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Salman al-Farsi This is a story of a seeker of Truth, the story of Salman the Persian, gleaned, to begin with, from his own words: I grew up in the town of Isfahan in Persia in the village of Jayyan. My father was the Dihqan or chief of the village. He was the richest person there and had the biggest house. Since I was a child my father loved me, more than he loved any other. As time went by his love for me became so strong and overpowering that he feared to lose me or have anything happen to me. So he kept me at home, a veritable prisoner, in the same way that young girls were kept. I became devoted to the Magian religion so much so that I attained the position of custodian of the fire which we worshipped. My duty was to see that the flames of the fire remained burning and that it did not go out for a single hour, day or night.
Zero has been axial in human development, but the origin and discovery of zero has never been satisfactorily addressed by a comprehensive, systematic and above all interdisciplinary research program. In this volume, over 40 international scholars explore zero under four broad themes: history; religion, philosophy & linguistics; arts; and mathematics & the sciences. Some propose that the invention/discovery of zero may have been facilitated by the prior evolution of a sophisticated concept of Nothingness or Emptiness (as it is understood in non-European traditions); and conversely, inhibited by the absence of, or aversion to, such a concept of Nothingness in the West. But not all scholars agree. Join the debate.
Earth Weeps, Saturn Laughs opens with the return of Khalid Bakhit, a government employee, to his hometown in Oman after a time away in the big city, and concludes with his return to the city with a new maturity born of a series of wrenching encounters with reality. Khalid's return home, sparked by his flight from a painful love affair, coincides with events that reveal the force of long-established traditions that have a stranglehold on the town: from racial prejudice, to religious bigotry, to ossified patterns of leadership. Khalid's awakening and transformation are catalyzed by his encounters with a certain "Saturnine poet" who, in the course of chasing after an elusive ode, has stumbled u...
This book deals with the new dynamics of Islam in East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Comoros) and its attempt to expand through various missionary activities. As Muslim reformers have done elsewhere in the world, the reformers in East Africa are fighting for an Islamic awakening. The central argument of this book is to say that although these activities are supported by contributions from transnational networks, their origins go back to the frustration of Muslim communities of East Africa with politics, education, and professional training. The other argument is to show that this Islamic awakening is not just about the Salafi or Muslim Brothers trend, it concerns also Shī‘a, Sufi, Muslim Bible Scholars and others alike. All these trends mimic each other while competing against each other at the same time. They also take the same position vis-à-vis the various Christian groups.
This volume deals with the determination of the times of Muslim prayer and the direction towards the Kaaba in Mecca (Arabic qibla) in a little known astronomical tradition of the Islamic Middle Ages. It presents an edition, translation, and explanation of selected chapters from three of the most important folk astronomical treatises, written by al-Aṣbaḥī (Yemen, 13th c.), Ibn Raḥīq (Hejaz, 11th c.), and al-Fārisī (Yemen, 13th c.). The first part introduces the authors and their works and describes the relevant religious and astronomical background. The second part comprises the edition of the selected – and now for the first time published – chapters of the three works and a German translation. The third part contains a lexicographical survey with basic astronomical, religious, and related information, and a commentary on each chapter. The fourth part gives an overview of the topics dicussed.
Ibadi Islam is a distinct sect of Islam, neither Sunni nor Shi‘ite, that emerged in the early Islamic period and remains active today in small pockets of North Africa and as the dominant sect of Oman. Despite its antiquity, it has often been misunderstood and remains little known. Seeking to redress this gap and to introduce this Islamic school to the non-Arabic-speaking world, Hoffman offers the first book-length overview of Ibad.i theology published in English. Beginning with a concise overview of Ibadi history, Hoffman delineates the movement’s role in the development of Islamic thought, tracing its distinctive teachings and literary history. In the second section, she provides annotated translations of two complementary modern Ibadi theological texts. This unique volume elucidates Ibadi religious and political thought by allowing its tradition to speak for itself. The Essentials of Ibadi Islam gives readers, specialists and nonspecialists alike, a rare opportunity to understand the major teachings of Ibad.i Islam.
A lively account of our age-old quest for brighter colors, which changed the way we see the world, from the best-selling author of Proof: The Science of Booze From kelly green to millennial pink, our world is graced with a richness of colors. But our human-made colors haven't always matched nature's kaleidoscopic array. To reach those brightest heights required millennia of remarkable innovation and a fascinating exchange of ideas between science and craft that's allowed for the most luminous manifestations of our built and adorned world. In Full Spectrum, Rogers takes us on that globe-trotting journey, tracing an arc from the earliest humans to our digitized, synthesized present and future....
Objects of Translation offers a nuanced approach to the entanglements of medieval elites in the regions that today comprise Afghanistan, Pakistan, and north India. The book--which ranges in time from the early eighth to the early thirteenth centuries--challenges existing narratives that cast the period as one of enduring hostility between monolithic "Hindu" and "Muslim" cultures. These narratives of conflict have generally depended upon premodern texts for their understanding of the past. By contrast, this book considers the role of material culture and highlights how objects such as coins, dress, monuments, paintings, and sculptures mediated diverse modes of encounter during a critical but ...