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COVID-19 has been declared as a global pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO). Certain Muslims associated the emergence of Al-Ṯurāyya with the fading of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This article aimed to discuss the text and context of the Hadith Al-Ṯurāyya (الثُريَّـــــــــــا) and its link to the termination of COVID-19. Classical and contemporary scholars’ opinions were analysed in this study. The methodology used involved inductive and deductive supplemented with critical analysis determining the most appropriate opinion on this matter. Further empirical study of the visibility of Al-Ṯurāyya in the Islamic history were analysed using Stellarium Astronomy Software 0.20.0. The findings of the study revealed that the hadith refers to the disappearance of disease pertaining to fruits and crops and not to related to the end of any pandemic. Additionally, the rise of Al-Ṯurāyya showed no connection with pandemic termination in the Islamic history. In conclusion, the claim that COVID-19 will disappear with the emergence of Al-Ṯurāyya can be rejected.

This essay explores the symbiotic relationship between visual culture and the exact sciences that is revealed by the career of ʿAbbas b. Firnas (d. circa 876), as recounted in the Cordoban court chronicle compiled by the historian Ibn Hayyan (d. 1076), and by early scientific instruments from al-Andalus. Ibn Firnas is today remembered as a polymath and early scientist, yet neither historians of art nor of science have fully explored the implications of his reputation among medieval intellectuals as the wellspring of an Andalusi tradition of fine scientific instrumentation. This essay considers the Arabic account of Ibn Firnas as a maker of such objects, alongside early scientific instruments, exploring what these reveal about connections between elite intellectual culture and craft, between science and art making. It argues that considering the objects and texts in tandem reveals that intellectuals, especially those working in the exact sciences, were also “makers” of medieval Islamic visual culture.

The Arabic-script Qurʾān fragments of the Cairo genizah collections have not yet drawn much interest among Arabic and genizah scholars. This paper aims to bring them to the attention of a broader audience by presenting the palaeographic features (§ 3) and vocalisation systems (§ 4) of eleven Arabic-script Qurʾān fragments from the Cambridge University Library’s Taylor-Schechter Arabic collection. While the focus of this paper is the physical appearance of these Qurʾān leaves, their presence in the Cairo genizah (§ 1.1)—a Jewish ‘storeroom’ for retired sacred texts—is also tentatively explored (§ 1.2, § 5).

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries were one of the most dynamic and innovative periods in Islamic history: The encounter with modernity due to the European colonialism has led to the emergence of new questions and challenges in the Islamic world. In response, reform thinkers and jurists try to reform Islam and its judicial system from within as a way to counter the perceived weakness and the decline of Muslim societies. One of the best-known and most controversial figures of Sunni Islam today who deals with the question of Islam and modernity is Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī (born in 1926). He is the cofounder and president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) as well as of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). His fatwas (Islamic legal opinions) count as an important reference point for issues of religious practice – not only for Muslims in the Middle East but also for European Muslims. Al-Qaraḍāwī considers iǧtihād as the essential medium of renewal that enables the practical implementation of sharīʿa rules into the daily life of Muslims. This, in turn, provides the solution (al-ḥall) for all their problems and challenges in compliance with contemporary living conditions. The present paper aims at shedding light on his understanding of iǧtihād and showing which jurisprudential methods and instruments he uses in order to perform his aspired “contemporary” iǧtihād. There will also be an exploration of whether and how far his concept of iǧtihād can be considered as muʿāṣir and adequate for Muslims living today.

Sufism is often taken to be the form of Islamic practice that was most welcoming to women. Similarly, Southeast Asia is commonly said to be characterized by unusually high levels of female autonomy, relative to the surrounding regions. This article discusses for the first time a Malay text, the Hikayat Rabiʿah , about the most famous female Sufi in Islamic history, Rābiʿa al-ʿAdawīyya, and suggests that these assumptions regarding Sufi women in Southeast Asia may require revision. The Hikayat Rabiʿah presents a version of Rabiʿah’s life that is not found in Arabo-Persian models. Here, the Sufi female saint usually known for her celibacy marries and is widowed, then bests four suitors in trials of mystical prowess, before agreeing to marriage to the sultan, himself a Sufi adept, and achieving through him an ecstatic ascent to heaven. The text is compared with two other Malay Islamic genres, didactic literature for women and esoteric Sufi treatises on ritualized sexual intercourse, to illustrate why it was not possible to imagine a celibate Rabiʿah in the Malay world.

Modern extremist groups have revived the use of certain concepts of Islamic dogma and wilfully misinterpreted them as a means of achieving their own ends. Dae‘sh (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is the most striking example. They have made declarations of takfir (excommunication) regarding Muslim rulers, maintaining that only Dae‘sh land is a dar al-Islam (abode of Islam) and that other lands are dar al-kufr or harb (abodes of unbelief or war), just as the Khawarij sect believed in the 7th century ce. They do not employ the concept of hijra (migration) in its traditional, defensive sense, but rather as a means of strengthening their own power by recruiting from around the world and launching military jihads, all in order to ‘reclaim’ the dar al-kufr and establish an Islamic state. This article examines the evolution of these terms throughout Islamic history, their misinterpretation by extremist groups, and their modern legal status.

The history of pre- and early-modern science, medicine, and technology in the Islamicate world has been traditionally charted around certain signposts: Translation, Golden Age, and Decline. These signposts tethered the history of Islamic sciences to a European story that culminates in the Scientific Revolution and that links European colonial expansion (causally and chronologically) to modernity. This article looks at the roots of the classical narrative of the history of Islamic sciences and explores its connections to the production of colonial sciences and the proliferation of colonial education. Moving beyond the validity or accuracy of the Golden-Age/Decline narrative, it asks about the archives that such a narrative constructs and the viability of categories and chronologies, such as the “early modern,” in thinking about histories of the Global South, in general, and of the Islamicate “world” in particular.

A growing number of studies argue that the Ottomans became militantly Sunni in the sixteenth century as they participated in the age of confessionalization. In defining Ottoman Sunnism, state policy and state-appointed jurists and scholars played a significant role. This paper attempts to define Ottoman Sunnism in the sixteenth century in a manner subtly different from that of the jurists, by looking at the views of Ottoman historians on the issues that divided the original Muslim community, ultimately resulting in the Sunni-Shiʿi schism. Despite the seemingly sectarian conflicts of the sixteenth century, neither rigid Sunnism nor fierce confessionalization was carried over into the intellectual and cultural scene. A moderate inclination towards Shiʿism/ʿAlidism and strong attachment to Ahl al-Bayt continued to be potent forces in Sunni Ottoman intellectual circles.

The paper highlights the socio-economic aspects of the concept of hijra or migration in the Islamic tradition. The paper argues that the conception of migration in the Islamic tradition has been shaped by not only religious and ethical values, but also social and economic motivations and consequences ever since the first migrations to Abyssinia and Medina. The paper addresses the notion and practice of hijra in Islamic history by highlighting its ethical and religious value as well as its nature and evolution into a socio-economic activity motivated by different forms of oppression, including social and political oppression as well as economic deprivation. The study draws on the history of Islam and the Islamic society, the sources of Islamic law and doctrines, and the thought of scholars in relation to the changes in approaches to migration, and the conceptualization of hijra as an activity motivated by oppression and economic hardship.

This article examines how Fadlallah and Khomeini’s respective quests for sovereignty are reflected in their political thought, particularly vis-a-vis their notions of maṣlaḥa, which I define as the “common good.” I argue that if, to an extent, Islamic political thought seeks to maximise maṣlaḥa, then this can also constitute a claim to sovereignty, the definition of which remains multidimensional and contentious. By closely examining Fadlallah and Khomeini’s writings and pronouncements on governance, popular movement, and state, I attempt to reveal how discussions regarding Islamic governance demonstrate a broader claim to authority in Islamic history.

This research aims to enhance the dialogue among Muslims and non-Muslims based on the Quran and the prophet’s traditions. It paves the way by discussing the issue of coexistence between the two communities. This article has the objective to consolidate the principles of two kinds of dialogue: ideological dialogue and realistic dialogue. Next is the discussion of the possibility of Islamic law (Sharia) to coexist with contemporary international law regarding the issue of the right of expression as a human right. Furthermore, this article studies the major ethical methods of dialogue and provides some practical models and examples of dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims from Islamic history.

The following article surveys a few treatises regarding the salvation of the Prophet Muḥammad’s uncle, Abū Ṭālib b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (d. circa 619ce). The controversy concerning Abū Ṭālib’s place in the hereafter stems from a wealth of reports condemning him to hell due to his refusal to convert to Islam and others which testify to his lifelong belief in God and the prophethood of Muḥammad. The first group of reports was canonized in the collections of Bukhārī and Muslim, while the second group largely appeared insīraand Shīʿīḥadīthliterature. Although Shīʿī thinkers have upheld the faith and salvation of Abū Ṭālib from the earliest periods of Islamic history, very few Sunnīs shared this opinion despite transmitting some of the same proof-texts cited in Shīʿī works. According to most Sunnīs, these proof-texts were either inconclusive or insufficient in proving Abū Ṭālib’s conversion to Islam or his salvation. However, there is a remarkable shift in the sensibilities of some Sunnīs after the ninth centuryhijrī(fifteenth centuryce). In contrast to early Sunnīs who considered such a possibility to be unlikely or flatly denied it, a few Sunnīs over the past five centuries have joined their Shīʿī co-religionists in their commitment to the salvation of Abū Ṭālib. This article introduces the relevant proof-texts and theological arguments that classical Shīʿī and modern Sunnī writers have utilized to advocate the belief in Abū Ṭālib’s salvation.

This paper discusses the primary Copto-Arabic literary source for the history of Fatimid Egypt, and indeed, for much of the history of Egypt in general: known as the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, it was compiled in Arabic in the late eleventh century ce on the basis of earlier, mostly Coptic sources, by the Alexandrian notable Mawhūb ibn Manṣūr ibn Mufarrij, who added original Arabic materials of his own. Later continuations were added by others, from late Fatimid times up to the twentieth century. The first part of the paper is an outline of the textual history of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, its existing editions and their shortcomings, and the new critical edition that is now being prepared. This part also discusses the fundamentals of a meticulous method of textual criticism, close reading, and contextualization which should help to elucidate numerous problems of historic interpretation. In the subsequent sections of the paper, this same method is applied to a short text sample with an aim of, wherever possible, reconstructing Mawhūb’s original Arabic text, but also with the objective of illustrating how this late eleventh-century text may have been read by later generations. Finally, the freshly coined concept of “internal intertextuality” is employed to point to parallels with episodes that occur in the earlier parts of the Arabic History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, based on older Coptic sources. At the level of content, several new historical interpretations and corrections to older interpretations are offered. The text sample in question concerns the martyrdom of a young Copt, Bifām ibn Baqūra al-Ṣawwāf, during the imamate-caliphate of al-Mustanṣir Billāh (427/1036–487/1094). Throughout the paper, it is argued that narratives such as this, together with accounts of events belonging to the early Islamic period or even to pre-Islamic (Roman, Byzantine) history, are to be seen as emanating from the specific socio-cultural environment of the Coptic urban elite of the mid-Fatimid period.

© 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. This article analyzes reports about the capture and torture of the companion 'Amma¯r b. Ya¯sir and their later use in the exegesis of Kor 16, 106. It also shows why the reports were generated by different sectarian communities (Imami¯ Ši¯'ites, Zaydites, Murʇi'ites) in the different parts of the early Islamic empire (Kufa, Mecca, Medina, Basra, and Jazira) in the late first/seventh and early second/eighth centuries. Through a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the isna¯ds of reports, the article shows that it is possible to correlate information about the sectarian affiliations of reports' transmitters with the contents of the reports and in the process shows why different communities remembered and transmitted the specific forms of the reports that they did. The article shows how literary Islamic sources are susceptible to a much more granular historical analysis than previously assumed.

Despite the calamities of the fourteenth century, the Black Death, the disintegration of political power, and the destructive rivalry between North African and Andalusī rulers, the correspondence of two scholars and ministers, Ibn al-Khaṭīb and Ibn Khaldūn, reveals a network of intellectual contacts maintained above the fray. As Ibn al-Khaṭīb’s famous essay, the “Art of Being a Minister,” made clear, the intelligentsia saw itself as both within and above the political milieu. The conferring of diplomas from teacher to student was based as much on personal loyalty as on scholarship. In the same century, however, many members of the intellectual club, including Ibn Khaldūn and his teachers, complained that rulers limited the traditional freedoms of the scholars and ministers. Ibn Khaldūn articulated these moves as assaults on true scholarship. The intellectuals writing the history of the fourteenth-century Mediterranean were not simply agents of the rulers they worked for; rather, even as rivals they saw themselves as guardians in a family of letters, linked more by the ijāza than by blood. They were, or at least aspired to be, members of an intellectual class that transcended political and, sometimes, religious boundaries.

This article examines the ways in which Iranian mytho-history was woven into the narratives of Islamic history. It argues that the inclusion of narratives such as the ones that equate several of the earliest Iranian mytho-historical kings to the earliest Koranic prophets or claim that Persian was the language of the prophets from Ādam to Esmāʿil, reflects the concerns of theShoʿubiyamovement. The paper also analyzes the ways in which these Iranian kings are represented in theAvestaas paradigmatic rulers and how their essential function as good rulers is retained in the latermythosand, hence, texts so that they are equatable to the prophets. The paper argues that these narratives reflect not only a concern for equality among Iranians as Muslims, but also the ways in which intellectuals negotiated the interstitial spaces between culture and politics.

In Muslim Sanzijing, Roberta Tontini traces the history of Islam and Islamic law in China through a rigorous analysis of popular Chinese Islamic primers from the 18th to the 21st century.

Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī’s (d. 672/1274) Nasirean Ethics is the single most important work on philosophical ethics in the history of Islam. A fine example of medieval Persian-to-Arabic translation technique, this first edition carefully reproduces Middle Arabic elements that can be found throughout the text.

This article examines the career of the Turkish emir Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi, who was active across a wide region of the Middle East in the first half of the twelfth century. In so doing, it highlights important aspects of the Crusades and Counter-Crusade more widely during this period. It also analyses the presentation of al-Bursuqi in the historical chronicles which form the basis of studying the early twelfth century, in order to further understanding of the late-sixth/twelfth and early-seventh/thirteenth century societies in which they were written.

This article contends that the caliph al-Mutaim came to power as the result of Abbasid opposition to his predecessor al-Mamūn whose rule is generally considered the ‘Golden Age’ of the caliphate. This opposition had already started during the Civil War between al-Amīn and al-Mamūn and it continued during the latter’s reign after winning the Civil War. In the end, al-Mamūn was able to quell the opposition by accepting al-Mutaim, at a later stage, as a member of his own inner circle. Nevertheless, ultimately al-Mamūn’s reign ended in a victory for the anti-Mamūn wing of his family. With this change, the Mamūnite vision of a strong caliphal institution passed away and henceforth the Abbasid caliphate commenced its slow decline — confirmed later by the lack of an efficient central authority and the ensuing chaos. Thus, the collapse of the Abbasid dynasty-caliphate started much earlier — after the first three decades of the ninth century CE and not during the second half of that century, contrary to what most textbooks on Islamic history state.

While the ever more strongly felt presence of Muslims in western Europe has already stimulated numerous scholars of various social sciences to embark upon research on issues related to that presence, it is apparent that just a few studies and introductory text books have so far dealt with the evolution of Muslim communities in other parts of Europe, especially in countries of central, eastern, and northern Europe. Without appreciation of and comprehensive research into the more than six-hundred-year-long Muslim presence in the eastern Baltic rim the picture of the development of Islam and Muslim-Christian relations in Europe remains incomplete and even distorted. Therefore, this article argues for the necessity of approaching the history of Islam and Muslims in Europe from a different and ultimately more encompassing angle by including the minorities of Muslim cultural background that reside in the countries of the European part of the former Soviet Union—the Baltic states and Belarus. Besides arguing that it is necessary to reconsider and expand the research field in order to develop more profound studies of Islam and Muslims in Europe, the article also outlines suggestions as to why the Muslim history in the eastern Baltic rim has been generally excluded from the history of Islam in Europe.

From the time of the Qur'anic revelation (ca. 609–632 ce) up to the mid 11th century a problematic methodology of knowledge transmission dominated the discursive practices of early Muslim scholars. The methodology capitalized almost exclusively on isnad and narration for the transmission of the prophetic tradition despite widespread literacy in the urban centers of the Islamic world. The methodology was puzzling even for those scholars who practiced it as they offered different speculations about its origins. Finding their accounts wanting I proceed to propose an account for this methodology in terms of interpretive schemas that consist of three models: senso-somatic, cosmological, and epistemological. I show that the first model is composed of two sub-models: a dominant audiocentric model and a recessive ocularcentric model. I also show that the cosmological model is composed of two sub-models: the world of absence and the world of presence. The epistemological model is a propositional model parasitic on the first two models. The proposed analysis explicates these models to demonstrate two points: (1) the intra-model hierarchical structure and inter-models congruence and (2) the motivational force of these models in the persistence of the problematic methodology for more than three centuries despite extensive literacy.

The account of the 'Uthmānic mushaf of Córdoba, which passed from generation to generation across the western shores of Islam, has played a prominent role in the history of al-Andalus and the Maghrib. The prized codex appears throughout historiographical and literary discourses, stretching from the Hispano-Umayyad caliphate to the dynasty of the Banū Marīn in North Africa. Brought into battle against Christians and fellow Muslims, decorated with ornate coverings, and made into the object of countless panegyrics, the 'Uthmānic codex of al-Andalus offers a glimpse into a sustained network of meaning and power. The codex came symbolically to align successive Muslim dynasties to the early history of Islam. Drawing attention to the parallel phenomena of the furta sacra and the translatio of relics in medieval Christian tradition, this article explores the broader political, religious, and literary dimensions which silhouette the veneration toward the 'Uthmānic codex.

This article is a case study of an iconic symbol of Indonesian Islamization: the tombstones of al-Malik al-Sālih (d.696/1297 AD), believed to be the first Muslim Sultan of the polity of Samudra in Sumatra. The author questions the dominance of textualist approaches in Southeast Asian historical inquiry by applying the concept of the "integral cultural product"—in which text, visual content and material are equally important and interdependent. This fresh analysis suggests that al-Sālih's tombstones are actually later replacements for an older grave, so raising new questions about the construction of legitimacy and ancestry in early Islamic Southeast Asia. Cette contribution étudie un symbole de l'islamisation indonésienne: les pierres tombales d'al-Malik al-Sālih (décédé en l'an 696/1297 ap. J.-C.) réputé être le premier sultan musulman du royaume de Samudra à Sumatra. L'auteur conteste la dominance de la méthode textualiste dans les recherches historiques sur l'Asie du Sud-est en utilisant le concept de "produit culturel intégral": le texte, l'aspect extérieur et la matière, interdépendants, doivent être analysés globalement. Cette approche nouvelle suggère que les pierres tombales d'al-Malik al-Sālih seraient effectivement des substituts tardifs d'un tombeau plus ancien, ce qui soulève des interrogations sur la construction de la légitimité et de l'ascendance à l'aube de l'ère islamique en Asie du Sud-est.

Generally neglected by scholars of the history of oriental studies, Johann Heinrich Hottinger's Historia Orientalis (1651, 2nd ed. 1660) is one of the most significant contributions to the history of Islam to have been published in the seventeenth century. This article analyses Hottinger's interest in Islam and in Arabic sources across the range of his writings and his correspondence, with a special focus on the Historia Orientalis. It discusses the philological and antiquarian standards by which he assessed Arab history and it describes the numerous Islamic manuscripts he exploited. It also examines the manifold ways in which Hottinger used the Koran and other Islamic sources to corroborate his apologetic Protestant interpretation of Church history. It thus sheds a light on the impact that a combination of confessional commitment, antiquarianism, and philology had on the rise of oriental studies in seventeenth-century Europe.

South Asia is undoubtedly home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. The region has such a complex historical, ethnic, geopolitical, and economic dynamics that the fact that religion has been an essential element of South Asian cultures remains overlooked. Muslims are overwhelmingly linked with violence and terrorism, particularly in the West, in the post-9/11 scenario. Various nationalistic and religious standpoints have installed many ambiguities and misapprehensions about Muslims within and outside South Asia. Some of them are taken for granted without factual accuracy and pave the way to misleading interpretations of the history of Muslims in South Asia, the character of historical Muslims rulers, and the Pakistan Movement. Islamic Civilization in South Asia by Burjor Avari of Manchester Metropolitan University is particularly welcome to prompt an exploration of Muslims’ history in South Asia and to find answers to some of the most intriguing and complicated questions.

The study of Islam in Eritrea-the faith of approximately half of the country's population-is still in its infancy. Similar to other fields of scholarly inquiry regarding Eritrea, research on the history of Islam in the region has become more feasible only since the early 1990s as the newly independent state became accessible to researchers, both locally-based and foreign. It is therefore pressing that new written sources and specific case studies on Eritrea's Muslim societies and institutions see the light of day in order to add new layers to our understanding of the development of Islam in Eritrea and its role in Eritrean history.' This survey sketches an

Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī was a hugely influential figure in Syria, and particularly Damascus, in the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century. In addition to the main activities Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī was also known in his capacity as a writer, although in this regard he was not as prolific as others, as he seems to have written a maximum of only thirty known works, just five of which are extant. One of the more notable and controversial acts in his career was his 'conversion' from the Ḥanbalī school of Islamic law to the Ḥanafī, which occurred during the reign of al-Muʿaẓẓam ʿĪsā. From the modern perspective Miʾrāt al-zamān is Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī's most famous work, being an important source for any study of the history of Syria in the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century and, as will be seen, the history of the wider Islamic world in the fifth/tenth century. Keywords: al-Muʿaẓẓam ʿĪsā; Damascus; Miʾrāt al-zamān; Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī; Syria

The archaeological site of Quseir al-Qadim first attracted attention due to its location, the closest point from the Red Sea coast to the Nile valley, the route traversing the Wadi Hammamat, famed for its inscriptions and Roman stations. The periods of greatest prosperity came under Ayyūbid and Baḥrī Mamlūk rule, when artifacts testify to contacts with India, China, Syria, and even Tekrur. The author describes the "ladies of Quseir", he meant to consider the growing field of gender archaeology - namely, focused on the archaeological artifacts recovered from the Sheikh's house, and these tended to be viewed through the lens of the broad course of Islamic history - in particular, the great flourishing of commerce across the Indian Ocean. Li Guo noted that the correspondence between mother and son "sheds some light on the status and condition of women in the 'Sheikh's house'". Keywords: Ayyūbid; ladies of Quseir; Li Guo; Red Sea Coast; Sheikh Abū Mufarrij

This chapter shows that in addition to and simultaneously with his involvement in the administration as Honorary Advisor for Arab Affairs and a number of demanding polemics, Sayyid ʿUthman was able to write a large number of writings, both related to particular events and works of a more scholarly nature. Most of these writings were clearly meant to instruct and guide believers and do not contain new elements regarding the history of Islam in the Netherlands East Indies. However, as a reflection of Islam and Muslim life in the archipelago they are most interesting. Moreover, it appeared that Sayyid ʿUthman also published a number of works for commercial reasons and probably for a European or Europeanized audience, both in the Jawi and in Western script. These works are very few in number and the central focus of his work remained the providing of religious guidance to the Muslim community.Keywords: Arabic language; Islam; Muslim community; Netherlands East Indies; religious life; Sayyid ʿUthman

This study examines the establishment of Islam in colonial Natal, attempting to fill a void in and correct the existing historiography.1 In comparison with other parts of Africa, the lack of a historiographical tradition on Islamic South Africa is conspicuous, but understandable given that traditionally the impact and consequences of racial segregation occupied the attention of most historians. Although Islam is a minority religion in South Africa, apartheid has created an impression of population density not reflected in the census figures. According to the 1996 census, there were 553,585 Muslims in a total population of forty million.2 Indian Muslims make up one of the two largest sub-groups, the other being Malay¸.3 There are 246,433 Malay and 236,315 Indian Muslims.4 The majority of Indian Muslims are confined to KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, while most Malay Muslims live in the Western Cape. There is thus very little contact and interaction between them; indeed there are deep differences of history, culture, class and tradition. Muslims have played an important role in the social, economic and political life of the country. The many mosques that adorn the skylines of major South African cities are evidence that Islam has a living presence in South Africa, while the militant activities of the Cape-based People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) in the post-1994 period has ensured that Islam remains in the news. This study demonstrates that, apart from obvious differences between Indian and Malay Muslims, there are deep-seated differences among Indian Muslims. The diversity of tradition, beliefs, class, practices, language, region, and experience of migration has resulted in fundamental differences that have generated conflict.

The study of the waqf-the Islamic endowment institution-has always been part of the broad field of Islamic studies. However, for a long time the subject was rather marginal, attracting the interest of a relatively small number of students and scholars. By the end of the twentieth century this is certainly no longer true. In the past decade or two the study of the Islamic endowment institution has been making its way into the M.A. and even the B.A. curricula of university departments specializing in Islamic history and culture, and studies dealing with social and economic aspects of any of the regions of the Islamic world, particularly prior to the twentieth century, hardly ever neglect to include at least some reference to the waqf. It is the process which brought about this change of attitude towards the study of the waqf institution which concerns me here.

Over the last three decades, scholars have mined medieval apocalyptic literature for information about historical events. Although this has also been done for the Islamic apocalyptic literature, this article argues that the latter is better used to gain insight into pcople's responses to events rather than to chart the events themselves. This, in turn, allows us to better understand certain religious and political developments. For instance, the widespread fear and anxiety experienced by the early Muslim community, as evinced in the apocalyptic literature, appears to have led to the acceptance of the obligation, expressed in many Sunni creeds, to obey those in authority no matter how unjust they may be. The widespread acceptance of this quietist tenet is best understood as a response to the strife and discord that vexed the umma in the first centuries of Islamic history.

This chapter argues that Qipchaq Mamluk rule had a specific spatial fabric in that it was characterised by two simultaneous tendencies: a centripetal one that focussed on an imperial capital and several second-tier cities, driven by a 'centralist' orientation. Then, a centrifugal one related to the vast tracts of land beyond the urban-rural areas, but with a 'territorial' implication that nevertheless tied these outlying expanses back to the centre. Considering this set of spatial orientations together, it discusses how they interrelated and what were the consequent differences that emerged in comparison with previous patterns of spatial organisation. The chapter proposes that a simultaneous orientation towards the castle and the country, initiated by the Ayyubids and culminating under the Qipchaq Mamluks, typifies a new spatial pattern of rule in Islamic history that resulted in a high degree if integration. Keywords:Ayyubids; Castle; Country; Islam; Qipchaq Mamluk; spatial orientations

This chapter offers a brief survey of the topic with respect to illustrated Persian texts produced in the Mongol period in Iran. It focuses on two distinct types of work, the verse epic and the prose chronicle. The first is represented by the Shahnama (“Book of Kings”), by the poet Abu’l-Qasim Firdausi, completed in AD 1010. The second is represented by a number of narrative histories of Iran. The Shahnama covers only the pre-Islamic history of Iran, whereas the prose chronicles are “universal” histories, covering both ancient Iranian and Islamic history. The aim of the chapter is to discern the use of the past in the construction of an image of the Mongol ruler (Il-Khan), and articularly to what extent the pre-Islamic model derived from the Shahnama was actually influential. Keywords:Iran; Mongol period; royal image; Shahnama

Islam represents undoubtedly one of the largest monotheistic religions in the world. The history of Islam in Nigeria has witnessed the emergence of movements like Nasru-Lahil-Fatih (NASFAT), which tries to grapple with contemporary developments in a particular society while at the same time sustaining the original vision of the Qur'an. This chapter traces the historical development of NASFAT, exploring the factors behind its phenomenal growth. It also highlights NASFAT's objectives and the dynamics and strategies for realizing its set goals and objectives and the ways in which the Society's strategies can be considered as a means of religious expansion. Keywords:Islam; Nasru-Lahil-Fatih (NASFAT); Nigeria; Qur'an; religious expansion