Sur la question des langues dans l’Islam oriental

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-41
Author(s):  
Michele Bernardini
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Intellectual Heritage

Abstract This paper deals with the theme of the coexistence of different languages in the pre-modern Islamic world. Starting from an analysis of the concept of “Islamic language” as it was singled out by Alessandro Bausani, it traces the evolution of scholarship concerning language as a historiographical subject. With the help of samples from their literary production, some authors will be examined here, moving from the anthropological dualism of Firdawsī to reach the Ottoman era, when plurilingualism proved to be most successful, both in the domain of politics and in the culture. In this sense, the twentieth-century emergence of nationalisms produced a rupture which implied radical changes, and even the loss of a whole intellectual heritage.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Margree ◽  
Daniel Orrells ◽  
Minna Vuohelainen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Popular Fiction ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Professional Authorship

The introduction to the volume sets Richard Marsh in his historical context and argues that our understanding of late-Victorian and Edwardian professional authorship remains incomplete without a consideration of Marsh’s oeuvre. The introduction discusses Marsh as an exemplary professional writer producing topical popular fiction for an expanding middlebrow market. The seeming ephemerality of his literary production meant that its value was not appreciated by twentieth-century critics who were constructing the English literary canon. Marsh’s writing, however, deserves to be reread, as its negotiation of mainstream and counter-hegemonic discourses challenges our assumptions about fin-de-siècle literary culture. His novels and short stories engaged with and contributed to contemporary debates about aesthetic and economic value and interrogated the politics of gender, sexuality, empire and criminality.

Das, Kamala (1934–2009)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navaneetha Mokkil
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Indian Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
Maternal Uncle ◽  
Fictional Worlds ◽  
Life Writings

Kamala Das, one of the best-known bilingual writers from India in the twentieth century, consistently pushed the boundaries of what could be represented in literature through her poetry in English, autobiographical writings and novellas in English and Malayalam, and a large body of short stories in Malayalam. Through the conscious deployment of the confessional voice in her poetry and life writings and the intricate entanglement of the public and the private in her fictional worlds, Das carved a space for the explorations of the affective realm and physicality in modern Indian literature. Kamala Das’s exposure to books and literary production came at an early age through her mother, Nalappat Balamaniyamma, a prolific poet, and her maternal uncle, Nalappat Narayana Menon, a prominent writer and translator.

scholarly journals Why Islam (Properly Understood) Is the Solution

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-145
Author(s):  
Nader Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This paper is a provocative play on the famous Muslim Brotherhood slogan al-Islām hūwa al-ḥāl (Islam is the solution). While critics of the Muslim Brothers rightly criticized them for the simplicity of their worldview in thinking that religion was a panacea for all of the problems confronting Muslim societies during the late twentieth century, an argument can be made that religion does profoundly matter in the context of the struggle for democracy in the Arab-Islamic world. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, democratic transitions in North Africa and the Middle East will be dependent on democratically negotiating the question of religion’s role in politics. Here I provide some reflections on this topic with a focus on Tunisia’s transition to democracy.  

scholarly journals A classification of contemporary cognitive currents in the Islamic world with specific critical reference to neo-mu'tazilism

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Seid Halilović
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Intellectual Heritage ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Theological School ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Internal Sources ◽  
Historical Heritage

One of the recent currents of thought in the contemporary Islamic world, which is becoming increasingly dominant, is developing on the margins of social and cognitive credibility of modern rationality. The basic methodological orientation that characterizes this cognitive current could reaffirm the historical memory of mu'tazilism, a classical theological school in Islam known for the fact that its representatives strongly promoted the primary importance of rational thinking. It does not matter whether we will accept to call these new Muslim thinkers NEO-mu'tazilites because of that - what will be much more important is to clearly determine their cognitive position in the overall classification of cognitive currents in the contemporary Islamic world. In fact, today we recognize four general currents of Muslim thought: (1) continuity of historical intellectual heritage, (2) mechanical promotion of modern knowledge, (3) critique of modernism from the perspective of Islamic intellectual tradition, (4) reconstruction of Islamic historical heritage from the perspective of exclusive credibility of modern knowledge. In this general cognitive classification in the contemporary conditions of the Islamic world, it will be crucial to distinguish two groups within the last current of thought, namely: (1) early Muslim reformers who were not experts in internal structures and hidden philosophical principles of modern science, (2) newer thinkers who are in no way connected with the historical heritage of Islamic classical knowledge, but under the cloak of popular religious terms reduce the key elements of the Islamic doctrinal and ontological stage in favour of the exclusive authority of the logical structures of modern rationality. These latter thinkers, who usually declare themselves as NEO-mu'tazilites, by essential reconstruction of the cultural and civilizational being of Islam, in fact discredit the social position of contemporary representatives of the classical Islamic intellectual heritage, who in the last few decades have renewed the internal sources of Islamic civilizational power in conditions of general reaffirmation of religious values. In this context, we will understand better the recent changes in the balance of global power and the models by which the modern West is reorganizing comprehensive capacities of its political, media and even academic authorities in order to consolidate in the long run new intellectual and educational structures in the contemporary Islamic world on the margins of modern rationality.

New Light on the Main Instrument of the Samarqand Observatory

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-271
Author(s):  
Georg Zotti ◽  
S. Mohammad Mozaffari
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Virtual Reconstruction ◽  
Main Instrument ◽  
New Look

The observatory of Ulugh Beg, erected in Samarqand in the 1420s, represents the culmination in the development of astronomical observatories in the Islamic world. After its rediscovery and excavation in the early twentieth century there have been several attempts to reconstruct its appearance and explain how it worked in detail, based on archaeological finds and the analysis of relevant manuscripts. A new look at illustrated copies of an important manuscript provides new, hitherto unmentioned details to the understanding of this instrument. Based on previous reports, we have created a virtual reconstruction of the observatory and the new version of the instrument, from which we have gained new insights.

Rashid Rida’s Efforts in Calling for Muslim Unity and Political Reform

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-189
Author(s):  
Nayel Musa Shaker Al Omari
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Religious Reform ◽  
Present Discussion ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Conditions

This paper is an attempt to cover some aspects of MuÍammad RashÊd RiÌÉ's role in political and religious reform during the first half of the twentieth century. It endeavours to answer enquiries regarding the degree of his involvement in political thought as well as in the vital historical transformations that the Islamic world was undergoing during that period. The writer has chosen RiÌÉ as the subject of the present discussion because he is considered one of those reformers whose call for reform and Muslim unity was envisioned within the framework of the Islamic caliphate under the guidance of the values and goals of the Holy Qur’Én. In addition, in his book ØaÍwat al-Rajul al-MarÊÌ wa al SulÏÉn ÑAbd al-×amÊd al-ThÉnÊ wa al-KhilÉfah al-IslÉmiyyah (1984), Muwaffaq BanÊ al-Marjah claimed Rida was influenced by Masoniry. This paper proves that he was not influenced by the Masonic and colonialist ideas that were widespread during that period and which were adopted by some reformers. These ideas called for abolishing and dividing the Ottoman caliphate and establishing a new one. In his discussion, the writer shall briefly address RiÌÉ’s educational and political role and his stance toward al-Azhar and the translation of the Holy Qur’Én. Brief discussion shall also be made of RiÌÉ’s role in promoting reform and unity through al-ManÉr Journal, his stance toward the removal of Sultan ÑAbd al-×amÊd, political conditions of his era and his stance toward the Ottoman authority (1898-1909) as well as his stance against the nationalists (1911-1912).

Past Non-Dependency in the Twenty-first Century

2019 ◽  
pp. 107-119
Author(s):  
Anastassia V. Obydenkova ◽  
Alexander Libman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Governance Structure ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
First Century ◽  
World War ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter aims to provide a different approach to the development of regional IOs since World War II, by singling out non-democratic tendencies in regionalism from a historical perspective. It explores differences between the functioning of DROs and NDROs over the last 70 years—from coerced organizations such as COMECON to modern alliances of autocrats. The chapter argues that the twenty-first-century NDROs (e.g. SCO) are different from those of the last half of the twentieth century (e.g. COMECON) in terms of membership composition, governance structure, and the characteristics discussed in earlier chapters. While historical NDROs were driven by ideologies such as Communism, in the main modern NDROs lack an ideological foundation (with the exception of ALBA and the Islamic world). The ideological foundation of Islamic ROs has changed—from pan-Arabism in the 1940s and 1950s to the dominance of various forms of political Islam and a focus on specific political institutions (e.g. the conservative rule of Gulf monarchies in the GCC).

Between Western Academia and Pakistan: Fazlur Rahman and the fight for fusionism

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 736-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
MEGAN BRANKLEY ABBAS
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Sharp Boundary ◽  
University Of Chicago ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Significant Figure ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
The University

AbstractIn the wake of European colonization, Muslims across the globe have wrestled with the problem of intellectual dualism, or the bifurcation of knowledge into the distinct Islamic and modern Western spheres. This article examines the career of Pakistani intellectual and University of Chicago professor, Fazlur Rahman (1919–1988), who emerged as a particularly significant figure in this debate over intellectual dualism in the latter half of the twentieth century. Arguing that academic methodologies were integral for Muslim understandings of Islam, Rahman broke down the dichotomy between Western and Islamic knowledge in favour of a merging of the two, an approach I term ‘fusionism’. He propagated this fusionist vision, with mixed success, in his native Pakistan and across the Islamic world. In his position as a respected professor at the University of Chicago, Rahman furthermore re-imagined and utilized the Western university as a valuable space for modern Islamic thought, thereby challenging any sharp boundary between the two discourses and their respective institutions.

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