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.

Le rapprochement du Waste Land de T. S. Eliot et de la Kasidah de R. F. Burton produit une théorie littéraire. Cette théorie est fondée sur le principe de l'Unité de la Conscience (Wahdat al Wayy) d'après l'exégèse d'Ibn Arabi (Wahdat al Wujud et Wahdat al Adyân). Elle postule également que toute vie n'est qu'un courant de conscience. L'action est une forme d'écriture de la conscience dans le monde, et l'expérience vécue est une forme d'écriture du monde dans la conscience. Or l'expression de la conscience en perspective est un invariant profond des littératures, qui relie The Waste Land et The Kasidah mais également Al Aaraaf de Poe, le Voyage de Baudelaire, le Testament de Villon ou encore le Canto Notturno de Leopardi. Un autre invariant, fondé par le précédent, est l'invariant de la gâtine, que l'on peut résumer par le mythe de l'Ortolano Eterno : Homo : locatus est, damnatus est, humatus est, renatus est : in Horto. Or la Septième sourate du Coran est une expression notable de l'invariant de la gâtine. Ainsi comme il existe une cartographie dynamique des connexions cérébrales, la connectomique, il existe une connectomique des littératures et une biologie des littératures. Une partie du corps calleux des littératures, le faisceau de connexions directes entre Orient et Occident, est la "chaîne de la gâtine", un linéament de textes qui se fascinent pour l'interaction entre le monde et la conscience. Concernant Eliot, ses influences soufies directes vont de Omar Khayyam à Guénon ou Schuon, et ses influences indirectes relèvent de l'influence soufie sur les troubadours. Eliot influence lui-même la poésie de l'aire musulmane depuis au moins 1950. / Connecting T. S. Eliot's Waste Land to R. F. Burton's Kasidah produces a literary theory. The founding principle of this theory is the Unity of Consciousness (Wahdat al Wayy), after the exegesis of Ibn Arabi (Wahdat al Wujud and Wahdat al Adyan). It also postulates that any life is but a stream of consciousness. Action is thus the way by which consciousness writes in the world, and experience is the way the world writes in consciousness. The expression of consciousness in perspective is in turn a profound literary invariant, connecting The Waste Land and The Kasidah but also Poe's Al Aaraaf, Baudelaire's Voyage, Villon's Testament or Leopardi's Canto Notturno. Another invariant, based on the precedent, is the invariant of the wasteland, which can be summed up by the myth of the Ortolano Eterno : Homo : locatus est, damnatus est, humatus est, renatus est : in Horto. Now the seventh surah of the Quran is a notable expression of the invariant of the wasteland. In the same way that there is a connectomics of the human brain, there is a connectomics and also a biology of literatures. A sample of its corpus callosum, connecting the Western and Eastern literatures, is the "chain of the wasteland", a lineament of texts which leitmotiv is the interaction between consciousness and the world. Regarding Eliot his direct sufi influences range from Omar Khayyam to Guénon and Schuon, and his indirect ones regard the known sufi influence over the troubadours. In turn Eliot has been influencing the contemporary poetry of the muslim area since at least 1950.

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In this paper I give biographical sketches of a thirteen century Egyptian poet, best known as al- Busiri, the original composer of Kasidatul Burdah in Arabic and the Swahili translator of the said epic best known as Sheikh Muhammad Mshela, from Shela in Lamu, Kenya. Kasidatul Burdah (The Mantle Ode) or Kasida ya Burudai, in Swahili, is the most famous qasida in the Muslim world. I transcribed this qasida from Arabic to Roman script and analysed it (wa Mutiso 1996). My intention is to show how these poets share the same world view concerning Sufism and Islamic culture in particular

It is believed that the traditional hostility between Sufism and the Orthodox Schools in Islam came to an end, only after the conversion of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d.505/1111) to Sufism. He was able to reconcile Sufism with Islamic Orthodoxy. However, Sufism received another moral boost, later from the work of 'Ayn al-Qudah, Zubdat al-Haqa'iq. This thesis is basically concerned with presenting the work in a critically annotated translation. This translation is accompanied by an introduction, which attempts to put the work in a proper historical perspective within the political and intellectual milieu of the time. It also analyses his contribution to the intellectual of Sufism and indicates the major points of discussion in his work.

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 ratiep is a peculiarly South African trance-linked art form characterised by stabbings with sharp objects to the arms and other bodily parts, the piercing of the ear-lobes, the cheeks and the tongue by alwaan (skewers), the performance of certain standard dhikr to the accompaniment of the rebanna and dhol, and a highly stylized movement. The ratiep art form is rooted in Sufi Muslim traditions. Similar trance-linked art forms, called the dabos and Sufi ceremonies, exist in Sumatra and Syria respectively. These are all linked to Abdul Kader al-Jilani, founder of the Qadiriyyah Sufi fraternity. The South African variant of the art form also characterised by unusual self-mutilating acts, has been practised for more than 200 years, and started amongst the Cape Muslims. The literature provides historical evidence of the controversy regarding its "Islamic" nature, which has existed since the latter half of the previous century amongst South African Muslims. It has become dissociated from Islamic practices generally, and is regarded as bidat (innovatory). The South African Indian ratiep performance relates to its Cape Muslim counterpart. Both subgenres show a special relationship to the different genres and styles of music constituting South African Islamic and 'Cape Malay' music which are unique outflows of the cultural heritage, the social milieu and the enslaved, deprived and indentured work circumstances of early South African Muslims. In its vocal style the khalifa performance relates to qiraat and the secular nederlandslied; the latter is a transitional form between the sacred orthodox qiraat and the secular homophonic oulied. A voorwerk and giyerwee sharif precede respectively the Cape Muslim performance and its Indian counterpart. Like the ratiep, they have well-defined textual and musical forms. Ratiep musical instruments. the characteristic movement, the praboes (sharp instruments) and the bank with its decorations of flags add to the totality of the ratiep performance. Metaphysical and medical considerations are important in understanding the nature and purpose of the ratiep performance and the absence of bleeding; the results achieved thus far are still inconclusive. Ratiep acts are often seen as skilful swordplay and exhibitionism, rather than a physical testimony of faith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 1993.

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Originally a Ph. D. Thesis--University of London. / Previously published as Rábiʻa [: the life & work of Rábiʻa and other women mystics in Islám] by Oneworld, 1994. Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-241) and index.

Originally a Ph. D. thesis--University of London. / Previously published as Rábiʻa [: the life & work of Rábiʻa and other women mystics in Islám] by Oneworld, 1994. Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-241) and index.