M.A. / The history of Islam in modern times is essentially the history of the Western impact on the Muslim society. The Islamic religion assumed a position as the ultimate and final revelation versus Christianity and Judaism. Islam also developed its own unique civilisation within the religious parameters that were different from those in the West. With territorial expansion the two worlds had an impact on each other. Although contact had taken place before, the Crusades were the first major impact of the West on the Islamic world. With the decline of the OttomarrEmpire and the subsequent colonial expansion into the Islamic world, the adoption of Western views and influences were increasingly seen as being progressive, while those of the Islamic world represented stagnation. Together with colonisation came the mind set of the Western world towards the Islamic world that influenced perceptions, as well as policies. With modernisation came disillusionment that resulted in the questioning of what the West had to offer. This resulted in various actions and reactions against the West, but the Islamic world still experienced that it was behind the contemporary world. Its retrogression has been blamed on the failure of the Muslim society to transform the theoretical civilisation framework of Islam into an operational form, while the West has kept and enhanced its parameters. The problematic issues taking the two civilisations into the twenty-first century are what adjustments are to be made to ensure survival. The question is in what manner Islam can be modernised or whether modernity must be Islamised and what adjustments are going to be forthcoming from the Arab world. The choice is between submitting to one of the contending versions of modern civilisation that are offered to them, merging their own culture and identity in a larger and dominating whole, or following those who urge them to turn their backs upon the West. In this manner they may succeed in renewing their society from within, meeting the West on terms of equirco-operation.

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The purpose of the study is to compare the attitudes to Islam of Samuel Crowther, Edward Blyden, and Walter Miller in the light of their work in West Africa. Their careers overlapped to some extent. Crowther was active from 1841-1891, Blyden from 1851-1912, Miller from 1897-1952. Each man was involved in missionary activity. For Crowther and Miller this was life-long. In Blyden's case, the break came in 1886, when he resigned as a Presbyterian minister, to become what he called 'a minister of Truth 1 . After this date his career became more controversial. Like the other two, he continued to be interested in the theory and practice of mission among Muslims and in a critical comparison of Christianity and Islam, as religious systems which could secure liberation for Africans from all forms of slavery, whether physical, cultural or spiritual. The study consists of nine chapters which provide a systematic analysis of the central theme. The introductory section discusses purpose, method and scope. Chapter one consists of an analysis of Christian attitudes to Islam, which serves as the basis for a comparison of the attitudes of Crowther, Blyden arid Miller in the final chapter. The second chapter deals with the nineteenth century background to the work of the three men. The following chapters deal, successively, with the life and attitude to Islam of each man. The chapters on attitudes are divided, thematically, in order to discuss the various aspects more systematically. The concluding chapter contains a comparative assessment. Two appendices (concerned vrith Blyden and Miller, respectively), a full list of sources, and a bibliography, complete the study.

Most modern studies have portrayed the Mamluk period as that in which the Christian population of the Mamluk empire reached its demise. Two reasons are most often given for this situatoon: 1) the effect of the Crusades in arousing anti-Chrtstian sentiment and 2) the Mongol invasions to which several Christian powers gave active assistance. This study which is limited to the contemporary and later Arabic chronicles and which examines the reign of Qala'un as a case study for the Mamluk period, indicates that contrary to this view, no correlation exists between these two historical factors and the treatment of Christians in the Mamluk period during the relgn of Qala'un. In fact, the situation of the indigenous Christians seems to have been relatively stable. Those measures which were instituted were taken against a particular category of Christians, not against the populatlon as a whole. Not only do the Mamluks of this period seem to have distinguished between various Christian parties in their treatment of them, but a variety of opinion concerning Christians seems to have existed among various elements of the Muslim population as well. Furthermore, Mamluk policy at this period toward foreign Christian powers does not seem to have been motivated by purely religious considerations. Thus, our views concerning the Mamluk period must be revised to recognlze that, although the Mamluk period was certalnly a period of decline for Christianity, it should, nevertheless, not be described uniformly as being one of disaster for the Christian community.

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Text in Afrikaans / Hierdie studie kom voort uit die groeiende behoefte onder Christene in Suid-Afrika om die evangelie aan Moslems te kommunikeer. Die vertrekpunt van die studie is in 'n charismaties-evangeliese teologie, 'n tradisie wat tot op hede nog nie ernstige teologiese aandag aan getuienis teenoor Moslems gegee het nie. Dit gee 'n oorsig oor die herkoms van Suid-Afrikaanse Moslems en konsentreer dan op die uitdaging wat aan Christene gestel word deur die aktiwiteite van Mnr. Ahmed Deedat en die Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI). Die ontstaan van die IPCI en die inhoud van hulle openbare debatte en publikasies word eerstens ontleed. Daarna word die programme van drie Christengroepe, wat pertinent op die aktiwiteite van die IPCI reageer, beskryf en geevalueer. In 'n slothoofstuk word riglyne neergele vir 'n alternatiewe benadering teenoor Moslems wat klem le op die plaaslike gemeente en op vriendskapevangelisasie / This study emerges from a growing desire of Christians in South Africa to communicate the gospel to Muslims. The starting point of the study is in a charismaticevangelical theology, a tradition which has not yet given serious theological attention to Christian witness to Muslims. It gives a survey of the origin of South African Muslims and then concentrates on the challenge presented to Christians by the activities of Mr. Ahmed Deedat and the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI). First of all the development of the IPCI and the content of its public debates and publications are analysed. Then the programmes of three Christian groups that have have reacted pertinently to the IPCI are described and evaluated. In a closing chapter some guidelines are given for an alternative approach to Muslims which emphasises the local congregation and f~iendship evangelism / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Sendingwetenskap)

My dissertation examines Muslim-Christian relations in Palestine during the British mandate period, specifically, around the question of what constituted Palestinian-Arab identity. More broadly speaking, the dissertation addresses the topic within the context of the larger debate concerning the role of material factors (those related to specific historical developments and circumstances) versus that of ideological ones. in determining national identities. At the beginning of the twentieth, century, two models of Arab nationalism were proposed-a more secular one emphasising a shared language and culture (and thus, relatively inclusive of non-Muslims) and one wherein Arab identity was seen as essentially an extension of the Islamic religious community, or umma. While many historians dealing with Arab nationalism have tended to focus on the role of language (likewise, the role of Christian Arab intellectuals), I would maintain that it is the latter model that proved determinative of how most Muslim Arabs came to conceive of their identity as Arabs. Both models were essentially intellectual constructs; that the latter prevailed in the end reflects the predominance of material factors over ideological ones. Specifically, I consider the impact of social, political and economic changes related to the Tanzimat reforms and European economic penetration of the nineteenth century; the role of proto-nationalist models of communal identification-particularly those related to religion; and finally, the role played by political actors seeking to gain or consolidate authority through the manipulation of proto-nationalist symbols.

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Despite significant differences in the why, how and what of their interpretations of religious, our three authors (Muhammad Abu Zahrah, 'Abd-Allah Diraz and Ahmad Shalabi) understand religions, and in Diraz's case the religious phenomenon in general, through categories specific to an Islamic worldview. Their use of Western scientific methods to apprehend the study of religion is not systematic. It varies from Abu Zahrah's limited use to Shalabi's exuberant use, both being highly subservient to polemical intentions. Only Diraz shows familiarity and appreciation for scientific methods, without however subscribing to the epistemology of science which underlies them. The resulting relationship between the scientific study of religion and the Islamic study of religion, as epitomized in the fusion of my own commitments to the former and my authors' commitments to the latter, proves ultimately irreconcilable. Our respective epistemologies remain answerable to different centres of authority; the subjective self in the first instance and the objectified God, Allah, in the second.