Academic literature on the topic 'Madrasa – Mali – Histoire'

AbstractThis article endeavours to shed new light on the meaning of the ten Muslim male figures depicted in the central vault of the Hall of Justice in the Alhambra. First, new chronologies are attempted for the hall and the painting according to historical evidence contained in chronicles and literary sources. The study of the architectural frame of the paintings, interpreted as a madrasa-zawiya, suggests a relationship between the painting and the books intended to be kept below it. Therefore, an analysis of the emir's literary entourage is basic for the interpretation of the ceiling. Finally, the question of armouries and shields to be found in the vault is taken into account to demonstrate that some of this work may have been re-elaborated by Christians after taking possession of the palaces. The shields and the concept of the Order of the Band are too far from Islamic tradition as to belong to the original design of this painting, as critical examination of the Order's internal code shows.

A January night in 1913 found the two renowned Cambridge mathematicians G.H. Hardy and J.E. Littlewood, in the latter’s rooms in Trinity College, poring over an unsolicited manuscript of mathematical formulae, which had arrived that morning in Hardy’s mail. The letter was from a 25-year-old Hindu clerk, Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), who lived in Madras and was as regards mathematics entirely self-educated. Many mathematicians receive letters from cranks and hoaxers, but it was at once obvious that this author was no crank, since not one of his theorems, as E.H. Neville later pointed out, could have been set in even the most advanced mathematics examination in the world. The suspicion of a hoax by a competent mathematician, where familiar theorems are skilfully disguised, was dispelled by Hardy’s recognition that a few of the results defeated him completely; he had never seen anything the least like them before. ‘A single look at them is enough to show that they could only be written down by a mathematician of the highest class’. When they parted that night both Hardy and Littlewood were satisfied that their Indian correspondent was a mathematical genius, and within weeks Littlewood was comparing him with Jacobi, the great German master of formulae. This famous episode bore immediate fruit for Ramanujan. Hardy at once joined forces with others in Madras in obtaining a research studentship for him so that he could pursue mathematical research full-time, and in arranging his coming to Trinity College, Cambridge in April 1914 to work with Hardy and to have first-hand contact with European mathematicians.

This chapter introduces the first of my two case studies. It discusses the location and history of Shahjahanpur (and Farrukhabad district) in west UP and the personal history of Sayyid Sahib, the founder of the madrasa. Employing Winkelmann’s concept of ‘core families’, it lays out the web of connections, both familial and Sufi-based, between the leading male administrators of the madrasa. Since the Sufi connections go back to Ahmad Raza Khan’s younger son, Mustafa Raza Khan (d. 1981), the chapter also discusses the contemporary genealogical history and politics of Ahmad Raza Khan’s descendants, in what is a very polarized and politicized environment in Bareilly today. I employ the concept of adab to understand the overall ethos of the madrasa as well as generational and gendered relationships, and the tension between different sources of authority such as age versus knowledge.