You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Sufism, the mystical tradition of Islam, is as far from the strident and often violent fundamentalist strain of the religion that has so captured world attention as it is possible to be. Sufis in all parts of the Islamic world are broad-minded, tolerant, and non-violent, their quest only to find and approach God through all means, including poetry, music, and dance. Historian Nicolaas Biegman has been observing and photographing Sufi practice and ritual in different Muslim lands for many years, and here in this collection of extraordinary photographs he feels the pulse of the Sufi experience, with its enormous variety in discipline and exuberance, intellectualism and spontaneity, in Egypt, Syria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Macedonia. In accompanying texts he explores what lies behind the rituals, and explains aspects of Sufi life and practice such as the position of women.
Explores the history, theology, and culture of the Coptic Orthodoxy, discussing key figures in the renewal of the church, and examining the role of women within church and society.
This book is an exploration into the history, aesthetics, social reality, regulation, and transformation of dance and dance music in Egypt. It covers Oriental dance, known as belly dance or danse du ventre, regional or group-specific dances and rituals, sha'bi (lower-class urban music and dance style), mulid (drawing on Sufi tradition and saints' day festivals) and mahraganat (youth-created, primarily electronic music with lively rhythms and biting lyrics). The chapters discuss genres and sub-genres and their evolution, the demeanor of dancers, trends old and new, and social and political criticism that use the imagery of dance or a dancer. Also considered are the globalization of Egyptian dance, the replication or fantasies of raqs sharqi outside of Egypt, as well as the dance as a hobby, competitive dance form, and focus of international dance festivals.
A new history of Islamic practice told through the aesthetic reception of medieval religious objects.
This volume provides new insights into the social and economic history of the region along with the applicability of improved devices of analysis on the local level to issues of taxation and demography in the wider areas of Ottoman Empire.
Using the Braudelian concept of the Mediterranean this volume focuses on the condition of “coastal exchanges” involving the Dalmatian littoral and its Adriatic and more distant maritime network. Spalato and Ragusa intersect with Constantinople, Cairo and Spanish Naples just as Sinan, Palladio and Robert Adam cross paths in this liquid expanse. Concentrating on materiality and on the arts, architecture in particular, the authors identify portability and hybridity as characteristic of these exchanges, and tease out expected and unexpected serendipitous moments when they occurred. Focusing on translation and its instruments these essays expand the traditional concept of influence by thrusti...
This book argues that the historic city we know as Medieval Cairo was created in the nineteenth century by both Egyptians and Europeans against a background of four overlapping political and cultural contexts: the local Egyptian, Anglo-Egyptian, Anglo-Indian, and Ottoman imperial milieux. Addressing the interrelated topics of empire, local history, religion, and transnational heritage, historian Paula Sanders shows how Cairo's architectural heritage became canonized in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book also explains why and how the city assumed its characteristically Mamluk appearance and situates the activities of the European-dominated architectural preservation committee (known as the Comité) within the history of religious life in nineteenth-century Cairo. Offering fresh perspectives and keen historical analysis, this volume examines the unacknowledged colonial legacy that continues to inform the practice of and debates over preservation in Cairo.
This is the first collection of studies entirely devoted to the terminological pair dār al-islām / dar al-ḥarb, “the abode of Islam” and “the abode of war”, apparently widely known as representative of “the Islamic vision” of the world, but in fact almost unexplored. A team of specialists in different fields of Islamic studies investigates the issue in its historical and conceptual origins as well as in its reception within the different genres of Muslim written production. In contrast to the fixed and permanent categories they are currently identified with, the multifaceted character of these two notions and their shifting meanings is set out through the analysis of a wide range of contexts and sources, from the middle ages up to modern times. Contributors are Francisco Apellániz, Michel Balivet, Giovanna Calasso, Alessandro Cancian, Éric Chaumont, Roberta Denaro, Maribel Fierro, Chiara Formichi, Yohanan Friedmann, Giuliano Lancioni, Yaacov Lev, Nicola Melis, Luis Molina, Antonino Pellitteri, Camille Rhoné-Quer, Francesca Romana Romani, Biancamaria Scarcia Amoretti, Roberto Tottoli, Raoul Villano, Eleonora Di Vincenzo and Francesco Zappa.
The collective volume Ottoman Cyprus - New Perspectives presents new studies on various topics (primarily history, but also history of art, folklore and literature) about Cyprus in the Ottoman period (1571-1878), offering new approaches on the history of institutions and developments in Cyprus during the Ottoman period, in an attempt to propose new interpretative frameworks and a more analytical reading of the historical past. The book is divided into four parts: The first part concerns the history of the island from the eve of the Ottoman conquest until the cession of the island to British administration. The studies of this part follow a chronological order, and analyze developments in Cyprus as an Ottoman province and part of the Empire's periphery. In the second part there are studies that analyze various particular historical topics, without necessarily following a chronological order. In the third part there are studies on literature, folklore and art. The fourth part includes an extensive bibliographical guide, a catalogue of archives and archival material related to Cyprus in the Ottoman period, as well as chronological lists of important officials.
The European Tributary States of the Ottoman Empire is the first comprehensive overview of the empire’s relationship to its various European tributaries, Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania, Ragusa, the Crimean Khanate and the Cossack Hetmanate. The volume focuses on three fundamental aspects of the empire’s relationship with these polities: the various legal frameworks which determined their positions within the imperial system, the diplomatic contacts through which they sought to influence the imperial center, and the military cooperation between them and the Porte. Bringing together studies by eminent experts and presenting results of several less-known historiographical traditions, this volume contributes significantly to a deeper understanding of Ottoman power at the peripheries of the empire.