Jihad as an Individual Duty (farḍ al-ʻayn) in the Ideology of Circassian Sultans (1382–1517)

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-365
Author(s):  
Evgeny I. Zelenev ◽  
Milana Iliushina
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
History Of Development ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mamluk Period ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Key Aspects

This article is devoted to the study of the development of the theory and practice of jihad during the rule of the Circassian sultans in Egypt and Syria (1382–1517). The purpose of the study is to trace the development of key aspects of jihad, to identify features of its perception in the Mamluk state. An essential feature of the theory of jihad in the Mamluk period is the interpretation of jihad as farḍ al-ʿayn (the individual duty of every Muslim). While studying the theory of jihad, the authors rely on a holistic and balanced approach justified in the papers of M. Bonner and D. Cook and their interpretation of the concept of jihad, which has a centuries-old history of development and a sophisticated, multi-layered set of meanings. Another methodological basis of the present paper was the concept of minimalism and maximalism, developed by Yusef Waghid. The source base for the study of jihad theory is the works of Ibn al-Nahhas (d. 1411), a prominent philosopher of the Mamluk era. The interpretation of jihad as an individual duty of every Muslim, substantiated by Ibn al-Nahhas, was the foundation of the volunteer movement that developed in Egypt and Syria in the 15th century. The doctrine of jihad where the concepts of justice (al-‘adl) and truth (al-ḥaqq) play a key role, was used by the Mamluks and then by the Ottomans as a powerful ideological tool to manipulate the minds of Muslims. The relevance of the study is that the findings are not only true for the Middle Ages but are directly related to the present.

scholarly journals Jihad in the Circassian Sultanate (1382–1517): The Phenomenon of Volunteering in the Context of the Mamluk-Ottoman Confrontation

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71
Author(s):  
Evgeny I. Zelenev ◽  
◽  
Milana Yu. Iliushina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Mamluk Period ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Critical Consideration

This article examines the development of the theory and practice of jihad under the Circassian Sultanate in Egypt and Syria (1382–1517). The article aims to trace the development of the key aspects of the concept of jihad and reveal the peculiarities of its perception in the Mamluk state. The article highlights an essential characteristic of the theory of jihad in the Mamluk period, i.e. the interpretation of jihad as farḍ al-‘ayn (the personal duty of every Muslim). A fertile ground for this paper was given by studies of M. Bonner and D. Cook, who supplemented a balanced approach to the interpretation of jihad from a historical perspective with a critical consideration of its religious and political meanings. The authors emphasise the importance of the difference between the understanding of jihad as a collective and individual obligation using the concept of minimalism and maximalism developed by Y. Waghid. The paper is based on works by Ibn al-Nahhas (d. 1411), an outstanding thinker of the Mamluk era. The interpretation of jihad as a personal responsibility of every Muslim substantiated by Ibn al-Nahhas was the basis of the volunteer movement that unfolded in Egypt and Syria in the fifteenth century. The doctrine of jihad concentrated around the most important Islamic values embodied in the concepts of “justice” (al-‘adl) and “truth” (al-ḥaqq) and was initially used by the Mamluks and subsequently by the Ottomans as a powerful ideological tool for manipulating the Muslims’ consciousness. This paper is relevant because the conclusions of the study are valid not only for the Middle Ages but are directly related to the present. The authors of the article emphasise this by drawing parallels with modern events in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

scholarly journals Artistic Genius versus the Hanse Canon from the Late Middle Ages to the Early Modern Age in Tallinn

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 59-80
Author(s):  
Juhan Maiste
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Working Together ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Veil ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

In the article, the author examines one of the most outstanding andproblematic periods in the art history of Tallinn as a Hanseatic city,which originated, on the one hand, in the Hanseatic tradition andthe medieval approach to Gothic transcendental realism, and onthe other, in the approach typical of the new art cities of Flanders,i.e. to see a reflection of the new illusory reality in the pictures. Acloser examination is made of two works of art imported to Tallinnin the late 15th century, i.e. the high altar in the Church of the HolySpirit by Bernt Notke and the altarpiece of Holy Mary, whichwas originally commissioned by the Brotherhood of Blackheadsfor the Dominican Monastery and is now in St Nicholas’ Church.Despite the differences in the iconography and style of the twoworks, their links to tradition and artistic geography, which in thisarticle are conditionally defined as the Hanse canon, are apparentin both of them.The methods and rules for classifying the transition from theMiddle Ages to the Modern Era were not critical nor exclusive.Rather they included a wide range of phenomena on the outskirtsof the major art centres starting from the clients and ending with the semantic significance of the picture, and the attributes that wereemployed to the individual experiences of the different masters,who were working together in the large workshops of Lübeck, andsomewhat later, in Bruges and Brussels.When ‘reading’ the Blackheads’ altar, a question arises of threedifferent styles, all of them were united by tradition and the waythat altars were produced in the large workshops for the extensiveart market that stretched from one end of the continent to the other,and even further from Lima to Narva. Under the supervision ofthe leading master and entrepreneur (Hans Memling?) two othermasters were working side by side in Bruges – Michel Sittow, whowas born in Tallinn, and the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucywere responsible for executing the task.In this article, the author has highlighted new points of reference,which on the one hand explain the complex issues of attributionof the Tallinn Blackheads’ altar, and on the other hand, placethe greatest opus in the Baltics in a broader context, where, inaddition to aesthetic ambitions, both the client and the workshopthat completed the order, played an extensive role. In this way,identifying a specific artist from among the others would usuallyremain a matter of discussion. Tallinn was a port and a wealthycommercial city at the foregates of the East where it took decadesfor the spirit of the Renaissance to penetrate and be assimilated.Instead of an unobstructed view we are offered uncertain andoften mixed values based on what we perceive through the veil ofsemantic research.

Married Life in the Middle Ages, 900-1300

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth van Houts
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Married Couple ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Married Life ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

This book contains an analysis of the experience of married life by men and women in Christian medieval Europe c. 900–1300. The focus will be on the social and emotional life of the married couple rather than on the institutional history of marriage. The book consists of three parts: the first part (Getting Married) is devoted to the process of getting married and wedding celebrations, the second part (Married Life) discusses the married life of lay couples and clergy, their sexuality, and any remarriage, while the third part (Alternative Living) explores concubinage and polygyny as well as the single life in contrast to monogamous sexual unions. Four main themes are central to the book. First, the tension between patriarchal family strategies and the individual family member’s freedom of choice to marry and, if so, to what partner; second, the role played by the married priesthood in their quest to have individual agency and self-determination accepted in their own lives in the face of the growing imposition of clerical celibacy; third, the role played by women in helping society accept some degree of gender equality and self-determination to marry and in shaping the norms for married life incorporating these principles; fourth, the role played by emotion in the establishment of marriage and in married life at a time when sexual and spiritual love feature prominently in medieval literature.

The Oxford Handbook of Quintilian

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Visual And Performing Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of

M. Fabius Quintilianus was a prominent orator, declaimer, and teacher of eloquence in the first century ce. After his retirement he wrote the Institutio oratoria, a unique treatise in Antiquity because it is a handbook of rhetoric and an educational treatise in one. Quintilian’s fame and influence are not only based on the Institutio, but also on the two collections of Declamations which were attributed to him in late Antiquity. The Oxford Handbook of Quintilian aims to present Quintilian’s Institutio as a key treatise in the history of Graeco-Roman rhetoric and its influence on the theory and practice of rhetoric and education, from late Antiquity until the present day. It contains chapters on Quintilian’s educational programme, his concepts and classifications of rhetoric, his discussion of the five canons of rhetoric, his style, his views on literary criticism, declamation, and the relationship between rhetoric and law, and the importance of the visual and performing arts in his work. His huge legacy is presented in successive chapters devoted to Quintilian in late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, Northern Europe during the Renaissance, Europe from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century, and the United States of America. There are also chapters devoted to the biographical tradition, the history of printed editions, and modern assessments of Quintilian. The twenty-one authors of the chapters represent a wide range of expertise and scholarly traditions and thus offer a unique mixture of current approaches to Quintilian from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The Politics of Debt and Europe's Relations with the 'South'

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
The South ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Past Injustice ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Individual ◽  
North And South

While debt has the capacity to sustain social relations by joining together the two parties of a debt relation, it also contains the risk of deteriorating into domination and bargaining. Throughout history, different understandings of debt have therefore gravitated between reciprocity and domination, making it a key concept for understanding the dynamics of both social cohesion and fragmentation. The book considers the social, spatial and temporal meanings of this ambiguity and relates them to contemporary debates over debts between North and South in Europe, which in turn are embedded in a longer global history of North-South relations. The individual chapters discuss how debts incurred in the past are mobilised in political debates in the present. This dynamic is highlighted with regard to regional and global North-South relations. An essential feature in debates on this topic is the difficult question of retribution and possible ways of “paying” – a term that is etymologically connected to “pacification” – for past injustice. Against this backdrop, the book combines a discussion of the multi-layered European and global North-South divide with an effort to retrieve alternatives to the dominant and divisive uses of debt for staking out claims against someone or something. Discovering new and forgotten ways of thinking about debt and North-South relations, the chapters are divided into four sections that focus on 1) debt and social theory, 2) Greece and Germany as Europe’s South and North, 3) the ‘South’ between the local, the regional and the global, and 4) debt and the politics of history.

scholarly journals Poeci polscy doby humanizmu wobec Rzymu / Polish Poets of the Age of Humanism and Rome

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 631-651
Author(s):  
Alina Nowicka-Jeżowa
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Holy See ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Model ◽  
Successive Generations

Summary Based on earlier research, and especially Tadeusz Ulewicz’s landmark study Iter Romano- -Italicum Polonorum, or the Intellectual and Cultural Links between Poland and Italy in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (1999) this article examines the influence of Rome - in its role as the Holy See and a centre of learning and the arts - on Poland’s culture in the 15th and 16th century as well as on the activities of Polish churchmen, scholars and writers who came to the Eternal City. The aim of the article is to trace the role of the emerging Humanist themes and attitudes on the shape of the cultural exchange in question. It appears that the Roman connection was a major factor in the history of Polish Humanism - its inner development, its transformations, and the ideological and artistic choices made by the successive generations of the Polish elite. In the 15th century the Roman inspirations helped to initiate the Humanist impulse in Poland, while in the 16th century they stimulated greater diversity and a search for one’s own way of development. In the post-Tridentine epoch they became a potent element of the Poland’s new cultural formation. Against the background of these generalizations, the article presents the cultural profiles of four poets, Mikołaj of Hussów, Klemens Janicjusz, Jan Kochanowski, and Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński. They symbolize the four phases of the Polish Humanist tradition, which draw their distinctive identities from looking up to the Roman model

II. Benefice and Vassalage in the Age of Charlemagne

1939 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. L. Ganshof
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Essential Feature ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Private Institutions ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Gift ◽  
History Of ◽  
Preceding Period ◽  
The Subject

A Number of important studies have been published in recent years on the subject of benefice and vassalage during the early Middle Ages, and it may consequently be worth while to re-examine some of the problems raised by the origin and early development of these two institutions. I have dealt elsewhere with, the circumstances which tended towards their union early in the eighth, century, under the early Carolingians, In this article I hope to indicate at least the principal features of the history of benefice and vassalage during the reign of Charlemagne. The Influence which Charles exercised on the public and private institutions of the Frankish state was so definite and far-reaching as fully to justify the limitation of the subject-matter of my inquiry to the space of a single reign. Unfortunately the lack of adequate sources, though less serious than for the preceding period, renders the task of tracing their history a somewhat difficult one. Although the capitularies contain a relatively large number of provisions that deal specifically with these institutions, we have very little information as to how they worked in practice. The narrative sources, with the exception of two or three texts, tell us little or nothing. We have to fall back on the evidence of charters, though even these only rarely, when dealing with a dispute or legal proceeding, throw some light on the subject. This is what we might in any case expect, for the essential feature of the entry of a person into vassalage or of the gift of a benefice was the oral act, and not any embodiment of it in writing.

scholarly journals Historical Course of Neuropsychiatric Effects of Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis L.) as a Medicinal Herb

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javid Ghazizadeh ◽  
Reza Mohammadinasab ◽  
Nikolaj Travica ◽  
Saeed Sadigh-Eteghad ◽  
Mohammadali Torbati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ischemic Stroke ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Disorders ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Melissa Officinalis ◽  
Lemon Balm ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
History Of

Abstract Affective disorders have become prevalent and costly worldwide chronic conditions. Lemon Balm (Melissa Officinalis L.) is a medicinal plant with beneficial effects on neuropsychiatric disorders. Its potential to specifically treat conditions such as depression and anxiety has been investigated for over 20 centuries. Given the lack of a historical overview of lemon balm in mood disorders, the present review aimed to introduce the historical course of the neuro-psychiatric applications of lemon balm across the centuries. We investigated several viable medieval Arabic sources up to the 15th century, to distinguish the neuropsychiatric applications, especially anxiolytic and anti-depressive effects of lemon balm. In the early centuries, lemon balm was mainly prescribed to treat gastrointestinal disorders. Over time, physicians identified the efficient use of lemon balm in sadness, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, ischemic stroke, amnesia, sciatalgia, and radicular neuropathy. Importantly, it was established that the therapeutic effects of lemon balm in the field of neuro-psychiatric diseases were emphasized by physicians during the Middle Ages. These findings have since been validated in human clinical trials. Lemon balm has also demonstrated the ability to be utilized in epilepsy, amnesia and ischemic stroke. Based on the extensive history of lemon balm in neuropsychiatry, future investigations could use this knowledge to extensively investigate the potential of lemon balm in neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, and possibly develop an efficient neuropsychiatric remedy.

scholarly journals The Village of Suzdal Opolye and Changes in the System Resettlement in the Second Half of the 14th – 15th Centuries

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (36) ◽  
pp. 148-163
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Shpolyanskiy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Land Ownership ◽  
General Picture ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Small Plot ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article substantiates the localization of the medieval village of Yasenye in the Suzdal Opolye, mentioned in sources under 1417, which was previously identified with the village of Torki of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery. Yasenye existed on the watershed, near the spring of the same name in the second half of the 12th – first half of the 15th centuries. The reason for the disappearance of the village and another large settlement synchronized to it, is the expansion of monastic possessions in the microregion. This is confirmed by documents of the 16th–17th centuries, which record the continuation of disputes over the land near the spring, which is claimed by the monastery and the peasants of the surrounding villages. A small plot of the history of Opolye is well combined with the general picture of the decrease in the number of villages in the region in the 15th century, obtained as a result of the work of the Suzdal expedition (leader N. A. Makarov). This allows us to consider the development of monastic land ownership as a significant factor in the transformation of settlement systems in Opolye at the end of the Middle Ages.

scholarly journals Evolution of Views on the Value of Scientific Knowledge in Western Philosophy

Discourse ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 28-41
Author(s):  
L. A. Pafomova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Self Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
Religious Understanding

Introduction. Evolution of views on the value of scientific knowledge in various directions of Western philosophy, from the ancient period to the 20th century is analyzed in the article. The relevance of the article is due to the fact that the view of scientific knowledge as the value of scientific reality is a fairly new phenomenon.Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of the work is the cultural and philosophical analysis of various points of view in the works of both ancient philosophers, philosophers of the Renaissance and the New times (Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, F. Aquinas, Leonard da Vinci, F. Bacon, Locke, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza), as well as in the works of O. Comte, Spencer, Mach, Poincare, Pierce, James, Dewey, Jaspers, B. Russell, etc. (i.e. representatives of positivism, existentialism, neo-Thomism).Results and discussion. Today two directions could be distinguished in the relation to science: either its absolutization, that we name scientism, or the cult of an abstract person opposed to science – anthropologism. This is a consequence of the changes in the views on scientific knowledge that have taken place throughout the history of science. Thus, in the ancient period, the value of science was determined, firstly, not in relation to the practical activity of a human being, but only in relation to science to knowledge and cognition, and secondly, as a way of self-development of the individual. In the Middle Ages, science was the “handmaid” of theology. In the Renaissance science faced new challenges: the first was an anti-religious understanding of the essence of a person, the second was the justification of the role of scientific knowledge both for practice and for the worldview as a whole. It was on this understanding of the meaning of scientific knowledge that the concepts of the philosophers of the XVII–XVIII centuries were built, and they dominated until the middle of the XIX century. From this period, a one-sided approach begins to dominate – the ideological role of the value of science was denied and only its pragmatic value is taken. Along with this, there is also a critical attitude towards science, which then develops into anti-scientism. Today, a pessimistic approach (postmodernism, for example) the approach to the consideration of the value of scientific knowledge is characteristic of modern philosophical trends that deny not only the value of scientific knowledge, but also deny knowledge itself.Conclusion. The evaluation of scientific knowledge in Western philosophy has undergone significant changes. If in classical philosophy, with a few exceptions, the recognition of the comprehensive value of science prevailed, i.e. its ideological, humanistic and practical value, then in the future all these three main aspects of the value of scientific knowledge are analyzed. In the extreme forms, this leads to the emergence of antiscientism, for which it is the development of scientific knowledge is perceived as a source of human misery and suffering.

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