John Esposito at the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service has just provided a unique website to chart the pace of islamophobia in the media,among the general public and in academe. Check out his new site here.
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Thinking About Tradition, Religion, and Politics in Egypt Today
by Talal Asad, Critical Inquiry
I have used the term “tradition†in my writings in two ways: first, as a theoretical location for raising questions about authority, time, language use, and embodiment; and second, as an empirical arrangement in which discursivity and materiality are connected through the minutiae of everyday living.[1] The discursive aspect of tradition is primarily a matter of linguistic acts passed down the generations as part of a form of life, a process in which one learns/relearns “how to do things with words,†sometimes reflectively and sometimes unthinkingly, and learns/relearns how to comport one’s body and how to feel in particular contexts. Embodied practices help in the acquisition of aptitudes, sensibilities, and propensities through repetition until such time as the language guiding practice becomes redundant. Through such practices one can change oneself—one’s physical being, one’s emotions, one’s language, one’s predispositions, as well as one’s environment. Tradition stands opposed both to empiricist theories of knowledge and relativist theories of justice. By this I mean first and foremost that tradition stresses embodied, critical learning rather than abstract theorization. Empiricist theories of knowledge assert the centrality of sensory experience and evidence, but in doing so they ignore the prior conceptualization carried by tradition. My sensory experience is incommensurable with yours. It is only through language (integral to a shared form of life), and the conceptualization that language makes possible, that we can develop argument and knowledge as collective processes. Critique is central to a living tradition; it is essential to how its followers assess the relevance of the past for the present, and the present for the future. It is also essential for understanding the nature of circumstance, and therefore the possibility of changing elements of circumstances that are changeable. Relativist theories of justice assert that “justice” is simply the name for the norms that actually guide and regulate a people’s form of life. And yet what other people consider to be justice is part of the circumstance that confront the followers of every living tradition. As such it constitutes a challenge to every critical tradition, an invitation to change contingent aspects of one’s tradition, or of the circumstances in which it is embedded, or both. This is not a challenge of abstract theories but of embodied (and yet criticizable) ways of life.
For the rest of this article, click here.
The Library of Congress has a very nice website with online resources regarding its collection of Near Eastern materials.
The online collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc is well worth checking out.
al-Qubba Husseiniya, a Shia shrine, being blown up in the city of Mosul.
Hollywood is known for creating absurd scenarios, especially with special effects of explosions and cars flying through the air. The real damage is done in war with bombs ripping apart buildings and bodies. And then there is the wanton destruction of buildings out of sheer hatred. The would-be caliphate that has taken nominal control of a large swathe of Syria and Iraq is an affront to everyone, including fellow Muslims in Syria and Iraq. There will be no new caliphate created out of such callous regard for human life and eventually the rebel leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi will follow Saddam Hussein to the netherworld. But the destruction in the meantime is mean indeed. In addition to the men gunned down in Mosul and elsewhere, bulldozers and bombs are destroying some of the splendid Iraqi shrines from the real caliphates. It is a sad day (far too many sad days, weeks, months and years) for Syria, Iraq, Muslims worldwide and the entire world. But the leader of ISIS cannot erase history, no matter how many shrines and mosques he blows up.
There is a new online resource on European humanism, available in English, Arabic and French. Here is the information about it:
Humanism is not simply a European phenomenon, product of the Renaissance. On the contrary, humanism, understood as both a philological science and a philosophical outlook, is found in all the cultures of the Mediterranean world, from its origins in Greek antiquity to its efflorescence in Quattrocento Italy and beyond. This postulate, explained in the introduction, is the basis of the Encyclopedia of Mediterranean Humanism. The ambition of this encyclopedia is to elucidate the diverse forms that this humanism has taken on in different contexts: classical Greek, Christian (oriental and Latin, patristic and post-patristic), Arabo-Islamic, Jewish, etc. The Encyclopedia offers, under the guidance of its editorial board, a collection of substantial articles which examine the concepts, themes, representations and notions which permeate the texts produced in these different cultures. It is hence not simply a dictionary with multiple entries on diverse topics, but also a real synthesis which presents the meaning and importance of Mediterranean Humanism by grounding it in history and by emphasizing its convergences, without hiding its divergences.
بعيدا عن أن تكون قد ظهرت ÙÙŠ عصر النهضة أوأن تكون إمتيازا مقتصرا على أوروبا ÙˆØدها، الأنسنة ÙÙŠ بعديها المعرÙÙŠ الÙيلولوجي والÙلسÙÙŠØŒ تَعْبÙر كل ثقاÙات الÙضاء المتوسطي، إنطلاقا من أصولها ÙÙŠ العصر اليوناني القديم، وصولا إلى ازدهارها ÙÙŠ إيطالية القرن الخامس عشر، وما بعده. هذه المسلمة -Ù…Ùصلة ÙÙŠ المدخل العام-ØŒ هي أصل موسوعة الانسنة المتوسطية التي ØªØ·Ù…Ø Ø¥Ù„Ù‰ ØªÙˆØ¶ÙŠØ Ù…Ø®ØªÙ„Ù Ø§Ù„Ù†Ù…Ø§Ø°Ø¬ التي إكتستها: ÙÙŠ السياق الإغريقي، المسيØÙŠ سواء كان كهنوتيا أو شرقيا ولاتيني، عربي اسلامي، عبري إلخ. تØت اشرا٠هيئة تØرير مختصة، توÙر هذه الموسوعة مجموعة مقالات معمقة، تعالج كل المصطلØات، المواضيع، التصورات، المÙاهيم التي وظÙت ÙÙŠ إنتاج نصوص هذه الثقاÙات المختلÙØ©. ليست مجرد معجم موسوعي بسيط ÙŠØتوي مداخل أعلام Ùقط، كما هو معتاد غالبا ÙÙŠ العمل الموسوعي، ولكنها جامع Øقيقي ÙŠÙ…Ù†Ø ÙƒÙ„ دلالته وانسجامه للأنسنة المتوسطية، من خلال دمجها ÙÙŠ التاريخ، والتنبيه إلى ما يجمعها دون إهمال ما ÙŠÙرقها.
International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2014: “Frankenstein in Baghdad”
Beyond good and evil
Ahmed Saadawi’s novel “Frankenstein in Baghdad” has won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.
Khaled Hroub presents the book, from Qantara.de
Turning the final page of Ahmed Saadawi’s novel “Frankenstein in Bagdad”, the reader’s head is full of questions: who is really the monster of Bagdad? Who created it? What does it consist of and why is it so tenacious, costing so many innocent lives? Easy, generalising answers might be: the invasion of Iraq, confessionalism, politicians and their interests …
But such banal responses simplify the situation too much, for they would mean seeing only criminals and innocents in the brutality of Iraq’s daily events.
In real life, the situation in Iraq is bitterer than any black-and-white portrayal could render. Saadawi does away with such good/evil dichotomies and counters them with a dismal reality in which simplified notions soon melt away. Neither is innocence entirely innocent, nor is crime absolute.
A monster made of severed body parts
Shesma, the monster of Baghdad, is made up of body parts of innocent victims. This new play on Frankenstein’s monster goes on a mission that initially appears clear and righteous – despite its brutality – but soon comes to seem ambivalent and sacrilegious. Continue reading Frankenstein in Baghdad
