Islamic component in calendar rituals and folk medicine of the peoples of Dagestan: traditions and modernity

The article examines the types and forms of manifestation of the Islamic component in the calendar rituals and folk medicine of the peoples of Dagestan that have survived to our time. On the basis of field material and literary sources, the author cites the calendar holidays of the first furrow, the beginning of spring, the collection of edible herbs, medicine. The Islamic component in these holidays and rituals is manifested by the participation of a Muslim clergyman in them, the remembrance of Allah, the recitation of verses from the Koran, the conduct of the mawlid and the ritual of zikr, and the distribution of alms sadaqa. This component has been woven into agrarian holidays; meteorological ceremonies with «binding the rain», the use of a horse’s skull, wooden and stone boards, «overturned stones»; «sacred» trees, springs and stones in the rituals of traditional medicine. Collected in a special sacred period of time (pre-dawn hours before morning prayer) on the day of Eid al-Adha or the holiday of spring, spring water became similar to zamzam water and acquired healing properties. There are no analogues adapted to Muslim holidays, calendar and household rituals, built on the tops of mountains and passes, special religious buildings of Tabasarans – «Prayer houses». According to the author, the cited calendar rituals and methods of traditional medicine belong to the category of syncretic so-called “everyday” or “folk Islam” and can serve as an argument in countering religious extremism. The reasons for the preservation and functioning of traditional rituals and beliefs at the beginning of the XXIst century should be sought in the stability of ancient beliefs and rituals adapted to the requirements of the Sufi form of Islam, the peculiarities of the mentality and ethnic psychology of the Dagestanis adherent to conservatism and traditional way of life.

INJIL DAN ISLAM ABANGAN JAWA: SUATU PENDEKATAN KONTEKSTUAL

"Whither Muslim evangelism in the 2000’s?" thus the questionthe care of Phil Parshall. According to Parshall, it's not like 1980when things become missionary in an Islamic country it becomes a trend andpride, the 2000s were marked by the slack mission to the Islamic world.It's really unfortunate even though Islam is the most religionfast growth in this world.Just as in a very pluralistic Christianity, so too is Islam. One of the big blocks (about 70%) that make up the Islamic world is what is called, "Abangan Islam," (English, "Folk Islam" or "Popular Islam"). This type of Islam issyncretistic, mainly characterized by an animistic worldview.In Indonesia, Javanese Abangan Islam is a very appropriate representationfrom this class of Islam. This paper will try firstlaying out the biblical basis for the practice of contextualization in brief,then followed by an understanding of the Javanese Islamic worldview and finally closed with an effort to find a "theological bridge" to reach the Javanese Islamic group effectively. === “Whither Muslim evangelism in the 2000’s?” demikian pertanyaan kepedulian dari Phil Parshall. Menurut Parshall, tidak seperti tahun 1980an ketika hal menjadi misionaris di negara Islam menjadi suatu tren dan kebanggaan, tahun 2000-an diwarnai kendurnya misi ke dunia Islam. Sungguh patut disayangkan padahal Islam merupakan agama yang paling cepat pertumbuhannya di dunia ini. Sama seperti dalam kekristenan yang sangat majemuk, demikian juga Islam. Salah satu blok besar (kira-kira 70 %) yang membentuk dunia Islam adalah apa yang disebut, “Islam Abangan,” (Inggris, “Folk Islam” atau “Popular Islam”). Islam golongan ini bersifat sinkretistik, utamanya diwarnai dengan pandangan dunia yang animistik. Di Indonesia, Islam Abangan Jawa adalah representasi yang sangat tepat dari Islam golongan ini. Makalah ini akan berusaha untuk pertama-tama meletakkan dasar alkitabiah bagi praktik kontekstualisasi secara singkat, kemudian disusul dengan pemahaman pandangan dunia Islam Jawa dan terakhir ditutup dengan usaha untuk menemukan “theological bridge” demi menjangkau kelompok Islam Jawa tersebut secara efektif.

Diversity of forms of Islam: invariance and variability

The purpose of the article is to analyze the nature of the heterogeneity of Islam in the field of Muslim culture and to determine the moderators of the variability of its forms. Methodology. The culturology analysis of Islam in the interdisciplinary space of the social sciences and humanities is the conceptual methodological core of the research. For a comprehensive study of the phenomenon, a civilizational approach was used, which made it possible to realize the uniqueness of the Muslim world as a local civilization and the functional role of the Islamic religion in it. The research strategy is based on system analysis in the author’s interpretation. The phenomenon of Islam is interpreted as an integral system in the totality of relations and connections between the invariant and variable components. Scientific novelty. To study the problem of the diversity of forms of Islam, the author's model of the system method, based on the dichotomy of the invariant and variable components of the phenomenon, was introduced into scientific circulation. The idea of the variability of Islam in the space of Muslim civilization has been verified. The invariant and variable components of Islam and the moderators of their formation are determined. Conclusions. Based on the paradigm of the invariance of the dogma of Islam and the diversity of its interpretation in the chronotope, the core moderators of the variability of the forms of Islam are established: 1) the absence in the Quran and Sunnah of direct prohibitions in relation to certain aspects of worldly life; the absence of a unified religious center that monitors the monotony of interpretation of canonical texts;2) the weakening of the connection between the sacred and the profane, which determined the politicization of Islam (in the form of Islamism of all shades); 3) symbiosis of religion and ethnic culture, which led to the dichotomy “classical-folk” Islam; 4) the correlation of the configuration of Islam with the socio-political structure of society, which, in particular, determined the binary opposition of two doctrines of building a Muslim community: the firs doctrine is based on the idea of the revival of the Caliphate, the second doctrine is based on Sharia rule within national borders,

Introduction

The introduction places the book in the context of the larger literature on Islam in Anatolia. It explains how this book is part of a recent wave of studies that take a critical, revisionist approach to the deeply entrenchedparadigmdeveloped by the early-twentieth century Turkish historian Fuad Köprülü, highlighting in particular the perils of a binary vision of religion based on high Islam and folk Islam, and the ahistorical application of the notion of syncretism in Alevi-Bektashi studies. The introduction also offers an outline of Alevi beliefs, rituals, and socio-religious organization, discusses the recently surfaced Kizilbash/Alevi manuscripts and documents that form the book’s primary source base, summarized the major themes and argumentsthat emerge from them, and explains the organization of the chapters around these themes.

The Kizilbash-Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia

The Kizilbash were at once key players in and the foremost victims of the Ottoman-Safavid conflict that defined the early modern Middle East today. Today referred to as Alevis, they constitute the second largest faith community in modern Turkey, making up around fifteen percent of the country’s population, with smaller pockets of related groups in the Balkans. Historians have typically treated Kizilbashism/Alevism as an undifferentiated strain within the hazy category of “heterodox folk Islam.” Several aspects of their history therefore remain little understood or explored. This first comprehensive socio-political history of the Kizilbash/Alevi communities uses a recently surfaced corpus of sources generated within their milieu. It offers fresh answers to many questions concerning their origins and evolution from a revolutionary movement to an inward-looking religious order. Among other things, it argues for a readjustment in focus from pre-Islamic Central Asia to the cosmopolitan Sufi milieu of the Middle East when exploring genealogies of popular Islam in Anatolia, and of Kizilbashism-Alevism, in particular. While the Kizilbash constitute the focus of the book, its findings may open new avenues of research in the study of other “heterodox” communities in the Islamic world by alerting historians to the potential of Sufism to provide a basis for social order and give rise to distinct communities.

Hacı Bektaş and his Contested Legacy: The Abdals of Rum, the Bektashi Order and the (Proto-) Kizilbash Communities

Chapter 3 takes up the issue of the relationship between the Kizilbash/Alevi communities and the Bektashi order, tracing its roots to their common association with the cult of Hacı Bektaş and their shared links to the Abdals of Rum. This chapter challenges Köprülü’s conjecture of an insular Turkish folk Islam transferred under the cover of the Yesevi Sufi order from Central Asia to Anatolia, and inherited in its new home by successive heterodox circles within a linear evolutionary scheme; it was purported to have passed from the Yeseviyye to the Abdals of Rum, an itinerant dervish group active in late medieval Anatolia, and from them onto the better institutionalized Bektashi order. Within this framework, Köprülü treated the Kizilbash/Alevis as lay followers of the Bektashi order. Evidence emerging from Alevi sources complicates this picture. They disclose no evidence of a Yesevi connection. Nor do they validate Köprülü’s view of the Alevis as lay followers of the Bektashi order. While they do confirm the closely intertwined trajectories of the two affiliations, their interactions and eventual partial fusion appear to have involved a much more contested process than presumed by Köprülü, tensions crystallizing especially around the spiritual legacy of Hacı Bektaş.

“FOLK” ISLAM: FEATURES OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

The main purpose of the article is to identify the features of the sociological study of «folk» Islam. The article shows the differences between sociological approaches to the study of this phenomenon from ethnographic, historical and philosophical ones. The analysis of the concepts of «folk» Islam, mass religious consciousness, religiosity of ordinary believers, religiousness of the population shows that they are not identical and have independent significance for the researcher. The text of the article shows the differences in the meaning of these concepts. The author, basing on the data of sociological surveys, interprets the features of «folk» Islam, which are not identical to the "normative", bookish Islam. This kind of attitude of religious people, not being fully consistent with the principles of the "normative" Islam, creates a positive predisposition in the sphere of mass religious consciousness to tolerant attitude toward representatives of different cultures and worldviews. The opinion polls also showed that there are some components of pagan beliefs in the religious consciousness of followers of "folk" Islam. Data comparison of opinion polls by ethnic groups suggests that «folk» Islam among representatives of different ethnic groups of the Republic of Daghestan does not have principle differences from the general Daghestan indicators of such kind. Sociological surveys show that, despite some inconsistency regards the provisions of the "normative" Islam, in "folk" Islam, the basic values of the Islamic religion are understood and preserved in accordance with universal human values. The study shows that "folk" Islam has a high adaptive potential to the conditions of globalization processes. This adaptation, as a rule, does not correspond to Islamic normativity.