No description available.

No description available.

<p> This dissertation examines the reasons behind the rise and fall of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia. The UIC was born out of the chaos of the Warlord Era in Southern Somalia from within the fabric of Somali Society. The peace and stability that the UIC brought to the region had not been seen since before the fall of Said Barre's regime. However, the rapid martial expansion of the UIC and the perceived threat caused by their success resulted in Ethiopia invading Somalia thereby destroying the UIC and spawning the al-Shabaab movement. .</p>

This dissertation examines Islamic banking in Jordan. It is argued that institutions perceived as culturally authentic may play important political roles in a post-colonial society. Islamic banking in particular can both function in a modern, globalized economy and express cultural tradition. It may help to legitimate Jordan’s political structures and overcome social and economic bifurcations between traditional and modern sectors of society. Jordan is a part of a region of the world in which the colonial experience continues to have an enduring legacy. What had previously been a tribal Bedouin society was transformed almost overnight. Its modern banking system transgressed Islamic norms and laws and excluded huge portions of the population who continued to see meaning in the religious values and principles rooted in the social and cultural institutions that had just been trampled upon. This dissertation looks into how Islamic banks that interact in a global economy while remaining true to culturally authentic beliefs and practices can begin to close the gaps between state practice and popular beliefs. The strongest opposition to the monarchy in Jordan has come from political Islamists who feed upon popular discontent and alienation caused by the practices and actions of a ruling elite that does not share the same cultural values as the majority of the population. Much of what the Islamists espouse, while culturally authentic, is removed from the political, financial, and economic realities of the modern era. Islamic banking thus has the potential to play a mediating role between a modernizing elite and this Islamist backlash. This dissertation will test the extent to which cultural authenticity matters by observing how Islamic banks in Jordan have been able to tap into a latent demand for alternative financial practices and how the Islamic financial movement relates to Islamist political movements. Although Islamic banking has not achieved its full potential, the dissertation presents strong evidence of its capacity to bridge divisions between state and society. / text

No description available.

With the institution of the Moroccan Protectorate by the French in 1912, the military command had as its primary intention that of restoring law and order. Under the strong personality of the "resident general", Lyautey, a new era of "soft" political colonization was introduced in Morocco; brutish military conquests were followed by a certain cooptation process of the Moroccan elite. This association policy allowed the perception of real cooperation between the French and the Moroccans but was actually aimed at the tight regulation of the population. The efficiency of this regulation was achieved through its technocratic approach; it showed respect for the Moroccan Islamic traditions and its institutions. / This study analyses the French colonial policy in Morocco between 1912 and 1925 through the means of reforms introduced into the judicial Islamic system. The author compares the system's organization, its jurisdictions and its procedures before 1912, and their reforms throughout the 1912 to 1925 period, when Lyautey was in command.

No description available.

The central theme of this study is the question of turath (cultural heritage) as perceived by contemporary Arab thinkers since the Arab defeat by Israel in 1967. The diverse understandings of turath have raised various questions with respect to it, yielding a plethora of opinions that make it difficult to come up with a common definition. This unstable view of the phenomenon has led to what may be called "the problematic of turath." This study asks whether turath has the roots of the problematic or whether it is mainly the positions on it that have led to its problematization. An attempt to explore the term reveals that the contemporary meaning assigned to turath is ideological in nature, such that it is perceived as a tool for either progress or decline. To understand how this ideologization operates, the study looks at two antithetical positions on turath: that of the Islamic-modernist, H&dotbelow;asan H&dotbelow;anafi (b.1935) and that of the secular-modernist, Adonis (b. 1930). Their positions are described in the light of their intellectual and ideological backgrounds, and analyzed in view of their primary texts. The study concludes that their "imagined" visions of turath reflect biased thinking, an understanding of turath that is adapted to their own ideological stance. As an Islamic phenomenologist, H&dotbelow;anafi perceives Islamic revelation as a phenomenon present to consciousness, regarding it as authoritative due to its presumed "uncorrupted" character. This makes it suitable to any place and time and renders it the only legitimate source for renewal and progress. However, the fact that he feels a rereading of turath is necessary to achieve this goal reflects a paradox in his discourse, whereby the same turath becomes simultaneously the chief problem and the chief solution for Arab-Muslim society. By contrast, Adonis, as a secular deconstructionist, looks at the inherited turath as a "text" with a static/dynamic dualism, and tries to show that the static elements of turath, which always appear stable, logical and capable of achieving progress, make it otherwise. For him, divine revelation --- which is responsible for the predominance of the static and hence an obstacle to human freedom, creativity and progress --- must be deconstructed. This paves the way for his own agenda of replacing the static, i.e., religious elements, with dynamic or secular elements, which alone can enable the reconstruction of a new civilization. But in the process, Adonis may only be replacing the religious with the secular and merely setting in place a new static dimension.

Several basic papers have been written by students at the Institute of Islamic Studies dealing with political-religious movements in Indonesia during the twentieth century. This study of the Persatuan (abbreviated Persis) is not intended to take issue with these studies, but rather to supplement them and provide a fuller picture of Indonesian Islam in the twentieth century. [...]

This dissertation explores the ways in which religious knowledge was produced and transmitted in Safavid madrasas, particularly in Isfahan, during the later Safavid period—from the reign of Shāh Abbās II (1642–66) to the end of Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn’s reign (1694–1722). It argues that Safavid madrasas functioned as multifaceted cultural centres that disseminated religious knowledge, preserved the Shi‘ite intellectual heritage, and played an important role in reconstructing, re-articulating, and contextualizing or contemporizing the past. Safavid madrasas, which were established thanks largely to the largesse and piety of the Safavid shahs, very often acted on behalf of the established political power. However, due to the flexible, inclusive, and personal character of Islamic pedagogy, Shi‘ite learning, like that of the wider Muslim community, could occur in a wide variety of places, from the houses of scholars to any mosque or shrine. After surveying Shi‘ite scholarship and its institutions from the early decades of Islamic history until the mid-seventeenth century, this study contextualizes the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī, or Royal Madrasa, of late Safavid Isfahan within its political, social, and religious setting. This particular madrasa exemplifies the ways in which religious knowledge was transmitted in early modern Iran. By analyzing the deeds of endowment (waqfiyyas) of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī and other madrasa-mosque institutions built by Shāh Sulṭān Ḥusayn and members of the Safavid elite, this study sheds light on the organizing mechanisms and structures for such educational and charitable foundations. Based on the large number of extant ijāzas that were issued by Safavid scholars, and other primary sources, including waqfiyyas and autobiographies, this study reconstructs the curriculum of the Safavid madrasa and describes the pedagogical methods that Safavid scholars employed to transmit religious knowledge to their students. It also discusses the major problems facing Shi‘ite higher learning by examining the critiques of such scholars as Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1635 or 1640), the Safavid philosopher, Muḥsin-i Fayḍ Kāshānī (d. 1679), a renowned traditionalist, and Muḥammad Bāqir Khurāsānī, known as Muḥaqqiq-i Sabzawārī (d. 1679), the Shaykh al-Islam of Isfahan and a prominent mujtahid. Finally it examines the life and career of Sayyid Mīr Muḥammad Bāqir Khātūnābādī (d. 1715), the first Safavid mullā-bāshī (head of religious scholars) and the first rector and professor of the Madrasa-yi Sulṭānī.