The Expression of Cultural Identity in Mosque Architecture in Brunei Darussalam

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Rui Oliveira Lopes ◽  
Nuriskandar bin Mohd Hasnan
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
Brunei Darussalam ◽  
Muslim Communities

Abstract The mosque connotes a place of prostration towards Allah. As a sacred space, mosque designs use great detail to respect specific ceremonial functions and some requirements outlined in the Quran, but accommodate diverse styles and construction materials that several traditional and cultural factors determine. As early as the seventh century, as Islam spread across the Mediterranean, North Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, the mosque remained a quintessential Islamic building for local Muslim communities. Consequently, mosque architecture presents diverse styles and forms. It does not follow a normative design form besides having an essential hall to accommodate the congregation and visibly indicating the qibla. This paper explores mosque architecture designs in Brunei Darussalam to analyse expressions of cultural identity and constructions of a collective identity. Since the 1950s, mosque architecture in Brunei has distinguished itself by amalgamating designs that culturally significant historical exchanges within and beyond the Malay world dictated. The paper argues that specific governmental, social, cultural and economic contexts necessarily inform the built environment and, particularly, that of religious architecture, resulting in the development of autochthon styles.

Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Sokoto Caliphate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Murray Last
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
Local Markets ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Women And Children ◽  
Sokoto Caliphate ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
The 19Th Century

Established using a conventional Islamic model of government, the new Muslim state in Sokoto, known as the Sokoto Caliphate (1804–1903), possessed eventually very large numbers of men, women, and children, taken captive (usually when children) in jihad from mainly non-Muslim communities, to serve as slaves. These slaves worked on farms or within households, they might be concubines and bear children for their owners; or they might be sold as children for export to North Africa in payment for the luxury imports the new elite wanted. Slaves were, under Islamic law, deemed “minors” or “half-persons,” and so had rights that differed from those of the free Muslim. By the end of the 19th century there were more slaves on the local markets than could be sold; exports of captives to North Africa had already dropped. For some captives enslaved as children, however, the career as a slave led eventually to high political positions, even to owning many slaves of their own. But slaves’ property, even their children, ultimately belonged to the slave’s owner. Revolts by male slaves were very rare, but escape was commonplace. Concubines, if they ever became pregnant by their owner, could not be sold again. The abolition of slavery c.1903 was slow to become a reality for many individual slaves, whether men or women.

scholarly journals SOME METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THE HISTORIC AND CURRENT ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM COMMUNITIES

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Adam A.J. DeVille
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
Oriental Institute ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Drawing on, but expanding and altering mutatis mutandis some principles enunciated by the greatest Byzantine liturgical historian writing today, Robert F. Taft (emeritus of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome), this paper will propose some methodological considerations for the study of the encounters and relations between Eastern Christian and Muslim communities from the seventh century to the present day.

Language, Cultural Identity and Empowerment in the Dominant Culture

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Literate Society

Lack of a common means of verbal or written communication always creates problems of interpersonal communication and gives rise to misunderstandings and (possibly) prejudice against one or other party. On the surface, there would seem to be a good deal of merit in the suggestion that “if everyone spoke the same language, all these problems would disappear”. However, the matter is not as simple as it seems, for questions must be asked as to what language should be chosen, the dialect of it, and to what extent cultural factors, deeply related to the true understanding of how thought is expressed within a language, need to be addressed. In Australia, most reasonably well education Anglo-Celtic Australians asked these questions would immediately think of Standard Australian English (SAE), though working-class and indigenous Australians may consider it too “posh” and out of touch with their lifestyles. Few from the dominant group, however, would be even remotely aware of the degree to which cultural factors influence how thought is expressed in a language (as already mentioned), and how this influences the spoken language and, more particularly, the written language in a literate society.

The Hellenistic and Byzantine Defences of Tocra (Taucheira)

1998 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 35-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Smith ◽  
James Crow
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Outer Wall ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Curtain Wall ◽  
South Side ◽  
Sea Wall ◽  
The City

AbstractThe fortifications of the Hellenistic and Roman city of Tocra are over 2 km long (including the sea-wall) and comprise a curtain wall up to 2 m wide flanked by 31 rectangular towers. Three main structural phases were noted in the survey carried out in 1966 by David Smith: (1) Hellenistic walls of isodomic ashlar, (2) later Hellenistic work of isodomic ashlar with bevelled edges, associated with the indented trace along the south rampart, and (3) an extensive rebuild of plain ashlar blocks including the towers and reconstruction to the East and West Gates, dateable, on the basis of Procopius, to the reign of Justinian. The general significance of the fortifications at Tocra is considered in the second part: these include the Hellenistic indented trace along the south side, later reinforced by towers in the sixth century AD. Also of wider importance was the use of an outer wall or proteichisma, and the pentagonal, pointed towers at the two main gates. Both these elements were unusual in Byzantine North Africa and they are discussed as part of the more general repertory of Byzantine fortifications. The unusual tower adjacent to the West Church is considered in the context of literary accounts. The article concludes by considering how the architecture and magnitude of the fortifications can allow a reassessment of the wider role of the city in the sixth and seventh century defences of Cyrenaica.

Non-Muslim Religious Minorities in Contemporary Iran

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamsheed K. Choksy
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
International Attention ◽  
Muslim Communities

A little over three decades ago, during the reign of the last Pahlavi monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, non-Muslim religious minorities in Iran experienced life within a relatively tolerant society. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s native Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, Mandaeans, and Baha’is have experienced increasing discrimination, isolation, and intimidation. Those non-Muslim religious minorities provide Iranian society with confessional pluralism and cultural diversity, thereby serving also as a moderating population sliver against Shi‘ite fundamentalism. But now the non-Muslim communities collectively have diminished to less than 2 percent of Iran’s 75,2 million residents. Yet, these minorities have attracted very limited domestic and international attention or concern because their situation is poorly understood. This article, based on extensive fieldwork in Iran during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, examines the situations of those Zoroastrians, Christians, Jews, Mandaeans, and Baha’is. While Sunnis also are a religious minority in Iran and do experience prejudices too, intra-Muslim tension with its origins in seventh century religious disputes and its geopolitical reverberations to the present day go beyond the scope of this article.

Churches

2019 ◽  
pp. 126-146
Author(s):  
Charles Anthony Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Western Asia ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Christian Congregations ◽  
The Church ◽  
Local Body

Churches have been the subject of archaeological examination since the sixteenth century. As the most monumental expression of Christianity, they represent complex religious and societal ideologies, rooted in Jewish concepts of the synagogue and messianic kingship. The institution of the church was initially viewed as both a physical local body and a global spiritual kingdom, and these notions eventually became symbolized by architecture. In Christianity’s first three centuries, a variety of buildings could accommodate Christian congregations. During the emperor Constantine’s reign, the basilica became the most prestigious form of church and, by the end of the seventh century, was commonplace in Europe, North Africa, and western Asia. Churches were not just assemblages of various materials; they also housed burials, shrines, artifacts, and artistic programs. Archaeology examines how and when churches were designed, constructed, and changed, and how they contributed to the wider society.

scholarly journals Heritage Language Use, Maintenance and Transmission by Second-Generation Immigrants in Cyprus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sviatlana Karpava
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Second Generation Immigrants ◽  
Hybrid Language ◽  
Mainstream Society ◽  
Socioeconomic Assimilation

There are both culturalist and structuralist approaches to the integration of the second-generation immigrants into mainstream society. These approaches focus on cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic assimilation. Successful societal membership is associated with psychosocial adaptation, hybrid identity, selective acculturation or biculturalism, which is an individual’s adjustment to new psychological and social conditions. Individual identity is related to the sense of belonging, integration and engagement in the current space. Self-identity is fluid and flexible; it comprises individual and collective identity, habitus or unconscious identity, agency and reflexivity, which is re-evaluated and adjusted throughout the life trajectory of a migrant and connected to citizenship and solidarity. This study investigated heritage language use, maintenance and transmission, as well as language and cultural identity and social inclusion of second-generation immigrants in Cyprus with various L1 backgrounds. The analysis of the data (e.g. questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions, observations) showed that second-generation immigrants have a hybrid language and cultural identity, as well as multifarious perceptions regarding citizenship, inclusion and belonging. These immigrants try to assimilate to the target society, but at the same time they have a strong link with the community of residence, their L1 country and their heritage or home language. The participants also use mixed/multiple languages at home and elsewhere.

scholarly journals Cultural identity of urban communities of the historical reenactors

2019 ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Nikolay Sergeevich Bozhok
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
Historical Reenactment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cultural Components

The object of this research is the cultural identity of urban communities of the historical reenactors. The subject of the author’s scientific interest is the mechanisms and practices substantiating the specificity of positive cultural identity of the communities, united within the framework of the historical reenactment movement. The article examines the dominant trends in the development of modern reenactment movement: trend towards the fragmentation of movement and complication of the structure of collective identity, and intention towards unity. Special attention is given to the identification of mechanisms that allow retaining and maintaining balance between the processes of differentiation and integration of reenactment movement. Methodologically, the author’s understanding of the specificity of collective identity of the historical reenactors is based on the theoretical ideas of H. Blumer, N. Smelser and P. Sztompka, as well as the theory of new social movements that focus attention on their sociocultural dimension. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that this article is first to comprehensively analyze cultural components of the collective identity of the historical reenactment movement; as well as determine its structural components, mechanism and characteristic attributes. It is substantiated that under the influence of the modern global trends, cultural identity of reenactors along with the basic components attaints the new ones that contribute to the expansion of cultural-historical mobility and cohesion of reenactment movement.

scholarly journals Architectural Conservation Proposal of Kashinath Bhaban: A Vivid Example of Colonial Architecture in Bengal

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Shirajom Monira Khondker ◽  
Nuzaba Binte Kabir
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Urban Conservation ◽  
Architectural Conservation

During the Colonial period, Bangladesh with a rich cultural heritage and cultural identity is vividly conveyed and navigated as an image of power, pride and creativity. For this research study, the authors carefully chosen a unique ancient building named “Kashinath Bhaban” of Panam Nagar. Panam Nagar is an old settlement as a part of Sonargaon area of Bangladesh. This edifice abides the evidence to the style and design of Colonial architecture in Bengal. It is absolute that the whole Panam city including the building Kashinath Bhaban play an important role to represent our cultural heritage or our glorious past. Therefore an urban conservation of Panam Nagar is needed. This study concentrates on the proposal for the architectural conservation of the building Kashinath Bhaban of Panam which have precious and research worthy documentation or information. The overall research study conducted here is focused on the demonstration of the possible directions of architectural conservation which is based on the building’s plan layout, elevations, sectional details, structure as well as construction materials, decoration and ornamentation. For the architectural conservation of the building, here the authors consider restoration procedure as a conservation technique which will help to represent own belief with historical value and cultural exclusivity to the architecture.

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