Muḥammad and His Followers in Context: The Religious Map of Late Antique Arabia

By Ilkka Lindstedt

Series: Islamic History and Civilization, Vol. 209

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: November 2, 2023

Hardcover: 372 pages

ISBN: 9789004687127

This title is published in Open Access with the support of the University of Helsinki Library.

Download PDF HERE.

The book surveys and analyzes changes in religious groups and identities in late antique Arabia, ca. 300-700 CE. It engages with contemporary and material evidence: for example, inscriptions, archaeological remains, Arabic poetry, the Qurʾān, and the so-called Constitution of Medina. Also, it suggests ways to deal with the later Arabic historiographical and other literary texts. The issue of social identities and their processes are central to the study. For instance, how did Arabian ethnic and religious identities intersect on the eve of Islam? The book suggests that the changes in social groups were more piecemeal than previously thought.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  – Prolegomena and Methodological Considerations
  – Ethnic, Linguistic, and Tribal Situation in Arabia before Islam
• 2. Judaism
  – Judaism in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 3. Christianity
  – Christianity in Late Antiquity
  – The Arabian Context
  – Conclusions
• 4. Gentiles
  – Introduction
  – Idolatry and Polytheism in Arabia
  – Gentile Monotheism in Arabia
  – The Idea of Abrahamic Descent in Arabia before Islam
  – An Excursus to Later Arabic Historiography: ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s Dream
  – Conclusions
• 5. The Rise of the Gentile Prophet in Mecca
  – Introduction and Methodological Considerations
  – Mecca
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography on the Meccan Period
  – Conclusions on the Meccan Period
• 6. The Founding and Consolidating of the Community in Medina
  – The “Constitution” of Medina
  – The Believers in the Medinan Qurʾān
  – The People of the Book in the Medinan Period
  – The Jews in the Qurʾān
  – The Christians in the Qurʾān
  – Inna al-dīn ʿinda Allāh al-islām
  – Gentile Purity and Dietary Regulations
  – The Eschaton Postponed?
  – Excursus: Arabic Historiography and the Medinan Era
  – Conclusions on the Medinan Era
• 7. Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet and His Community
  – Near-Contemporary Non-Arabic Views on the Prophet’s Community
• 8. Concluding toward Early Islamic Times
  – “No Two Religions”
  – Conclusions

About the Author

Ilkka Lindstedt, Ph.D. (2014), is Lecturer in Islamic theology at the University of Helsinki. He deals with pre-Islamic Arabia, early Islam, Arabic historiography, and Arabic epigraphy. Recent publications include: Ilkka Lindstedt, Nina Nikki, and Riikka Tuori (eds.), Religious Identities in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: Walking Together & Parting Ways, Brill 2022.

Source: Brill

Shiʿi Materiality Beyond Karbala: Religion That Matters

Volume Editors: Fouad Gehad Marei, Yafa Shanneik, and Christian Funke

Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East (Vol. 179)

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: May 23, 2024

Pages: 424

ISBN: 9789004691339

This book examines material and multi-sensorial expressions of Shiʿi Islam in diverse, and understudied demographic and geographic contexts. It engages with conceptual debates and makes several propositions that push the frontiers of scholarship on Islamic and Religious Studies, Material Religion, Heritage Studies, and Anthropology and Sociology of Religion. The contributions presented in this volume demonstrate how material things and less thing-like materialities make the praesentia and potentia of the Sacred tangible, how they cultivate intimate relations between human and more-than-human beings, and how they act as links and gateways to the Elsewhere and Otherworldly. The volume posits that materialities of religion are integral to processes of heritagization shaped by competing social and political actors involved in the construction and canonization of religious–in this case, Shiʿi–heritage.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
  Religion That Matters: Shiʿi Materiality Beyond Karbala, by Fouad Gehad Marei and Yafa Shanneik
• Part 1: The Visuality and Aurality of Shiʿi Materiality
  • Ch 1. The Literal and the Hidden:
    Some Bektashi Religious Materialities, by Sara Kuehn
  • Ch 2. Mediated Devotion
    Sound and Media in Transnational Azeri-Turkish Twelver Shiʿism, by Stefan Williamson Fa
  • Ch 3. Sonic Messages
    Hizbullah’s Mawlid an-Nabi Celebrations in Lebanon, by Ines Weinrich
  • Ch 4. Materializing Cultural Memory
    From Wartime Eulogies to Panegyric Pop in Contemporary Iran, by Maryam Aras
• Part 2: Gendered Perspectives on Shiʿi Materiality
  • Ch 5. Affective Consanguinity
    Blood, Mothers and Martyrs on the Battlefields of theIran-Iraq War, by Sana Chavoshian
  • Ch 6. Zur-khane
    A Material Approach to the Embodiment of Twelver Shiʿi Male Virtue Ethics, by Ingvild Flaskerud
  • Ch 7. Khidma: In the Service of Ahl al-Bayt
    Gender, Agency and Social Capital in Shiʿi Religious Statue Art in Kuwait, by Nada Al-Hudaid
  • Ch 8. A Price for a Wife or a Token of Love?
    Negotiating the Materiality of Mahr in Diasporic Shiʿi Marriage, by Marianne Hafnor Bøe
• Part 3: Sacred Objects and the Materiality of Shiʿi Life-Worlds
  • Ch 9. Turbat al-Husayn
    Development of a Tabarruk Ritual in Early Shiʿi Community, by S. M. Hadi Gerami and Ali Imran Syed
  • Ch 10. The Place of Material Objects in the Alawi Ziyāra
    by Amelia Gallagher
  • Ch 11. Festive Illumination, Prayers, and Grave Visitation
    Jashn-i Nisf Shaʿban in Kashmir, by Hakim Sameer Hamdani
  • Ch 12. Wishing Trees and Whirling Rocks
    Eco-material Rituals at the Alevi Shrine of Abdal Musa, by Christiane Gruber

About the Editors

• Fouad Gehad Marei is a Research Fellow at Lund University in Sweden. He is specialized in Middle East politics, Muslim societies and cultures, Material Religion, Digital Religion, and conflict stabilization and transformation. He has published in the journals of Religion and Society, Political Geography, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, and Leadership and Developing Societies.
• Yafa Shanneik is Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at Lund University in Sweden. Her book The Art of Resistance in Islam: The Performance of Politics among Shi‘i Women in the Middle East and Beyond was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.
• Christian Funke is an independent scholar of religious studies, with a focus on Iran and Islamic societies. His research spans Ritual Studies, Material Religion, and Islam and politics in contemporary societies.

To download this book (PDF) click HERE.

Source: Brill

Religious Minorities in Pluralist Societies: Critical Perspectives on the Accommodation of Religious Diversities

Editors: Roberta Medda-Windischer, Kerstin Wonisch, and Alexandra Cosima Budabin

Series: Studies in Territorial and Cultural Diversity Governance, Vol. 19

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: December 06, 2023

ISBN: 9789004446809

The accommodation of religious diversity in contemporary pluralist societies is undoubtedly amongst the most salient issues on today’s political agenda, not least due to the challenges posed by migration. A subject of considerable debate is how to reconcile the demands of religious and cultural diversity alongside political unity, that is, how to create a political community that is cohesive and stable and satisfies the legitimate aspirations of minorities. This volume provides a critical analysis of the institutional accommodations and legal frameworks conceived by and/or for historical religious groups and assesses their potential and shortcomings in providing for an integrated society based on human- and minority rights protection.

About the Editors

• Dr. Roberta Medda-Windischer (LL.M, PhD), Senior Researcher and Group Leader for Equality and Diversity in Integrated Societies at Eurac Research Institute for Minority Rights (Bolzano/Bozen – Italy), is an international lawyer specialized in minority issues, human rights, diversity management and minority protection.
• Mag. Kerstin Wonisch worked as Researcher at the Eurac Research Institute for Minority Rights (Bolzano/Bozen – Italy) where her research focused on the rights of religious minorities and the governance of religious diversity, Islamic pluralism, gender and human rights.

• Dr. Alexandra Cosima Budabin (PhD), is Senior Researcher at the Eurac Research Institute for Minority Rights (Bolzano/Bozen – Italy) where she researches transnational advocacy around minority rights, cultural heritage, and conflict and security.

Table of contents

Introduction
1. Regulation of Muslim Religious Minority Groups and the European State: The Unique Case of Legal Pluralism in Greece
2. Women and Sharia Law in the UK
3. The System of Bilateral Legislation Tested by ‘Neo’ Religious Groups: The Case of Italy
4. The Three Junctions of the Italian ‘Islamic Policy’
5. Religious Diversity in Greece: Recent Developments and the Challenges of the Molla Sali Case
6. Rabbinical Court Decisions and Their Impact on Jewish Society
7. Legal Pluralism, Religious Identity and Citizenship in the State of Israel: The Case of Non-Orthodox Jews
8. Russian Orthodox Church and Migration in Russia: When Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions
9. Conclusions

Source: Brill

Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Sarah Stroumsa (Volumes I and II)

Edited by Sabine Schmidtke and Omer Michaelis

Series: Islamic History and Civilization (Volume 205)

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: January 3, 2024

ISBN (Vol I): 978-90-04-68244-3

ISBN (Vol II): 978-90-04-68693-9

Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond is a collection of essays in honor of Sarah Stroumsa, an eminent scholar who through the years has embodied and advanced the possibility of collaboration across borders. The volume is presented to her by scholars working on the study of the intellectual history of the Middle Ages, the intercultural contact and migration of knowledge in the Islamic world, and many other topics.

Contributors

Binyamin Abrahamov, Camilla Adang, Anna Ayse Akasoy, Aleida Assmann, Jan Assmann, Meir M. Bar-Asher, José Bellver, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Haggai Ben-Shammai, Glen W. Bowersock, Rémi Brague, Godefroid de Callataÿ, Jonathan Decter, Michael Ebstein, Hussein Fancy, Carlos Fraenkel, Gil Gambash, Robert Gleave, Miriam Goldstein, Frank Griffel, Jaakko HämeenAnttila, Steven Harvey, Warren Zev Harvey, Meir Hatina, Geoffrey Khan, Gudrun Krämer, Ehud Krinis, Y. Tzvi Langermann, Daniel J. Lasker, Reimund Leicht, Gideon Libson, Menachem Lorberbaum, Maria Mavroudi, Jon McGinnis, Omer Michaelis, Yonatan Moss, David Nirenberg, Sari Nusseibeh, Olaf Pluta, Meira Polliack, James T. Robinson, Marina Rustow, Sabine Schmidtke, Gregor Schwarb, Ahmed El Shamsy, Mark Silk, Uriel Simonsohn, Daniel De Smet, Josef Stern, Guy G. Stroumsa, Sara Sviri, Alexander Treiger, Roy Vilozny, Ronny Vollandt, Elvira Wakelnig, Paul E. Walker, David J. Wasserstein, Tanja Werthmann, Dong Xiuyuan, Arye Zoref

About the Editors

Sabine Schmidtke is a Professor of Islamic intellectual history in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She has published on topics ranging from Shīʿism (Zaydism and Twelver Shīʿism), intersections of Jewish and Muslim intellectual history, Wissenschaft des Judentums, the Arabic Bible, and the history of the book and libraries in the Islamicate world. Her recent publications include The Beginnings of Shiʿi Studies in Germany: Rudolf Strothmann and His Correspondence with Carl Heinrich Becker, Ignaz Goldziher, Eugeneo Griffini, and Conrelis van Arendonk, 1910 through 1926 (2023), Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission (2022) coedited with Hassan Ansari; Muslim Perceptions and Receptions of the Bible: Texts and Studies (2019), with Camilla Adang; and Traditional Yemeni Scholarship amidst Political Turmoil and War: Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl b. al-Muṭahhar al-Manṣūr (1915–2016) and His Personal Library (2018).

Omer Michaelis is an Associate Professor at Tel Aviv University’s department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud. Specializing in medieval Jewish thought and philosophy in the Islamicate world, he focuses on the dynamics of production, transmission and integration of knowledge in medieval Judaism, and its intersection with parallel processes in the Islamic culture. His recenct publications include Crisis Discourse and the Dynamics of Tradition in Maimonides’ Oeuvre (Magnes Press) and Interiority & Law: Bahya ibn Paquda and the Concept of Inner Commandments (Stanford UP), published in 2023.

Source (Vol I): Brill

Source (Vol II): Brill

Qur’ān Translation as a Modern Phenomenon

By El-Hussein A.Y. Aly

Series: Texts and Studies on the Qurʾān, Vol. 21

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: September 28, 2023

It is a well-established fact nowadays that modernity impacts Islam, but there has not been much focus on how modernity impacts the Qur’ān, the foundational text of Islam and the verbatim word of God. This book argues that the early Muslim Qur’ān translations into English are attempts to reconcile the Qur’ān with modernity by producing translations that encompass modern concepts and interpretations of the Qur’ān. Are these modern concepts and interpretations valid or they alter the word of God? This is the main question that the book attempts to answer, particularly that these early translations have affected and still affect Qur’ān translation.

About the Author

El-Hussein Aly was Professor of Translation Studies at Helwan University, Egypt and a teacher of Arabic at Indiana University, USA. He had a Ph.D. in Translation Studies in 2007 from Helwan University, Egypt, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from Indiana University in 2023. His publications include “Women in Qur’an English Translations: Critical Intertextual, Intratextual, and Contextual Analyses”, Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies 3.1 (2018).

Table of contents

1. The Early European Qurʾān Translation Project

1.1. Attacking the Holy Book of the Turks

1.2. The Genuine Interest in Understanding Islam

1.3. The Scientific Turn of the Study of the Qurʾān

1.4. The Sacred Books of the East

1.5. European Qurʾān Translation: Assessment in Context

2. Translation as Reform

2.1. Colonization, India, and the Need for Reform

2.2. The Birth of Reform and the Indian Qurʾān Translation Project

3. The Rise of Muslim Translations

3.1. Interpretation of the Qurʾān by the Qurʾān and the Bible

3.2. Chronological Translation

3.3. Collaborative Translation

4. Indian Muslim Translations: An Apex

4.1. Extensive Notes

4.2. Poetic Form

5. Interconnectedness of Qurʾān Translations

5.1. Spirituality in Yūsuf ʿAli’s Translation

5.2. The Spiral of Influence in Qurʾān Translations

6. Toward a Modernist Interpretation of the Qurʾān

6.1. The Pluralist Qurʾān

6.2. Peaceful Jihad

7. Modernism, Traditionalism, and the Social Function of Qurʾān Translation

7.1. Rationality

7.2. Science

7.3. Women

8. Alternative Modernities of Qurʾān Translation

8.1. The Journey of the Indian Qurʾān Translations in Europe and America

8.2. Politics, Religion and Qurʾān Translation in Egypt

8.3. Al-Azhar’s Translation: Al-Montakhab

8.4. State-Sponsored Qurʾān Translation in Saudi Arabia

8.5. Alternative Modernities: Qurʾān Translation Form and Content

Conclusion

1. The Interconnectedness of the Past and the Present: Tradition and Modernity as a Continuum

2. The Relationality of Qurʾān Translations

3. Assessment of Qurʾān Translation in Context

4. Qurʾān Translation, Interpretation, and Adaptation

Source: Brill

Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God

By Farid Suleiman

Translated from the German by Carl Sharif El-Tobgui

Publisher: Brill

Series:  Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, Volume: 125

Publication Date: November 30, 2023

In Ibn Taymiyya and the Attributes of God, Farid Suleiman pieces together, on the basis of statements scattered unsystematically over numerous individual treatises, an overall picture of the methodological foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s doctrine of the divine attributes. He then examines how Ibn Taymiyya applies these foundational principles as exemplified in his treatment of selected divine attributes. Throughout the book, Suleiman relates Ibn Taymiyya’s positions to the larger context of Islamic intellectual history.

It should be noted that many ideas and teachings of Ibn Taymiyya are not shared by mainstream ideologies and beliefs of other Muslims and they should be considered with caution.

About the Author

Farid Suleiman, PhD (2018), is Lecturer in Islamic Theology at Greifswald University. His current research takes the insights on language gained from Ludwig Wittgenstein as a departure point for shedding new lights on the character and development of Islamic intellectual history.

Table of contents

1. Introduction

1.1. State of the Field

1.2. Objectives and Approach

1.3. Overview of the Works of Ibn Taymiyya Most Frequently Used in This Study

Part 1: Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography and the History of the Divine Attributes in Islamic Thought before His Time

2. Ibn Taymiyya’s Biography
3. The Divine Attributes in Islamic Intellectual History up to the Time of Ibn Taymiyya

3.1. The Emergence of the Debate over the Divine Attributes in Early Islam

3.2. The Muʿtazila

3.3. The Falāsifa

3.4. Ahl al-Ḥadīth

3.5. The Ashʿarīs

Part 2: The Methodological Foundations of Ibn Taymiyya’s Doctrine of the Divine Attributes

4. Ontological Foundations

4.1. The Term wujūd: Meaning and Gradations

4.2. Likeness (mithl, tamāthul) and Similarity (shibh, tashābuh, ishtibāh) among Existent Things

4.3. Ibn Taymiyya’s Ontological Conceptualism

4.4. Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of the Doctrine of the Unity of Being (waḥdat al-wujūd) in Speculative Sufism

5. Linguistic Foundations

5.1. The ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy

5.2. On the Semantic Relationship of Homonymous Expressions: Ibn Taymiyya’s Linguistic Counterproposal to the ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy

5.3. What Are the Theological Consequences of Ibn Taymiyya’s Alternative to the ḥaqīqa–majāz Dichotomy?

6. Hermeneutical Foundations

6.1. Verse Q. 3:7—Ibn Taymiyya’s Understanding of the Terms muḥkam, mutashābih, and taʾwīl

6.2. Ibn Taymiyya’s Challenge to the Validity of Taʾwīl Majāzī: Attempting to Limit the Scope of Application of the Universal Rule (al-qānūn al-kullī)

3 The Two Principles and the Seven Basic Rules for Interpreting the Divine Attributes

7. Epistemological Foundations

7.1. On the Applicability of Qiyās in Theology

7.2. The Epistemic Value of Textual Indicants: Ibn Taymiyya in Debate with al-Rāzī

8. Summary

Part 3: The Divine Essence and Attributes in Focus

9. Temporally Originating States and Acts (ḥawādith) in the Divine Essence
10. Case Studies of Selected Divine Attributes

10.1. al-ʿAdl: God’s Justice

10.2. al-Kalām: God’s Speech

10.3. al-Istiwāʾ: God’s Rising over His Throne

10.4. al-Maʿiyya: God’s “Withness”

11. Summary
12. Evaluation and Conclusion

Source: Brill

Exploring the Mind of God: An Introduction to Shiʿite Legal Epistemology

By Hashim Bata

Book Series: Studies in Islamic Law and Society, Vol. 53

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: May 25, 2023

ISBN: 978-90-04-53681-4

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.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Introduction to Islamic Legal Theory
• Chapter 2: The Non-Authoritativeness of Conjecture
• Chapter 3: The Authoritativeness of Certainty
• Chapter 4: The Authoritativeness of Substantiated Conjecture
• Chapter 5: Implications of Legal Epistemology on Ijtihād
• Bibliography
• Index

About The Author

Hashim Bata, Ph.D. (2012), University of Warwick, is Lecturer in Islamic Legal Studies at Al-Mahdi Institute and Associate Lecturer at University of Birmingham. He has published several articles in the fields Uṣūl al-fiqh and Fiqh.

Source: Brill

By Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi

With contributions by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov & Mathieu Terrier

Translated from French by Francisco José Luis and Anthony Gledhill

Series: Shii Islam: Texts and Studies, Vol. 3

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: November 10, 2022

ISBN: 9789004522428

‘Alī, son of Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin, is the only Companion of the Prophet who has remained to this day the object of fervent devotion of hundreds of millions of followers in the lands of Islam, especially in the East. Based on a detailed analysis of several categories of sources, this book demonstrates that Shi‘ism is the religion of the Imam, of the Master of Wisdom, just like Christianity is that of Christ, and that ‘Alī is the first Master and Imam par excellence. Shi‘ism can therefore be defined, in its most specific religious aspects, as the absolute faith in ‘Alī: the divine Man, the most perfect manifestation of God’s attributes, simultaneously spiritual refuge, model and horizon.

About the Author

Mohammad Ali Amir Moezzi, Ph.D. (1990) is professor of classical Islamic studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne). A specialist of Shi‘ism, he is the author of a large number of monographs and articles, including (with Etan Kohlberg) Revelation and Falsification (Brill).

Source: Brill

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History

Volume 19. Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America (1800-1914)

Edited by David Thomas and John A. Chesworth

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: June 23, 2022

ISBN: 978-9004471672

Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History19 (CMR 19), covering Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean in the period 1800-1914, is a further volume in a general history of relations between the two faiths from the 7th century to the early 20th century. It comprises a series of introductory essays and the main body of detailed entries. These treat all the works, surviving or lost, that have been recorded. They provide biographical details of the authors, descriptions and assessments of the works themselves, and complete accounts of manuscripts, editions, translations and studies. The result of collaboration between numerous new and leading scholars, CMR 19, along with the other volumes in this series, is intended as a basic tool for research in Christian-Muslim relations.

Source: Brill

Edited by: Muhammad Afzal Upal and Carole M. Cusack

Series: Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion, Vol 21

Publisher: Brill

Publication Date: 24 June 2021

The Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements offers a multinational study of Islam, its variants, influences, and neighbouring movements, from a multidisciplinary range of scholars. These chapters highlight the diversity of Islam, especially in its contemporary manifestations, as a religion of many communities, theologies, and ideologies. Over five sections—on Sunni, Shia, Sufi, fundamentalist, and fringe Islamic movements—the authors provide historical overviews, analyses, and in-depth studies of large and small Islamic and related groups from all around the world. The contents of this volume will be of interest to both newcomers to the study of Islam and established scholars of religion who wish to engage with the dynamic label of Islam and the many impactful movements of the Islamic world.

Download the book here in pdf format (4Mb).

Source: Brill