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Byzantine society had very complex relations with the Islamic Eastern neighbors. Islam, to be sure, started and continued to be menace for Byzantium for the all long eighth centuries they used to coexist. However, Byzantine society needed a certain period of time to accept Islam as another religion, standing against Christianity in the East. After the first Byzantine revenge acts against Judaism a long tradition was formed with two main streams. The first of them envisaged Islam as a demoniac pseudo-religion (or anti-religion), the second being milder and ready to accept the Islamic neighbors not as a whole, but rather as different states, culturally not so different from Byzantium, with diplomacy playing role for keeping balance in the East. Thus, the Byzantine Real politik appeared as a phenomenon, what provoked crusaders to accuse Byzantium as being traitor to the Christian cause in the East. In that context should we pose the interesting incident at the end of Manuel I Komnenos’ reign (1143 – 1180). Both Church and society were provoked by the decision of the Emperor to lift up the anathemas against Allah from the trivial ritual of denouncing Islam. This formula was used generally by Muslims who converted to Christianity for whatever reason. Manuel sent twice tomoi for approval, provoking no less than an angry reaction in the Church and society. Thus, two main concepts made a stand against each other, a more traditional one and another, more practical, political, if not to say tolerant. For Manuel and his followers, who were not missing, as we know from Choniates, the doctrine of Muhammadwas just a deviation, untrue enough, of the unified Biblical tradition implying, anyhow, the existence of one and only God, Creator of the world. His opponents, Choniates being definitely among them, refused even to listen to such an interpretation. This radically harsh view on Islam corresponded with the anathemas against Islam in Choniates’ Treasure of Orthodoxy. Although in that particular case Choniates took side with the traditional opposition against the Emperor, in his History he used to be more delicate observer of Muslims, especially when comparing them with the Latins who became “champions” of his wrath.
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The article presents funeral rites of Muslims in Bulgaria during the period of socialism. The author held fieldwork in the region of Kubrat (Northern Bulgaria). Memories about official communist policies are explored in terms of atheistic assimilatory communist policies.
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Based on published and unpublished Ottoman documents, narrative sources and results from terrain researches of the author, an attempt is made to be followed the place and role of the mystical brotherhoods of heterodox Muslims in religious life and confessional relations in Rumeli during the 15th–16th centuries. On the basis of the local centers of religious life are outlined the correlations of these brotherhoods with the central authority and local population during the establishment of the Ottoman rule on the Balkans and in the new socio-political conditions and social atmosphere during 16th century. Special attention is paid to the role of the so-called uthraquistic (dual sanctuaries) in the confessional relations between Christians and Muslims in urban and rural patriarchal environment.
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One of the essential postulates of political orientation and determination for the building of stable societies and a functioning political system in its content recognizes and imposes the need to examine the relation of relevant political actors to constitutionalism and human rights as concepts and preoccupations for any modern society. Also, constitutionalism and human rights and freedoms as its inseparable category manifest the political values and the corpus of essential and common political goals and commitments of a particular political community. Political Islam as an ideological political subject has its own sources and a valuable orientation framework through which prisms and perceptions can be interpreted or extracted by individual axiological determinants to certain issues. This paper analyzes exactly the relations of political Islam with constitutionalism and human rights, and similarly to the so-called framework it draws attention to the concepts of power, the mechanisms of control and compliance with the Sharia regulations. At the same time, the importance of human rights and freedoms in the Islamic narrative, their nature and scope, as well as the differences with the western established documents in this area are emphasized and analyzed.
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The medieval prisons are part of the Islamic governing system as in the Near East as in the Magreb. The sources about their organization and working methods are rare and straggling. Whatever, medieval Islamic prisons deserve an attention because they are connected with the general institutional environment in the Islamic lands. This article surveys the Islamic prisons in Sicily in the period 9th-11th century. It begins with a review of the emergence of the first Islamic prisons. This information serves as both forming initial impressions and a basis of the subsequent analysis. An important contribution of the article is the collected information from different by language, type and time historical sources. Their careful readings, coupled with a compare analysis, allow us to draw conclusions about the characteristics and location of the medieval Sicilian prisons. Comparison with the prisons in the other Islamic lands over the same historical period shows us common features. This makes it possible to conclude that the penal institutions on the island follow and work on a well-established model.
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In order to expand their economy and exports and attract foreign investments, tourists and talents, governments are increasingly adopting nation branding strategies as part of their public diplomacy to promote their image and build their reputation on the international scene. Some Arab countries, mainly countries from the Gulf region, have massively invested in branding strategies to raise their profile and build their image abroad. However, Arab countries face negative images related to, among others, gender equality and women’s rights. This paper tries to highlight the impact of gender gap on nation branding, image and reputation building of three Arabic countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the importance of including this dimension when nations are addressing their image and reputation.
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After the notorious persecution of its Khurasani protagonists, profiting from the political and ideological vacuum of the interregnum and the upsurge of the Shiite propaganda of the late 15th century, the Hurufi teaching penetrated Eastern and Central Anatolia, partly disguised under the tenets of different Batini indoctrinated groups, making these regions by the end of the century, its new stronghold. The main stage of the events became the Ottoman lands. Particularly in the years after the Ankara disaster of 1402, Asia Minor and the Balkans became a fertile soil for all unorthodox doctrines, especially those, like Hurufi one, nurturing apocalyptic or messianic expectations. Simultaneously, Persian and the Gurgani vernacular retreated before the Anatolian Turkish as its written medium. The paper concentrates on the exegetical attempts of the second generation of Fażl Allāh Astarābādī (d. 1394)’s disciples, in particular the first Turkish translations and commentaries on his seminal works.
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The series of events in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the early 1990s had an undeniable impact on society and contributed significantly to rupturing the continuity of popular and religious customs. In the meantime, social openness means that Bosniaks are increasingly exposed to religious and cultural influences from both the East and West. This situation has made it exceptionally diffcult to preserve the continuity of Bosniak religious customs. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how the refraction of intercultural and inter-muslim influences in Bosnia and Herzegovina is reflected in Bosniak religious customs. The author therefore examines a selection of Bosniak religious customs related to the lifecycle: the birth of a child, marriage, and death, all of which show Bosniaks cleaving strongly to the regulations of Islam, with a gradual adoption of Western attainments and cultural values.
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In this paper we discuss the Muslim contribution to the development of European culture. Meeting with European nations of the Middle Ages (Sicily and Spain) Muslims spurred a strong impetus to their scientific and cultural development. The first section briefly presents the Muslim-Christian experience of intercultural exchange and mutual influence of trends in the process of formation of classical Islamic and medieval Christian culture and civilization.
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Review of: Cristina Feneșan, Convertiri la islam în spațiul carpato-dunărean (secolele XV-XIX), Editura Militară, București, 2020, 466 pag.
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During the Ayyubide dynasty (1171-1260), founded by the sultan Saladin or Salah-ad-din (1137-1193), the son of Moses ben Maimon, Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon (1186-1237), followed his father as leader of the Jewish community in Egypt, nagid (Hebrew), al-raʼīs or al-rayyis (Arabic). In accordance with the analysis of Elisha Russ-Fishbane, Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon, in the work The Sufficient [Guide] for the Servants of God, continued Moses ben Maimon’s arguments in Moreh nevukhim on prophetic gift as reaching human perfection. Unlike his father, who used as bibliographic background the system of thought whereby Al-Fārābī (ca. 870-950) had evinced ontological continuity due to which divine inspiration animates the political ideal of the “king philosopher” as a hypostasis of reason and the theocratic ideal of the “legislator-prophet-imām” as a hypostasis of imagination, Abraham opted for a limited proximity to the mystic theology of medieval Sufism.
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This article sheds light on the art of travel in the Islamic Maghreb, particularly with reference to diplomacy. While the traditional formation of travel came to be associated with an Islamic phenomenology, this paper argues that in the modern period the art of travel in the Islamic Maghreb underwent a paradigmatic shift in terms of its purposes and poetics. The first pertains to the expansion of its telos from an exclusively experiential religious horizon to the negotiation of various secular, particularly political undertakings.The second relates to the critical situatedness of travellers/diplomats as they navigated the ethical acuities of pursuing representational faithfulness while also doing their best not to hurt the sensibilities of the Moroccan Sultan or the interests of the state which they represented. Within the Moroccan ambassador Ahmad al-Kerdoudi’s travelogue about nineteenth-century Spain, the enterprise of intercultural mediation reflects the porousness of the Mediterranean world not only in the spheres of theology and culture but also in that of diplomacy.
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Mefküre Mollova was the first Turkish woman and university professor in Bulgaria, who defended her Ph.D. thesis in the field of turkology and gained international fame for her research. She is the author of over 150 publications in prestigious international journals that continue to be cited today. Mefküre Mollova was among the founders of the Turkish Philology at the University of Sofia. She had worked for only about 7 years (1953-1961), when she and her husband were dismissed from their academic positions on false claims, and the Department was closed. She remained outside the academia until the end of her life.
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The group of Arabic medieval authors critiqued and condemned the practices of Islam among the Berber tribes in North Africa. This article delves into the medieval debate surrounding Berber Islam, exploring key themes and interpretations of Arab-Berber relations and the unique aspects of intra-religious dynamics in the medieval Islamic West. Through a comparative analysis, it examines medieval Arabic perspectives on the origins of the Berbers, the nature of Berber Islam, accusations of heterodoxy, and the perceived absence of urban culture. The essay also explores Arab authors’ perspectives on Berber rule during the Almoravid (1054–1147) and Almohad (1121–1269) periods. By examining polemical examples, it sheds light on the intricate political landscape of the Maghreb. A detailed investigation into the characteristics of Berber Islam provides insights into the Arab approach to governance in the region, as well as the successes and shortcomings thereof. The consistent negative portrayal of Berbers in Arabic narratives underscores underlying issues within the medieval Islamic politico-religious framework.
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This article recollects the time, cultural and historical circumstances, of this publication, from the first initiative, public invitation, setting the conditions and the final decision of the Majlis of the IC to start the project Gramatika arapskog jezika. The decision to entrust this project to eminent scholars in the field of oriental philology, renowned interpreters and prominent intellectuals engaged in social development, Dr Šaćir Sikirić, professor and the director of Sharia Law School, Muhamed Pašić, director of Sharia law Gymnasium, and Mehmed Handžić, mudarris and director of Gazi Husrevbey Madrasa, was brought at the session of the Ulama-majlis held on October 3rd 1934. Ahmed Mehmedbašić and Ahmed Burek were selected to write a review of the textbook. These scholars were engaged in this project for a year and a half. The decision was made to deliver the manuscript straight after its completion for publishing at State Press in Sarajevo, thus to have a textbook ready for the academic 1937, for the students of Madrasa and other related schools. Since its first edition in 1936, Gramatika arapskog jezika, by Dr. Šaćir Sikirić, Muhamed Pašić and Mehmed Handžić, has seen three official editions, the last was in the year 1984.
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