Category Archives: Scholars

Camels in Vienna

Animals, Anthropology/Sociology, Archaeology and Antiquities, camels, Conferences and Talks, Languages, Plants, Scholars


Today I am leaving for Vienna and the forthcoming “Camels in Asia and North Africa
Interdisciplinary workshop” to be held Tuesday & Wednesday 5-6 October, 2010 at the
Austrian Academy of Sciences, AAS, Dr.-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna. If you have an interest in any aspect of camels and are near Vienna, Austria, you might want to join in.

Here are the details, also available in pdf from the website.

This workshop aims at a comprehensive discussion on Old World camels (Dromedary and Bactrian camel) including the following topics:
• Origin and domestication
• Conservation of the wild Bactrian camel
• Veterinary folk medicine
• Socio-economic significance: Breeding, caring, trading
• Art: Petroglyphs, poetry and music
• History and Symbolism of camels in Asia and Austria
These issues will be addressed by scholars from the natural sciences as well as from the social sciences and humanities Continue reading Camels in Vienna →

On Professor Mohammed Arkoun

Algeria, Islam and Christianity, Islam in Europe, Islam: Introduction, Qur'an, Scholars


Professor Mohammed Arkoun: A Courageous Intellectual Who Advocated A Tolerant, Liberal and Modern Islam

Simerg, September 18, 2010

Algerian born scholar Mohammed Arkoun (February 1, 1928 – September 14, 2010) was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies and also a member of its Board of Governors, which is chaired by His Highness the Aga Khan

In a tribute to the Algerian Islamic scholar Mohammed Arkoun, who died at the age of 82 in Paris, France, on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, Algeria’s Minister of Culture, Khalida Toumi, said that Professor Arkoun “believed in dialogue between cultures and civilizations of which he was an ardent activist” and “his sincerity and dedication to bringing people and religions together have made him a true messenger of peace and harmony between different societies.” In her condolence message she also stated that he was “the author of books in the field of critical thinking who taught in the most prestigious universities of the East and the West.”

Amongst his peers around the world, Professor Arkoun was regarded as one of the most influential scholars in Islamic studies contributing to contemporary Islamic reform. Continue reading On Professor Mohammed Arkoun →

Mohamed Arkoun passes away

Islam in Europe, Scholars

L’islamologue Mohamed Arkoud est mort

Le Monde, September 15, 2010

Le professeur Mohamed Arkoun, grand islamologue, est mort mardi 14 septembre à Paris à l’âge de 82 ans, a annoncé le “curé des Minguettes” Christian Delorme, qui était un de ses proches. Il était professeur émérite d’histoire de la pensée islamique à la Sorbonne et un des initiateurs du dialogue interreligieux.

Mohammed Arkoun était né en 1928 à Taourit-Mimoun, petit village de Kabylie, dans un milieu très modeste. Après avoir fréquenté l’école primaire de son village, il avait fait ses études secondaires chez les Pères blancs à Oran, puis avait étudié la littérature arabe, le droit, la philosophie et la géographie à l’Université d’Alger. Grâce à l’intervention du professeur Louis Massignon, rappelle Christian Delorme, il a pu préparer l’agrégation en langue et littérature arabes à la Sorbonne. Il a enseigné ensuite dans plusieurs universités puis en 1980, il a été nommé professeur à la Sorbonne-Nouvelle – Paris III, y enseignant l’histoire de la pensée islamique. Là, il a développé une discipline : l’islamologie appliquée. Continue reading Mohamed Arkoun passes away →

On al-Kindi

Books You Should Read, Islam: Introduction, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Scholars

[Note: The following is a lengthy review of a recent book on the Muslim philosopher al-Kindi from the website Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Check out the website for accessible and useful reviews of recent books on philosophy.].

Peter Adamson
Al-Kindī

Peter Adamson, Al-Kindī, Oxford University Press, 2007, 272pp., $40.00 (pbk), ISBN 9780195181432.

Reviewed by Daniel Davies, Clare Hall, Cambridge for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews,May, 2009

Al-KindÄ« is widely known as the first of the Islamic philosophers. In ninth century Baghdad he gathered around himself a circle that was highly active in translating the Greek sciences into Arabic. As well as being the first of the Arab philosophers Al-KindÄ« is now the first of the Arab philosophers to be included in the Great Medieval Thinkers series. Al-KindÄ« was expert in a vast array of scientific disciplines and in this book Peter Adamson concentrates on the philosophical topics on which Al-KindÄ« wrote, as is appropriate for the series: metaphysics; ethics; psychology; medicine; cosmology. One of the many virtues of the book is that it focuses on elucidating the philosophical arguments themselves, in a way that is both sympathetic and critical, rather than only seeking their provenance or tracing their after-effects. Certainly, al-KindÄ« has long been recognised as a creative and voluminous writer, though, until now, the extent and nature of his originality had yet to be mapped. Adamson shows that al-KindÄ« deserves a place amongst the great philosophers in his own right and not only because of the pervading presence of his work in later Islamic and Arabic thought. Continue reading On al-Kindi →

Is there one “Islam” or many “islams”?

Anthropology/Sociology, Islam: Introduction, Scholars


Riyadiya Mosque, Lamu

The essential problem in the study of Islam is precisely that: essentialist reduction of a diverse religious tradition across cultures into an ideal essence. In a provocative article published three decades ago, Muslim anthropologist Abdul Hamid el-Zein wondered in print “if a single true Islam exists at all.” (1) This was not an attempt to dismiss the faith of Islam, but a challenge to scholars who blithely assume the existential ‘truth’ of concepts. “But what if…” asked el-Zein, analysis of Islam “were to begin from the assumption that ‘Islam,’ ‘economy,’ ‘history,’ ‘religion’ and so on do not exist as things or entities with meaning inherent in them, but rather as articulations of structural relations, and are the outcome of these relations and not simply a set of positive terms from which we start our studies?” (2) If so, he reasoned, it would do no good to start with a textbook version of the five pillars, a famous scholar such as Ibn Khaldun, or a Western sociologist like Max Weber, because all this is what Islam is supposed to be. For el-Zein, true to his anthropological roots, it was important to start with the “native’s model of Islam” as it is articulated in a given social context. This is not because the native is “right,” a nonsensical term for non-theologian el-Zein, but in order to see how Muslims adapt what analysts call “religion” to everyday life. Continue reading Is there one “Islam” or many “islams”? →

Hammering home Oriental Studies

Orientalism, Scholars


One of the fundamental early attempts to establish Oriental Studies on sound academic footing was Josef von Hammer-Purgstall’s Fundgraben des Orients, established in 1809. It is a pity that in his Orientalism (1978) Edward Said ignored early texts like this, since this was far more influential than many of the prejudicial books he rightly critiques. Rather than dismissing all Western writing about an “Orient” for which accurate information was just coming together, it is relevant to look at the intention of this particular effort. Here is how von Hammer-Purgstall explains the project:

We feel that it is our task to show the true path for the improvement of Oriental Studies, thereby applying the meaning behind our motto: “Say, unto God belongeth the east and the west: He directeth whom He pleaseth into the right way.” Thus all of those in the West who gaze at the East, and vice versa, will meet here, helping each other to extract from the raw mine treasures of knowledge and learning.

Quote from Ziad Elmarsafy, The Enlightenment Qur’an: The Politics of Translation and the Construction of Islam (Oxford: Oneworld), 2009, pp. 170

Voltaire on Islam

Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia, Scholars


For many Muslims the name Voltaire is one held in anathema. His rationalism is not the issue, but he is forever scarred as the author of a play in which Mahomet is the icon of fanaticism. While it is obvious that the real target of the play was Catholicism and not Islam, the mere fact that Muhammad becomes the scapegoat is a difficult trope to accept for quite a few Muslims. But Voltaire often praised Islam in contrast to the blood-crazed Christianity of his day. Consider the following comment:

The legislator of the Muslims, a powerful and terrible man, established his dogmas with his arms and courage; however his religion became indulgent and tolerant. The divine institutor of Christianity, living in peace and humility, preached pardon, and his holy, sweet religion became, through our fury, the most intolerant and barbaric of all.

Continue reading Voltaire on Islam →

Islam’s Beginnings

Books You Should Read, Islamic History, Scholars

Islam’s beginnings

Mohammed’s early movement was a surprisingly big tent, says historian Fred M. Donner

By Thanassis Cambanis, The Boston Globe, May 2, 2010

The first followers of Christ didn’t consider themselves ’’Christians’’; they were Jews who believed that a fellow Jew named Jesus Christ was the long-awaited messiah. It took centuries for Christianity to evolve and solidify as a distinct faith with its own doctrine and institutions.

In ’’Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam,’’ University of Chicago historian Fred M. Donner wants to provide a similar back story for Islam — a religion which, in the popular imagination, sprang wholly formed from the seventh-century sands of Arabia. Mohammed preached at the juncture of the Roman and Sassanian empires, winning support from Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and various deist polytheists. According to Donner, Mohammed built a movement of devout spiritualists from many faiths who shared a few core beliefs: God was one, the end of the world was near, and the truly religious had to live exemplary lives rather than merely pay lip service to God’s laws. It was only a century after Mohammed founded his ’’community of believers” and launched the great Islamic conquest that his followers started to define their beliefs as a distinct religious faith. Continue reading Islam’s Beginnings →