Archaeology and the History of Early Islam: The First Seventy Years

2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Johns
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
Il Y A ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Material Evidence

AbstractThe rarity of material evidence for the religion of Islam during the first seventy years of the hijra (622-92 CE) has been used to attack the traditional positivist account of the rise of Islam. However, the earliest declarations of Islam are to be found on media produced by the early Islamic state. It is therefore mistake to read too much significance into the absence of such declarations prior to the formation of that state by Abd al-Malik (685-705 CE). There is little prospect that archaeology will uncover new evidence of Islam from the first seventy years. Le manque de données matérielles sur la religion de l'Islam pendant les sept premières décennies de l'hégire (622-92) a été utilisé pour réfuter la théorie positiviste traditionelle de l'essor de l'Islam. Cependant, les premières déclarations de l'Islam sont à trouver dans des oeuvres produites par l'Etat islamique à ses débuts. Il est donc erroné d'attribuer trop de sens à l'absence de telles déclarations avant la formation de cet Etat par Abd al-Malik (685-705). Il y a peu de perspectives de nouvelles découvertes archéologiques sur l'Islam des sept premières décennies.

scholarly journals Scents of Space: Early Islamic Pilgrimage, Perfume, and Paradise

Arabica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 67 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 200-234
Author(s):  
Adam Bursi
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Dome Of The Rock ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Material Evidence

Abstract Within some of the earliest textual and material evidence for the history of Islam, pilgrimage appears as an important ritual of devotion, identity, and community. Yet modern scholarship has given little attention to early Muslims’ sensory experiences of pilgrimage sites and what they physically encountered while there. This article examines the importance of smell within Islamic pilgrimage practices of the first/seventh and second/eighth centuries. Drawing upon literary and material evidence, I reconstruct several olfactory components of pilgrimage in this period, including intensive usage of perfume and incense at pilgrimage destinations such as the Kaʿba and the Dome of the Rock, as well as pilgrims’ collection and ingestion of scented materials from these locations. I then argue that the prominence of pleasing aromas at these sacred spaces is connecting to early Islamic ideas about the proximity of paradise to these pilgrimage sites.

scholarly journals Constitutionalism and Democracy: An Islamic Perspective

ICR Journal ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-45
Author(s):  
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

The long history of Islamic scholarship on caliphate, shari’ah-oriented policy (siyasah shar'iyyah) and system of government (nizam al-hukm) has yielded a rich legacy which is, nevertheless, beset with uncertainties in conjunction with modern developments on government and constitutional law. Uncertainties have persisted over the basic concept and definition of an Islamic polity and the existence or otherwise of a valid precedent and model for an Islamic state. This is partially caused by a tendency in modern writings to apply the nation-state ideas of eighteenth-century Europe to the events of early Islam some twelve centuries earlier and doubtful parallels that have been attempted to be drawn between them. This article attempts first to identify the causes of the problem and then proceeds with an overview of the evidence in the Qur’an and Sunnah and contributions of a cross-section of schools and scholars on the subject. This is followed by a general characterisation of an Islamic system of rule under five sub-headings, the first of which describing Islamic government whether Islamic state, and Iran in particular, is a theocracy, whether Islam stands for a qualified democracy, and whether it also upholds separation of powers. The last section discusses freedom of religion and religious pluralism in an Islamic polity followed by a conclusion and recommendations.  

The Church of the East Until the Eighth Century

2019 ◽  
pp. 429-450
Author(s):  
Stefan R. Hauser
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Christian Churches ◽  
Church Of The East ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Christian Population

For a long time, the development of Christian communities within the Sasanian and early Islamic Empires was either neglected or described in terms of a history of persecution and antagonism within a Zoroastrian or Islamic state. Only recently has the perception of the extent of Christianization, the interaction of religious communities, and the importance of Christians within these societies and their upper echelons changed dramatically. The narrative of permanent conflict and oppression of Christian faith has given way to the acknowledgment of a predominant Christian population in the territory of modern Iraq and western Iran in the fifth through seventh centuries. One argument in this context is the growing body of material evidence for Christian churches and images as well as burials, which are expressions of respected and self-assured Christian communities.

The contiguity between churches and mosques in early Islamic Bilād al-Shām

2013 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Guidetti
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Sacred Landscape ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
The Status ◽  
Islamic Conquest ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Material Evidence

AbstractThis article examines the transformation of the sacred landscape in the cities of Syria and Palestine from late antiquity to early Islam. This phase of urban and architectural history, often obscured by the changes brought in during the medieval period, is investigated through a close comparison of textual and material evidence related to the main urban religious complexes. It is suggested that the new Friday mosques were frequently built contiguous to Christian great churches, creating a sort of shared sacred area within the cities. Legal issues related to the Islamic conquest and the status of minorities are considered in order to explain the rationale behind such a choice by Muslims.

FRED M. DONNER, Narratives of lslamic Origins: The Beginnings of Islamic Historical Writing, Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam 14 (Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 1998). Pp. 373.

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-391
Author(s):  
RICHARD C. MARTIN
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Writing Studies ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Early Islamic

The origins and early development of Islam as determined from its most important and foundational texts is the project this book undertakes. As such, it stands in a tradition of Orientalist scholarship on early Muslim historiography that reaches back to the 19th century and that continues to generate debates among historians. Narratives of Islamic Origins is important for many reasons, not least because it clarifies the history of the issues that have divided historians, offering pointed critiques of major, particularly recent, works in the debate, while at the same time marking out a position that the author consistently defends in the Introduction and twelve chapters and appendixes. The use of the term “Orientalist” here is not meant to evoke, but rather to recognize—as Donner states at the outset—that European scholars of the 19th and early 20th centuries took Arabic sources seriously and made them available to succeeding generations. Donner's purpose is not to question their motives for doing this; rather, it is to analyze the textual evidence, arguments, and conclusions they adduced. The author has also written numerous articles and chapters on early Islamic history as well as the acclaimed and not uncontroversial book The Early Muslim Conquests (1981).

The Beginnings of Islam in Afghanistan

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arezou Azad
Keyword(s):  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Political System ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Religious Context ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
History Of ◽  
Initial Conversion ◽  
The Way

Covering the period from 709 to 871, this chapter traces the initial conversion of Afghanistan from Zoroastrianism and Buddhism to Islam. Highlighting the differential developments in four regions of Afghanistan, it discusses the very earliest history of Afghan Islam both as a religion and as a political system in the form of a caliphate.  The chapter draws on under-utilized sources, such as fourth to eighth century Bactrian documents from Tukharistan and medieval Arabic and Persian histories of Balkh, Herat and Sistan. In so doing, it offers a paradigm shift in the way early Islam is understood by arguing that it did not arrive in Afghanistan as a finished product, but instead grew out of Afghanistan’s multi-religious context. Through fusions with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, early Abrahamic traditions, and local cult practices, the Islam that resulted was less an Arab Islam that was imported wholesale than a patchwork of various cultural practices.

"ALMANZOR" GENRIC HAGNEY TRANSFER

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4(73)) ◽  
pp. 52-55
Author(s):  
M.A. Nazmutdinova ◽  
O.M. Burenkova
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
Heinrich Heine ◽  
History Of

After studying the history of the Islamic state in Spain –the Cordova Caliphate -Heinrich Heine wrote the tragedy «Almanzor». The production of the tragedy on the stage of the theater was unsuccessful. The young poet and translator SagitSuncheleytranslated it into Tatar language. Reviews were both negative and positive. The censors did not allow the tragedy on the stage.

ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND RECORDING PROCEDURES IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC STATE

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Abdullah Zaid
Keyword(s):  
Islamic State ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Muslim Society ◽  
Early Islamic

Despite advances in historical knowledge the precise origins of accounting systems and recording procedures remain uncertain. Recently discovered writings suggest that accounting has played a very important role in various sections of Muslim society since 624 A.D. This paper argues that the accounting systems and recording procedures practiced in Muslim society commenced before the invention of the Arabic numerals in response to religious requirements, especially zakat, a mandatory religious levy imposed on Muslims in the year 2 H.

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