Behçet Kemal Çağlar's Kur’ân‐ı Kerîm'den İlhamlar (Inspirations from the Holy Qur’ān): A Kemalist's Personal,Poetic Response to the Qur’ān

Behçet Kemal Ça?lar, 1908–1969, is the author of a commentary of the Qur’ān, Kur’ân‐? Kerîm'den ?lhamlar (‘Inspirations from the Holy Qur’ān’), published in 1966. This work can be described as a poetic reflection on the Qur’ān. It does not adhere to rendering every line or verse, but instead insists on maintaining a rhythmic cadence and end‐rhyme. Although it resembles a translation in some ways, Ça?lar refuses to call his work a translation. This paper begins by introducing Ça?lar and his text, a brief history of Turkish translations of the Qur’ān, then Ça?lar's approach is contrasted with the aims of translators of the Qur’ān. Ça?lar's text is studied in more detail, providing a sample of the Turkish text and a translation of it into English, focusing on Ça?lar's reflection on Sūrat ?aha. Through this study, it becomes clear that as a result of his prioritizing the literary aspects of the Qur’ān in his reflection, Ça?lar's book has an advantage over literal translations of the Qur'an and it can be useful for Qur’ān translation. At the same time, Ça?lar's book is a reflection of a desire to develop a Turkish Islam—a manifestation of Islam that came from Turkey, that reflected its language and culture and that was intelligible to its people.     

The Poetics of Devotion in ʿĀʾisha al‐Bāʿūniyya's Praise of God and Muḥammad

Recently, there has been an effort within Islamic Studies to reassess the common belief that the so‐called ‘post‐classical’ era of Islamic history was characterized by intellectual stagnation and decline. The Mamluk era is one such period that has suffered from a dearth of scholarly attention resulting from outdated stereotypes. This article contributes to scholarship on this era through examining some poems by a late Mamluk poet, ?ā?isha al‐Bā?ūniyya (d. 1517). While much scholarship on al‐Bā?ūniyya focuses on her lyrical mystical verse, the poems studied here incorporate selective allusions to key Islamic sources in order to narrate a history of divine favor as the speaker imagines it. This innovative history expresses a poetics of devotion that focalizes Mu?ammad and the poet's own peers. The poems intertextually anchor this narrative in key Islamic sources, reflecting al‐Bā?ūniyya's extensive scholarly training. They constitute an unusual example of a female poet writing beyond the genres with which women's premodern poetry is conventionally associated. This poetry also represents a post‐classical contribution to Islamic literary and religious history. However, the criterion of originality should ultimately be reconsidered in evaluations of scholarly merit, and scholarship should pay more attention to continuities and intertextuality in texts.     

The Influence of Ibn Sīnā on al‐Ghazzālī in Qur'anic Hermeneutics

Al‐Ghazzālī criticized Muslim philosophers in general and Ibn Sīnā in particular in a number of matters notwithstanding, he was deeply influenced by philosophy and Ibn Sīnā's views as to some issues. Of the contexts in which al‐Ghazzālī is under the clear influence of Ibn Sīnā are the interpretations of some Qur'ānīc chapters and verses which are related to the demonstration of the existence of God and the explanation of some divine attributes and names. In many of his works, al‐Ghazzālī reproduces Ibn Sīnā's interpretation of the verses in harmony with the ontological proof. One can observe Ibn Sīnā's influence on al‐Ghazzālī in relation with the hierarchy of beings, too. However, the context in which Ibn Sīnā's influence is most obvious is the interpretation of the 35^th verse of the Sūrah Nūr. Ibn Sīnā's interpretation of the terms occurring in this verse as symbols of the human faculties exercised a profound impact on the thought of al‐Ghazzālī, which manifests itself in his interpretation of the verse in Mishkāt al‐Anwār. Another of such contexts is the topic of human psychology and the interpretations of the verses related wherewith. Immensely influenced by the psychological views of Ibn Sīnā, al‐Ghazzālī adopted Ibn Sīnā's notion of the simultaneous creation of soul and body, interpreting some Qur'ānic verses in harmony with this notion. This article is intended to illustrate that al‐Ghazzālī, who is opposed to the blind imitation of any school of thought, did not make a wholesale denouncement of the views of philosophers; on the contrary, he made an extensive use of Ibn Sīnā's ideas in conformity with his general attitude of benefiting from all schools of thought.     

Muslim Political Theology Before and After Empire: Shāh Muḥammad Ismāʿīl’s Station of Leadership (Manṣab-i Imāmat)*

ABSTRACT

This essay examines an important yet hitherto unexplored early-nineteenth century Indo-Persian work of Muslim political theology Station of Leadership (Man?ab-i Imāmat; also known as Darājāt-i Imāmat), written by the towering and contentious Sunnī thinker and political theorist from Delhi Shāh Mu?ammad Ismā?īl (d. 1831). In this hugely critical though lesser known of Ismā?īl’s texts, he sought to detail a theory and framework of ideal forms of Muslim political orders and leaders. Man?ab-i Imāmat presents a fascinating example of a text of Muslim political theology composed during a moment marked by a crisis of sovereignty as South Asia gradually yet decisively transitioned from Mughal to British rule. In this essay, through a close reading of Man?ab-i Imāmat, I aim to bring into view a vision of Muslim political thought and understanding of sovereignty that exceed and subvert the modern privileging of a territorial conception of the nation-state as the centerpiece of politics. I show that while tethered to an imperial Muslim political theology that assumed Islam’s superiority over and subsumption of other religious identities and traditions, sovereign power for Ismā?īl indexed not territorial sovereignty but the maintenance of Muslim markers of distinction in the public performance of everyday religious life.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Iran Between Two Revolutions , By Ervand Abrahamian Mollā Sadrā Sh?rāz?: Le Livre des pénétrations métaphysiques (Kitāb al-Mashāir). Translated from the Arabic, with an Introduction and Notes, by Henry Corbin Le livre du licite et de l'illicite (Kitāb al-halāl wa-l-harām , Book XIV of Al-Gazāl?'s Ihyā Ulūm ad-D?n). Introduction, translation and notes by Régis Morelon Society, State, and Urbanism: Ibn Khaldun's Sociological Thought. By Fuad Baali Shari'at and Ambiguity in South Asian Islam. Edited by Katherine P. Ewing The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad. By Gordon Darnell Newby Muslim Hausa Women in Nigeria: Tradition and Change. by Barbara J. Callaway Neopatriarchy: A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society. By Hisham Sharabi The Islamic Impulse. Edited by Barbara Freyer Stowasser Christians and Muslims Together: An Exploration by Presbyterians. Edited by Byron L Ägypten unter Mubarak: Identität und nationales Interesse. by Gudrun Krämer Towards Understanding the Qur⁾ān. Vol. 1, Sura 1–3. English version of Sayyid Abul A⁽la Mawdudi's Tafhim al-Qur⁽ān, translated and edited by Zafar Ishaq Ansari Middle East Contemporary Survey. Vol. IX. Edited by Itamar Rabinovich and Haim Shaked. The Sufi Path of Knowledge : Ibn al-⁽Arab?'s Metaphysics of Imagination. By William C. Chittick Colonising Egypt. By Timothy Mitchell Past-Revolutionary Iran. Edited by Hooshang Amirahmadi and Manouchehr Parvin Sacred Performances: Islam, Sexuality, and Sacrifice. By M. E. Combs-Schilling Islam: The Straight Path. By John L. Esposito Islam, Politics, and Social Movements. Edited by Edmund Burke, III, and Ira M. Lapidus Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. By Lila Abu-Lughod     

Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra in Translation: A Century of Interpretation of a Sanskrit Mahāyāna Text

Many translations of ?āntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra, a Sanskrit Mahāyāna Buddhist text of seventh/eighth‐century India, have been published since 1892. ?āntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra is one of the few Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist texts available in Sanskrit and it was influential in Tibetan Buddhist schools. This article explores how translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra is no longer the preserve of scholars but has moved to being carried out by Buddhist practitioners influenced by Tibetan schools of Buddhism. It shows how translators’ motives for translating the text have reflected changing attitudes to Buddhism and its texts. ?āntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra has been translated as a source of information, a literary work, an inspirational work and, with the rise of Western interest in Tibetan Buddhism in the late twentieth century, as a vehicle for the transmission of Buddhist teachings. Nevertheless, further scholarly investigation of the Sanskrit text of the Bodhicaryāvatāra remains to be done.     

Satanic whispers: Milton’s Iblis and the “Great Sultan”

The seventeenth century witnessed a burgeoning of Arabic studies in the universities and the first English translation of the Turkish Alcoran (1649). However, John Milton has generally been passed over in scholarship concerned with the influence of Arabic studies on early modern literature. Yet, since Islam was recognized as one of the great challenges to the true faith at this time, it would be surprizing if its presence were not felt in Milton’s great Protestant epic, Paradise Lost. This article hopes to demonstrate how, at times, Milton’s depiction of Satan is intriguingly similar to that of his Qur’anic counterpart Iblis. Without overstating the Qur’anic influence, it offers for consideration a number of instances where the outlines of both fallen angels converge in a way that amplifies understanding of particular narrative moments in the poem. Readers familiar with the way Milton appropriates narrative paradigms from classical epic, both to enhance Satan’s characterization and subvert classical conceptions of heroism, might find it interesting to speculate whether he also deployed a similar, though not so extensive, strategy in relation to Islam, drawing on Qur’anic imagery in the cause of Christian truth, while at the same time tarring Muhammad’s teachings as impostures of Satan.     

On Puṇyapariṇāmanā in Nāgārjuna's Works

An important but rarely discussed feature in Nāgārjuna's works is the presence of a dedicatory verse (pu?yapari?āmanā) in some and its absence in others. The paper looks at all reliably attributed works by Nāgārjuna, examining similarities in those that dedicate merit and similarities in those that do not. In addition, the paper establishes the criterion by which the author classes some of his works as merit generating so that he, as a practising bodhisattva can transfer it. The paper concludes that, contrary to the established opinions, the motive of obtaining pu?ya has been of the highest importance for Nāgārjuna.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Palestinian Rights: Affirmation and Denial. Edited by Ibrahim Abu-Lughod A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Community of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza , Volume 4: Daily Life. By S. D. Goitein The Arabic Book. By Johannes Pedersen The Early Islamic Conquests. By Fred McGraw Donner The Islamic Impact. Edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Byron Haines and Ellison Findly Persian Miniature Painting: and its Influence on the art of Turkey and India [The British Library Collections]. By Norah M. Titley Essays in Islamic Art and Architecture [Islamic Art and Architecture, Vol. I]. Edited by Abbas Daneshvari Architecture and Community: Building in the Islamic World Today. [The Aga Khan Award for Architecture.] Edited by Renata Holod with Darl Rastorfer Islam and Ownership. By Seyyed Mahmood Taleqani Society and Economics in Islam: Writings and Declarations of Ayatullah Sayyid Mahmud Taleghani. Translated from the Persian by R. Campbell Equality, Efficiency, and Property Ownership in the Islamic Economic System. By Akhtar A. Awan. Lanham Crime and Corrections: An Al-Islamic Perspective. By Sidney R. Sharif The Qur'ān and Its Interpreters. Vol. I. By Mahmoud M. Ayoub 'Ulum al-Qur'ān: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'ān. By Ahmad von Denffer Ibn Taymiyyah's Ethics—The Social Factor. By Victor E. Makari Shāh Wal?-Allāh And His Times. By Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi Islamic Theology and Philosophy: Studies in Honor of George F. Hourani. Edited by Michael E. Marmura Religion, My Own. The Literary Works of Naj?b Ma fūz. By Mattityahu Peled L'Orient dèchirè entre I'Est et L'Ouest (1955–1982). By Simon Jargy The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots. By Judith Nagata Muslim Sects and Divisions. The section on Muslim sects in Kitāb al-Milal wa'I-Ni al by Mu ammad b. 'Abd al-Kar?m Shahrastān? (d. 1153) . By A. K. Kazi and J. G. Flynn Muslim Intellectual Responses to “New Order” Modernization in Indonesia. By Muhammad Kamal Hassan Social history of Timbuktu: the role of Muslim scholars and notables 1400–1900. By Elias N. Saad Religion and Politics in Muslim Society : Order and Conflict in Pakistan. By Akbar S. Ahmed Baba of Karo: A Woman of the Muslim Hausa. By Mary F. Smith     

The Ḥanbalī Emigration of 551–569 AH/1156–1173 AD in the Context of the Legal Discourse on Muslims under Non‐Muslim Rule

In 551 AH/1156 AD the ?anbalī shaykh A?mad ibn Qudāma (491–558/1098–1163) emigrated from the Frankish‐ruled region of Samaria. He reached Damascus and advised his relatives to follow suit, thus initiating the two‐decade exodus of the Banū Qudāma from the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The migration story survives in a tenth/sixteenth century chronicle and is attributed to A?mad's grandson, ?iyā’ al‐Dīn (569–643/1173–1245). According to ?iyā’ al‐Dīn, the cause of the emigration was the extreme oppression of the local Frankish lord, Baldwin of Ibelin (d. c. 582/1186), and A?mad ibn Qudāma's inability to practice his religion. But scholars have also attributed the emigration to wider ideological and political developments under the reign of Nūr al‐Dīn ibn Zengi (541–569/1146–1174), namely the counter‐crusade and the institutionalization of jihad propaganda. Here I explore the context of the emigration in greater detail while focusing primarily on legal theory. In most cases, a historian can determine the circumstances that led to the issuance of certain legal opinions but in the case of the ?anbalī emigration we have an event without an accompanying legal opinion. Accordingly, the emigration must be analyzed in light of developments in ?anbalī legal thought prior to and during the crusades and in consideration of how members of the Banū Qudāma perceived their role prior to and during the emigration. A?mad's role as a charismatic shaykh and spiritual leader became ever more critical and contentious at a time when political tensions between Franks and Muslims were escalating. Furthermore, the heightened religiosity of the Muslims of Greater Syria inspired other members of the Qudāma family to leave the Frankish domains even though their lives were not in danger. This chapter thus aims to complement Steven Gertz's analysis of legal opinions on the obligation to emigrate (The Muslim World , vol. 103) by providing a grounded example of how such opinions could be enacted.     

Islam without Fuqahāʾ: Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ and His Perso-Islamic Solution to the Caliphate's Crisis of Legitimacy (70–142 AH/690–760 CE)

This paper seeks to advance the existing scholarship on Persian secretary and belles-lettrist, ?Abd Allāh Ibn al-Muqaffa? (d. 139/757) and his Risāla fī ’l-?a?āba (Epistle Concerning the Entourage). It argues that the Risāla, addressed to the second Abbasid caliph al-Man?ūr, set out to tackle the political ills of the caliphate, especially the crisis of political legitimacy. As the first documented articulation of the Islamic polity, the Risāla made a series of recommendations, including a proposal for legal codification that attempted to reinvent the caliphate by reuniting the institution's political and legal authority at the expense of private jurists (fuqahā?). The paper illustrates how Ibn Muqaffa?’s solution relied on a creative integration of Iranian and Islamic ideas of statecraft and legitimate rule. Ironically, this creative integration may have played a part in the Risāla’s failure to garner necessary support to effect change.     

Visions of Muhammad in Bukhara and Tabaristan: Dreams and Their Uses in Persian Local Histories

Persian authors couched claims to the religio-political authority and legitimacy of their cities through dream narratives in local histories written between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Persians did not always fit neatly into genealogical claims to legitimacy like the Arab descendants of Mu?ammad and his clan, and dreams form alternate avenues that sanctify and legitimate specific Persian cities and individuals. Dream narratives embedded in Tārīkh-i Bukhārā and Tārīkh-i ?abaristān are literary devices that bring the prestige of religious authority to their city and province and to specific persons. These dream narratives are not only windows into understanding the broader social, political, and religious contexts of local histories but also the particular anxieties and priorities of the authors.     

Holy Figures Portrayed in the Edinburgh Fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’s World History

This paper has two purposes. One is to look carefully at the way that the stories of Sālih and Samson are told in the Edinburgh fragment of Rashīd al-Dīn’s World History and its accompanying illustrations, and the messages that these convey. The second is to explore the interplay of text and image in what might be termed “the Moses cycle” and to consider the motivation for the unusual textual and pictorial emphasis on Moses. Several aspects of the cycle are analyzed: Moses as an antetype of Rashīd al-Dīn himself, the impact of the Qur’anic text and Moses as a precursor of the Prophet Muhammad.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Islam: A Survey of the Muslim Faith. By C. George Fry and James R. King. Islam and the West: The Moriscos. A Cultural and Social History. By Anwar G. Chejne. The Muslim Community in North America. Edited by Earle H. Waugh, Baha Abu-Laban, and Regula B. Qureshi. Islam in India: Studies and Commentaries. Edited by Christian W. Troll. The Afghan Connection: The Extraordinary Adventures of Major Eldred Pottinger. By George Pottinger. Modern Arab Thought: Channels of the French Revolution to the Arab East. By Ra'?f Khūr?, translated by I?sān 'Abbās, edited by Charles Issawi. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power and Politics. By Helena Cobban. The Zionist Connection II: What Price Peace? By Alfred M. Lilienthal. Faith and Power: The Politics of Islam. By Edward Mortimer. Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control Before the Nineteenth Century. By B. F. Musallam. Studies on Byzantium, Seljuks, and Ottomans: Reprinted Studies. Byzantina kai Metabyzantina, Vol. 2. By Speros Vryonis, Jr. Malibu Society and Religion in Early Ottoman Egypt: Studies in the Writings of 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Sha'ran?. By Michael Winter. Chants Musulmans en Peul. By J. Haafkens. Love, Madness, and Poetry: An Interpretation of the Maǧnūn Legend. By As'ad E. Khairallah. The Churches and Islam in Europe (II). By Jan Slomp and others. The Republic of Lebanon: Nation in Jeopardy. By David C. Gordon. I Speak for Lebanon. Kamal Joumblatt. Translated by Michael Pallis. Issues in Islamic Banking: Selected Papers. By Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi. The Memoirs of a Syrian Prince: Abu'l-Fidā', Sultan of Hamāh (672–732/1273–1331). Translated with an introduction by P. M. Holt. Une Herméneutique de la Tradition Islamique: Le Commentaire des Arba'ūn al-Nawaw?ya de Mu?y? al-D?n Ya?y? al-Nawaw? (m. 676/1277): Introduction, texte arabe, traduction, notes et index du vocabulaire. By Louis Pouzet.     

Between rocks and a hard place: prehistoric funerary practices at Wādī Ḍebayʿān,northern Qatar

Archaeological survey by the Qatar National Historic Environment Record Project (QNHER) in 2009, led to the discovery of a Neolithic flint scatter, a settlement and an ancient, raised shoreline associated with higher, mid‐Holocene sea levels at Wādī ?ebay?ān, north‐western Qatar (Al‐Naimi et al. 2010, 2011; Cuttler, Tetlow & Al‐Naimi 2011). The QNHER project is a collaboration between Qatar Museums and the University of Birmingham, which over the past five years has developed a national geospatial database for the recording of archaeological sites and historic monuments in Qatar. A significant aspect of the project involved archaeological survey and excavation in advance of major construction projects. Between 2012 and 2014 excavations at Wādī ?ebay?ān revealed a burial of a typology previously unknown in Qatar, the unmarked graves (Cuttler, Al‐Naimi & Tetlow 2013).     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviews in this article:
The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic.
Jordan in the 1967 War.
Generals In Politics: Pakistan, 1958–1982.
The Middle East Remembered.
Middle East and Islam; A Bibliographical Introduction Supplement 1977–1983.
Kitāb Tathqīf al-Ta'f bi'l-Mu     tala     al-Sarīf par Taqī al-Dīn 'Abd al-Ra     mān b. Mu     ibb al-Dīn Mu     ammad al-mad al-     alabī appelé Ibn Nāir al-ayš.
Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century A. H./9th Century A. D.5th Century A. H./llth Century A. D.)
Iraq After the Muslim Conquest.
Mysticism and Dissent. Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Inn.
Religious Ecstasy.
Eschatological Themes in the Qu'n.
How to Understand Islam.
Dynamics of Urban Life in Pre-Mughal India.
Agricultural, Industrial and Urban Dynamism under the Sultsas of Delhi 1206–1555.
Islam: Politics and Religion in the Muslim World.