Comparative Islamic Studies
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS
<p><em>Comparative Islamic Studies</em> aims to advance research on Islam through comparisons between Islam and other religions, and between religious and non-religious factors and disciplines. Regarding Islam and other religions, CIS extends the scope of comparisons of Islam and Islamic Scripture from the traditional focus on Judaism and Christianity to include religions of Antiquity, Africa, South- and South East Asia, China, Oceania, Europe and the Americas, as well as contemporary new religious movements, spirituality and the various types of esotericism. <a href="https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/about">Read more.</a></p>
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
en
Comparative Islamic Studies
1740-7125
<p>© Equinox Publishing Ltd.</p> <p>For information regarding our Open Access policy, <a title="Open access policy." href="Full%20details of our conditions related to copyright can be found by clicking here.">click here</a>.</p>
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Sufism, Pluralism and Democracy
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9723
Special issue: Editorial
Sufism
Pluralism
Democracy
BP1-253
Islam
Islamic Studies
Clinton Bennett
Sarwar Alam
Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2015-09-30
2015-09-30
3
8
10.1558/cis.v9i1.25300
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The Challenge of Religious Pluralism in Malaysia with Special Reference to the Sufi Thought of Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9724
Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad (1937-2010) was a sufi leader best remembered for the controversies surrounding his eschatological teachings which led to the Malaysian government’s banning of his organization, Darul Arqam, in 1994. Loved by admirers but reviled by the state, Ashaari’s influence cut across ethnicity, nationality and religion. While the transnational dimensions of Ashaari’s activities were well-known, aspects of ethno-religious pluralism in his thought, as conveyed in a multitude of written works published independently, have mostly escaped the attention of analysts and casual observers alike. With contemporary Malaysian Islam being invariably understood via ethnically slanted lenses, it would not have occurred to most people that a Malay-Muslim religious personality would actually subscribe to pluralistic conceptions of society which are liable to be interpreted as undermining conceptions of Malay-Muslim hegemony dearly held by the ruling establishment of the day. This chapter seeks to bring to the fore features of Ashaari’s thought which exemplifies integration between Sufism and political realities as conditioned by nation state-defined categories.
Special Issue: Articles
eschatology
transnational
Ashaari
pluralism
hegemony
nation-state
BP188.45-189.65 Sufism
religious studies
ethnography
politics
cultural studies
Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid
Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2015-09-30
2015-09-30
9
40
10.1558/cis.v9i1.26766
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Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Sakandari
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9725
<p>Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Sakandari (d 1309) is known as the true founder of the Šadhili Madhhab. Little is known about his role in creating both social peace and political stability in Mamluk Egypt. Comparing him to Ibrahim al-Dusuqi , I will study three aspects of this role. First, I will study his introduction of a new model of the Sufi-the Faqih vis-à-vis the Sufi-the Theologian, a model that created reconciliation between the two historical enemies: the Sufis and the Jurists. Second, Ibn 'Ata' Allah moved from Alexandria to Cairo to be a teacher at al-Azhar University, turning Sufism into a respected discipline, and closing the gap between urban Islam and periphery Islam. Third, he forged a political alliance with Sultan Qalawun that saved the Sultan enough popular support to create political stability after long years of political turmoil.</p>
Special Issue: Articles
Sufism
social peace
political turmoil
BP188.45-189.65 Sufism.
Religious Studies
Politics
Mohamed Mosaad Abdelaziz Mohamed
Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2015-09-30
2015-09-30
41
66
10.1558/cis.v9i1.26764
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Sufism Without Boundaries
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9726
Most scholars believe that the majority of the population of Bangladesh embraced Islam through the influence of the Sufis (mystics, holy men). A large majority of Bangladeshi Muslims perceives Sufis as sources of their spiritual wisdom and guidance, viewing Sufi khanqahs [hospices] and dargahs [mausoleums] to be the nerve centers of Muslim society. It has been argued that the greatest achievement of the Sufis of Bengal is the “growth of cordiality and unity between the Hindus and the Muslims.” Yet, Sufism is a contested phenomenon in Bangladesh. Islamic reform movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries preached against some Sufi rituals and practices, and Sufism as a whole. This article analyzes how the concept of “Bangalee Nationalism” emerges, among others, from various Sufi ideologies that recognize the authenticity of another’s faith. This article will also analyze how these traditions have hitherto been engaged in establishing a pluralistic society as well as in developing a culture of tolerance and interfaith dialogue.
Special Issue: Articles
culture
puritanical movements
Maizbhandariyya
politics
nationalism
pluralism
dialogue
BP188.45-189.65 Sufism
Religious Studies
Islamic Studies
Sarwar Alam
Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2015-09-30
2015-09-30
67
90
10.1558/cis.v9i1.26765
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Recent Interpretations of the Laws of Zakat with Regard to People with Disabilities
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/9727
<p>Zakat is considered the earliest social solidarity system that does not depend on voluntary charity but on orderly periodic government support. In this article I trace interpretations of the zakat laws on people with disabilities in the past and the present in respect of two main questions: is a disabled person subject to zakat taxation? and does a disabled person qualify as a beneficiary of funds collected through the zakat taxation? The main conclusions are that if and when the economic situation of people with disabilities is similar to that of the healthy, they are subject to taxation. People with disabilities become beneficiaries of zakat funds only when they are “poor,” “needy,” and unable to support themselves, but never only because of the disability.</p>
Articles
zakāt
people with disabilities
niṣāb
social solidarity
BP1-253 Islam
BP174-190 The practice of Islam
BP176-181 The five duties of a Moslem. Pillars of Islam
Islamic Studies
Religious Studies
Vardit Rispler-Chaim
Copyright (c) 2015 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2015-09-30
2015-09-30
91
112
10.1558/cis.v9i1.15531
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Competing Narratives on Transnational Islam
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/26718
<p>Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gülen Movement, by M. HakanYavuz, Oxford University Press, 2013. 320pp., Hb. $36.95. ISBN-13:9780199927999.<br><br>Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World, byJoshua D. Hendrick, New York University Press, 2013. 392pp., 5 half-tones, 2 figures. Hb. $65.00. ISBN-13: 9780814770986; Pb. $24.00. ISBN-13: 9781479800469.<br><br>The Gülen Hizmet Movement andits Transnational Activities: Case Studies ofAltruistic Activism in Contemporary Islam,edited by Sophia Pandya andNancy Gallagher, Brown Walker Press, 2012. 233pp., Pb. $25.95. ISBN-13: 9781612335476.</p>
Review Articles
Review Essay
Review Essay
Review Essay
Etga Ugur
Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2023-07-26
2023-07-26
113
121
10.1558/cis.v9i1.28292
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Integrity of Quranic Legislations
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/23749
<p>Abrogation is claimed to be required to resolve alleged contradictions between legislations in the Qu'ran, the Prophet’s Sunna, or both. The opponents of abrogation find the alleged contradictions imaginary because the Qu'ran is coherent and the legislative Sunna is its perfect implementation that God endorsed. Accordingly, the Quranic legislations are fully consistent if their different conditions and ultimate goals are considered. Different legislative verses were revealed in different circumstances to be applicable later in similar circumstances. Applying the Quranic legislations and the Prophet’s Sunna carefully in appropriate contexts can prove the integrity, consistency, universality, and eternity of the Quranic legislations. This article critically reviews the debate on the abrogation claim in Arabic literature, both classical and modern—debate that has important theological, legal and practical implications.</p>
Articles
The Quran
The Sunna
Islamic Legislation
Abrogation
The Quran, The Sunna, Islamic Legislation, Abrogation
The Quran, The Sunna, Islamic Legislation, Abrogation
Ahmed Ali Salem
Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2023-12-21
2023-12-21
10.1558/cis.23749
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The Temptation of Graves in Salafi Islam Iconoclasm, Destruction and Idolatry, by Ondrej Beránek and Pavel Tupek
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20058
<p>The Temptation of Graves in Salafi Islam Iconoclasm, Destruction and Idolatry, by Ondrej Beránek and Pavel Tupek. Edinburgh University Press, 2018. 272pp., Hb. £80.00. ISBN-13: 9781474417570.</p>
Book Reviews
Salafism
Wahhabism
graves
idolatry
worship
destruction of tombs
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Joas Wagemakers
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
148
151
10.1558/cis.20058
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Minorities in the Contemporary Egyptian Novel, by Mary Youssef
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20057
<p>Minorities in the Contemporary Egyptian Novel, by Mary Youssef. Edinburgh University Press, 2018. 216pp., Hb. £75.00. ISBN-13: 9781474415415.</p>
Book Reviews
Novel
Egypt
realism
minority experience
cosmopolitanism
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
165
167
10.1558/cis.20057
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Islam in Pakistan: A History, by Muhammad Qasim Zaman
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20056
<p>Islam in Pakistan: A History, by Muhammad Qasim Zaman. Princeton University Press, 2018. 432pp., Hb. $39.50. ISBN-13: 9780691149226.</p>
Book Reviews
Islam
Pakistan
ulama
Islamic modernism
Deobandis
Barelwis
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Alix Philippon
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
144
147
10.1558/cis.20056
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Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A Cinematic History, by Golbarg Rekabtalaei
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20055
<p>Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A cinematic history, by Golbarg Rekabtalaei. Cambridge University Press, 2019. 303 pp., Hb. £75.00. ISBN-13: 9781108418515.</p>
Book Reviews
Iranian cinema
modernization process
Film-Farsi
alternative cinema
culture and society of twentieth century Iran
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Katja Föllmer
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
161
164
10.1558/cis.20055
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Hashtag Islam: How Cyber-Islamic Environments Are Transforming Religious Authority, by Gary Bunt
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20054
<p>Hashtag Islam: How Cyber-Islamic Environments Are Transforming Religious Authority, by Gary Bunt. University of North Carolina Press, 2018. 232 pp., Hb. $90,00, ISBN-13: 9781469643151; Ebk. $19.99, ISBN-13: 9781469643175.</p>
Book Reviews
Islam and the internet
religion and media
religious authority
global Islam
digital religion
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Henrik Reintoft Christensen
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
157
160
10.1558/cis.20054
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The Loss of Tawhidi Worldview in Islamic World
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20053
<p>Modernization and the concomitant changes in people behavior are now blamed for the deterioration of the environment. This article points up desacralization of knowledge and the demise of esoteric tradition that followed to have an ecological impact in the Islamic world as the Muslims began to hold the bifurcated notion of “this-worldly” and “heavenly” in a completely distinct manner. Through modern education, Muslims adopted the notion of “independent existence” according to which nature exists in and of itself. Hence, the modernist vision of development and progress that threw the life-support system of the earth out of balance was possible in the Islamic world where religion and its cultural traditions remained strong. The twentieth century’s awareness about the need of an integrative framework to reconcile rational thought and science with a spiritual sense of awe for the cosmos, should remind the Muslims of the unitive worldview that arise from the core of Islamic belief—tawhid—expounded by esoteric Islam. Further, this article argues that science needs to repossess a metaphysical foundation, and that ethics and values need to be reintegrated into our rationality. Three case studies reveal mental crises caused by an overweening trust in science. I use data from my own extreme life experience, and biographical data suggestive of existential depression of two arguably highly gifted individuals. Drawing upon the data, the article juxtaposes the “unitive worldview” associated with mystical experience and the “evolutionary worldview” given rise by Darwin’s evolutionary biology, to put forward an examination of the effects that worldviews might have on human minds. The analysis adopts organic inquiry within transpersonal psychology research method, and content analysis of biographical data. Designed to investigate the “non-objective” spiritual reality, organic inquiry offers a rigorous method for those attempting to incorporate spiritual experience and mysticism into academic work. As a whole, the case studies present an example of the biologization of ethics; discusses social Darwinism and giftedness phenomena; and explicate the unitive worldview granted by mystical experiences.</p>
Articles
Tawhid
Ecology in Islam
Rational worldview
Unitive worldview
Evolutionary worldview
Mystical experience
Transpersonal psychology
Organic inquiry
Biologization of ethics
Giftedness
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Wardah Alkatiri
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
53
120
10.1558/cis.20053
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“The Dynamic Duo”
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/20052
Editorial
Editorial
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Ulrika Mårtensson
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
1
4
10.1558/cis.20052
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Miracles and Madness
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/19152
<p>This article analyzes the hagiographies, poems, oral traditions and miracle stories of an Islamic miracle worker (keramat) buried in Singapore named Sayyid Nuh ibn Muhd al-Habshi (ca.1788–1866). In his physical lifetime and beyond, he was described as a wandering ecstatic who adored children and burgled businesses, yet attained a reputation as “prophet” and keramat by performing miracles, healing the incurable and flying in and out of prisons and across the Indian Ocean. With appreciation for the historicity embedded in miracle stories, this article examines the Tamil devotional poems and songs, and the Malay hagiographies and oral traditions that commemorate this keramat. Attention is also paid to the historical concerns of his hagiographers, many of whom attempted to appeal to audiences informed by secularism, rationalism and “Wahhabism” by writing Islamic histories about this “Arab” Sufi master and the Sufi networks that operated in the Southeast Asian port city of Singapore at a time when it was dominated by western power. This article is thus concerned as much with the storytellers as with the miracle workers and members of devotional communities in nineteenth-century Singapore, all of whom are susceptible to being forgotten in academic historiography. By drawing upon ethnographies and newspaper reports about this prophet, saint, felon and “madman,” and discussing his mausoleum, which has remained intact in the face of war, colonialism and post-colonial infrastructural development, the article argues that the story of Sayyid Nuh is a history of Singapore Islam. A history that is interwoven with histories of the Indian Ocean, maritime Sufism, colonialism, capitalism and structural inequalities that were temporarily overcome by miracles. This is moreover a story of miraculous narratives, devotional cultures, social memories and sacral places that are often pushed to the margins of religious studies but refuse to “fade into folkloric oblivion.”</p>
Articles
magic
Sufism
port city
storytelling
ecstasy
BP
DS
Religious Studies
History
Anthropology
Teren Sevea
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
5
52
10.1558/cis.19152
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The Qur'an as the Only Constitutive Source of Islamic Law
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/19109
<p>In The Problem of Dealing with the Prophet’s Sunnah (originally in Arabic), Al-'Alwani proposes a comprehensive and coherent concept of Prophet Muhammad’s Sunnah based on the linguistic, Qur'anic and Prophetic usages of the term Sunnah, and argues that a prophet’s saying, action or approval is authentic if evidently rooted in the Qur'an, not only narrated in a correct, honest and accurate way. Al-'Alwani stresses the Prophet’s humanness and contends that the Qur'an proves his fallibility in his ijtihad and corrects it if it was not in full conformity with the Qur'an. Hence, the Qur'an’s authority over the Sunnah. Al-'Alwani links the authentic legislative Sunnah to the Qur'an and denies that one source can abrogate the other because there can be no contradiction between them. He argues that the authentic legislative Sunnah constitutes no laws; rather, it only illustrates the Prophet’s interpretation and implementation of the laws already constituted in the Qur'an. Hence, Al-'Alwani’s argument that the Qur'an is the only constitutive source of Islamic law. He asserts that the Qur'an contains all laws explicitly or implicitly, and the Sunnah is its application. Al-'Alwani sends a clear message in this book, that is, the unity of Muslim Ummah can be reestablished only through the recognition of the Qur'an’s role in life, and the Prophet’s role in implementing it.</p>
Review Articles
The Quran
the Sunnah
Islamic law
the Prophet’s ijtihād
abrogation
B -- PHILOSOPHY
Religion
Islamic Studies
Islamic Legal Theory
Ahmed Ali Salem
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
121
137
10.1558/cis.19109
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Hanafi Maturidism: Trajectories of a Theological Legacy, with a Study and Critical Edition of al-Khabbazi’s Kitab al-Hadi, by Ayedh S. Aldosari
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/18989
<p>Hanafi Maturidism: Trajectories of a Theological Legacy, with a Study and Critical Edition of al-Khabbazi’s Kitab al-Hadi, by Ayedh S. Aldosari. Equinox 2020, 704pp., 42 figures. Hb. £95.00/$125.00, ISBN-13: 9781781794258; ePDF. £95.00/ $125.00, ISBN-13: 978178179095.</p>
Book Reviews
Māturīdism
Ḥanafism
Islamic Theology
Sunnism
al-Khabbāzī
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Angelika Brodersen
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
152
156
10.1558/cis.18989
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Islam in Bosnien-Herzegowina und die Netzwerke der Jungmuslime (1918–1983), by Armina Omerika
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/18988
<p>Islam in Bosnien-Herzegowina und die Netzwerke der Jungmuslime (1918–1983), by Armina Omerika. Harrassowitz, 2014. xiv, 362pp. Hb. € 68.00. ISBN 9783447065825.</p>
Book Reviews
History
Bosnia
Second World War
Yugoslavia
Islam
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Carl Bethke
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
139
143
10.1558/cis.18988
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What is “Islamic” Art? Between Religion and Perception, by Wendy M. K. Shaw
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/18987
<p>What is “Islamic” Art? Between Religion and Perception, by Wendy M. K. Shaw. Cambridge University Press, 2019. 382pp., 34 b/w figures and 18 colour plates. Hb. € 36,75. ISBN-13: 9781108474658.</p>
Book Reviews
Postcolonial studies
art history
figural painting
text-image relations
Sufism
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Lorenz Korn
Copyright (c) 2021 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2021-10-13
2021-10-13
168
171
10.1558/cis.18987
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Iranian Cosmopolitanism
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13555
Introduction
Iranian Cosmopolitanism
Politics
Perspectivism
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Milad Odabaei
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
3
16
10.1558/cis.39228
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Reading the Global Disorder with Mahmud-i Tarzi
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13565
<p>Maqalat-i-Mahmud-i Tarzi, by Mahmud Tarzi, compiled by Rawan Farhadi. Mu'assasa-i Intišarat-i Baihaqi, 1977. 898 pages, (selections).</p>
Review Articles
World War One
Islam
Maḥmūd Tarzī
Afghanistan
modernity
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Fatima Mojaddedi
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
179
188
10.1558/cis.39130
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Fearing the Night
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13564
<p>Transnationalism in Iranian Political Thought: The Life and Times of Ahmad Fardid, by Ali Mirsepassi. Cambridge University Press, 2017. 408pp., Hb. £62.99, ISBN-13: 9781107187290; Pb. £19.99, ISBN-13: 9781316636473.</p>
Review Articles
Iran
Islamic Republic
Ahmad Fardid
Martin Heidegger
nativism
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Naveed Mansoori
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
170
178
10.1558/cis.39131
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The Revolution of Reform Cinema
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13563
<p>Reform Cinema in Iran: Film and Political Change in the Islamic Republic, by Blake Atwood. Columbia University Press, 2016. 280pp., Pb. $30.00/£24.00 ISBN-13: 9780231178174; Hb. $90.00/£70.00 ISBN-13: 9780231178167.</p>
Review Articles
revolutionary cinema
reform cinema
Mohammad Khatami
reformist movement
civil society
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Golbarg Rekabtalaei
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
163
169
10.1558/cis.39132
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Writing Iran from Exile
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13562
<p>A Social History of Iranian Cinema, vol. 1: The Artisanal Era, 1897-1941. by Hamid Naficy. Duke University Press, 2011. 456pp., Pb. $28.95 ISBN-13: 9780822347750.</p> <p>A Social History of Iranian Cinema, vol. 2: The Industrializing Years, 1941-1978, by Hamid Naficy. Duke University Press, 2011. 560pp., Pb. $29.95. ISBN-13: 9780822347743.</p> <p>A Social History of Iranian Cinema, vol. 3: The Islamicate Period, 1978-1984. by Hamid Naficy. Duke University Press, 2012. 288pp., Pb. $25.95. ISBN-13: 9780822348771.</p> <p>A Social History of Iranian Cinema, vol. 4: The Globalizing Era, 1984-2010. by Hamid Naficy. Duke University Press, 2012. 664 pp., Pb. $32.95. ISBN-13: 9780822348788.</p>
Review Articles
national history
Iranian cinema
exile
modernity
subject formation
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Arash Davari
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
151
162
10.1558/cis.39190
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Hollywood Cosmopolitanisms and the Occult Resonance of Cinema
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13560
<p>This article examines various circulations of Hollywood productions in Iran and the ways in which audiences, critics, cultural administrators, and activists relate to them. I am particularly concerned with what I call “Hollywood cosmopolitanisms,” forms of receptivity to religious and cultural others as mediated by the U.S. film industry. Rather than dividing attitudes toward Hollywood in terms of openness and refusal, or cosmopolitanism and counter-cosmopolitanism, I suggest that we attend to different modes of openness: those that are overtly acknowledged, those that are concealed, and those that pass altogether unrecognized but make their mark in the form of “occult resonance.”</p>
Articles
Iran
cosmopolitanism
cinema
spirituality
occult
Satanism
anthropology
anthropology
media studies, religious studies
Alireza Doostdar
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
121
149
10.1558/cis.32526
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Early Islamic Cosmopolitanism? Constructing the 'Umma of India in Pre-Mongol Muslim Scholarship
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13559
<p>This article analyzes possible avenues for the study of a pre-Mongol Islamic cosmopolitanism. The ways in which the archetypically idolatrous land of India is treated by Islamicate thinkers of the 'Abbasid empire and after illuminates an Islamic cosmopolitanism that managed to incorporate the other into its view of human history and religious history. Two major fields for the generation of cosmopolitan ideas are analyzed: narratives drawn from historiography, and taxonomies erected by theological-heresiographical works. Both frameworks rely on a Muslim model of history and society in which divine truth and guidance are mediated to the communities ('umma, 'umam) of the world firstly by a prophet, but also by sages and philosopher-kings: figures who play important roles in Muslim accounts of India. Through applying these “universal” categories to Indian subject-matter, Muslim thinkers were able to depict Indians as partners in the human struggle to attain and preserve truth, albeit falling short of the Muslim community in various ways. In both the historiographical and the heresiographical fields, cosmopolitan and anti-cosmopolitan trends are observable. By incorporating Indian narratives into a universalizing historical vision, Mas'udi can best be seen to approach a cosmopolitan sensibility among thinkers within historiographic discourse. Biruni goes furthest among the thinkers working within a theological-heresiographical framework in analogizing Indian philosophy with Muslim thought. It is argued that both thinkers achieve a kind of cosmopolitanism only through an elitist denigration of the commoners of their communities. In addition, their cosmopolitanism was predicated on imperial expansionism into India.</p>
Articles
community
India
idolatry
empire studies
historiography
theology
ʿAbbasid
cosmopolitanism
conquest
cultural studies
D - World History
History
Religious studies
Theology
Edmund Hayes
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
75
120
10.1558/cis.32620
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“The Necessary Ornaments of Place”
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13558
<p>This article analyzes representations of place in seventeenth-century texts to consider how early modern Persians made sense of the world. The Persian formulation of alterity stands in contrast to Edward Said’s formulation about Orientalism, by which Europe makes itself into the West. In early modern Persianate Asia, common representations of place appear in geographical and travel writing. These shared features, which I call ornaments, adorned both places that shared a learned Persian language, Muslim rule, and those beyond, in other parts of Asia and Africa. The presence or absence of these ornaments made the world intelligible for early modern Persians, creating categories of similarity and alterity that were partial, diffuse, and aporetic, defying the self-other distinctions of Orientalism. This form of knowledge about the self and the world then generated the possibility for encounters different from both modern colonial power and the nation-state.</p>
Articles
Geography
travel
wonders
Safavid
Mughal
Orientalism
difference
early modern
Persianate
BL1-150 Religion
G1-922 Geography
Religious Studies
Islamic Studies
Mana Kia
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
47
73
10.1558/cis.32630
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The Special Iranian Issue
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13554
Editorial
Iranian Cosmopolitanism
BL1-50 Religion (General)
History
Anthropology
Religious Studies
Architecture
Sociology
Ulrika Mårtensson
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
1
2
10.1558/cis.39227
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Aristotle and Iranian Ethicists
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/13557
<p>From Aristotle to the end of the Middle Ages, friendship was considered to be a core notion in Western political philosophy. However, as Von Heyking and Avramenko argue, friendship has lost its prominent politico-philosophical status in the modern era, particularly in the Western liberal tradition. In the Muslim tradition, and specifically in the history of Iranian thought, friendship as a moral paradigm went through a different course of development. In this article, I will present a comparative view of friendship as reflected in the works of Aristotle and three major Iranian ethicists: Abu 'Ali Ahmad Miskawayh (d. 1030), Abu'l-Qasim Husayn al-Raghib al-Isfahani (d. ca. 1108) and Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274). I will examine friendship-related perspectives rooted in the Irano-Islamic philosophical traditions that represent a significant but overlooked dimension of Iranian cosmopolitanism valuable for modern peacemaking approaches beyond such concepts as: “justice before peace,” “liberal peace” and “cold peace.”</p>
Articles
Friendship
peacemaking
ethics
bounty
justice-plus
religion
political philosophy
cosmopolitanism
Religion/Peacemaking
Religion
Mohammad Jafar Amir Mahallati
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-10-23
2019-10-23
17
46
10.1558/cis.32527
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Dr. Arthur Buehler obituary
https://journal.equinoxpub.com/CIS/article/view/12588
<p>Comparative Islamic Studies mourns the loss of editorial board member, Dr. Arthur Buehler, who passed away in Tucson, Arizona April 1, 2019. Before pursuing his doctorate at Harvard University under Annemarie Schimmel, he had mastered the Arabic language and spent several years in Yemen and Oman teaching English. Before his retirement Dr. Buehler had been Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He had also taught Islamic Studies at several American Universities.</p> <p>Art Buehler was a scholar of Sufism, especially the Persianate Sufism of South and Central Asia. In addition to numerous articles, his books include: Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of the Mediating Sufi Shaykh (1998); Revealed Grace: The Juristic Sufism of Ahmad Sirhindi, 1564–1624 (2011), and Recognizing Sufism: Contemplation in the Islamic Tradition (2016).</p>
Obituary
Dr. Arthur Buehler
Islamic Studies
Islamic Studies
Marcia K Hermansen
Copyright (c) 2019 Equinox Publishing Ltd.
2019-08-28
2019-08-28
237
237
10.1558/cis.39593