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Largely, though not exclusively, as a legacy of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, Islamic faith has become synonymous in many corners of the media and academia with violence, which many believe to be its primary mode of expression. The absence of a sophisticated recognition of the wide range of Islamic subjectivities within contemporary culture has created a void in which misinterpretations and hostilities thrive. Responding to the growing importance of religion, specifically Islam, as a cultural signifier in the formation of a postcolonial self, this multidisciplinary collection is organized around contested terms such as secularism, Islamopolitics, female identity, and Islamophobia. The overarching goal of the contributors is to facilitate a deeper understanding of the full range of experiences within Islam as well as the figure of the Muslim, thus enabling a new set of questions about religion’s role in shaping postcolonial identity.
Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008 compiles information on the most notable individuals in the Arab world. Additionally, the title provides insight into the historical background and the present of this influential and often volatile region. Part I sets out precise biographical details on some 6,000 eminent individuals who influence every sphere of public life in politics, culture and society. Part II surveys the 19 Arab Countries, providing detailed information on the geography, history, constitution, economy and culture of the individual countries. Part III provides information on the historical background of the Arab world. Indexes by country and profession supplement the biographical section. A select bibliography of secondary literature on the Middle East is also included.
The volume Middle East and North Africa: Climate, Culture and Conflicts focuses on the intricate interrelationships between nature, culture and society in this ecologically, historically and politically fragile region. As such, it debates ideas of eco-theology from Muslim and Jewish perspectives, followed by mythological interpretations and geo-archeological resp. historical analyses of the interrelationships and impacts of climate and other environmental factors on the development of ancient civilizations and cultures. The section “Present” addresses current conflict scenarios as a result of climate change, i.e. water scarcity, droughts, desertification and similar factors. The final section is concerned with potentials of international cooperation in pursuit of developing and ensuring sustainable energy resources and moves across different scales of environmental and religious education, from awareness raising to perspectives of best practice examples. Contributors are Katajun Amirpur, Helmut Brückner, Eckart Ehlers, Max Engel, Kerstin Fritzsche, Ursula Kowanda-Yassin, Tobias von Lossow, Ephraim Meir, Rosel Pientka-Hinz, Matthias Schmidt, and Franz Trieb.
A major common misconception in scholarship on Kurdish journalistic discourses is that Kurdish intellectuals of the late Ottoman period cannot be portrayed as Kurdish nationalists. This theory prevails because of the belief that they not only endorsed and promoted Pan-Islamism and Ottoman nationalism instead of Kurdish ethnic nationalism, but also because they allegedly eschewed political demands and instead concerned themselves with ethno-cultural issues to articulate forms of “Kurdism” rather than “Kurdish nationalism.” Refuting this underlying misconstruction of the nexus between Pan-Islamism, Ottomanism, and Kurdish nationalism, this book argues, based on empirical findings, that the Kurdish periodicals of the late Ottoman period served as a communicative space in which Kurdish intellectuals negotiated and disseminated an unmistakable form of Kurdish nationalism. It claims that hegemonic Ottomanist and Pan-Islamist political thought were used in pragmatic ways in the service of burgeoning Kurdish nationalism, but were rejected altogether when they were no longer useful to fostering Kurdish nationalism.
Gorani refers to under-documented, endangered varieties spoken in a cluster within the Zagros mountains (Iran/Iraq). These varieties possess conservative features of importance to linguists. However, their study has been plagued by nomenclature and taxonomy issues. Traditional names for these languages have been supplanted first by orientalists' prescriptions and then by their linguist heirs. Inaccurate terminology has sewn discord between speaker communities, disturbing the sociolinguistic landscape. This volume represents the state of the art of Gorani's historical and socio-linguistics, documentation, and literature, as well as an effort to aid the "decolonization" of Gorani linguistics.
This third and last of the three-volume Who’s Who in Islamic Studies presents the scholarly world at long last with its own biographical encyclopaedia. Taking as a starting point the inventory of authors from the renowned Index Islamicus, the author, Wolfgang Behn (Berlin), has systematically collected numerous data on the lives and works of the tens of thousands of authors listed in the Index Islamicus from 1665 to 1980. This Biographical Companion will be an indispensable reference tool for the serious student and scholar of Islamic Studies. It enables the user to quickly gain knowledge on the life, work, and professional background of almost every major and minor author, and thus to place each author in his/her proper perspective. A tremendous achievement and a true must for every library.
The second edition of Historical Dictionary of the Kurds greatly expands on the first edition through an updated chronology, an introductory essay, an expanded bibliography, maps, photos, and over 400 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics.
In June 1967 Israel, which seemed on the verge of being annihilated by its Arab neighbors, took six days to redraw the Middle Eastern strategic map in one of the most dramatic reversals of fortune in modern times. The success was over a decade in the making following the Suez Crisis, with the Israeli forces being radically changed to create an army and air force upon which the country would rely when it became obvious the international community would take no action to implement guarantees made after the events of 1956. The Israeli forces were honed in low level clashes during the 1960s, notably the Water Wars which the Israelis did so much to provoke. By contrast, the Arab forces became com...