Abstract: The Almohad caliphs claimed that agnatically they belonged to the Arab tribe of Quraysh. Qays c Aylān does not include the tribe of Qurays, with which the Mu'minids claimed to be linked cognatically. According to the classical doctrine of the caliphate, to be found for example in Ibn Hazm, the caliphs should belong to Quraysh through their paternal lineage. In this article, the advantages of a Qaysi genealogy (with a long tradition among the Berber populations of North Africa) for the Mu'minid caliphs are analyzed. Among those advantages there are the links that such genealogy established with the Arab tribes of Sulaym and Hilāl, crucial elements in the Mu'minid army, and with the pre-Islamic Arab Prophet Khālid b. Sinīn al- c Absī (descendants of whom appear in connection with the episode of the Berber rebellion of the Kāhina).

Abstract: Arwā bint Ahmad (d. 532/1137) ruled in Yemen for fifty-five years. She played an important political role and at the same time occupied the highest rank in the Ismā'īlī religious hierarchy after that of the imam. Her religious policies, particularly her special relations with the Fatimids, led to the transfer of the Fatimid literary legacy to Yemen, and hence to its preservation following the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate. She likewise organized the new structure of the Yemeni Ismā'īlī da'wa, thus contributing to its survival after the fall of the Sulayhid dynasty. The proposed paper investigates Arwā's career from two different angles: the Fatimid Egyptian and the Yemen Ismā'īlī. The main point will be the way they dealt with the fact that she was a female ruler. The Fatimid caliph-imam al-Mustansir first issued a decree stating that to follow her was a religious duty. He then appointed her to the rank of hugga, the highest after that of the imam, in order to give her rule a more emphatic legitimacy. The Yemeni Ismā'īlī position is best represented in al-Sultān al-Hattāb's religious tract Gāyat al-mawālīd, where he argues that Arwā's female body was no more than a body envelope covering her original male essence. The fact that Arwā was a woman posed a serious problem for both the Fatimids and the Yemeni Ismā'īlīs. In each case they tried to deal with it in a way that suited their political and religious interests.

Abstract: This article explores the effect of multi-ethnic empires on the formulation of identity, examining particularly identities developed before the modern period. Imperial state structures and legitimation influenced the understanding of ethnic identities; the resulting definitions and expectations often outlived the empire. Modern European nationalism developed from the group feeling and ideologies of medieval and early modern Europe, influenced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In western and central Asia large-scale secular identities also existed in the pre-modern period within several great empires: the Islamic caliphate, the Mongol Empire, and the Russian Empire. In these states, the connections made between various markers of identity - language, origin, and territory - were unlike those in Europe, and the expectations connected with separate identity were also different. Despite the spread of European nationalism and the creation of modern nation-states throughout these regions, earlier systems of ident...

Abstract: Preface Maps 1. By Way of Introduction 2. The Formative Period of al-andalus 3. The Symbolic Articulation of Power 4. Dissidents during the Caliphate Period 5. Ibn Garcia and the Context of His Time 6. The Reading of Ibn Garcia Conclusions Bibliography Index of Proper Names

Abstract: During his 5 years in Cairo, Al-Banna saw Egypt's secular culture as immoral, decadent, and atheistic. He was alarmed also by the reforms of Kemal Attaturk, who abolished the Caliphate. Al-Banna worried that the 1925 establishment of secular Egyptian universities was the first step toward a Turkish-style abandonment of Islam. WITHOUT CLOSELY examining Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (the Muslim Brotherhood) founded in Egypt in 1928, it is impossible to try to understand modern Islamic radicalism. Al-Ikhwan was the first of its kind to politicize Islam within the context of the colonial age and the first to put into practice the theories of Salafist thinkers such as Jamal-al-Din al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh. These two Muslim revivalists, who wrote and preached during the beginning of the 20th-century, espoused that Islam and modernity are compatible and that Muslims lack control over their destinies because they have fallen into fatalism, abandoning the quest for understanding. According to AlAfghani and Abduh, falling away from their true faith has made Muslim lands vulnerable to Western colonialism. From the Muslim Brotherhood ranks came Sayed Qutb, who wrote the jihadist pamphlet Ma'alim (Guideposts), and many members of the more militant Gammaa al-Islamiya (The Islamic Group) and Al-Jihad as well as Al-Takfir wal-Hijra (Excommunication and Migration). Most leaders of these militant organizations and their members were once members of the Brotherhood. The history of the Brotherhood is intertwined with the events surrounding Egypt's 1952 founding as a Republic. Al-Ikhwan members once included the late Mohammed Atef, Osama bin-Laden's military commander, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda's political ideologue. The question for those studying Islamic terrorism is, "To what extent did the Muslim Brotherhood influence the suicide bomber Muhammad Atta and the blind cleric Shiekh Omar Abd-al-Rahman?" Understanding Hasasan-Al-Banna's Egypt Hassan-Al-Banna, born in 1906 in the delta town of Mahmudiya, saw an Egypt completely dominated by England. By 1919 he was participating in nationalist protests. He and his family witnessed nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul calling for the withdrawal of the British and the granting of independence to Egypt. British high commissioners in Cairo, including the distinguished commissioner Lord Horatio Kitchener, had governed the country since 1882. Despite being granted independence in 1922, Egypt retained a de facto British high commissioner, who continued to dictate policy to King Fouad and his son King Farouk. England continued to treat Egyptians with contempt, using such racial epithets as "gyppos" and "camel jockey," words that originated with British and Australian troops serving tours of duty in Egypt. Egyptians have typically been weaned on stories of English domination, some real, others exaggerated. One such story is about an English hunter shooting pigeons on an Egyptian farmer's property. The farmer, seeing the birds he raised for food being killed, tried to persuade the hunter to stop. The hunter refused to acknowledge the farmer, so the farmer struck the Englishman, killing him. In retaliation, British troops razed the village, causing many deaths and casualties. Today, this town is called Damanhour (Flowing Blood) in commemoration. Al-Banna's childhood education consisted of an Islamic elementary education and learning watch repair, his father's craft. His father, a graduate of Al-Azhar University, was the village's Islamic leader. At the age of 12, Al-Banna was enrolled in primary school and began his association with Islamic groups. He also became a member of the Society for Islamic Morality, whose members were to adhere to a strict code of Muslim behavior, with fines imposed on those who cursed, drank, or smoked. This evangelism expanded to include a membership in the Society for Preventing the Forbidden. At 16, Al-Banna attended Dar-al-Ulum, an Islamic teacher's training college in Cairo where he focused his studies on Tawheed (theology), Fiqh (jurisprudence), Arabic literature, and Kalam (modern Islamic ideology or theosophy). …

Abstract: Making extensive use of British official sources, this thesis traces the origins, development, and eventual dereliction of the idea of a restored Arab caliphate amongst British imperialists in the Middle East during the Great War. The thesis describes how Britain, as the European imperial power with the greatest number of Muslim subjects, became especially sensitive to the Ottoman Empire's attempts to compensate for European encroachment by extending the religious authority of the sultan-caliph into territories outside the Empire. There is emphasis on the fact that, with the weakening of the Ottoman Empire towards the end of the nineteenth century, and moves towards autonomy in the Arab provinces, the return of the caliphate to Arabia appeared to the British as more or less

Abstract: During the Battle of Siffin which occurred between Ali b. Abi Talib, who became caliph after the murder of the Caliph Uthman, and Muawiya b. Abi Sufyan thousands of people from both sides had been killed. At the very crucial point of the battle, idea of arbitration was put forward by Amr b. al-As. Two arbitrators had met and made long discussions. At the end, they came to decision that both Ali and Muawiya would be removed from the caliphate and the new caliph would be elected as a result of consultation among the Muslims. They announced this decision together. Although there had been many narrations on the fact that Amr deceived Abu Musa at the time of announcement of the decision, they are baseless. In this research, various narrations on this important event were studied and evaluated

Abstract: After World War II, leading western powers focused their attention on fighting the "Red Menace," Communism. Today, as terrorist activity is increasingly linked to militant Islamism, some politicians and scholars fear a "Green Menace," a Pan-Islamic totalitarian movement fueled by monolithic religious ideology. Such fears have no foundation in history, according to Vartan Gregorian. In this succinct, powerful survey of Islam, Gregorian focuses on Muslim diversity and division, portraying the faith and its people as a mosaic, not a monolith. The book begins with an accessible overview of Islam's tenets, institutions, evolution, and historical role. Gregorian traces its origins and fundamental principles, from Muhammad's call to faith nearly 1,400 years ago to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and the subsequent abolition of the Caliphate. He focuses particular attention on the intense struggle between modernists and traditionalists, interaction between religion and nationalism, and key developments that have caused bitter divisions among Muslim nations and states: the partitions of Palestine, the break up and Islamization of Pakistan, the 1978 revolution in Iran, and the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Today Islamist views range across the entire spectra of religious and political thought, and Islamism is anything but a unified movement. While religious extremists have attempted to form a confederacy of like-minded radicals in many countries, much of the Muslim population lives in relatively modern, secular states. Gregorian urges Westerners to distinguish between activist Islamist parties, which promote --sometimes violently --Islam as an ideology in a theocratic state, and Islamic parties, whose traditional members want their secular political systems to co-exist with the moral principles of their religion. Gregorian emphasizes the importance of religion in today's world and urges states,societies, and intellectuals to intervene in order to prevent Islam--as well as other religions--from becoming the political tool of various parties and states. He recommends continuing dialogues between modernist and traditionalist Muslims, as well as among the educated, secular elite and their clerical counterparts. He also urges U.S.-led efforts to engage and better understand the diversity of Muslim communities in the United States and the world. Lamenting widespread U.S. ignorance of the world's fastest-growing religion, Gregorian calls on "enlightened citizens" to promote international understanding, tolerance, and peace.

Abstract: Abstract In A.D. 711 Muslim forces in modern Morocco crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. This was another in a series of conquests over the previous millennium: Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, and Visigoths. The Visigothic kingdom was too weak and fragmented to stop the onslaught. Not until 732 did the Muslim forces suffer a defeat at Tours in central France, following which they stayed south of the Pyrenees. In spite of overwhelming numbers and motivation, the Muslims failed to conquer all of Spain, and isolated pockets of Christians remained to harry them. The Christian kings and princes in northern Spain were rarely unified, but neither were the Moors, as the Muslims were known in Spain. Various Moorish factions made up the occupying population: Arabs in Andalusia and Aragon to the east; Berbers from just across the Straits in the mountainous country and high plains of central Spain, territory most like their homeland; Syrians in the south in the region that came to be called Granada. There an exiled heir of the Ummayad dynasty established a caliphate in Cordova to rival the recently established Abbasid dynasty in Baghdad. Over the succeeding centuries the two populations absorbed some of each other’s cultures and military methods, with activity waxing or waning depending on such actions as the Crusades or a jihad launched by the militant Almoravids or Almohads in North Africa.

Abstract: List of Figures List of MapsIntroduction: The Problem of Defining IslamPart I: Islamic Origins:1. The Conquests:Psychological ImpactArchaeological Data: The "Invisible" ConquestsResources for Further Study2. Arabia:Pre-Islamic PoetryThe Book of IdolsMecca and the QurayshThe Gifts of the ArabsResources for Further Study3. The Pre-Islamic Near East:Christianity in the Near EastReligion in the Sasanian EmpireThe Place of the Arabs in the Near EastResources for Further Study4. Religion of Empire:Arab Colonial PolicyThe Problem of ConversionThe Nature of LeadershipThe Dome of the RockThe Constitution of MedinaResources for Further StudyPart II: The Formation of the Islamic Tradition:5. The Qur'an:The History of the TextThe Qur'an in Muslim PietyInterpreting The Qur'anResources for Further Study6. The Life of Muhammad:Prologue and SettingBirth and ChildhoodEarly AdulthoodThe Beginning of RevelationOppositionThe Night Journey and Ascent to HeavenThe HijraVictory and DefeatThe Peace of Al-Hudaybiyya and the Farewell PilgrimageResources for Further Study7. The Tradition LiteratureThe Science of HadithThe Exegetical Origins of HadithIn Quest of the Historical MuhammadThe Sira and the Shaping of an Islamic World ViewResources for Further StudyPart III: Islamic Institutions:8. The Caliphate:The Shi'i VisionShi'ism and the 'Abbasid RevolutionTwelversThe Isma 'ilisThe Nizari "Assassins"The KharijitesThe Sasanian RevivalAl-Mawardi and the Sunni CompromiseResources for Further Study9. Islamic Law:The Coffee DebateRevelation and ReasonQiyasThe Schools of LawIslamic Law and the StateIjma'The Usul Al-FiqhThe Substance of the LawRitual PurityActs of WorshipThe Origins of Islamic LawResources for Further Study10. Islamic Theology & Philosophy:Freedom and DeterminismGod's AttributesFaith and WorksLeadershipThe Sunni ConsensusAhmad ibn Hanbalal-Ash'arial-Ash'ari and KalamThe Theological EnvironmentThe Challenge Of PhilosophyProphecy and Revelation in Islamic PhilosophyPhilosophy and MysticismResources for Further Study11. Sufism:Stages on the PathThe Spiritual MasterSufi BrotherhoodsSufi RitualThe DestinationSufi CosmologySufism in History: The Case of al-HallajBeginnings to the Tenth CenturyClassical Manuals and the Growth of TariqasThe Pervasiveness of SufismResources for Further StudyPart IV: Crisis and Renewal in Islamic History:12. Turks, Crusaders and Mongols:The SaljuqsAl-Ghazali and the Sunni RevivalSlave SoldiersThe CrusadesThe MongolsThe Impact of the Mongol InvasionsResources for Further Study13. Encounter with the West:The Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal EmpiresThe Rise of European PowerThe Religious EnvironmentThe 'Ulama' and the EmpiresTrends in SufismThe WahhabisJihad MovementsAl-AfghaniSayyid Ahmad Khan and 'AligarhResources for Further Study14. Islam and Modernity:From Caliphate to Nation-StateThe Idea of the Islamic StateFrom Shari'a to Secular Law and BackA New Kalam?The Vitality of SufismResources for Further StudyEpilogue: Islam in a Postmodern World BibliographyIndex

Abstract: A study of the development of political and social institutions in Baghdad, center of the Abbasid Caliphate, in that neglected period between Abbasid collapse and the coming of the Seljuk Turks. Three brothers, Daylemite mercenaries from the southern Caspian succeeded in establishing a dynasty that lasted nearly a century, controlling Iraq, a good part of Iran and the Gulf. The period has been labled the "Iranian intermezzo" but careful examination shows that the dynasty shaped the basic institutions to which the Seljuks would fall heir: the chief amirate, the system of army fiefs and the bureaucracy. It was a period of profound change and dislocation which fostered an open and creative cultural atmosphere. The Caliphate, bereft of power, was re-established as the center of authority and legitimation.