Journal articles on the topic 'Al-Mansur ibn Abi 'Amir'

Abstract Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir was a de facto leader of al-Andalus during the Umayyad rule based in Cordoba. Caliph al-Hakam II had appointed him to hold some political positions to strengthen Umayyad rule in Cordoba (al-Andalus) and al-Maghrib (North Africa). Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir’s political appointment was seen as a special position in Cordoba administration. This analysis is seen through the readings of the authoritative primary source written by Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi. Hence, the purpose of this article is to scrutinize Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi’s biography as an al-Andalus historian in the 5H/11AD Century in his work, al-Muqtabas fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus. In addition, this research also describes the involvement of Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir in the Umayyad administration in Cordoba during the reign of Caliph al-Hakam II based on the chronicle of Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi. On the whole, this article is a qualitative research using historical study and content analysis in gathering and analyzing data from relevant primary and secondary sources. Based on Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi’s description in al-Muqtabas, this research argues that Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir was an authoritative political figure in 4H/10AD Century of the Umayyad rule in Cordoba. His political appointments were held in the fields, of administration, judiciary, military, security, international relations and finance. This research also concludes that Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi was a preeminent historian in al-Andalus through his work, al-Muqtabas fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus, which is seen as his biggest contribution in the corpus of knowledge on Islamic history and civilization in al-Andalus. Keywords: Political history, al-Andalus, Cordoba, Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir, Umayyad Caliphate, Caliph al-Hakam II, Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi Abstrak Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir ialah seorang pemimpin de facto al-Andalus pada zaman pemerintahan Kerajaan Umawiyyah di Cordoba. Pihak Khalifah al-Hakam II telah melantik beliau untuk menjawat beberapa jawatan politik utama bagi memperkukuh pengaruh Kerajaan Umawiyyah di Cordoba (al-Andalus) dan di al-Maghrib (Afrika Utara). Pelantikan politik Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir ini turut memperlihatkan kedudukan istimewa yang diterima beliau dalam pemerintahan di Cordoba. Pencerakinan tersebut dilihat menerusi penelaahan terhadap sumber primer berwewenang yang ditulis oleh Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi. Oleh itu, penulisan ini bertujuan untuk meneliti biografi Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi sebagai tokoh sejarawan al-Andalus pada abad ke-5H/11M melalui karyanya, al-Muqtabas fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus. Di samping itu, kajian ini turut memerihalkan penglibatan Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir dalam Kerajaan Umawiyyah di Cordoba pada era pemerintahan Khalifah al-Hakam II berdasarkan catatan Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi. Secara keseluruhannya, artikel ini merupakan kajian kualitatif dengan menggunakan reka bentuk kajian sejarah dan analisis kandungan dalam mengumpul serta menganalisis maklumat daripada sumber primer dan sekunder yang relevan. Berasaskan pemerian Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi dalam al-Muqtabas, kajian ini menghujahkan bahawa Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir ialah seorang tokoh politik berwibawa abad ke-4H/10M era Kerajaan Umawiyyah di Cordoba. Antara penglibatan politik yang disandang oleh Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir adalah meliputi bidang pentadbiran, kehakiman, ketenteraan, keselamatan, hubungan antarabangsa dan juga kewangan. Kajian ini turut menatijahkan Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi sebagai seorang tokoh sejarawan terulung di al-Andalus menerusi hasil karyanya, al-Muqtabas fi Akhbar Balad al-Andalus yang dilihat sebagai sumbangan terbesar beliau dalam korpus kelimuan sejarah dan tamadun Islam di al-Andalus. Kata kunci: Sejarah politik, al-Andalus, Cordoba, Muhammad ibn Abi ‘Amir, Kerajaan Umawiyyah, Khalifah al-Hakam II, Ibn Hayyan al-Qurtubi

Abu Ja'far al Man~ur, the founder of the 'Abbasid state, once posed aquestion to some of his confidants:Who is the hawk of Quraysh? They replied: The Commander ofthe Faithful (Amir al Mu'minin) who established the reign, quietedupheavals, and extinguished ordeals. He said: You havenot answered my question. They said: Is it Mu'awiyah? He said:No. They said: Is it 'Abd al Malik ibn Marwan? He said: No.They said: Who else, Commander of the Faithful? He said:'Abd al Ra}:iman ibn Mu'awiyah, who escaped by his cunningthe spearheads of the lances and the blades of the swords, travellingthe desert, and sailing the seas, until he entered an alienterritory. [There] he organized cities, mobilized armies, andreestablished his reign after it was completely lost, by goodmanagement and strong resolve. Mu'awiyah rose to his staturethrough the support of 'Umar and 'Uthman, whose backingallowed him to overcome difficulties; 'Abd al Malik, because ofprevious appointment; and the Commander of the Faithfulthrough the struggle of his kin and the solidarity of his partisans.But' Abd al Rab man did it alone, with the support of noneother than his own judgement, depending on no one but his ownresolve. (Ibn al Athir, 5: 182)Identifying leadership and determining its qualities and contributionsto collective life is an ancient concern of people. Abu Ja'far al Mansur, aneminent Muslim leader in his own right, raised the question in a peculiar ...

In the subcontinent, the Companions, the followers, the followers of the followers and the narrators came at different times and continued to perform the duties of spreading Islam here. The books of Asma 'ul-Rijal and the turning of the pages of history show that according to a conservative estimate, about five Companions visited India, including' Uthman ibn Abi al-'As Saqafi and his brothers, 'Abdullah ibn' Umayr, and Sahl ibn 'Adi ibn Malik, Syedna Asim bin Amr and Syedna Majasha bin Thaalba and others. In the same way, many great men entered the subcontinent for the purpose of jihad and then for the propagation of Islam. Akhans al-Thaqafi and so on. Similarly, the followers of Tabein include Mr. Israel bin Musa Al-Basri, Mr. Abu Muhammad Raja bin Al-Sindi, Mr. Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman Belmani, Mr. Rabi 'bin Sabih Al-Saadi and others. Most of the followers and followers of the followers had come to India with the army of Amir Muhammad ibn Qasim. Although the word Sufi was not used for all these holy people because the term Sufi was not in use at that time That is, these people were the real Sufis. Even after him, various Sufis continued to visit and preach Islam.

The Case The Ummah was built on the foundation of tawhid, istikhla! the pursuit of knowledge, and personal and communal responsibility. Although it was once a leading creator of and contributor to human civilization, over the last few centuries it has become weak and backward to the point of crisis. The awareness of the Ummah's regression is almost 1,000 years old, dating back far beyond the challenges of European colonization and west­ernization. We can trace this back to Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's lhya' · Ulum al-Din (Revival of the Knowledge and Sciences of Religion) and Tahafat al­Falasifah (The Incoherence of the Philosophers). Since then, the Ummah has produced dozens of revivalist personalities and movements, such as Ibn Hazm, fbn Taymiyyah, fbn 'Abd al-Salam, fbn 'Abd al-Wahhab, the Muwahiddun, the Murabitun, the Mahdis of Sudan, the Sanusis of Libya, the Ottoman sultan Salim lll, Khayr al-Din al-Tunisi, Muhammad 'Ali, Jamal al-Din al-Afgani, Rashid Rida, Muhammad 'Abdu ofEgypt, Shah Waliullah and Muhammad Iqbal of India, Amir 'Abd al-Qadir and Ben Bad is of Algeria, and many others. All of these individual efforts and movements helped minimize and slow down the Ummah's deterioration, and without them the Ummah's condition and chances of survival could have been much worse. Despite ...

Health, economic and cultural backwardness was the dominant feature of the peoples of the ancient world, including Iraq in particular, where we read a lot about diseases and epidemics that ravaged the peoples of the world and killed millions of them, and we as Muslims also read about the plague that spread in the Levant at the beginning of the Islamic conquest of this Arab land and the expulsion of the Romans from it. And the Muslims lost many of them more than they sacrificed in the battles of the Islamic conquest, including the great companion Aba Ubaidah Amer Ibn al-Jarrah, the leader of the Muslims in the battles and then the governor of the Levant and Yazid Ibn Abi Sufyan, one of the leaders of the Islamic conquest. Between the sixteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century, modern Iraq witnessed more than (20) epidemic outbreaks, between limited and widespread. And between the period between the second half of the nineteenth century until the first quarter of the twentieth century, there were (19) epidemic outbreaks between wide and limited spread, especially the years 1867 to 1917 AD, and now after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in our country and the whole world and its spread in Iraq at the beginning of the year 2020 AD, which infected Millions of the world’s peoples have collapsed in front of this pandemic, the best health services in the world, and it is still killing between day and night, in hot and cold weather, and all laboratories in the world are working to find an effective vaccine to stop this pandemic, which has brought the world to the brink of economic, health, educational, financial and social collapse.

The outbreak of the First World War in Europe and the subsequent Ottoman–German alliance presented Great Britain with some severe dilemmas as to her interests in the Middle East as well. Striving to consolidate their position in the Middle East should a war against the Ottomans become inevitable, the British began to search for local allies. In the Arabian Peninsula, three rulers emerged as potential allies: the Sharif Husayn, the guardian of the Holy Places in the Hijāz on behalf of the Ottoman sultan; the Idrisi Sayyid of 'Asīr, the area south of the Hijāz and north of Yemen; and 'Abd al-'Azīz Ibn Saud, the Amir of Najd, who became a Persian Gulf coastal ruler in May to 1913 by virtue of his occupation of Hasa the coastal strip stretching from Kuwayt to the base of the Qatar peninsula.

During the period from Safar 9-12, 1410 H. / September 11-14,1989 A.D.,a seminar on the "Issues in Methodology of Islamic Thought" was held atAmir AM al Qadir University of Islamic Studies (Qusantinah, Algeria). Theseminar was organized by the university in conjunction with the InternationalInstitute of Islamic Thought (Washington, D.C.). A group of professors andstudents of both sexes from Amir Abd al Qadir University, as well as fromthe Central University, participated in the seminar activities. The openingsession was attended by representatives from Qusantinah Province, the NationalLiberation Front, the Municipal Council, and the Religious Committee.Speeches were delivered by Dr. 'Ammar al Talibi, the University Presidentand Chairman of the seminar; Dr. Gamal El-Din Attia, Academic Advisorof the International Institute of Islamic Thought and convenor of theseminar; and by Dr. Muhammad 'AM al Hadi Abu Ridah representing theguests of the seminar.The seminar included seven panels where twenty-one research papers,prepared for the seminar, were presented and discussed. These research paperscovered the following topics:1- Inference Methodology in the Qur'an: A Response to the Opponentsof Faith, by Dr. Ahmad 'Atwah.2- The Elements of Scientific Methodology in the Qur'an andal Sunnah, by Dr. Ghawi 'Inayah.3 - Muslim Methodology in Islamic Theology, by Dr. FawqiyahHusayn.4 - The Methodology of Ideology in the Light of ContemporaryScientific Advances, by Dr. Muhammad Abd al Sattar Nassar.5- An Overview of the Methodology of Recording History, byDr. 'Abd al Halim 'Uways.6- The Methodology of the Principles of Jurisprudence, by Dr.Abd al Hamid Madkur.7- The Crises of Methodology in Modem Ideological Studies,by Dr. Muhammad Kamal al Din Imam.8- The Scientific Methodology and Spirit of Ibn Khaldun andIts Relation to Islam, by Dr. 'Imad al Din Khalil ...

<p><em>The Fathimiyah caliphate, one of the Ismaili Shi'ite Islamic dynasties, in 909 AD in North Africa after defeating the Aghlabiah Dynasty in Sijilmasa. In history, the glory of Fathimiyah dynasty includes the system of government, philosophy, science and literature. After the reign of the caliph Al-Aziz Fathimiyah dynasty began to decline until the collapse. Problem formulation: How the formation of Fathimiyah dynasty. How to advance the civilization of the Fathimiyah Dynasty? How the decline and collapse of the Fathimiyah dynasty.</em></p><p><em>Research Methodology: The research process is done by taking literature study from literarure, books. To discuss the results of research done by linking descriptions of literature, and books.</em></p><p><em>The results show that: The founder of the Fathimiyah Dynasty was Sa'id ibn Husayn. At the end of the 9th century AD, Abu Abdullah al-Husayn al-Shi'i, one of the main propagandists of the Shiite leader of Isma'iliah, was from Yemen son of the Berber tribe in North Africa, as the main envoy of Imam Mahdi and managed to influence the Berber community. Ziyadatullah al-Aghlabi 903-909 M (Aghlabiah dynasty) is in power in North Africa centered in Sijilmasa. Having succeeded in establishing his influence in North Africa, Abu Abdullah Al-Husain wrote a letter to the Ismaili Imam, Sa'id bin Husain As-Salamiyah to leave immediately for Utar Africa. In 909 AD Sa'id proclaimed himself a priest with the title Ubaidullah Al-Mahdi. In history, the glory of Fathimiyah dynasty includes the system of government, philosophy, social conditions, scholarship and literature. The decline and disintegration of the Fathimiyah Dynasty, the caliph Fathimiyah initially controlled all activities, but among the caliphs there were those who handed the supervisory duties to the amir, because the age of the caliph was underage and did not even understand the political world. For example, after Al-Aziz died, Abu Ali Al-Mansur was eleven years old appointed to replace him with the title of Al-Hakim. The final period of the Fathimiyah Dynasty rivalry for the post of prime minister is increasingly widespread, such as Syawar with Dhargam. End of Nuruddin Mahmud's entry to help him reclaim his power from the hands of Dhargam. Al-Adhid, the last Fathimiyah caliph passed away 10 Muharram 567 H / 1171 M. then the Fatimid dynasty was destroyed after reigning for about 280 years, then Saladin holds the Caliphate.</em></p>Keywords: dynasty, fathimiyah

ABSTRAKTujuan dari Penelitian ini adalah menguji pengaruh kepercayaan dan citra website yang diintegrasikan dengan persepsi kemudahan penggunaan dan persepsi kebermanfaatan pada niatan seorang mahasiswa dalam membayar wakaf secara online, yang menjadikan penelitian ini berbeda dengan penelitian sebelumnya adalah penggunaan citra website sebagai determinan niatan mahasiswa dalam menggunakan layanan wakaf online ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan metode SEM-PLS serta melibatkan responden sebesar 100 responden dengan menggunakan Purposive Sampling dengan kriteria seorang muslim usia 18-35 dan seorang mahasiswa. Software analisis untuk mengolah data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan Smartpls 3.3, untuk data diperoleh dengan menggunakan kuesioner online menggunakan skala likert 1 sampai 5, dengan keterangan sangat setuju hingga tidak setuju. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kepercayaan, citra website, kebermanfaatan aplikasi, dan kemudahan penggunaan berhubungan signifikan terhadap niat penggunaan wakaf online. Implikasi hasil penelitian ini diharapkan dapat memberikan tambahan pengetahuan terutama dalam ilmu pemasaran Islam terkait penggunaan behavioral intention dalam penggunaan layanan wakaf online, serta diharapkan penelitian ini dapat memberikan masukan bagi manajemen lembaga donasi terutama nazir untuk lebih memperhatikan kemudahan penggunaan konsumen, manfaat yang dirasakan, kepercayaan lembaga, citra perusahaan serta niat dalam menggunakan layanan wakaf secara online.Kata kunci: Wakaf online, technology acceptance model, trust, image. ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to examine the effect of trust and website image, which is integrated with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, on a student's intention to pay waqf online. What makes this research different from previous research is using website images to determine student intention in using this online waqf service. This study uses a quantitative approach with the SEM-PLS method and involves 100 respondents using purposive sampling with the criteria of a Muslim aged 18-35 and a student. The analysis software to process data in this study used Smartpls 3.3 for data obtained using an online questionnaire using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, with statements strongly agreeing to disagree. This study indicates that trust, website image, application usefulness, and ease of use are significantly related to the intention to use online waqf. The implications of the results of this study are expected to provide additional knowledge, especially in Islamic marketing related to the use of behavioral intention in the use of online waqf services. It is hoped that this research can provide input for the management of donation institutions, especially Nazir, to pay more attention to consumers' ease of use, perceived benefits, and institutional trust., corporate image and intention to use online waqf services.Keywords: online waqf, technology acceptance model, trust, image. DAFTAR PUSTAKAAbdul Shukor, S., Johari, F., Abd Wahab, K., Kefeli Zulkefli, Z., Ahmad, N., Haji Alias, M., Abdul Rahman, A., Mohd Orip, N. M., Ibrahim, P., & Abu-Hussin, M. F. (2019). Trust on awqaf institutions: evidence from Malaysia. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 10(2), 511–524. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-05-2017-0054Ahn, J. chang, Sura, S., & An, J. C. (2018). Intention to donate via social network sites (SNSs): A comparison study between Malaysian and South Korean users. Information Technology and People, 31(4), 910–926. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-12-2015-0307Aldeen, K. N., Ratih, I. S., & Herianingrum, S. (2020). Contemporary issues on cash waqf: A thematic literature review. International Journal of Islamic Economics and Finance (IJIEF), 3(3), 119–144. https://doi.org/10.18196/ijief.3236Alrubaiee, L. S., Aladwan, S., Abu Joma, M. H., Idris, W. M., & Khater, S. (2017). Relationship between corporate social responsibility and marketing performance: The mediating effect of customer value and corporate image. International Business Research, 10(2), 104. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n2p104Bailey, A. A., Pentina, I., Mishra, A. S., & Ben Mimoun, M. S. (2017). Mobile payments adoption by US consumers: An extended TAM. International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, 45(6), 626–640. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-08-2016-0144Berakon, I., Aji, H. M., & Hafizi, M. R. (2021). Impact of digital sharia banking systems on cash-waqf among Indonesian Muslim youth. Journal of Islamic Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIMA-11-2020-0337Blagoeva, K. T., & Mijoska, M. (2017). Applying TAM to study online shopping adoption among youth in the republic of Macedonia. Genetika, 46(3), 27–32.Eneizan, B., Alsaad, A., Alkhawaldeh, A., Rawash, H. N., & Enaizan, O. (2020). E-WOM, trust, usefulness, ease of use, and online shopping via websites: The moderating role of online shopping experience. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 98(13), 2554–2565.Faisal, M., Yusof, M., Alam, S., Faiz, M., Yusof, M., Alam, S., Hasarudin, M. H., Alam, S., Romli, N., Lumpur, K., Terms, G., & Statement, P. (2014). Cash waqf and infaq: A proposed e-philanthropy in Malaysia. Jurnal Kemanusiaan, 12(1), 1–10.Hair Jr., J. F., Gabriel, M. L. D. da S., & Patel, V. K. (2014). Modelagem de equações estruturais baseada em covariância (CB-SEM) com o AMOS: Orientações sobre a sua aplicação como uma Ferramenta de Pesquisa de Marketing. Revista Brasileira de Marketing, 13(2), 44–55. https://doi.org/10.5585/remark.v13i2.2718Indahsari, K., Burhan, M. U., Ashar, K., & Multifiah. 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Christianity was the religion of spirit (and freedom), and critiqued Islam as a religion of flesh (and slavery); later, Christianity was the religion of reason, and critiqued Islam as the religion of fideism; later still, Christianity was the religion of the critique of religion, and critiqued Islam as the most atavistic of religions. Even now, when the West has critiqued its own Chris- tianity enough to be properly secular (because free, rational, and critical), it continues to critique Islam for being not secular enough. In contrast to Christianity or post-Christian secularism, then, and despite their best ef- forts, Islam does not know (has not learned from) critique. This sentiment is articulated at multiple registers, academic and popular and governmen- tal: Muslims are fanatical about their repressive law; they interpret things too literally; Muslims do not read their own revelation critically, let alone literature or cartoons; their sartorial practices are unreasonable; the gates of ijtihād closed in 900CE; Ghazali killed free inquiry in Islam… Such claims are ubiquitous enough to be unremarkable, and have political traction among liberals and conservatives alike. “The equation of Islam with the ab- sence of critique has a longer genealogy in Western thought,” Irfan Ahmad writes in this book, “which runs almost concurrently with Europe’s colonial expansion” (8). Luther and Renan figure in that history, as more recently do Huntington and Gellner and Rushdie and Manji.Meanwhile in the last decade an interdisciplinary conversation about the stakes, limits, complicities, and possibilities of critique has developed in the anglophone academy, a conversation of which touchstones include the polemical exchange between Saba Mahmood and Stathis Gourgouris (2008); the co-authored volume Is Critique Secular? (2009), by Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Mahmood; journal special issues dedi- cated to the question (e.g. boundary 2 40, no. 1 [2013]); and Gourgouris’s Lessons in Secular Criticism (2013), among others. At the same time, the discipline of religious studies remains trapped in an argument over the lim- its of normative analysis and the possibility of critical knowledge.Religion as Critique: Islamic Critical Thinking from Mecca to the Mar- ketplace seeks to turn these debates on their head. Is critique secular? Decidedly not—but understanding why that is, for Ahmad, requires revising our understanding of critique itself. Instead of the object of critique, reli- gion here emerges as an agent of critique. By this account, God himself is the source of critique, and the prophets and their heirs are “critics par ex- cellence” (xiv). The book is divided into two parts bookended by a prologue and epilogue. “Formulation” comprises three chapters levying the shape of the argument. “Illustration” comprises three chapters taking up the case study of the South Asian reformer Abul-A‘la Maududi and his critics (es- pecially regarding his views on the state and on women) as well as a fourth chapter that seeks to locate critique in the space of the everyday. There are four theses to Ahmad’s argument, none of them radically original on their own but newly assembled. As spelled out in the first chap- ter (“Introduction”), the first thesis holds that the Enlightenment reconfig- uration of Christianity was in fact an ethnic project by which “Europe/the West constituted its identity in the name of reason and universalism against a series of others,” among them Islam (14). The second thesis is that no crit- ic judges by reason alone. Rather, critique is always situated, directed, and formed: it requires presuppositions and a given mode to be effective (17). The third thesis is that the Islamic tradition of critique stipulates the com- plementarity of intellect (‘aql, dimāgh) and heart (qalb, dil); this is a holistic anthropology, not a dualistic one. The fourth thesis is that critique should not be understood as the exclusive purview of intellectuals (especially when arguing about literature) or as simply a theoretical exercise. Instead, cri- tique should be approached as part of life, practiced by the literate and the illiterate alike (18).The second chapter, “Critique: Western and/or Islamic,” focuses on the first of these theses. The Enlightenment immunized the West from critique while subjecting the Rest to critique. An “anthropology of philosophy” approach can treat Kant’s transcendental idealism as a social practice and in doing so discover that philosophy is “not entirely independent” from ethnicity (37). The certainty offered by the Enlightenment project can thus be read as “a project of security with boundaries.” Ahmad briefly consid- ers the place of Islam across certain of Kant’s writings and the work of the French philosophes; he reads their efforts to “secure knowledge of humani- ty” to foreclose the possibility of “knowledge from humanity” (42), namely Europe’s others. Meanwhile, ethnographic approaches to Muslim debates shy away from according them the status of critique, but in so doing they only maintain the opposition between Western reason and Islamic unrea- son. In contrast to this view (from Kant through Foucault), Ahmad would rather locate the point of critical rupture with the past in the axial age (800-200BCE), which would include the line of prophets who reformed (critiqued) their societies for having fallen into corruption and paganism. This alternative account demonstrates that “critical inquiry presupposes a tradition,” that is, that effective critique is always immanent (58). The third chapter, “The Modes: Another Genealogy of Critique,” con- tests the reigning historiography of “critique” (tanqīd/naqd) in South Asia that restricts it to secular literary criticism. Critique (like philosophy and democracy) was not simply founded in Grecian antiquity and inherited by Europe: Ahmad “liberates” critique from its Western pedigree and so allows for his alternative genealogy, as constructed for instance through readings of Ghalib. The remainder of the chapter draws on the work of Maududi and his critics to present the mission of the prophets as critiquing to reform (iṣlāḥ) their societies. This mandate remains effective today, and Maududi and his critics articulate a typology of acceptable (tanqīd) and unacceptable (ta‘īb, tanqīṣ, tazhīk, takfīr, etc.) critiques in which the style of critique must be considered alongside its object and telos. Religion as Critique oscillates between sweeping literature reviews and close readings. Readers may find the former dizzying, especially when they lose in depth what they gain in breadth (for example, ten pages at hand from chapter 2 cite 44 different authors, some of whom are summarizing or contesting the work of a dozen other figures named but not cited di- rectly). Likewise there are moments when Ahmad’s own dogged critiques may read as tendentious. The political purchase of this book should not be understated, though the fact that Muslims criticize themselves and others should come as no surprise. Yet it is chapters 4–6 (on Maududi and his critics) which substantiate the analytic ambition of the book. They are the most developed chapters of the book and detail a set of emerging debates with a fine-grained approach sometimes found wanting elsewhere (espe- cially in the final chapter). They show how Islam as a discursive tradition is constituted through critique, and perhaps always has been: for against the disciplinary proclivities of anthropologists (who tend to emphasize discon- tinuity and rupture, allowing them to discover the modern invention of traditions), Ahmad insists on an epistemic connection among precolonial and postcolonial Islam. This connection is evident in how the theme of rupture/continuity is itself a historical topos of “Islamic critical thinking.” Chapter 4 (“The Message: A Critical Enterprise”) approaches Maududi (d. 1979) as a substantial political thinker, not simply the fundamentalist ideologue he is often considered to be. Reading across Maududi’s oeuvre, Ahmad gleans a political-economic critique of colonial-capitalist exploita- tion (95), a keen awareness of the limits of majoritarian democracy, and a warning about the dispossessive effects of minoritization. Maududi’s Isla- mism (“theodemocracy”), then, has to be understood within his broader project of the revival of religion to which tanqīd (“critique”), tajdīd (“re- newal”), and ijtihād (“understanding Islam’s universal principles to de- termine change”) were central (103). He found partial historical models for such renewal in ‘Umar b. ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyya, Ahmad Sirhindi, and Shah Wali Ullah. A key element of this critique is that it does not aim to usher in a different future. Instead it inhabits a more complicated temporality: it clarifies what is already the case, as rooted in the primordial nature of humans (fiṭra), and in so doing aligns the human with the order of creation. This project entails the critique and rejection of false gods, in- cluding communism, fascism, national socialism, and capitalism (117). Chapter 5 (“The State: (In)dispensible, Desirable, Revisable?”) weaves together ethnographic and textual accounts of Maududi’s critics and de- fenders on the question of the state (the famous argument for “divine sov- ereignty”). In doing so the chapter demonstrates how the work of critique is undertaken in this Islamic tradition, where, Ahmad writes, “critique is connected to a form of life the full meaning of which is inseparable from death” (122). (This also means that at stake in critique is also the style and principles of critique.) The critics surveyed in this chapter include Manzur Nomani, Vahiduddin Khan, Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi, Amir Usmani, Sadrud- din Islahi, Akram Zurti, Rahmat Bedar, Naqi Rahman, Ijaz Akbar, and others, figures of varying renown but all of whom closely engaged, defend- ed, and contested Maududi’s work and legacy in the state politics of his Jamaat-e Islami. Chapter 6 (“The Difference: Women and In/equality”) shows how Maududi’s followers critique the “neopatriarchate” he proposes. Through such critique, Ahmad also seeks to affirm the legitimacy of a “nonpatri- archal reading of Islam” (156). If Maududi himself regarded the ḥarem as “the mightiest fortress of Islamic culture” (159)—a position which Ahmad notes is “enmeshed in the logic of colonial hegemony”—he also desired that women “form their own associations and unbiasedly critique the govern- ment” (163). Maududi’s work and legacy is thus both “disabling” and “en- abling” for women at the same time, as is borne out by tracing the critiques it subsequently faced (including by those sympathetic to his broader proj- ect). The (male) critics surveyed here include Akram Zurti, Sultan Ahmad Islahi, Abdurrahman Alkaf, and Mohammad Akram Nadwi, who seriously engaged the Quran and hadith to question Maududi’s “neopatriarchate.” They critiqued his views (e.g. that women were naturally inferior to men, or that they were unfit for political office) through alternative readings of Islamic history and theology. Chapter 7 (“The Mundane: Critique as Social-Cultural Practice”) seeks to locate critique at “the center of life for everyone, including ordinary sub- jects with no educational degrees” (179). Ahmad writes at length about Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (d. 1988), the anticolonial activist who led a massive movement against colonial domination, and whose following faced British brutality with nonviolence. The Khudai Khidmatgār movement he built was “a movement of critique” (195), Ahmad writes, composed of or- dinary men and women, peasants and the unlettered. The brief remainder of the chapter suggests that the proverbs which punctuate everyday life (for example, in the trope of the greedy mullah) also act as critiques. By the end of Religion as Critique it is difficult not to see critique na- scent in every declaration or action. This deflates the analytic power of the term—but perhaps that is one unstated aim of the project, to reveal critique as simply a part of life. Certainly the book displaces the exceptional West- ern claim to critique. Yet this trope of exposure—anthropology as cultural critique, the ethnographer’s gaze turned inward—also raises questions of its own. In this case, the paradigmatic account of critique (Western, sec- ular) has been exposed as actually being provincial. But the means of this exposure have not come from the alternative tradition of critique Ahmad elaborates. That is, Ahmad is not himself articulating an Islamic critique of Western critique. (Maududi serves as an “illustration” of Ahmad’s ar- gument; Maududi does not provide the argument itself.) In the first chap- ters (“Formulation”) he cites a wide literature that practices historicism, genealogy, archeology, and deconstruction in order to temper the universal claims of Western supremacists. The status of these latter critical practices however is not explored, as to whether they are in themselves sufficient to provincialize or at least de-weaponize Western critique. Put more directly: is there is a third language (of political anthropology, for example) by which Ahmad analytically mediates the encounter between rival traditions of cri- tique? And if there is such a language, and if it is historically, structurally, and institutionally related to one of the critical traditions it is mediating, then what is the status of the non-Western “illustration”? The aim of this revision of critique, Ahmad writes, is “genuinely dem- ocratic dialogue with different traditions” (xii). As much is signalled in its citational practices, which (for example) reference Talal Asad and Viveiros de Castro together in calling for “robust comparison” (14) between West- ern and Islamic notions of critique, and reference Maududi and Koselleck together in interpreting critique to be about judgment (203). No matter that Asad and de Castro or Maududi and Koselleck mean different things when using the same words; these citations express Ahmad’s commitment to a dialogic (rather than dialectical) mode in engaging differences. Yet because Ahmad does not himself explore what is variously entailed by “comparison” or “judgment” in these moments, such citations remain as- sertions gesturing to a dialogue to come. In this sense Religion as Critique is a thoroughly optimistic book. Whether such optimism is warranted might call for a third part to follow “Formulation” and “Illustration”: “Reckoning.” Basit Kareem IqbalPhD candidate, Department of Anthropologyand Program in Critical TheoryUniversity of California, Berkeley

Background: Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) causes an important parasitic infection known as toxoplasmosis, which is a globally distributed important zoonosis. One of the major serious characteristics of T. gondii is its ability to manipulate the behavior of intermediate hosts. We performed a cross-sectional study to determine toxoplasmosis in schizophrenic patients, as one of the major neuropsychiatric disorders, using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) technic by targeting parasite B1 gene. Methods: Blood samples were taken from 118 schizophrenic patients hospitalized in tow hospitals including Baharan, Clinic of Psychiatric Ali-ibn-Abi-Talib Hospital (in Zahedan City), and Amir-al Momenin Psychiatric Hospital (in Zabol City), Sistan and Baluchestan Province, southeast Iran in 2016. They were analyzed using LAMP, and compared with the previous data of nested-PCR and serology. Results: Out of the 118 schizophrenic individuals, 56 patients (47.4%) were found to be infected with T. gondii. The diagnosis of toxoplasmosis was confirmed in 41 patients (34.7%) via the nested-PCR. The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in schizophrenic patients was 55.9% (66/118). Conclusion: We found a high efficiency of LAMP method in identifying toxoplasmosis and its high prevalence among schizophrenic patients. Our findings could provide viable offer implications for the prevention of schizophrenia.

تناول البحث بالاستقراء والدراسة حديث معاذ بن جبل في غزوة تبوك والذي ذكر فيه جمعَ النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم الصلاة. والحديث يدور على رواية أبي الزبير عن أبي الطفيل عامر بن واثلة عن معاذ بن جبل، وصح الحديث وعرف عن مدارات متعددة عن أبي الزبير منها: مالك بن أنس، وزهير بن حرب، وقرة بن خالد وغيرهم، ممن اتفق الرواة بالرواية عنه. بيد أنه وقع اختلاف على مدارين رئيسين من مدارات هذا الحديث عن أبي الزبير؛ المدار الأول: الليث بن سعد عن هشام بن سعد عن أبي الزبير، ليكشف البحث عن الوهم والخطأ الواقع في روايته سندًا ومتنًا، فوقعت العلة في روايته عن الليث عن يزيد بن أبي حبيب عن أبي الطفيل عن معاذ بن جبل وذكر فيه جمع التقديم. وأما المدار الثاني: فهو مدار الثوري عن أبي الزبير، والذي بين البحث وقوع بعض الرواة عن الثوري في أوهام رغم ثقتهم، أبدل أحد هذه الأوهام راويًا بآخر، وقلب الآخر حديثًا على حديث. ويؤكد البحث أهمية جمع المرويات والمقارنة بينها، والبحث الدقيق في كل القرائن المرافقة للرواية والرواة، وصولًا إلى قرائن التعليل التي تكشف أخطاء الرواة الثقات، وأن هذا دأب نقاد الحديث في حكمهم على المرويات، وعدم اغترارهم بظواهر الإسناد. الكلمات المفتاحية: الحديث، العلة، المدار، الاختلاف، الوهم، الخطأ. The research deals with extrapolation and study of the hadith of Muadh bin Jabal in the Battle of Tabuk, in which he mentioned the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, combined prayer. The hadeeth is based on the narration of Abu al-Zubayr on behalf of Abu al-Tafil Amer bin Wathleh on behalf of Muadh ibn Jabal, and the hadith was authentic and known about multiple subjects on behalf of Abu al-Zubayr, including Malik bin Anas, Zuhair bin Harb, Qara bin Khalid, and others, from whom the narrators' agreed with the narration. However, there was a difference in the two main subjects of this hadith on the authority of Abu Al-Zubayr. The first subject: Al-Layth bin Saad, on behalf of Hisham bin Saad, on behalf of Abi Al-Zubayr, to reveal the search for the illusion and error in his narration, a bond and a body. As for the second subject: it is the subject of al-Thawri n behalf of Abu al-Zubayr, and the research showed that some narrators on the revolutionary had fallen into illusions despite their confidence. The research confirms the importance of collecting and comparing narratives between them, and carefully researching all the clues accompanying the novel and the narrators, leading to clues of reasoning that reveal the errors of trusted narrators, and that this is the persistence of hadith critics in their judgment of the narrations, and not being deceived by the phenomena of attribution. Key words: speech, cause, orbit, difference, illusion, error.

Over the past century, many books for general readers have styled sharks as “monsters of the deep” (Steele). In recent decades, however, at least some writers have also turned to representing how sharks are seriously threatened by human activities. At a time when media coverage of shark sightings seems ever increasing in Australia, scholarship has begun to consider people’s attitudes to sharks and how these are formed, investigating the representation of sharks (Peschak; Ostrovski et al.) in films (Le Busque and Litchfield; Neff; Schwanebeck), newspaper reports (Muter et al.), and social media (Le Busque et al., “An Analysis”). My own research into representations of surfing and sharks in Australian writing (Brien) has, however, revealed that, although reporting of shark sightings and human-shark interactions are prominent in the news, and sharks function as vivid and commanding images and metaphors in art and writing (Ellis; Westbrook et al.), little scholarship has investigated their representation in Australian books published for a general readership. While recognising representations of sharks in other book-length narrative forms in Australia, including Australian fiction, poetry, and film (Ryan and Ellison), this enquiry is focussed on non-fiction books for general readers, to provide an initial review. Sampling holdings of non-fiction books in the National Library of Australia, crosschecked with Google Books, in early 2021, this investigation identified 50 Australian books for general readers that are principally about sharks, or that feature attitudes to them, published from 1911 to 2021. Although not seeking to capture all Australian non-fiction books for general readers that feature sharks, the sampling attempted to locate a wide range of representations and genres across the time frame from the earliest identified text until the time of the survey. The books located include works of natural and popular history, travel writing, memoir, biography, humour, and other long-form non-fiction for adult and younger readers, including hybrid works. A thematic analysis (Guest et al.) of the representation of sharks in these texts identified five themes that moved from understanding sharks as fishes to seeing them as monsters, then prey, and finally to endangered species needing conservation. Many books contained more than one theme, and not all examples identified have been quoted in the discussion of the themes below. Sharks as Part of the Natural Environment Drawing on oral histories passed through generations, two memoirs (Bradley et al.; Fossa) narrate Indigenous stories in which sharks play a central role. These reveal that sharks are part of both the world and a wider cosmology for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Clua and Guiart). In these representations, sharks are integrated with, and integral to, Indigenous life, with one writer suggesting they are “creator beings, ancestors, totems. Their lifecycles reflect the seasons, the landscape and sea country. They are seen in the movement of the stars” (Allam). A series of natural history narratives focus on zoological studies of Australian sharks, describing shark species and their anatomy and physiology, as well as discussing shark genetics, behaviour, habitats, and distribution. A foundational and relatively early Australian example is Gilbert P. Whitley’s The Fishes of Australia: The Sharks, Rays, Devil-fish, and Other Primitive Fishes of Australia and New Zealand, published in 1940. Ichthyologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney from the early 1920s to 1964, Whitley authored several books which furthered scientific thought on sharks. Four editions of his Australian Sharks were published between 1983 and 1991 in English, and the book is still held in many libraries and other collections worldwide. In this text, Whitley described a wide variety of sharks, noting shared as well as individual features. Beautiful drawings contribute information on shape, colouring, markings, and other recognisable features to assist with correct identification. Although a scientist and a Fellow and then President of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Whitley recognised it was important to communicate with general readers and his books are accessible, the prose crisp and clear. Books published after this text (Aiken; Ayling; Last and Stevens; Tricas and Carwardine) share Whitley’s regard for the diversity of sharks as well as his desire to educate a general readership. By 2002, the CSIRO’s Field Guide to Australian Sharks & Rays (Daley et al.) also featured numerous striking photographs of these creatures. Titles such as Australia’s Amazing Sharks (Australian Geographic) emphasise sharks’ unique qualities, including their agility and speed in the water, sensitive sight and smell, and ability to detect changes in water pressure around them, heal rapidly, and replace their teeth. These books also emphasise the central role that sharks play in the marine ecosystem. There are also such field guides to sharks in specific parts of Australia (Allen). This attention to disseminating accurate zoological information about sharks is also evident in books written for younger readers including very young children (Berkes; Kear; Parker and Parker). In these and other similar books, sharks are imaged as a central and vital component of the ocean environment, and the narratives focus on their features and qualities as wondrous rather than monstrous. Sharks as Predatory Monsters A number of books for general readers do, however, image sharks as monsters. In 1911, in his travel narrative Peeps at Many Lands: Australia, Frank Fox describes sharks as “the most dangerous foes of man in Australia” (23) and many books have reinforced this view over the following century. This can be seen in titles that refer to sharks as dangerous predatory killers (Fox and Ruhen; Goadby; Reid; Riley; Sharpe; Taylor and Taylor). The covers of a large proportion of such books feature sharks emerging from the water, jaws wide open in explicit homage to the imaging of the monster shark in the film Jaws (Spielberg). Shark!: Killer Tales from the Dangerous Depths (Reid) is characteristic of books that portray encounters with sharks as terrifying and dramatic, using emotive language and stories that describe sharks as “the world’s most feared sea creature” (47) because they are such “highly efficient killing machines” (iv, see also 127, 129). This representation of sharks is also common in several books for younger readers (Moriarty; Rohr). Although the risk of being injured by an unprovoked shark is extremely low (Chapman; Fletcher et al.), fear of sharks is prevalent and real (Le Busque et al., “People’s Fear”) and described in a number of these texts. Several of the memoirs located describe surfers’ fear of sharks (Muirhead; Orgias), as do those of swimmers, divers, and other frequent users of the sea (Denness; de Gelder; McAloon), even if the author has never encountered a shark in the wild. In these texts, this fear of sharks is often traced to viewing Jaws, and especially to how the film’s huge, bloodthirsty great white shark persistently and determinedly attacks its human hunters. Pioneer Australian shark expert Valerie Taylor describes such great white sharks as “very big, powerful … and amazingly beautiful” but accurately notes that “revenge is not part of their thought process” (Kindle version). Two books explicitly seek to map and explain Australians’ fear of sharks. In Sharks: A History of Fear in Australia, Callum Denness charts this fear across time, beginning with his own “shark story”: a panicked, terror-filled evacuation from the sea, following the sighting of a shadow which turned out not to be a shark. Blake Chapman’s Shark Attacks: Myths, Misunderstandings and Human Fears explains commonly held fearful perceptions of sharks. Acknowledging that sharks are a “highly emotive topic”, the author of this text does not deny “the terror [that] they invoke in our psyche” but makes a case that this is “only a minor characteristic of what makes them such intriguing animals” (ix). In Death by Coconut: 50 Things More Dangerous than a Shark and Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of the Ocean, Ruby Ashby Orr utilises humour to educate younger readers about the real risk humans face from sharks and, as per the book’s title, why they should not be feared, listing champagne corks and falling coconuts among the many everyday activities more likely to lead to injury and death in Australia than encountering a shark. Taylor goes further in her memoir – not only describing her wonder at swimming with these creatures, but also her calm acceptance of the possibility of being injured by a shark: "if we are to be bitten, then we are to be bitten … . One must choose a life of adventure, and of mystery and discovery, but with that choice, one must also choose the attendant risks" (2019: Kindle version). Such an attitude is very rare in the books located, with even some of the most positive about these sea creatures still quite sensibly fearful of potentially dangerous encounters with them. Sharks as Prey There is a long history of sharks being fished in Australia (Clark). The killing of sharks for sport is detailed in An American Angler in Australia, which describes popular adventure writer Zane Grey’s visit to Australia and New Zealand in the 1930s to fish ‘big game’. This text includes many bloody accounts of killing sharks, which are justified with explanations about how sharks are dangerous. It is also illustrated with gruesome pictures of dead sharks. Australian fisher Alf Dean’s biography describes him as the “World’s Greatest Shark Hunter” (Thiele), this text similarly illustrated with photographs of some of the gigantic sharks he caught and killed in the second half of the twentieth century. Apart from being killed during pleasure and sport fishing, sharks are also hunted by spearfishers. Valerie Taylor and her late husband, Ron Taylor, are well known in Australia and internationally as shark experts, but they began their careers as spearfishers and shark hunters (Taylor, Ron Taylor’s), with the documentary Shark Hunters gruesomely detailing their killing of many sharks. The couple have produced several books that recount their close encounters with sharks (Taylor; Taylor, Taylor and Goadby; Taylor and Taylor), charting their movement from killers to conservationists as they learned more about the ocean and its inhabitants. Now a passionate campaigner against the past butchery she participated in, Taylor’s memoir describes her shift to a more respectful relationship with sharks, driven by her desire to understand and protect them. In Australia, the culling of sharks is supposedly carried out to ensure human safety in the ocean, although this practice has long been questioned. In 1983, for instance, Whitley noted the “indiscriminate” killing of grey nurse sharks, despite this species largely being very docile and of little threat to people (Australian Sharks, 10). This is repeated by Tony Ayling twenty-five years later who adds the information that the generally harmless grey nurse sharks have been killed to the point of extinction, as it was wrongly believed they preyed on surfers and swimmers. Shark researcher and conservationist Riley Elliott, author of Shark Man: One Kiwi Man’s Mission to Save Our Most Feared and Misunderstood Predator (2014), includes an extremely critical chapter on Western Australian shark ‘management’ through culling, summing up the problems associated with this approach: it seems to me that this cull involved no science or logic, just waste and politics. It’s sickening that the people behind this cull were the Fisheries department, which prior to this was the very department responsible for setting up the world’s best acoustic tagging system for sharks. (Kindle version, Chapter 7) Describing sharks as “misunderstood creatures”, Orr is also clear in her opposition to killing sharks to ‘protect’ swimmers noting that “each year only around 10 people are killed in shark attacks worldwide, while around 73 million sharks are killed by humans”. She adds the question and answer, “sounds unfair? Of course it is, but when an attack is all over the news and the people are baying for shark blood, it’s easy to lose perspective. But culling them? Seriously?” (back cover). The condemnation of culling is also evident in David Brooks’s recent essay on the topic in his collection of essays about animal welfare, conservation and the relationship between humans and other species, Animal Dreams. This disapproval is also evident in narratives by those who have been injured by sharks. Navy diver Paul de Gelder and surfer Glen Orgias were both bitten by sharks in Sydney in 2009 and both their memoirs detail their fear of sharks and the pain they suffered from these interactions and their lengthy recoveries. However, despite their undoubted suffering – both men lost limbs due to these encounters – they also attest to their ongoing respect for these creatures and specify a shared desire not to see them culled. Orgias, instead, charts the life story of the shark who bit him alongside his own story in his memoir, musing at the end of the book, not about himself or his injury, but about the fate of the shark he had encountered: great whites are portrayed … as pathological creatures, and as malevolent. That’s rubbish … they are graceful, mighty beasts. I respect them, and fear them … [but] the thought of them fighting, dying, in a net upsets me. I hope this great white shark doesn’t end up like that. (271–271) Several of the more recent books identified in this study acknowledge that, despite growing understanding of sharks, the popular press and many policy makers continue to advocate for shark culls, these calls especially vocal after a shark-related human death or injury (Peppin-Neff). The damage to shark species involved caused by their killing – either directly by fishing, spearing, finning, or otherwise hunting them, or inadvertently as they become caught in nets or affected by human pollution of the ocean – is discussed in many of the more recent books identified in this study. Sharks as Endangered Alongside fishing, finning, and hunting, human actions and their effects such as beach netting, pollution and habitat change are killing many sharks, to the point where many shark species are threatened. Several recent books follow Orr in noting that an estimated 100 million sharks are now killed annually across the globe and that this, as well as changes to their habitats, are driving many shark species to the status of vulnerable, threatened or towards extinction (Dulvy et al.). This is detailed in texts about biodiversity and climate change in Australia (Steffen et al.) as well as in many of the zoologically focussed books discussed above under the theme of “Sharks as part of the natural environment”. The CSIRO’s Field Guide to Australian Sharks & Rays (Daley et al.), for example, emphasises not only that several shark species are under threat (and protected) (8–9) but also that sharks are, as individuals, themselves very fragile creatures. Their skeletons are made from flexible, soft cartilage rather than bone, meaning that although they are “often thought of as being incredibly tough; in reality, they need to be handled carefully to maximise their chance of survival following capture” (9). Material on this theme is included in books for younger readers on Australia’s endangered animals (Bourke; Roc and Hawke). Shark Conservation By 1991, shark conservation in Australia and overseas was a topic of serious discussion in Sydney, with an international workshop on the subject held at Taronga Zoo and the proceedings published (Pepperell et al.). Since then, the movement to protect sharks has grown, with marine scientists, high-profile figures and other writers promoting shark conservation, especially through attempts to educate the general public about sharks. De Gelder’s memoir, for instance, describes how he now champions sharks, promoting shark conservation in his work as a public speaker. Peter Benchley, who (with Carl Gottlieb) recast his novel Jaws for the film’s screenplay, later attested to regretting his portrayal of sharks as aggressive and became a prominent spokesperson for shark conservation. In explaining his change of heart, he stated that when he wrote the novel, he was reflecting the general belief that sharks would both seek out human prey and attack boats, but he later discovered this to be untrue (Benchley, “Without Malice”). Many recent books about sharks for younger readers convey a conservation message, underscoring how, instead of fearing or killing sharks, or doing nothing, humans need to actively assist these vulnerable creatures to survive. In the children’s book series featuring Bindi Irwin and her “wildlife adventures”, there is a volume where Bindi and a friend are on a diving holiday when they find a dead shark whose fin has been removed. The book not only describes how shark finning is illegal, but also how Bindi and friend are “determined to bring the culprits to justice” (Browne). This narrative, like the other books in this series, has a dual focus; highlighting the beauty of wildlife and its value, but also how the creatures described need protection and assistance. Concluding Discussion This study was prompted by the understanding that the Earth is currently in the epoch known as the Anthropocene, a time in which humans have significantly altered, and continue to alter, the Earth by our activities (Myers), resulting in numerous species becoming threatened, endangered, or extinct. It acknowledges the pressing need for not only natural science research on these actions and their effects, but also for such scientists to publish their findings in more accessible ways (see, Paulin and Green). It specifically responds to demands for scholarship outside the relevant areas of science and conservation to encourage widespread thinking and action (Mascia et al.; Bennett et al.). As understanding public perceptions and overcoming widely held fear of sharks can facilitate their conservation (Panoch and Pearson), the way sharks are imaged is integral to their survival. The five themes identified in this study reveal vastly different ways of viewing and writing about sharks. These range from seeing sharks as nothing more than large fishes to be killed for pleasure, to viewing them as terrifying monsters, to finally understanding that they are amazing creatures who play an important role in the world’s environment and are in urgent need of conservation. This range of representation is important, for if sharks are understood as demon monsters which hunt humans, then it is much more ‘reasonable’ to not care about their future than if they are understood to be fascinating and fragile creatures suffering from their interactions with humans and our effect on the environment. Further research could conduct a textual analysis of these books. In this context, it is interesting to note that, although in 1949 C. Bede Maxwell suggested describing human deaths and injuries from sharks as “accidents” (182) and in 2013 Christopher Neff and Robert Hueter proposed using “sightings, encounters, bites, and the rare cases of fatal bites” (70) to accurately represent “the true risk posed by sharks” to humans (70), the majority of the books in this study, like mass media reports, continue to use the ubiquitous and more dramatic terminology of “shark attack”. The books identified in this analysis could also be compared with international texts to reveal and investigate global similarities and differences. While the focus of this discussion has been on non-fiction texts, a companion analysis of representation of sharks in Australian fiction, poetry, films, and other narratives could also be undertaken, in the hope that such investigations contribute to more nuanced understandings of these majestic sea creatures. 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The mobile phone found its way to the Philippines when the first generation of Global Systems for Mobile Communication or GSM handsets was introduced in the country in 1994. This GSM protocol eventually developed to introduce a faster and more efficient means of storing, manipulating, and transmitting data by allowing data to be translated into a series of ones and zeroes. Digital technology furthered the mobile phone’s potentials from being a mere “talking device on the move” (Leung and Wei 316) to a more dynamic participant in the new information age. The capacity to merge all forms of binary data enabled mobile phones to allow convergent services such as chatting, voice-mail, news updates, e-mailing, Internet browsing, and even the dissemination of image and audio files. Apart from the allure of the possibilities of digital communication, the mobile phone was also welcomed in the Philippines because of its convenience; it provided the country, especially the rural areas where telephones are unavailable or inaccessible, with a modern means of communication. A survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) in 2001 reveals the extent of the dissemination of this technology in the Philippines: “Out of the 15 million households in the Philippines, an estimated 2.5 million have a cellular phone, of which 2.3 million have text-messaging capacity. For the entire nation, text-messaging is available to 15% of all households in general, but it is available to 53% of ABC households in particular. Of the 2.3 million text-capable households in the nation, 800 thousand are in Metro Manila.” Of the 80 million Filipinos, there are now 22 million mobile phone owners in the country compared to only 6.7 million subscribed landlines (Lallana 1). Of the various digital applications of the mobile phone, text messaging is still considered to be the most exploited service in the Philippines. A voice call placed through the mobile phone would typically cost around six to seven pesos per minute while a text message costs a peso per message. Corollary, a typical Filipino now sends an average of ten messages every day, contributing to a daily traffic of over 300 million text messages (Pertierra 58). This has led to the popular notion of the Philippines as the “texting capital of the world” (Pertierra et al. 88). In Text-ing Selves, a study that examines the use of mobile phones in the country, Pertierra and other researchers argue that texting has made it possible to create new unsurveilled and unconventional human relationships. In one case cited in the book, for example, a male and a female texter met after an accidental exchange of text messages. Although initially they were very reserved and guarded, familiarity between the two was fostered greatly because the medium allowed for an anonymous and uncommitted communication. Eventually, they met and shortly after that, got engaged. A second instance involved a person who exchanged phone numbers with his friends to pursue strangers and win new friends by texting. He engaged in virtual or text-based “affairs” with women, which would later on result to actual physical sex. Another case examined was that of an 18-year old bisexual who met “textmates” by participating in interactive Text TV chatrooms. Although he eventually met up with individuals to have sex, he professed to use the Text TV mainly to create these virtual relationships with persons of the same sex. (Pertierra et al. 64-89) It is because of the considerable popularity of the medium and the possible repercussions of such curious relationships and interpersonal communication patterns that the phenomenon of mobile phone use, particularly that of texting, in the Philippines is worthy of systematic scrutiny. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relational context being created through this wireless messaging system. An exploratory study, this research examines the contributions of the texting technology that allowed development of romantic relationships among its users. Ultimately, this paper aims to identify what makes texting a novel romantic device in the Philippines. The framework in the understanding of relationship development through texting incorporates Malcolm Parks’ theory of relationship life cycle and network (352). In his proposal, interpersonal relationships of all types are usually conceptualized as developing from the impersonal to the personal along a series of relatively specific dimensions: increases in interdependence, in the variety and intimacy of interaction, in interpersonal predictability and understanding, in the change toward more personalized ways of communicating and coordinating, in commitment, and in the convergence of the participants’ social networks. According to Parks (359-68), relationships move within the constructive character of communication that involves the interaction of the structure and content of communication between the participants. Thus, the researcher would like to identify the relationship between these seven factors of relationship development and the texting technology. This research identified the attributes of the texting technology along the seven dimensions of Park’s theory of relational development. Qualitative data was obtained and explored in the light of the concepts presented in the related literature, particularly the theoretical discourses of Paul Levinson and Raul Pertierra et al. A total of 43 respondents, 21 males and 22 females, were selected through purposive sampling to derive exploratory data through the in-depth interview method. Texting and Interdependence Unwritten Rule of Texting Respondents revealed that their relationships developed with their respective partners because texting made them more dependent on each other. “It became a habit” (Emmy). Partners texted each other as often as they could, until they have established themselves as regular textmates. One respondent’s day would also be influenced by his partner’s text message: “Kapag hindi siya nakakapagtext, nami-miss ko siya (If she doesn’t text, I miss her). Her simple ‘good morning’s’ can really help me start my day right.” At this level of the relationship, texters always had the compulsion to keep the communication constantly moving. One respondent attributed this to the “unwritten rule of texting.” Clara elaborated: You know there’s this unwritten rule in texing: once a person has texted you, you have to reply. If you don’t reply, the person will automatically think you ignored him or her on purpose. So you have to reply no matter what. Even when you really have nothing to say, you’re forced to come up with something or give your opinion just to keep the conversation going. Immediacy and Accessibility Some respondents exhibited interdependence by “reporting” or informing each other of the happenings in their individual lives. Arnel shared: Ang ilang pinakanatulong sa amin ng texting ay to inform each other kung saan na kami at kung anong pinagkakaabalahan namin at a specific time, especially kung hindi kami magkasama. (One of the greatest aid of texting in our relationship is that it enables us to inform each other about where we are and what we are doing at a specific time, especially if we are not together). He also added that texting allows them to organize their schedules as well as to logistically set meeting times or inform the other of one’s tardiness. Texting also allowed for the individuals in the relationship to influence each other’s thoughts, behaviors, and actions. “Kapag nagkukuwento siya kung anong nangyari sa kaniya tapos tingin ko mali, pinagsasabihan ko siya (If she tells me stories about what happened to her and then I see that there’s something wrong with it, I admonish her)” (Jesus). Jack summarized how the texting technology facilitated these indicators of interdependence between romantic partners: There’s a feeling of security that having a cellphone gives to a certain person, because you know that, more often than not, you can and will be reached by anyone, anywhere, anytime, and vice versa. So when I need comfort, or someone to listen, or I need to vent, or I need my boyfriend’s opinion, or I need his help in making a decision, it’s really relieving to know that he’s just a text or phone call away. These responses from the participants in a texting romantic relationship confirm Paul Levinson’s arguments of the mobile phone’s feature of accessibility. In the book Cellphone: The Story of the World’s Most Mobile Medium and How it has Transformed Everything! he mentions that the mobile phone technology, particularly texting, permits users to make instant, immediate and direct delivery of messages. He further explains that texting can be a romancing tool because before there was the mobile phone, people placing call through the telephone had to make sure that the persons they are asking out on a date are at home when the phone rings (Levinson 97). Texting and Depth: Privacy and Levinson’s Silence Texting also facilitated an efficient exchange of a variety of important, intimate, and personal topics and feelings for most of the respondents. A number of respondents even confessed that they could go as intimate as exchanging sexual messages with their partners. One respondent revealed that he could text his partner anything “kahit nga text sex pwede rin eh (even ‘sex text’ is allowed).” But mostly, the text exchanges consisted of intimate romantic feelings that one could not manage to say in person. Richard shared: “For example, through text we can say ‘I love you’ to each other. Aside from that, nasasabi ko rin yung mga problems na hindi ko masabi ng harapan (I could tell her about my problems that I could not say face-to-face).” Arnel, a homosexual, attributed this ease of transmitting intimate and personal topics and feelings to the texting technology’s unique feature of privacy. “Kasi wari bang nakakalikha ng pribadong espasyo yung screen ng phone mo na kahit na magkalayo kayo” (Because the mobile phone screen is able to create a private space that even if you are far from each other) physically, the virtual space created by that technology is apparent. Because no one can hear you say those things or no one else can read [them], assuming na hindi pinabasa sa ibang tao o hindi nakita (that it is not allowed to be read or seen by others) (Arnel). Arnel’s discussion of the private space that allows for intimate exchanges links up with Paul Levinson’s silence as one of the biggest benefit of the texting technology. Texting permits receivers to view their messages in private as opposed to having others in the environment hear and know about their particular communication or simply even just the fact that they are communicating (Levinson 112-14). Anonymity RJ would associate this capability to swap intimate information between partners to texting’s provision for anonymity. In texting, there is the element of anonymity, thus, you can feel more comfortable with sharing more intimate messages. As opposed to a face-to-face conversation wherein you would tend to hold back some feelings or thoughts because of fear of outright rejection. Personally, I consider that factor as a very important element in the development of our relationship. Because I am not really the aggressive-frank type of guy, I tend to hold back in telling her intimate things face to face. The feature of anonymity that the respondents mentioned seems to refer to one characteristic that Pertierra, et al. (91) outlined in their book. They wrote that communication through texting has also efficiently incorporated meaning, intention, and expressions allowing texters to say what is normally unsayable in face-to-face contexts. This clearly points to the comfort that the respondents identified when they’d share about intimate details like their exes and other information that a typical “non-aggressive-frank guy, who fears outright rejection,” would. Autonomy Perhaps an additional feature that might be closely related to privacy and anonymity is the autonomous nature of the texting technology. Homosexuals like Jetrin took advantage of this feature to facilitate unconventional same-sex affairs: “Unlike pagers, mobile phones are not monitored, therefore I can pretty much say what I want to the other person. I get to express myself more clearly and intimate[ly]”. Because of this absence of censorship, texters can confidently say “’I love you’ or ‘I want to throw you against the wall and make you feel like a cheap whore’ (Jetrin)” without having to concern themselves about a third-party processing their messages. Texting and Breadth Expressing Real and Virtual Emotions Because of these various constraints, respondents started to locate other avenues to communicate with their partners. Thus, the breadth of the relationship increased. Other means of communication that the respondents mentioned are face-to-face encounters, voice phone calls (either landline or mobile phone), e-mail, chat (YM, ICQ, Web cam, etc.), and even snail mail. However way they decided to extend their communication beyond texting, almost all of them declared that it is still texting that instigated this movement to another medium. One respondent said “Of course text ang taga-initiate (initiates) and then more ways [follow] after.” Although texting employs a dualistic nature of beneficial anonymity and uncertainty between exchanging partners, a number of respondents still express optimism about the texting technology’s capacity to bridge the gap between expressing real and virtual emotions. Some claimed that “even [in] text [there is] personality; smiling face, exclamation points, feelings are still communicated.” RG also expressed that “yung mga smileys nakakatulong sa pag-express ng emotions (smileys help in expressing emotions).” Jake added that “qualities like the smiley faces and sad faces you can make using the punctuation marks, etc. can really add warmth and depth to text messages.” Texting and Commitment Regularity Since most of the couples in a romantic relationship did not have the luxury of time to meet up in person or talk over the phone regularly, the frequency of texting became a distinct indication about their commitment to their relationships. “To commit is to be there for the person, 24/7. Texting helps in achieving that despite of the barriers in time and distance” (Von). Didith showed the other end of this phenomenon: “When he texted less and less in the course of the relationship, it made me doubt about … his commitment.” This regularity of texting also provided for strengthening the bond and connection between partners that ultimately “As we share more and more of our lives with each other, more trust develops…and the more trust you instill in each other, the more you expect the relationship to be stronger and more lasting” (Jack). Convenience and Affordability Some respondents pointed out texting’s convenient nature of linking partners who are rather separated by physical and geographical limits. Richard used texting to contact his partner “kasi malayo kami sa isa’t-isa, lalo na kapag umuuwi siya sa Bulacan. Texting ang pinakamadali, cheapest, and convenient way para makapag-communicate kami (because we are far from each other, especially if she goes home to Bulacan. Texting is the fastest, cheapest, and convenient way for us to communicate).” This “presence” that strengthens the commitment between partners, as suggested by most of the respondents, indicates the capacity of the mobile phone to transform into an extension of the human body and connect partners intimately. Texting, Predictability and Understanding Redundancy Some of the respondents agreed that it is the regularity of texting that enabled them to become more capable of understanding and predicting their partner’s feelings and behaviors. Tina articulated this: “Probably due to redundancy, one can predict how the other will react to certain statements.” Jake also expressed the same suggestion: Texting in our relationship has become a routine, actually. Texting has become like talking for us. And the more we text/talk, the more we get to know each other. Nagiging sanay na kami sa ugali at pag-iisip ng isa’t-isa (We become used to each other’s attitudes and thinking). So it’s inevitable for us to be able to predict one another’s reactions and thoughts to certain topics. Because we get to a point wherein we feel like we know each other so well, that when we are able to correctly predict a feeling or behavior, we find it amusing. In the end, the regularity of the interaction brought about learning. “I’ve learned much of her from texting. I knew that she becomes disappointed with certain things or she really appreciates it when I do certain things. It became easier for me to learn about her thoughts, feelings, etc.” (RJ) Managing of Contextual Cues A lot of the respondents mentioned that their understanding and predictability of their partners was also heightened by the context of the construction of the messages that were being transmitted. “If there are smiley faces, then we’re okay. No cute expressions mean we’re in a serious mode” (Didith). “Either an added word, a missing word, or a word out of place in the message gives me the clue” (Jake). The textual structure and signs became instrumental into the translation of how to perceive another’s feelings or reactions. “For example, pag normal, sweet words yung nasa text, may mga ‘I love you,’ mga ganon. Pero kung galit siya, may iba. Minsan ‘Oo’ lang yung sagot. Kaya mas nakikilala ko pa siya through text (For example, on a normal circumstance, her text would contain sweet words like ‘I love you.’ But if she’s mad, it’s different. At times, she would just reply with a mere ‘yes.’ That’s why I get to know her more through text)” (Richard). Texting and Communicative Change Own Private World Texting allowed respondents to create special languages that they used to interact with their own partners. It is an inherent characteristic of texting that limits messages up to 360 characters only, and it becomes almost a requirement to really adapt a rather abbreviated way of writing when one has to send a message. In this study however, it was found that the languages that respondents created were not the usual languages that the general public would use or understand in texting – it even went beyond the usual use of the popular smileys. Respondents revealed that they created codes that only they and their respective partners understood in their “own private world” (Jackie, Emma). “How I text him is different from how I text other people so I don’t think other people would understand what I’m telling him, and why the manner is so if they read our messages” (Anika). Leana shared an example: My partner and I have created special nicknames and shortcuts that only the two of us know and understand. Kunyari (For example), we have our own way of saying ‘I love you’ or ‘I miss you.’ To send a kiss… we use a set of characters different from the usual. Basta secret na namin ‘yon (It is our secret). Fun Majority of the respondents identified communicative code change as the most exciting and fun part in texting. “It is one of the best things about relating with someone through texting. It is one of the most fun things to do” (Mario). And the amusement that this interaction caused was not only limited in the virtual environment and the textual context. “It is one of the fun things about our texting and it even carries over when we are together personally” (Justin). “Since words are what we have, we play with them and try to be creative. Para masaya, exciting (So that it is fun and exciting)” (Charm). Incidentally, this sense of fun and excitement is also one of the attributes that Pertierra and his co-authors mentioned in their book Txt-ing Selves (Pertierra et al. 140): “Many see texting as an opportunity for fun.” Texting and Network Convergence Texting also made network convergence possible among partners, and their respective social circles, in a romantic relationship. Because the respondents engaged in non-stop texting, their friends and family started to notice their change in behavior. “People become curious… They want to know the person I text with every minute of every day… I guess people can tell when a person’s in love, even when it has only developed through texting” (Clara). Jake shared a very likely scenario: “If you get text messages when you’re with your friends/family and you laugh at the message you receive, or just react to whatever you receive, you’d have to make kwento (tell) who you’re texting to make sense of your reactions.” Others though, readily announced their relationships to everyone: “I’ll text my friends first na ‘Uy, may bago ako.’ (I will text my friends first that: ‘Hey, I have a new girlfriend.’)” (Richard). But sometimes, texters also introduced their partners to people outside their friends and family circles. “Sometimes, it even goes beyond personal. Example, if my ‘new partner’ who has never met any of my friends and family need help with something (business, academic, etc.) then I introduce him to someone from my circle who can be of help to him” (Jetrin). Network convergence could also take place through and within the medium itself. Respondents revealed that their family and friends actually interact with each other through texting without necessarily having the opportunity to meet in person. Pauline shared: “Ate (My older sister)… used to send text messages to him before to ask where I am. And my mom stole his number from my phone ‘just in case’.” Didith and her boyfriend also experienced having their friends involved in the dynamics of their relationship: “During our first major quarrel, he texted and called my friend to ask what I was mad about. Likewise, when we have a minor spat, I call his friend to vent or ask about him.” Conclusion This study establishes the texting technology’s capacity as a romancing gadget. As the interview participants pointed out, because of the technology’s capacity to allow users to create their own world capable of expressing real and virtual emotions, and managing contextual cues, texters were able to increase their dependence and understanding of one another. It also allowed for partners to exchange more personal and intimate information through an instant and private delivery of messages. The facilitation of communicative change made their relationship more exciting and that the texting medium itself became the message of commitment to their relationship. Finally, texting also led the partners to introduce one another to their families and friends either through the texting environment or face-to-face. Ultimately, texting became their means to achieving intimacy and romance. Texting offered a modern communication medium for carrying out traditional gender roles in pursuing romance for the heterosexual majority of the respondents. However, the messaging tool also empowered the homosexuals and bisexuals involved in the study. The highly private and autonomous textual environment enabled them to explore new and unorthodox romantic and even sexual relations. Moreover, texting may be considered as a venue for “technological foreplay” (Nadarajan). Almost all of those who have used texting to sustain their intimacy indicated the choice to expand to other modes of communication. Although relationships set in a purely virtual environment actually exist, the findings that these relationships rarely stay virtual point to the idea that the virtual setting of texting becomes simply just another place where partners get to exercise their romance for each other, only to be further “consummated” perhaps by a face-to-face contact. Data gathering for this research revealed a noteworthy number of respondents who engage in a purely virtual textual relationship. A further investigation of this occurrence will be able to highlight the capacity of texting as a relationship gadget. Long distance relationships sustained by this technology also provide a good ground for the exploration of the text messaging’s potentials as communication tool. References Lallana, Emmanuel. SMS, Business, and Government in the Philippines. Manila: Department of Science and Technology, 2004. Leung, Louis, and Ran Wei. “More than Just Talk on the Move: Uses and Gratifications of the Cellular Phone.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 77 (2000): 308-320. Levinson, Paul. Cellphone: The Story of the World’s Most Mobile Medium and How It Has Transformed Everything! New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. Mangahas, Malou. “For the Little History of EDSA-2.” Social Weather Station 26 Jan. 2001. 31 Jan. 2005 http://www.sws.org.ph/>. Nadarajan, Gunalan. Personal communication with the author. 2004. 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(Mar. 2007) "Texting Love: An Exploration of Text Messaging as a Medium for Romance in the Philippines," M/C Journal, 10(1). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0703/05-solis.php>.