In the 9th century CE, the city of Aswan, Egypt was a prosperous provincial capital on the pilgrimage route to Mecca and Medina via the Red Sea, as well as trade routes connecting the Nile River to the Wadi al-Allaqi mines, Egypts main source of gold. The city was identified by medieval writers and geographers as situated at the frontier between Muslim Egypt and Christian Nubia. Salvage excavations under the auspices of the Swiss-Egyptian mission in Syene/Old Aswan have revealed considerable evidence of medieval Islamic activity. Evidence from 9th - 10th century ceramic assemblages uncovered during these investigations is compared and contrasted with a variety of historical sources concerning this same period. The evidence suggests that a particular style of common, utilitarian ceramics produced in the Aswan region was utilized frequently and carried or exported extensively throughout Upper Egypt, the Eastern Desert, and Lower Nubia during the 9th-10th centuries and beyond. The assemblages demonstrate a considerable distinction with the corpus of common ceramics of Fustat and Lower Egypt in the early Islamic period, as well as those of contemporary Upper Nubia and sites further south along the Nile into Northeastern Africa. Aswan and the First Cataract region came to function as a central node of a network marked by a regional material culture that transcended traditional political or religious divisions between Egypt and Nubia or Muslim and Christian. The evidence from Aswan provides an alternative interpretation of medieval landscapes and regionalism, one which prioritizes the material culture of daily life over the presumed divisions of political history or religious boundaries.

Este libro presenta un estudio global de la peregrinación islámica delegada (al-ḥaŷŷ bi-l-niyāba) a la ciudad santa de La Meca, entre los ss. XI y XVI. Esta modalidad de peregrinación es conocida a t

Insights into Islamic Archaeology and Material Culture explores the evolution of this dynamic field, highlighting new methodologies, interdisciplinary approaches, and shifting paradigms. Stemming from a 2013 seminar in Jerusalem, the volume critically examines whether the means and goals of Islamic archaeology have changed significantly from those that defined the disciplines major advances in the twentieth century. The books fourteen contributors reassess long-held perspectives, emphasizing the need to move beyond orientalist interpretations and historiographic dependencies and instead foster a more neutral and analytical approach to early Islamic material culture. The collection showcases research on key sites such as Qusayr Amra, Khirbat al-Mafjar, and al-Sinnabra and offers fresh views on settlement patterns, agricultural economies, and the sociopolitical functions of Umayyad palaces, among other topics. The volume also highlights the interplay among archaeology, conservation, and cultural heritage studies, illustrating how technical advances-such as the conservation of Qusayr Amras frescoes-have reshaped scholars understanding of early Islamic visual culture. Its essays challenge established narratives of cultural decline following the rise of Islam, demonstrating instead a dynamic period of adaptation, innovation, and exchange still reflected in later eras, as evidenced by Islamic interactions with the Frankish world. Through its diverse perspectives, Insights into Islamic Archaeology and Material Culture serves as both a critical reassessment of the fields past and a blueprint for its future, fundamentally advocating for an inclusive, methodologically rigorous approach that integrates archaeology with the broader humanities and social sciences.

This book offers a critical analysis and re-examination of the notion of Divine trial, first by providing a comprehensive typology and a contextual interpretation of the Quranic narratives pertaining to the concept. Divine trial is then investigated through a historical review of prophetic tradition (hadith) and the exegetical literature (tafsir); followed by a discussion on Prophetology, and an overview of bala in the lives of the prophets. The book further develops key aspects of Muslim theology and mysticism through an examination of the works of Rumi and al-Ghazali.

In Arabic-Islamic culture, generosity is held in the very highest regard and descriptions of charity, hospitality and largesse are consequently an important component of Arabic literature. The Egyptian judge and man of letters, Ibn Ab al-d al-Sakhw al-Mlik, who lived in Cairo and Medina in the ninth/fifteenth century and who practiced charity his whole life, compiled a work titled the ilyat al-kuram, literally "The Ornament of the Magnanimous." A significant example of a flourishing genre devoted to generosity and a testament to the intense cultural and literary activity of the authors time, the ilyat al-kuram includes aphorisms, poems, and anecdotes about benevolent individuals whose generosity is exemplified by the gifts and money they lavished on others and by the many ways they provided aid to the needy. The lively examples of the liberality exhibited by everyone, from rulers to ordinary people, are intended to urge others to similar acts of generosity, charity, and assistance. On Generosity comprises an introductory study on the work and its author, the first reliable and critical edition of the Arabic text, an annotated English translation, and glossaries designed to make the text more accessible to nonspecialists.

The Restoration of Sunnism is a study of the early history of Islamic law schools (s. madrasa, pl. madris) and their professors in late Fimid and Aiybid Egypt (495-647/1101-1249). It describes the origin and spread of these institutions, their teachers, and their role in the religious life of Egypt. This work is a lightly revised version of the authors 1976 University of Pennsylvania doctoral dissertation, which remains one of the most important works on the history of the premodern institution of the madrasa to date. Unlike many publications on the madris in recent decades, which argue that medieval Islamic legal education was informal and lacked structure, the present work endeavors to detect the elements of structure and order in the institution of the madrasa and in its educational curricula and the practices associated with it. Leisers ground-breaking work stands out for its attention to detail and to the political, economic, and religious background of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Egypt.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority nation in the world and at the same time has a growing Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, gaining more public attention, both for its size and wealth. Building on two years of research, thousands of member surveys, and visits to almost 300 churches, this book gives insights into the reasons for its growth. It explores the characteristics of the growing community and its social relations with other Christian communities as well as Muslims in Indonesia.

In this comprehensive study, Aaron Spevack delves into the 15th-century logic text by Shams al-Din al-Fanari (d. 1431), a foundational work in the Ottoman seminary tradition. Rather than offering a standard annotated translation alone, Spevack also provides an in-depth analysis of each chapter, enriched with references to multiple super-commentaries and practical examples. Drawing from years of study under scholars trained in the Ottoman tradition along with personal research, he highlights the texts significance in the Islamic logic tradition and its philosophical depth. More than just a guide to logical reasoning, al-Fanaris work embeds a number of philosophical and metaphysical inquiries that set the Islamic intellectual tradition apart from its modern counterparts. This work offers both a practical and philosophical framework, showing why a deep understanding of classical logic is vital for contemporary discourse.

The tradition of rational theology in the mature post-classical Sunni tradition has unique philosophical insights and solutions to modern philosophical problems that have not yet been articulated in the philosophical mainstream. Discerning Religious Truth does that for the first time. In doing so, it connects the tradition of Sunni Muslim intellectual thought to modern questions of philosophy and logic for the first time through the content of al-Khabs (d. 1050/1640) commentary on Tahdhb al-maniq, along with its glosses. This text acts as a bridge for traditionally trained scholars of those sciences to engage modern philosophical questions and for researchers in modern philosophy to engage with traditional Islamic sources.

The History of the Armenian priest ewond is an important source for the history of early Islamic rule and the only contemporary chronicle of second/eighth-century caliphal rule in Armenia. This volume presents a diplomatic edition and new English translation of ewonds text, which describes events that took place during the century and a half following the Prophet Muammads death in AH 11/632 CE. The authors address ewonds account as a work of caliphal history, written in Armenian, from within the Caliphate. As such, this book provides a critical reading of the Caliphate from one of its most significant provinces. Reading notes clarify many aspects of the period covered to make the text understandable to students and specialists alike. Extensive commentary elucidates ewonds narrative objectives and situates his History in a broader Near Eastern historiographical context by bringing the text into new conversations with a constellation of Arabic, Greek, and Syriac works that cover the same period. The book thus stresses the multiplicity of voices operating in the Caliphate in this pivotal period of Near Eastern history.

The Quran Revealed is a landmark publication in the history of Islamic studies, providing for the first time a comprehensive critical analysis of Bedizuzzaman Said Nursis 6000-page work of Quranic exegesis, The Epistles of Light. In discussing a wide range of themes, from Divine unity to causation, from love to spirituality, from prophethood to civilization and politics, Colin Turner invites the reader into Nursis conceptual universe, presenting the teachings of arguably the Muslim worlds most understudied theologian in a language that is accessible to both expert and interested layperson alike.

For Westerners the Quran is a deeply foreign book. Christians who venture within this sacred scripture of Islam encounter a world where echoes of biblical figures and themes resound. But the Quran speaks in accents and forms that defy our expectations. For it captures an oral recitation of an open-ended drama, one rooted in seventh-century Arabia. Its context of people, events and ideas strikes us not only as poetically allusive but as enigmatic. And yet the Quran and its contested interpretations scroll in shadowed text between the headlines of our daily news. In The Quran in Context Mark Anderson offers a gateway into the original world and worldview of the Quran. With keen attention to the Qurans character, reception and theology, he opens up a hermeneutical space for Christians and others to engage its fabric of religious claims. The Qurans theology, anthropology, soteriology, spirituality as well as its portrayal of Jesus are all carefully examined. Finally, the Qurans claim to be the Bibles sequel is probed and evaluated. Forthright in Christian conviction and yet sympathetically open to dialogue, The Quran in Context is a reliable guide for those who want to explore the holy book of Islam in its varied facets.

Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic Studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism. This Festschrift honours Arkoun AZs scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun AZs work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological dimensions. Published in association with the Aga Khan University Institute for the study of Muslim Civilisations.

How did Islams sacred scripture, the Arabic Quran, emerge from western Arabia at a time when the region was religiously fragmented and lacked a clearly established tradition of writing to render the Arabic language? The studies in this volume, the proceedings of a scholarly conference, address different aspects of this question. They include discussions of the religious concepts found in Arabia in the centuries preceding the rise of Islam, which reflect the presence of polytheism and of several varieties of monotheism including Judaism and Christianity. Also discussed at length are the complexities surrounding the way languages of the Arabian Peninsula were written in the centuries before and after the rise of Islam-including Nabataean and various North Arabian dialects of Semitic-and the gradual emergence of the now-familiar Arabic script from the Nabataean script originally intended to render a dialect of Aramaic. The religious implications of inscriptions from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic centuries receive careful scrutiny. The early coalescence of the Quran, the kind of information it contains on Christianity and other religions that formed part of the environment in which it first appeared, the development of several key Quranic concepts, and the changing meaning of certain terms used in the Quran also form part of this rich volume.

How old is the world? This question was a central problem for Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the face of the new scientific discoveries in the nineteenth century. This book introduces the answer from a Muslim point of view, outside of official institutions. The extended introduction - a microhistory in the Middle East - explores the life and oeuvre of a forgotten Egyptian intellectual and poet, Mustafa Salama al-Naggari (d. 1870). Next, A. Mestyan provides the English translation and Arabic transcription of the surviving fragments of al-Naggaris manuscript, The Garden of Ismails Praise. This is a universal history of Egypt, written while the Suez Canal was under construction to praise the governor Khedive Ismail (r. 1863-1879). The author advocates a unique solution to computing the period of primordial history, before the Deluge, in the age of steam and print. Al-Naggaris alternative Nahda voice is available for the first time in this edition.

Liu Zhi (c1662-c1730), a well-known Muslim scholar writing in Chinese, published outstanding theological works, short treatises, and short poems on Islam. While traditional Arabic and Persian Islamic texts used unfamiliar concepts to explain Islam, Liu Zhi translated both text and concepts into Chinese culture. In this erudite volume, David Lee examines how Liu Zhi integrated the basic religious living of the monotheistic Hui Muslims into their pluralistic Chinese culture. Liu Zhi discussed the Prophet Muhammad in Confucian terms, and his work served as a bridge between peoples. This book is an in-depth study of Liu Zhis contextualization of Islam within Chinese scholarship that argues his merging of the two never deviated from the basic principles of Islamic belief.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim majority nation in the world and at the same time has a growing Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, gaining more public attention, both for its size and wealth. Building on two years of research, thousands of member surveys, and visits to almost 300 churches, this book gives insights into the reasons for its growth. It explores the characteristics of the growing community and its social relations with other Christian communities as well as Muslims in Indonesia.

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca is a journey of self-discovery and an exploration of mans relationship with the Creator. Mecca is located in an arid land where nothing grows, and few, if any, earthly distractions exist. The pilgrim is therefore left alone face to face with God. Each stage of the Hajj should bring the pilgrim closer to the objective of self knowledge. However, attaining this depends on each persons natural ability and desire to do so. For this reason, no two Hajj journeys are ever alike, and every Hajj pilgrim leaves the great journey forever altered from the person they were beforehand. It is difficult to capture the Hajj in text or visually since the Hajj is larger than any possible description. No book or photograph can ever give the Hajj its due. Even those who perform the Hajj can never fully comprehend it. Nonetheless, in this book, Saudi princess and photographer Reem Al Faisal attempts to document the Hajj, which every Muslim must undertake once in his or her lifetime. But Princess Al Faisal, herself a Muslim, does not confine herself to recording religious expressions. With her photographs she also tries to reveal the divine in man and nature. For her, photography itself is a means of honouring Gods presence.

The hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is a religious duty to be performed once in a lifetime by all Muslims who are able. The Prophet Muhammad set out the rituals of hajj when he led what became known as the Farewell Hajj in 10 AH / 632AD. This set the seal on Muhammads career as the founder of a religion and the leader of a political entity based on that religion. The convergence of the Prophet with the politician infuses the hajj with political, as well as religious, significance. For the caliphs who led the Islamic community after Muhammads death, leadership of the hajj became a position of enormous political relevance as it presented them with an unrivalled opportunity to proclaim their pious credentials and reinforce their political legitimacy. Exhaustively researched, The Meaning of Mecca is the first study to analyse the leadership of the hajj in the formative and medieval periods and to assess the political subtext of Islams most high-profile religious ritual.

In a world where almost all societies are multi-religious and multi-ethnic, we need to study how social cohesion can be achieved in different contexts. In some geographical areas, as in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent, people of different religious belonging have, through the ages, lived side by side, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in dissonance. In other geographical regions, as in Scandinavia, societies have been quite religiously homogeneous but only recently challenged by immigration.In both locations the relations between religious minority and majority are very much on the agenda. In order to discuss the situation for non-Muslims in Muslim majority societies, a consultation was convened with both Muslim and Christian participants from Pakistan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Sweden. Some of the participants work in academic settings, others in faith-based organisations, some in jurisprudence and others with theological issues. Non-Muslims in Muslim Majority Societies is the result of thatconsultation. The intention of the book is to trigger reflection and further thinking, through papers that discuss issues such as freedom of religion, minority rights, secular and religious legislation, and inter-religious dialogue in Muslim majority societies. Although the articles are presented as works in progress and remain tentative in many of their conclusions, this book is an important contribution to the global debate over religious tolerance and religious pluralism.