This essay is a reflection on the obviously physical manifestations of lament in South Asian Shii Muharram rituals: weeping and matam, or self-mortification of the flesh. I examine weeping mainly as it is simultaneously actualized and depicted in poetry recited in the majlis (“mourning gathering”) setting and consider matam in the context of majlises, as well as Muharram processions. While there are varying degrees and styles of matam, I concentrate on the public forms intended to draw blood, which are practiced solely by Shii men and boys. These practices constitute a gendered ritual “performance,” often enacted in front of an audience of both men and women—but one that can only be fully understood when viewed in relation to the act of ritual weeping, in which gender is not primary. / text

Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani was a prominent pan-Islamist of the nineteenth century. His appeal of Muslim unity as a common front against the West and call for a regeneration of Islamic societies opened up the way for a new type of politics in Muslim lands and constituted a model for the Islamist discourse. This study examines his stay in Istanbul as a guest of the Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhamid II, between 1892-1897. The rule of Abdulhamid involved policies centered around the Caliphate. His enthronement coincided with the dramatic changes of the period 1876-1882. Under the external and domestic circumstances of the era Abdulhamid developed his own Islamism with pan-Islamic overtones. His ideology was primarily intended to ensure the integrity of the Empire. Its external aspect involved pan-Islamic appeals to Muslims outside the Empire as an intended weapon against Western powers. In this study, the stay of Afghani in Istanbul is analyzed with respect to the background of Hamidian (pan-)Islamism and Afghani

This thesis is preoccupied with the development of Iraqi political Shi'a after the fall of Ṣaddām Ḥusayn. Its main area of interest is the comparison of three Shi'i political movements - Dac wa Party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic revolution in Iraq and the movement of Muqtadā aṣ-Ṣadr on the background of broader historical development of Shi'i community in Iraq. Although this thesis is written in English, it uses both English and Arabic sources and literature with occasional excursions into French and Persian sources. The thesis deals with the ideological transformation of the parties, formation of alliances, utilization of militias for political goals and the relations with the USA and Iran. The conclusion of the thesis is that the Iraqi Shi'i political scene is deeply fragmented, strongly influenced by Iran and its parties are often vehicles for personal political ambitions of its leaders which effectively prevents any unification of Shi'i political position and creation of strong central Iraqi government.