Islamic theology is a new invention in today’s secular universities, at least when it comes to studying Islam with a critical and constructive approach. As a muslim practice theology is often perceived as ʿilm al-kalām, with its use of philosophical method to gain knowledge of God. In the work Modern Muslim Theology Martin Nguyen looks for a different definition of theology where he defines theology in its fullest sense as a way to engage yourself with the Divine. The question is, is this theology as such modern? The Sufis - and in this work Abū ʾAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī from Khurasan - where concerned more with an ascetic way of living rather than one fashioned by systematic doctrine, as a way to knowledge and union with God. This work in Islamic systematic theology investigates al-Sulamī’s theology and shines light on a classic example of a theology of engagement, with its possibilities of being an alternative way of knowledge in relation to kalām in Islamic theology. The study shows that al-Sulamī’s Sufism concerned with denegrating the ego-self and refinement of character constitutes its own path to theology. The study also shows that this form of theology is a challenge to the way in which theology is conducted at secular universities.

Islamic theology is a new invention in today’s secular universities, at least when it comes to studying Islam with a critical and constructive approach. As a muslim practice theology is often perceived as ʿilm al-kalām, with its use of philosophical method to gain knowledge of God. In the work Modern Muslim Theology Martin Nguyen looks for a different definition of theology where he defines theology in its fullest sense as a way to engage yourself with the Divine. The question is, is this theology as such modern? The Sufis - and in this work Abū ʾAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī from Khurasan - where concerned more with an ascetic way of living rather than one fashioned by systematic doctrine, as a way to knowledge and union with God. This work in Islamic systematic theology investigates al-Sulamī’s theology and shines light on a classic example of a theology of engagement, with its possibilities of being an alternative way of knowledge in relation to kalām in Islamic theology. The study shows that al-Sulamī’s Sufism concerned with denegrating the ego-self and refinement of character constitutes its own path to theology. The study also shows that this form of theology is a challenge to the way in which theology is conducted at secular universities.

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Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Le Bayefallisme est une branche à l'intérieur de la voie soufie de Mouridiyya qui met de l'avant l'importance du travail pour les autres. Les disciples Baye Fall sont majoritairement sénégalais et renégocient leur rapport aux pratiques islamiques telles que la prière rituelle et le jeune. À l’instar de Pézeril (2008), l’enjeu de notre enquête ethnographique est de « comprendre » les Baye Fall. Notre recherche vise à mettre en lumière leurs expériences religieuses à l'aide d'une méthodologie d'observation participante qui tient compte de la présence du chercheur sur le terrain (Turner, 2000) et accorde donc une place importante à la réflexivité (Fabian, 2001). Nous avons remarqué que la majorité de nos informateurs ne déclaraient pas clairement : « Je suis Baye Fall », mais plutôt : « Je veux être Baye Fall ». Cette posture, que nous qualifierons de bayefallisante, nous a tout d’abord semblé problématique pour ensuite devenir notre porte d'entrée. La littérature sur les trajectoires religieuses a déjà démontré qu'elles ne sont pas linéaires, mais remplies d’ambivalences et de contradictions. Pour Schielke (2009) et de Koning (2013), ces contradictions sont induites par les ruptures inhérentes au quotidien en contexte de globalisation. Notre objectif est de démontrer que ces ambiguïtés peuvent également être créées par la qualité intersubjective et réflexive de l'expérience religieuse.Alors que les Baye Fall ont été ethnographiés surtout au Sénégal (Audrain, 2004; Pézeril, 2008; Morris, 2014), notre recherche a l'originalité de rendre compte d’un phénomène de bayefallisation des disciples mourides dans le contexte montréalais. / Bayefallism is a sub-group of the Mouride brotherhood that emphasizes hard work and dedication. Baye Fall disciples are mostly Senegalese and they challenge well-known precepts of Islam such as those prescribing daily prayers and fasting. Like Pézeril (2008), I aim at a better “understanding” of the Baye Fall in this study. My research aims to shed light on their religious experience through a methodology of participant observation where the presence of the ethnographer (Turner, 2000) is taken into account and that gives an important place to reflexivity (Fabian, 2001). Most of my informants did not say “I am Baye Fall”; rather they said, “I would like be Baye Fall.” Initially, I saw this as a problem but it soon became the starting point of my research. The literature on religious trajectories has shown that such trajectories are not linear but charged with ambivalence and contradictions. For authors such as Schielke (2009) and de Koning (2013), these contradictions are engendered by certain ruptures that are part of daily life in a globalized context. In my study, I seek to demonstrate that these ambiguities can also be an integral part of of an intersubjective, reflexive religious experience. While ethnographies of Baye Fall have been mainly carried out in Senegal (Audrain, 2004; Pézeril, 2008; Morris, 2014), the originality of this research lies in the fact that it examines the phenomenon of Bayefallism in the context of Montreal.

Figure majeure de l’histoire des relations coloniales franco-algériennes, l’émir Abdelkader est généralement présenté par ses compatriotes comme le modèle politique, militaire et religieux du résistant au colonialisme français du 19ième siècle. L’historiographie officielle algérienne en véhicule l’image du chef religieux qui a initié al-jihad de résistance conforme aux règles exotériques de la chari’ia. Il est décrit comme un guerrier loyal et magnanime, fin stratège, dont la défaite militaire a paradoxalement marqué la fondation de l’Algérie moderne en tant que Nation et État. La construction sociopolitique postcoloniale de ce mythe a permis de légitimer les différents régimes politiques, qui se sont succédé dans l’Algérie indépendante et qui ont toujours tenu, dans le cadre d’une lecture littérale de l’Islam. Ceci dans le but de taire la dimension spirituelle d’Abdelkader disciple, héritier et commentateur de l’œuvre du magister Magnus soufi, IbnʻArabî. Fascinés dès le début de l’occupation par cet adversaire hors du commun, les français, de plus en plus sécularisés, en ont érigé une image utilitaire, l’aliénant ainsi de ses compatriotes coreligionnaires et le découplant de sa foi islamique. Les mémoires concurrentes de l’ancienne puissance coloniale et de son ex-colonie, l’Algérie, ont généré plusieurs débats contemporains en ce qui a trait à l’écriture de l’histoire de la colonisation. Le personnage d’Abdelkader a été instrumentalisé par les uns et les autres. Deux évènements controversés de sa biographie sont devenus les objets d’une polémique souvent âpre et amère entre auteurs chercheurs algériens et français : l’adhésion de l’émir à la franc-maçonnerie française et sa séparation d’avec celle-ci. Nous allons présenter que la prémisse d’auteurs algériens, selon laquelle Abdelkader n’aurait pas pu adhérer au Grand Orient de France, pour cause d’incompatibilité doctrinale musulmane, est inconsistante. Nous essayerons de démontrer au contraire, que son initiation à la maçonnerie telle qu’elle s’était présentée à lui était en accord avec sa vision soufie et légaliste du dogme islamique. En nous basant sur le choix de la franc-maçonnerie française pour la laïcité au moment de la réception supposée de l’émir dans la fraternité, nous montrerons qu’il s’en éloigna pour des raisons de doctrine islamique. En effet, l’élimination de toute référence déiste des textes constitutifs du Grand Orient de France fut inacceptable pour le musulman qu’était Abdelkader, vaincu militairement mais raffermi spirituellement par sa proximité grandissante avec son maître spirituel IbnʻArabî. L’humanisme des francs-maçons français avait motivé une refondation basée sur les droits de l’homme issus de la révolution française. Tandis que celui de l’émir Abdelkader prenait sa source dans l’Unicité de l’Être, concept-cadre Akbarien de la compréhension de la relation de Dieu avec ses créatures. Nous allons montrer que les polémiques franco-algériennes sur les relations d’Abdelkader avec la franc-maçonnerie française, masquent un autre débat de fond qui dure depuis des siècles dans le monde musulman. Un débat opposant deux herméneutiques légalistes des textes islamiques, l’une exotérique s’incarnant dans l’œuvre du théologien musulman Ibn Taymiyya et l’autre ésotérique se trouvant au cœur des écrits du mystique IbnʻArabî. / A major figure in the history of Franco-Algerian colonial relations Emir Abd-el-Kader is usually presented by his countrymen as the political, military and religious model of resistance to French colonialism in the 19th century. The official Algerian historiography conveys the image of Abd-el-Kader as the religious leader who launched a jihad resistance complying with the exoteric rules of sharî’a, loyal and magnanimous warrior, strategist, whose military defeat ironically marks the founding of modern Algeria as a nation and state. The postcolonial sociopolitical construction of this myth has helped to legitimize the different political regimes that have succeeded in independent Algeria that have under an exoteric reading of Islam, always silenced the spiritual dimension of Abd-el-Kader disciple-heir and commentator on the work of magister Magnus Sufi IbnʻArabî. Fascinated since the beginning of their colonization by this uncommon enemy the increasingly secularized French built a of Abd-el-Kader utilitarian image alienating his fellow countrymen. As this image took shape, it increasingly decoupled Abd-el-Kader from his Islamic faith. Competing memories between the former colonial power and its former colony have generated several contemporary debates in regard to writing the history of colonization. The character of Abd-el-Kader was exploited by all sides. Two controversial events of his biography have become the subject of often rough and bitter controversy between Algerian and French authors-researchers: the accession of the Amir to the French Freemasonry and his separation from it. In this thesis, we demonstrate that Algerian authors' premise that Abd-el-Kader could not have joined the Grand Orient de France because of a supposed incompatibility with Islamic doctrinal concerns is in contradiction with his initiation into Masonry as it was presented to him, when it was still in agreement with his legalistic and mystical vision of Islamic dogma. Basing our analysis careful periodization of the process of secularization of French Freemasonry during the period of the alleged reception of the Emir into the masonry, we show that he later withdrew from it for reasons of Islamic doctrine. The elimination of any deist reference in texts constituting the Grand Orient de France subsequent to Abd-el-Kader’s entrance could only make his participation eventually unacceptable as a Muslim defeated militarily but humanist spiritually strengthened by his growing proximity with his spiritual master IbnʻArabî. French Freemasonry had carried out an overhaul based on human rights stemining from the French Revolution, while Emir Abd-el-Kader is humanism had its source in the Unity of Being which is the Akbarian conceptual framework of understanding the relationship of God with its creatures. We show that Franco-Algerian controversies regarding Abd-el-Kader’s relations to French Freemasonry mask another substantive debate that has lasted for centuries in the Muslim world: that of two legalistic hermeneutics of Islamic texts, one exoteric embodied in the work of the famous Muslim theologian Ibn Taymiyya and the other at the heart of esoteric writings of the mystic IbnʻArabî.

The individual's experience of inner authority takes centre stage in the majority of scholarship on New Ageism, with many writers highlighting this theme as a defnitive characteristic of the spiritual culture. The aim of this thesis is to explore this topic and to ascertain the place of the individual and the collective within two commercial New Age feld sites in London. The qualitative data which lead this investigation were collected from a yoga centre called Shanti and a Suf dance organisation called the Suf Order. From this data, the thesis identifes an individual-collective dialectic, one which manifests in particular forms and with divergent orientations; the result is a multiplicity of types of individualisms which include collective forces. The study makes the case for this argument by focusing on four modes in which, at both sites, the individual and the collective co-produce each other. One, the (collective) class culture of the practitioners informs and is informed by the (individual) ideologies of self that the informants assert. Two, the (collective) capitalist context of the organisations infuence and are perpetuated by the ways the (individual) representatives of those organisations express themselves. Three, (collective) shared principles regarding 'positivity' and 'energy' enforce and are sustained by the (individual) feelings of the student. Four, the (collective) communities of practitioners depend on and contribute to the (individual) set apart status of the teacher. These four manifestations of the individual-collective dynamic appear with different orientations in each feld context; in all versions and in both settings, individual and collective are both present and mutually- constituting forces, but at Shanti the dialectics lean more towards the personal and at the Suf Order, the 'same' dialectics lean more towards the social. Each organisation refects and adds to the intersections, both in their forms and their orientations. In so doing, the two New Age centres present divergent balances of the individual-collective dynamic that correlate with the personal and social dispositions of their respective student bodies.

Pendant des décennies, le Sénégal a gardé dans l’imaginaire académique et international sa vielle image d’un pays exclusivement confrérique où le marabout exercerait un pouvoir de taille sur le disciple. Depuis quelques années, toutefois, les observateurs ont pu constater une évolution de la pratique religieuse au Sénégal due à l’arrivée de nouveaux courants réformistes tels que le wahhabisme. La rencontre entre ce dernier et les confréries soufies a fait naitre un débat doctrinal et un choc des idéologies. Dans ce choc, la Tijāniyya est la confrérie qui a été la plus attaquée. L’objet de notre thèse est d’analyser ce conflit idéologique entre le wahhabisme et la Tijāniyya au sud du Sahara, le Sénégal étant notre terrain de complexification. Notre analyse tente de répondre aux questions suivantes : quels sont les points de divergence entre les deux courants ? Comment les savants wahhabites et tijānīs abordent-ils ces points de divergence ? Comment les désaccords idéologiques se manifestent-ils dans la littérature que nous étudions ? Quelles sont les stratégies des protagonistes des deux mouvements pour avoir une plus grande influence au sud du Sahara de manière générale et plus précisément au Sénégal ? / During decades, the international academic sphere has portrayed Senegal as a country exclusively sectarian in which the marabou would have some authority on his disciples. However, over the past few years researchers noticed an evolution of the religious practices in Senegal due to the arrival of new reformist currents such as Wahhabism. As a matter of fact the encounter between Wahhabism and the sufi brotherhoods triggered a doctrinal debate and an ideological shock. In this clash, the Tijāniyya is the first target of the criticisms. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse this ideological conflict between Wahabism and the Tijāniyya in the South of the Sahara, focussing on Senegal. This work will answer the following questions: what are the main sticking points between the two ideological trends? How do the wahhabist and tijānī scholars tackle those issues? To what extent do those ideological disagreements appear in the literature under study? What are the strategies used by the figures of those two groups to expand their power in the sub-Saharan areas, and more specifically in Senegal?

Ces travaux portent sur plusieurs facettes de l’emploi du bleu dans les miniatures persanes. Ils se fondent sur un corpus constitué de 56 manuscrits à peintures, appartenant à la période qui va de l’accession au trône des Safavides jusqu’au règne de Shah Abbâs (soit de 1501 à 1588), et conservés à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France et à la British Library. Ce travail s’articule autour de deux grands axes. Le premier aborde les questions préliminaires relatives aux matériaux et techniques utilisés pour fabriquer la couleur bleue qui se rencontrent dans la peinture persane du XVIe siècle. Cette étude exigeait aussi une définition exacte des noms des nuances de la couleur bleue. Deux catégories de sources textuelles fournissent des informations sur la nature des pigments et le chromatisme employés dans la miniature persane, à savoir les traités techniques et les œuvres scientifiques. L’autre partie de cette thèse présente dans un premier temps une étude picturale détaillée en vue de définir les divers emplacements de la couleur bleue sur les peintures du corpus ; dans un second temps, il est procédé à une analyse textuelle des ouvrages dudit corpus, permettant de confirmer la corrélation des textes avec leurs illustrations quant aux indications liées au choix de la couleur bleue. Ces deux analyses nous mènent vers une synthèse qui aide à comprendre l’aspect symbolique et métaphorique de cette couleur dans l’ensemble de ses représentations picturales. Certaines sources telles que les récits de voyages et les recueils de biographies ou les textes littéraires et mystiques comportent des renseignements précieux sur l’emploi de la couleur bleue dans la société et son contexte culturel. / This research deals with several aspects of the use of blue in Persian miniatures. It is based on a corpus of 56 illustrated manuscripts, dating from the beginning of rule of the Safavids until the reign of Shah Abbas (i.e. from 1501 to 1588 A.D.), preserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library. This work contains two major developments. At first, come the preliminary questions about the materials and techniques used to make the colour blue met in the paintings of the XVIth century. This study also required an exact definition of the names of shades of blue. Two categories of textual sources provide information about the nature of the pigments and the chromatics used in the Persian miniature; they are technical treaties and scientific works. The other part of this thesis is made up of pictorial studies which allow us to determine the location of the colour blue in painting. This approach is coupled with an analysis of the illustrated texts in order to confirm the correlation between pictures and texts when dealing with the colour blue. Both analyses lead to a synthesis that helps us understand the symbolic and metaphorical aspects of this colour in all its pictorial uses. Some sources such as travelogues and biographies or literary and mystical texts contain information on the use of blue in society and its cultural context.

Jerusalem - the third holiest city in Islam - is home to some 300,000 Muslims. But due to Israel’s occupation, they live difficult and disrupted lives. What might it mean for Muslims to practice their faith - on the ground, day by day - in such a conflicted place? One way religion becomes a meaningful category in people’s lives is through ritual. Scholars of Muslim religious practice have been attuned to this insight and observed it in various contexts. But their analyses have often been predicated on an implicit and unquestioned assumption - that people who desire to perform rituals have the means to act on their intention in regular and routine ways. Scholars have also shown that when societies are in rapid transition - be they weakened or threatened - their rituals often evolve with them. In this project, therefore, I ask: what happens in Jerusalem when Muslims live under the existential threat of occupation and their ability to routinely perform religious rituals cannot be assumed? I argue that when rituals are disrupted, Muslims are forced to improvise. Religious rituals - like the performances of skilled jazz musicians - are spontaneous and dynamic but also practiced and deliberate. Rituals are spontaneous in that they respond to the occupation’s disruptions, making physical and discursive adjustments. They are practiced in that Muslims draw from an established repertoire of themes that includes Islam and sacred space, nationalism and resistance, local culture and geography. I term the coalescence of these dynamics the “improvisation thesis” and explore three case studies where specific improvisations have different levels of resonance. The Naqshbandi improvise rituals to make peace, but they are discordant with other established themes; Ramadan rituals have resonance that define specific moments; and the improvisations of the Murabitat are deeply resonant, influencing Muslim rituals throughout the city.