Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East PDF Author: Jonathan P. Berkey
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295800984
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Islamic popular preachers and storytellers had enormous influence in defining common religious knowledge and faith in the medieval Near East. Jonathan Berkey’s book illuminates the popular culture of religious storytelling. It draws on chronicles, biographical dictionaries, sermons, and tales — but especially on a number of medieval treatises critical of popular preachers, and also a vigorous defense of them which emerged in fourteenth-century Egyptian Sufi circles. Popular preachers drew inspiration and legitimacy from the rise of Sufi mysticism, with its emphasis on internal spiritual activity and direct enlightenment, enabling them to challenge or reinforce social and political hierarchies as they entertained the masses with tales of moral edification. As these charismatic figures developed a popular following, they often aroused the wrath of scholars and elites, who resented innovative interpretations of Islam that undermined orthodox religious authority and blurred social and gender barriers. Critics of popular preachers and storytellers worried that they would corrupt their audiences’ understanding of Islam. Their defenders argued that preachers and storytellers could contribute to the consensus of the Islamic community as to what constituted acceptable religious knowledge. In the end, religious knowledge, and the definition of Islam as it was commonly understood, remained porous and flexible throughout the Middle Period, thanks in part to the activities of popular preachers and storytellers.

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East PDF Author: Jonathan P. Berkey
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 0295800984
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
Islamic popular preachers and storytellers had enormous influence in defining common religious knowledge and faith in the medieval Near East. Jonathan Berkey’s book illuminates the popular culture of religious storytelling. It draws on chronicles, biographical dictionaries, sermons, and tales — but especially on a number of medieval treatises critical of popular preachers, and also a vigorous defense of them which emerged in fourteenth-century Egyptian Sufi circles. Popular preachers drew inspiration and legitimacy from the rise of Sufi mysticism, with its emphasis on internal spiritual activity and direct enlightenment, enabling them to challenge or reinforce social and political hierarchies as they entertained the masses with tales of moral edification. As these charismatic figures developed a popular following, they often aroused the wrath of scholars and elites, who resented innovative interpretations of Islam that undermined orthodox religious authority and blurred social and gender barriers. Critics of popular preachers and storytellers worried that they would corrupt their audiences’ understanding of Islam. Their defenders argued that preachers and storytellers could contribute to the consensus of the Islamic community as to what constituted acceptable religious knowledge. In the end, religious knowledge, and the definition of Islam as it was commonly understood, remained porous and flexible throughout the Middle Period, thanks in part to the activities of popular preachers and storytellers.

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East (Publications on the Near East)

Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East (Publications on the Near East) PDF Author: Jonathan Porter Berkey
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN: 9780295981260
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book examines popular preaching and religious storytelling in the medieval Islamic Near East. It argues that popular preaching and storytelling reflect the persistent flexibility of the Islamic understanding of religious authority.

Knowledge, Authority, and Islamic Education in the West

Knowledge, Authority, and Islamic Education in the West PDF Author: Zainab Kabba
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040032869
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Drawing on immersive fieldwork in the United States, Canada, and Turkey, this ethnographic exploration illuminates the transformative experiences of emerging adult Muslims on their quest for religious knowledge. This book unravels the significance of four residential learning settings, revealing their role as catalysts for reshaping Islamic tradition. Delving into the interplay between technology’s pervasive influence and the decentralized nature of Islamic interpretation, Zainab Kabba unveils a vibrant tapestry of knowledge producers vying to shape religious understanding and practice among Western Muslims. At the heart of this narrative lies the delicate balance between teachers and students, continuously communicating and recalibrating components that bring religious authority to life. Kabba dissects this relationship, highlighting the emergence of a complex landscape that she terms the ‘Muslim Education Industrial Complex’, where religious knowledge has become a commodity. This study offers profound insights into the challenges of intra-Muslim dialogue and the adaptive resilience of American Sunni-Muslim communities. Amidst a digital age and the complexities of global geopolitics surrounding Islam, it showcases how these communities reinterpret classical Islamic narratives, navigating tradition to steer their path forward. This book invites readers to ponder the evolution of Islamic learning, the dynamics of authority, and the enduring quest for knowledge amidst the currents of a rapidly changing world.

Practices of Islamic Preaching

Practices of Islamic Preaching PDF Author: Ayşe Almıla Akca
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110788330
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
Preaching, a practice composed of and accompanied by a myriad of different activities, is an essential element of Muslim religious life both within and beyond mosques. As such, Islamic preaching is a common means of religious promulgation and knowledge transfer, of pastoral guidance and uplift, but also of communication between believers, and as a source of negotiating religious normativity, power relations, and societal topics. Given the centrality of preaching in Muslims' religious life, this collective volume presents contributions on various aspects of performance, text, space, and materiality of Islamic preaching in history and present. The interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary framework captures Islamic preaching as it unfolds in its social setting. The volume aims at representing the inner-Islamic diversity by depicting the practice of preaching as it came about in different times and geographical locations, shedding light onto Friday gatherings and sermons (ḫutba), and other forms of preaching (e. g. waʿẓ), be it during Ramadan, at religious feasts and commemorations, or on personal occasions such as weddings and funerals. Therefore, each chapter offers a different insight into the interwoven character of sermons' contents, the preacher him/herself, and the audience by emphasising the role of their bodily performance, of the temporality and spatiality of preaching, and of the objects and items involved.

The Power of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World

The Power of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World PDF Author: Linda G. Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110702305X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
A remarkable book analysing the importance of oratory for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimising rulers and inculcating moral values in the medieval Islamic world.

Islam [4 volumes]

Islam [4 volumes] PDF Author: Cenap Çakmak
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1938

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Book Description
This expansive four-volume encyclopedia presents a broad introduction to Islam that enables learning about the fundamental role of Islam in world history and promotes greater respect for cultural diversity. One of the most popular and widespread religions in the world, Islam has attracted a great deal of attention in recent times, particularly in the Western world. With the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and a pervasive sense of hostility toward Arab Americans, there is ever increasing need to examine and understand Islam as a religion and historical force. Islam: A Worldwide Encyclopedia provides some 700 entries on Islam written by expert contributors that cover the religion from the birth of Islam to the present time. The set also includes 16 pages of color images per volume that serve to illustrate the diverse expressions of this important religious tradition. Each entry begins with a basic introduction, followed by a general discussion of the subject and a conclusion. Each entry also features a further readings list for readers. In addition to supplying a comprehensive, authoritative overview of Islam, this work also specifically addresses many controversial related issues, including jihad, violence in Islam, polygamy, and apostasy.

Models of Leadership in the Adab Narratives of Joseph, David, and Solomon

Models of Leadership in the Adab Narratives of Joseph, David, and Solomon PDF Author: Sami Helewa
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498552676
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Sami Helewa’s book opens anew the Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ (Tales of the Prophets) in terms of the leadership of ancient prophets in a Muslim context of friendship and enmity in the narrative detail of the prophets Joseph, David, and Solomon. Although the Qiṣaṣ genre is not court-based, advice literature, these tales could function as advisory literature through the legendary-prophetic figures. It is hardly surprising that the prophets of ancient times have been moral prototypes for the Judo-Islamic search for religio-political leaders. However, the themes of leadership, friendship, and enmity are embedded in these tales in the writing of great Medieval-Muslims like al-Ṭabarī of Baghdād and al-Thaʿlabī of Nīshāpūr, who were great scholars () and men of literature (). Like the religious side of these tales, Helewa maintains that the adab side of the Qiṣaṣ has equal importance of meaning to the struggle of ancient prophets in their friendships and hostilities. These tales, as astutely compiled from Baghdād and Nīshāpūr, mirror interesting cultural nuances of expected leadership inherent in these great cities of learning. This book will be a great value for those interested in the Sīra genre, the overall Qiṣaṣ genre, the inheritance of prophets, the adab of religious writing, the advice literature, and the history of Baghdād and Nīshāpūr.

Islamic Myths and Memories

Islamic Myths and Memories PDF Author: Itzchak Weismann
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317112210
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Islamic myths and collective memory are very much alive in today’s localized struggles for identity, and are deployed in the ongoing construction of worldwide cultural networks. This book brings the theoretical perspectives of myth-making and collective memory to the study of Islam and globalization and to the study of the place of the mass media in the contemporary Islamic resurgence. It explores the annulment of spatial and temporal distance by globalization and by the communications revolution underlying it, and how this has affected the cherished myths and memories of the Muslim community. It shows how contemporary Islamic thinkers and movements respond to the challenges of globalization by preserving, reviving, reshaping, or transforming myths and memories.

Encyclopaedia of Islam

Encyclopaedia of Islam PDF Author: Ian Richard Netton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135179603
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 872

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Book Description
This Encyclopedia covers the full range of Islamic thought. It takes substantial note of contemporary trends across the Muslim world, and the material on historical Islam has contemporary reference.

Global and Local Televangelism

Global and Local Televangelism PDF Author: P. Thomas
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137264810
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
An exploration of the many faces of televangelism in our world today, including Christian, Islamic and Hindu. The collection analyses the correspondences and major differences between global and local televangelism, focusing on the main individuals involved in televangelism, their practices and the social and cultural impact of their ministries.