THE ROOTS OF TRADITIONAL ISLAM IN MODERNIST MUSLIM WORKS: K.H. Aceng Zakaria and the Intellectual Tradition of Pesantren

One of characters of modernist Islam organization in Indonesia is the opposition to traditionalist Islam practices. Initially, the modernist Islam activist also learned in the traditional Islam culture before they turned around. This study focuses on the roots of the traditional Islam among the modernist Islam organization activists, Islamic Union (Persatuan Islam/PERSIS). The study object is the historical life of the PERSIS chairman, Aceng Zakaria and his magnum opus works, al-Muyassar fî ‘Ilm al-Naḥw and al-Hidâyah fî Masâ’il Fiqh Muta‘âriḍah. Through a socio-intellectual historical approach, the study shows that the Islamic intellectual tradition of the modernist activists is inseparable from the learning of traditional pesantren. Aceng Zakaria, as a PERSIS ulama, originally learned at the traditional pesantren in the mid-twentieth century. The roots of traditional Islamic science influences his intellectual career which was reflected in his works. Both books, Arabic grammar al-Muyassar and fiqh discourse al-Hidâyah demonstrate his connectivity to the intellectual of traditional pesantren. However, Aceng Zakaria, as a modernist and reformist ulama, also modified his explanation systematically and practically. This shows that the genealogy of intellectual tradition of pesantren has an important position in supporting the development of reformist Islamic ideas in Indonesia.

Shakuntala: As Authored by Kalidas and Painted by Raja Ravi Varma

Mythology has always been an appealing area which has been engrossing readers and listeners since ages. Mythology plays distinctive roles and employs its sacred narratives, art and rituals to keep the values and morals of the society intact. This system of writing texts on mythology was common to the entire subcontinent and produced its own literature written in Sanskrit. One such magnum opus is Abhijnanashakuntalam authored by the great Sanskrit maestro, Kalidas. It is also important to note that mythology in the form of texts was accessible to a very limited class of people which included the elites, literates, scholars etc, and consequently a large section of the society remained unaware of these episodes and virtues. It is where, Raja Ravi Varma, ‘Father of Modern Indian Art’ is credited to bring these episodes in the form of both painting and printing to the commoners. This not only attracted a huge number of people towards mythology, Hindu culture and tradition but also urged to preserve values. The present paper is an attempt to study the contributions of the two maestros, Kalidas- as the author of Abhijnanashakuntalam and Raja Ravi Varma-as the painter of the Shakuntala Series, comparative studies of how both the maestros perceived the character of Shakuntala, portrayal of ‘beauty’, and how the play, painting and printing was appreciated, responses gathered and inspirations shared. Keywords: Kalidas, Raja Ravi Varma, Shakuntala, Mythology and Painting, Oleographs

Crowley, the Orient, and the Occult

This chapter examines the life and work of the British magus Aleister Crowley, focusing on the place of Orientalism and the subtle body in the development of his magical system. After a short biographical section where the chapter traces his life to the age of thirty when his occult vocation began in earnest, the chapter shifts to Crowley’s interest in the Orient, analyzing his engagement with Kabbalah, Daoism, yoga, and Islamic mysticism. The chapter then zeroes in on Crowley’s presentation of the subtle body in his magnum opus before moving on to theoretical analysis of the basic philosophical tenets of Crowley’s system, interrogating his skepticism and inductive method in engaging with occult and Astral phenomena. The chapter ends with a brief discussion on the process of cultural transformation, following the subtle body as it moves from a term of translation to a creolized fusion (ala Blavatsky) where Oriental terminology forms a sort of veneer over a Neoplatonic concept, to a fully hybrid concept (as in Crowley) that is neither fully a Neoplatonic idea nor an Oriental import, but something in between.

Dąbrówka Wielka – wieś w mieście. Animacja zaangażowana w zachowaniu miejscowego stroju ludowego (mediacja na styku etnologii i performatyki)

W artykule przybliżam działania dotyczące szeroko rozumianej rewitalizacji (ożywienia, przywrócenia) stroju ludowego podejmowane w miejscowości Dąbrówka Wielka, dzielnicy Piekar Śląskich. Analizuję inicjatywy oddolne zmierzające do zachowania zwyczaju noszenia miejscowego stroju ludowego oraz manifestującelokalną tożsamość i przywiązanie do tradycji. Przedsięwzięcia te można zakwalifikować jako magnum opus tzw. animacji zaangażowanej, czyniącej współczesnych nosicieli stroju bohaterami widowisk wpisujących się w specyficzny rodzaj odtwórstwa historycznego.

The Wisdom of God as the Eternal Feminine: Dante and V.S. Solovyov on Sophianic Unity

The paper deals with the continuity of ideas concerning the Eternal Feminine and Sophia as the Wisdom of God from the point of view of Dante Alighieri and Vl.S. Solovyov. The analysis focuses not so much on the very notion of Sophia as on the meaning, origins, and contexts of their conception of Sophianic unity. The latter, being an ideal form of reducing a multitude to a unity, is considered as either an alternative or a supplement to the model of totality that reproduces the binary and hierarchical structure which at the social and political level is considered to be the pattern of imperial centralism. The study proceeds from the consequences of Dante’s negation of the difference between the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures and the literary sense of secular poetry. It is shown that for Dante it was necessary, first of all, to understand under whose inspiration and guidance he composed his verses, which gave particular importance to the image of a guide in his magnum opus. I show that in this context Dante turned to the intuitive representation of the feminine idea as a guiding principle that was personified by Beatrice, although Dante did not use the term “Sophia” and could not use the term “the Eternal Feminine,” which did not yet exist at the time. The disputes in Dante’s time on the essence of monarchy are considered in connection with his understanding of femininity as the guiding principle of such a unity of humanity that could reject a rigid hierarchy and, thus, free itself from imperial centralism. It is pointed out that the social and political aspects of the all-encompassing Sophia, which also resolves contradictions as a supplement to the intrinsically contradictory Logos, were given great importance in Solovyov’s philosophy. The paper concludes that it was Solovyov, who, having identified Sophia with humanity as a whole, created the presuppositions for a detailed study of the structure of Sophia’s unity. This study ends with a discussion of the validity of the convergence of a non-hierarchical Sophianic unity with the deconstructive strategies of modern philosophy, the aim of which is the elimination of binary oppositions and hierarchies from the gender context.

From the Remainder of Adam’s Clay

This article presents an introduction to and a complete English translation of the eighth chapter of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) magnum opus al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya. The chapter, entitled, “On the earth that was made from the remainder of Adam’s leaven clay, which is the Earth of Reality, and on some of the strange and wondrous things contained therein,” contains a description of a world wholly separate from our own. An underlying argument in this chapter is that the human intellect, constrained as it is by the categories of possibilities which pertain to our earthly configuration, is incapable of grasping the vast expanse of this “Earth of Reality.” Ibn al-ʿArabī also aims to show how many of the Qur’anic and Prophetic traditions which the intellect struggles to comprehend exist in this other world without any contradiction. In this sense, the chapter in question seeks to inculcate a sense of wonder and bewilderment in readers, reminding them that there will always be worlds, beyond our immediate sensory world, that remain to be seen and known.

Gilbert-Charles Picard (1913-1998) and the Religions de l’Afrique Antique

This article analyses, from a historiographic perspective, the most important aspects of Charles-Gilbert Picard’s work on the religious world of the populations inhabiting the Maghreb during the Punic and Roman periods, with special emphasis on his magnum opus on the subject, Les religions de l’Afrique Antique. In doing so, I have attempted to explain the evolution in thought of an author who was one of the most prominent scholars of the ancient religions in North Africa between the end of the Second World War and the process of decolonisation of the Maghreb.

The Age of Questions: Or, a First Attempt at an Aggregate History of the Eastern, Social, Woman, American, Jewish, Polish, Bullion, Tuberculosis, and Many Other Questions Over the Nineteenth Century, and Beyond, by Holly Case, 2018.

Holly Case’s most adventurous work as of yet seeks to juxtapose patterns common to nineteenth century publicists’ questions in order to reveal the contradictions of the age. Case devotes each chapter to a particular theme or ideological quality of the querists, which are in dispute with one another, and yet feature common idioms of progress and geopolitical reconfiguration. Internal to each chapter are the oxymoronic imbrications between conceptual polarities such as nationalism and the international public sphere, war through peace, gravitas with farce, and more. Case explains the prevalence of high-stakes public policy, prospects of war and the convulsive realignment of empires and nations through the persistent bundling of many of these questions. She addresses the ebb and flow of popularity of many era-spanning questions, which strengthens her attempt to provide a genealogy for the crises and ‘questions’ of our current era, and her accounting for how queristic contradictions were perceived to be transcended. It is reasonable to suggest that Case has provided a foundational step for an emergent niche of epistemological inquiry in the historical discipline, not unlike Benedict Anderson’s contribution to the study of nationalism through his magnum opus Imagined Communities.

Lestár Gyulaffi’s Manuscripts and the Fragmentation of a Magnum Opus

Lestár Gyulaffi (1556–1606?) was a secretary of the Greater Chancery of the Transylvanian Principality. Today, he is best-known as a writer of historical notes and commentaries. These records are considered an excellent source and therefore used by scholars researching the age. As the texts have not been recently published, researchers usually use the 19th-century text edition. However, looking at the original documents preserved in the ELTE University Library in Budapest, one realizes that Gyulaffi’s writings do not form a compact work, the 19th-century edition is largely a constructed text. In the present paper I will present what additional information can be obtained from the examination of the manuscripts.

Konsep Al-‘Ilm dalam Studi Pemikiran Filsafat Mulla Sadra

This paper is a literature review of Mulla Sadra's thoughts on the concept of ilm al-ilahī to complement the western epistemological discourse which is considered to eliminate the spiritual aspect in philosophy. This paper aims to explain the meaning, purpose, and urgency of Ilm al-Ilahī to add paradigms and individual behavior in Mulla Sadra's perspective by referring to one of his magnum opus entitled al-Hikmah al-Mutāliyah fī al-Asfār al-Aqliyyah al-Arba'ah. . By using the philosophical descriptive method, it is concluded that al-'Ilm al-Ilah' in Mulla Sadra's philosophical systematics explains the significance of the paradigm and individual behavior to achieve ultimate perfection through the actuality of the soul. The soul in Mulla Sadra's view is the substance of human existence that experiences a movement from potential to actuality by involving the existence of reason and the five senses as the basic building of Islamic epistemology. The result of this paper is that the western epistemological discourse has not yet explained spiritual knowledge in human existence, while Mulla Sadra's significant role is to complete it by adding the spiritual side that is neglected in western discourse.Abstrak: Tulisan ini merupakan telaah pustaka pemikiran Mulla Sadra mengenai konsep ilm al-ilahī untuk menyempurnakan wacana epistemologi barat yang dipandang telah menghilangkan pengetahuan spiritual dalam peradaban filsafat. Tulisan ini bertujuan menjelaskan makna, tujuan, dan urgensi Ilm al-Ilahī untuk menyempurnakan paradigma dan perilaku individu dalam perspektif Mulla Sadra dengan merujuk salah satu magnumopusnya yang berjudul al-Hikmah al-Mutāliyah fī al- Asfār al-Aqliyyah al-Arba’ah. Dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif filosofis dihasilkan kesimpulan bahwa al-‘Ilm al-Ilahī dalam sistematika filsaat Mulla Sadra menjelaskan signifikansi paradigma dan perilaku individu untuk mencapai kesempurnaan hakiki melalui aktualitas jiwa. Jiwa dalam pandangan Mulla Sadra merupakan substansi keberadaan manusia yang mengalami pergerakan dari potensial menuju aktualitas dengan melibatkan eksistensi akal dan pancaindra sebagai bangunan dasar epistemologi Islam. Hasil dari tulisan ini, ialah menyempurnakan wacana epistemologi barat yang dipandang belum menjelaskan pengetahuan spiritual dalam eksistensi manusia melalui studi pemikiran Mulla Sadra.