Sayyid Qutb's conceptions of man and society inform and are themselves informed by his theory of human and divine knowledge. Our aim in this dissertation is, first, to highlight the intricate relationships between Qutb's ontology and his epistemology, and, second, to point to the active context of Qutb's discourse: how did his theory of man, society, and knowledge relate to his language of political dissent and his strategy for change and revolution? Qutb remains an enduring influence on young Muslims and has left a deep mark on the discourse of politically activist Islamism. An underlying concern that runs through our analysis will be to address the question: why is Qutb still relevant? The answer we provide highlights the inseparability between Qutb's conception of human nature, his paradigm for the just and ideal society, his theories on mundane and revealed epistemology, and his strategy for social and political reform. We shall argue that the Qutbian discourse endures because Qutb offers his co-religionists a powerfully integrated conception of the "Islamic solution" that achieves a unique blending between the values of "authenticity" and those of "modernity". Qutb's writings articulate an unapologetic "life-conception" of Islam that insisted on standing on par with other "life-conceptions"; Muslims could take pride in knowing that Islam exhorted development, but with an eye towards maintaining a "balance" between the "material" and the "spiritual", unlike communism and capitalism, which neglected "spirituality" in favor of "animal materialism"; the "Islamic conception" outlined by Qutb provided the reader with a conceptual framework within which a sophisticated critique of colonialism could be carried out. Moreover, Qutb also provided the modern Islamist with a vocabulary that gives voice to the economic and social concerns of an emerging lower middle class aspiring to fulfill its mundane dreams in modern, mid-20th century Egypt. The language Qutb used in his works was not the language of the elite intellectuals, whether Westernized modernists or traditional 'ulema. Qutb consciously articulated his thoughts in a language easily accessible to a readership literate enough to read his works, but not necessarily trained to actively penetrate the arcane corpus of the 'ulema. Upon reading Qutb and contrasting his language with that of his predecessors, it becomes clear that Qutb, more than any other thinker in the Egypt of his days, articulated a conception of Islam that consciously attempted to lay the foundations for an Islamic epistemology on the basis of a putatively Islamic ontology, denied the authority of "foreign life conceptions", claimed for Islam universal validity, asserted the active character of the "truly Muslim", decried the economic injustices which the masses were enduring, and rejected the traditional conception of the state as intrinsically benevolent. In short, his was a powerful call to merge the values of authenticity - unapologetic anti-imperialism, anti-elitism, and the insistence on the centrality of Islam - with the values of modernity - the impulse for asserting a comprehensive world-view, the pretension to universal validity, and the positive valuation of action and change in the context of welfare liberalism beholden to the will of the people. / Ph. D.

To many, marriage is a fundamental part of life. The union of two individuals, often in the presence of those most dear, they vow stay loyal and support each other throughout their daily lives. Often, the marriage is fulfilled in the context of religion. To Islam, marriage is a sacred union assisting the couple on their spiritual journey in life. It is said that the Prophet Muhammad expressed “One who marries has already guarded half of his religion, therefore he should fear Allah for the other half”. This paper aims to analyse two different interreligious perspectives on marriage, and the existing view on sex and gender within the concept of marriage. To achieve this, a descriptive onset to idea analysis is used as a method. This analysis of this paper is based on four different analytical categories, or questions, which aims to display the existing concept of marriage of two books: Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur’an, by Asma Barlas, and Marriage and Morals in Islam, by Sayyid Muhammad Rizvi. The analysis shows that both accounts present an institutional view on marriage, with distinctly expressed terms or ideals on marriage - although Barlas creates more space for contractual dimensions to exist within the institutional view. As to gender and sex, this paper concludes that the views are based on the idea of essential biological differences between men and women. The duties and ideals of marriage is based on those differences, but Barlas stresses that this does not show that the Qur’an supports inequality or a sexual bias. As to Rizvi, it is more difficult to conclude whether his view on sex differences supports equality of the sexes, or a hierarchal outlook where the male is privileged or superior in comparison to women.

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This dissertation explores the concept of revelation in the writings of Ahmad Khan, Azad, and Mawdudi Using as its framework the development of modern Western thought on revelation, it raises questions related to religious epistemology and finds that the Muslims studied offer three interpretations of revelation: (1) part mystico-subjective and part natural intuitive, (2) part traditional and part mystico-subjective, and (3) traditional. The thesis concludes that out of a preoccupation with apologetics, all three authors failed to develop a coherent theory of revelation: Mawdudi did not understand modern problems surrounding revelation and hence did not feel the need for a solution to them; Azad, because of an ambivalent position regarding modernity, contradicted his own views; only Ahmad Khan was able to appreciate the modern threat to revelation and attempted a new interpretation. However, his interpretation was expressed in medieval philosophic molds and found little acceptance among Muslims at large.

Magister Artium - MA / Includes bibliographic references (leaves 184-195)"In this thesis, I contrast Qutbs approach towards jihad with that which is found in the primary sources of Islam and as espoused by the proponents of the four schools of thought, as well as key Islamic scholars. This study also attempts to explore the conceptual confusion between terrorism, jihad, and legitimate defense and resistance by comparing the legislation on jihad in Islam with that which exists in international law and conventions. I then turn my attention to the focal point of this study, the writings of Sayyid Qutb on jihad..."

Militant Islamist Sayyid Imam's legal critique of Al Qaeda's anti-U.S. mass casualty terrorism holds great potential utility for counterterrorist messaging strategy. In this article, a jihad–realist Islamist theological–jurisprudential methodology is first defended as the means most productive for delegitimizing Al Qaeda among high value, religiously motivated recruits. Second, Sayyid Imam's specific allegations and detailed Sharia proofs against Al Qaeda are presented. Finally, implications are drawn for U.S. counterterrorist messaging focusing especially on the utility of wielding this theological–juridical approach as compared to other “counternarrative” approaches, and the vital need to accurately characterize Islamism and its relation to terrorism.

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L’historiographie traditionnelle considère que le druzisme – entendu comme la doctrine religieuse du tawḥīd propre aux Druzes – a connu son apogée au IXe/XVe siècle grâce à l’enseignement et à la direction spirituelle d’al-Sayyid (m. 884/1479). La présente étude a pour objectif d’analyser cette construction d’une figure mythifiée de grand saint et d’un récit peu ancré dans les réalités sociales au niveau local. Une telle révision est rendue possible par un double renouvellement : une lecture critique des sources et un élargissement du corpus à des manuscrits druzes inédits. Confronter les hagiographies sayyidiennes aux chroniques locales permet de distinguer entre les Vitae du saint et le personnage historique d'al-Sayyid, afin d’étudier sa vision, son action et son autorité dans les contrées syriennes du Ġarb et du Šūf. Les traités de droit druze livrent par ailleurs des indications précieuses sur l’organisation nouvelle mise en place par ses disciples après sa mort et sur le fonctionnement des communautés druzes au niveau local. Enfin l’articulation du pouvoir religieux des initiés avec le pouvoir politique des émirs ḥusaynides, issus des Banū Buḥtur, est révélatrice des formes de légitimation qui apparaissent alors. / Traditional historiography considers that Druzism – understood as the religious doctrine of tawḥīd specific to the Druzes – had its heyday in the 9th/15th century through teaching and spiritual guidance from al-Sayyid (d. 884/1479). The present study aims to analyse this construction of a mythical figure of a great saint as well as that of a narrative scarcely rooted in the local social realities. Such a revision was made possible by double-renewal: a critical reading of the sources and the enrichment of the corpus with unpublished Druze manuscripts. Confronting Sayyidian hagiographies to local chronicles allows us to distinguish between the Vitae of the saint and the historical character of al-Sayyid, and thus to study his vision, action, and authority in the Syrian regions of the Ġarb and Šūf. The Druze law treaties also give valuable information on the new organisation implemented by his followers after his death as well as the functioning of Druze communities at the local level. Finally, the articulation of the religious power of initiates with the political power of the Ḥusaynid emirs from the Banū Buḥtur, reveals the forms of legitimation which then appear.

In this dissertation, I investigate various aspects of object marking and how these manifest themselves in the signed modality. The main focus is on Swedish Sign Language (SSL), the national sign language of Sweden, which is the topic of investigation in all five studies. Two of the studies adopt a comparative perspective, including other sign languages as well. The studies comprise a range of data, including corpus data, elicited production, and acceptability judgments, and combine quantitative and qualitative methods in the analyses. The dissertation begins with an overview of the topics of valency, argument structure, and object marking, primarily from a spoken language perspective. Here, the interactions between semantics and morphosyntax are presented from a typological perspective, introducing differential object marking as a key concept. With regard to signed language, object marking is discussed in terms of both verbal and nominal strategies. Verbal strategies of object marking among sign languages include directional verbs, object handshape classifiers, and embodied perspective in signing. The first study investigates the use of directionality and object handshapes as object marking strategies in Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language (ABSL), Israeli Sign Language (ISL), and SSL. It is shown that the strategies generally display different alignments in terms of the types of objects targeted, which is uniform across languages, but that directionality is much more marginal in ABSL than in the other two languages. Also, we see that there is a connection between object marking strategies and the animacy of the object, and that the strategies, object animacy, and word order preferences interact. In the second and third studies, SSL is investigated with regard to the transitive–reflexive distinction. Here, we see that there are interactional effects between object handshapes and the perspective taken by the signer. This points to intricate iconic motivations of combining and structuring complex verb sequences, such as giving preference to agent focusing structures (e.g., agent perspective and handling handshapes). Furthermore, the use of space is identified as a crucial strategy for reference tracking, especially when expressing semantically transitive events. Nominal strategies include object pronouns and derivations of the sign PERSON. The fourth study provides a detailed account of the object pronoun OBJPRO in SSL, which is the first in-depth description of this sign. It is found that the sign is in widespread use in SSL, often corresponds closely to object pronouns of spoken Swedish, and is argued to be grammaticalized from the lexical sign PERSON. In the final study, the possible existence of object pronouns in other sign languages is investigated by using a sample of 24 languages. This analysis reveals that the feature is found mostly in the Nordic countries, suggesting areal contact phenomena. However, the study also shows that there are a number of derivations of PERSON, such as reflexive pronouns, agreement auxiliaries, and case markers. The use of PERSON as a source of grammaticalization for these functions is attributed to both semantic and phonological properties of the sign. This dissertation is unique in that it is dedicated to the topic of object marking in the signed modality. It brings a variety of perspectives and methods together in order to investigate the domain of object marking, cross-linguistically and cross-modally.

In 1847, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) published an Urdu text, listing and describing all notable monuments of Delhi entitled Asar-ul-Sanadid. His work so impressed British scholars in Delhi that he was invited to join the Asiatic Society and write a second, improved edition for translation into English. Unfortunately the translation was never written. Sir Sayyid was one of many local Indian scholars producing architectural and archaeological histories of the Subcontinent in the nineteenth-century. Yet their names are generally unknown, and their research lost in obscurity. Early twentieth-century western scholarship paid them little attention and an image formed which saw nineteenth-century historiography only serving an Orientalist vision of Indian art and archaeology. It is only in recent decades that this belief has been contested, and new studies have included a greater variety of sources. This thesis attempts to do the same by presenting translated portions of the Asar and analysing it within the context of its production; pre-colonial Indian histories and contemporary Indian and British scholarship in order to form a more complete picture of nineteenth century historical discourse in India.