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Modern Islam & Society |
| Reprinted from the Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin, Summer 2002 (with changes in orthography to HTML standards). Copyright 2002 by the Middle East Studies Association of North America |
| Consciousness and Reality: Studies in Memory of Toshihiko
Izutsu, edited by S. J. Ashtiyani, et al. (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Vol. 38) 469 pages, bibliography, appendix.
Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2000. $133.00 (Cloth) ISBN 90-04-11586-2 Izutsu (d. 1993) studied the philosophy and mysticism of many traditions, having mastered many of the world’s principal languages. His interest in religious thought led him to contribute studies on Asia, the Middle East, and the West. His teaching career took him from Tokyo (Keio) to Montreal (McGill) in the 1960s and 1970s, and to the Iranian Academy of Philosophy in Tehran until 1979. The pivot of Izutsu’s intellectual endeavour was, as Shinya Makino puts it (p. 253), the relationship between philosophy and mysticism. For Izutsu contemplative experience was at the heart of philosophical thinking. Makino points to Izutsu’s training in the Zen tradition as the foundation from which his basic method sprung. From this insight Izutsu undertook his own analysis, relying on ‘semantic articulation,’ a theory which locates meaning fully at the subconscious level of the human mind. Meaning then rises through language to variously order the universe around us. The twenty-five papers presented in this volume are concerned with the history of religions and philosophy. Seven are under the heading “Being and Knowing.” M. Matsumoto puts ideas from Mahayana Buddhism to the service in his essay on “Creatio ex Nihilo.” Y. Sawai outlines Sankara’s theory of consciousness, which is based on the “unarticulated reality of brahman” (p. 339). The next paper explores the seventeenth-century Indian follower of Ibn 'Arabi, 'Abd al-Jalil of Allahabad. Here W. Chittick analyses a short work which is the record of a visionary discussion between the soul or self (nafs) and the spirit (ruh). Through Da'ud al-Qaysari (d. 1350), another in the school of Ibn 'Arabi, Akiro Matsumoto explores the ontology and epistemology of his epistle Tawhid wa al-nubuwwa wa al-walaya. In a brief but dense look at the thirteenth-century mystic Aziz-i Nasafi, H. Landolt focuses on the essence-existence dialectic. M. Arfa Menisa offers a comparison between Hallaj and Ibn 'Arabi on issues such as adab, divinity and humanity, love, spiritual states, and being. S. Kaviani's paper explores the titles ‘philosopher’ and ‘mystic’ with regard to the thought of al-Suhrawardi al-Maqtul. Six papers appear under the title “Structured Analysis and Methodological Possibilities.” R. Nettler discusses Ibn 'Arabi’s understanding of God's mercy. Technical points of translation are made by E. Panoussi in a piece on the famous Paris manuscript of Aristotle's Rhetoric. M. Kamiya and C. Jambet follow with papers on sufism and Louis Massignon. The last paper, by N. Purjavardy in Persian, treats passages from Hallaj as found in Ahmad Ghazali. The section entitled “Religion and the Aesthetical Order” opens with a brief discussion by H. Nakamura on the decline of Buddhism in India. This piece is followed by N. Ardalan on the theme of the Paradise Garden. F. Jahanbakhsh surveys the pir-murid relationship as expressed in 'Ayn al-Qudat Hamadani’s Tamhidat. M. Taylor offers an essay on postmodernism, with special attention to the idea of time, followed by J. Hillman's reflections on the symbol of the garden. H. Ichikawa discusses ritual and the prophetic experience in Judaism; and finally H. Matsubara explores early Jesuit printed texts from Japan. The opening section of the book, “Perspectives on History and Global Society” is made up of five papers. The first, by the late W. C. Smith, treats the modern Islamic resurgence. C. J. Adams outlines a modern Indian debate over sources for the life of the Prophet. In his presentation of Mulla Sadra’s Qur'an commentaries, S. H. Nasr notes that he insisted on exoteric and esoteric exegesis, both grounded in spiritual acumen. This essay is followed by a semantic analysis of happiness (sa’ada) in Islam by S. M. N. Al-Attas. The last paper in this section is a short description by M. Mohaghegh of the oldest Persian verse medical compendium, the tenth-century Danishnamah of Maysari. Richard McGregor Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale au Caire Islamochristiana 25, by Mehmet Bayrakdar and Joseph Gelot. 329 pages, appendix. Rome: Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica, 1999. 37,000 Lire (Paper) ISBN 0392-7288 Islamochristiana 25 is an impressive collection of essays that focuses on interfaith dialogue, specifically Islamic-Christian dialogue. It includes a copious appendix of notes, documents, and statements issued between September 1998 and August 1999. They are written by political figures including ambassadors, presidents of Arab countries, Roman Catholic bishops, the pope, cardinals, the papal Nuncio to the United Nations, and representatives of Greek Orthodoxy. The documents originate from locations as far afield as Kerala, India; Tehran, Iran; Italy; and Bethlehem and Nazareth. Among these statements, all characterized by utopian optimism in the wake of the events of 11 September 2001, one stands out. It is by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria. He writes, movingly and prophetically in light of recent events: “The deformations introduced by the ideology of violence are combated with determination by the modern states because these latter are directed in the first place against the civilization of Islam.” Committed to the bridges that connect the worlds of Christianity and Islam, he concludes: “If you seek peace, go and encounter the poor” (pp. 167-68, reviewer’s translation from the French). The collection comprises four sections each taking up a different topic: part one, “Studies, Reflections and Testimonies,” contains four essays on contemporary issues. This portion includes Bayrakdar’s “Religions and Tomorrow’s World,” an argument for the humanizing role of religion in the modern world, and “Le message posthume de Soumia Lamri” which deals with the concrete example of how death as “école de vérité” (p. 17) reveals how Christians and Muslims share notions of compassion. Part two, “Muslim-Christian Dialogue Through History,” has two fascinating reassessments of medieval topics, the “Al-Radd al-jamīl,” and its dubious attribution to al-Ghazzali, and Frederick II’s engagement with Islamic learning and culture which is of significance to scholars of the Christian Middle Ages and of Italy and Dante in particular. Part three, “Dialogue in the Present Setting,” offers three essays that are concrete examples of how this interfaith dialogue works, including teaching the bible in Arabic and the Islamic ethic of hospitality as expounded by Massignon, a pioneer of Islamic-Christian dialogue. Finally, part four, “Present-day Encounters between Christians and Muslims,” offers two essays that deal with specific examples of countries where Muslims or Christians are religious minorities, Roumania and Turkey respectively. Islamochristiana 25 offers a coherent expression of efforts at Islamic-Christian dialogue in history and in the present. One of the most appealing themes of this collection that runs through it almost as a mantra is the necessity of focusing on the Abrahamic origins of these religions and the equal need to look to the future where the ideals of the religions can be realized. As Mohammed-Sghir Janjar writes referring to Hans Kung: “no world peace is possible without religious peace and we cannot have religious peace without dialogue between the religions” (p. 117). Inter-confessional dialogue, Janjar emphasizes, must guarantee human dignity and liberty of thought and conscience (p. 122). The arguments in these essays emphasize that the world’s safety in the future is predicated on this dialogue and that it must take place between equals with equal respect and dignity accorded to all sides. Brenda Deen Schildgen University of California, Davis Islamitisch recht en familiebetrekkingen in Marokko, by Léon Buskens. 674 pages, illustrations, appendices, bibliography, indices, glossary. Amsterdam: Bulaaq, 1999. €88.50 (Cloth) ISBN 90-5460-020-9 Anyone interested in Moroccan legal history and capable of reading Dutch should consider Islamitisch recht en familiebetrekkingen in Marokko (Islamic law and family relations in Morocco). Cultural and legal anthropologist Buskens has provided a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Moroccan family law. Covering developments up to the late 1990s and being organized in such a way that its contents are easily accessible due to a large technical apparatus at the end, one may even describe it as a handbook. Following a lengthy introduction into the state of research, the problems of codifying Islamic law, and the methods used, the book consists of twelve chapters divided into three parts. In part one, Buskens gives an account of both the history and structure of the Mudawwana, or Mudawwanat al-Ahwal al-Shakhsiyya, the 1958 Moroccan codification of the laws of personal status, family, and inheritance. Although it followed French patterns of codification, this code was programmatically named after al-Mudawwana al-Kubra by Sahnun b. Sa`id (776/7-854) of Qairawan, a work considered the second most important text of Maliki law. Concentrating on the family, Buskens studies at length and in depth the first three books of the code, covering marriage, divorce, and birth. In part two, he turns to the theory and practice, both in the past and in the present, of the `udul, or professional witnesses, in the making of contracts of marriage and divorce. In part three, Buskens examines how the law he has looked at has affected the daily life of the common people. Whereas the first part is based primarily on the study of the legislation itself, of works of Islamic jurisprudence as well as a number of monographic works by contemporary Moroccan scholars, the second and third part draw on Buskens’s own field research in Morocco in the late 1980s. Buskens approaches his subject from different perspectives. He studies Islamic law as a scholar of Islamic studies, and looks at Moroccan legislation as a legal scholar. In order to trace the daily life of the people he resorts to historical, sociological, and anthropological means. It is this interdisciplinary approach which makes the book particularly valuable. Not only does the reader learn about facts but also how these can be established in different ways. This book is intended to complement a Dutch translation of the Moroccan law of personal status and to make accessible Moroccan family law to Dutch jurists. And it is addressing the audience in a specific country that has a Moroccan migrant community and is eager to know about the legal implications arising from such a situation. Yet in both form and content, Islamitisch recht en familiebetrekkingen in Marokko proves useful for readers who are neither Dutch, nor lawyers or jurists. Jan Goldberg St. Antony’s College, Oxford Recognizing Islam: Religion and Society in the Modern Middle East, by Michael Gilsenan. 2nd Edition. 273 pages, bibliography, index. London: I. B. Tauris, 2000. $22.50 (Paper) ISBN 1-86064-409-0. Gilsenan has written a new preface to his well-known Recognizing Islam in order to provide us with a twenty-first century view of trends in Islamic society. Therein he suggests that a certain rapprochement is underway between the Islamic world and the West, symbolized by western support for a Muslim cleric (Abdurrahman Wahid) as President of Indonesia and a February 2000 article in the Economist arguing that Islam and democracy might be compatible after all. Gilsenan concludes that today “‘Islam’ plays a far smaller role in breathless media accounts of news or in the academy” (p. 6). This optimism must strike the reader as a bit too hopeful on Gilsenan’s part, after Wahid’s short and embarrassing presidency and the new focus on ‘clash of civilizations’ after 9 September 2001. Yet in another fashion it is precisely this sense of dynamism, diversity, and change within the Islamic world that Gilsenan hopes to capture in the main body of the work. While “avoiding current affairs which would quickly become dated,” he seeks to “interest readers rather in the small-scale, the only apparently insignificant, the unexpected, the intimate, the local” (p. 5). Gilsenan’s anthropological approach to Islamic society is indeed what renders Recognizing Islam unexpected. Instead of laying out systematic analyses which capture ‘what Islam is’ or an historical survey of Islamic political and religious institutions, Gilsenan takes us on a tour of forgotten communities in the Arab Islamic world, from the slums of Aswan in Egypt, to Sufi circles in North Africa, to a Sunni village in North Lebanon. Throughout Gilsenan relates his personal experiences to the reader in the most intimate fashion, only occasionally supplementing his memoirs with historical background or comparisons with phenomena that he does not know firsthand, such as the ta‘ziya plays in Iran or the Muridiyya Sufis of Senegal. The effect is a narrative that is approachable and enjoyable for all levels of readers, and even (gasp) humorous at times, as when Gilsenan recalls how a Lebanese lord, “was said to know every single sheep and goat on his domains, something still retold with astonishment, admiration, and regret by his shepherd” (pp. 98-9). More importantly, Gilsenan’s style lets the readers themselves meet Islamic society without being told (overtly) what to think, as the author seems to fade away unnoticeably from his own narrative. In this way, the reader begins to appreciate the diversity within Islam, having seen how the ta‘ziya play becomes a forum for revolutionary activity in Iran (p. 59) while in Lebanon it becomes an instrument for reinforcing the position of the elite (p. 69). The reader discovers Sufism as a political and economic force in Senegal (p. 93), as a refuge for social outcasts in Egypt (p. 88), and as an austere and militant force in colonial Algeria (p. 157). At other times, Recognizing Islam is more psychological and sociological, as when Gilsenan uses Islamic Arabic terms like baraka (‘blessing,’ ch. 5) and batin (‘the esoteric,’ ch. 6) virtually as Rorschach tests, examining what different individuals and groups see in them. In the end, however, Gilsenan’s repeated emphasis on the diversity of Islamic societies leads to the one crucial question that he never confronts: does ‘Islam’ per se exist or is it simply a myriad of groups calling themselves Islamic? It seems that Gilsenan would much rather leave it to the reader to answer this question. Gabriel Said Reynolds Yale University Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, by Andrew Rippin. 2nd Edition. 290 pages, bibliography, index, internet resource list. London: Routledge, 2001. $19.95 (Paper) ISBN 1-415-21782-2 Those familiar with textbooks on Islam by Gibb, Hodgson, Rahman, Endress, Lapidus, and others, will find Rippin’s Muslims a different kind of work, for better or for worse. Rippin begins by noting (quite correctly) that the various critical tools used for the study of other religions have been left lying on the shelf when it comes to Islam, and argues that “such naïve historical study seems to suggest that Islam is being approached with less than academic candour” (p. 1). This assertion sets the tone for his work, which consistently points out fundamental problems within Islamic studies, both in the classical texts and the modern interpretation of those texts, which the student would never encounter in other introductory works. This ‘problematizing’ can be seen in the first half of the book (on Islamic origins and identity), especially in Rippin’s approach to the figure of Muhammad. Instead of summarizing the work done by Ibn Ishaq (or W. M. Watt!), Rippin points out the literary nature of sources on Muhammad’s life. The reader discovers, through Rippin’s felicitous examples, how these sources become more detailed and less contradictory over time, and often reflect second/eighth or third/ninth century Mesopotamia more than first/seventh century Arabia. The effect is a realization that there is much left to be done in the field of Islamic origins. In comparison to Rippin’s provocative approach, the standard works on Islam (for example, Rahman, Endress, and so forth) seem to be a sort of placebo, easily digestible but ultimately unable to address the issues. It should be added, however, that Rippin has perhaps an unhealthy appetite for the problematic (unquestionably influenced by the thought of Wansbrough, Crone, and Calder before him), while he passes by less controversial topics with unsettling haste (the controversy over the Dome of the Rock’s origins: pp. 61-65, and the entire Islamic conquests: pp. 58-61). The second half of the book is as thought-provoking as the first, as Rippin summarizes first the medieval development of Islamic sciences, from philosophy to theology to medicine to Sufism, while consistently providing primary sources in translation for the reader (see for example pp. 134, 135, 136, 143, and 147). He then enters into a brief yet clear portrayal of Islamic visions of modernity, offering the reader three main viewpoints (traditionalist, revivalist, and modernist) and using the approaches of thinkers about Muhammad and the Qur'an as a litmus test for their placement within these categories. This allows the reader to see the process by which thinkers, from Ahmad Khan to Muhammad Abduh, from Abu ‘l-Kalam Azad to Sayyid Qutb, from ‘Ali Dashti to Abu Zayd to Fatima Mernissi, shape the classical sources into forms that meet their different specifications. At the same time, Rippin delivers a sharp criticism of the failure of Islamic intellectuals to come up with a post-modern Islamic paradigm, one which is willing to question “the presuppositions of religion within a religious framework—the structures of authority, its orientation to the past, its fixation on success” (p. 181). Finally, it should be noted that this new edition of the text has features that make it particularly conducive to classroom use. Not only has the text been condensed from two volumes into one, it also contains an updated bibliography and a thoughtful list of internet resources for Islamic studies. While instructors may wish to complement Muslims with a more traditional textbook, they will find it a work distinguished by critical thinking and one that asks the same of its readers. Gabriel Said Reynolds Yale University Islam and Secularism in the Middle East, edited by Azzam Tamimi and John L. Esposito. 295 pages, index. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2000. $18.50 (Paper) ISBN 0-8147-8261-2 Secularism is a term that started out in church law and has come to express different things in different fields. According to some, it is an expression and a means of modernization that has not done away with religious disputes but has established a framework, at least in the West, in which religious disputes are settled, for the most part by peaceful and constitutional means. Against the background of this view, 11 September might be interpreted in two ways. It shows that secularism either did not succeed everywhere, or developed differently somewhere. In the latter case, this means that the concept of secularism as a conceptual tool for explaining history is insufficient. Critics prefer to speak of a complex process of secularization and de-secularization. Islam and Secularism in the Middle East is a welcome contribution to this debate. The book contains deep and thorough studies analyzing the concepts of secularism used and discussed in the West in general terms and in comparison with Middle Eastern realities past and present. As most of the contributors are prominent Middle Eastern voices, the work may also be regarded as a primary source in an ongoing discourse taking place among people from a region where, depending on the perspective, things either went wrong or simply developed differently. Apart from three overviews on the historical relations between Islam and secularism (Esposito), the origins of Arab secularism (Tamimi), and secularism in the Maghreb (Rachid Al-Ghannouchi), the book consists of eight articles dealing with rather specific issues. John Keane and Abdelwahab El-Affendi ask whether secularism may not even be an obstacle to democracy rather than a prerequisite for it and whether democracy is possible without giving up one’s traditions. Peter Berger rejects the notion that modernization leads to religious decline. Abdelwahab Elmessiri questions the definition of secularism as the separation of church and state and prefers to characterize it as a comprehensive weltanschauung. Parvez Manzoor distinguishes between secularism as a historical process (secularization), a state of mind and culture (secularity), and a theory of truth (secularism). In a case study of the relationship between secularism and the institution of the family in Egypt, Heba Raouf Ezzat illustrates a process of incomplete secularization in which the state had deprived the family and religious institutions of many but not all of their social functions. In a study of the perception of secularism in the Arab Islamic World, Munir Shafiq finds the adoption of secularism an enterprise undertaken without historical precedence being considered. The book concludes with a comparative analysis by Ahmet Davutoglu of Huntington and Basis Mathews, a missionary speaking of a clash of civilization as early as by the mid-1920s. All the contributions challenge the notion that secularism is good in and of itself. The phenomenon that a conceptual critique may suffer from the lack of a language other than that of what it questions is not new and does not diminish the book’s overall value. Students of religious and cultural studies, philosophy, political theory, and intellectual history will enjoy reading this reasonably-priced book. Jan Goldberg St. Antony’s College, Oxford |
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