A Vertical Sea: North Africa and the Medieval Mediterranean

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-71
Author(s):  
Allen Fromherz
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
Call To Prayer ◽  
Pope Innocent Iv ◽  
North And South

An extraordinary letter was discovered in a neglected pile of medieval diplomatic correspondence in the Vatican Libraries: a letter from Al-Murtada the Almohad, Muslim Caliph in Marrakech to Pope Innocent IV (1243–1254). The letter, written in finest official calligraphy, proposes an alliance between the Caliph and the Vicar of Christ, the leader of an institution that had called for organized crusades against the Islamic world. While the history of Pope Innocent IV’s contacts with the Muslim rulers of Marrakech remains obscure, the sources indicate that Pope Innocent IV sent envoys south to Marrakech. One of these envoys was Lope d’Ayn. Lope became Bishop of Marrakech, shepherd of a flock of paid Christian mercenaries who were sent to Marrakech by that sometime leader of the reconquista, Ferdinand III of Castile, in a deal he had struck with the Almohads. Although they now had Christians fighting for them and cathedral bells competing with the call to prayer, the Almohads were powerful agitators of jihad against the Christians only decades before. Scholars know only a little about Lope d’Ayn’s story or the historical context of this letter between Caliph Murtada and the Pope. Although very recent research is encouraging, there is a great deal to know about the history of the mercenaries of Marrakech or the interactions between Jews, Muslims and Christians that occurred in early thirteenth century Marrakech. The neglect of Lope d’Ayn and the contacts between the Papacy and the Almohads is only one example of a much wider neglect of North Africa contacts with Europe in the secondary literature in English. While scholarship in English has focused on correspondence, commerce and travel from West to East, between Europe, the Levant and Egypt, there were also important cultural bridges being crossed between North and South, between North Africa and Europe in the Medieval Western Mediterranean.

The Basilica Transformed

2019 ◽  
pp. 199-217
Author(s):  
Robert G. Ousterhout
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Structural Systems ◽  
Design Features ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Architecture ◽  
History Of Architecture ◽  
East And West

A unique achievement in the history of architecture and the major monument of Byzantine architecture requires detailed analysis to understand its historical context, planning principles, structural systems, aesthetics, and symbolism. The Great Church was designed quickly—as some unresolved design features and structural flaws reveal—but it was intended to be unique in form and scale, meant to symbolize the dominion of the emperor Justinian, as his army reconquered lost territories in the East and West and in North Africa.

Interactions between North Africa and Spain: Medieval and Early Modern

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo Gómez-Rivas
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Cultural Connections ◽  
Arabic Speaking

Arabic-speaking Muslim polities existed in medieval Spain and Portugal where they were superseded by Christian empires that gradually disavowed cultural connections to this past. Hebrew and Arabic were largely expurgated from homes and libraries. Jews and Muslims who refused to convert were expelled. And while an incipient study of that past existed, echoed even in popular literary forms, the need to disavow kinship prevailed, at least publicly and officially. The Maghrib, for its part, separated by a mere fourteen kilometers of sea from the southern tip of Spain, experienced Portuguese and Spanish imperial expansion firsthand, receiving the bulk of the displaced and interacting with fortified settlements and encroachments along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Later European colonization of North Africa completed the galvanization of a Maghribi culture of resistance to and disavowal of European, Latin, and Christian cultural forms and connections. Spain and North Africa came to be conceived as separate worlds; domains of inimical faiths; divided by culture, language, religion, and a history of mutual hostility. This sense of separateness is deceptive, however, as the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa are bound by deep and extensive commercial, material, and cultural contacts. They share inextricable histories in which alternating movements of commerce, conflict, and migration have played fundamental roles in shaping recognizably Western Mediterranean societies. They should be thought of as areas of a unified region with a common culture, or at the very least, as areas sharing a common region, in which they interact regularly, creating extensive ties and parallel forms of cultural and social organization.

Islamophobia

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Altaf Husain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Work ◽  
South Asia ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Religious Intolerance ◽  
History Of

Islamophobia is not a new term but it has become commonly used in the United States following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This entry provides an overview of the demographics of the Muslim population in the United States. The historical context in which the use of the term first emerged is then identified, followed by a discussion of the two major approaches to defining Islamophobia. The term connotes either outright anti-Muslim bigotry due to religious intolerance or racism and xenophobia toward people from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia who are Muslim or who have a “Muslim-like” appearance. The history of anti-Muslim bigotry in the United States is traced from before the founding of the nation through present times. Implications are presented for social work with Muslim clients, organizations, and communities who may be impacted by anti-Muslim bigotry.

On Recomposing the Islamic History of North Africa: A Review Article

1969 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wansbrough
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
History Of

The decolonization of history in the Islamic world has for a number of years proved a fascinating and profitable pursuit. For that portion of North Africa occupied by the French this process has consisted for the most part of two more or less separate activities: studies in depth and detail for the period after 1830, and for the preceding centuries (700-1830) a number of very general and frequently superficial recommendations, reflecting a sincere but not always clearly planned intention to controvert the presuppositions seen to underly colonialist historiography.

Kanem, Bornu, and the Fazzān: Notes on the political history of a Trade Route

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. G. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Lake Chad ◽  
History Of ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Economic Needs ◽  
Trade Route

The Chadian Muslim states of Kanem, and later Bornu, have been linked throughout their history to North Africa by an important trade-route across the Sahara, from the Libyan coast to Lake Chad. The popularity and permanence of this route throughout the centuries have been detennined by the economic needs and specialities of the N. African littoral, as well as of the Western Sudan. This route, first controlled by Ibāḍī Muslim Berbers from Zawīla from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, then briefly by the Ayyubids of Cairo, came under the control of Kanem, which was expanding northwards in the thirteenth century. The Fazzān (and Zawīla) then came under the control of Kanem, which seems to have maintained friendly relations with the Hafsid dynasty of Tunis. After the thirteenth century, independent states arose in the Fazzān. Then, after the establishment of an Ottoman Turkish province in Libya, the Turks and the Mais of Bornu were soon in contact, probably from about 1555, and certainly in the time of Mai Idrīs of Bomu (on the throne in 1557–8), as some newly found correspondence from the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul makes clear. There was certainly a friendly association between Bornu and the Turks at this period, if not an actual alliance, as Mai Idrīs hoped to obtain arms and perhaps Turkish troops as well to use against his enemies of the W. Sudan, principally the Hausa state of Kebbi. However, Idris's hopes were deceived, and the Ottoman Sultan Murād III did not provide what was wanted, causing Idrīs to turn to the Sa'dī Sharifian ruler of Fās, Aḥmad al-Manṣūr al-Dhahābī, with a similar request.

The Making of the Maghrib: 600–1060 CE

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Fromherz
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
History Of

The history of North Africa from the coming of Islam to the rise of the Almoravid Empire in the 11th century is a crucial period in the making of the Islamic Maghrib. From 600 ce to 1060 ce Berbers and Arabs interacted in a variety of ways and through a process of acculturation. This interaction created a distinctive cultural and historical zone called the “Maghrib” or the “land of the setting sun,” a zone that would be recognized throughout the Islamic world. While many questions remain unanswered or yet to be explored from this period due to issues with sources, the first centuries after the coming of Islam to the Maghrib (7th—11th centuries) set the stage for the rise of the great Berber and Muslim empires: the Almoravid and Almohads. This period is crucial for understanding the development and history of Maghribi Islam.

scholarly journals Mongolian international order in the middle of the XIII century according to the testimony of the papal legate Giovanni del Plano Carpini

2021 ◽  
pp. 130-141
Author(s):  
Alina Koval ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Active Phase ◽  
International Order ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
Pope Innocent Iv ◽  
Eastern And Western Europe

The article considers the process of formation and development of the medieval international order during the end of the active phase of the Mongol conquests in Eastern and Western Europe in the middle of the thirteenth century. The main source in the study of this issue was the evidence set out in the treatise "History of the Mongols, called by us Tatars" by the famous Catholic diplomat Plano Carpini, who in the 40's of the thirteenth century by order of Pope Innocent IV, he carried out a mission to the Mongol Empire.The article notes that this aspect is one of the least studied in modern Ukrainian historiographyAs a result of the study, the author came to the conclusion that the work analyzed in the article is an important source in the study of the international order, which developed in the middle of the thirteenth century and was based on the dominance of the Mongol Empire in Eurasia. It allows us to consider the peculiarities of the organization of this state, to show the characteristics of its relations with the captured peoples, to determine the order of relations between the Mongols and their vassals. At the same time, this treatise is a manifesto in which, under the pretext of the Mongol threat, it is concluded that it is necessary to unite the rulers of Europe (especially its Orthodox part) under the authority of the Pope. Consideration of the ideas set forth by Carpini, allows us to conclude that the Catholic Church, and in this period, tried to implement the project of its religious expansion in the lands of Eastern Europe and Kiyvan Rus.

Press Propaganda and Subaltern Agents of Pan-Islamic Networks in the Muslim Mediterranean World prior to World War I

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odile Moreau
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
World War I ◽  
North Africa ◽  
World War ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
The Press ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores movement and circulation across the Mediterranean and seeks to contribute to a history of proto-nationalism in the Maghrib and the Middle East at a particular moment prior to World War I. The discussion is particularly concerned with the interface of two Mediterranean spaces: the Middle East (Egypt, Ottoman Empire) and North Africa (Morocco), where the latter is viewed as a case study where resistance movements sought external allies as a way of compensating for their internal weakness. Applying methods developed by Subaltern Studies, and linking macro-historical approaches, namely of a translocal movement in the Muslim Mediterranean, it explores how the Egypt-based society, al-Ittihad al-Maghribi, through its agent, Aref Taher, used the press as an instrument for political propaganda, promoting its Pan-Islamic programme and its goal of uniting North Africa.

You Say You Want a Reformation? Parsing the Ubiquitous Rhetoric of an “Islamic Reformation”

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-73
Author(s):  
Paul R. Powers
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Political Change ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
History Of

The ideas of an “Islamic Reformation” and a “Muslim Luther” have been much discussed, especially since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This “Reformation” rhetoric, however, displays little consistency, encompassing moderate, liberalizing trends as well as their putative opposite, Islamist “fundamentalism.” The rhetoric and the diverse phenomena to which it refers have provoked both enthusiastic endorsement and vigorous rejection. After briefly surveying the history of “Islamic Reformation” rhetoric, the present article argues for a four-part typology to account for most recent instances of such rhetoric. The analysis reveals that few who employ the terminology of an “Islamic Reformation” consider the specific details of its implicit analogy to the Protestant Reformation, but rather use this language to add emotional weight to various prescriptive agendas. However, some examples demonstrate the potential power of the analogy to illuminate important aspects of religious, social, and political change in the modern Islamic world.

Philosophic Pride

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

This is the first full-scale look at the essential place of Stoicism in the foundations of modern political thought. Spanning the period from Justus Lipsius's Politics in 1589 to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile in 1762, and concentrating on arguments originating from England, France, and the Netherlands, the book considers how political writers of the period engaged with the ideas of the Roman and Greek Stoics that they found in works by Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The book examines key texts in their historical context, paying special attention to the history of classical scholarship and the historiography of philosophy. The book delves into the persisting tension between Stoicism and the tradition of Augustinian anti-Stoic criticism, which held Stoicism to be a philosophy for the proud who denied their fallen condition. Concentrating on arguments in moral psychology surrounding the foundations of human sociability and self-love, the book details how the engagement with Roman Stoicism shaped early modern political philosophy and offers significant new interpretations of Lipsius and Rousseau together with fresh perspectives on the political thought of Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes. The book shows how the legacy of the Stoics played a vital role in European intellectual life in the early modern era.

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