstractSa'id Sarmad's dargah (saint's tomb) dominates the entryway to Delhi's imposing Jama Masjid. But Sarmad was a Jew, both by birth and affirmation. He was also, according to his Rubaiyat, "a follower of the Furqan (i.e., a Sufi), a (Catholic) priest, a (Buddhist) monk, a Jewish rabbi, an infidel, and a Muslim." Indeed, it is hard to imagine a mystic with a more complex confessional identity. This paper explores both Sarmad's apparently contradictory religious self-identification and the complex religious context which Sarmad found in seventeenth-century North India. It will trace Sarmad's spiritual path as it meandered between Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, as recorded in his poetry and in the hagiographical (taskira) traditions which surround him, and will contribute to the discussion of the relationship between the mystic and his or her religion of birth or adoption.

ワッハーブ派の政治理念と国家原理

Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab who started his Tawhid propagation in his hometown, 'Uyaina, in 1741, broke down tombs of saints, trees and stones worshiped by the inhabitants, and pressed the magistrate to carry out the Islamic execution on an adulteress. The frightened inhabitants expelled him from the town.In this first stage of his missionary activity, we can already find the three political ideas of Wahhabi, such as (1) propagation of Tawhid, (2) ordering what is right and prohibiting what is wrong, and (3) execution of the Islamic law.Expelled from his hometown, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab came to Dar'iya where lived Ibn Sa'ud. Ibn Sa'ud visited him and proposed him a concordat according to which he would give Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab a military support for the propagation of Tawhid in exchange for his loyalty to the house of Sa'ud and his confirmation of Ibn Sa'ud's right of taxation. Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab accepted his proposition except the confirmation of the right of taxation. On this concordat are founded the three State Principles of Saudi Arabia: propagation by jihad, monarchy of the Sa'ud, and no taxation.With the expansion of the territory, Saudi Arabia starts to use a double identity in the foreign policy, in which they define themselves as Wahhabi to attack the non-Wahhabi Muslims as polytheists on one hand and as Hanbali to make peace with other Muslims on the other hand.Though the third kingdom of Saudi Arabia founded by 'Abd al='Aziz has inherited Wahhabi' s three ideas on the politics, as for its three principles of the state, it comes to discard jihad as well as to retouch the no taxation principle and to justify the diplomatic relation with non Muslim countries.The legitimacy of the third kingdom of Saudi Arabia is now threatened on the three levels, namely, (1) the penetration of the idea of of the Jihad-Revolution among people, (2) the intensifying conflict not only between the Western world and the Islamic world but also between secularism and Islamism within the Islamic world and (3) the heavy taxation under the circumstances of the financial decline.

A Saint for AIDS

A Saint for AIDS

Bede and medieval civilization

The mortal remains of the Venerable Bede rest today in the cathedral church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin, Durham. They were brought there in the early eleventh century by one Ælfred Westou, priest and sacrist of Durham and an enthusiastic amateur of that characteristically medieval form of devotion expressed in the acquisition, by fair means or foul, of the relics of the saints to the greater glory of God. The removal of Bede's remains to Durham, involving as it did considerable preliminary planning and solitary nocturnal vigil before the final successful snatch, was one of his more brilliant coups, upon which he seems especially to have preened himself. The bones were first kept in the coffin of St Cuthbert, being subsequently removed to a reliquary near the saint's tomb. In 1370 they were placed in the Galilee Chapel, where they now lie under a plain table-tomb of blue marble, made in 1542 after the medieval shrine had been defaced. Bede himself would certainly have preferred that his body should have been left in its grave among his brethren at Jarrow, there to await the coming of Christ which he so ardently desired to see; but if a removal had to be made, we need not doubt that he would have been content to lie at Durham, near but not too near the shrine of St Cuthbert, the great saint and patron of the north, under a modest tombstone, so much more in keeping with his nature than the earlier and richer shrine, despoiled by the commissioners of Henry VIII.

The Origin of the Pine-cone Decoration of the Imamzadehs of Khuzistan

Persia is the land of imamzadehs or “ the tombs of saints ”. Nearly every little town in this country is the fortunate possessor of one or more imamzadehs, to which hundreds of pilgrims come all the year round from far and near. The tomb, or very often a simulacre of the tomb, as in the case of a good many imamzadehs no saint lies buried in it, forms its chief part, its sanctuary. There is hardly a sign of its orientation, except that the saint is buried with his face in the direction of the Kibleh. The shrine in which the tomb is placed is generally decorated by a dome. To this the imamzadehs of theprovince of Khuzistan in the south-west of Persia form a remarkable exception. They have all a tall cone, surmounting the flat roof of the shrine. This cone resembles a pine-cone with its series of shallow niches, which forms its only decoration. It ends in a short pointed metallic rod adorned with four metallic balls. This gilt ornament is common to most of the mosques and Muhammadan shrines.

The Hilltops of Palestine

THE hilltops of Palestine present two marked features to view of modern travelers: first, set on hills, abodes of living; second, welys, or tombs of saints, built upon summits otherwise bare, abodes of dead. It must be supposed that original reason for choosing tops of for sites of cities and villages was their adaptability to defense. Other and secondary advantages may have been gained, as greater comfort and health to be secured from elevated station, avoiding stifling heat of valleys and dampness of plains at certain times of year. But doubtless prime reason was that of defense. A town thus placed could see approach of a foe, prepare for onset earlier, and repel more successfully assault. Neighboring towns could combine their efforts with more facility, communicating with each other by signals, than if they were in valleys with intercepting view between them. But few conspicuous exceptions are found-the seacoast cities; Jericho, in plain of Jordan, always weak and never successfully resisting a siege; Shechem, in deep hollow between Ebal and Gerezim, having no military advantage, but central and near chief sanctuary of Samaritans; Gaza, oasis city of south, like Damascus, oasis city of north, commercial centers that depended for their very existence upon abundant waters of their sites, and upon conjunction of great roads binding nations together. Other names will occur to reader, but by far largest number of towns are seen upon strategic heights, if not so conspicuous as Safed, yet well placed, like Jerusalem itself, to repel assault. It is not strange that the strength of hills should have

The Tale of Saint Abercius

The chief authority for the life of this saint is the biography by Symeon Metaphrastes, written about 900–50 A.D. It quotes the epitaph on the saint's tomb, and the question whether this epitaph is an original document of the second century A.D., or a later forgery, is one of the utmost importance for the early history of the Christian church, and of many literary points connected with it. The document is not very easily accessible, so that it may be well to quote it as it is given in the Life by Metaphrastes; the criticism of the text has been to a certain extent advanced by the metrical restorations proposed by Pitra and others.