Christian Martyrs under Islam

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian C. Sahner
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
Islamic Empire ◽  
To Come ◽  
Early Islamic

How did the medieval Middle East transform from a majority-Christian world to a majority-Muslim world, and what role did violence play in this process? This book explains how Christians across the early Islamic caliphate slowly converted to the faith of the Arab conquerors and how small groups of individuals rejected this faith through dramatic acts of resistance, including apostasy and blasphemy. Using previously untapped sources in a range of Middle Eastern languages, the book introduces an unknown group of martyrs who were executed at the hands of Muslim officials between the seventh and ninth centuries CE. Found in places as diverse as Syria, Spain, Egypt, and Armenia, they include an alleged descendant of Muhammad who converted to Christianity; high-ranking Christian secretaries of the Muslim state who viciously insulted the Prophet; and the children of mixed marriages between Muslims and Christians. The book argues that Christians never experienced systematic persecution under the early caliphs, and indeed, they remained the largest portion of the population in the greater Middle East for centuries after the Arab conquest. Still, episodes of ferocious violence contributed to the spread of Islam within Christian societies, and memories of this bloodshed played a key role in shaping Christian identity in the new Islamic empire. The book examines how violence against Christians ended the age of porous religious boundaries and laid the foundations for more antagonistic Muslim–Christian relations in the centuries to come.

scholarly journals The 2011 Egyptian Revolution and Islamists in Egypt and Malaysia

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 160-168
Author(s):  
Afif Pasuni
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Egyptian Revolution ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The Difference ◽  
To Come

The opposition Islamist PAS (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or Pan Malaysian Islamic Party) is one of the oldest political parties in Malaysia. Inspired by Egypt’s Ikhwan al-Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood [MB]), PAS is also influenced by occurrences in the Middle East; following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, its leaders revamped their organizational structure to entrust key decisions to religious scholars. The ramifications of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, arguably one of the most significant Middle Eastern political events in recent times, thus deserves a closer look. This short article attempts to look at this revolution’s possible impact on Islamists in Malaysia. I argue that Malaysia had already undergone its own version of a revolution in the 1998 reformasi (reformation) due to the shared characteristics between the two events: both (1) shared the same premise of alleged political injustice; (2) provided opportunities for Islamists to influence the political discourse, with the difference that in Egypt there was a political vacuum; and (3) utilized the Internet heavily to rally the masses. However, due to Malaysia’s freer democratic and electoral processes, political changes there will not be as abrupt as in Egypt. Furthermore, both Egypt’s revolution and Malaysia’s reformasi have hardly ended; the former is a tumultuous ongoing process of battling for the legitimacy of rule by appealing to the masses, while the latter is an ongoing process of appealing to voters in order to come to rule.

scholarly journals The Syrian Refugee Crisis and the Role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

2019 ◽  
pp. 697-706
Author(s):  
Zahid Shahab Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Syrian Refugee ◽  
Continuous Support ◽  
Syrian Refugee Crisis ◽  
The Arab Spring

Following the Arab Spring, the Middle East is in chaos with ongoing wars in Yemen and Syria. There are millions of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon, and in European countries like Greece, Hungary, and Germany. Nonetheless, the largest proportion of Syrian refugees in hosted by neighboring countries needing continuous support of the international community. As the issue of Syrian refugees is transnational, there is a need to look for multilateral options for dealing with the crisis. Thus, the role of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) becomes crucial. Irrespective of being labelled as a ‘talk fest', there is no denying of the fact that OIC has significant potential for tackling grave challenges facing the Muslim world. The problems range from extremism and radicalization to poverty and illiteracy. Now there is the emergent challenge of refugees from the Middle Eastern crisis. This paper evaluates the role of OIC with reference to the Syrian refugee crisis in the Middle East and beyond.

scholarly journals Boletín Malala, Universidad de São Paulo: desafíos, resistencias y espacio en Brasil para debates sobre el Islam y el mundo musulmán

Malala ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Ariel Finguerut ◽  
Cila Lima
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
First Year ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Initial Results

A criação de uma publicação para o Grupo de Trabalho Oriente Médio e Mundo Muçulmano (GT-OMMM), em 2013, coordenada pelo professor Peter Robert Demant, ocorreu apenas quatro anos após a fundação do GT, vinculado ao Laboratório de Estudos da Ásia (LEA), no departamento de História da Universidade de São Paulo. O boletim Malala, a começar pela proposta do seu nome suscitou uma série de reflexões sobre disputas político-acadêmicas e questões metodológicas. A experiência com o Boletim tem nos levado a alguns questionamentos: quem estuda Oriente Médio e mundo muçulmano no Brasil, como são e o que se espera desses estudos. A proposta deste paper é abordar a implantação, os primeiros resultados e as percepções que o Boletim recebeu durante este um ano de vida, pontuando a recepção da comunidade acadêmica e as perspectivas que se abrem para se pensar a metodologia para os estudos sobre Oriente Médio e mundo muçulmano no Brasil. Abstract:The creation of a publication for the Working Group Middle East and the Muslim World (GT-OMMM) in 2013, coordinated by Professor Peter Robert Demant, occurred just four years after the foundation of the GT, linked to the Laboratory for the Study of Asia (LEA) in the Department of History, University of São Paulo. The Malala Eletronic Bulletin, starting with the proposal of it is name creates a series of reflections and political and academic disputes and on methodological issues. The experience with the Bulletin has led us to some questions: who studies Middle Eastern and Muslim world in Brazil and what is expected on these studies and work. The purpose of this paper is to address the deployment, to discuss the initial results and the perceptions that the Bulletin received during this first year of existence ,In this paper we will also discuss the methodology for the study of Middle Eastern and Muslim world in Brazil.

scholarly journals Defining Islamic accounting: current issues, past roots

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 121-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Napier
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Actual Practice ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Islamic Banks ◽  
The World ◽  
Insight Into

The emergence of Islamic banks and other financial institutions since the 1970s has stimulated a modern literature that has identified itself as addressing “Islamic accounting”. Much of this literature is prescriptive, though studies of actual practice, and of attitudes to proposed alternatives, are beginning to emerge. Historical research into Islamic accounting is still in a process of development, with a range of studies based on both primary archives and manuals of accounting providing growing insight into accounting in state and private contexts in the Middle East. Other parts of the Muslim world are also the focus of historical accounting research. There is still much to discover, however, before historians can determine the influence of Middle Eastern accounting ideas and practices in other parts of the world. Moreover, the term “Islamic accounting” may simply be a convenient label to group together quite disparate accounting practices and ideas across time and space.

SPECIAL ISSUE INTRODUCTION

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Singer
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
General Theme ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Common Field

Almost two decades ago, Michael Bonner, Mine Ener, and I organized the first in a series of MESA panels on the general theme of poverty and charity in Middle Eastern contexts. We came to the topic using different chronologies, sources, and approaches but identified a common field of interest in shared questions about how attitudes toward benevolence and poverty affected state and society formation: in early Islamic thought, in the Ottoman Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries, and in khedival Egypt. At that time, we could confidently state that there was very little work in the broad field of Middle East and Islamic studies that focused explicitly on the study of charity and poverty.

scholarly journals Sharī‘a Scripts

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-109
Author(s):  
Andre Gingrich
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Textual Scholarship ◽  
Present Volume ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
To Come

While the Yemen seems to be stumbling from one disaster into the next, it is good to see how some of the best experts in Yemeni studies continue their work in ways that will be useful in the country’s future. The present volume is not only bound to become recognized soon as the magnum opus by Brinkley Messick, professor of  anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies at Columbia University and one of the world’s leading experts in Yemeni studies today. More importantly still, Sharī‘a Scripts features all the qualities required for a true academic milestone in Yemen-related scholarship for decades to come, with potential ramifications for the historical and legal anthropology of the Middle East at large. This volume is based on half a lifetime of analytical and comparative studies that began during the author’s first fieldwork period in the central and southern highlands of northern Yemen during the 1970s. Messick meticulously examines the structures of jurisprudence (the “library” in his terms) with the methodologies and techniques of textual scholarship, while relating it to the “archive” of records concerning everyday interactions in legal life as embedded within the practical interplay of fields between orality and scriptural statements. To download full review, click on PDF.

scholarly journals Sharī‘a Scripts: A Historical Anthropology

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-109
Author(s):  
Andre Gingrich
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Comparative Studies ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Historical Anthropology ◽  
Present Volume ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
To Come

While the Yemen seems to be stumbling from one disaster into the next, it is good to see how some of the best experts in Yemeni studies continue their work in ways that will be useful in the country’s future. The present volume is not only bound to become recognized soon as the magnum opus by Brinkley Messick, professor of  anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies at Columbia University and one of the world’s leading experts in Yemeni studies today. More importantly still, Sharī‘a Scripts features all the qualities required for a true academic milestone in Yemen-related scholarship for decades to come, with potential ramifications for the historical and legal anthropology of the Middle East at large. This volume is based on half a lifetime of analytical and comparative studies that began during the author’s first fieldwork period in the central and southern highlands of northern Yemen during the 1970s. Messick meticulously examines the structures of jurisprudence (the “library” in his terms) with the methodologies and techniques of textual scholarship, while relating it to the “archive” of records concerning everyday interactions in legal life as embedded within the practical interplay of fields between orality and scriptural statements. To download full review, click on PDF.

scholarly journals Editorial

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. i-vi
Author(s):  
Malik Mufti ◽  
Katherine Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Opinion Poll ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The Face ◽  
Election Results ◽  
To Come

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Muslim world is undergoing a political upheaval of historic proportions. The Arab Spring is one of the most recent and dramatic manifestations, with millions of men and women across the Arab world taking to the streets – often in the face of brutal repression ‒ to demand the reform or overthrow of their authoritarian governments.Their bravery has already led to the ouster of four dictators – in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen – and the process is still far from over. But this uprising is only part of a much broader phenomenon, as a reviewof just the past five years demonstrates. In late 2008, largely free and fairelections ended two years of military-backed emergency rule in Bangladesh,and put the country back on a democratic track. In 2009, similarelections in Indonesia consolidated the democratic regime that had beenin place there for just over a decade. That same year in Iran, by contrast, national elections, which were widely viewed as having been rigged, ledto the so-called “Green Revolution” – the biggest prodemocratic uprisingagainst the authoritarian regime there since the revolution of 1979. In2010, Iraq held its second, and far more representative, elections since theoverthrow of the Ba’athist regime. In 2011, national elections in Turkey that returned the AK Party to power with its largest electoral victory yet, coupled with ongoing judicial investigations into subversive activities byhard-line authoritarian elements, marked a decisive turning point in Turkey’s democratic evolution. In 2012, the willingness of Senegal’s president to step down peacefully after losing an election there seemed to confirm thevictory of democracy in that country as well.As the suppression of Iran’s Green Revolution, the 2012 military coupthat interrupted Mali’s democratic experiment, and the ongoing violencein several of the other transitioning polities, indicate the process is neithersmooth nor unidirectional. Several aspects of the current upheaval, however, are already clear. First and foremost, the political mobilization of theMuslim masses – the eruption of “people power” – is now an irreversiblereality for the foreseeable future, so that only regimes that are genuinelyrepresentative and accountable can hope to enjoy any legitimacy in thefuture. Second, as public opinion poll after poll has demonstrated, democracyhas become a hegemonic concept throughout the Muslim world aswell ‒ meaning that effective governance and opposition will need to take place within its institutional and normative parameters. Third, as Table 1shows, judging by the most recent election results, in most of the Middle Eastern states at least, political parties rooted in an Islamist background are likely to garner the lion’s share of electoral support for some time to come ...

Freedom and Security

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Graham E. Fuller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
American Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Litmus Test

The DebateQuestion 1: Various commentators have frequently invoked the importance of moderate Muslims and the role that they can play in fighting extremism in the Muslim world. But it is not clear who is a moderate Muslim. The recent cancellation of Tariq Ramadan’s visa to the United States, the raids on several American Muslim organizations, and the near marginalization of mainstream American Muslims in North America pose the following question: If moderate Muslims are critical to an American victory in the war on terror, then why does the American government frequently take steps that undermine moderate Muslims? Perhaps there is a lack of clarity about who the moderate Muslims are. In your view, who are these moderate Muslims and what are their beliefs and politics? GEF: Who is a moderate Muslim? That depends on whom you ask and what that person’s (or government’s) agenda is. Moderate is also a quite relative term, understood differently by different people. For our purposes here, let’s examine two basically different approaches to this question: an American view and a Middle Eastern view of what characterizes a moderate Muslim. Most non-Muslims would probably define a moderate Muslim as anyone who believes in democracy, tolerance, a non-violent approach to politics, and equitable treatment of women at the legal and social levels. Today, the American government functionally adds several more criteria: Amoderate Muslim is one who does not oppose the country’s strategic and geopolitical ambitions in the world, who accepts American interests and preferences within the world order, who believes that Islam has no role in politics, and who avoids any confrontation – even political – with Israel. There are deep internal contradictions and warring priorities within the American approach to the Muslim world. While democratization and “freedom” is the Bush administration’s self-proclaimed global ideological goal, the reality is that American demands for security and the war against terror take priority over the democratization agenda every time. Democratization becomes a punishment visited upon American enemies rather than a gift bestowed upon friends. Friendly tyrants take priority over those less cooperative moderate and democratic Muslims who do not acquiesce to the American agenda in the Muslim world. Within the United States itself, the immense domestic power of hardline pro-Likud lobbies and the Israel-firsters set the agenda on virtually all discourse concerning the Muslim world and Israel. This group has generally succeeded in excluding from the public dialogue most Muslim (or even non-Muslim) voices that are at all critical of Israel’s policies. This de facto litmus test raises dramatically the threshold for those who might represent an acceptable moderate Muslim interlocutor. The reality is that there is hardly a single prominent figure in the Muslim world who has not at some point voiced anger at Israeli policies against the Palestinians and who has not expressed ambivalence toward armed resistance against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. Thus, few Muslim leaders enjoying public legitimacy in the Muslim world can meet this criterion these days in order to gain entry to the United States to participate in policy discussions. In short, moderate Muslimis subject to an unrealistic litmus test regarding views on Israel that functionally excludes the great majority of serious voices representative of genuine Muslim thinkers in the Middle East who are potential interlocutors. There is no reason to believe that this political framework will change in the United States anytime soon. In my view, a moderate Muslim is one who is open to the idea of evolutionary change through history in the understanding and practice of Islam, one who shuns literalism and selectivism in the understanding of sacred texts. Amoderate would reject the idea that any one group or individual has a monopoly on defining Islam and would seek to emphasize common ground with other faiths, rather than accentuate the differences. Amoderate would try to seek within Islam the roots of those political and social values that are broadly consonant with most of the general values of the rest of the contemporary world. A moderate Muslim would not reject the validity of other faiths. Against the realities of the contemporary Middle East, a moderate Muslim would broadly eschew violence as a means of settling political issues, but still might not condemn all aspects of political violence against state authorities who occupy Muslim lands by force – such as Russia in Chechnya, the Israeli state in the Palestine, or even American occupation forces in Iraq. Yet even here, in principle, a moderate must reject attacks against civilians, women, and children in any struggle for national liberation. Moderates would be open to cooperation with the West and the United States, but not at the expense of their own independence and sovereignty. 

The roots of provenance: glass, plants and isotopes in the Islamic Middle East

Antiquity ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (320) ◽  
pp. 414-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Henderson ◽  
J. Evans ◽  
Y. Barkoudah
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Isotope Ratios ◽  
Environmental Context ◽  
Chemical Compositions ◽  
Islamic Empire ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Plant Ash

AbstractGlass – one of the most prestigious materials of the early Islamic empire – was traded not only as vessels and bangles but as raw glass blocks. One of its raw materials, plant-ash, was also traded. This means that tracking the production of this precious commodity is especially challenging. The authors show that while chemical composition can relate to vessel type, it is a combination of chemical compositions with strontium and neodymium isotope ratios that is most likely to lead to (a geological) provenance for its manufacture. The materials used by the glassmakers were local sand and plant ashes. Reported here is the first application of the method to the glass made at the primary glass making centre of al-Raqqa, Syria in an environmental context.

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