Journal of Islamic Studies - Advance Access

The Ottoman Mevali as 'Lords of the Law'

Tezcan, B. — 2009-07-03

This article argues that in the late-sixteenth and the early-seventeenth centuries the high-ranking Ottoman judges and professors of law, the mevali (sing. mevla, lord), came to constitute a privileged social group, a nobility of sorts, whose members could pass on their social status to their sons. It discusses briefly the legitimizing and legal-administrative functions of the ulema, or scholar-jurists, which provided them with invaluable leverage vis-à-vis the Ottoman administrative apparatus and thus secured them certain privileges, and then summarizes the main rules that governed ulema careers and brought about the development of a quite exclusive social group, the mevali, at the summit of the ulema hierarchy. Thereafter, the evidence that demonstrates the exclusivity of the mevali nobility in the period 1550–1650 is presented in some detail. The last part of the article introduces one of the most important mevali families of the seventeenth century, the Sa’deddinzades.

Indian Islamic Architecture: Forms and Typologies, Sites and Monuments: By JOHN BURTON-PAGE, edited by GEORGE MICHELL

Khalidi, O. — 2009-07-03

Al-Mazari al-Dhaki: al-Ghazai's Maghribi Adversary in Nishapur

Garden, K. — 2009-06-30

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's letters provide a terse and sometimes contradictory description of a controversy that erupted after he returned to teaching in Nishapur in 499/1106. This account refers to an unnamed Maghribi Maliki who played a role in the controversy by denouncing al-Ghazali to men of the state at the urging of the latter's Nishapuri enemies. This article proposes an identity for the Maghribi: a Sicilian religious scholar named Abu Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Abi al-Faraj al-Mazari, known as al-Dhaki (d. 510/1116). An examination of seven of his biographies corroborates some charges against al-Ghazali mentioned in the letters, gives a year for the controversy, and reveals some of the strategies used by al-Ghazali's enemies to try to cause his downfall. An appendix considers and dismisses the possibility that a surviving critique of Ihya ulum al-din entitled al-Kashf wa-l-anba an kitab al- Ihya was authored by the same al-Mazari.

Religious Education and Reformist Islam in Thailand's Southern Border Provinces: The Roles of Haji Sulong Abdul Kadir and Ismail Lutfi Japakiya

Liow, J. C. — 2009-06-29

Scholarship about Muslims in Thailand has rightly maintained that Thai Islam has enjoyed a long and vibrant tradition, and that the country has been home to a wide variety of representations of Muslim identity. Predictably, Muslim heterogeneity has also generated multifarious patterns of dissonance and contestations. While differences between the state and Muslim society, as well as between Malay and Thai identities, have sparked considerable press and academic coverage of late, this paper focuses on contestations within Thailand's Malay minority community as it seeks to negotiate identity and authenticity in the southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat.

Empowering women through Islam: Fatayat NU between tradition and change

Arnez, M. — 2009-06-29

This article investigates the empowerment strategies of Fatayat NU, the young women's branch of the Indonesian Muslim mass organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). It raises the following questions: what instruments the women have used to realize their visions of empowerment and gender equality since the foundation of Fatayat NU, what programmes they have recently set up to advance the position of women in Indonesian society, and how they have addressed controversial topics such as female leadership, polygyny, and abortion. In Fatayat NU's early history male dominance confined its room for action. The young women have increased their influence step by step, although they still have to negotiate their status vis-à-vis male authorities. It was not until the 1980s that important changes occurred in the organization. Women's empowerment based on Islamic values has been a declared goal of Fatayat NU.

Islam and Post-Modernism: Locating the Rise of Islamism in Turkey

Alam, A. — 2009-06-29

This paper reflects on the rise of Islamism in Turkey. In doing so, it does not emphasize electoral strategies within the competitive multi-party system, or charismatic leadership or the existence of Islamic factions within the Republican and Democratic Party, in order to explain the political ascendancy of Islamist parties—whether NOP, NSP, Welfare, Virtue, Felicity, or AKP. It is also not about the rise of a particular Islamic political formation in Turkey. Instead it tries to situate the rise of Islamism as an alternative discourse against the background of the crisis of Kemalism. It examines the processes and factors that helped Islamists to take centre stage in Turkish politics and society, and argues that these need to be understood in combination with post-modernist features of Islamic movements, particularly in the context of Turkey. The paper also tries to explain why and how Islam, not other existing secular ideologies, emerged as a master signifier in the context of the crisis of Kemalism.

Islam and Muslims in Germany. Muslim Minorities, Volume 7 * Edited by ALA AL-HARMANEH and JORN THIELMANN

Hofmann, M. W. — 2009-06-27

Monetary Union in the Gulf: Prospects for a Single Currency in the Arabian Peninsula * By EMILIE J. RUTLEDGE

Wilson, R. — 2009-06-23

Islamic Militancy in Bangladesh: A Complex Web * By ALI RIAZ

Talib, M. — 2009-06-23

Spiritual Dimensions of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi's Risale-i Nur * Edited and introduced by IBRAHIM M. ABU RABIlhring

Setia, A. — 2009-06-23

Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia * Edited by ANTHONY REID and MICHAEL GILSENAN

Raychaudhuri, T. — 2009-06-23

Mahdis and Millenarians: Shi'ite Extremists in Early Muslim Iraq * By WILLIAM F. TUCKER

Madelung, W. — 2009-06-23

Some Aspects of Islam in Africa * By lhringUTHMAN SAYYID AHMAD ISMAIL AL-BILI

Last, M. — 2009-06-23

Terror and Toleration: the Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526-1850 * By PAULA SUTTER FICHTNER

Kunt, M. — 2009-06-23

Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success * By CHRISTOPHER M. DAVIDSON

Jones, J. — 2009-06-23

The Story of the Qurrhringan: Its History and Place in Muslim Life * By INGRID MATTSON

Hossain, M. — 2009-06-23

Sufism: The Formative Period. * By AHMET T. KARAMUSTAFA

Honerkamp, K. L. — 2009-06-23

Muslime in Europa: Staatsburgerschaft und Islam in einer liberalen und sakularen Demokratie * By URSI SCHWEIZER

Hofmann, M. W. — 2009-06-23

Cosmopolitan Anxieties: Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany. * By RUTH ELLEN MANDEL

Hofmann, M. W. — 2009-06-23

Governing Property, Making the Modern State: Law, Administration and Production in Ottoman Syria * By MARTHA MUNDY and RICHARD SAUMAREZ SMITH

Hanioglu, M. S. — 2009-06-23

The Religions of the Book: Christian Perceptions, 1400-1660 * Edited by MATTHEW DIMMOCK and ANDREW HADFIELD

Gunny, A. — 2009-06-23

Pilgrimage to Mecca * By LADY EVELYN COBBOLD

Gunny, A. — 2009-06-23

A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire * By SUKRU M. HANIOgLU

Fleet, K. — 2009-06-23

The Umma and the Dawla: the Nation State and the Arab Middle East * By TAMIM AL-BARGHOUTI

El-Affendi, A. — 2009-06-23

From Arabian Tribes to Islamic Empire: Army, State and Society in the Near East c. 600-850 * By PATRICIA CRONE

Donner, F. M. — 2009-06-23

Algebra wa Al-Muqabala: an Essay by the Uniquely Wise rhringAbel Fath Omar Bin Al-Khayyam on Algebra and Equations * By OMAR KHAYYAM, translated by ROSHDI KHALIL

Devlin, K. — 2009-06-23

The Political Culture of Leadership in the United Arab Emirates * By ANDREA B. RUGH

Al-Azri, K. — 2009-06-23

Islam in Central Asia * By LUDMILA POLONSKAYA and ALEXEI MALASHENKO

Akiner, S. — 2009-06-23

Oil, Islam and Conflict: Central Asia since 1945 * By ROB JOHNSON

Akiner, S. — 2009-06-23