Historical Dimensions of Islam: Pre-Modern and Modern Periods
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Description
This Festschrift consists of twelve chapters first delivered as papers forming the foundations of these chapters at a special conference in honor of Professor Humphreys, which took place in October 2007 at the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota. These chapters were written as a tribute to Professor Humphreys by twelve of his former graduate students and reflect the broad chronological and disciplinary scope of Professor Humphreys teaching and erudition. In geographical range, they stretch from Morocco to the Punjab; in time from the ancient Near East to the present; and in approach from hard-core political analysis to post-modernist and post-colonialist discourse. The chapters by Lindsay, Sizgorich, and Bigelow reflect on the persistent power of sacred figures in Islamic societies and the apparently disparate ways in which these figures manifest sanctity, as well as the complex political roles they play both ideologically and in everyday life. Cory's chapter on the ruined al-Bad palace of the Sa d sultans in Marrakesh is illustrated by exquisite color photos and diagrams, and Stockdale shows how art transmutes the tangible present into the mystical realm of an imagined past. The contributions of Jones, Hoffman, Keaney, and Armajani explore the ways in which Muslims have constructed their past and how Muslims draw on the past in order to define who they are as Muslims, while Khalid discusses the issues as Muslim reformers and modernists in Bukhara struggled to build their societies along lines both modern and Islamic, between the end of Czarist rule and the imposition of the Soviet system. Finally, there is the world of power politics to reconcile with the lofty ideals of justice that are explored in the contributions of Howes (in examining a medieval Islamic polity that strove to define earthly rule in transcendent terms) and Darling, who explores the metaphors of social harmony. The final chapter, Thoughts in Retrospect by Professor Humphreys, stands as an eloquent commentary on the contributions by his former students
ISBN
9780878501908
Publication Date
2009
Publisher
Darwin Press
City
Princeton, NJ
Disciplines
History of Religions of Eastern Origins
Recommended Citation
Lindsay, James E., and Jon Armajani. Historical Dimensions of Islam: Pre-Modern and Modern Periods. Princeton, N.J.: Darwin Press, 2009.
Comments
James E. Lindsay and Jon Armajani are editors of and contributors to this volume.