Thesis (M.A.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2000. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-26).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Holy Cross Orthodox School of Theology, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-143).

Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87).

Theses (M.S.)--Marshall University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Includes vitae. Document formatted into pages: contains v, 75,[19] pages including illustrations. Bibliography: p. 73-75.

<p>My research concerns intertwined issues of religio-political legitimacy and panegyric poetry during the Safavid dynasty (r. 1501 ? 1722). I explore ways that ideology and dominance were enacted and reproduced through the Safavid panegyrics in qa??deh and masnav? form. This research specifically examines how court poets responded to Safavid ideology for legitimizing kingship. Panegyric poetry has been one of the chief forms of political propaganda in praise of rulers and other holders of political authority from pre-Islamic times until modern days. Panegyric poems, especially qa??deh and masnav?, were the production of a court system and they were dominantly produced when a king was in power. By considering the nature of panegyric, as written for receiving a reward, the poets? portrayal of kings is traditionally ?assumed? to be the closest to the kings? self-image. The Safavid Persian panegyric, especially the qa??deh form, has heretofore received little scholarly attention. Scholars have usually investigated the literary value of this poetic genre and dismissed the role it could play in the promotion of Muslim rulers. This dissertation explores the ways in which religio-political legitimacy was produced and transmitted through the qa??deh and masnav? forms during the Safavid period and emphasizes the significance of investigating the panegyric genre of poetry not only from a literary perspective, but through a historical lens. While other cultural materials of the time emphasized the role of Safavid kings in the propagation of Twelver Shi`ism and portrayed the kings in a subservient position to the Shi`i Imams, I demonstrate that the Safavid court poetry highlighted the idea of ?sacred? in Sufi discourses and in notions that invoke pre-Islamic forms of Persian kingship to legitimize the Safavid rulership. From the time of Shah `Abb?s I (r. 1588 ? d. 1629), these two forms of representation were established more profoundly in Safavid panegyrics and stood in contrast to traditional notions of Shi`ism that were predominant in other cultural materials that issued in the name of the Safavid rulers. This dissertation, on the one hand, serves historians of the Safavid period, who investigate the Safavid courts and ideology in kingship. It demonstrates how the poets worked differently from the other sources through which the legitimization of the Safavid kingship was established. On the other hand, my study serves scholars of religion, who study Safavid religious treatises in order to shed light on the development of Shi?ism, Sufism, and other religious traditions of the time. By demonstrating the differences between the representation of a Shi`i Safavid king in cultural materials of the time and panegyrics, my research invites these scholars to examine non-religious sources more extensively to investigate Safavid ideology because these sources give a sense of how the religio-political ideology of the kings was perceived among the public and how it developed through time.

<p> This research project examines the tactics used by Ibn Sa&rsquo;ud and the officials of the early Saudi State during the years 1922 to 1932&mdash;when it existed as the Kingdom of Najd and eventually the Hijaz&mdash;to project sovereignty through institutions like the passport, operation of consuls abroad, and claiming various populations as subjects. Ultimately, this project finds that these actions were significant contributors to the formation of Saudi Arabia and establishment of Saudi sovereignty. It adds another explanatory dimension, one not often explored, for understanding the history of the Saudi Kingdom. Moreover, the project shows that the assertiveness of Najdi officials to operate in the name of a sovereign nation forced the British to more clearly articulate their own claims, dispensing with their preferred state of ambiguity, and sometimes causing local officials to establish official British policy on the spot. This combination of British and Najdi action (and reaction) contributed significantly to the overall form and shape of national borders, mobility of individuals, and designation of nationality across the Persian Gulf and in the world writ large. Ibn Sa&rsquo;ud and his officials were not attempting to enter a game where the rules were already fully established. Rather, they were part of the fabric of individuals and forces that came to make sense of a newly forming international regime of nation-states, nationality, and greater controls on human mobility.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation examines twentieth-century Jewish-Muslim relations in Morocco&rsquo;s Atlas Mountains through oral traditions (anecdotes, jokes, songs, poetry duels) as remembered by Muslims and Jews in the twenty-first century. Jews had lived in these predominantly Berber-speaking regions for over one thousand years; yet these rural Jewish communities had almost completely disappeared by the early 1960s, due to mass emigration, largely to Israel. Despite the totality of the rupture, Jews and Muslims retain vivid memories of their former neighbors. Drawing on my fieldwork with Muslims still living in Moroccan villages and with Jews in Israel who had emigrated from those same villages over half a century earlier, I use the anecdotes and songs that animate these reminiscences as my primary sources. My analysis is further informed by extensive research on Moroccan history and culture. My study reveals that Berber oral traditions functioned in the past&mdash;and continue to function in present-day reminiscences&mdash;as forms of creative acknowledgment of both difference and affinity between Jews and Muslims. Analyzing examples from this corpus illuminates aspects and nuances of the intricacies of daily life rarely addressed in other sources, facilitating a deeper understanding of the paradoxes and possibilities of Jewish/Muslim co-existence in Morocco&rsquo;s Atlas Mountains, and perhaps beyond.</p><p> Central to my theoretical concerns, therefore, are interreligious cultural production and boundaries. Berber cultural traditions in particular offer a unique framework (for both participants and researchers) for addressing issues of boundaries and difference, while simultaneously elucidating the shared cultural worlds of Jews and Muslims in which oral traditions played a crucial role, and out of which came creativity, humor, and community. It was the engagement with difference, rather than its erasure, that fostered community and a rich intercultural life.</p><p> I begin with an investigation of the phenomenon of Arabic-speaking Jews among Berber-speaking Muslims, which also illuminates Jewish participation in Berber oral&mdash;and other cultural&mdash;traditions. Rather than a unidirectional acculturation of the minority into the majority culture, Berber cultural forms engaged by Muslims and Jews reflect a dynamic interchange. I posit the idea of Muslim-Jewish &ldquo;co-productions&rdquo; for many of the shared Berber oral traditions, particularly for the poetic duels. In my analysis of the recounted anecdotes and poems, I explore how Muslims and Jews not only speak <i> of</i> each other but also <i>through</i> each other&rsquo;s voices. Through adaptation of Bakhtin&rsquo;s theoretical concepts of dialogism and polyphony, I show how speaking in one another&rsquo;s voices allows Muslim and Jewish narrators to express multiple and often contradictory meanings simultaneously. Throughout my analysis, I investigate how boundaries did not always fall neatly or predictably into religious categories, nor did the complex socio-political stratification fit into a simplified majority-minority binary.</p><p> The nuanced views of Jewish-Muslim relationships that my project presents serve as a model for exploring such intercommunal relations beyond the temporal and geographic focus of my dissertation. My study serves as a corrective to simplified and polarized views of Jewish-Muslim relations prevalent in public spheres, media, and still, though to a lesser degree, in academia, and leads to an appreciation of the complexity and diversity of such relationships. </p><p>

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