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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Sympathy for the devil: A character analysis of Gibreel Farishta in Salman Rushdie's The satanic verses

Lafuente, Catherine Mary 01 June 2009 (has links)
Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses created a major controversy when published in 1988, much like the controversy that Nikos Kazantzakis's novel The Last Temptation of Christ caused in 1951. Kazantzakis's work upset many Christians due to the controversial characterization of Jesus, who in the novel engages in sexual activities and other behaviors that many Christians find offensive. The Satanic Verses caused a similar uproar in the Umma, or Muslim community, resulting in book burnings, death threats, and even a murder. Most of the controversy focused on some the problematic characterizations of the Prophet Muhammad and his wives, such as using their names for a pimp and twelve prostitutes living in a brothel. Another offense was that Ibrahim was called "bastard" for abandoning Hagar and Ismail (Ishmael), in the desert. In The Satanic Verses, Rushdie pulls on the historical threads of Pre-Islamic Arabia and uses them to insinuate that Islam, rather than being a total breach from the Pre-Islamic traditions, was not an immediate break from the past but a slow process of change from the former belief system. By re-imagining these historical threads, Rushdie suggests that there is a plurality of possibilities that canonical Islam does not accept. The plurality that Rushdie suggests is anathema to the normative view of Islam, which is a monolithic Islam. These possibilities cast doubt on the purity of the Prophet, which some fear can cause ordinary Muslims to doubt the truth claims of Islam. These doubts can damage the faith of the believers and the unity of the Umma. These and other Islamic themes in the novel remain unexplored in contemporary scholarship of the novel, particularly the theme of struggle between good and evil. Gibreel Farishta, the co-protagonist in the novel, will be the center of this inquiry. I will explore the notion that the plight of Gibreel Farishta in The Satanic Verses is similar to the suffering of Iblis in Sufi Islam.
2

Technological change in Southwestern Asia: Metallurgical production styles and social values during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age

Frame, Lesley January 2009 (has links)
The beginnings of metallurgical activity have intrigued scholars for decades. In this dissertation, I explore early metallurgical activity on the Iranian Plateau represented by the evidence at Tal-i Iblis in southern Iran, and Seh Gabi and Godin Tepe in central northern Iran. Together, these sites offer a diachronic view of metal production on the Plateau as well as a view of metallurgical activities practiced at different scales of production. The metallurgical materials from Tal-i Iblis are firmly dated to the late 6th to early 5th millennia BCE, and this corpus includes hundreds of crucible fragments excavated from multiple trash dumps. Seh Gabi and Godin Tepe offer a smaller range of production materials from the 4th through 2nd millennia BCE, but they also include a large collection of finished metal objects. These later materials differ in style and process from the Iblis debris.Thorough examination of these artifacts, combined with comparison to a series of carefully controlled casting experiments, has returned numerous significant results. The metallurgy of the Iranian Plateau does not fit the standard model of early metallurgical development. The Iblis crucibles do not reflect an early "experimental" stage in copper production. Rather, these artifacts represent a carefully controlled, production process with a narrow range of variability in both temperature and reducing atmosphere. Further, there is clear evidence for the preference of arsenical-copper alloys at Tal-i Iblis. These ancient craftspeople sought high-quality ores from a source (the Talmessi copper deposit) over 500 km from their production facility.Metallurgical production on the Iranian Plateau is also characterized by the long-term use of crucibles as the primary reaction vessel well into the 2nd millennium BCE. There are some production centers on the Iranian Plateau that see the use of furnaces during the 3rd millennium, but crucible use persists at many sites. At Godin Tepe--a site with significant evidence for contact with the Mesopotamian lowlands--variability in crucible form increases in later periods to include an Egyptian-style crucible during the 2nd millennium BCE. The presence of this crucible suggests that there was contact with foreign metallurgical processes, but the preference for small, portable reaction vessels persisted.
3

Djinn & magi : Andeväsen och magiska ritualer inom islamisk tradition

Al Abdalla, Yazan January 2020 (has links)
Purpose: This study focuses on describing and explaining Djinn, Iblis and magic from an Islamic point of view. There are many stories that can be told but the author focuses on the parts of the stories that is known to the majority of Muslims. One of the many interesting aspects studied in the essay is how people in Babylon, in contrast to today's Muslims, view Islam's interpretation of magic and Djinn.  In order to present these perspectives and their change over time, a number of Muslims are interviewed of various religious backgrounds, liberal, conservative and orthodox. In addition, various studies are used that describe the social structure in Babylon where witchcraft according to Islam was first taught. The information from these works is intertwined with Carl Gustav Jung's and Marie-Louise von Franz's book Man and his Symbols (1964). These studies, together with the interview results, provide the opportunity to compile logical conclusions.  Method: The first two questions are about explaining what Djinn is based on the general Islamic interpretation and who Iblis are. In order to be able to present this information in the results section, the author starts from the qualitative method, intertextuality, which is about texts always being based on previous writings.  The second sub-result focuses on describing what Sihr (Magic) is from an Islamic perspective. It also describes how these rituals are performed. For this, a multimodal method is used to analyze the book Shams al-maarif al-Kubra.  The third sub-result focuses on an analysis of various interviews conducted to create an understanding of how Muslims view Djinn and Sihr. The answers to these are then related to the perception of this in ancient Babylon. A conversation analysis is performed to analyze the interviews.  Theory: In this study, the result is intertwined with the theory (Socialization). Social construction includes human reality. A society is created through interaction between individuals. This is called externalization. The natural character that is then added to a society takes place through objectification. Individuals who apply to the specific society may then accept and integrate with the independent character of society, which at this stage, has been normalized and assumed to be natural.  Result: The result of this study is threefold. According to Islam, Djinn are invisible spirits that God created from poisonous, smokeless fire. Iblis, also known as Lucifer or Satan, is part of the Djinn kin. According to the story, he refused to bow down to Adam, challenged God and thus plays an important role in man's cosmic destiny. According to Islam, magic is rituals performed to make contact with evil Djinn who in turn performs various services for the magician. The services are not provided free of charge. Magicians must perform certain rituals which, according to Islamic tradition, are extremely serious sins. The book Shams al-Maarif al-Kubra teaches readers how to perform certain rituals and draw magical symbols. The third result focuses on compiling data from the interviews conducted that are presented under appendices. Religion was of paramount importance to the Babylonians and formed a large part of their daily lives. In comparison with today's Muslims, it can be stated that they find it more difficult to live by the idea that there are constantly invisible beings and forces around them.
4

...And Reconcile Us With Evil : A Critical Investigation of the Imagery of Good and Evil in Western Religion, Film and Politics

Gellrich, Arne L January 2016 (has links)
With an eye on the current social and political situation in Europe, and with regards to the so-termed refugee crisis, this study aims to map the discourse on assumed good and evil shared among Western cultures, as represented by Sweden, Germany and the United States.  The thesis takes its point of departure from essayistic reflections of the philosophical tradition and theological and religious analytical positions respectively. These are then followed by two investigative main chapters, designed along the lines of Norman Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA). The first of these chapters studies the narratives of good and evil employed in the mainstream cinema of the past ten years in the mentioned countries. The second analysis is made up of three case studies, in turn looking at similar narratives in the campaigns of the two main competitors in the 2016 presidential race, a German protest movement against free trade agreements, and the everyday political communication of Swedish Facebook users. In a final chapter, findings from all four preceding chapters are brought together in an attempt to sketch an image of the congruences and discrepancies of narratives on good and evil in the overall discursive field. The thesis finds that the discursive field shared by the three investigated societies is largely homogenous, with certain imagery permeating all analysed orders of discourse. Many of the reoccurring images are however likely rooted in the human psyche and therefore less dependent on discourse practice. Furthermore, certain principles are agreed upon in theory while not reproduced in social practice. Themes assigned to either good or evil often seem to take on secondary functions next to assumed fixed identities of in- and out-groups.  Being a qualitative study, this thesis aims at giving an overview and delivering a base for further investigations rather than providing definitive answers.

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