Worldwide Association for the Study of Religion

Anthropology/Sociology, Bible and Holy Land, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islam in Europe, Islam: Introduction, Judaism, Scholars, Sufism


Whatever you think about “religion,” you must admit that “religion” is not something that can be avoided. There are countries where a person has little choice but to accept the dominant religion imposed and there are places where one can shop for religion more easily than clothes. As an anthropologist I accept the fact not only that we have evolved (even if Darwin did not start a religion) and that all members of Homo sapiens that have been encountered and studied have something that deserves to be called “religion,” even if only in the minimalist sense of Victorian Quaker Edward Tylor that religion is at bottom a belief in spirits. There are many religions out there and several important scholarly organizations devoted to the study of religion in one way or another, but add a new one to the mix.

Anthropologist Gabriele Marranci, founder of the journal Contemporary Islam, has formed the Worldwide Association for the Study of Religion (WASR perhaps for those who like acronyms) If you do not have a Facebook account, join the Wiki.

This group is open to scholars studying religion or with an interest in religion and aims to develop a worldwide association accessible to any scholar or student wherever they might live. This is a working group to develop ideas and the structure for this new association, which aims also to remove the gap between scholars working in developing countries and those in the West. This group is open to scholars studying religion or with an interest in religion and aims to develop a worldwide association accessible to any scholar or student wherever they might live. As scholars the goal of the association to study religion in all its forms and not to lobby for any particular religion or even for the absence of religion. This is a working group to develop ideas and the structure for this new association, which aims also to remove the gap between scholars working in developing countries and those in the West.

As Marranci notes, his effort is not to replace organizations like the American Academy of Religion, but to expand the network of scholars who study religion worldwide. With the Internet and Skype, scholars are no longer captive to meeting colleagues at professional meetings, important as these remain. Feel free to join today and tell your friends.

On Facebook; you can request joining (which is free) by clicking here. You can also join via the Wiki.

Islamic Manuscripts at Cambridge

Calligraphy, Islamic History, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Miniatures, Teaching Resources


The Cambridge Digital Library now has online access to some of their Islamic manuscripts. Details below, as described on the website:

Cambridge University Library’s collection of Islamic manuscripts dates from the origins of Arabic scholarship in Cambridge in the 1630s when the University founded a Professorship in Arabic and William Bedwell donated a Qur’an to the Library. Since that time the collection has grown in size and diversity to over 5,000 works, including the collections of Thomas Erpenius, J.L.Burckhardt, E.H.Palmer and E.G. Browne. These manuscripts shed light on many aspects of the Islamic world, its beliefs and learning.

The collection was further enriched over the centuries through the activities of scholarly collectors and skilled librarians, adding more depth to the already impressive range of manuscripts. Yet this extraordinary collection has remained relatively unknown outside Cambridge. Now we hope to draw better attention to its treasures through cataloguing and digitisation. We have collaborated with the Bodleian at Oxford and other research libraries to provide an online catalogue of the collection. We will be offering a selection of digitised manuscripts through the Foundations project and will seek funding for further digitisation. Continue reading Islamic Manuscripts at Cambridge →

Tabsir Redux: A Candid[e] View of an Honest Turk

Literature, Orientalism, Ottoman Empire, Scholars, Turkey

[One of the great moral tales of the 18th century is Voltaire’s (1759) Candide, a book well worth reading and rereading from time to time. Here is an excerpt from the end of the book, but it is not Orientalism in the Saidian sense of negative portrayal; indeed it is the honest Turk which stands in contrast to tyrants of all stripes.]

During this conversation, news was spread abroad that two viziers of the bench and the mufti had just been strangled at Constantinople, and several of their friends impaled. This catastrophe made a great noise for some hours. Pangloss, Candide, and Martin, as they were returning to the little farm, met with a good-looking old man, who was taking the air at his door, under an alcove formed of the boughs of orange trees. Pangloss, who was as inquisitive as he was disputative, asked him what was the name of the mufti who was lately strangled.

“I cannot tell,” answered the good old man; “I never knew the name of any mufti, or vizier breathing. I am entirely ignorant of the event you speak of; I presume that in general such as are concerned in public affairs sometimes come to a miserable end; and that they deserve it: but I never inquire what is doing at Constantinople; I am contented with sending thither the produce of my garden, which I cultivate with my own hands.” Continue reading Tabsir Redux: A Candid[e] View of an Honest Turk →

Best of the Blogs

"Arab Spring", CyberOrient, Journalism and Media, Teaching Resources


Cartoon source: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/blog-website-faceoff/

Bassam Gergi and Mazen Zoabi unroll their guide to the Arabic blogosphere

Open Democracy, 12/30/11

Jadaliyya aims to shape the debate in the west by providing a window into regional scholarship and knowledge. Where others see data points, they see “living communities and dynamic societies.” The site currently publishes posts in both Arabic and English.

Mamfakinch is run by a group of young Moroccan activists who founded the #Feb20 movement calling for broad political, economic and social change. It aims to highlight information often ignored or distorted by official media sources. The site currently publishes posts in French, Arabic and English.

Nawaat, which means ‘the core’, was created to provide a platform for Tunisian bloggers and cyber-activists. It played a critical role in the Tunisian uprising and recognises that the “conquest of freedom is a battle to be fought every day. It currently publishes posts both in French and Arabic. Continue reading Best of the Blogs →

A Buick in Kabul

Afghanistan, Journalism and Media, Orientalism, Photography, Travel


One of the most famous round-the-world journalists of the last century (or any century) was Lowell Thomas, most known for his blockbuster show on “Lawrence of Arabia.” In 1922 Thomas traveled to Afghanistan and visited the Emir Amanullah. A digital archive of 73 photographs from that trip is available online at Harvard University. Here are pictures of Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan from 90 years ago. Several of the photographs show the American Buick that Thomas drove for his visit. If you happen to be old car buff and interested in Afghanistan, this will be a visual feast.


Continue reading A Buick in Kabul →

The Islamists are coming, the Islamists are coming

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Terrorism Issue


The Arab Spring has morphed into the pundits’ pandering about Islamism. An example, and there are many to choose from in the current political orgy of right-wing rhetoric, is in a New York Times op-ed by John M. Owen IV. It seems that when Muslims elect representatives who are Muslim they must be a new species called “Islamists.” Yes, throughout the Middle East, where the dominant religion happens to be Islam and there happen to be many forms of Islam, there is a strong interest in electing leaders who espouse religious values. In part this is due to decades of dictators who barely gave lip service to Islam and did all in their power to demonize those Muslims who opposed them. But just look at the current GOP field of candidates and tell me that voting on religious values is somehow unique to Muslims. Do read what Owens writes and then my reasons for being critical of this Islamist hunting…

Why Islamism Is Winning
By JOHN M. OWEN IV, The New York Times, January 6, 2012

EGYPT’S final round of parliamentary elections won’t end until next week, but the outcome is becoming clear. The Muslim Brotherhood will most likely win half the lower house of Parliament, and more extreme Islamists will occupy a quarter. Secular parties will be left with just 25 percent of the seats.

Islamism did not cause the Arab Spring. The region’s authoritarian governments had simply failed to deliver on their promises. Though Arab authoritarianism had a good run from the 1950s until the 1980s, economies eventually stagnated, debts mounted and growing, well-educated populations saw the prosperous egalitarian societies they had been promised receding over the horizon, aggrieving virtually everyone, secularists and Islamists alike.

The last few weeks, however, have confirmed that a revolution’s consequences need not follow from its causes. Rather than bringing secular revolutionaries to power, the Arab Spring is producing flowers of a decidedly Islamist hue. More unsettling to many, Islamists are winning fairly: religious parties are placing first in free, open elections in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. So why are so many Arabs voting for parties that seem politically regressive to Westerners?

The West’s own history furnishes an answer. From 1820 to 1850, Europe resembled today’s Arab world in two ways. Both regions experienced historic and seemingly contagious rebellions that swept from country to country. And in both cases, frustrated people in many nations with relatively little in common rallied around a single ideology — one not of their own making, but inherited from previous generations of radicals. Continue reading The Islamists are coming, the Islamists are coming →

When Yemeni springs stop flowing…

Development, Environment, Yemen


غيول» اليمن تموت استنزافاً

عمر الحيان
المصدر أونلاين – الحياة

January 5, 2012

تعدّ الأنهار، أو الغيول كما يسميها اليمنيون، الشرايين الحيوية للموارد المائية في اليمن، فأرض اليمن هبة الغيول، مثلما مصر هبة النيل. ومنذ آلاف السنين اعتمدت الحضارات اليمنية المتعاقبة على جريان الغيول في الأودية، وعلى ضفافها شيّد الإنسان اليمني حضارته وأقام جنات سبأ ومعين.

ومقارنة بشبه الجزيرة العربية، أضفت الطبيعة الجبلية وكمية المتساقطات والمدرجات الخضراء طوال العام جمالاً وغنى على اليمن، ما جعل الأوروبيين يطلقون عليها لقب الأرض السعيدة. لكن الوضع اليوم مختلف، إذ تربض العاصمة صنعاء فوق حوضها المائي المهدد بالنضوب سنة 2025، وفقاً لدراسة أجراها مشروع إدارة حوض صنعاء، لتصبح أول عاصمة في العالم بلا مياه ربما بحلول سنة 2017.

مدينة صنعاء، الواقعة على ارتفاع 2150 متراً فوق سطح البحر، والمتربعة على قاع منبسط تحيط به الجبال من كل الجهات، كانت قبل أربعين عاماً منبعاً للغيول التي يعتمد عليها السكان في الشرب والزراعة، ولعلّ أشهرها الغيل الأسود الذي ينبع من شمال صنعاء.

تغيّرت ملامح المدينة، واندثرت الأراضي الزراعية تحت مباني الأسمنت المتمددة في كل الاتجاهات، مع ارتفاع عدد سكانها إلى نحو مليون وخمسمائة ألف نسمة، يعتمدون على الآبار الجوفية للحصول على مياه للشرب وللأعمال الإنشائية والصناعية والزراعية. وقد أصبح في سجلات أمانة العاصمة نحو 16 ألف بئر، بعمق بات يتجاوز 1000 متر.

يحكي الحاج حسين علي، من أهالي صنعاء، أنها كانت تعتمد على الغيول والآبار اليدوية التي لا يتجاوز عمقها عشرة أمتار. ويشرح بحسرة كيف جفت آبار صنعاء القديمة بعد «مشروع السائلة»، الذي رصف مجرى السيول وسط العاصمة.

Continue reading When Yemeni springs stop flowing… →