ENDRE STIANSEN AND MICHAEL KEVANE, ED., Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation and Social Transformation in Islamic Africa (Boston: Brill, 1998). Pp. 319. $94 cloth.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 290-292
Author(s):  
Richard Lobban
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
African Studies ◽  
The West ◽  
Protracted Conflict ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Peripheral Area ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eastern Sudan

The history of Sudan still reflects the country's struggle to find its identity between Middle Eastern and African studies. Even within Sudan, there are spheres of interest ranging from the expanding ancient studies of Nubia to the protracted conflict between so-called Afro-Arab northerners and Nilotic southerners. Lost in these expanding domains are the histories of eastern Sudan and Kordofan to the west. Even the historiography of Sennar and Darfur is far better established than that of Kordofan. Thus, the very title of the book being reviewed suggests that Kordofan is an “invaded” and “peripheral” area on the edge of the Islamic and African worlds. Thus, this work is a welcome starting point in filling in this considerable gap in Sudan studies. Stiansen and Kevane have done noble service in this respect.

scholarly journals The Philosophical Proof for God’s Existence between Europe and the Islamic World: Reflections on an Entangled History of Philosophy and Its Contemporary Relevance

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Rudolph ◽  
Roman Seidel
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Cosmological Argument ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Ontological Proof ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

AbstractThe Argument for God’s Existence is one of the major issues in the history of philosophy. It also constitutes an illuminating example of a shared philosophical problem in the entangled intellectual histories of Europe and the Islamic World. Drawing on Aristotle, various forms of the argument were appropriated by both rational Islamic Theology (kalām) and Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna. Whereas the argument, reshaped, refined and modified, has been intensively discussed throughout the entire post-classical era, particularly in the Islamic East, it has likewise been adopted in the West by thinkers such as the Hebrew Polymath Maimonides and the Medieval Latin Philosopher and Theologian Thomas Aquinas. However, these mutual reception-processes did not end in the middle ages. They can be witnessed in the twentieth century and even up until today: On the one hand, we see a Middle Eastern thinker like the Iranian philosopher Mahdī Ḥāʾirī Yazdī re-evaluating Kant’s fundamental critique of the classical philosophical arguments for God’s existence, in particular of the ontological proof, and refuting the critique. On the other hand, an argument from creation brought forward by the Islamic Theologian and critic of the peripatetic tradition al-Ghazāli has been adopted by a strand of Western philosophers who label their own version “The Kalām-cosmological Argument”. By discussing important cornerstones in the history of the philosophical proof for God’s existence we argue for a re-consideration of current Eurocentric narratives in the history of philosophy and suggest that such a transcultural perspective may also provide inspiration for current philosophical discourses between Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

Economic Reorganization and the Slump in South and Southeast Asia

1981 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Baker
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
International Economy ◽  
The West ◽  
South And Southeast Asia ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Overseas Expansion

It was rather bold of Furnivall, less than a decade after the event, to announce that the Depression had brough to an end the history of European overseas expansion over almost half a millennium. Against a background of renewed disorder in the international economy, the current historiography seems to be taking this bold suggestion fairly seriously. The 1930s slump is now the accepted starting point for studies of the relations between the west and the rest in the postcolonial era.

scholarly journals Meditative Revolutions? A Preliminary Approach to US Buddhist Anarchist Literature

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 160-179
Author(s):  
Enrique Galvan-Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
Social Transformation ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
The Self ◽  
The West ◽  
Technologies Of The Self ◽  
Buddhist Tradition ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Revolutionary Praxis ◽  
The Way

This article discusses the various shapes, inner structures and roles given to transformative and liberative practices in the work of US Buddhist anarchist authors (1960-2010). Unlike their Chinese and Japanese predecessors, who focused more on discursive parallelisms between Buddhism and anarchism or on historical instances of antiauthoritarianism within the Buddhist tradition(s), US Buddhist anarchists seem to favour practice and experience. This emphasis, characteristic of the way Buddhism has been introduced to the West,sometimes masks the way meditative techniques were used in traditional Buddhist contexts as oppressive technologies of the self. Whereas the emphasis on the inherently revolutionary nature of Buddhist practice represents a radical departure from the way those practices have been conceptualised throughout Buddhist history, it also involves the danger of considering Buddhist practice as an ahistorical sine qua non for social transformation. This is due to the fact that most early Buddhist anarchist writers based their ideas on a highly idealised, Orientalist imagination of Zen Buddhism(s). However, recent contributions based on other traditions have offered a more nuanced, albeit still developing picture. By assessing a number of instances from different US Buddhist anarchist writers, the article traces the brief history of the idea that meditation is revolutionary praxis, while also deconstructing and complicating it through historical and textual analysis.

A “Vortex of Identities”: Freemasonry, Witchcraft, and Postcolonial Homophobia

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Geschiere
Keyword(s):  
Queer Studies ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
The West ◽  
Secret Societies ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Anal Penetration ◽  
Sex Practices

Abstract:The recent moral panic in Cameroon about a supposed proliferation of “homosexuality” is related to a special image of “the” homosexual as un Grand who submits younger persons, eager to get a job, to anal penetration, and are thus corrupting the nation. This image stems from the popular conviction that the national elite is deeply involved in secret societies like Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism. The tendency to thus relate the supposed proliferation of homosexuality in the postcolony to colonial impositions is balanced by other lines in its genealogy—for instance, the notion of “wealth medicine,” which Günther Tessmann, the German ethnographer of the Fang, linked already in 1913 to same-sex intercourse. This complex knot of ideas and practices coming from different backgrounds can help us explore the urgent challenges that same-sex practices raise to African studies in general. The Cameroonian examples confuse current Western notions about heteronormativity, GLBTQI+ identities, and the relation between gender and sex. Taking everyday assemblages emerging from African contexts as our starting point can help not only to queer African studies, but also to Africanize queer studies. It can also help to overcome unproductive tendencies to oppose Western/colonial and local/ traditional elements. Present-day notions and practices of homosexuality and homophobia are products of long and tortuous histories at the interface of Africa and the West.

Being and Motion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Nail
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human History ◽  
The West ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Historical Ontology ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Metaphysical Tradition ◽  
Philosophical Ontology ◽  
Fundamental Categories

Being and Motion offers an original philosophical ontology of movement. The history of philosophy has systematically explained movement as derived from something else that does not move: space, eternity, force, and time. Why, when movement has been central to human societies, did a philosophy based on movement never take hold in the West? This book is the first major work of systematic ontology to answer this question and finally overturn this long-standing metaphysical tradition by placing movement at the heart of philosophy. In doing so, Being and Motion provides a completely new understanding of the most fundamental categories of ontology from the ground up: quality, quantity, relation, modality, and others. It also provides the first history of the philosophy of motion, from the early prehistoric mythologies up to contemporary ontologies. More than at any other time in human history, we live in an age defined by movement and mobility, and yet we lack a single contemporary ontology that takes this seriously as a starting point for philosophy. Being and Motion sets out to remedy this lacuna in contemporary thought by providing a historical ontology of our present: an ontology of movement.

“Enemies at the Gate:” The West German Greens and Their Arrival at the Bundestag—Between Old Ideals and New Challenges

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 66-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Mende
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Force ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Green Politics ◽  
Major Break ◽  
History Of ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
New Challenges

The West German Green Party's 1983 entrance into the Bundestag marked a major break, both in the history of this young political force and the parliamentary system of the Bonn Republic. The Greens had been founded in opposition to the guiding principles of the West German postwar consensus and conceived of themselves as an “anti-parliamentary party.” Although they had gained parliamentary experience in some regional chambers, their entrance onto the national parliamentary stage juxtaposed old ideals and new challenges—for the Greens themselves as well as for German political culture. Taking this singular historic moment as a starting point, this article summarizes the formation of the Greens in the context of the changing political and ideological landscape of the 1970s. It also contrasts the party's formation with the transformations in terms of program and personnel that it undertook during the 1980s. The focus lies less on the specific activities of the green parliamentary group than on the broader developments in green politics and thinking.

scholarly journals Inskripsi Keagamaan pada Masjid Azizi Tanjungpura, Langkat, Sumatera Utara

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Kasim Abdurrahman
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The West ◽  
Research Article ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Historical Objects ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich

Indonesia is a nation of a diverse civilization. The legacy of Indonesian civilization is significantly influenced by the way of life and religious teachings spread over large and wider regions ranging from Sumatra in the west and Papua in the east. History of Islam in Indonesia culturally has already inherited a number of various historical relics. One of them is the house of worship. This research article discusses one of the historic houses of worship,viz. the Azizi Mosque in Tanjung Pura, Langkat, North Sumatera. With the use of an archaelogical method, by means of techniques of observation, the research focuses on describing, analysing and understanding meaning of architectural, historical objects and religious inscriptions of the mosque as an archaelogical inheritance. The research highlights some important findings. First, the Azizi mosque shows significantly a cultural acculturative mixture of various origin from the Middle East, India, China and Malay. But, in a case of decoration of this mosque, it was affected by the Middle Eastern nuances, especially Arab with Arabic calligraphic inscriptions containing religious messages. Second, philo¬sophically the mosque Azizi represents and symbolizes the Malay’s way of life, characterized by any system of norms and values applied in the Malay community at large, namely the norms of high respects to the power of leaders (umara), clerics (ulama), intellectuals (zumara), the rich (agniya), and the power of the prayers of the poor (fuqara).Keywords: Azizi Mosque, architecture, inscription, Langkat, calligraphyIndonesia adalah satu bangsa yang mempunyai peradaban yang beraneka ragam. Peninggalannya dipengaruhi oleh tradisi kebudayaan maupun keagamaan masyarakat yang tersebar di berbagai wilayah. Sejarah Islam di Indonesia juga termasuk yang memiliki berbagai peninggalan bersejarah. Salah satunya adalah rumah ibadah. Tulisan ini membahas salah satu rumah ibadah bersejarah, yaitu Masjid Azizi di Tanjungpura, Langkat, Sumateran Utara. Tulisan ini menggunakan metode arkeologi, mulai observasi, deskripsi, dan pemaknaannya. Aspek-aspek yang dibahas meliputi arsitektur, benda-benda bersejarah dan inskripsi keagamaan di dalamnya. Arsitektur Mesjid Azizi memperlihatkan perpaduan Timur Tengah, India, Cina, dan Melayu. Secara filosofis mengandung falsafah Melayu, yaitu kekuatan pemimpin (umara), ulama, cerdik pandai (zumara), orang kaya (agniya), dan kekuatan doa orang miskin (fuqara). Hiasan masjid ini bernuansa Timur Tengah, khususnya Arab dengan inskripsi kaligrafi Arab yang mengandung pesan-pesan agamis.Kata kunci: Masjid Azizi, arsitektur, inskripsi, Langkat, kaligrafi

Middle East Studies in Japan

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Miyazi Kazuo
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Present Status ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
African Studies ◽  
North African ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
The Relationship

The Purpose of this Paper is to present the history and the present status of Middle Eastern and North African Studies in Japan. As the status of the studies is closely related to the status of the relationships between Japan and the regions concerned, I will first write about the history of Japan-Middle East (including North Africa) relations and the relationship thereof to the studies.

Charles Tripp, A History of Iraq

ICR Journal ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-574
Author(s):  
Christoph Marcinkowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Eastern ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Middle Eastern Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
The University

Charles Tripp’s A History of Iraq is now in its third edition. Since 2000, when the first edition appeared, it has become a classic in Middle Eastern studies. The current edition has been updated to include the 2003 Anglo-American invasion, the fall and capture of Saddam Husayn, and the subsequent insurgency. Its author is Professor of Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London.

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