Islamic History and Muslim Civilization

The W.W. Norton Company has developed something of a reputation for producing definitive anthologies; as a young undergraduate I vividly recall lugging around two hefty volumes of The Norton Anthology of English Literature over three tiring years. It was with some excitement then that I opened the Islam volume of the recently published Norton Anthology of World Religions. Could we expect the same canon-shaping selection of primary texts that capture, in this case, the lifeblood of Islamic literary production over 14 centuries condensed into a single, accessible, English-language volume? The answer, after some lengthy and very pleasant perusal, has transpired to be a resounding yes.

‘[A] valid concept of “Islam” must denote and connote all possible “Islams,” whether abstract or “real,” mental or social’ (104)... Ahmed seeks to avoid two major pitfalls: (1) making Islam into a static essence or a category within an essentialist framework – such as proscription/prescription, ‘religion’,‘civilization’, ‘culture’, ‘orthodoxy’, etc., and (2) rendering Islam into a totally incoherent concept by conceding that there are as many islams as there are communities or individuals. Ahmed’s thesis (presented in Chapter 5) is that Islam is best conceptualized as a process of meaning-making or hermeneutical engagement in which the human agent engages with the Divine Revelation granted to Muhammad in one or more of this Revelation’s hierarchical dimensions – Pre-Text, Text, and Con-Text – in order to constitute meaning for himself."

This is a short poem by Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ṣabbān (d. 1206/1791) translated from the original Arabic into English verse. The poem is a concise, technical list of the ten essentials aspects of any science. It is intended to help students memorize the outline of the topic, while a teacher's additional commentary would be needed to really understand the content and meaning of the ten essentials.

Nu’mān Bin Thābit, better known by his kunyah, Abū Ḥanīfah, has been subject to much criticism due to his supposed lack of knowledge in Ḥadīth and Ḥadīth studies. The methodology of the Ḥanafīs has been similarly scrutinized as it is infamously known to diverge from the other schools in their methodological usage of the sources in deriving legal rulings. Where the other orthodox schools use a methodology derived from al-Shāfi’ī's combination of the reports and opinion, Abū Ḥanīfah is known to have ruled from the Qur’ān more-so than from the reports. A particular aspect of the discussion is the idea that he took his own opinion over the clear textual sources of the Sunnah i.e. the Ḥadīth reports. However, what has been overlooked is the way in which Abū Ḥanīfah used the Ḥadīth and how he understood them. Rather than having a weakness in Ḥadīth, as purported by some, Abū Ḥanīfah had a unique understanding of Ḥadīth, and subjected them to great scrutiny in order to derive the truest rendition of God’s law on earth. Rather than a detraction from Prophetic reports, it seems that there has been a lack of understanding when it comes to the Usūl of Abū Ḥanīfah.

When the Muslim statement "A Common Word between us and you" appeared on the internet in October 2007, I found it to be dissonant to what I had read in early Muslim commentary on Q 3.64. I decided to investigate the interpretation of this "common word" verse across a wide range of commentaries on the Quran. Though interpretations vary, none of the commentaries understands Q 3.64 to refer to a theological concept held "in common" with non-Muslims.

This paper provides updated digital images of four Qurʾān fragments from Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum (OIM) that appeared in Nabia Abbott’s Rise of the North Arabic Script, and calls attention to features of their paleography and vocalization which are not apparent from her original black-and-white plates. In doing so, it demonstrates that these four fragments all belong to the same copy of the Qurʾān, which is also the same Qurʾān as nineteen leaves in Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) and two leaves in Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). All twenty-five folios of this Qurʾān contain a unique vocalization system that represents /a/ and /u/ with miniature red forms of alif and wāw. This system of “letter-form” vocalization signs is unattested in other Qurʾān manuscripts and corresponds with a type of vocalization which medieval sources describe as shakl al-shiʿr: “the marking of poetry.” The subsequent discussion analyzes the features of this shakl al-shiʿr system and contextualizes it within the history of both this Qurʾān manuscript and Arabic writing as a whole.

Article is open access with full manuscript images available on the JNES site here: https://doi.org/10.1086/712876

محاولة لفهم غياب الجانب النفسي الوجداني في الخطاب التربوي الإسلامي للطفل؛ ليكون هذا الفهم أساساً لإرساء طاقات ‏المبادرة ‏والإبداع في البناء النفسي والوجداني. وهو أيضاً محاولـةٌ لمعرفة الأبعاد الثقافية والفكرية التي أحدثت هذا التشوّه ‏والغياب. ولمعرفة المفاهيم ‏والمنطلقات التي تمكّن الأمة من استكمال هذا النقص. ولتحقيق هذا الهدف يوضِّح الكتاب الأدوات ‏المنهجية والثقافية اللازمة للإصلاح ‏التربوي، ويستجلي أهم أسس هذا الإصلاح ومنطلقاته، ويلفت النظر إلى مؤسسة الأسرة ‏ودورها المحوري الفطري في تحقيق الإصلاح ‏التربوي والتغيير الاجتماعي والحضاري‎. ‎إننا نرجو أن يفتح هذا الكتاب باب ‏حوارٍ جادٍ بنّاءٍ، يتسم بروح الإخلاص والشجاعة، دونما ‏خوف من جهالة الجهلاء ومزايدات أصحاب الأغراض والأمراض، ‏والنظر في أعماق كيان الأمة الفكري والثقافي والتربوي؛ ليتعرف ‏مفكرو الأمة وعقلاؤها على مكامن الداء فيها، ويبصّروا ‏أبناءها وقياداتها بحقيقة أدواء النفوس، وتشوهات الفكر، وانحراف الممارسات، ‏ويستكملوا للأمة رسم معالم المنهج العلمي ‏الفكري التربوي الصحيح الذي يضع القدرة والمبادرة في يد أبنائها ومفكريها ومثقفيها، ‏واعتماد مكامن طاقة الفطرة والعطاء ‏والبذل في نفوسهم أساساً لانطلاقتها.  ‏

Selefilik beşe ayrılır. Sahabiler, Tabin, tebeyi tabinle, Selefi Salihin ilk saf çeşidi idi. Hakiki Müslümanlardı. Bu dönemin Abdülkadir Geylani’nin tarikatları kurumsallaştırmasına kadar sürdüğü varsayılabilir. İslam’ın altın çağındaki alimler, ‘2. Selefi Türü’ oluşturuyor. İbni Arabi bir selefi idi. Mevlana Rumi'ye, İmam Rabbani'ye kadar devam etti. Suudi devleti 3. Tür üzerine devletleşti ve İngiliz istihbaratı altınlarıyla Osmanlı nefreti ve aşırı Arap milliyetçiliği doktrini üzerine bir dikta rejimi kurdu. Şiddet Vehhabisi, 4. çeşididir ve kaynağını Hanbeli ekolünden gelen Şii karşıtlığına dayalı İbni Teymiye Kur’an yorumundan alır! ABD'nin Suudi Arabistan'da 5 askeri üs kurması, 1979'de Sovyetlerin Afganistan'ı işgali ve Humeyni'nn İran'da Şii darbesi ile başlar. Üsame Bin Ladin gibi zengin ve eğitimli Selefi çocuklarını CIA ustalıkla kullanmıştır. El Kaida bu projenin adıdır. Bağdat’ı işgal eden Hülagu komutasındaki Moğol ordusunda Şii alim Nasreddin Tusi’nin başdanışman olması Hanbeli Sünni İslam’ın da keskin tepkilere neden oldu. İbni Teymiye tefsiri bu travmanın ürünü olduğu için aşırı Şii karşıtıdır. Ladin ise Şii karşıtı değildi, batı karşıtı idi.
Selefeliğin ilk iki çeşidi Asrı Saadet İslam’ına dönme ve ayakta tutma, İslam’ı evrensel kılma akımlarıdır. Vehhabi İslam’ı İngiliz ürünüdür. IŞİD, bir Vehhabi İslam’ı öcüsüdür. IŞİD, ‘petrodolarlar’la 1980’lerde CIA’nın devletsiz yapıda kurdurduğu El Kaida’nın devlete dönüştürülmüş son global ve yerel kötü silahıdır. 5. türrdür, 2009'da Ürdün'de tezgahlanmıştır. Suudi Arabistan  kraliyet Vehhabi rejimi ile uzun yıllara dayanan ilişkiler sonucu Abdullah Gül, Ahmed Davutoğlu ve Erdoğan üçlüsünün hastalıklı siyasal İslam çizgisinden böyle bir anomali doğması destek çıkması normaldi. Ancak herkesin desteklediği ayrı bir IŞİD öcüsü var! IŞİD, yeni kolonicilerin haritaları petrol, gaz ve su kaynaklarına göre aralarında paylaşırken, Müslümanları bölme, parçalama ve yutma projesinin kirli adıdır. Sünni İslam'a saldırı ve ihanet projedisidir.  Büyük Kürdistan'ı kurmakla neticelenecek IŞİD projesi, bir mezhep savaşıyla Müslümanları birbirine kırdırmayı da amaçlıyor. Batılı kolonicilerin yeni imtiyazlar alarak bölgeyi sömürmesine yol açan IŞİD projesine destek verenler, büyük bir ihanet içinde olan Batılı kolonicilerin kuklalarıdır. Gerisi lafı güzaf...

Title in English: "Studies on the the historical and doctrinal genesis of Islam - Bruno Bonnet-Eymard and the French school of scholarly skepticism"

ENG. The article presents briefly the scholarly theory on the historical and dogmatic origins of Islam by the modern French researcher Bruno Bonnet-Eymard, with an attempt to classify its place in the modern field of Islamic studies. The result of over thirty years of Bonnet-Eymard’s work is his translation of the first five Qur’anic suras into French, with their comprehensive critical edition, prepared on the basis of his own philological, historical and theological exegesis. Bonnet-Eymard, belonging to the Islamicist skeptical school, attempts to read the Arabic Qur’anic text also from the perspective of other Semitic languages - mainly Hebrew and Syriac. Regardless of the flaws and merits of Bonnet-Eymard’s exegesis it surely is a valuable source of scholarly insights, conclusions and linguistic remarks that cannot be overestimated for modern critical studies of the Qur’anic text.

PL. Artykuł przedstawia pokrótce teorię naukową współczesnego francuskiego badacza Bruno Bonnet-Eymard dotyczącą historyczno-dogmatycznej genezy islamu, wraz z jej miejscem we współczesnej islamistyce. Owocem trzydziestu lat jego pracy jest tłumaczenie kilku pierwszych sur Koranu na język francuski, wraz z ich obszernym wydaniem krytycznym, opracowanym na podstawie własnej egzegezy filologicznej, historycznej i teologicznej. Bonnet-Eymard, należący do szkoły islamistów-sceptyków, odczytuje arabski tekst koraniczny również przez pryzmat innych języków semickich – głównie hebrajskiego i syryjskiego. Niezależnie od meritum wysnutych wniosków, egzegeza Bonnet-Eymard stanowi kopalnię wartościowych spostrzeżeń, wniosków i skojarzeń językowych nie do przecenienia dla krytyczno-naukowych studiów nad tekstem koranicznym.

Dr. Brannon Ingram has written this review of Da'wa and Other Religions for "Reading Religion"(http://readingreligion.org/books/dawa-and-other-religions). Ingram writes, "Movements for da‘wa have been the subject of much academic work in recent years, with the Tablighi Jama‘at, the world’s largest Muslim revivalist movement, receiving the bulk of the attention. Until now, no scholar has attempted to examine the concept da‘wa itself from the classical period to the present. Matthew J. Kuiper’s Da‘wa and Other Religions: Indian Muslims and the Modern Resurgence of Global Islamic Activism attempts to do so, and succeeds in offering readers a wide-ranging overview of da‘wa. Though it focuses on modern South Asia, this book will be of interest to scholars of Islam in any region or period."

Reseña de los libros publicados por Diego Melo Carrasco: Las alianzas y negociaciones del sultán: Un recorrido por la historia de las "relaciones internacionales" del sultanato nazarí de Granada (siglos XIII-XV), Murcia, Editum, 2015; Compendio de cartas, tratados y noticias de paces y treguas entre Granada, Castilla y Aragón, Murcia, Editum, 2016

"התבודדות, השכלה ודבקות בהגותו של ר' משה נרבוני

א. ביאור אגרת אפשרות הדבקות לאבן רשד
1. חושים, דמיון והשכלה
2. הדבקות מתרחשת בעת חורבן השכל שבקנין
3. הגורמים המשפיעים על היכולת לממש את אפשרות הדבקות
4. האם תתכן השגה פתאומית של השכלה ודבקות?

ב. ביאור חי בן יקטן לאבן טופיל – הזיקה בין התבודדות לדבקות
1. סוגים שונים של התבודדות
א. התבודדות כניתוק מן החברה האנושית
        ב.  התבודדות במסגרת החברה האנושית
ג. התבודדות כניתוק מן הטבע
ד. הפרדות הנפש מן הגוף
ה. סיכום
2  . השכלה ודבקות
א. תולדות הפילוסופיה במבט אישי
ב. אבן סינא והחכמה המזרחית
ג. עיון, השקפה, המשכה
ד. דבקות

ג. סיכום

נספח: בשבחו של לימוד עצמאי
1. ביאור חי בן יקטן
              2. פרקי משה
"

Negara Madinah, adalah pemerintahan yang digagas oleh Rasulullah shalallahu alaihi wasallam. Negara Madinah bukan hanya merupakan negara Islam, melainkan menjadi sebuah negara yang menaungi heterogenitas agama bagi pemeluk-pemeluknya yang menjadi warga negara Madinah [Islam, Nasrani, dan Yahudi]. Agama tidak membutuhkan negara karena Agama akan senatiasa lestari dalam setiap kehidupan pemeluk-pemeluknya, tapi negara-lah yang membutuhkan agama untuk me-moral-kan [membina akhlaq] masyarakatnya. Sungguh kelam jika sebuah negara tanpa agama, maka akan tergambarkan sifat barbar yang tidak manusiawi. Prinsip-prinsip Islam yang mulia tertuang jelas yang diformulasikan dalam Piagam Madinah. Demikian juga syura [musyawarah] dijunjung tinggi dalam upayanya menggali ketentuan hukum yang berhubungan dengan interaksi sosial masyarakat. Hukum Islam berlaku bagi pemeluk-pemeluknya, kaum muslimin. Begitupun pemeluk agama lain, mereka bebas menjalankan ritual keagamaan sesuai dengan kepercayaan yang dianutnya, tidak ada paksaan untuk memeluk agama Islam. Semua masyarakat hidup dalam naungan ke-universal-an ajaran Islam bagi semesta alam. Toleransi dijaga, sehingga tidak saling mengganggu karena mereka semua cenderung kepada perdamaian. Sedangkan bagi para penganggu, tidak ada tempat bagi mereka selain harus di usir dari negara Madinah. Hingga pada akhirnya, atas kehendak Allah-sampai hari ini-, Madinah [bersama Makkah] menjadi dua kota yang terlarang dimasuki oleh non muslim. Lantas apakah dengan begitu hidup negara Madinah menjadi semu? Lantas dengan terusirnya kaum non-muslim itu menandakan Islam membenci mereka yang di usir? Tentu saja tidak seperti itu. Islam cinta damai. Islam tidak akan memerangi mereka-non muslim-yang cenderung pada perdamaian. Islam hanya memerangi mereka-non muslim-yang memerangi agama Islam. Dan itulah kenyataan sejarah

Allah Most High chose the Muslims to be the ummah of mission (risālah), of exemplary good (khayrīyah), of the golden ‎‎mean (wasaṭīyah), and of witnessing to humanity (shahādah). Along with these responsibilities came the capacity for ‎‎renewal, for ijtihad, and for correctly interpreting the Shari'ah. As a result, there is a certain inseparable mutuality between ‎‎the ummah's roles as a median community cum civilizational witness for humanity and its other role as a moral and ethical ‎‎exemplar, and between its capability for ijtihad and effecting reform. In order to facilitate these roles, Allah endowed the ‎‎Qur'an and the Sunnah with the necessary flexibility in every aspect of Islam: its belief system, its methodology, its ‎‎Shari'ah, and its organization. Thus, it was only natural for the early generations of Muslims, both on an individual and a ‎‎community level, to offer a unique picture to the world: the complete liberation of the human mind from all forms of mental ‎‎slavery and idolatry. Further protection against Wing from this exalted position was the provision made for avoiding ‎‎mistakes, deviations, and misinterpretations: only those statements which could be proven by acceptable evidence or ‎‎supported by valid testimony were to be believed. A look at the ijtihad exercised by the Ṣaḥābah, whether they were ‎‎learned qurrā' or common people, will suffice to illustrate the amazing transformation which Islam was able to achieve. ‎‎Why do we not see this situation today? What has happened to the penetrating and enlightened mind inspired by Islam, ‎‎the one which freed our ancestors from their idols and the obstacles blocking their progress? Haw did such a mind return ‎‎to its former prison and fetters, robbed of any chance to renew and reform the ummah through ijtihad? ‎

It presents a brief history of the role of religion in the history of Syria and the Middle East from early Roman times to the rise of ISIS, with particular relevance to understanding the genesis of the regional civil war sparked in 2011 as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings. It contains portraits of Syria's religious and sectarian communities, describes their origins and development over time, and identifies sources of intractable conflict among some groups.  Its source material varies from primary source documents to books, magazines, Web sites, and ruminations on personal experience that that mix memoir with historical perspective. It fills a gap in recent years with respect to scholarship on the relationship among Middle Eastern Sunni Muslims, Shiites, Christians, and sects perceived as heretical or nontraditional such as Alawite, Bahai, Druze, Mandaean, and Yezidi. It engages with recent scholarship on religious studies, economic history, the study of democratization, Syrian history, and history of the Baath Arab Socialist Party in Iraq and Syria.

Muhammad Asad, (1900 – 1992) is a Jewish-born Austro-Hungarian born journalist who reverted to Islam, in his book “Islam at the Cross Roads” Muhammad Asad (1934) writes, “Many of Western civilizations historical experiences are deeply tinged by a strange animosity towards Islam.  To some extent this also is an inheritance from Europe's antiquity.  The Greeks and the Romans regarded only themselves as "civilized", while everything foreign, and particularly everything living to the east of the Mediterranean, bore the label "barbarian".  Since that time the Occidentals have believed that their racial superiority over the rest of mankind is a matter of fact; and the more or less pronounced contempt for non-European races and nations is one of the standing features of Western civilization.  This alone, however, is not enough to explain its feeling as regards Islam.  Here, and here alone, the Western attitude is not one of mere indifference, as in the case of other "foreign" religions and cultures: it is one of deep-rooted and almost fanatical aversion; and it is not only intellectual but bears an intensely emotional tint. The West may not accept the doctrines of Buddhist or Hindu philosophy, but it will always preserve a balanced, reflective attitude of mind with regard to those systems.  As soon, however, as it turns towards Islam, the balance is disturbed and an emotional bias creeps in” (Asad, 1934, p. 49).

In the tenth/sixteenth century six treatises on physiognomy (ʿilm-i firāsat)—a science widely considered able to predict inner moral dispositions (aḫlāq-i bāṭina) based on external appearances (aḥwāl-i ẓāhira)—were written for the Ottoman court. In a world in which statecraft and politics were ultimately based on questions of morality (aḫlāq), physiognomy was presented as a particularly useful skill for the Ottoman court due to its ability to evaluate inner moral character with scientific precision. Based on such knowledge, a partial conception of justice could be implemented with an instrumental coating of impartiality. Moreover, men with prized moral qualities could be selected for the ruling elite. The science also offered the sultan and his court a modus operandi for attaining self-knowledge and, if combined with moral self-disciplining (riyāḍat), a way to acquire divine characteristics.

fondazione Giovanni xxiii Comitato scientifico claus arnold J.W. Goethe universität, frankfürt am main (deutschland) francesco citti università degli studi di bologna (italia) philippe marie berthe raoul denis, op school of religion and theology, university of Kwazulu-natal, pietermaritzburg (south africa) frédéric Gugelot ecole des Hautes etudes en sciences sociales, paris (france) Gaetano lettieri sapienza, università di roma (italia) Yan li ren chinese academy of social sciences, university of beijing (china) Jürgen miethke Heilderberg universität (deutschland) John pollard university of cambridge (united Kingdom) violet soen Ku leuven (belgië) christoph theobald centre sèvres de paris (france) roberto card. tucci

The paper presents preliminary results of archaeobotanical studies carried out at the Madīnat Ilbīra site in Spain. The functioning of the town, which was the capital of one of the administrative districts (kūras) of alAndalus, falls in the period between the second half of the 9th century and the 11th century. However, the analysed soil samples were collected from archaeological contexts dated mostly to the last decades of the 10th century and to the 11th century. The samples yielded an interesting set of data about the preserved plant remains. Although the taxonomic diversity of the plants is not high, the analysis revealed remains of naked and hulled wheat (emmer wheat), millet, poppy seeds, perhaps peas, cucumber or melon, and grapevine. Although crop plants played an important role in the everyday diet of the town inhabitants, wild plants also were probably collected and used. The latter are represented in the analysed materials by, for example, wild strawberry, common mallow a...

The topic of Islamic philosophy has always been attracted its reader to a wide yet specific subject including the identification of Islamic Philosophy which related to the relation between its origin and Worldview of Islam, the adaption of Greek philosophy into Islamic Philosophy, and the implications which emerged during and after the glory of Islamic Civilization. This paper will try to elaborate the term of "Islamic Philosophy" from its etymological meaning as well as the identification that taken from revelationbased worldview of Islam. As the beginning, the definitions of "philosophy" will be derived from number of authoritative scholars. The suitability between Islamic Worldview and the Islamization of Greek Philosophy will answer of the questions about 'the origin of Islamic Philosophy'; including the relation between both the important of revelation (wahy) and semantic interpretation. The discussion is continued widely as well on the history of translation in the time of the Caliph Ma'mun, Abbasid, when the civilization of Islam was in its golden era. Initiated by the caliph himself, this period has introduced many authoritative Muslim scholars in translation of knowledge scripts as well as described a lot of unique facts which rarely mentioned in the general literature such as how does the system of Bayt al-H{ ikmah work, interreligious relation between Scholars, and even the given salary for the Scholars. Lastly, this paper will redefine the historicity and ethnicity of philosopher explaining why does the reason of the term "Islamic Philosophy" become the most appropriate definition. In the deeper analysis, we do not only see 'Islamic Philosophy' as a claim of term but it is also as the 'worldview identification'. Islamic philosophy, has indeed successfully assimilated the sophisticated assimilation of the thought of Greek Philosophy by all of its distinctive and characteristics.

The International Research Journal of Islamic Civilization (IRJIC) is visualised as an academic and scientific publication devoted to articles and other informed studies on Islamic civilization.  The comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach of IRJIC is aimed at formulating new theories and proposing new discourses in relation to the study of Islamic civilization in its diverse features, in the form of its historical, intellectual and cultural manifestations. One of the aims of IRJIC is to create an intellectual space shareable by scholars of different orientations, traditions and historical and cultural backgrounds, in order to promote the exchange of ideas, innovative research methodologies and theories.  IRJIC is an Open Access Journal and consequentially the users have the right to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link the full texts of the articles, but not to reproduce them in any way without contacting and asking permission of the publisher.

Professor Thomas Arnold, a Cambridge scholar of Islam of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, authentically describes the peaceful spread of Islam throughout the world. From Arabia, Islam spread to North Africa, interior of Africa, Andalusia, India, IndoChina, and indeed all of parts of the known world of the time. The orientalists, medieval polemicists, missionaries and the modern media all argue that Islam has been spread by the sword. In the current media war against Islam, Muslims and Arabs, the violent image of Islam is projected and stressed again and again. Unfortunately, these illogical and politically motivated assertions go unchallenged even now, it is at this stage that Tawasul Europe has undertaken the republication of the classic work of Professor Arnold.

How do ‘new’ and ’old’ Islamic actors in contemporary Albania define religious legitimacy, the nation and religious otherness? This chapter uses Olivier Roy’s analytical distinction between accommodationism and neo-fundamentalism as a compass to navigate through Albania’s complex religious landscape by exploring different sets of beliefs promulgated by a selection of Islamic groups (2010).  These are the Muslim Community of Albania, which represents ‘official Islam’ , and ‘mainstream’ Sunni Muslims, who are typically accommodationist. I also analyse a Sufi subgroup thereof, which is equally accommodationist, but in a slightly different manner. As a neo-fundamentalist counterpoint, I explore the ideas of a competing organisation composed of Salafi imams.

Accommodationism means that the bond between religion and a specific territory and culture of origin is tight. In this context, ‘culture’ refers to Albanian historical tradition and the language-based, secular nation-building project engineered by modernising state elites since the early 20th century. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, is a globalised form of religion that emphasises the gap between faith and culture. As such, it represents a reformatted, exportable form of religiosity, which stands in contrast to cultural ethno-national ways of being Muslim. Neo-fundamentalist religious identity is faith-based, and seeks to ground itself solely upon explicit religious norms, at least in principle. Accordingly, these believers make their religiosity visible through a global uniform of religious markers detached from the surrounding culture.

In the Albanian Islamic context, the theoretically informed labels, neo-fundamentalist and accommodationist, roughly correspond to the ‘Albanianist’ versus the ‘Salafi’ forms of Islam. To some extent, this resonates with mainstream distinctions adopted in Albania and in the Balkans. A popular Albanian term for Muslims associated with neo-fundamentalist forms of Islam is ‘fanatic’ (fanatik). Accommodationism is commonly related to ‘old’ forms of Islam, which many be deemed as local, rooted, and European as well as tolerant and moderate. Neo-fundamentalism, conversely, refers to certain ‘new’ forms of Islam, i.e. those perceived to be imported, transnational, alien, ‘fanatic’ and a threat to local religious customs. This cultural distinction between what are deemed acceptable and unacceptable forms of Islam is often politicised and securitised. As I will show, the association between neo-fundamentalism and violence is not necessarily correct, and the Salafi community under scrutiny here can be defined as pacifist and purist (Wiktorowicz 2006). These two formats, moreover, clash and merge together as different local actors seek to recast and legitimize their respective positions.

"This article focuses on the near defaults of high profile sukuk and recommends strategies for preventing defaults in the future. Due to their large size, the near defaults of the 'mega' sukuk issued by the subsidiaries of Dubai World had a great impact on confidence in the global sukuk market. The defaults and near defaults dented the reputation of sukuk as securities that offer strong protection to investors. In order to restore investor confidence in Islamic structured finance, a paradigm shift is required in the way sukuk are structured. There is a need to move away from structuring sukuk as bond-like, non-tradable instruments that mimic conventional (unsecured) bonds, and structure sukuk as asset-backed, tradable securities that enable genuine risk sharing, an essential characteristic of Islamic finance.

The recent proposed Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017 has raised the new issues, which were long due to Muslim women in India. It has not only criminalised the practice of instant tin talaq (divorce), but also signifies the government’s intervention in defining the notion of gender justice to Muslim women. Importantly, this development not only highlights an emerging Muslim women’s activism in India but also an articulation of gender justice from within the community. However, an array of criticisms is also sprouting up against the Bill from different corners of the community, including Muslim women’s groups. The article is an attempt to address the multiple facets of the Bill; it also argues that the talaq issue alone cannot constitute the core of gender justice rather the interplay of various factors like Hindutva, communal violence and the marginal location of the Muslim community needs to taken into account to understand Muslim women’s question in India.

The Islamic Golden Age was an unprecedented era of literary, medical, philosophical, and scientific development within the Muslim world. It is generally dated between 750 and 1260,  though some scholars consider it to have peaked between 750 and 950.  Knowledge of this era has become widespread in the West, communicated mainly through the public education system and popular culture, and to a lesser extent through Muslim apologists online.

In contrast, the European Middle Ages (dating from 400 to 1400), have historically been known as the Dark Ages. Although professional scholarship abandoned that term long ago, recognizing it is both condescending and inaccurate, mainstream Western popular culture typically continues to depict the European Middle Ages as a time of scientific ignorance, primitive technology, medical incompetence, and laughable superstition. The Muslim world during the same period is popularly depicted as scientifically advanced, technologically sophisticated, and medically skilled.

This is the standard narrative found in mainstream media; European ignorance during centuries of Dark Ages, while the light of scientific knowledge was preserved in the Muslim world, not returning to Europe until the Renaissance era. It’s a common narrative, but it is not true.

Diaspora tourism has become a significant form of transnational mobility that underlies many issues in the field of tourism and migration studies. Despite a considerable body of research that focuses on tourism motivations of home return and its social functions in collective identities and meaning-making, the political roles of diaspora tourism in shaping ethnic bonds and transnational networks need to be further acknowledged. Since 2014, a group of Muslims from Kazakhstan have travelled to China to celebrate their return after over 140 years of displacement from their homeland. Interviews with local officials and residents in Xi’an illustrate the political factors of host governments and local Muslim communities in organising the formal group tourism events. Unlike informal and personal travel, such officially organised diaspora tourism does not serve as a simple act of homecoming. The host governments have used it as a political tool to shape transnational networks and domestic ethnic governance under the discourse of ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. To fulfil this political agenda, the official narrative of diaspora tourism involves a process of remembering and forgetting, and the creation of itineraries that authenticates the imagined ancestral homeland while effacing the unsettled past. The itinerary of tourism events and related cultural practices focuses on a shared ethno-religious identity and common interests of cultural and business exchange between the selected diaspora representatives and host communities. However, due to its political nature, the sustainability of diaspora tourism does not only relate to funding and resource management. Such organised diaspora tourism is also closely associated with the shifting ethnic and migration policies of the host nation-state.

The Rise of the Philippines for the Fall of the Bangsamoro A Critical Essay on "The Bangsamoro Question and the National Democratic Option" by Jun Valila, and "The State-Moro Armed Conflict in the Philippines" Unresolved national question or question of governance? by Rizal Buendia In partial fulfilment of the academic requirements in the subject Readings in Philippine History under Professor Jun Valila Written by Danzig James A. Orcales

ظهر المسلمون في الصين منذ فترة مبكرة في القرن الأول الهجري (7م) بفضل التجار المسلمين من العرب والفرس. ومع مرور الأزمان أصبح المسلمون يشكلون أحد المكونات الديموغرافية للصين، وعلى مدار أربعة عشر قرنا أي تاريخ الإسلام في الصين وحتى الآن شكل المسلمون مكونًا من تاريخ وحضارة الصين، واصطبغ ثقافة المسلمين وحياتهم ونتاجهم المادي بكافة صورة بصبغة متأثرة بقوة بالثقافة الصينية التقليدية. ونتج عن ذلك وجود عديد من الآثار الإسلامية التاريخية ما بين عمائر دينية إسلامية متباينة الوظائف والتخطيط والخصائص، وتحف منقولة حملت طابع الثقافة الإسلامية من خزف ومعادن وغيرها، فضلا عن عدد معتبر من الوثائق والمخطوطات والكتابات والنقوش باللغات العربية والفارسية والصينية تعكس تاريخ الوجود الإسلامي في الصين وسماته؛ وتمثل – في معظم الحالات – نموذجًا رائعًا لدمج الثقافتين الإسلامية والصينية.
وإعطاء فكرة شاملة عن المسلمين في الصين، وآثارهم المعمارية والفنية، والشعائر الإسلامية هو موضوع الكتاب الذي بين أيدينا ”الفن الإسلامي في الصين“، والذي يمثل الترجمة العربية لكتاب: ”中国伊斯兰教艺术“ لمؤلفه ”يانغ قويپنغ“ (2012)، عن الترجمة الإنجليزية ”Islamic Art in China “ ترجمة: ”مين شانغ“ ”Min Chang“ (الطبعة الأولى، يناير 2013 ؛ ISBN 978-7-5085-2439-9)، تحرير: ”وانغ لي كاي شِنغ ما پيي وو“ ، حقوق الصور الفوتوغرافية: ”يانغ قويپنغ“ ، الناشر: ”جنغ شياومين“، تصميم الغلاف: ”يين جينهوا“ ، طباعة: شركة تسي هانغ للثقافة والفنون ببكبن، نشر وتوزيع: دار الصين عبر القارات للنشر.
يتميز الكتاب بالعرض الشمولي الأفقي للموضوع، وهو مزود بعديد من الصور الملونة الداعمة لفكرة ومضمون الكتاب. ويعد مدخل ممتاز لدراسة الفنون والعمارة الإسلامية في الصين.
الترجمة هنا عن الترجمة الإنجليزية، مع إضافة بعض التعليقات والإيضاحات المحدودة بالحواشي الختامية، وإضافة ببليوغرافيا مختارة عن العمارة والفنون الإسلامية في الصين في نهاية الكتاب من عمل المترجم. والترجمة العربية في هذا السياق تمثل إضافة للمكتبة العربية والتي لا زالت بحاجة للمزيد من التراجم والأعمال عن المسلمين في الصين وآثارهم.

Abstrak: Mata pelajaran Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia (TITAS) adalah salah satu komponen daripada Kursus Pengajian Umum yang perlu diambil oleh setiap pelajar universiti di negara ini. Mata pelajaran TITAS telah diajar di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA) sejak sekian lama dan kemudiannya turut dikuatkuasakan di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Swasta (IPTS) pada September 2013 seperti yang diputuskan dalam Mesyuarat Jemaah Menteri pada 6 April 2012. Namun, keputusan dan ketetapan mewajibkan kursus TITAS di IPTS telah menimbulkan kebimbangan dan persepsi negatif sesetengah pihak malah ada dakwaan mata pelajaran ini cuba mengIslamkan pelajar bukan Islam. Bagi Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia (KPM), objektif mata pelajaran TITAS bukan untuk mengIslamkan pelajar tetapi untuk meningkatkan persefahaman dan mengukuhkan perpaduan antara rakyat berbilang etnik dan agama di negara ini melalui pemahaman pelajar terhadap tamadun utama di Asia seperti tamadun Islam, Melayu, Cina dan India. Bertitik tolak daripada persepsi negatif pelbagai pihak terhadap tujuan mata pelajaran TITAS diwajibkan kepada pelajar-pelajar IPTS maka kajian ini dijalankan melalui set soal selidik bagi mengetahui persepsi pelajar pelbagai etnik daripada kalangan pelajar program ijzah dan profesional yang telah dan sedang mengikuti kursus ini di KUPTMKL dari sudut pengetahuan dan pemahaman mereka terhadap kandungan silibus dan kepentingan mata pelajaran TITAS serta kewajarannya. Hasil kajian akan dapat memberi input yang berguna bagi menentukan dan memastikan bahawa objektif mata pelajaran TITAS tercapai seperti yang diharapkan.

Abstract: Rasulullah(S) could have easily gotten multiple gorgeous women as his wives or concubines had he so desired. However, except Ayesha, all his wives were divorced, widowed, or slaves.  All of these marriages were divinely ordained and had Hikmah (divine wisdom) and valid reasons behind them. Some of them were helping a pious Muslim woman whose husband had been slain in the cause of Islam, freeing those captives of war belonging to an honourable lineage, and achieving political allies for the cause of Islam. Some marriages were entered into in the hope of establishing cordial relationships with some influential tribes in order to reduce their enmity towards Islam. Rasulullah(S) removed racial, cultural, tribal, and national distinctions and prejudices through his marriages. The prime reason for his marriages was to unite the Muslim community with love and affection. During the era of Jahiliyyah, a divorced woman was considered inferior in status and the rich man would usually prefer to have them as concubines rather than marry them. By marrying a divorced lady, Rasulullah(S) set a precedent that it is legal as well as noble to marry a divorcee and elevate her status in society.  Some of Rasulullah’s(S) marriages were in order to wipe out certain prevailing evil customs and practices. An adopted son was considered as one’s own back in the day which Islam disallowed and Rasulullah (S) married his cousin Zaynab who was earlier the wife of his adopted son Zaid. Thus, he removed the custom that Nikah was illegal with the former wife of an adopted son. Likewise, prisoners of wars were kept as slave girls but never married. To eradicate this evil practice Rasulullah(S) set an example and married two captive women.

Muslim values,  global values. Empirical data from the " World Values Survey "

Arno Tausch (born on February 11, 1951 in Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian
political scientist and one of the founders of quantitative world system and
development research in Europe. His research program is focused on world
systems theory, development studies and dependency theory, European studies
in the framework of core-periphery relationships, and quantitative peace studies.
Dr. Tausch, a liberal Catholic, is an active participant in the liberation theology
movement and the ecumenical dialogue between the major world religions. He
authored or co-authored 14 books in English, 5 books in German, and in all over
170 printed or electronic scholarly and current affairs publications in 6
languages (English, Finnish, French, German, Russian and Spanish) for well
over 50 journals and/or publishing institutions around the globe. Among these
publications there are 35 articles for 24 major peer-reviewed social science
journals, and books and book chapters for such publishing houses as Dutch
University Press, Nova Science Publishers, N.Y., Palgrave Macmillan,
Rozenberg, Routledge, Saint Martin's Press, N.Y.. In all, Tausch already
published in 24 countries around the globe: Argentina; Australia; Austria;
Canada; China; Finland; France; Germany; Greece, India; Irish Republic; Israel;
Italy; Luxembourg; the Netherlands; Pakistan; Poland; Russia; Slovenia; Spain;
Sweden; Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.