Agapius of Manbiǧ, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā and the Graeco-Roman Past

This article looks at the routes by which knowledge of the Greco-Roman past was transmitted from late antiquity by Christian communities living under Muslim rule. The process involved translation from Greek to Syriac and from Greek and Syriac to Arabic. Once in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Abbasid Middle East, this historical material could be used by Muslim scholars to work into their histories of the pre-Islamic Middle East. This article also shows that historical texts could easily cross interconfessional lines and that their transmission, although handled very differently to scientific texts, was still part of the broader transfer of late antique culture to the Islamic Empire that is commonly referred to as the Graeco-Arabic translation movement.

Al-Khamsa: The Prophet’s Mares - Or Were They Stallions?

Arab(ian) horse enthusiasts perpetuate an origin legend for the breed that counts five foundational mares in relation to Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Challenging both the concept of a gender preference for mares among Bedouin and/or Arab people in the early Islamic empire as well as the popular historiography of the Arab horse as a Bedouin breed promoted by Islam and in particular its prophet, this paper contextualises Al-Khamsa (the five) as evidence of matrilineal horse breeding strategy by surveying premodern Arabic material on horses.

Bustanussalatin Park characteristics as an image shaper of Banda Aceh City

Imagery is a memory of an event that is re-conveyed through the traces of historical relics or collective memories of society. Bustanussalatin Park is currently a small part of Ghairah Park, which was built by Sultan Iskandar Tsani during the Sultanate of Aceh. Bustanussalatin Park has an area of 2.18 ha which is smaller than before due to the physical development of the city at that time by the Dutch colonial. This paper aims to identify and analyze garden elements (hardscape and softscape) in Bustanussalatin Park and explore public perceptions regarding the characteristics of the current Bustanussalatin park. This study contains public perceptions of the history, extrinsic, and ecological aspects of Bustanussalatin Park as a green open space in providing design recommendations by the image of Banda Aceh City as the city center of the past Islamic empire. The approach of study in the form of qualitative architectural history study is descriptive chronologically. The results show two important things: a) the historical value of the park has not been a major consideration; b) most of the community still wants the presence of Acehnese plant elements, in addition to presenting the needs of public play facilities for now. Recommendations bustanussalatin park design in shaping the image of the city of Banda Aceh by presenting a variety of typical plants of Aceh by the function of the park in the form of protective plants (Jeumpa), directing plants and plants for aesthetics.

THE CITY OF SAMARRA UNDER THE ABBASID STATE, A BRIGHT HISTORY AND IMMORTAL RELICS

My research was marked (The city of Samarra under the Abbasid state, a bright history and immortal relics). The city of Samarra is considered one of the archaeological historical sites in Iraq. This city - with the testimony of ancient and modern sources, and the immortality of a number of its lofty monuments - played a dangerous role in the political and urban fields - throughout the era that I stayed there as the capital of the Abbasid state. Eight of the Abbasid caliphs settled in it, and its mother was scholars and writers. Every craftsman and artist differed in it, and it became - rightly - the first Abbasid city in various aspects of life. Which prompted me to choose this topic and write about it, because of my feeling and my feeling that this city has neglected its right, and has not prepared for it what it should have of study and investigation. I specify my studies either in the history of the city or its antiquities, but after reading it became clear to me that history is the immortalized antiquities, so this topic stopped me to research it. The basic structure of this research consisted of two sections preceded by an introduction and a preface and followed by a conclusion. The first topic came under the title (Samarra in the shadow of the Abbasid state), this research dealt with Samarra in the shadow of the Abbasid caliphs, showing the role of each caliph in this city. Part of its ruins are still tilted until today and the other part has been subjected to destruction and extinction, and then I ended the research with a conclusion in which I showed the most important findings of the research, including its adoption of the largest Islamic empire for half a century, that this city has a clear personality in the urban and historical fields, and it is the Islamic city Which was replete with many palaces and luxurious buildings in that era, it was able to occupy an important center for the duration of its stay as the capital of the Abbasids. And after I ask God Almighty that I have succeeded in presenting this topic in a satisfactory manner, for perfection is for God Almighty and from Him we derive help and success‎‎. Keywords: Abbasid State, The City of Samarra, Immortalized Antiquities

Nota su Cor. xlix:13 ǧaʿalnākum šuʿūban wa-qabāʾila

During my field work in Yemen, a frequent topic of discussion has been relevance of tribes in the Yemeni society. Part of the Qurʾanic verse 13 of the sūrah al-Ḥuǧurāt (xlix, Apartments) “wa-ǧaʿalnakum šuʿūban wa-qabāʾila” was frequently cited as a legitimation of the very existence of tribes among the Arabs. But what about šuʿūb? The first occurrence of the term is attested in Epigraphic South Arabian ŠʿB, which has been interpreted as “sedentary tribe, commune, group of village communities” (Beeston et al.), with a specific reference to the South Arabian social organization, not to be confused with the (Northern-)Arab tribal one. The term does not seem to be attested in the old Arabic lexicon. Having found no satisfactory explication in the Arabic sources, my working hypothesis has been that the presence of South Arabian sedentary communities in the oasis of Medina at the time of the Prophet could suggest a possible relationship with the Qur’anic šuʿūb. Probably this peculiar South Arabian term entered into the ʿarabiyyah with the northward emigration of South Arabian peoples. In the course of time, and in a different context, its original meaning evolved into a more general one, according to the political and ethnical developments of the Islamic empire. Šuʿūb, sing. šaʿb, has been traditionally interpreted as ʿaǧam, non-Arabic peoples, races, confederations etc. Many disagreements appear in the Qur’anic commentaries, as well as in the genealogical, lexical, historical, literary sources. Among the several interpretations in Qurṭubī’s al-Ǧāmiʿ one is noteworthy: “Someone says that Šuʿūb are the Arabs of Yemen, the descendants of Qaḥṭān”. As to Qurʾanic (Western) scholarship, I did not find a specific interest nor a consistent contextualization of this Medinan verse. The problematic balance of influence among the believers in Medina, Qurayshi muhāǧirūn and South Arabian anṣār, should not be disregarded. A new possible partial translation of Qurʾan xlix:13 is here suggested: “We appointed you (South Arabian) communities and (Arab) tribes, that you may know one another”.

WAR AND CONFLICT IN THE AFRICAN SAHEL FRUIT OF HISTORIC AND PERMANENT WAR BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES: the Arab-Islamic empire and the Western empire.

This reflection concerns the armed conflicts of the African Sahel and aims to historically analyze the role of Arab-Islamic colonization, Western colonization and the rivalries between the two. It is based on the hypothesis that the confrontation between jihadist and internal and external interventionists in the region constitutes a historical struggle motivated by humanitarian and non moral geoeconomic interests. Methodologically, a historical and comparative analysis is chosen to conclude that the main causes of conflicts should be located in the colonial maps and the historical rivalry between empires and not in ethnic, tribal and religious deferences or the borders created by Western colonization.

The Arabic Novel: New Roots, New Routes

In the mid-19th century, the Arabic novel emerged as a genre in Ottoman Syria and khedival Egypt. While this emergence has often been narrated as a story of the rise of nation-states and the diffusion of the European novel, the genre’s history and ongoing topography cannot be recovered without indexing the importance of Arabic storytelling and Islamic empire, ethics, and aesthetics to its roots. As the Arabic periodicals of Beirut and the Nile Valley, and soon Tunis and Baghdad, serialized and debated the rise of the novel form from the 19th century onward, historical, romantic, and translated novels found an avid readership throughout the Arab world and its diaspora. Metaphors of the garden confronted the maritime span of European empire in the 19th-century rise of the novel form in Arabic, and the novel’s path would continue to oscillate between the local and the global. British, French, Spanish, and Italian empire and direct colonial rule left a lasting imprint on the landscape of the region, and so too the investment of Cold War powers in its pipelines, oil wells, and cultural battlefields. Whether embracing socialist realism or avant-garde experimentation, the Arabic novel serves as an ongoing register of the stories that can be told in cities, villages, and nations throughout the region—from the committed novels interrogating the years of anticolonial national struggles and Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s, through the ongoing history of war, surveillance, exile, occupation, and resource extraction that dictates the subsequent terrain of narration. The Arabic novel bears, too, an indelible mark left by translators of Arabic tales—from 1001 Nights to Girls of Riyadh—on the stories the region’s novelists tell.

Historisitas dan Dinamika Lembaga Pendidikan Islam di Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the historicity and dynamics of Islamic education institutions in Indonesia starting from the classical period, colonialism period, and pre- and post-independence periods. This research uses library research method. Data analysis using analytical descriptive analysis techniques. The results of the study show that Islamic education in Indonesia is the same age as the existence of Islam in the archipelago. Broadly speaking, the history of Islamic educational institutions in Indonesia can be divided into three periods. First, the classical period of the 13th - 16th century, namely since the entry of Islam in Indonesia, the establishment of the Islamic empire, the era of the Islamic empire until the entry of colonizers into Indonesia. Several institutions during this period were mosques, Islamic boarding schools, menasah, rangkang and dayah, surau. Second, the colonial period until the independence period (1600 - 1945). At this time it was divided into two, namely during the Dutch colonial period, there were several institutions namely Elementary Education, Latin Schools, Seminarium Theologicum, Academie der Marine, Chinese Schools. During the Japanese occupation there were several institutions, namely Basic Education (Kokumin Gakko), Advanced Education, consisting of Shoto Chu Gakko, Vocational Education, Higher Education. Third, the period of the independence era (1945-present). There are several institutions, namely pesantren, madrasah, schools, PTKI.

Uthman (Osman) dan Fodio (1754–1817): Life and Religious Philosophy

Uthman dan Fodio (1754–1817), an emblematic figure of Islamic history in West Africa, was born in 1754 in Maratta in the Tahoua region (present-day Niger) and died in 1817 in Sokoto (present-day Nigeria). The role of Sheikh Uthman (Osman) dan Fodio is well known to all who are familiar with West Africa’s Muslim culture. Sometimes referred to in West Africa as “Nûru-l-zamân” (the Light of Time) and in Western literature as the “Great Pulaar Jihadist Sheik,” Uthman dan Fodio was one of the greatest Muslim theologians and thinkers in West Africa and is regarded as the founder of the last Muslim Empire. He studied under the Fodiawa family as well as with the great scholar Sheikh Jibril. As a successful teacher himself, he attracted attention from the royal palace. As a preacher, Uthman dan Fodio was listened to and followed by the religious devout, which led to him being persecuted by the successors of Bawa Jan Gorzo, consequence the jihad of 1804 and the foundation of the Islamic Empire of Sokoto. Despite this, in the tradition of prominent spiritual masters of Islam (Al-Ghazali, Al-Muhâssibi, Azzaruk, As-Suyûtî, Abdel Wahab, etc.), Uthman dan Fodio’s legacy remained strong in the Muslim world between the end of the 18th century and the end of the 19th century. The sheikh described his contributions in terms of moral and religious rebuilding; he felt as if he was invested in a messianic mission to save his community from perils. In other words, his tasks included promoting widespread change as it pertained to societal norms, morals, and education. Uthman dan Fodio’s reform project is part of the reformist heritage movement, which is also known as “the wave of the reformist current of the 18th century.”