Exploring the Mind of God: An Introduction to Shiʿite Legal Epistemology /
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This book introduces readers to the legal epistemology that is advocated within Twelver Shiʿite uṣūl al-fiqh (legal theory). It critically surveys the epistemological underpinnings upheld by post-19th century Uṣūlī clerics that impel them to mainly deduce and interpret Sharia using scripture and literalist hermeneutical methods. An evaluation of these underpinnings uncovers the important juxtaposition that exists between the seminarian discourses of uṣūl al-fiqh and philosophy. The book hypothesises that uṣūl al-fiqh has both space and historical precedence to accept alternative epistemological theories that may enable orthodox Shiʿite clerics to display greater dynamism in deducing and interpreting Sharia.
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1 online resource (180 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004536814
9789004544000
Christian identity amid Islam in medieval Spain /
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In Christian Identity amid Islam in Medieval Spain Charles L. Tieszen explores a small corpus of texts from medieval Spain in an effort to deduce how their authors defined their religious identity in light of Islam, and in turn, how they hoped their readers would distinguish themselves from the Muslims in their midst. It is argued that the use of reflected self-image as a tool for interpreting Christian anti-Muslim polemic allows such texts to be read for the self-image of their authors instead of the image of just those they attacked. As such, polemic becomes a set of borders authors offered to their communities, helping them to successfully navigate inter-religious living.
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1 online resource (x, 296 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004192294 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Semantics of Qurʾanic Language: al-Āḫira /
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In The Semantics of Qurʾanic Language: al-Āḫira, Ghassan el Masri offers a semantic study of the concept al-āḫira 'the End' in the Qurʾān. The study is prefaced with a detailed account of the late antique concept of etymologia (Semantic Etymology). In his work, he demonstrates the necessity of this concept for appreciating the Qurʾān's rhetorical strategies for claiming discursive authority in the Abrahamic theological tradition. The author applies the etymological tool to his investigation of the theological significance of al-āḫira , and concludes that the concept is polysemous, and tolerates a large variety of interpretations. The work is unique in that it draws extensively on Biblical material and presents a plethora of pre-Islamic poetry verses in the analysis of the concept.
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1 online resource. :
9789004428034
9789004427990
The Horizons of Being : The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī /
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The Horizons of Being explores the teachings of Ibn al-ʿArabī by examining Dāwūd al-Qayṣarī's (d. 1350) Prolegomena ( muqaddima ) to his commentary, Maṭlaʿ khuṣūṣ al-kilam fī maʿānī Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (A Preamble of Select Discourse on the Meanings of the Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam), referred to simply as Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī. While his commentary represents the third in a direct line going back to Ibn al-ʿArabī through Kāshānī, Jandī and Qūnawī, it remains one of the most popular due to its thorough and accessible treatment of the Fuṣūṣ that frequently synthesizes the ideas of his predecessors. The Muqaddima stands on its own as an independent work and has been the subject of careful study. If the al-Futūḥāt al-makkiyya contains the entirety of Ibn al-ʿArabī's metaphysics which is distilled in the Fuṣūṣ, then Qayṣarī's Muqaddima can be read not just as a precis of the Fuṣūṣ but a summary of Ibn al-ʿArabī's doctrine.
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1 online resource. :
9789004425330
9789004425248
Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra. Volume 4 : A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam /
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Theology and Society is the most comprehensive study of Islamic intellectual and religious history, focusing on Muslim theology. With its emphasis on the eighth and ninth centuries CE, it remains the most detailed prosopographical study of the early phase of the formation of Islam. Originally published in German between 1991 and 1995, Theology and Society is a monument of scholarship and a unique scholarly enterprise which has stood the test of time as an unparalleled reference work.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004381599 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Freedom through Submission: Muslim-talk in Contemporary Denmark /
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"In Freedom through Submission Johannes Renders explores Danish-Muslim statements on human freedom. Within a context where public talk of Islam is largely mediated by an incessant succession of controversies, the notion of freedom is weaponized both by and against a growing Muslim community. Danish Muslims take issue with liberal associations of the notion with autonomy and choice, and seek to reconfigure the public debate that pits freedom against Islam. This book brings out a sophisticated and reflective Muslim discourse, in which freedom is something individuals must simultaneously exercise, surrender, and achieve in a cultivated relinquishing of the will to Allah"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004448957
9789004448940
Tarjuma-yi Anājīl-i arbaʿa /
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Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī (d. 1127/1715) was a Shīʿī scholar who entertained close relations with the Safavi ruler Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn (d. 1139/1726-27) in Isfahan. In the late 17th century, Isfahan was the center of international commerce and diplomacy in Persia. Besides serving the commercial interests of their homeland, some of the foreign representations also had missionaries in their ranks, with the obvious purpose of propagating Christianity among the local population. To this end, they also distributed Arabic copies of the Gospels. In those days, Isfahan was the scene of Christian-Muslim dialogue and polemics. The Persian translation of the Gospels published in this volume was made by Khātūnābādī on the order of Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn. It was meant to provide Muslim scholars with the necessary background for their debates. It is a critical, documented, almost scholarly translation, with all the weak points of the Gospels recorded in its margins.
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1 online resource. :
9789004401754
9789648700077
Materialien zur alten islamischen Frommigkeit /
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Arabic texts dating from the Third-4th/9th-10th centuries by the following five authors are here presented: Abū Shaykh al-Burjulānī, Ibrāhīm al-Khuttalī, Ibn al-Naḥḥās, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rūdhabārī and Ibn Ḥamakān. The texts appear in transliteration along with a German translation. Their chains of transmission (isnāds) are analyzed and parallels with other authors are noted. The subject dealt with throughout is mystical piety. These highly interesting materials throw light on Islamic mysticism's early stage of development.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 374 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-335) and indexes. :
9789047443667 :
1875-0664 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The 1720 Imperial Circumcision Celebrations in Istanbul : Festivity and Representation in the Early Eighteenth Century /
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The 1720 Imperial Circumcision Celebrations in Istanbul offers the first holistic examination of an Ottoman public festival through an in-depth inquiry into different components of the 1720 event. Through a critical and combined analysis of the hitherto unknown archival sources along with the textual and pictorial narratives on the topic, the book vividly illustrates the festival's organizational details and preparations, its complex rites (related to consumption, exchange, competition), and its representation in court-commissioned illustrated festival books (sūrnāmes). To analyze all these phases in a holistic manner, the book employs an interdisciplinary approach by using the methodological tools of history, art history, and performance studies and thus, provides a new methodological and conceptual framework for the study of Ottoman celebrations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004437562
9789004437555
Ecumenical Community : Language and Politics of the Ummah in the Qurʾan /
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"In Ecumenical Community, Hamza M. Zafer explores the language and politics of community-formation in the Qurʾan. Zafer proposes that ecumenism, or the inclusivity of social difference, was a key alliance-building strategy in the western Arabian proto-Muslim communitarian movement (1st/7th century). The Proto-Muslims imagined that their pietistic community-the ummah-transcended but did not efface prior social differences based in class, clan, and custom. In highlighting the inclusive orientation of the Qurʾan's ummah-building program, Zafer provides new insights into the development of early Islam and the period preceding the Arab conquests"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004442993
9789004442986
The city of the moon god : religious traditions of Harran /
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This study treats the religious and intellectual history of the city of Harran (Eastern Turkey) from biblical times down to the establishment of Islam. The author starts from the well-known reference in the Qur'an and the early Islamic histories to the people of Harran as Sabians, one of the 'peoples of the book.' The author unravels strands of religious tradition in Harran that run from the old Semitic planetary cults through Hellenistic hermeticism, gnosticism, and Neo-Pythagoreanism and Christian cults to esoteric Islamic sects such as the Sufis and Shiites.
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1 online resource (viii, 232 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-224) and index. :
9789004301429 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Jesus for Zanzibar : narratives of Pentecostal (non-)belonging, Islam, and nation /
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In Jesus for Zanzibar: Narratives of Pentecostal (Non-)Belonging, Islam, and Nation Hans Olsson offers an ethnographic account of the lived experience and socio-political significance of newly arriving Pentecostal Christians in the Muslim majority setting of Zanzibar. This work analyzes how a disputed political partnership between Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania intersects with the construction of religious identities. Undertaken at a time of political tensions, the case study of Zanzibar's largest Pentecostal church, the City Christian Center, outlines religious belonging as relationally filtered in-between experiences of social insecurity, altered minority / majority positions, and spiritual powers. Hans Olsson shows that Pentecostal Christianity, as a signifier of (un)wanted social change, exemplifies contested processes of becoming in Zanzibar that capitalizes on, and creates meaning out of, religious difference and ambient political tensions.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004410367
John of Damascus and Islam : Christian heresiology and the intellectual background to earliest Christian-Muslim relations /
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How did Islam come to be considered a Christian heresy? In this book, Peter Schadler outlines the intellectual background of the Christian Near East that led John, a Christian serving in the court of the caliph in Damascus, to categorize Islam as a heresy. Schadler shows that different uses of the term heresy persisted among Christians, and then demonstrates that John's assessment of the beliefs and practices of Muslims has been mistakenly dismissed on assumptions he was highly biased. The practices and beliefs John ascribes to Islam have analogues in the Islamic tradition, proving that John may well represent an accurate picture of Islam as he knew it in the seventh and eighth centuries in Syria and Palestine.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004356054 :
1570-7350 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Philosophical Theology in Islam : Later Ashʿarism East and West /
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Philosophical Theology in Islam studies the later history of the Ashʿarī school of theology through in-depth probings of its thought, sources, scholarly networks and contexts. Starting with a review of al-Ghazālī's role in the emergence of post-Avicennan philosophical theology, the book offers a series of case studies on hitherto unstudied texts by the towering thinker Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī as well as specific philosophical and theological topics treated in his works. Studies furthermore shed light on the transmission and reception of later Ashʿarī doctrines in periods and regions that have so far received little scholarly attention. This book is the first exploration of the later Ashʿarī tradition across the medieval and early-modern period through a trans-regional perspective. Contributors: Peter Adamson, Asad Q. Ahmed, Fedor Benevich, Xavier Casassas Canals, Jon Hoover, Bilal Ibrahim, Andreas Lammer, Reza Pourjavady, Harith Ramli, Ulrich Rudolph, Meryem Sebti, Delfina Serrano-Ruano, Ayman Shihadeh, Aaron Spevack, and Jan Thiele.
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1 online resource. :
9789004426610
9789004426603
Reading Islam : life and politics of brotherhood in modern Turkey /
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In Reading Islam Fabio Vicini offers a journey within the intimate relations, reading practices, and forms of intellectual engagement that regulate Muslim life in two enclosed religious communities in Istanbul. Combining anthropological observation with textual and genealogical analysis, he illustrates how the modes of thought and social engagement promoted by these two communities are the outcome of complex intellectual entanglements with modern discourses about science, education, the self, and Muslims' place and responsibility in society. In this way, Reading Islam sheds light on the formation of new generations of faithful and socially active Muslims over the last thirty years and on their impact on the turn of Turkey from an assertive secularist Republic to an Islamic-oriented form of governance.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004413757
Christian-Muslim dialogue : perspectives of four Lebanese thinkers /
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Lebanon is a significant region of encounter between Muslims and Christians in the Middle East. This book examines how Christian-Muslim dialogue is envisioned by four present-day Lebanese thinkers: Great Ayatollah Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah and Doctor Mahmoud Ayoub from the Shiite tradition, and Metropolitan Georges Khodr and Doctor, Father Mouchir Basile Aoun from the Eastern Christian Antiochian tradition. The study seeks to bring the four thinkers into dialogue on a number of topics, including doctrinal themes, ethical principles and the issue of political power-sharing in Lebanon. All four thinkers make several suggestions for facilitating mutual understanding and transcending old debates. The concept of God and the principle of neighbourly love seem to have particular potential as fruitful bases for further dialogue.
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1 online resource (vii, 349 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004238534 :
1570-7350 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The qussas of early Islam /
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The Islamic qāṣṣ (preacher/storyteller) has been viewed most commonly as a teller of stories, primarily religious in nature and often unreliable. Building on material of over a hundred quṣṣāṣ from the rise of Islam through the end of the Umayyad period, this book offers the most comprehensive study of the early Islamic qāṣṣ to-date. By constructing profiles of these preachers/ storytellers and examining statements attributed to them, it argues that they were not merely storytellers but were in fact a complex group with diverse religious interests. The book demonstrates how the style and conduct of their teaching sessions distinguished them from other teachers and preachers and also explores their relationship with early religio-political movements, as well as with the Umayyad administration.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004335523 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Theology and society in the second and third centuries of the Hijra. a history of religious thought in Early Islam /
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Theology and Society is the most comprehensive study of Islamic intellectual and religious history, focusing on Muslim theology. With its emphasis on the eighth and ninth centuries CE, it remains the most detailed prosopographical study of the early phase of the formation of Islam. Originally published in German between 1991 and 1995, Theology and Society is a monument of scholarship and a unique scholarly enterprise which has stood the test of time as an unparalleled reference work.
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1 online resource (844 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004344020 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.