Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-245). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 227-245). Also available in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

This is a study about a very unusual place and the innovative American Indian ceremonial response to an event that uniquely occurred at this place. The place, defined here as the Uinkaret Volcanic Field, was always culturally important to Indian people for ceremony. The place is so covered with evidence of past volcanic activity that one can think of it as a place to go to talk with and experience volcanoes. This seems according to Indian testimony to have been its primary purpose for thousands of years before the event.

No description available.

This study examines the unique pre-and post hajj traditions of the Cape Muslims in the 19th and 20th centuries. It explores the origin and historical development of these traditions and describes the changes in the mode of transport used to travel to Arabia for the performance of hajj and in the financial aspect of hajj since the 19th century. The study identifies the difficulties that hajjis experienced in the 19th and 20th centuries and explains the special status accorded to hajjis at the Cape, including its use as a status symbol. Much attention is given to the management of the hajj enterprise, including the role of hajj agents and operators. The study analyses the difference between the earlier and current system of managing the hajj, and provides an overview of the regulating body appointed by the South African government to oversee the hajj industry. Finally, it investigates the problems that the pilgrims have been experiencing over the many years. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

The thesis "Tuba: an African eschatology in Islam" adopts afrocentric hypotheses for the study of Islam. First, the thesis demonstrates how certain phenomena specific to Islam in Africa, those usually qualified as products of religious syncretism, are on the contrary indicative of the ongoing process of synthesis and enrichment within Islam, and, secondly, that African spiritual tradition continues today as in the past to participate along with others in this constructive process. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis the spiritual significance of the modern Islamic holy city of Touba in Senegal will be analyzed. / Touba is named for the Tree of Paradise (Tuba) of Islamic tradition and the holy city has been constructed around the singular arboreal image. The spiritual meaning imparted by Touba, a deliberate creation, is expressed in the topography of the holy city, in its geographic configuration. The thesis adapts the methodologies of spatial analysis, and specifically the semiotic reading of landscape, to the study of a religious phenomenon, i.e., the creation of a holy city. / in order to explain the significance of this holy city for Islamic eschatology, the meanings which three distinct religious traditions (Islam, West Africa, Ancient Egypt) have attached to the image of the cosmic tree are inventoried. The tree as archetype here serves to establish the continuity of African religious thought from pharaonic Egypt to modern Muslim Senegal.

No description available.

Thesis (S.T.M.)--Yale University Divinity School, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-83).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1998. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 327-371).