Leading with a Fist: A History of the Salafi Beard in the 20th-Century Middle East

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Rock-Singer
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Facial Hair ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Visual Markers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interpretative Approach

Abstract Salafism is a global religious movement whose male participants often distinguish themselves from their co-religionists by a particular style of facial hair. Historians have focused largely on this movement’s engagement with questions of theology and politics, while anthropologists have assumed that Salafi practice reflects a longer Islamic tradition. In this article, I move beyond both approaches by tracing the gradual formation of a distinctly Salafi beard in the 20th century Middle East. Drawing on Salafi scholarly compendia, leading journals, popular pamphlets, and daily newspapers produced primarily in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, I argue that Salafi elites revived a longer Islamic legal tradition in order to distinguish their flock from secular nationalist projects of communal identity and Islamic activists alike. In doing so, I cast light on Salafism’s interpretative approach, the dynamics that define its development as a social movement, and the broader significance of visual markers in modern projects of Islamic piety.

Manuscript about the claims of the Onomatodoxists to Pitsunda skete of the New Athos Monastery

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-320
Author(s):  
Marina S. Krutova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Russian State ◽  
History Of ◽  
Caucasus Mountains ◽  
State Library

The Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library contains materials of different genres about the claims of the Onomatodoxists to Pitsunda skete of the New Athos Monastery, named after Simon the Canaanean — letters, reports, petitions. The reason for the Onomatodoxists disputes is believed to be the book “On the Caucasus Mountains” by Schemamonk Ilarion (worldly Ivan Domrachyov), who was assigned to the New Athos monastery after he had left Old Athos. The originals of the published documents are kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library in the fund of Bishop Nikon (worldly Nikolay Rozhdestvenskiy); the former was a member of the Most Holy Synod, actively opposed the religious movement which arose on Old Athos in the early 20th century. The value of the published documents lies in the fact that they tell about a little-known page in the history of the New Athos Monastery.

MOHAMMAD GHOLI MAJD, Resistance to the Shah: Landowners and the Ulama in Iran (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000). Pp. 426. $49.95 cloth.

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-156
Author(s):  
Afshin Marashi
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Agrarian Sector ◽  
Look Back ◽  
History Of

If the history of the Middle East in the 20th century is a history of fundamental social changes and dislocations, then surely one important part of that story is the transformation that took place in the agrarian sector of many Middle Eastern societies. The politics of landownership and the projects of land reform in the 20th century were indeed among the most ambitious of the statist projects undertaken during what we can now look back on as the “age of modernization.” Like so many large-scale projects of social engineering, land reform in the Middle East captured the optimism and idealism of modernization while producing some of its most brutal and unforeseen consequences.

ALEXANDER KNYSH, Islamic Mysticism: A Short History, Themes in Islamic Studies (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000). Pp. 370.

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-475
Author(s):  
WILLIAM C. CHITTICK
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Short History ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Islamic Mysticism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional Basis

This much-needed historical survey of the Sufi tradition brings together a great deal of specialized literature, especially the European scholarship that is often ignored in North America. The first eight chapters of the book discuss the beginnings of the tradition, early figures, gradual institutionalization, poetical and metaphysical expressions, and the foundations of the great tariqahs. Chapter 9 provides an overview of the later history of the tariqahs on a regional basis, in most cases coming into the 20th century. Chapter 10 discusses major concepts and practices. Given Knysh's keen awareness that the Sufi tradition cannot be isolated from the Islamic tradition as a whole, surprisingly little attention is paid to the roots of Sufism in the Qur[ham]an and the hadith. Then again, the survey is necessarily selective and aims only to highlight major figures and movements. Any serious attempt to be comprehensive would have given us a multi-volume study. Every specialist will be disappointed at the failure to discuss or at least mention certain figures, movements, themes, or topics.

scholarly journals Сведения о Шихаб ад-Дине ал-Марджани в дагестанских рукописях в контексте дискуссий об иджтихаде в первой трети ХХ в.

Islamology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Shamil Shikhaliev
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Legal Tradition ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the references to the Tatar scholar Shihabaddin Mardjani in the Dagestani Arabic-script manuscripts written in the first third of the 20th century. Daghestani scholars noted the important role of Mardjani and his works in the intellectual history of Islam. For this reason, they travelled to Kazan to get an acquaintance with him and copied his works. Dagestani scholars wrote reviews on his works as well as dedicated poems to Mardjani himself. Later, the name Mardjani entered the Dagestani legal tradition in the framework of debates on taqlid and ijtihad. Along with classical Arab scholars, the name of Mardjani has been often referred in Daghestani manuscripts on the theory of Muslim Law. Althoug Dagestani Muslim jurists held different views on issues of taqlid and ijtihad, each of them interpreted the ideas of Mardjani on Islamic legal issues in his own way. Regardless of their preferences in the matters of theory of Islamic law, Dagestani scholars highly valued the authority of Mardjani as a one of the major scholars in the Islamic World.

scholarly journals The History of Jama‘ah Tabligh in Southeast Asia: The Role of Islamic Sufism in Islamic Revival

2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamaruzzaman Bustamam-Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Islamic Revival ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
History Of

The article examines the history of Jama‘ah Tabligh in Southeast Asia, especially in Kuala Lumpur and Aceh. The author traces the historical background of this religious movement with particular reference to the birth place of Jama‘ah Tabligh , India. The author investigates the major role of Indian in disseminating Islam in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. Many scholars believe that Islam came to Southeast Asia from India (Gujarat), and this is the reason why many Islamic traditions in this region were influenced by Indian culture. However, to analyze Islamic movement in Southeast Asia one should take into consideration the Middle East context in which various Islamic movements flourished. Unlike many scholars who believe that the spirit of revivalism or Islamic modernism in Southeast Asia was more influenced by Islam in the Middle East than Indian, the author argues that the influence of Indian Muslim in Southeast Asia cannot be neglected, particularly in the case of Jama‘ah Tabligh.

scholarly journals Brave new world an update on COVID-19 pandemic – A review

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Gadó ◽  
Gy. Domján ◽  
Z.Z. Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
New World ◽  
Rna Viruses ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brave New World

AbstractEpidemics and pandemics have happened throughout the history of mankind. Before the end of the 20th century, scientific progress successfully eradicated several of the pathogens. While no one has to be afraid of smallpox anymore, there are some new pathogens that have never caused human disease before. Coronaviruses are a family of enveloped RNA viruses. In the 21st century, three of them have caused serious pandemics, including severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2002 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2012. In 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, which has destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives and continues to rage.

The Sultan's Communists

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alma Rachel Heckman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
Arab World ◽  
The United States ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War

Structured around the stories of five prominent Moroccan Jewish Communists (Léon René Sultan, Edmond Amran El Maleh, Abraham Serfaty, Simon Lévy, and Sion Asssidon), The Sultan’s Communists examines how Moroccan Jews envisioned themselves participating as citizens in a newly independent Morocco. It also explores how Communism facilitated the participation of Moroccan Jews in Morocco’s national liberation struggle with roots in the mass upheavals of the interwar and WWII periods. Alma Heckman describes how Moroccan Communist Jews fit within the story of mass Jewish exodus from Morocco in the 1950s and ’60s, and how Communist Jews survived oppressive post-independence authoritarian rule under the Moroccan monarchy. These stories unfold in a country that, upon independence from France and Spain in 1956, allied itself with the United States (and, more quietly, Israel) during the Cold War all while attempting to claim a place for itself within the fraught politics of the post-independence Arab world. Heckman’s manuscript contributes to the growing literature on Jews in the modern Middle East, filling in the gaps on the Jewish history of 20th-century Morocco as no other previous book has done.

Cultivating trust, producing knowledge: The management of archaeological labour and the making of a discipline

2021 ◽  
pp. 095269512110158
Author(s):  
Allison Mickel ◽  
Nylah Byrd
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Epistemic Trust ◽  
History Of

Like any science, archaeology relies on trust between actors involved in the production of knowledge. In the early history of archaeology, this epistemic trust was complicated by histories of Orientalism in the Middle East and colonialism more broadly. The racial and power dynamics underpinning 19th- and early 20th-century archaeology precluded the possibility of interpersonal moral trust between foreign archaeologists and locally hired labourers. In light of this, archaeologists created systems of reward, punishment, and surveillance to ensure the honest behaviour of site workers. They thus invented a set of structural conditions that produced sufficient epistemic trust for archaeological research to proceed—a system that continues to shape archaeology to the present day.

NOTE ABOUT THE TERM EFFENDIYYA IN THE HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Eppel
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

The term effendiyya (singular: effendi) appears in many articles and books on the social and political history of the Middle East between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Many authors have made use of this term, but very few have paused to discuss its meaning. At least one important scholar, however, raised doubts about its usefulness.

The Realm of the Imām the Faṭīmids in the tenth century

1996 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-449
Author(s):  
Michael Brett
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Modern History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

Despite their period from the tenth to the twelfth century, at the height of the Middle Ages; despite their position in Egypt, at the centre of the civilization of the Near and Middle East; and despite their prominence as the third Caliphate of Islam, the Fāṭimids lack a satisfactory modern history of their dynasty. This is partly because of the length of their life, which covers the histories of so many hundreds of years; partly because of the span of their empire from North Africa to Egypt and Syria, stretching across the histories of so many regions; and finally because, at the level of Islam itself, their empire was divided between their dawla or state and their daՙwa or doctrine. The doctrine, which focused on the Fāṭimid Imām as the quṭb or pole of faith, gave the dynasty its peculiar strength and endurance. The failure of that doctrine to supersede the Islam of the schools, however, left the Fāṭimids increasingly isolated and ultimately vulnerable. Standing outside the mainstream of Islamic tradition, the dynasty's own version of its history was disregarded. Instead, its components passed out of their original context to be incorporated into the regional or universal histories of subsequent authors. Maqrīzī was alone in compiling his Ittiՙāẓ al-ḥunafā' as a history of the dynasty in Egypt, introduced by a miscellany of information on its origins and previous career.

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