Academic literature on the topic 'Arabo-Muslim culture'

By the seventeenth century, Arabo-Persian scholarship in China had adopted elements from Muslim and Chinese book cultures and synthesized them into a new form of scholarship, attested by the hundreds of Arabo-Persian manuscripts extant in repositories in China and around the world and the hundred of copies of printed Chinese works on Islamic themes. This article surveys the history of Chinese participation in Muslim book culture, beginning with a review of the history and general features of texts, in terms of their language and period of composition. The second part of the article provides a more nuanced analysis of texts that circulated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries throughout China, on the study of Arabo-Persian languages. These linguistic aids and primers of Arabic and Persian highlight the way in which these texts were read and interpreted, in turn, providing meaningful insight into the foundation of China’s intellectual engagement with the Islamicate world.

AbstractAfter giving a synthesis about a possible semiotics of the body and its conditions, we will deal with the question of the semiosis of the body in sexual literature in two periods of the arabo-muslim culture. The first period concerns the second century of hegira (the eightieth century), a decisive period of young and already powerful arabo-muslim society. Through Al Jahiz’s works, a very busy and prolific writer, we will study different discourses on the body, notably on homosexuality, heterosexuality and the opposition between black and white bodies. The second example constitutes an occasion for us to grasp the evolution of the semiosis of the body in a new period and with a specific writer who is Al Soyouté, a scholar of the sixteenth century. We will focus particularly on Al Soyouté’s new ideas on the body and his original references to the Greek corpus, but also to the traditions of Coran and Hadith.

AbstractThis article investigates the Arabic tradition of the Problemata Mechanica, a Greek text of mechanics ascribed to Aristotle, of which it has often been said that Arabic classical culture had been ignorant of it. Against this prevailed claim, it is shown that the Arabo-Muslim scholars had access to the text at least in the form of an abridged version entitled Nutaf min al-iyal edited by al-Khāzinī (twelfth century) in Kitāb mīzān al-ikma (Book of the Balance of Wisdom). The article includes the critical edition of the Arabic text of the Nutaf on the basis of the two extant manuscripts and its English translation. Finally, the mechanical theory in the Nutaf is characterized briefly.

فلسفة الأخلاق والقيم، عبد الوهاب جعفر، الإسكندرية: دار الوفاء لدنيا الطباعة والنشر، 2013م، 267 صفحة. الإنسان ومكانته في فلسفة هارتمان الأخلاقية، محمود سيد أحمد، الكويت: مكتبة آفاق، 2013م، 200 صفحة. التلمود البابلي، الأردن: مركز دراسات الشرق الأوسط، 2012م، 20 مجلد، 7100 صفحة. التلمود: الذكر، الصلاة، الدعاء، تفسير الأحلام، ليلى إبراهيم أبو المجد وعلاء تيسير أحمد، القاهرة: مكتبة مدبولي، 2011م، 529 صفحة. الدِّين والسياسة والأخلاق.. مباحث فلسفية في السياقين الإسلامي والغربي، السيد ولد أباه، بيروت: دار جداول، 2014م، 312 صفحة. كيف لم أَعُدْ يهودياً: وجهة نظر إسرائيلية، شلومو ساند، ترجمة: أنطوان شلحت، رام الله:مدار- المركز الفلسطيني للدراسات الإسرائيلية، 2014م، 124 صفحة. ماذا فعل الإسلاملنا، تيم ولاس ميرفي، ترجمة: فؤاد عبد المطلب، بيروت: دار جداول، 2014م، 264 صفحة. بحثاً عن المقدَّس.. البعث والأصولية، حمود حمود، بيروت: دار جداول، 2014م، 336 صفحة. Islamic Ethics: Divine Command Theory in Arabo-Islamic Thought (Culture and Civilization in the Middle East), Mariam al-Attar, Routledge, Reprinted Edition, November 2012, 220 pages. Living the Ethics and Morality of Islam: How to Live As A Muslim, Ali Unal, Tughra Books, February, 2013, 226 pages. Mircea Eliade: Myth, Religion, and History, Nicolae Babuts (Editor), Transaction Publishers, April 2014, 223 pages. Mircea Eliade: From Magic to Myth (After Spirituality: Studies in Mystical Traditions), Moshe Idel Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, Second edition, March July 2014, 284 pages. The Wisdom of the Talmud: a Thousand Years of Jewish Thought, Ben Zion Bokser, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, September 2014, 218 pages. The Jewish Position on Other Religions, Sina Cohen, S Research Publications, March 2013, 102 pages. Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife: Eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam [3 volumes], J. Harold Ellens (Editor), Praeger, July 2013, 838 pages. God and Logic in Islam: The Caliphate of Reason, John Walbridge, Cambridge University Pres, September 2013, 228 pages. A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-Faith World: A Philosophy for Success through Education, Matthew L.N. Wilkinson, UK- Routledge , November 4, 2014, 304 pages. Islamic Ethics and Moral Philosophy in the Global Business Environment, Shahina Qureshi, USA- Idea Group, (September 30, 2014), 339 pages. Ethics in Islam: Friendship in the Political Thought of Al-Tawhidi and his Contemporaries,Nuha Al-Shaar, Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, 304 pages. The Cry of the Conscious Behind the Religion: A Book about Facts and High Thoughts, Utthor Purush, XLIBRIS, July 29, 2014, 272 pages. للحصول على كامل المقالة مجانا يرجى النّقر على ملف ال PDF في اعلى يمين الصفحة.

Sh. Marjani’s seven- volume handwritten work “Wafi yat al-aslaf” is an encyclopedic dictionary devoted to the 6057 famous Muslim scholars, writers, philosophers, dignitaries, rulers etc. since the 7th century B. C. Marjani himself considered “Wafi yat al-aslaf” as his main work. The text is nothing but compilation, while the most scholarly interesting content concerns the Turkic world of the 17–19th centuries (Volga- Ural Region, Central Asia, Caucasus, Crimea). The original treatment of rich material of Muslim culture as well as author’s assessment of certain historical facts and events demonstrate, Marjani is not only a highly educated theologian, but also an erudite and talented scholar and enlightener. The academic value of the encyclopedia consists in its ability to shed light on the Marjani’s worldview, which is manifested in his selection of historical fi gures and in mode of description of their life and works.

Abstract This study presents and intellectual- and literary-historically contextualizes a remarkable but as yet unpublished treatise by Ibn Turka (d. 1432), foremost occult philosopher of Timurid Iran: the Munāẓara-yi bazm u razm. As its title indicates, this ornate Persian work, written in 1426 in Herat for the Timurid prince-calligrapher Bāysunghur (d. 1433), takes the form of a literary debate, a venerable Arabo-Persian genre that exploded in popularity in the post-Mongol period. Yet it triply transgresses the bounds of its genre, and doubly marries Arabic-Mamluk literary and imperial culture to Persian-Timurid. For here Ibn Turka recasts the munāẓara as philosophical romance and the philosophical romance as mirror for princes, imperializing the razm u bazm and sword vs. pen tropes within an expressly lettrist framework, making explicit the logic of the coincidentia oppositorum (majmaʿ al-aḍdād) long implicit in the genre in order to ideologically weaponize it. For the first time in the centuries-old Arabo-Persian munāẓara tradition, that is, wherein such debates were often rhetorically but never theoretically resolved, Ibn Turka marries multiple opposites in a manner clearly meant to be instructive to his Timurid royal patron: he is to perform the role of Emperor Love (sulṭān ʿishq), transcendent of all political-legal dualities, avatar of the divine names the Manifest (al-ẓāhir) and the Occult (al-bāṭin). This lettrist mirror for Timurid princes is thus not simply unprecedented in Persian or indeed Arabic literature, a typical expression of the ornate literary panache and genre-hybridizing proclivities of Mamluk-Timurid-Ottoman scientists of letters, and index of the burgeoning of Ibn ʿArabian-Būnian lettrism in late Mamluk Cairo; it also serves as key to Timurid universalist imperial ideology itself in its formative phase – and consciously epitomizes the principle of contradiction driving Islamicate civilization as a whole. To show the striking extent to which this munāẓara departs from precedent, I provide a brief overview of the sword vs. pen subset of that genre; I then examine our text’s specific political-philosophical and sociocultural contexts, with attention to Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī’s (d. 1274) Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī and Jalāl al-Dīn Davānī’s (d. 1502) Akhlāq-i Jalālī on the one hand – which seminal Persian mirrors for princes assert, crucially, the ontological-political primacy of love over justice – and the Ẓafarnāma of Sharaf al-Dīn Yazdī (d. 1454), Ibn Turka’s student and friend, on the other. In the latter, much-imitated history Amir Temür (r. 1370‒1405) was definitively transformed, on the basis of astrological and lettrist proofs, into the supreme Lord of Conjunction (ṣāḥib-qirān); most notably, there Yazdī theorizes the Muslim world conqueror as historical manifestation of the coincidentia oppositorum – precisely the project of Ibn Turka in his Debate of Feast and Fight. But these two ideologues of Timurid universal imperialism and leading members of the New Brethren of Purity network only became such in Mamluk Cairo, where lettrism (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) was first sanctified, de-esotericized and adabized; I accordingly invoke the overtly occultist-neopythagoreanizing ethos specific to the Mamluk capital by the late 14th century, especially that propagated at the court of Barqūq (r. 1382‒1399). For it is this Cairene ethos, I argue, that is epitomized by our persophone lettrist’s munāẓara, which it effectively timuridizes. To demonstrate the robustness of this Mamluk-Timurid ideological-literary continuity, I situate the Munāẓara-yi bazm u razm within Ibn Turka’s own oeuvre and imperial ideological program, successively developed for the Timurid rulers Iskandar Sulṭān (r. 1409‒1414), Shāhrukh (r. 1409‒1447) and Ulugh Beg (r. 1409‒1449); marshal three contemporary instances of the sword vs. pen munāẓara, one Timurid and two Mamluk, by the theologian Sayyid Sharīf Jurjānī (d. 1413), the secretary-encyclopedist Aḥmad al-Qalqashandī (d. 1418) and the historian Ibn Khaldūn (d. 1406), respectively; and provide an abridged translation of Ibn Turka’s offering as basis for comparative analysis.

This article analyzes current practices of conversion to Evangelical Christianity from the perspective of a contentious relation between state and society in Algeria. Based on a pragmatist approach to religion as a contextual and practical accomplishment, this study shows how Evangelical Christianity has provided converts with a new understanding of freedom that is based on the cultivation of a pure faith. It examines how this renewed piety contributes to the formation of an alternative ideal of the Algerian nation, one that contradicts the Arabo-Islamist FLN imposed narrative. Drawing upon observations gathered during several research trips in Kabylia, Algiers and Oran, this paper does not seek to develop a general theory of Muslim conversions in the Muslim world. Rather, it presents the ways in which conversion is practiced and explained by Algerian converts within the specific political and cultural context in which they live. It shows how converts’ discourse and practice connect global Evangelical themes to claims and contentions that emerge specifically from Algerian political and religious history. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussions of the complex ways in which global Pentecostalism blends into local cultures.

In the 1st/7th and the early 2nd/8th centuries, the Arab-Muslim conquest united two immense territories, once separated by a shifting border joining the Black sea to the Persian Gulf. To the East, the Arab-Muslims dominated Central Asia and the long-held Asian empire of the Sassanids that reached as far as the Chinese and Indian borders. To the West, they controlled the southern part of the Eastern and Western Roman empires. In the 2nd/8th century, the area conquered thus formed a narrow belt of lands from the Atlantic to the Chinese borders and from Georgia to Yemen. The Middle East became a converging hub of merchants and commercial goods. The article aims to discuss the political and social mechanisms involved in redrawing the map of the routes in the Mašriq from the early Umayyads in 41/661 to the death of caliph al-Muktafī in 295/908. It investigates the impact the evolution of road networks had on settlement patterns and economic strategies. Au ier/viie et au début du iie/viiie siècle, la conquête arabo-musulmane réunit deux immenses territoires, jusqu’alors séparés par une frontière au tracé mouvant joignant la mer Noire au golfe Persique. À l’Est, les Arabo-musulmans dominent l’Asie centrale et l’ancien empire asiatique des Sassanides jusqu’aux confins chinois, et à l’Ouest, la partie méridionale des empires romains d’Orient et d’Occident. L’espace conquis forme au iie/viiie siècle une étroite ceinture de terres de l’Atlantique aux confins de la Chine et de la Géorgie au Yémen. Dans cet espace immense, jusque-là si divisé, le Proche-Orient devient le pôle de convergence des marchands et des biens. Cette reconfiguration géopolitique du Proche-Orient au début de l’Islam entraîne des changements décisifs. L’enjeu de cet article est d’appréhender par quels mécanismes politiques et sociaux la carte des réseaux routiers du Mašriq a été redessinée entre le début du règne des Omeyyades en 41/661 et le décès du calife al-Muktafī en 295/908. Il s’agit d’explorer quel impact l’évolution des trafics eut sur les dynamiques de peuplement et sur les échanges. This article is in French.

L'éducation sexuelle est d'abord culturelle, chaque culture a une définition de la sexualité qui se construit socialement et se pérennise au sein des familles. Si elle a longtemps été inexistante et silencieuse dans les familles de culture arabo-islamique, les filles de migrantes se sont vues remettre en question certains principes de leur culture d'origine et adopter une éducation sexuelle différente de celle de leur mère, alliant éducation religieuse et vision occidentale. Elles mettent en place des stratégies éducatives basées sur la quête de sens, la logique, la raison et la religion. Pour ce faire, elles transmettent une morale et se réfèrent bien souvent aux textes scripturaires pour convaincre leurs filles des bienfaits d'une sexualité axée sur la préservation. Elles insistent également sur la différence avec les « autres ». Afin d'appréhender au mieux l'éducation à la sexualité telle qu'elle a lieu dans les familles de culture arabo-islamique, notre enquête s'est étendue sur deux terrains de recherche : la France et la Kabylie. Ce choix a notamment permis de mieux saisir les évolutions à l’œuvre dans les familles françaises et de comprendre comment la trajectoire migratoire a transformé le rapport que les femmes entretiennent aux différentes formes de sexualités
Sex education is firstly cultural. Sexuality is a social construction which is being perpetuated inside families. For a long time, it has been inexistent and silent within Arab-Muslim families. Today, mothers are concerned about their culture and some principles. They adopted a new sex education, different from their mother's, combining religion and western vision. They are opting for educational strategies based on the quest of meaning, logic, reason and religion. That is why they transmit a morality and often refer to scriptural texts to convince their daughters about the benefits of a sexuality based on preservation. They insist on the “others” differences

Notre thèse se propose d’analyser la question de la « traduction » de la psychanalyse dans une Culture Autre, spécifiquement dans le monde arabo-musulman, en utilisant une perspective complémentaire qui croise l’anthropologie et la psychanalyse.Après avoir posé les fondements théoriques et méthodologiques en vue d’une psychothérapie métisse, et avoir encadré l’histoire de la psychanalyse au Maghreb, spécifiquement au Maroc et en Tunisie, nous focaliserons notre attention sur le féminin islamique, ainsi que sur le rapport entre sexualité, Islam et psychanalyse.La présentation des Grands-Mères musulmanes, l’analyse des Textes Sacrés à propos du féminin, et la reconstruction de l’histoire des femmes arabo-musulmanes, de l’époque préislamique jusqu’à la contemporanéité, nous permettra de relever le décalage entre la Tradition musulmane et sa mise en pratique.Il sera évident, alors, de voir à quel point l’interprétation des Textes et la lecture des mots du prophète ont été utilisées par les autorités politiques et religieuses de toute époque en un sens patriarcal et machiste, pour soumettre et reléguer la femme dans une position d’infériorité naturalisée.Tout au contraire, nous évoquerons la place centrale de la femme et du féminin dans la Tradition coranique, jusqu’à affirmer qu’elle représente un de plus grands refoulements de l’histoire et de la culture arabo-musulmane.Ce fil rouge traversera toute l’analyse, nous amenant au cœur de la thèse selon laquelle la «psychothérapie au féminin » représente une voie d’accès privilégiée pour la « traduction » et la transmission de la psychanalyse ailleurs, et qu’elle est nécessaire à trois niveaux: individuel, pendant la relation thérapeutique; collectif, pour l’ensemble des femmes arabo- musulmanes; et, théorico-épistémologique concernant les aspects conceptuels de la «traduction».En dessinant l’image métaphorique d’une « psychothérapeute-frontière », nous tracerons le passage entre les frontières géographiques et socioculturelles, psychiques et relationnelles, professionnelles et symboliques, qu’elle recomposerait à travers son mouvement de détachement, découverte et retour dans le monde arabo-musulman, et grâce à ses caractéristiques de puissance émancipatrice et de médiation entre les côtés opposés de la tradition et de la modernité, du local et de l’étranger, du subjectif et du collectif.Cette figure, alors, arriverait à représenter la cause et la conséquence de la libération féminine en accompagnant chaque femme vers la réalisation de son désir, et en contribuant à l’émancipation de la collectivité des femmes arabo-musulmanes.Représentante moderne des mythiques Déesses Mères, la « thérapeute-frontière » devra, avant tout, apprendre certaines capacités propres à l’anthropologie afin de ne pas confondre un problème culturel avec un désordre psychique ou, au contraire, de ne pas réduire le malaise individuel à une donnée socioculturelle.Encore, elle devra acquérir un savoir-faire holistique et une pensée extraterritoriale indispensables pour dominer tant la terminologie scientifique et clinique, que le vocabulaire populaire, et pour se faire conteneur de traumas et de fluctuations identitaires des sujets ou des groupes, ainsi qu’un carrefour de savoirs et disciplines différents…
Our thesis aims analyzing the question of the "translation" of the psychoanalysis in an Other Culture, specifically in the Arab-Muslim world, utilizing the psychoanalysis and the anthropology like Complementary Frames of Reference.Having put the theoretical and methodological basis for a “metis” psychotherapy, and having resume the history of the psychoanalysis in Maghreb, specifically in Morocco and in Tunisia, we shall bring the attention to the Islamic feminine, as well as to the relationship between sexuality, Islam and psychoanalysis.The presentation of the “Great Muslim Mothers”, the analysis of Holy Texts about the feminine, and the reconstruction of the history of the Arab-Muslim women from pre-Islamic period until the contemporaneousness, will allow us to raise the gap between the Muslim Tradition and its application.It will be clear, then, how much the interpretation of Texts and the reading of the words of prophet Mohammed, have been used by the political and religious authorities of any time in a patriarchal and misogynist sense, in order to submit and relegate the woman in a position of naturalized inferiority.Quite the opposite, we shall evoke the central place of the woman and the feminine in the Koranic Tradition, until assert that it represents one of the greatest removal of the history and the culture of the Muslim people.This main thrust will cross all the analysis bringing at the heart of the thesis according to which the "feminine psychotherapy" represents a privileged way in the "translation" and the transmission of the psychoanalysis in another country. We would support that this kind of therapy would be needed at three levels: individual, during the therapeutic relation; collective for the benefit of all Muslim women; and, epistemological degree concerning the most theoretical aspects of the "translation".By drawing the metaphoric image of a "psychotherapist-frontier", we shall draw the passage between the geographical and socio-cultural, psychic and relational, professional and symbolic borders, that she would recompose through her movement of detachment, discovery and return in the Arab-Muslim world. This should be made possible through her characteristics of being be able to emancipate and mediate between the opposite of the tradition and the modernity, or the local and the global, or even the subjective and the collective.This figure, therefore, would arrive to represent the cause and the consequence of the women’s emancipation and would complement every woman towards the realization of her desire contributing to the empowerment of the community of the Arab-Muslim women.Modern representative of the mythical “Goddesses Mothers”, the "therapist-frontier", above all, will have to learn certain capacities of the anthropology in order to not confuse the cultural problems with a psychological disorder or, on the contrary, in order to not reduce an individual illness in a socio-cultural disease.Still, she will have to acquire an holistic “know-how” and an extraterritorial thought essential to dominate both the scientific or clinical terminology and the popular one. And still she will have to become a container of traumas and changing of the subjects or of the groups, as well as a crossroads of different knowledges and disciplines

De « l'Arabie Heureuse » à la République du Yémen, le Yémen contemporain réunifié de 1990 connaît des difficultés de développement et de croissance, et reste un des pays les plus pauvres du monde marqué par d'importantes inégalités. Parmi les secteurs prioritaires de développement, le sport et son modèle occidental peut-il connaître un développement au Yémen ? Depuis son introduction vers 1900, par l'occupation Britannique au Yémen du Sud, le sport connaît une histoire coloniale jusqu'à sa réunification avec le Yémen du Nord. Le Ministère de la Jeunesse et des Sports, le mouvement sportif (fédérations et clubs), le mouvement olympique s'attèlent au développement du sport pour des fins de renforcement d'appartenance à la nation et de représentations internationales. Cependant, une multitude des blocages structurels est constatée aussi bien par les dirigeants que par la population jeune représentant les trois quarts de la population. Là où la place de la femme est souvent discriminatoire et réduite à l'espace clos de l'espace familial, la possibilité d'une pratique sportive féminine peut-elle être envisagée ? Entre culture occidentale et culture arabo-musulmane, comment le sport au Yémen se structure-t-il et se développe-t-il ?
From « Arabia Felix » to the Republic of Yemen, contemporary Yemen reunified in 1990 know difficulties of development and growth, and remains one of the poorest country in the world with major inequalities. Among the priority areas of development, sport and Western model know a development in Yemen? Since its introduction around 1900 by the British occupation of South Yemen, the sport has a colonial history until its unification with North Yemen. The Ministry Youth and Sports, the sport (federations and clubs), the Olympic movement getting down to the development of sport for strengthening of national unity and international performances, in respect of Islam. However, a multitude of structural blockages is observed as well by leaders that by youth people representing three quarters of the population. Where the place of women is discriminatory and often reduced to the closed space of family's space, the possibility of women's sport can be considered? Between occidental culture and Arabo-Muslin culture, how sports in Yemen are structured and how can it be the development?

La traduction culturelle, indispensable pour la communication entre les peuples, est une tâche complexe en raison de la subjectivité de ceux qui sont impliqués et des différents aspects qu´interviennent à la présentation de la culture d'origine pour la culture de la réception. La littérature est un moyen privilégié de faire la médiation entre cultures. Léon, l'Africain et A incrível e fascinante história do Capitão Mouro, de Amin Maalouf et Georges Bourdoukan, respectivement, sont des romans historiques qui présentent la culture arabo-musulmane au lecteur occidental. À travers l'Histoire, la langue, la conception d'espace, les relations interpersonnelles, les coutumes et les rituels, ils donnent la parole à une culture traditionnellement étouffée dans l'Occident, et contribuent pour la médiation de conflits.
A tradução cultural, fundamental para a comunicação entre os povos, é uma tarefa complexa, devido à subjetividade dos agentes envolvidos e aos vários aspectos que interferem na apresentação da cultura de origem para a cultura de recepção. A literatura é uma forma privilegiada de fazer esta mediação entre culturas. Léon, l´africain e A incrível e fascinante história do Capitão Mouro, de Amin Maalouf e Georges Bourdoukan, respectivamente, são romances históricos que apresentam a cultura árabe-muçulmana ao leitor ocidental. Exploram a História, a linguagem, a construção espacial, o relacionamento interpessoal, os costumes e os rituais, dando voz a uma cultura tradicionalmente sufocada no Ocidente, e com isso contribuindo para a mediação de conflitos.
The cultural translation, essential for communication between peoples, is a complex task due to the tranlator´s subjectivity and the various aspects involved in the presentation of the culture of origin for the culture of reception. The literature is a privileged way of doing this mediation between cultures. Léon, l'africain and A incrível e fascinante história do Capitão Mouro, from Amin Maalouf and Georges Bourdoukan, respectively, are historical novels that present the Arabic-Muslim culture to the Western reader. They explore the History, language, design space, interpersonal relationships, customs and rituals, giving voice to a culture traditionally smothered in the West, helping to mediate conflicts.

Cette thèse se propose de montrer, à partir d’exemples concrets de textes anti-Šu‘ūbiyya tirés des œuvres d’al-Ğāḥiẓ (m. 255/869) et d’Ibn Qutayba (m. 276/889), la prégnance de la période préislamique sur l’adab du IIIe/IXe siècle. La méthode retenue est la confrontation critique notamment de la version numérisée de ces textes. Cette approche permet d’alimenter l’hypothèse d’une représentation magnifiée de l’Arabie préislamique : une image qui a fondé une part non négligeable des symboles identitaires de la culture arabo-musulmane, nourrie d’un passé mythique dans lequel peuvent se retrouver tous les musulmans sans préjuger de leurs ascendances.En effet, entendant par « mythe » les récits des origines qui cherchent à expliquer des données de la réalité en les inscrivant dans une dimension transcendée et surnaturelle, le symbolisme de l’adab situe l’essence des valeurs qu’il défend dans l’héritage des anciens Arabes. Cherchant à expliquer le monde, les udabā’ feront de la ğāhiliyya la source des vertus et le berceau de la langue arabe la plus pure. Inventant de nouvelles généalogies « fédératrices », ils s’attacheront à mettre en avant la maîtrise des traditions arabes préislamiques. Ainsi, nos deux auteurs situent la naissance de la civilisation arabo-musulmane dans des récits hors du temps et en rupture avec le présent. Les musulmans non-arabes peuvent donc ne plus se réclamer de leurs passé « réaliste » et prendre plutôt racine dans un passé qui favorise une culture commune inscrite dans un temps autre que le temps historique. Nos auteurs inventent une manière de culture vierge qui, seule, peut permettre à leurs yeux le commencement absolu. Par conséquent, les référents à la supériorité devraient être bouleversés par « l’effet anti-Šu‘ūbiyya » puisque l’origine ethnique ou la réalité historique ne sont plus le seul sens de l’existence
Based on concrete examples from anti-Šu‘ūbiyya texts pulled from works of al-Ğāḥiẓ (d. 255/869) and Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889), this thesis aims to demonstrate the pre eminence of the pre-Islamic period on the adab of the IIIe/IXe century. From a methodology which consists in a critical confrontation between these texts (especially the digitalized version of the texts), our point is to fuel the hypothesis of an adorned representation of pre-Islamic Arabia : This image produced a very important part of identical symbols of the Arab-Muslim culture, based on a mythical past in which all the Muslims without prejudice to their ancestries can find themselves."Myth" meaning the narratives of the origins created to explain data of the reality by registering them in a transcent and supernatural dimension, the symbolism of the adab places the essence of the values it is based on in the inheritance of the former Arabs. Trying to explain the world, the udabā’ made of the ğāhiliyya the source of the virtues and the cradle of the purest Arabic language. They devised new common genealogies to put forward the knowledge of the pre-Islamic Arabic traditions. Our two authors stand out the birth of the Arab-Muslim civilization in timeless narratives and in breach with the present time. Thus the non-Arabic Muslims can not refer anymore to their "historical" past and to take rather roots in a past which supports a common culture registered in a not historical time. Only this kind of blank culture, invented by our two authors, could allow the absolute beginning. Consequently, the markers of the supposed superiority could be shaken by the "anti-Šu‘ūbiyya effect" since the ethnical origin or the historical reality are not the only sense of the existence anymore

Né à Constantine en 1905 É.C., décédé à Alger en 1973 É.C., Malek Bennabi ce penseur algérien et réformateur musulman peu connu, s’est attaché durant sa vie, à étudier et analyser les problèmes liés à la civilisation du Monde arabo-musulman. Ingénieur sorti de l’Ecole Polytechnique de Paris, Malek Bennabi a jumelé deux cultures différentes : la culture islamique et la culture occidentale.C'est pour cette raison que ses analyses sont ornées d'expertise et d'expérience, d'innovation et d'émancipation. Sa réflexion est pleine d'animation, il a plus d'une vingtaine d'ouvrages, traitant des thèmes variés : la civilisation, le dialogue civilisationnel, la culture, l'idéologie, les problèmes de société, l’orientalisme, la démocratie, le système colonial ainsi que de sujets relatifs au phénomène coranique. À travers ses écrits, il s’attache à étudier et à analyser les raisons de la stagnation de la Société arabo-musulmane et les conditions d’une nouvelle renaissance. Malek Bennabi, s’attèle à tenter d’éveiller les consciences pour une renaissance de cette société. Ayant vécu l’expérience coloniale et post – coloniale dans son pays, Malek Bennabi demeurera tourmenté par les obstacles de développement. Pour lui l’accession à l’indépendance et la construction d’un État moderne n’auront pas suffi à arracher la société au sous-développement économique, social et culturel. En effectuant une relecture du patrimoine islamique, tout comme l’ont fait deux penseurs décédés récemment : Al Djâbiri et Mohamed Arkoun. Malek Bennabi cherchait à offrir une énergie sociale capable à arracher les sociétés arabo-musulmanes de leur sous-développement et décadence. C’est sous cet angle, que nous allons, dans ce mémoire, mener notre réflexion en l’articulant autour de la problématique centrale qui traverse la pensée de Malek Bennabi, à savoir celle du renouveau de la société islamique marquée par une grande diversité. Nous allons tenter de répondre à plusieurs questions, dont la principale est la suivante : est-ce que Malek Bennabi a présenté, à travers ses idées, de la nouveauté pour changer la réalité arabo-musulmane?
Malek Bennabi (1905 – 1973) was a Muslim philosopher, and reformer from Algeria. He was born in Constantine. Bennabi was particularily interested in understanding the civilization of the Arab-Muslim world. As an engineer who graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, he combined both Franco-Western and North-African Islamic cultures. His publications received a number of awards and prizes primarily due to his unique combination of expertise, experience, innovation, and emancipation. He wrote numerous articles and books on a variety of issues such as civilizations, culture, ideology, societies, Orientalism, democracy, and the phenomenon of the Qur'an. His writings focused mainly on the causes of contemporary Arabo-Muslim social problems as well as the conditions for a new renaissance or rebirth. The colonial and post-colonial contexts of Bennabi affected his thought. He did not consider an independent and modern state as sufficient conditions for reaching economic development or socio-cultural advancement. Similar to other thinkers, like the late Al Djâbiri Mohamed Arkoun, Malek Bennabi pursued to the logic that only through empowering Arab societies can there be prevention of their underdevelopment and decadence. This thesis focuses precisely on this point: the rebirth of the diverse Islamic society. It seeks to answer the following question: “What innovative thinking did Bennabi contribute to improve the lives of Arab-Muslims?”

This chapter concerns the postclassical book culture. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the continuing loss of manuscripts to Europe and the dire state of endowed libraries in the Arabic-speaking world meant that the full breadth of the Arabo-Islamic classical heritage was slipping progressively further out of reach of Muslim scholars. The weakening and dissolution of the traditional institutions dedicated to the systematic preservation of books left literary reproduction largely at the mercy of the market: copyists would reproduce books only if there was demand for them. But scholars in this period showed surprisingly little interest in older, classical works. The reason for this lack of interest lay in a scholarly culture that rested on the twin pillars of textual scholasticism and epistemological esotericism.

Post-independence Algeria, particularly since 1988, has tended to be read through two dominant narratives. These narratives are widely reproduced in the Algerian and international media, in formal and informal political discussion, and indeed its tropes have seeped into much of the academic literature. The first narrative is that of the authoritarian ‘system’ (a nebulous fusion of state and regime) versus the downtrodden ‘people’. The second narrative is that of the perpetual identity crisis, pitching Arabophones against Francophones, Berberophones against Arabophones, Islamists against secularists and social and cultural conservatives (‘tradition’) against progressives (‘modernity’), in a zero-sum struggle to define the language and culture of Algeria. These two narratives intersect, with ‘the system’ depicted as imposing its version of Arabo-Islamic identity, and in doing so steamrollering over both citizens promoting greater pluralism and more stridently Islamist actors.This chapter focuses on the national and transnational construction of this ‘identity crisis’ in academic literature as well as media and popular discourse. In particular, it explores the construction of three rival groups — one Arab/Muslim/FLNist, a second radical Islamist and a third composed of cultural pluralists/progressives (into which are subsumed Berbers and feminists) — which are depicted as engaged in a battle to the death to impose their version of ‘Algerianness’.

The attempts to ban the burkini on numerous beaches in the summer of 2016 highlight the extent of fears of visual signifiers of Arabo-Muslim ‘difference’ in public spaces in France. Given these anxieties, the positive reception of El Seed’s ‘calligraffiti’ – combining graffiti and Arabic calligraphy – in Paris might seem surprising. Focusing on El Seed’s work, this chapter asks how art can encourage dialogue and tolerance between cultures and communities in local – particularly Parisian – contexts and in a globalised frame. How does El Seed bring Arabic writing, a visual signifier of ‘difference’, into the public spaces of the French capital? How does he use public sites within and beyond France? How does the digital online presence of his multi-sited ephemeral work signal new means of evoking cultural identity and of interpolating diversely located spectators?

Chapter 2 explores ʿAbdīshōʿ’s world based on his own testimonies and those of his contemporaries. While we possess few facts about his life, the cultural, political, and intellectual history of the Church of the East in the thirteenth century is relatively well-documented. ʿAbdīshōʿ’s literary activities took place at the height of Mongol rule over a region of Upper Mesopotamia known as the Jazīra. The destruction of the Baghdad Caliphate in 1258 and the subsequent establishment of the Ilkhanate inaugurated four decades or so of non-Muslim rule by mainly Shamanist and Buddhist sovereigns over a largely Muslim region. In 1295, the Mongol elite in the Middle East officially converted to Islam. This development had far reaching consequences for the region’s non-Muslim population and may have partly formed the historical backdrop to ʿAbdīshōʿ’s anti-Muslim apologetics. The chapter also situates ʿAbdīshōʿ’s literary output in a period in which Syriac and Arabic Christian scholarship had become markedly receptive to Islamic theological and philosophical models. While ʿAbdīshōʿ’s own involvement in the broader intellectual networks of his day appears limited, his work on alchemy evinces a high level of engagement with Arabo-Islamic modes of knowledge production, particularly in the area of alchemy. The receptiveness to non-Christian models is less obvious in ʿAbdīshōʿ’s other works but is nevertheless present in his apologetics.