Islam in Gramsci’s Journalism and Prison Notebooks: The Shifting Patterns of Hegemony

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 115-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Boothman
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
New States ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Historical Contribution

Abstract Gramsci recognised the inestimable historical contribution of Muslim and Arab civilisations, writing on these in his newspaper articles, his pre-prison letters and the Prison Notebooks. The Islamic world contemporary with him was largely rural, with the masses heavily influenced by religion, analogous in some ways to Italy whose economy was still largely oriented towards a peasantry among whom the Vatican played a leading (and highly reactionary) role. In addition to factors such as the politics-religion nexus, what Gramsci was also analysing, without saying as much explicitly, was the upheaval caused by the disintegration and dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and the inter-imperialist rivalries over the spoils and the construction of new states from its ruins. Here he draws attention to the first hesitant and contradictory anticolonial stances being adopted among the traditional leaders, as well recognising the basis for more popularly-based movements. In both Catholic countries and, as Gramsci knew especially from the experience of his Comintern work, in parts of the Muslim world, these movements could at times assume a left and politically radical orientation. What emerges is a picture of conflicting hegemonies involving principally religion, class, the political ambivalence of many religious leaders, and a burgeoning nationalism contraposed to the supra-nationalist claims of religion. But the factor underlying everything is the potential of the masses who, if awakened from torpor and detached from European colonialism, were judged capable of rupturing previous imperially-determined equilibria.

scholarly journals From Islamization of Knowledge to Islamization of Education

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. v-ix
Author(s):  
AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
World War ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Political Independence ◽  
Muslim People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Masses

Any Muslim intellectual who has a serious concern for the relativelydeteriorating condition of the Muslim Ummah with respect to the WesternWorld would be depressed and confused. However, the recent history of theMuslim World shows how many determined reformist movements playeda positive role in changing the Muslim condition. But these movements metwith partial or limited success.It was in the late seventeenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries,an ascendant Europe undermined and overran much of the UthmaniDuwlah (Ottoman Empire) and finally put an end to it, much to the shockand dismay of the Muslim World. The powerful European challenge andthis drastic event elicited two contrasting responses from the Muslim eliteand the masses. While many of them resorted to superficial imitation andinitiated capricious copycat reform movements, some harnessed the risingawareness and the attendant spirit of resistance to launch more genuineefforts and reform movements. Understandably, these efforts were conflicting,emotional, and limited in their scope but they eventually helpedMuslim societies to gain political independence in the post-World War IIera. At the heart of these reforms and political liberation was the Muslimpeoples’ desire to realize their Islamic, national, and cultural aspirationsalong with the hope of enjoying a standard of living comparable to that ofthe West.Unfortunately, these hopes were not achieved and the cultural reformscontinued to be emotional, arbitrary, and patchwork (talfiq). The conditionof the Muslim people continued to deteriorate and the gap between theWestern world and the Muslim world continued to widen. The former continuedto dominate and exploit that latter. All this proved that arbitrary,emotional, superficial, and limited patchwork reforms would not have aserious impact on the conditions of the Muslim people and will fail to realizetheir national or Islamic aspirations ...

The Recuperation of Sovereign Rights by Asian Countries, circa 1870–1945: From Capitulations to Equal Relations, the Dutch Experience

Itinerario ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Bootsma
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Far East ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
Dutch Experience

Western expansion in Asia during the nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted in two different groups of Asian countries: those which fell victim to European colonialism and those which managed to maintain the basis of their sovereign rights. This contribution will concentrate on the second group, including not only the countries of the so-called Far East but those of the Middle Eastern Ottoman Empire as well. The link between these two otherwise separate worlds is the concept of consular jurisdiction. It originated in the Islamic world and was transplanted by the West to China, Japan and Siam in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth, it became the touchstone in the relations of the Asian countries with the West in their struggle for equality.

The Great War and the Beginning of Emancipation

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tolan ◽  
Gilles Veinstein ◽  
Henry Laurens
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War I ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
The Political ◽  
Great War ◽  
World War ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Political Alliances ◽  
European Diplomacy ◽  
The Great War

This chapter looks at the Muslim world and Europe during World War I. The mechanisms of the political alliances in Europe during the twentieth century, combined with national passions and the sense among many that war was inevitable, reveal how, this time, European diplomacy was unable to avoid a war whose intensity and capacity for destruction was unimaginable. The chapter looks at the major players from the Islamic world who had become involved in the war, particularly as tensions between the European nations as well as the Muslim states chafing under their domination. Hence, the chapter also looks at the Muslim efforts at emancipation from European rule during this time.

The Contribution of Hebrew Printing Houses and Printers in Istanbul to Ladino Culture and Scholarship

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
Rachel Simon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Cultural Importance ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Cultural Leaders

Sephardi printers were pioneers of moveable type in the Islamic world, establishing a Hebrew printing house in Istanbul in 1493. Initially emphasizing classical religious works in Hebrew, since the eighteenth century printers have been instrumental in the development of scholarship, literature, and journalism in the vernacular of most Jews of the western Ottoman Empire: Ladino. Although most Jewish males knew the Hebrew alphabet, they did not understand Hebrew texts. Communal cultural leaders and printers collaborated in order to bring basic Jewish works to the masses in the only language they really knew. While some books in Ladino were printed as early as the sixteenth century, their percentage increased since the second quarter of the eighteenth century, following the printing of Me-’am lo’ez, by Jacob Culi (1730), and the Bible in Ladino translation by Abraham Assa (1739). In the nineteenth century the balance of Ladino printing shifted toward novels, poetry, history, and biography, sciences, and communal and state laws and regulations. Ladino periodicals, which aimed to modernize, educate, and entertain, were of special social and cultural importance, and their printing houses also served as publishers of Ladino books. Thus, from its beginnings as an agent that aimed to “Judaize” the Jews, Ladino publishing in the later period sought to modernize and entertain, while still trying to spread Judaic knowledge.

scholarly journals Caliph and the 'Islamic State' - Lessons of History

ICR Journal ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-590
Author(s):  
Karim Douglas Crow
Keyword(s):  
Central African Republic ◽  
The Political ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
The World ◽  
Kings And Rulers

The declaration of a so-called ‘Islamic State’ in parts of Syria and Iraq on 27 June 2014/1 Ramadan 1435 by Sunni Jihadist renegades led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (a.k.a. Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, or Abu Du’a, born 1971)2 claimed a universal authority throughout the Muslim ummah in the manner of the caliphs of old. The veteran Iraq observer Patrick Cockburn objectively describes IS to be “the most powerful and effective extreme jihadi group in the world… violent and sectarian… highly fanatical.” Abu Bakr sends a powerful message resonating in the minds of militants across the Islamic world, by denying the legitimacy of the political and religious leaders of 1.6 billion Muslims. “I do not promise you, as the kings and rulers promise their followers and congregation, luxury, security and relaxation,” he said in his Khutbah in Mosul; “instead I promise you what Allah promised his faithful followers” [i.e. Paradise through martyrdom]. In his audio message posted online on 1 July 2014, Ibrahim stated it was the duty of all Muslims to immigrate to his self-styled ‘Islamic State’, and he named a list of countries from the Central African Republic to Myanmar and Xinjiang (in Chinese Turkistan) where violations are being committed against Muslims. “Your brothers on every piece of this earth are waiting for you to rescue them,” he declared; “By Allah, we will take revenge! by Allah we will take revenge! even if after a while.”

Leisurely Islam

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Deeb ◽  
Mona Harb
Keyword(s):  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Moral Norms ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Class Mobility ◽  
Political Economic

South Beirut has recently become a vibrant leisure destination with a plethora of cafés and restaurants that cater to the young, fashionable, and pious. What effects have these establishments had on the moral norms, spatial practices, and urban experiences of this Lebanese community? From the diverse voices of young Shi'i Muslims searching for places to hang out, to the Hezbollah officials who want this media-savvy generation to be more politically involved, to the religious leaders worried that Lebanese youth are losing their moral compasses, this book provides a sophisticated and original look at leisure in the Lebanese capital. What makes a café morally appropriate? How do people negotiate morality in relation to different places? And under what circumstances might a pious Muslim go to a café that serves alcohol? This book highlights tensions and complexities exacerbated by the presence of multiple religious authorities, a fraught sectarian political context, class mobility, and a generation that takes religion for granted but wants to have fun. The book elucidates the political, economic, religious, and social changes that have taken place since 2000, and examines leisure's influence on Lebanese sociopolitical and urban situations. Asserting that morality and geography cannot be fully understood in isolation from one another, the book offers a colorful new understanding of the most powerful community in Lebanon today.

he domestic political crisis in the Right-Bank Ukraine in the spring and summer of 1669

2020 ◽  
pp. 46-66
Author(s):  
Bоris N. Florya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Right

Based on an analysis of sources, the author tries to reconstruct the course of events during the political crisis on the Right Bank, at the center of which was the confrontation between the right-bank hetman P. Doroshenko and his opponent, P. Sukhovey, an elected hetman of the Zaporozhian Sich with the support of the Crimean Khanate. The author shows that the opposition to Doroshenko was significant and was formed as well under the influence of the news about his Turkish citizenship. It was approved by the Korsun Rada, to participate in which the Right-Bank hetman was able to mobilize a significant number of supporters from the Right-Bank foreman. This caused discontent not only among the Cossacks, but also among the Cossack mob in a part of the Right-Bank regiments. Doroshenko’s attempts to get help from the Ottoman Empire were unsuccessful and in the summer his position became threatening: only two Cossack regiments stood on the side of the hetman. Only the arrival of the ambassadors of the Sultan in August 1669, who demanded that the Crimean Khanate stop supporting the opposition to Doroshenko, and the subsequent departure of the Tatars defused the situation and saved the Right-Bank hetman from losing the power. These events, as well as the ensuing similar domestic political crisis in the Right-Bank Ukraine in 1672, demonstrate how shaky the Doroshenko’s position was and how difficult it was for him to maintain the power.

Трансформация идеологических концепций в Османской империи в 1850–1900 гг. Османизм-панисламизм

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Abidulin ◽  
I.A. Shirkina
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Spiritual Power

Аннотация Статья посвящена анализу идеологических концепций в Османской империи во второй половине XIX - начале XX века. Изучение генезиса терминов османизм и панисламизм позволяет нам отметить их западное происхождение и трактовать их в качестве идеологии сохранения империи и исламского единства, а также как стремление к культурному объединению всех мусульман, признающих духовную власть османского султана. В рамках изучаемого периода панисламизм рассматривается в тесной связи с предшествующей ему идеологической концепцией османизма. Показаны векторы, в которых панисламизм использовался как инструмент государственной политики в период правления султанаАбдул-Хамида II.Нами также исследуется процесс трансформации идеологических концепций позднего периода Османской империи. Показано, что концепции османизма и панисламизма соответствовали требованиям своего времени, учитывая политические и демографические обстоятельства, при этом не взаимозаменяя, а сосуществуя в тесной связи друг с другом.Abstract The article is devoted to the analysis of ideological concepts in the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the XIX early XX centuries. Studying the genesis of the terms Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism allows us to note their Western origin and treat them as an ideology of preserving the empire and Islamic unity, as well as a desire for the cultural unification of all Muslims who recognize the spiritual power of the Ottoman Sultan. Within the framework of the period under study, pan-Islamism is considered in close connection with the ideological concept of Ottomanism preceding it. The vectors in which pan-Islamism was used as an instrument of state policy during the reign of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II are shown. We also study the process of transformation of ideological concepts of the late period of the Ottoman Empire. It is shown that the concepts of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism met the requirements of their time, given the political and demographic circumstances, while not interchangeably, but coexisting in close connection with each other.

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