Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs

Philosophers, Sufis, and Caliphs

Author: Ali Humayun Akhtar

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-06-09

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 1316858111

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What was the relationship between government and religion in Middle Eastern history? In a world of caliphs, sultans, and judges, who exercised political and religious authority? In this book, Ali Humayun Akhtar investigates debates about leadership that involved ruling circles and scholars of jurisprudence and theology. At the heart of this story is a medieval rivalry between three caliphates: the Umayyads of Cordoba, the Fatimids of Cairo, and the Abbasids of Baghdad. In a fascinating revival of Late Antique Hellenism, Aristotelian and Platonic notions of wisdom became a key component of how these caliphs debated their authority as political leaders. By tracing how these political debates impacted the theological and jurisprudential scholars and their own conception of communal guidance, Akhtar offers a new picture of premodern political authority and the connections between Western and Islamic civilizations. It will be of use to students and specialists of the premodern and modern Middle East.


The Politics and Culture of an Umayyad Tribe

The Politics and Culture of an Umayyad Tribe

Author: Mohammad Rihan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-06-04

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0857736205

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The Umayyad caliphate, ruling over much of what is now the modern Middle East after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, governe from Damascus from 661 to750CE, when they were expelled by the Abbasids. Here, Mohammad Rihan sheds light on the tribal system of this empir, by looking at one of its Syrian tribes; the 'Amila, based around today's Jabal 'Amil in southern Lebanon. Using this tribe as a lens through which to examine the wider Umayyad world, he looks at the political structures and conflicts that prevailed at the time, seeking to nuance the understanding of the relationship between the tribes and the ruling elite. For Rihan, early Islamic political history can only be understood in the context of the tribal history. This book thus illustrates how the political and social milieu of the 'Amila tribe sheds light on the wider history of the Umayyad world. Utilizing a wide range of sources, from the books of genealogies to poetry, Rihan expertly portrays Umayyad political life. First providing a background on 'Amila's tribal structure and its functions and dynamics, Rihan then presents the pre-Islamic past of the tribe. Building on this, he then investigates the role the 'Amila played in the emergence of the Umayyad state to understand the ways in which political life developed for the tribes and their relations with those holding political power in the region. By exploring the literature, culture, kinship structures and the socio-political conditions of the tribe, this book highlights the ways in which alliances and divisions shifted and were used by caliphs of the period and offers new insights into the Middle East at a pivotal point in its early and medieval history. This historical analysis thus not only illuminates the political condition of the Umayyad world, but also investigates the ever-important relationship between tribal political structures and state-based rule.


The Legacy of Muslim Spain

The Legacy of Muslim Spain

Author: Salma Khadra Jayyusi

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 1164

ISBN-13: 9789004095991

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The civilisation of medieval Muslim Spain is perhaps the most brilliant and prosperous of its age and has been essential to the direction which civilisation in medieval Europe took. This volume is the first ever in any language to deal in a really comprehensive manner with all major aspects of Islamic civilisation in medieval Spain.


Christians and Moors in Spain. Vol 3: Arab sources

Christians and Moors in Spain. Vol 3: Arab sources

Author: Charles Melville

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2018-01-26

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 1786948508

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The last two volumes in this series have looked at the confrontation between Christian and Moor in Medieval Spain exclusively from the Christian side.This book attemps to redress the balance by looking at many of the same incidents from the Moslem point of view.


Rebel Between Spirit and Law

Rebel Between Spirit and Law

Author: Scott Alan Kugle

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0253347114

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This book examines the authority of saints in Islam and their ability to build communities among Muslims in North Africa. It analyzes the power generated in religious communities through their allegiance to saints, a power usually identified with the term Sufism. In the late 15th and 16th centuries, a community of Sufis in Fes (Fez), Morocco, and other urban centers in North Africa advocated this paradigm of sainthood during a time of intense political and religious crisis. Juridical sainthood, a concept that fuses Islamic legal rectitude and devotional piety, was the center of their reformist agenda. The juridical saint was to be absorbed in legal training and religious values, in ways that questioned political loyalty and dynastic legitimacy. Scott A. Kugle explores this tradition by focusing on the life and writings of Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq. Following his exile from Fes, Zarruq traveled widely over North Africa, spreading his teachings and writings and attracting followers from Morocco to Mecca. The life and teachings of Zarruq remain useful for Muslims. They are a piece of the past that present-day Muslims are rediscovering and redeploying to reconcile Islam's heritage with its very troubled post-colonial present.


Christians and Moors in Spain. 3. Arabic sources (711 - 1501)

Christians and Moors in Spain. 3. Arabic sources (711 - 1501)

Author: Colin Smith

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0856684503

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The last two volumes in this series have looked at the confrontation between Christian and Moor in Medieval Spain exclusively from the Christian side.This book attemps to redress the balance by looking at many of the same incidents from the Moslem point of view. Apart from military encounters, some attention is paid to diplomacy, and also to lawsuits, legal judgements and regulations governing the co-existance of the rival communities. The 112 texts, many available in English for the first time, are also given in Arabic.


The Ultimate Revelations

The Ultimate Revelations

Author: Jamshed Akhtar

Publisher: Jamshed Akhtar

Published: 2015-06-19

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13:

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Concurrent with a freak solar activity, a young scientist begins seeing strange and puzzling dreams of momentous events from the past. He sees an occurrence in the formation of solar system, a day in the Cretaceous period, Noah's boat being constructed, Buddha giving a sermon to a large multitude, Moses climbing the mountain to keep tryst with the mysterious fire, and child Mary's guardianship being decided in the temple. The mystic night visions end with an episode in Muhammed’s life, leave the young man perturbed and intrigued, and prod him to study and collect data on metaphysical aspect of life. Meanwhile, falling temperatures all over the world, herald the onset of an ice age. The planet in its fight for survival, tries to distribute the heat stored in oceans all over the land. Tornadoes, squalls and high velocity winds sweep the planet and add to the misery of the humanity already suffering from the energy crunch. At this crucial juncture, the young man gets an inspiration and presents before the world, a hypothesis about a Grand Cosmic Design... The Design is aesthetically beautiful, breathtakingly simple, and awesome in its expanse, yet the most remarkable thing about it is its promise of the expected arrival of a ‘Message from stars’ that has all the knowledge of Cosmos hidden in it… Identifying allegiance to the persona of past Prophets as the main cause, working against the introduction of new revelations, the Design predicts the replacement of human prophets with the arrival of an Ultimate Transmission on earth. From this transmission, the humanity will have to decode the future information itself, hidden in coded layers, in different time frames. Believing that this last transmission may contain a resolution of the global crisis, the young man begins to probe existing sources of all such knowledge on earth as its future possibility could not be investigated now. Identifying the latest scripture as a possible candidate, the young man examines and presents before the world, arguments from its historical records, its descent, its language, its peculiar time of arrival, characteristics of its recipient nation, its contents, the presence of an interpreting mechanism in it, and its collective effect on the world. Utilizing chaos and order tapestry, the young man outlines the effect of Quran, beginning from the initial seven centuries of development and progress of land under its sway, to the subsequent reign of chaos and then development of another part of the planet via transfer of its infra-structure of information. Lastly, he analyses a mathematical argument, corrects an anomaly in it, and suggests a key to the first coded layer of extra-terrestrial information in this transmission. Originally published in 1996, The Ultimate Revelations is the first and only science fiction in the world, centered around Quran. The author researcher, continuing his research, has subsequently published two more nonfiction books on this topic. In the present environment, where Quran lies at the centre of increasing assault of hatred and chaos, the author has initiated ‘Project Infinite Peace’ to collectively investigate his work, through a panel of linguists, scientists and science historians.


Conflicted Antiquities

Conflicted Antiquities

Author: Elliott Colla

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2008-01-11

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780822390398

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Conflicted Antiquities is a rich cultural history of European and Egyptian interest in ancient Egypt and its material culture, from the early nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth. Consulting the relevant Arabic archives, Elliott Colla demonstrates that the emergence of Egyptology—the study of ancient Egypt and its material legacy—was as consequential for modern Egyptians as it was for Europeans. The values and practices introduced by the new science of archaeology played a key role in the formation of a new colonial regime in Egypt. This fact was not lost on Egyptian nationalists, who challenged colonial archaeologists with the claim that they were the direct heirs of the Pharaohs, and therefore the rightful owners and administrators of ancient Egypt’s historical sites and artifacts. As this dispute developed, nationalists invented the political and expressive culture of “Pharaonism”—Egypt’s response to Europe’s Egyptomania. In the process, a significant body of modern, Pharaonist poetry, sculpture, architecture, and film was created by artists and authors who looked to the ancient past for inspiration. Colla draws on medieval and modern Arabic poetry, novels, and travel accounts; British and French travel writing; the history of archaeology; and the history of European and Egyptian museums and exhibits. The struggle over the ownership of Pharaonic Egypt did not simply pit Egyptian nationalists against European colonial administrators. Egyptian elites found arguments about the appreciation and preservation of ancient objects useful for exerting new forms of control over rural populations and for mobilizing new political parties. Finally, just as the political and expressive culture of Pharaonism proved critical to the formation of new concepts of nationalist identity, it also fueled Islamist opposition to the Egyptian state.