Speaking for Islam : religious authorities in Muslim societies / edited by Gudrun Krämer and Sabine Schmidtke.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Krämer, Gudrun.

Schmidtke, Sabine.

Series:

Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East and Asia 1385-3376 ; v. 100.

Social, economic and political studies of the Middle East and Asia, 1385-3376 ; v. 100

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authority--Religious aspects--Islam.

Authority.

Islamic law--Islamic countries.

Islamic law.

Muslim scholars--Islamic countries.

Muslim scholars.

Islamic countries.

Physical Description:

ix, 305 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2006.

Summary:

Who speaks for Islam? To whom do Muslims turn when they look for guidance? To what extent do individual scholars and preachers exert religious authority, and how can it be assessed? The upsurge of Islamism has lent new urgency to these questions, but they have deeper roots and a much longer history, and they certainly should not be considered in the light of present concerns only.

The present volume - grown out of an international symposium at the Free University, Berlin in 2002 - is not so much concerned with religious authority, but with religious authorities, men and women claiming, projecting and exerting religious authority within a given context. It addresses issues such as the relationship of knowledge, conduct and charisma, the social functions of the schools of law and theology, and the efforts on the part of governments and rulers to organize religious scholars and to implement state-centred hierarchies.

The volume focuses on Middle Eastern Muslim majority societies in the period from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, and the individual papers offer case studies elucidating important aspects of the wider phenomenon. Individually and collectively, they highlight the scope and variety of religious authorities in past and present Muslim societies.

Contents:

Introduction: Religious Authority and Religious Authorities in Muslim Societies. A Critical Overview / Gudrun Kramer, Sabine Schmidtke 1

"This day have I perfected your religion for you": A Zahiri Conception of Religious Authority / Camilla Adang 15

The Epistemology of Excellence: Sunni-Shi'i Dialectics on Legitimate Leadership / Asma Afsaruddin 49

The Relationship between Chief Qadi and Chief Da'i under the Fatimids / Paul E. Walker 70

Forms and Functions of 'Licences To Transmit' (Ijazas) in 18th-Century-Iran: 'Abd Allah al-Musawi al-Jaza'iri al-Tustari's (1112-73/1701-59) Ijaza Kabira / Sabine Schmidtke 95

Asserting Religious Authority in late 19th/early 20th Century Morocco: Muhammad b. Ja'far al-Kattani (d. 1927) and his Kitab Salwat al-Anfas / Bettina Dennerlein 128

Consensus and Religious Authority in Modern Islam: The Discourses of the 'Ulama' / Muhammad Qasim Zaman 153

Drawing Boundaries: Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Apostasy / Gudrun Kramer 181

A Doctrine in the Making? Velayat-e faqih in Post-Revolutionary Iran / Katajun Amirpur 218

Religious Authority in Transnational Sufi Networks: Shaykh Nazim al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani al-Naqshbandi / Annabelle Bottcher 241

The Modern Dede: Changing Parameters for Religious Authority in Contemporary Turkish Alevism / Markus Dressler 269.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

900414949X

OCLC:

65820476

Publisher Number:

9789004149496