Early Islam

Thematic and Structural Affinities between 1 Enoch and the Qur'an: A Contribution to the Study of the Judaeo-Christian Apocalyptic Setting of the Early Islamic Faith

by Carlos Segovia

in: The Coming of the Comforter: When, Where, and to Whom? Studies on the Rise of Islam and Various Other Topics in Memory of John Wansbrough, ed. Carlos A. Segovia and Basil Lourié (Orientalia Judaica Christiana 3; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2012), 231-67.

1. Apocalyptic trends in late Antiquity: A necessary bridge between modern Jewish, Christian, and Islamic studiesmore 1. Apocalyptic trends in late Antiquity: A necessary bridge between modern Jewish, Christian, and Islamic studies
2. The Qur'an as a palimpsest; or, the Quranic corpus from an intertextual perspective
3. Thematic and structural affinities between 1 Enoch 2:1-5:4 and Qur'an 7:36; 10:6; 16:81; 24:41, 44, 46
4. The reception of 1 Enoch within formative Islam: A few contrasting hypotheses
5. Some final remarks

J. Wansbrough and the Problem of Islamic Origins in Recent Scholarship: A Farewell to the Traditional Account

by Carlos Segovia

in: The Coming of the Comforter: When, Where, and to Whom? Studies on the Rise of Islam and Various Other Topics in Memory of John Wansbrough (Orientalia Judaica Christiana 3; Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2012), xix-xviii.

Annus Hegiræ vel Annus (H)Agarorum? Etymologische und vergleichende Anmerkungen zum Anfang der islamischen Jahreszählung

by Robert Kerr

To appear in Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion III (Schiler 2012).

Sacred history beyond history: some reflections on the Kitāb Maqtal al-Ḥusayn by Abū Mikhnaf

by Francesco Stermotich Cappellari

Qāḍī-s and the political use of the maẓālim jurisdiction under the ʿAbbāsids

by Mathieu Tillier

Published in: Christian Lange et Maribel Fierro (éd.), Public Violence in Islamic Societies: Power, Discipline, and the Construction of the Public Sphere, 7th—18th Centuries CE, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2009, p. 42-66.

Ghulūww and the Ghulāt in Early Imāmi Shī'ism, A Brief Survey of Beliefs and Doctrines

by Nadim Pabani

The term ghulūww is commonly translated as “extremism” or “exaggeration” and denotes certain religious and doctrinal... more The term ghulūww is commonly translated as “extremism” or “exaggeration” and denotes certain religious and doctrinal views which could be classed as exceeding the bounds of ‘proper’ belief with those holding these extreme views being called ghulāt (sing. ghāli) or “exaggerators”. The ghulāt tended to be associated with certain beliefs deemed ‘deviant’ or ‘heretical’ enough so that they were, in some cases, viewed as falling beyond the pale of Muslim orthodoxy and Islam.

The purpose of this paper will be to illustrate the evolutionary nature of this concept, whilst also surveying certain doctrines associated with the ghulāt.

Abu Mikhnaf's Kitab Maqtal al-Husayn - A Product of Its Time

by Nadim Pabani

The focus of this paper will be a text known as the Kiṭāb Maqtal al-Ḥusayn (from here on in referred to as the Kiṭāb);... more The focus of this paper will be a text known as the Kiṭāb Maqtal al-Ḥusayn (from here on in referred to as the Kiṭāb); a compilation of reports surrounding the death of the third Shi'i Imam Ḥusayn ibn. Ali ibn. Abū Talib, who was martyred on the plains of Kerbala on the tenth day of Muharram, 680 C.E. The historian responsible for the Kiṭāb was a Kufan man by the name of Abū Mikhnaf (d.774) and this paper will assess the milieu which gave rise to the Kiṭāb and attempt to show how the Kiṭāb was a product of the time in which it was compiled.

Imam Ja‘far’s Legacy to the Community - The Formulation of the Doctrine of Imamate

by Nadim Pabani

Imam Jafar al-Sadiq’s importance extended in the sphere of law and jurisprudence amongst all Muslim communities but... more Imam Jafar al-Sadiq’s importance extended in the sphere of law and jurisprudence amongst all Muslim communities but for Shias he was the final authority on Earth in matters pertaining to faith and Sharia. In this piece, we situate Imam Jafar in his historical and socio-political context whilst also addressing the key principles which were developed during his Imamat including the the doctrine of Imamat, and the principles of nass, ilm and taqiya.

Schatten über den Anfängen ? Wie viel sagen frühislamische Quellen über das aus, was wirklich war?

by David Kiltz

Published in: Schneiders, Thorsten Gerald ( Hrsg.), Islamverherrlichung.
Wenn die Kritik zum Tabu wird. 2010.
http://www.vs-verlag.de/Buch/978-3-531-16258-4/Islamverherrlichung-(Arbeitstitel).html

Al-Shãfi'i, the Hadith, and the Concept of the Duality of Revelation

by Aisha Musa

Enclosed in Ivory: The Miseducation of al-Mughira

by Francisco Prado-Vilar

"Enclosed in Ivory: The Miseducation of al-Mughira,” Journal of the David Collection 2.1 (2005): 138-63.

In response to the publication of SOPHIE MAKARIOU's rambling criticism of "Enclosed in Ivory" in her... more In response to the publication of SOPHIE MAKARIOU's rambling criticism of "Enclosed in Ivory" in her lackluster and derivative "The al-Mughira Pyxis and Spanish Umayyad Ivories: Aims and Tools of Power," in Umayyad Legacies: Medieval Memories from Syria to Spain, ed. A. Borrut and P. Cobb (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 313-35, here I invite more intelligent readers to peruse "Enclosed in Ivory" again in its manifold dimensions of analysis, waging its historical, iconographic, and literary arguments, as well as its wider methodological implications. Curiously enough, this article, conceived an "ekphrasis" that mimics the structure and rhetoric of the object it describes, anticipates, as does the al-Mughira pyxis with its target audience, Makariou’s ethically and hermeneutically challenged response, beginning with the opening quote all the way through its various layers of moral commentary.
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La théologie de la substitution du point de vue de l'islam

by Guillaume Dye

dans Judaïsme, christianisme, islam. Le judaïsme entre "théologie de la substitution" et "théologie de la falsification", Bruxelles, Didier Devillez Editeur, 2010, pp. 85-103

Ahab, Bar Kokhba, Muhammad, and the Lying Spirit: Prophetic Discourse before and after the Rise of Islam

by Michael Pregill

Isra’iliyyat, Myth, and Pseudepigraphy: Wahb b. Munabbih and the Early Islamic Versions of the Fall of Adam and Eve

by Michael Pregill

Der sogenannte „Umar-Pakt“

by Dennis Halft OP

„Der sogenannte „Umar-Pakt““, in: Wort und Antwort 51 (2010), 181-183.

Canonisation du Coran… par le Coran ? / Canonization of the Qur’ân… by the Qur’ân?

by Anne-Sylvie BOISLIVEAU آن سيلفي بواليفو

published in Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 129 | juillet 2011. Available on line since 5 January 2012.

The Qur’ân is specific in that it proclaims its own canonization in the Qur’ânic text itself. A study of this... more The Qur’ân is specific in that it proclaims its own canonization in the Qur’ânic text itself. A study of this affirmation reveals a strong and organized argument for the canonical authority of Muhammad’s recitations. How does such a unified argument fit with the traditional process of canonization by the early Muslim community, most particularly as analyzed by J. Wansbrough and A.-L. de Prémare? By distinguishing between the fixing of the established text and the accepting of the authority of the text as the two components of this process, I suggest that the affirmation of the authority of Muhammad’s recitations preceded its effective authority, and thus preceded the process of fixing the text. Thus this affirmation in the Qur’ân should not be regarded as the result of the canonization but as its cause.

Agency and Authority: Considering Free-Will in the Discursive Narrative on Caliphal Authority

by John D. Martin III

This paper was submitted to Dr. Huda Lutfi's seminar on Islamic Political Thought, Spring 2009.

This paper investigates the discourse on qadar in early Islamic political thought as it represents an avenue for... more This paper investigates the discourse on qadar in early Islamic political thought as it represents an avenue for dissent in the nascent caliphal state system.

The Conceptual Development of Deviance among Islamic Mystics: The Malāmatiyya

by John D. Martin III

This paper was submitted to Prof. Amina Elbendary's seminar on Protest, Rebellion and Revolt in Pre-Modern Islamic History at AUC, Fall 2010.

The concept of deviance in early Islamic mystic piety developed as an aspect of the same social and intellectual... more The concept of deviance in early Islamic mystic piety developed as an aspect of the same social and intellectual processes which defined Sufism as a normative or orthodox mode. The mysticism which developed in and around Baghdad and in Khurāsān was varied in its outward forms for the first several centuries. Asceticism was common, but it was not homogeneous in its expression. The process of systematizing and normalizing Islamic mystic doctrine and practice was concurrent with a similar systematization in legal and theological contexts. In this process of systematization some previous forms were marginalized and some were subsumed into what would become the normative Ṣūfī practice. Other forms were continued and taken up by movements which would eventually be regarded as heterodox. One label that stands out as representing a heterodox mode is that of the Malāmatiyya—those who followed the “path of Blame.” This paper will explore the development of that term and its usage as first a descriptive and then a derogatory term over the course of several centuries and explore how that change reflected concurrent Khurāsānian societal changes.

The Azariqa and Violence among the Khawarij

by Nathan Spannaus

MA thesis, Harvard University, 2007.

Review of James HOWARD-JOHNSTON, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)

by Diego Sarrio Cucarella

Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 8 (2011), 360–365