“Then He Stabbed Me with a Spear”: Aggressive Sacred Images and Interreligious Polemics

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Monica Mitri
Keyword(s):  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Religious Violence ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Communal Identity ◽  
Sacred Art ◽  
Supernatural Power ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Divine Truth

Abstract This paper studies Coptic communal identity in early Islamic Egypt by analyzing two hagiographical narratives from the Christian Copto-Arabic text The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria. The narratives relate incidents of sacred images that become ‘aggressive’ when they retaliate against insults. Although the relation between religious violence and sacred art has merited much scholarly attention, the focus is usually on humans as the aggressors and sacred art as the victim. The reverse is scarcer, and its rarity means we miss an opportunity to rethink such narratives as communicative modes of rhetoric to be contextually interpreted. Here I argue that these aggressive sacred images were tools of power within a polemic religious discourse aimed at proclaiming divine truth, undergirding it with supernatural power, and ultimately shaping Coptic communal identity around this discourse.

The Martyrdom of Bifām Ibn Baqūra al-Ṣawwāf by Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij and Its Fatimid Background

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 452-484
Author(s):  
Johannes den Heijer
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Short Text ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Literary Source ◽  
History Of ◽  
Urban Elite ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic

This paper discusses the primary Copto-Arabic literary source for the history of Fatimid Egypt, and indeed, for much of the history of Egypt in general: known as the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, it was compiled in Arabic in the late eleventh century ce on the basis of earlier, mostly Coptic sources, by the Alexandrian notable Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij, who added original Arabic materials of his own. Later continuations were added by others, from late Fatimid times up to the twentieth century. The first part of the paper is an outline of the textual history of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, its existing editions and their shortcomings, and the new critical edition that is now being prepared. This part also discusses the fundamentals of a meticulous method of textual criticism, close reading, and contextualization which should help to elucidate numerous problems of historic interpretation. In the subsequent sections of the paper, this same method is applied to a short text sample with an aim of, wherever possible, reconstructing Mawhūb’s original Arabic text, but also with the objective of illustrating how this late eleventh-century text may have been read by later generations. Finally, the freshly coined concept of “internal intertextuality” is employed to point to parallels with episodes that occur in the earlier parts of the Arabic History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, based on older Coptic sources. At the level of content, several new historical interpretations and corrections to older interpretations are offered. The text sample in question concerns the martyrdom of a young Copt, Bifām ibn Baqūra al-Ṣawwāf, during the imamate-caliphate of al-Mustanṣir Billāh (427/1036–487/1094). Throughout the paper, it is argued that narratives such as this, together with accounts of events belonging to the early Islamic period or even to pre-Islamic (Roman, Byzantine) history, are to be seen as emanating from the specific socio-cultural environment of the Coptic urban elite of the mid-Fatimid period.

Nicholas Orme, The History of England’s Cathedrals. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2017, 304 pp, color ill.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 299-301
Author(s):  
Charlotte A. Stanford
Keyword(s):  
Artistic Development ◽  
Engineering Technology ◽  
Medieval Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Cathedrals are buildings of cultural weight. They have frequently drawn attention from architectural historians, especially in the medieval era, as examples of Great Churches: leaders in artistic development or pioneers in engineering technology. When one thinks of Gothic buildings in <?page nr="300"?>particular, it is the cathedral that comes foremost to mind as example. Salisbury, Canterbury, York, and their fellows continue to draw both scholarly attention and popular attraction.

Holiness in Jewish Thought

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Jewish History ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
Jewish Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ways Of Life

Holiness is a challenge for contemporary Jewish thought. The concept of holiness is crucial to religious discourse in general and to Jewish discourse in particular. “Holiness” seems to express an important feature of religious thought and of religious ways of life. Yet the concept is ill defined. This collection explores what concepts of holiness were operative in different periods of Jewish history and bodies of Jewish literature. It offers preliminary reflections on their theological and philosophical import today. The contributors illumine some of the major episodes concerning holiness in the history of the development of the Jewish tradition. They think about the problems and potential implicit in Judaic concepts of holiness, to make them explicit, and to try to retrieve the concepts for contemporary theological and philosophical reflection. Holiness is elusive but it need not be opaque. This volume makes Jewish concepts of holiness lucid, accessible, and intellectually engaging.

Some Early Authorities Cited by Tājika Authors

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Gansten
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Linguistic Evidence ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractIn comparison with the spread of Perso-Arabic astrological traditions into medieval Europe, the Indian reception of the same knowledge systems, known in Sanskrit as tājika-śāstra, has received little scholarly attention. The present article attempts to shed some light on the history of the transmission of tājika-śāstra by examining the statements of Sanskrit authors about their earliest non-Indian sources. In particular, the identities of five traditionally cited authorities—Yavana, Khindhi, Hillāja, Khattakhutta and Romaka—are discussed on the basis of text-internal, historical and linguistic evidence.

The Altar Partition of the Okhtyrka Assumption Cathedral of 1738: The Stylistic Decision and Iconographic Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (3) ◽  
pp. 94-98
Author(s):  
V. Shulika ◽  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Full Length ◽  
Large Format ◽  
Sacred Art ◽  
New Era ◽  
Western Ukraine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Internal Influences ◽  
Half Length

The article is dedicated to the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Okhtyrka (1738). The iconostasis was installed at the expense of O. Lesevytsky (a colonel of Okhtyrka regiment and a brigadier of Sloboda regiments). The icons were painted by Kharkiv icon painter V. Dmitriev. While painting he was working in Kiev‑Pechersk Laura. The iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral became an example of an innovative decision of altar partitions not only in Slobozhanshchyna, but also in the whole of Ukraine. The altar partitions reflected the stylistic innovations relevant for the first half of the 18th century – a combination of Rococo and Classicism. The iconostasis of 1738 demonstrates that the spread of these styles in Slobozhanshchyna took place much earlier than in Central and Western Ukraine, and the sacred art of Slobozhanshchyna regiments had its own path of development. The iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral became the first altar partition, which broke with traditional for Ukraine and, in particular, for Slobozhanshchyna, stylistic and iconographic decisions of altar partitions. It can be considered the first altar partition, which opens a new era in the history of Ukrainian iconostasis. A new solution for iconostasis in Slobozhanshchyna was the introduction of the metric type in the construction of tiers (the rhythmic type was traditionally used before that), the elimination of the Deisus tier, which was replaced by a large-format Holiday tier. The iconostasis also shows internal influences. Thus, the Sovereign tier of the iconostasis presented images of Christ, the Birth‑Giver of God and saints, depicted in full length, which was widespread in Kyiv and had not previously been typical in Slobozhanshchyna (traditionally the Sovereign (bottom) tier of the iconostasis in Slobozhanshchyna consisted of half‑length images). A new solution of the Sovereign tier of the iconostasis was probably proposed by V. Dmitriev, who could transfer part of Kyiv icon-painting tradition to Slobozhanshchyna.

Curious Readers: The Bodleian’s Book of Curiosities as a Fatimid View of the World Through Ottoman Eyes

2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-424
Author(s):  
Boris Liebrenz
Keyword(s):  
Political Environment ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Ottoman History ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Geographical Context

Abstract An illustrated cosmographical and geographical manuscript at Oxford’s Bodleian Library, known as the Book of Curiosities, has recently seen a rare confluence of public and scholarly attention. It is widely regarded as one of the outstanding Arabic works of geography, with stylistically idiosyncratic maps and a text that can be traced back to Egypt in the Fatimid period. However, few concrete facts are known about the history of this unique artefact. This article will identify and analyse the traces left by some of its previous owners and thus unlock the Ottoman history of this Fatimid work. By placing it in a concrete temporal and geographical context, we are better able to envisage the intellectual, social, and political environment in which this book could make sense to its owners and readers.

Islamic Glass in the Making

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Schibille
Keyword(s):  
Glass Industry ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Islamic Period ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Islamic Period ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Plant Ash ◽  
Islamic Glass

The ancient glass industry changed dramatically towards the end of the first millennium. The Roman glassmaking tradition of mineral soda glass was increasingly supplanted by the use of plant ash as the main fluxing agent at the turn of the ninth century CE. Defining primary production groups of plant ash glass has been a challenge due to the high variability of raw materials and the smaller scale of production. Islamic Glass in the Making advocates a large-scale archaeometric approach to the history of Islamic glassmaking to trace the developments in the production, trade and consumption of vitreous materials between the eighth and twelfth centuries and to separate the norm from the exception. It proposes compositional discriminants to distinguish regional production groups, and provides insights into the organisation of the glass industry and commerce during the early Islamic period. The interdisciplinary approach leads to a holistic understanding of the development of Islamic glass; assemblages from the early Islamic period in Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Egypt, Greater Syria and Iberia are evaluated, and placed in the larger geopolitical context. In doing so, this book fills a gap in the present literature and advances a large-scale approach to the history of Islamic glass.

scholarly journals Dialectics or politics? Atheism and the return to religion

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Hyman
Keyword(s):  
Slavoj Zizek ◽  
Richard Dawkins ◽  
Slavoj Žižek ◽  
History Of ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Much scholarly attention has been given to the vast differences in understandings of theism throughout the history of the theological tradition. Rather less attention has been given to differences in understandings of atheism. That there are and have been such differences, however, is obvious. This may be seen in the contemporary context if we juxtapose the ‘newly visible’ atheisms of, for instance, Richard Dawkins and Slavoj Žižek. In previous work, I and several other scholars have drawn attention to the ways in which the existence of different forms of atheism may be explained by the fact that they are responding to and negating very different forms of theism. But there may well be more at stake in differences between atheisms than this.

scholarly journals Law and Theory: Pre-modern and Contemporary Development of Islamic Discourse on Rebellion

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
Tasha Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sunni Islam ◽  
Historical Discourses ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Obedience To Authority

Scholars have argued that the early theoretical and historical discourses concerning concepts of rebellion and political violence within Islam, specifically Sunni Islam, developed during a time of conflict within the early Islamic Community.  In their quest for stability and desire for the preservation of order, early Muslim jurists used key moments in the history of the early Community, as well as doctrinal sources, in order to construct a theoretical discourse addressing rebellion and obedience to authority.  Similar to the methods of the early jurists, the construction of contemporary discourses concerning obedience and rebellion have been used by modern Islamic scholars in order to confront issues involving protesting and political violence, especially as they relate to contemporary events such as socio-political movements, dissent, and notably, the Arab Uprisings. The purpose of this paper is to provide a survey of these pre-modern and contemporary discourses and how their contexts influence Islamic legal approaches.

scholarly journals Contemporary Ukrainian Art: Truth and Myths

2021 ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
Valeriy Sakharuk
Keyword(s):  
History Of ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
The Way

It is becoming ever harder to discover the truth about the events that comprise the history of contemporary Ukrainian art. What gets in the way are the evaluations, interpretations and opinions whose objectivity is cast in doubt by the biases of their authors, largely participants of the events. This article is an attempt to take an unbiased look at these events, define their context in art, and describe the details that have so far escaped the scholarly attention.

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