Studying Isma‘ili Texts in Eleventh-Century Shiraz: al-Mu'ayyad and the “Conversion” of the Buyid Amir Abu Kalijar

As a key primary source for the history of the eleventh-century Isma‘ili majlis, the Fatimid chief missionary al-Mu'ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi's autobiographical Sira offers a prime opportunity to consider the application of centralizing features of the Fatimid state in eleventh-century Buyid Shiraz. Previous studies on the Fatimid majlis have raised questions about an Isma‘ili core curriculum as well as the intended audience/s of Fatimid da‘wa teachings. This article situates al-Mu'ayyad's memoir in the broader context of the Persian and Arabic historiographical traditions in order to provide new insights into the transmission of Isma‘ili doctrines in different social settings outside of Fatimid Cairo. It concludes that Abu Kalijar's study sessions with al-Mu'ayyad suggest that Qadi al-Nu‘man's Kitab Da‘a'im al-Islam was used as a core text for introducing some of the main principles of Fatimid religio-political rule in addition to Isma‘ili doctrines to non-Isma‘ili audiences.     

“Turkish Dames” and “English Mastiffs”: The “Turk” and the Female Body in Massinger’s The Renegado

Abstract

In early modern travel discourse, exploration of ‘distant’ or ‘other’ lands is typically configured as some aspect of the female body. Power relations between East and West were often described in terms of conquest or ravishment, the site of which is typically the female body, as might be seen in early modern English literary response to the Ottoman. Couched in terms of the menace the Ottoman poses to the Western Christian, Massinger’s The Renegado courts parallels between sexual license, female rebellion, and religion to address domestic threats at home–not from the Ottoman Empire, but rather from the rebellious English women, who represent a clear danger to the patriarchal hegemony.     

The Mafia misunderstood – again

Abstract

Observers who have investigated Alleanza Nazionale's relationship to historical fascism have mostly relied on programmatic documents as well as Gianfranco Fini's speeches and interviews. This article tackles the same question by considering the visual propaganda produced by the party from its launch in 1994 to its merger with Silvio Berlusconi's Popolo della Libertà in March 2009. An examination of the logos, the portraits of Fini and other imagery that feature on posters, brochures, websites and the party daily Secolo d'Italia shows that they frequently refer, albeit mostly covertly, to the iconographies of fascism. The contemporary visual sources used by Alleanza Nazionale and the strategies adopted to present a modern and respectable image are also explored. The article argues that much of the propaganda of Alleanza Nazionale incorporates two levels of meaning: an overt and moderate one, which addressed the general public, and a concealed one celebrating ideas and values of the Ventennio, which aimed to reassure a hard-core of activists that the party had not betrayed its original identity.     

The last ‘never again’? Srebrenica and the making of a memory imperative

Abstract

Controversy overshadowed preparations for the twentieth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, as conflict arose over the adoption of a number of commemorative resolutions: while motions in the Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the United Nations Security Council were blocked, the US House of Representatives and the European Parliament did adopt declarations. The article outlines how the memory of Srebrenica was de-contextualized from particular interpretations of the past and re-contextualized in favour of universal frames of interpretation. Starting from the interpretations pertaining to Srebrenica from the early 1990s, processes of dealing with the massacre in reports have made it possible to process the lessons learnt from the experience as a narration of progress. In parallel with efforts to establish legal accountability and a local memorial for the massacre’s victims, there has been a series of resolutions commemorating Srebrenica contributing to the formation of a Srebrenica memory regime. That regime mirrors the Holocaust-based global cultural memory imperative, a set of norms and rules of behaviour that was re-actualized and expanded on by Srebrenica as a symbol for the unfulfilled hope of a final ‘never again’. The commemoration of Srebrenica has become a universal ethical imperative that has spread far beyond the actors involved in the 1995 events. The 2015 controversy has to be understood as a (local) act of resistance against the recognition of Srebrenica as genocide and against the selective character of the Srebrenica memory regime.     

A discussion of the concept of “feudal”

The Western terms feudal  and feudalism  have been widely and improperly translated as fengjian  in contemporary China. The early Western Sinologists and Chinese scholars, including Yan Fu, did not originally make such a translation. Yan initially transliterated the term feudalism  as fute zhi in his early translations. It was not until the 20th century, when Western classical evolutionism found its way into China, that feudalism  was reduced to an abstract concept, and the Western European model was generalized as a framework for understanding development in China and the whole world. Only then did Yan Fu first equate feudalism  with fengjian,  and China was believed to have experienced a feudal society  in the same sense as Europe. From the perspective of intellectual history, using evidential and theoretical analyses, this article attempts to show that feudalism was a historical product in the development of Western Europe and existed only in Europe, fengjian  is a system appropriate only in discussions of pre-Qin China, and China from the Qin to the Qing experienced instead a system of imperial autocracy. The medieval periods in the West and in China evidence widely divergent social forms and hence should not be confused with the same label.     

‘There and back again’: The Career of John Ramsay of Terrenzeane (C. 1464–C. 1513)

War and military activity has always engendered espionage. Christine de Pisan’s Fayttes of Armes advised its readers — kings and lesser rulers — to be ‘curiose & diligent’, and ‘to send … here & there … espies subtyli … to understande the purpose of [the] enemy’.¹1 C. Pisan, The Book of Fayttes of Armes, ed. A. T. P. Byles (2010), pp. 50–51. England’s fifteenth-century king, Edward IV, was a master of such practice, with his victories against the Scots and his capture of Berwick in 1482 owing much to a vast network of intelligence. His successor, Henry VII, also invested in the area and used a great many disaffected Scots, Picards and merchants for diplomatic and military gain. And, of this group, perhaps the most interesting and contemporaneously recorded is a Scottish nobleman, John Ramsay, Lord Bothwell and Lord Balmain, of Terrenzeane (c. 1464–c. 1513). He is an individual often neglected by researchers, but who appears very much to have played an important role in shaping the histories of both kingdoms. The following article aims to trace his noteworthy career in the later medieval and early modern periods.