scholarly journals Legitimacy and Authority in Medieval Islamic Historiography

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Burhan bin Che Daud
Keyword(s):  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Common Term ◽  
Islamic Historiography ◽  
Legitimate State

Usurpation is a common term used by Western historians to describe the illegitimate change of political supremacy inthe context of medieval Muslim states. The taking over of any state without authority is considered an illegal occupationof a legitimate state and its leader is considered illegitimate or usurper. This paper attempts to shed some lights on thenotion of political legitimacy and authority in Islamic tradition and its application in the context of medieval Syria,particularly during the Zengid dynasty. This period experienced the coming of the second crusade to the East with therevitalization of the spirit of jihad was on its way among the Syrian Muslims. This paper argues that the Zengid dynastywas trying to uphold the institution of the caliphate through recognizing the spiritual leadership of the ‘Abbasid caliphof Baghdad as well as acquiring political legitimacy to administer their subject on behalf of the caliph and the Seljuqsultan. Through adherence to the Sunni tradition of political legitimacy, Zengi (d. 541/1146) and Nur al-Din (d.569/1174) succeeded in promoting Sunnism by means of Muslim unity and jihad enterprise. As a result, after theannexation of Egypt from the Fatimid caliphate in 565/1171, Muslims in Syria and Egypt were unified under the bannerof Sunnism with Nur al-Din as their new legitimate ruler

Political Legitimacy and the Duty to Obey the Law

2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Durning
Keyword(s):  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Other ◽  
Joseph Raz ◽  
David Copp ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legitimate State ◽  
Sense Of Urgency

A growing number of political and legal theorists deny that there is a widespread duty to obey the law. This has lent a sense of urgency to recent disagreements about whether a state's legitimacy depends upon its ‘subjects’’ having a duty to obey the law. On one side of the disagreement, John Simmons, Robert Paul Wolff, David Copp, Hannah Pitkin, Leslie Green, George Klosko, and Joseph Raz hold that a state could only be legitimate if the vast majority of its subjects have a duty to obey the law. On the other side, M.B.E. Smith, Jeffrey Reiman, Kent Greenawalt, Christopher Morris, Rolf Sartorius, Jeremy Waldron, Christopher Wellman, William Edmundson and Allen Buchanan claim that a state could be legitimate even if its subjects lacked a duty to obey the law.This disagreement contains two separate disputes. One is a linguistic dispute about the meaning of ‘legitimacy,’ or about what it means to call something a ‘legitimate state.’ The other is a Substantive dispute about whether the various aspects of legitimacy are linked together. Since discussing the linguistic dispute will help us examine the Substantive dispute, let us consider it first.

scholarly journals Deen (Faith) and Donya (the Secular): Al-Ghazālī’s the “Alchemy of Happiness”

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-39
Author(s):  
Ali Mirsepassi ◽  
Tadd Graham Fernée
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Political Survival ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Rational Thought ◽  
Universal Truth ◽  
Popular Images

The 11th -12th century Abbasid philosopher al-Ghazālī is the center of controversy today in Western societies seeking to understand Islamic radicalism. The article initially examines the al-Ghazālī debate, split between popular images of al-Ghazālī as a fanatical enemy of rational thought, and scholarly depictions of a forerunner of postmodernism. After analyzing a principle example of the latter tendency, centered on the Persian term dihlīz, the article undertakes a sociological investigation of al-Ghazālī’s Alchemy of Happiness within the historic context of the Abbasid crisis of political legitimacy. The troubled historic vista of Abbasid politics, the unique role of al-Ghazālī as representative of ideological power, and the crucial influence of the intercontinental Sufi revolution, are discussed. The analysis focuses on al-Ghazālī’s central concepts of deen (faith) and donya (the secular), that he employed to stabilize and guarantee the continued political success of the multi-civilizational Abbasid state. Spurning the dogma of unified identity, al-Ghazālī recognized the civilizational pluralism underpinning Abbasid political survival. Reconciling multiplicity and unity, al-Ghazālī labored to integrate Islamic and non-Islamic intellectual traditions. Three elements are investigated: (1) Investing epistemology with social significance, al-Ghazālī opposed orthodox conformism; (2) Denouncing ignorance, the passions, and intellectual confusion, al-Ghazālī promoted the dialogic principle – not dogma - as the unique public guarantee of the universal truth; (3) This universal truth had an exclusively secular, not religious, dimension, based on the deen/donya distinction, separating universal secular truth from religious identity. An intellectual exploration of the secular dilemma, of corresponding imaginative magnitude, hardly existed in Western societies at the time. This casts doubt on the current academic enthusiasm for representing traditional Islam in the mirror image of French post-structuralism, and the false depiction of al-Ghazālī as the dogmatic enemy of reason. It opens an entire terrain of possible research that is barely tapped, which contradicts the confused dogmas of Islamic radicalism. A secular conceptual dualism pervaded the Islamic tradition, indeed pre-dating European secularism.

scholarly journals Celebration of Nowruz in Bukhara and Samarkand in Ritual Practice and Social Discourses (the Second Half of the 19th to Early 20th Centuries)

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-129
Author(s):  
A. M. Malikov
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Ritual Practice ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Social Discourses ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
The One ◽  
Critical Discourses ◽  
Vast Territory

Celebration of Nowruz across a vast territory from the Ottoman Empire to Xinjiang had both common features and differences. This study focuses on distinctions between the festive traditions of two major cities of the Zerafshan Valley (Bukhara and Samarkand) in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when, after Russia’s annexation of the region, the Nowruz ritual practices were transformed and subjected to critical discourses among theologians and enlighteners. On the basis of unpublished archival sources, memoirs, and studies of Imperial Russian history, I analyze two types of Nowruz: official and folk. In the Emirate of Bukhara, a broad official celebration of Nowruz was started by Emir Muzaffar, who sought to strengthen the image of the Manghit dynasty during the crisis of political legitimacy. This gave rise to disputes among Islamic intellectuals about the need for a large-scale and prolonged celebration of Nowruz, which they felt went beyond the borders of Islamic tradition. In Samarkand, closer contacts between the settled Tajiks and Uzbeks, on the one hand, and the semi-nomadic Turkic-speaking population, on the other, enhanced the synthesis of agricultural and pastoral elements in the ritual practice of Nowruz. The festival was legitimized by prayers at mosques, and visits to the mazars of Muslim saints and to sacred streams. In Samarkand, following its annexation by the Russian Empire, there was no official celebration of Nowruz, and the scale of popular celebration decreased.

Moral and Constitutional Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Kyritsis
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Political Morality ◽  
Legitimate State ◽  
The Right

Some theorists oppose deference not because it is haphazard but because it is incompatible with respect for fundamental rights. They argue that compromising human rights is a price a legitimate state should never have to pay, and constitutional review is there to ensure that this does not happen. Against this line of argument the chapter argues that there is nothing in the logic of constitutional rights that precludes deference. To this effect, it defends a distinction between moral and constitutional rights. Drawing on TM Scanlon’s controversial theory of rights it maintains that constitutional rights are clusters of principles of political morality, not all of which correspond to deontological constraints about what under no conditions we may do to the right holder. Importantly, some of these principles also reflect the importance of sharing fundamental rights protection amongst state institutions. The chapter then connects this understanding of constitutional rights and political legitimacy.

Narrative, Intertext and Allusion in the Qur'anic Presentation of Job

1999 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Johns
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Complex Network ◽  
Key Words And Phrases ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Western Tradition ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

Job (Ayyūb) is a byword for patience in the Islamic tradition, notwithstanding only six Qur'anic verses are devoted to him, four in Ṣād (vv.41-4), and two in al-Anbiyā' (vv.83-4), and he is mentioned on only two other occasions, in al-Ancām (v.84) and al-Nisā' (v.163). In relation to the space devoted to him, he could be accounted a ‘lesser’ prophet, nevertheless his significance in the Qur'an is unambiguous. The impact he makes is achieved in a number of ways. One is through the elaborate intertext transmitted from the Companions and Followers, and recorded in the exegetic tradition. Another is the way in which his role and charisma are highlighted by the prophets in whose company he is presented, and the shifting emphases of each of the sūras in which he appears. Yet another is the wider context created by these sūras in which key words and phrases actualize a complex network of echoes and resonances that elicit internal and transsūra associations focusing attention on him from various perspectives. The effectiveness of this presentation of him derives from the linguistic genius of the Qur'an which by this means triggers a vivid encounter with aspects of the rhythm of divine revelation no less direct than that of visual iconography in the Western Tradition.

The Philological Endeavours of the Early Arabic Linguists: Theological Implications of the tawqīf-iṡṫilāh Antithesis and the majāz Controversy (Part II)

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Shah
Keyword(s):  
Figurative Language ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Metaphorical Language ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Ibn Taymiyya ◽  
The Aesthetic

The concluding part of the article pursues the theoretical arguments which relate to the tawqīf-işṭilāḥ debate on the origin of language and the intricate link with the concept of majāz. The article attempts to show how the question of the origin of language was imported into the controversy relating to the resort to metaphor and figurative language in the exegesis of the Qur'an and Prophetic dicta. Moreover, there was concern in some quarters that religious doctrines were being articulated through a veneer of metaphorical language. Some theologians had, in presenting a hypothesis for the existence of tropical expressions in the idiom of Arabic, referred to the concept of işṭilāḥ to justify their arguments, whilst tawqīf al-lugha was adduced to counter such reasoning. The religious significance of the issue is highlighted by Ibn Taymiyya who advances the thesis that the evolved concept of majāz was expressly formulated at a posterior juncture in the development of the Islamic tradition. He vociferously argues that a developed concept of majāz was insidiously exploited by those with preconceived theological motives. The article shows why Ibn Taymiyya had to discard the perceived sacrosanct doctrine of tawqīfal-lugha in order to refute theoretically the concept of majāz. This also meant that for scholars of the same view as Ibn Taymiyya, the aesthetic features associated with the device of majāz were summarily disregarded. Nevertheless, a concept of majāz was explicitly endorsed as an indisputable feature of the Arabic language by a majority of scholars.

Longing for Home: The Impact of COVID-19 on Cambodian Evangelical Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-297
Author(s):  
Briana Wong
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Mass Displacement ◽  
Interpersonal Connectedness ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
The Impact

In Cambodia, the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis intersected with religious practice this year, as April played host both to the Christian Holy Week and the Cambodian New Year holiday, rooted in Cambodian Buddhism and indigenous religions. Typically, the Cambodian New Year celebration involves the near-complete shutting down of Phnom Penh, allowing for residents of the capital city to spend the New Year with their families in the countryside. Many Christians stay with their parents or other relatives, who remain primarily Theravada Buddhist, in the rural provinces throughout Holy Week, missing Easter Sunday services to participate in New Year's festivities at their ancestral homes. In light of the government's precautionary cancellation of the all-encompassing festivities surrounding the Cambodian New Year this spring, Christians who have previously spent Easter Sunday addressing controversial questions of interreligious interaction notably focused this year, through online broadcasting, on the resurrection of Jesus. In the United States, the near elimination of in-person gatherings has blurred the boundaries between the ministry roles of recognised church leaders and lay Christians, often women, who have long been leading unofficial services and devotionals over the phone and internet. In this article, I argue that the COVID-19 crisis, with its concomitant mass displacement of church communities from the physical to the technological realm, has impacted transnational Cambodian evangelicalism by establishing greater liturgical alignment between churches in Cambodia and in the diaspora, democratising spiritual leadership and increasing opportunities for interpersonal connectedness within the Cambodian evangelical community worldwide.

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