Journal articles on the topic 'Pre-Islamic South Arabian Religion'

Recited several times as part of the Muslim daily prayers basiamo contains three definite nouns: Allah, Raḥmān and Raḥmīm ([…]; bismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm). Especially the epithet […] ( Raḥmān – “the Merciful”), which is found in the Sabaean inscriptions in the form RḤMNN (Raḥmānān), has a relatively long history in the Middle East. The study of the pre-Islamic Arabic cultures provides the context of numerous religious interactions in the evolution of Raḥmān's meaning. RḤMNN – used by Polytheist Arabs, Jews and Christians – is constantly confirmed in inscriptions, particularly from the so-called “Late Sabaean Period” (after 380) that were associated with Monotheism. During that time Judaism and Christianity attempted to replace the traditional South Arabian religion. Muhammad might have borrowed this name from three sources, which were present in his milieu. RḤMNN – [...] understood by Jews and Christians as “Lord, the Merciful, Master of Heaven” was useful for Islam, the new Monotheistic religion. On the other hand, in South Arabia RḤMNN signified a Moon-god, whom Muhammad even occasionally confused with “Allah” or used as a substitute for “Allah”.

Background. Islam is the second largest religion in South Asia, with more than 600 million Muslims living there, making up about a third of the region's population. The history of Islam in South Asia began along the coastal regions of the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, after its beginnings in the Arabian Peninsula. Purpose. This research was made to thoroughly explore the history of Islamic civilization in the modern era in South Asia and Southeast Asia. With this research, it is hoped that it can add insight to the readers in the study of the history of Islamic civilization and can answer various questions about when Islam entered South Asia and Southeast Asia, how the process and impact on the people who live there, and who plays an important role in the spread of Islam on both continents. Method. The data collected will be analyzed by identifying the themes, arguments or main ideas in the texts and analyzing how they influenced and were influenced by the development of Islamic civilization in Southeast and South Asia. Results. Southeast Asia is home to the largest Muslim population in the world. Islam is the majority religion in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam. Islam in Southeast Asia was spread through the activities of traders and Sufis. Unlike other Islamic regions of the world, it was spread through the Arab and Turkish conquests. Conclusion. Thus the presentation of material about Islamic Civilization in Southeast Asia and South Asia and how the method of its spread. We as writers realize that the results of the papers we compile are far from perfect, for the future we will try to be even better in presenting writing or discussion.

In island Southeast Asia, since the first centuries of the Muslim era, the Hadhramaut Arab diaspora has been steadily present. Arabs controlled maritime trade south of the Arabian Peninsula since pre-Islamic times. They have long traded with India, and sometimes sailed even further to their cherished goal - the Spice Islands (Moluccas). With the advent of Islam, the presence of Arabs in the ports of the Archipelago increased and was generally perceived positively: they acted as bearers and preachers of the new religion. Over time, their business contacts with the local merchant community grew stronger. The most powerful influx of Arabs to Nusantara dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. Subsequently, with the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), this process gained even greater scope. Over the years, the aliens, step by step, won a place for themselves in the field of commerce, in agriculture and shipbuilding, Islamic preaching and diplomacy, education and politics. Some of them laid the foundation for new Malay dynasties (the sultanates of Siak and Kalimantan, 18th century) or simply entered the circle close to local rulers. Since the beginning of the twentieth century Arab merchants participate in the organization of the first political parties in Indonesia. The paper briefly examines the biographies of some members of the Hadhramaut aristocracy, Sayyids and Sharifs, who took a prominent place in the cultural, economic and political life of Malaysia and Indonesia in the pre-colonial and post-colonial era.

This study describes the values contained in Hadrah art in Pontianak, West Kalimantan. Hadrah is closely related to Islamic art because the poetry that is sung contains praise for the Creator and Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and advice. Using qualitative research methods with an anthropological approach. Data collection techniques used interviews, observation, literature study, and data validity testing by extending observations and triangulation. Based on the data analysis, it can be concluded that Hadrah art has existed in Pontianak since the 17th century. This art was brought by traders from Hadramaut Arabian Peninsula, South Yemen. Initially, this art was used as a means of spreading Islam in the city of Pontianak. Along with the development of the times, this art is used as a spectacle to entertain the audience. In Hadrah art there are several values, among others, the value of truth, beauty, morals, and religion. Through the values contained in the art of Hadrah, it can form human beings who believe and fear Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, have noble character according to the example of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and become good citizens.

The pre-Islamic history of the Arabian Peninsula and the history of Islam show what different communities have united and continue to unite religion, and it is in history that we find the factors that divide the Arab people and the Islamic world. The complexity of these relationships stretches from the past, and modern realities only add problems and questions.

This paper describes one of the reasons why Islam is so embedded in the identity and the culture of Bugis society. By studying some works of literature about Darul Islam in South Sulawesi and the Bugis pre-Islamic religion, the Islamization process in South Sulawesi was colored by fears, terror, and massacre. It was in Darul Islam Era, under Kahar Muzakar, when Bugis pre-Islamic religion was brutally replaced by Islam since the gerombolan wanted to establish Indonesia Islamic State (NII). This paper also offers a description of Indonesian politics in micro view, the local history of the politics in South Sulawesi. Keywords:Islamization, Darul Islam, Bugis, and Kahar Muzakar

AbstractThis paper attempts to reconstruct aspects of the phonology and morphology of the Arabic of the Islamic conquests on the basis of Greek transcriptions in papyri of the first Islamic century. The discussion includes phonemic and allophonic variation in consonants and vowels, and nominal morphology. The essay concludes with a discussion on possible Aramaic and South Arabian influences in the material, followed by a short appendix with remarks on select Arabic terms from the pre-Islamic papyri.

As one of the oldest Arab society, Nabataeans had an important role in the development of Arabian thought from the ancient times of history until the birth of the Islam. All kinds of background knowledge that shaped the world of pre-Islamic Arab society contribute to the understanding of the Quran. John F. Healey’s work provides detailed information regarding the history, religion and culture of Nabataeans. The thought that the introduction and examination of Healey’s work will provide important details to the academy in terms of Ancient Arab history has led us to evaluate this book.  

Abstract References to the pilgrimage in the Qur’an, called ḥajj and ʿumra, are often very brief, but recent studies have shown that most of what is gleaned from the Qur’an about the practice can find parallels in pilgrimages to other sites in Arabia. In this article, I read the Qur’anic data on ḥajj and ʿumra in the light of Arabian inscriptions that mention pilgrimage rituals. In particular, the annual pilgrimage to the Awām Temple in Ma’rib in South Arabia, about which we know a great deal, can shed light on the larger context of the ritual in pre-Islamic Arabia. I argue based on a discussion of Qur’anic and epigraphic materials that the ḥajj and ʿumra of the Qur’an share many elements with other Arabian pilgrimages, but the Qur’an clearly expresses discontent with certain practices of pre-Islamic pilgrimage such as ritual hunt while endorsing or approving others such as the procession between the hills of al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa. Most importantly, I contend that the Qur’an attempts to decouple pilgrimage and animal sacrifice especially due to the latter’s strong association with physical objects of veneration called awthān and nuṣub in the Qur’an.

This paper deals with a secret language (kalamo) spoken by the Anakara clan of the Antaimoro tribe in the south-east of Madagascar. According to their own tradition, they migrated to the island between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, from the Arabian peninsula. Their sacred writings (sorabe) are written in Arabic script in a mixture of Malagasy and Arabic. The secret language kalamo contains a large number of Arabic loanwords, as well as Malagasy words that have been coded by various phonological processes. The analysis of the loanwords helps to elucidate the origin of the kalamo, which may contain elements of a pre-existing Arabic pidgin. Their phonetic form shows that the Islamic migrants in Madagascar may indeed have come originally from the Arabian peninsula.

This study aims to determime the pre-marital education curriculum used by the office of Religious Affairs of Ciputat Sub-District, South Tangerang City and describe the learning process of pre-marital education, as well as describe inhibiting factors in the implementation of pre-marital education. The method used is descriptive qualitative, this research uses a case study approach that only focuses on one phenomenon.Data collection techniques by conducting observations, interviews and documentation. The analysis uses is data reduction, presenting the data, the drawing conclusions. In this study, the respondents were extention workers from the Office of Religious Affairs (KUA). Thus study concludes that the curriculum used in KUA, Ciputat Sub-District South Tagerang City is the curriculum contained in the regulation of the DirectorGeneral of Islamic Community Guidence No. DJ/II/542 of 2013 concernig guidelines for the implementation of pre-marriage Guidence Module prepared by the Directorate of KUA and Family Sakinah, the Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance, Ministry of Religion of Republic of Indonesia. The module contains debriefing materials of families and various solutions to problems in the family. While the learning process in pre-marital educations is prepared by being given a special module for prospective brides with the title Sakinah Family Development, Directorate General of Islamic Community Guidance. Ministry of Religion, RI with 16 hours of lessons per week. The obstacles in pre-merital education contained in internal factors, namely insfrastructure. While the external factor in pre-merital education is the lack of public awereness in attending pre-marital education.

This paper aims to discuss Islamic renewal in the field of family law by focusing on gender equality. The unfair treatment of women within pre-Islamic Arabian society was the starting point for Islamic renewal in the field of law, especially of family law. Such treatment was not in line with the principles contained in Islam, i.e., to bring mercy to all worlds. This study used a normative descriptive-analytical method and a sociological-historical approach. The data analyzed came from articles, books, and various references related to the topic. The study concludes that as a religion that brings mercy to all people, Islam reforms the behaviors detrimental to women; yet, the reform is not the end result, in which it is highly likely that it will be updated in the future for the benefit of the community universally. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding is needed in understanding Islamic law related to gender relations between men and women. This study also reveals that socio-historically men and women have a balanced and equal relationship with each other.

Muslims in their connection to Islam are of two types: the first is the general Muslims, who are the majority, and the second is the scholars, who are the minority. Generally, Muslims practice the rituals, customs, and traditions of their religion through the ideas produced by the scholars. The scholars’ output varies between fatwas and intellectual opinions. On the other hand, the teachings of this religion, which shaped the people of the Arabian Peninsula differently from the pre-Islamic era, were not documented and preserved. Instead, they were confined to oral culture when the state decided to prohibit the documentation of prophetic traditions at the beginning of the Rashidun era. The early Muslims, according to these instructions, preferred oral narration as it was the easiest means available to convey ideas to others. Thus, Islamic intellectual production became captive to human memory due to the prohibition of writing and documentation at that time. As Muslims developed, life forced them to resort to documentation, or what scholars call “the restriction of knowledge.” However, this happened after the situation had become complicated, landmarks had changed, and people who were not originally from the Arabian Peninsula had entered and played a role in this documentation. At the same time, they had their own goals, interests, and conflicts, which negatively affected the documentation process. Since politics has the final say, political decisions and orientations had the upper hand in documentation. Because politics is characterized by oppression, dominance, and tyranny, the historical documentation of events in the early stages of Islam was one of the results of this political tyranny. This negatively reflected and produced oppressive results that played a significant role in changing the mentality of the Muslim individual and their doctrinal affiliation in particular, which is the focus of this research.

This article deals with the history of pre-Islam Arabia. It talks about, politics, economics, cultures and religions. It tries to explore the situation of the civilization which was decline, while the civilization of Arab rise up. Most of Arabia is the victim of natur amaligna. The geological process is responsible for its shape and outline, a huge quadric lateral placed between two continents. At the time, trading, breeding and farming was most populer in society south arabia and north-arabia, but in Hijaz (Mecca) was impossible because the area is wiped out. They believed on paganism, because Judism and Cristianity were not popular

There is no other period within the pre-islamic history of Arabia providing such a number of different – literary and epigraphical – documents as the conflict between the ḥimyarites and the Abyssinians. In the 520s these struggles having also a strong religious-political connotation culminated in defeating and killing the South Arabian King Yūsuf (ḏū Nuwās) and the occupation of large parts of the Yemen by the Abyssinians, who were supported by the then great power Byzantium. Taking into consideration the current state of research the article gives a review of the course of events.

Since prehistoric times, the geography of the Arabian Peninsula had a great impact on the growth and development of centers of civilization and maritime hubs. Indeed, starting from the third millennium BC, a number of urban centers of civilization have emerged in the Arab region such as Mesopotamia, Magān (old name of Oman), Dilmun (Bahrain), Pharaonic Egypt, Phoenicia, the Nabataeans, and the ancient South Arabia (Yemen) where such centers reached a high level of development and growth. Arab trade reached a peak in the 1st millennium BC due to the commerce of frankincense and myrrh. The Arabs, who had mastered sea navigation through geographical and astronomical knowledge and had a great experience of maritime routes as well as the secrets of the monsoon and boat industry, dominated the vast eastern trade. During the fourth century AD, the world began to see signs of serious conflicts with religious dimensions and huge political and economic consequences. Furthermore, the lucrative Arab trade of incense lost its importance because of the demise of paganism in the Middle East and Europe. With the emergence of Islam, the Arabs regained their lost maritime domination in the Indian Ocean.

Since prehistoric times, the geography of the Arabian Peninsula had a great impact on the growth and development of centers of civilization and maritime hubs. Indeed, starting from the third millennium BC, a number of urban centers of civilization have emerged in the Arab region such as Mesopotamia, Magān (old name of Oman), Dilmun (Bahrain), Pharaonic Egypt, Phoenicia, the Nabataeans, and the ancient South Arabia (Yemen) where such centers reached a high level of development and growth. Arab trade reached a peak in the 1st millennium BC due to the commerce of frankincense and myrrh. The Arabs, who had mastered sea navigation through geographical and astronomical knowledge and had a great experience of maritime routes as well as the secrets of the monsoon and boat industry, dominated the vast eastern trade. During the fourth century AD, the world began to see signs of serious conflicts with religious dimensions and huge political and economic consequences. Furthermore, the lucrative Arab trade of incense lost its importance because of the demise of paganism in the Middle East and Europe. With the emergence of Islam, the Arabs regained their lost maritime domination in the Indian Ocean.

Abstract Recent scholarship in Islamic studies has proposed ambiguity, especially in the form of literary metaphor and paradox, as integral to pre-modern Islam. However, literary ambiguity has also afforded an interpretive lens for articulations of modern Muslim identity. This article analyzes how two metaphors for the self – the nightingale and the falcon – function in Persian and Urdu ghazals of Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938), for whom the resources of pre-modern Sufi poetry, especially ambiguity and paradox, become a method of meaning-making for the modern era. Iqbal’s use of these metaphors presents a nuanced view of the tensions between the inheritances of tradition and the demands of modernity for South Asian Muslims in the colonial era, and allows us to attend to the intersections of religion, literature, and politics in modern Islamic thought from the point of view of languages, genres, and geographies that remain marginal to the field of Islamic Studies.

Despite the recent efforts which were recently made in this field of study, our knowledge of the pre-Christian religion of Aksumite Northern Ethiopia remains very limited. This article presents the contribution that archaeology can make to debate on this topic. In particular, some archaeological finds from Betä Giyorgis, north of Aksum, and from Aksum itself which can be related to the cult of the snake and to the practice of human sacrifices are described. These finds, dating from the Proto-Aksumite (3rd–1st centuries B.C.) and the first part of the Aksumite (1st–4th centuries A.D.) periods, may support the reality of the cult of the snake and of the practice of human sacrifices, two elements characterizing the Ethiopian traditions related to Arwe, the mythic snake-king of Aksum. In the conclusions, these specific aspects which may have characterized the pre-Christian Ethiopian religion are put in a broader regional context, compared to what is known about similar cultic traits in the Nile valley, in the Near East, and in South Arabia. Possible links to be explored with further research covering the different traditions are suggested. Moreover, a possible evolution in the meaning of the snake in Ethiopia, from benevolent and helpful entity to dangerous monster, and, finally, to symbol of sin, is outlined.

<p>India, because of including a collection of religions and religious minorities altogether in itself, especially in this modern era, is a remarkable case of study and consideration. This study also, as an anthropological research and in order to get familiar with the religious identity of Muslims and Shias of Mysore in particular, has played its role. This project is a case study about the Shia Muslims in Mysore; it has also a historical look upon formation of cultural identity of Shias in India. During the reign of the Arab traders, they brought Islam into the South Indian state of Karnataka almost as soon as the faith was initiated in Arabia. Along with their faith, Muslims brought many products to the region. The Islamic presence and power in the state reached its greatest heights during the reigns of Hyder Ali and his son Tippu Sultan. Though killed by the British in 1799, Tippu Sultan was one of the only national leaders to defeat the British in battle and is still considered a hero for many Indians. The internal structure of Indian Muslims as a religio-ethnic group was quite complex. Shias Islam has deep-rooted influence in present and history of India from North to South with various Shia Muslim dynasties ruling Indian provinces from time to time.</p>

The Rasulids arrived in South Arabia towards the end of the sixth/twelfth century as Turkoman officers in the Ayyubid military. Thereafter they established a dynasty that lasted until the mid-ninth/fifteenth century. At the height of their power at the end of the seventh/thirteenth century, an effort to further buoy their political legitimacy was undertaken by resituating their ethnic origins to South Arabia. This first appeared within a genealogy that simultaneously showed their emergence from the complex web of descent of the local tribes, as well as juxtaposed them with the rulers of the Islamic Caliphate and elevated them above other contemporary political groups in South Arabia. However, after the Rasulid military was increasingly challenged over the course of the eighth/fourteenth century and the dynasty’s influence in the region and the wider Islamic world continued to dissipate, the assertion of their local origins was greatly fleshed out into a narrative at the beginning of a dynastic chronicle of the early ninth/fifteenth century. This prologue explains more explicitly how they first emigrated from South Arabia in the pre-Islamic period only to then return in the late medieval period as its rightful rulers. Overall, the construction of this origin story points to the Rasulids’ attempt to take on a new strategy of identification through the appropriation of South Arabian cultural memory in order to strengthen their political status.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges and opportunities of the luxury market in Iran as an Islamic country. The focus is on religion as a factor that can make some challenges for luxury products, and then to find opportunities or similarities in Muslim markets due to the luxury consumption. Design/methodology/approach – As it is a literature review article, the authors used past research works and compared different perspectives that exist about the topic. Findings – It was concluded that although implementing a market-oriented culture is central to the marketers’ success, it is not right to just focus on religion as a separating factor that can isolate the Muslim’s market. It was suggested to change one's viewpoint and analyze the market with a broader vision that can bring innovative ideas and also find similarities and differentiations between Islamic luxury markets with non-Islamic luxury markets. Originality/value – Muslim consumers have a huge purchasing power in countries such as Egypt, Iran, India, Malaysia, Morocco, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. However, there is limited academic literature addressing luxury products in the context of these markets. Luxury purchase motivation is predominantly based on Western thoughts and markets. As Iran as a Muslim country can be an appropriate target market of luxury goods, analyzing the challenges and opportunities can be a useful guide to be successful in this market.

No political system could ever evolve in isolation fr om the environment in which it emerged. Similarly, no particular system can be understood as stagnant. It is actually the culmination or an improved form of a long historical growth. Keeping in view this synopsis, Islamic political institutions could be placed in the time and space in which the salient political features and social trends of the Jahiliyah Arabia and the neighboring political cultures contributed to their foundation and evolution. In addition to the compact political structures of Aksum, Rome and Persia, and then Byzantine and Sassanid on the borders, internally the pre-Islamic Arabs had a diverse mechanism for managing their affairs. The Arabian South experienced organized governance as compared to the north and central regions. This diversity can be attributed to the geo-strategic location and ecological environment of the peninsula. The fertile South was more supportive to the growth of a political mechanism than the arid, geopolitically more vulnerable north and central regions. In a nutshell, a proper study of the less discussed Jahiliyah politics could minimize assumptions about the complete lawlessness and political unawareness of the Arabs in politics and governance.

AbstractThe mystical method of taḥqīq (‘realization’ or ‘verification’ of divine truth), as promoted by the Andalusian thinker Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240), was central to the project of managing religious difference in the Mughal empire. The key architect of deploying taḥqīq for imperial purposes was emperor Akbar's senior minister, ideologue, and spiritual devotee, Abu al-Fazl. Specifically, I analyse how the concept of taḥqīq appears in Abu al-Fazl's 1587 preface to the Razmnāma (‘Book of War’), the first translation into Persian of the Sanskrit religious epic Mahābhārata. The Mughal Razmnāma was a monumental achievement, the foremost product of Akbar's push to translate non-Islamic religious works into Persian. In its elaborate preface, Abu al-Fazl clearly outlines that this translation was an exercise in taḥqīq, made possible by a sovereign who had achieved spiritual perfection, and he calls the Mughal empire a ‘Caliphate of Taḥqīq’. As such, this study bridges two scholarly conversations which have been previously distinct. One is the renewed focus in Islamic studies on Ibn ‘Arabi's ideas, specifically on taḥqīq in the late medieval and early modern periods across the Islamic world. The other is the recent interest in Mughal historiography on ṣulḥ-i kull (Total Peace). This article positions Ibn ‘Arabi's taḥqīq within an elite Persianate intellectual milieu that carried the concept to Mughal South Asia, and it demonstrates, through an analysis of the Razmnāma's preface, that taḥqīq was politicized by Abu al-Fazl and Akbar to develop the imperial policy of managing religious difference, which came to be known as ṣulḥ-i kull.

Islam as a religion that came 14 centuries ago certainly could not escape the established civilization and culture, the plains of Arabia as the birthplace of Islam was indeed not a mainstream area of world civilization at that time, but this does not mean that Arabia is a land without capabilities and culture. It was recorded that before Islam was born, the commerce carried out by the Arabs had reached various regions outside the Arabian Peninsula, apart from that their penchant for literature made people in the Arab plains as people who had high language quality. However, many historians have created a gap between Islam and pre-Islamic Arab traditions through contrasting moral and ideological demarcations. Pre-Islamic Arab society was perceived as an ignorant society, then Islam came to liberate it. To some extent, the claim is not entirely false. However, this generalization has a negative influence in building historical criticism. This paper will focus on the dialectical relationship between local culture and Islam, especially the early Islam and the local cultural traditions of Arab society through the perspective of the Prophet's traditions. is a qualitative descriptive method by using a type of library research (Library Research) That is by reviewing books or written data that is continuous with the writing of this journal. In this case, the researcher analyzes some data that is relevant to the title being discussed. The findings in this study are that there has been reconciliation between culture and Islam since the early days of Islam, one of the evidences is the addition of the call to prayer at Friday prayers twice during the reign of Sayyidina Uthman bin Affan and this continues until now.

This study examines the role of Bugis women in the pre-Islamic era as strengtheners of local wisdom culture in South Sulawesi. Bugis women not only function as family members, but also as the main movers in various aspects of religion and culture. As the main madrasah for their children, through their expertise in oral traditions and cultural customs that they uphold, women play an important role in preserving and transmitting cultural values ​​to the next generation. In addition, they are active in managing natural resources, organizing social life, and involving themselves in traditional ceremonies that are markers of community identity. Thus, Bugis women make a significant contribution to maintaining and strengthening local wisdom, which is the foundation for the life of the Bugis community. This study uses qualitative methods with analysis of historical documents, interviews, and direct observation. The results of the study show that Bugis women have a significant contribution to strengthening cultural identity, both through ritual practice and in managing natural resources. Therefore, this article highlights the importance of the role of women in building and maintaining local wisdom that is characteristic of the Bugis community.

Palopo city space as the center of Tana Luwu cannot be separated from the significance of the oldest kingdom in South Sulawesi. The entry of the Islamic religion in Luwu was marked by the Jami Mosque, which is located at the zero points of Palopo city. The preservation of pre-Islamic heritage and after the entry of Islam in the present tends to not a dichotomy in two different meanings. The research is aimed to explore the semiotic meaning of the Jami Mosque, which has become an icon in Palopo City. The research used the ethnomethodology method within the framework of the semiotics paradigm to obtain contextual meaning as well as the application of a new approach in architecture semiotics study. The results show that the Jami Mosque keeps the complexity of meaning, which can be the foundation of conservation philosophy and planning of the built environment. The cosmos axis of Palopo city space and the territory of Luwu become the central point of religious civilization, especially in Islamic cosmology. The space transformation is represented by ‘posi bola’ (house pole). The symbolic ‘posi bola’ moves from the palace to the Jami mosque as the axis of Luwu space in the Islamic era. The horizontal slice of the pole has implications on the particular geometrical patterns of Luwu. The elements of structure and construction of buildings become a symbol of Islamic teachings.

ABSTRACTOn a global and regional scale, Indonesia has one of the least environmentally sustainable economies in the Asia-Pacific region. Consumption is one of the key factors contributing to environmental degradation. By using materialism and environmental knowledge as mediators, this study aimed to understand how religiosity affects ethical consumption. This research used quantitative methods with structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis techniques based on partial least squares (PLS). The data came from a questionnaire distributed online. 153 valid questionnaires were selected for analysis. All respondents came from Indonesia, were adults (from 18 years old), and were Muslims. Findings show that religiosity influences ethical consumption, materialism, and environmental knowledge. This research also reveals that materialism and environmental knowledge influence ethical consumption, as well as the mediating effect of materialism and environmental knowledge on the influence between religiosity and ethical consumption. So, all hypotheses from this research can be accepted. These findings contribute theoretically to explaining the relationship between religiosity, materialism, environmental knowledge, and ethical consumption. Thus, this findings contribute to the field of Islamic economics. Practically, the findings of this research can help marketers formulate communication strategies that take into account the level of religiosity of consumers in Indonesia. Marketers must avoid unethical practices to encourage ethical consumption.Keywords: Religiosity, ethical consumption, materialism, environmental knowledge ABSTRAKPada skala global dan regional, Indonesia merupakan salah satu negara dengan perekonomian paling tidak ramah lingkungan di kawasan Asia-Pasifik. Konsumsi merupakan salah satu faktor utama yang berkontribusi terhadap degradasi lingkungan. Dengan menggunakan materialisme dan enviromental knowledge sebagai mediator, penelitian ini berupaya memahami bagaimana religiosity mempengaruhi ethical consumption. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan teknik analisis Structural Equation Model (SEM) berbasis Partial Least Square (PLS). Data berasal dari kuesioner yang disebarkan online. 153 kuesioner yang valid dipilih untuk analisis. Seluruh responden berasal dari Indonesia, dewasa (mulai 18 tahun) dan beragama Islam. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa religiosity berpengaruh terhadap ethical consumption, materialism, dan environmental knowledge. Selain itu juga diketahui bahwa materialism dan environmental knowledge berpengaruh ethical consumption, serta adanya efek mediasi dari materialism dan environmental knowledge pada pengaruh antara religiosity dan ethical consumption. Sehingga, semua hipotesis penelitian ini dapat diterima. Secara praktis, temuan penelitian ini dapat membantu pemasar untuk merumuskan strategi komunikasi yang mempertimbangkan tingkat religiosity konsumen di Indonesia. Pemasar harus menghindari praktik tidak etis untuk mempromosikan ethical consumption.Kata Kunci: Religiosity, ethical consumption, materialism, environmental knowledge REFERENCES Adib, H., & El-Bassiouny, N. (2012). Materialism in young consumers: An investigation of family communication patterns and parental mediation practices in Egypt. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 3(3), 255–282. doi:10.1108/17590831211259745 Adil, M. (2022). Influence of religiosity on ethical consumption: The mediating role of materialism and guilt. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 13(10), 2173–2192. doi:10.1108/JIMA-01-2020-0035 Al-Aidaros, A., Shamsudin, F. M., & Idris, K. M. (2013). Ethics and ethical theories from an Islamic perspective. International Journal of Islamic Thought, 4(1), 1–13. doi:10.24035/ijit.04.2013.001 Al Glenid, M. A., Al Sabbagh, A. L. T. E., Ba Kader, A. B. A., Izzidien, M. Y. S., & Llewellyn, O. A.. (1994). Environmental protection in Islam. Bonn, Germany: IUCN Environmental Law Centre (ELC) Alzubaidi, H., Slade, E. L., & Dwivedi, Y. K. (2021). Examining antecedents of consumers’ pro-environmental behaviours: TPB extended with materialism and innovativeness. Journal of Business Research, 122, 685–699. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.01.017 Bakar, A., Lee, R., & Hashim, N. H. (2013). Parsing religiosity, guilt and materialism on consumer ethics. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 4(3), 232–244. doi:10.1108/JIMA-04-2012-0018 Barnett, C., Cloke, P., Clarke, N., & Malpass, A. (2005). Consuming ethics: Articulating the subjects and spaces of ethical consumption. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 37(1), 23–45. doi:10.1111/j.0066-4812.2005.00472.x Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173-1182. Belk, R. W., Ger, G., & Askegaard, S. (2003). The fire of desire: A multisited inquiry into consumer passion. Journal of Consumer Research, 30(3), 326–351. doi:10.1086/378613 Carrier, J. G. (2010). Protecting the environment the natural way: Ethical consumption and commodity fetishism. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 42(3), 672–689. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00768.x Clayton, S., Devine-Wright, P., Swim, J., Bonnes, M., Steg, L., Whitmarsh, L., & Carrico, A. (2016). Expanding the role for psychology in addressing environmental challenges. American Psychologist, 71(3), 199–215. doi:10.1037/a0039482 Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. (2019). Research methodology and design. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin Cornish, L. S. (2013). Ethical consumption or consumption of ethical products? An exploratory analysis of motivations behind the purchase of ethical products. Advances in Consumer Research, 41, 337-341 Davies, I. A., & Gutsche, S. (2016). Consumer motivations for mainstream “ethical” consumption. European Journal of Marketing, 50(7/8), 1326–1347. doi:10.1108/EJM-11-2015-0795 Dávila, J. F., Casabayó, M., & Singh, J. J. (2017). A World beyond Family: How external factors impact the level of materialism in children. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 51(1), 162–182. doi:10.1111/joca.12103 Delistavrou, A., Katrandjiev, H., & Tilikidou, I. (2017). Understanding ethical consumption: Types and antecedents. Economic Alternatives, 4, 612–633. Dhir, A., Sadiq, M., Talwar, S., Sakashita, M., & Kaur, P. (2021). Why do retail consumers buy green apparel? A knowledge-attitude-behaviour-context perspective. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 59, 1-11. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102398 Doh, J. P., Tashman, P., & Benischke, M. H. (2019). Adapting to grand environmental challenges through collective entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Perspectives, 33(4), 450–468. doi:10.5465/amp.2017.0056 Eden, S., Bear, C., & Walker, G. (2008). Mucky carrots and other proxies: Problematising the knowledge-fix for sustainable and ethical consumption. Geoforum, 39(2), 1044–1057. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2007.11.001 Felix, R., & Braunsberger, K. (2016). I believe therefore I care: The relationship between religiosity, environmental attitudes, and green product purchase in Mexico. International Marketing Review, 33(1), 137–155. doi:10.1108/IMR-07-2014-0216 Forghani, E., Sheikh, R., Hosseini, S. M. H., & Sana, S. S. (2022). The impact of digital marketing strategies on customer’s buying behavior in online shopping using the rough set theory. International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, 13(2), 625–640. doi:10.1007/s13198-021-01315-4 Ghali-Zinoubi, Z. (2022). Examining drivers of environmentally conscious consumer behavior: Theory of planned behavior extended with cultural factors. Sustainability, 14(13). doi:10.3390/su14138072 Graafland, J. (2017). Religiosity, attitude, and the demand for socially responsible products. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(1), 121–138. doi:10.1007/s10551-015-2796-9 Guerra, J., Schmidt, L., & Valente, S. (2016). Dilemmas of sustainability in turbulent times: The portuguese case in context. In Green European: Environmental Behaviour and Attitudes in Europe in a Historical and Cross-Cultural Comparative Perspective, 221–242. London: Routledge Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–152. doi:10.2753/MTP1069-6679190202 Harun, T. W. R., Rashid, R. A., & Hamed, A. B. (2015). Factors influencing products’ knowledge of Islamic banking employees. Journal of Islamic Studies and Culture, 3(1), 23–33. doi:10.15640/jisc.v3n1a4 Haryono. (2016). Metode SEM untuk penelitian manajemen dengan AMOS 22.00, LISREL 8.80 dan Smart PLS 3.0. Jakarta: Luxima Metro Media Hope, M., & Young, J. (1967). Islam and Ecology. Retrieved from http://ruby.fgcu.edu/courses/twimberley/EnviroPol/EnviroPhilo/IslamAndEcology.pdf Hurlock, E. B. (2006). Psikologi perkembangan. Jakarta: Erlangga Irandust, M., & Bamdad, N. (2014). The role of customer’s believability and attitude in green purchase intention. Kuwait Chapter of Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 3(7), 242–248. Jogiyanto. (2011). Konsep dan aplikasi SEM berbasis varian dalam penelitian bisnis.Yogyakarta: UPP STIM YKPN Junaidi, J., Wicaksono, R., & Hamka, H. (2022). The consumers’ commitment and materialism on Islamic banking: the role of religiosity. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 13(8), 1786–1806. doi:10.1108/JIMA-12-2020-0378 Jung, H. J., Kim, H. J., & Oh, K. W. (2016). Green leather for ethical consumers in China and Korea: Facilitating ethical consumption with Value–Belief–Attitude logic. Journal of Business Ethics, 135(3), 483–502. doi:10.1007/s10551-014-2475-2 Kalamas, M., Cleveland, M., & Laroche, M. (2014). Pro-environmental behaviors for thee but not for me: Green giants, green Gods, and external environmental locus of control. Journal of Business Research, 67(2), 12–22. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.03.007 Kamis, N. S., & Wahab, N. A. (2022). Investigating the level and determinants of hibah knowledge: A study among Muslims in Kedah, Malaysia. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, 13(3), 486–513. doi:10.1108/JIABR-05-2020-0167 Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan, (2018). Khan, M. N., & Kirmani, M. D. (2018). Role of religiosity in purchase of green products by Muslim students: Empirical evidences from India. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 9(3), 504–526. doi:10.1108/JIMA-04-2017-0036 Kushwah, S., Dhir, A., & Sagar, M. (2019). Ethical consumption intentions and choice behavior towards organic food. Moderation role of buying and environmental concerns. Journal of Cleaner Production, 236. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.350 McCullough, M. E., & Willoughby, B. L. B. (2009). Religion, Self-Regulation, and Self-Control: Associations, Explanations, and Implications. Psychological Bulletin, 135(1), 69–93. doi:10.1037/a0014213 Michel, J. F., Mombeuil, C., & Diunugala, H. P. (2022). Antecedents of green consumption intention: A focus on generation Z consumers of a developing country. Environment, Development and Sustainability. doi:10.1007/s10668-022-02678-9 Minton, E. A., Johnson, K. A., & Liu, R. L. (2019). Religiosity and special food consumption: The explanatory effects of moral priorities. Journal of Business Research, 95, 442–454. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.041 Mostafa, M. M. (2007). Gender differences in Egyptian consumers’ green purchase behaviour: The effects of environmental knowledge, concern and attitude. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31(3), 220–229. doi:10.1111/j.1470-6431.2006.00523.x Nassani, A. A., Badawi, M., Confetto, M. G., Palazzo, M., Ferri, M. A., & Haffar, M. (2023). Towards ethical consumption activities among tourism firms: Nexus of environmental knowledge, CSR participation and psychological social support. Sustainability, 15(5). doi:10.3390/su15054675 Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. F. (2012). Muslim integration into western cultures: Between origins and destinations. Political Studies Association, 60(2), 228–251. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00951.x Pagiaslis, A., & Krontalis, A. K. (2010). Green consumption behavior antecedents: Environmental concern, knowledge, and beliefs. Psychology & Marketing, 31(5), 335–348. doi:10.1002/mar.20698 Polonsky, M., Kilbourne, W., & Vocino, A. (2014). Relationship between the dominant social paradigm, materialism and environmental behaviours in four Asian economies. European Journal of Marketing, 48(3/4), 522–551. doi:10.1108/ejm-07-2011-0351 Raggiotto, F., Mason, M. C., & Moretti, A. (2018). Religiosity, materialism, consumer environmental predisposition. Some insights on vegan purchasing intentions in Italy. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 42(6), 613–626. doi:10.1111/ijcs.12478. Richins, M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer Research, 19(3), 303-316. doi:10.1086/209304 Roberts, J. A. (1995). Profiling levels of socially responsible consumer behavior: A cluster analytic approach and its implications for marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 3(4), 97–117. doi:10.1080/10696679.1995.11501709 Sadiq, M., Bharti, K., Adil, M., & Singh, R. (2021). Why do consumers buy green apparel? The role of dispositional traits, environmental orientation, environmental knowledge, and monetary incentive. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2021.102643 Shapiro, J. (2019). China’s environmental challenges. Cambridge: Polity Sharif, K. (2016). Investigating the key determinants of Muslim ethical consumption behaviour amongst affluent Qataris. Journal of Islamic Marketing, 7(3), 303–330. doi:10.1108/JIMA-01-2015-0001 Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., Lee, D. J., Nisius, A. M., & Yu, G. B. (2013). The Influence of love of money and religiosity on ethical decision-making in marketing. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(1), 183–191. doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1334-2 Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan. (2021). Sistem Informasi Pengelolaan Sampah Nasional. Retriebed from https://sipsn.menlhk.go.id/sipsn/ Solomon, M. R. (2010). Consumer behaviour: A European perspective. New Jersey: Pearson Education Stávková, J., & Turčínková, J. (2005). Consumer choice process when purchasing the staple food. Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská Ekonomika), 51(9), 389–394. doi:10.17221/5125-agricecon Ulusoy, E. (2015). The role of religion in anti-consumption tendencies: Religiosity as a different form of consumer resistance. In Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the 2012 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference, 51–53. Usmani, S., & Ejaz, A. (2020). Consumer buying attitudes towards counterfeit and green products: Application of social comparison theory and materialism. South Asian Journal of Management Sciences, 14(1), 82–103. doi:10.21621/sajms.2020141.05 Webster, Jr., F. E. (1975). Determining the characteristics of the socially conscious consumer. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(3), 188-196. doi:10.1086/208631 Wilson, J. A. J., & Hollensen, S. (2013). Assessing the implications on performance when aligning customer lifetime value calculations with religious faith groups and afterlifetime values-A Socratic elenchus approach. International Journal of Business Performance Management, 14(1), 67–94. doi:10.1504/IJBPM.2013.050588 Wooliscroft, B., Ganglmair-Wooliscroft, A., & Noone, A. (2014). The hierarchy of ethical consumption behavior: The Case of New Zealand. Journal of Macromarketing, 34(1), 57–72. doi:10.1177/0276146713508560 Yadav, R., Balaji, M. S., & Jebarajakirthy, C. (2019). How psychological and contextual factors contribute to travelers’ propensity to choose green hotels? International Journal of Hospitality Management, 77, 385–395. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.08.002 Yadav, R., & Pathak, G. S. (2016). Young consumers’ intention towards buying green products in a developing nation: Extending the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 732–739. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.120

This study aims to understand the religious traditions in Tanjung Medan Village, which are an integral part of the social and cultural life of the local community. This study used descriptive qualitative methods with a religious anthropological approach. This approach was chosen to view religion as a social phenomenon that reflects identity, values, and symbols in the community. The research used a descriptive qualitative method. The approach used is religious anthropology, which aims to understand religious traditions in Tanjung Medan Village as a part of the social and cultural life of the local community. This approach helps researchers see religion not only as a spiritual aspect, but also as a social phenomenon that reflects the identities, values, and symbols that live in the community. The results of this research show that the tradition of reciting the Qur’an in graves in Tanjung Medan Village is a form of cultural acculturation between Islamic teachings and pre-existing local traditions. The people of Tanjung Medan Village solemnly carry out this tradition as a tribute to the deceased and as a reminder to those who are still alive about life after death. In its implementation, this tradition not only involves the immediate family but also the surrounding community, such as the Wirid group, who participate in reading prayers and verses from the Qur’an. In addition, this activity contains values of togetherness and solidarity, which are demonstrated in the reading of the Qur’an alternately by several people and in the provision of alms for participants. Overall, the tradition of reciting the Qur’an at graves In Tanjung Medan Village not only functions as a tribute to the dead but also as a means of conveying Islamic values in a way that is simple and easily accepted by the community

The market (suq or Bazar)has a distinctive place in the history ofIslamic civilization. Makkah and MadInah were major trade centers at thetime of the advent of Islam, and the prophet was himself an active marketparticipant and reformer. There were famous markets-'Ukkaz, Majannah,and Dhu al Majaz- in pre-Islamic Arabia that commonly held fairsduring the pilgrimage season. This practice was conhued after the appearanceof Islam, for when the new Muslims felt that it might be sinfulfor them to trade in such places (al Zubayli 1984), the following versewas revealed: "There is no sin if you seek the bounty of your Lotd(during the pilgrimage)" (Qur'an 2:198).The main theme here is religious: allaying the fear of indulging insin. However, it is Significant that this potentially sinful activity was refe d to in such dignified term as "seeking the bounty of your Lotd."Elsewhere in the Qur'an, we find passages dealing withthe market's culturalElspects, such as the verse that asks whether it is proper for the Prophetto mingle with the common people in the market place. The answerreceived was that prophets, just like everybody else, ate free to interactand engage in commercial tnmsactions in the mark& "And they say:What sort of a messenger is this, who eats food and walk- through thestreets? Why has not an angel been sent down to him to be a Warner withhim?" (Qur'an 257) and "And the Messengers whom We sent before youwere all (men) who ate food and walked through the streets" (Quran25:20). The second citation refers to market activity in a mainly econofnicand historical context, one that highlights the market's role in providingfoodstuffs and the fact that all prophets mixed with their people on thebasis of equality. In other words, they were ordinary men whose spiritualvalue was not compromised by engaging in market activities.These verses characterize Islam’s worldview in gened and its viewof the market’s diverse nature in particular. Islam reaffirms its holistic approachto life and informs us that the market is an arena for the combinedinterplay of culture, religion, economics, and history. This was partly due,perhaps, to the Prophet’s own commercial experience and acumen, whichhe put to good use as his future wife’s (Khadijah) trusted agent and thatled eventually to the reform of Arabian commercial practices. These reformssought to purify the market of practices that differed from Islamicideals of fair play, honesty, and justice. In many ways, a market is likean open theater, for it displays the unfolding of a portion of a civilization’sbest achievements as well as its worst weaknesses and pitfalls.One frequent issue is the need to recognize the free market principle:the goveming of trade solely by the natural interplay of the economicforces of supply and demand. Only in such a market, it is argued, is oneurged to strive and compete with his/her peers in pursuit of betterproducts or services. No market can exist without a profit motive, and theright to make a profit must never be eliminated. Thus a market regulatormust be concerned with asceltaining that legitimate profit does not exceedthe limits of fair gain and that an individual’s greed and desire for profitare controlled. The intention is to ensure that skilled market operators donot take advantage of an unsuspecting customer’s ignorance and naivety.Broadly speaking, one may say that this was the main goal of thenew Islamic rules introduced into the Arabian market’s economic life. Nolaw dealing with the quantitative limits of profit was promulgated, forprofit is the result of supply and demand and so is not a concern of thelaw. The law’s role is limited to ensuring the market’s morality, as wellas the propriety and fairness of its participants and their activities (i.e.,prohibiting fraud and misrepresentation), and implementing precautionarymeasures to prevent or rectify unfair trading practices ...

Abstract The present study is a unique witness of the nascent literacy in the Modern South Arabian language Soqotri (Island Soqotra, Gulf of Aden, Yemen). For the first time, a consciously created, non-traditional specimen of Soqotri narrative appears both in the newly designed Arabic-based Soqotri script and the standard Semitological transcription, along with an English translation and philological annotations. The motivation behind the creation of this piece is, strikingly, neither artistic nor scientific, but religious, which opens new avenues for the development of the Soqotri language in complex framework of todays Arab and Islamic world: contrary to the widespread belief, Soqotri is not necessarily bound to the transmission of the traditional oral lore, but can serve as an efficient vehicle for creating and publishing texts pertaining to the vital interests of todays islanders.

Abstract The arrival of large numbers of Yemeni manuscripts in European libraries towards the end of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century was a sensation that was enthusiastically received by the scholarly world. One of the principal reasons for this enthusiastic reception was the upsurge of South Arabian studies in Europe since the first half of the nineteenth century, together with the hope that the new material would fill some of the gaps in the literary sources on the history and geography of southern Arabia, especially during the pre-Islamic period. The most significant such lacuna was the missing volumes 1 through 7 and 9 of al-Hamdānī’s Iklīl. The two most important collections of Yemeni manuscripts that arrived in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had been gathered by Eduard Glaser and Giuseppe Caprotti, respectively, and their collections were sold to Berlin, London, and Vienna (Glaser) and to Munich, Milan, and the Vatican (Caprotti). The collections included some new material on South Arabian history (including volumes 1, 2, and 6 of the Iklīl), but they also opened up entirely new vistas and laid the foundation for the new discipline of Zaydi studies. Unlike South Arabian studies, the study of Zaydism had a slow start, with initially only a few scholars being interested in this entirely new field. Moreover, the scholarly exploration of the respective subcollections depended on the availability of catalogues. The early history of the Caprotti collection is intimately linked to Eugenio Griffini. Caprotti had dispatched nearly his entire manuscript collection of some 1,600 codices to Griffini, who kept it in his apartment in Milan until 1909, when the collection was donated to the Ambrosiana Library. Griffini was also the first and, for a long time, the only scholar to study the collection and prepare studies as well as catalogues of it. The process of his engagement with the material can be reconstructed on the basis of the Griffini archive, the whereabouts of which were for decades uncertain. This study outlines the discovery of the Griffini archive in the Biblioteca Comunale Centrale Palazzo Sormani in Milan and provides an initial overview of its contents, including Griffini’s epistolary exchanges with some ninety-nine correspondents, his descriptions of some of the Ethiopic manuscripts of the Ambrosiana, and, most importantly, his schedario, containing his extensive notes on all manuscripts of series A of the Caprotti collection. The large corpus of so far unexplored material promises to provide new insights into the network of Islamicists and Arabists at the turn of the twentieth century and the nascent phase of Zaydi studies in Europe.

Abstract This article focuses on adjudication of Muslim family law in countries that range from the Middle East and North Africa to South-East Asia. It begins by shortly summarizing the development of shari‘a in pre-modern times, up until the 19th century. We discuss the basic features of marriage among classical jurists and argue that the close connection known today between the family and Islamic law can be traced to the emergence of modern nation states and centralizing state structures. We then provide a description of important personal status reforms during the 20th and 21st centuries and consider the growing body of scholarship that engages with adjudication of Muslim family law in action and in context. Finally, we consider the contribution that the articles contained in the special double issue make to the field of research, including the questions of gender and judicial authority, religion-based judicial activism, and the courts’ involvement in larger socio-political processes.

This paper presents a comprehensive examination of the ba’ayun mawlid tradition in South Kalimantan, offering a unique perspective on the living hadith and cultural acculturation within the context of Islam’s peaceful dissemination in the region. Originating as the Bapalas Bidan, a pre-Islamic ritual honoring supernatural spirits involved in childbirth, this tradition underwent a significant transformation after the advent of Islam, retaining its structure while embracing Islamic values and practices. Today, ba’ayun mawlid takes place in mosques under the guidance of religious leaders and midwives, featuring salawat in place of Kaharingan spells. This study delves into the diverse motivations driving community engagement in this tradition, including vow fulfillment, the annual zuriat ritual, the pursuit of blessings from sacred customs and locales, tawassul to nurture filial devotion and love for the Prophet, efforts to enhance livelihoods, cultural heritage preservation, and the evolution of ba’ayun mawlid into a form of religious tourism. Rooted in the prophetic hadith promising reunion with loved ones in the hereafter, this cultural phenomenon underscores the profound influence of religious practices on shaping values, identities, and the cultural landscape of the Banua Halat community. It provides valuable insights into the dynamics of acculturation and the enduring impact of religion on Indonesian society.

Contrary to popular notions of a perpetual antagonism between ‘Hinduism’ and ‘Islam’, played out on Indian soil over the centuries, this article examines the relatively recent origins of a Hindu–Muslim conflict in South Asia, situating it in the reconfigurations of ‘religion’ and religious identity that occurred under British colonial rule in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The multivalent and somewhat fluid categories of religious identification found in pre-modern India gave way to much more rigid and oppositional modern and colonial epistemic categories. While much has been written on how colonial policies and incipient Hindu and Muslim nationalisms shaped the contours of modern Hindu–Muslim conflict, little work has been done on the important role religious actors like Muslim and Hindu scholars and reformers played in shaping the discourse around what constituted Hinduism and Islam, and the relationship between the two, in the modern period. This study examines the first-known public theological debates between a Hindu scholar and a Muslim scholar, respectively, Swami Dayānanda Sarasvatī (1824–1883), founder of the reformist Arya Samaj and first exponent of a Hindu polemic against other religions, and Mawlānā Muḥammad Qāsim Nānautvī (1832–1880), co-founder of the seminary at Deoband and an important exponent of Islamic theological apologetics in modern South Asia, and how they helped shape oppositional modern Hindu and Muslim religious theologies. A key argument that Nānautvī contended with was Dayānanda’s claim that Islam is idolatrous, based on the contention that Muslims worship the Ka’ba, and thus, it is not a monotheistic religion, Hinduism alone being so. The terms of this debate show how polemics around subjects like monotheism and idolatry introduced by Christian missionaries under colonial rule were internalized, as were broader colonial epistemic categories, and developed a life of their own amongst Indians themselves, thus resulting in new oppositional religious identities, replacing more complex and nuanced interactions between Muslims and followers of Indian religions in the pre-modern period.

In 1968, Peter Brown read at the Society's Annual General Meeting a paper entitled ‘The Diffusion of Manichaeism in the Roman Empire’. Delivered at a time when little research was being carried out by British scholars either on Manichaeism or on the cultural and religious relationship between the Roman and the Sassanian Empires, it was for many a complete revelation. With consummate skill and vast erudition Brown placed the history of the diffusion of the sect against a background of vigorous and dynamic interchange between the Roman and the Persian Empires. He also mounted a successful challenge on a number of popularly held views on the history of the religion in the Roman Empire. Manichaeism was not to be seen as part of the mirage orientale which fascinated the intellectuals of the High Empire. It was not an Iranian religion which appealed through its foreigness or quaintness. Rather, it was a highly organized and aggressively missionary religion founded by a prophet from South Babylonia who styled himself an ‘Apostle of Jesus Christ’. Brown reminded the audience that ‘the history of Manichaeism is to a large extent a history of the Syriac-speaking belt, that stretched along the Fertile Crescent without interruption from Antioch to Ctesiphon’. Its manner of diffusion bore little or no resemblance to that of Mithraism. It did not rely on a particular profession, as Mithraism did on the army, for its spread throughout the Empire. Instead it developed in the common Syriac culture astride the Romano-Persian frontier which was becoming increasingly Christianized consequent to the regular deportation of whole communities from cities of the Roman East like Antioch to Mesopotamia and adjacent Iran. Manichaeism which originally flourished in this Semitic milieu was not in the strict sense an Iranian religion in the way that Zoroastrianism was at the root of the culture and religion of pre-Islamic Iran. The Judaeo-Christian roots of the religion enabled it to be proclaimed as a new and decisive Christian revelation.

Since the re-purposing of the concept of the moral economy by the British historian, E.P. Thompson in the late 1960s, scholars from a variety of disciplines in social sciences and humanities have attempted to apply it as a tool for empirical analysis. As a migratory concept, the meaning of 'moral economy' has shifted from theology to philosophy to anthropology and history. Scholars of religions and historians of religion, however, have shown a reluctance in deploying the concept in their field of study. A flexible and vintage concept such as the moral economy may seem to be an oxymoron when applied to the study of religion and religious reforms. Its utility, however, is demonstrated by a collection of four critical articles in this special issue of this journal to explore wide-ranging empirical materials and contexts. These include the contemporary analysis of religious morality and regulation in Northern Nigeria, the entanglements of Muslim-owned restaurants and Islamic morality in Mumbai (India), Zulu ethnic nationality and morality in the Nazareth Baptist Church in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), and finally, the pre-modern theoretical and philosophical reflections of the 14th-century Tunisian Muslim philosopher, Abd al-Rahman Ibn Khaldun. In these diverse scenarios and contexts, the moral economy concept illustrates its theoretical and analytical capacity and potential in the field of the study of religions.

During India’s Emergency, anti-state poetry of a decidedly amateurish quality proliferated. Anti-Emergency poetry did little to bring about the restoration of democracy, nor could it have reasonably been mistaken for great art. So what was the purpose of writing resistance poetry if it was not meant to directly influence politics nor to be great art? Poetry as politics has a long history in the Islamicate world, dating back to the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. While until the 19th century Islamicate poetry was tied to the Caliphates who employed poets to extol the virtues of the ruling classes, after the so-called ‘Rise of the West’ Islamicate poetry became associated instead with anti-colonial and anti-state movements across the Islamicate world from Morocco to Indonesia and from Central Asia to the Indian Ocean. In this essay, I argue that the utility of resistance poetry in anti-state movements in South Asia has been to build solidarity among social movement participants. The sociology of social movements has long placed emphasis on the role of affective bonds and solidarity building for predicting social movement success, and poetry, in the Islamicate context especially, I argue, does exactly that. By circulating poems, social movement participants inform the reader that resistance and opposition exist, they inspire participants and would-be participants and calm fears that participants might have, especially in moments of political repression. These poems generate emotional and cultural bonds among social movement participants by linking anti-state movements to the centuries-old tradition of Islamicate poetry, thereby fostering solidarity and providing a firm basis for collective action.

<strong><em>Introduction:</em></strong><em> Pakistan is an Islamic Republic in South-Central Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea. It is situated between HIV/AIDS high risk countries, India on the east, China in the north, and Afghanistan on the west. Its only low risk neighbor is Iran. The estimated population of Pakistan is 162,419,946, with an annual population growth rate of 2.03%. <strong>Objectives of the study: </strong>The basic aim of the study is to analyze the emergence and evolution of HIV as a growing epidemic in Pakistan. <strong>Methodology of the study: </strong>This study was basically conducted at Nishtar medical university during 2018. Basically we design a questionnaire to find out the reasons and prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Pakistani nation. In this questionnaire we add some basic questions regarding HIV. <strong>Results: </strong>Like other Asian countries Pakistan is also HIV epidemic, characterized by different risk factors Formerly Pakistan was considered to be a low prevalence country, but now it is in the group of &quot;Countries in Transition&quot; with a concentrated epidemic among high risk groups, where the AIDS problem is increasing since last five years, according to the private newspaper The News and NACP NIH. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>This is the common thought in the minds of Pakistani people that as an Islamic Republic, Pakistan is protected from HIV/AIDS. This is true that Islam is against pre-marital sex or extra-marital sex and also homosexuality, and this is a valuable barrier against HIV/AIDS. But still there is a threat of prevalence of this disease in Pakistan.</em>

The article is devoted to the problems of studying of religious wordldview in the ethnography of Kazakh and Tuvan people. It is known that in the modern period Tuvans practices Buddhism, partly Christianity and traditional beliefs (also like several other South Siberian folks – Khakasses, Altayans, Shors), Kazakhs are Muslims of Sunni direction and the Khanafi school of thought. These peoples has common historical roots and traditional worldview, that is related with religious beliefs of ancient Turkic peoples. The religion and religious culture of ancient Turks is little-known to modern science. As is well known, new information can be obtained by different methods. That’s why the aim of this article is uncover the components of religious beliefs, existing of which is not caused by canonic Buddhism of Tuvans and Islam of Kazakhs, pre-Islamic elements in the traditional worldview of Kazakhs and pre-Buddhic relics in the beliefs of Tuvans. Theoretical and methodological basis of this are advances of ethnology in the modern emphirical and theoretical studies of religious beliefs and rites. The chronological framework of research includes the end of XIX century – the beginning of XX century. The author of article comes to conclusion that the religious beliefs of Kazakh and Tuvan peoples in the period of the end of XIX century – the beginning of XX century were syncretistic. This syncretism found explicit expression in the traditional ritualism.

The chronology of the Lakhmid kings in the 5th century is based upon their list made by Hishаm al-Kalbi (ca. 738 – 819/20 or 821/22) using records kept at al-Hira, and references to the Lakhmids in pre-Islamic sources. The Lakhmid kings periods of rule as in Hishаm al-Kalbi’s list are to be accepted as reliable evidence for they appear to go back to primary sources from al-Hira. They do not contradict the reference to al-Mundhir (future king al-Mundhir I) as commander of the Lakhmid troops in 421–422 in the church history by Socrates Scholasticus (ca.380–ca.450), for the latter does not state that al-Mundhir was then the king. However, Hishаm’s own calculations made to synchronise the Lakhmids with the Sasanids may only be used where they are not at variance with the evidence from al-Hira, and with due regard to his manner of reckoning the years. An important landmark is the year 474/75 when, according to the recently discovered South Arabian inscription Masal 3, king Shurahbiil Yakkuf of Saba and Himyar made a campaign to the north-east of Arabia and fought against the Lakhmid king al-Aswad. Since that campaign appears to have been prompted by the death of the powerful Lakhmid ruler al-Mundhir I, the immediate predecessor of al-Aswad, 474 is likely to be the year of the latters coming to power. This allows to correct the Lakhmids chronology as follows: al-Numаn I – 402–431, al-Mundhir I – 431–474, al-Aswad – 474–493, al-Mundhir II – 493–499, al-Numаn II – 499–503.

Ahinad ibn Abd al-Rahim, better known as Shah Wali-Allab of Delhi( 1703-1762), is perhaps the greatest intellectual figure of Islam in SouthAsia. An international seminar was organized on his thought (as containedin Hujjat-Allah al-Balighah) on February 20-22, 2001 by the Shah WaliAllahDehlavi Research Cell of the Institute of Islamic Studies, AligarhMuslim University, India.Wali-Allah was a prolofic writer in Arabic and Persian and a "syntheticthinker" like Al-Ghazali and ibn-Khaldun. He made his contribution onthe eve of the modem (colonial) period. The British in the Bay of Bengalhad their eyes set on Delhi, the Mughul seat of Muslim power. Deeplyconcerned, Wali-Allah understood his mission to be a two-fold reformationof "the religion and the state." With his favorite slogan "Back to theQur'an", he called for a complete change of the old order and sought to"reopen" the doors of jihad and ijtihad.&#x0D; In his resistance to the growing power of the Mrathas and Sikhs, he isbelieved to have set a tradition for the subsequent generations of MuslimIndia. Acclaimed variously by different Islamic groups as a reformer,a purifier, a revivalist and a modernizer, Wali-Allah is considered to be thespiritual and intellectual progenitor to a host of religio-political movementsin South Asia, including the Mujahidin movement, the Deobandmovement, the Aligarh movement and the Pakistan movement. Hisinfluence has also been acknowledged on the subsequent generations ofMuslim thinkers in the Indian subcontinent including Allama MuhammadIqbal and Mawlana Abul Aala Mawdudi.In his magnum opus, Hajjat-Allah al-Balighah (The ConclusiveArgument from God), Wali-Allah has worked out an "integrated scheme"of Shari'ah, or a theoretical basis for interpretation and applicationof Shari'ah against a background provided by his ideas of "humanpurposefulness" and "beneficial interests". He believed that his(pre-modern) age demanded a projection of Shari'ah with reasoned andconvincing "arguments", unraveling the secrets (deeper meanings) ofreligious symbols and injunctions ...

Abstract The blind Syrian poet, man of letters and scholar, Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (363 H/973 CE-449 H/1057 CE) is the author of two celebrated diwans. The second of these, his controversial double-rhymed and alphabetized, Luzūm Mā Lā Yalzam (Requiring What is Not Obligatory), known simply as Al-Luzūmiyyāt (The Compulsories), features his uninhibited, often highly ironic and usually pessimistic, religious, and ‘philosophical’ ideas along with mordant criticism of politics, religion, and humanity in general. In his introduction, he abjures the corrupt and worldly qaṣīdah poetry of his otherwise celebrated early diwan, Saqṭ al-Zand (Sparks of the Fire-Drill), to turn in al-Luzūmiyyāt to a poetry that is “free from lies.” In the present study I take a ‘biopsy’ from Al-Luzūmiyyāt of the eight poems with the double rhyme b-d to explore al-Maʿarrī’s excavation and reclamation of meaning from the Ancient Arabian past through the intertwined legacies of philology and poetic lore. The constraint (luzūm) of the double b-d rhyme in these poems leads inexorably to two proper names, the legends and poetry associated with them, and the etymological-semantic complex that yokes them together and generates related names and themes. The first name is that of the renowned poet of the Muʿallaqāt, Labīd ibn Rabīʿah; the second is that of Lubad, the last of the seven vultures whose life-spans measured out the days of the legendary pre-Islamic sage, Luqmān. Not surprisingly, the ancient Jāhilī poet-knight ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ, likewise, cannot escape the pull of the b-d rhyme. The study demonstrates the mythophoric power of proper names from the Arabic poetic and folkloric past, once lexically and morphologically generated by the double consonants of the rhyme pattern, to evoke poems and legends of the past but also, by the force of al-Maʿarrī’s moral as well as prosodic constraints, to be reconstructed in accordance with the prosodic and moral constraints of Luzūm Mā Lā Yalzam, into a new poetic form, the luzūmiyyah. Quite at odds with the moral, thematic, and structural trajectory of the qaṣīdah form, the luzūmiyyah is by contrast static, directionless, and oftentimes a dead end.

In recent years, the growing influence e of the Arab East on the world stag opens up new opportunities for intercultural dialogue and actualizes the problem of understanding the development of national cultures in Asia. Until the middle of the twentieth century. Jordan was one of the most backward regions of the Arab world. Relatively recently, being integrated into the Arabian revival movement, the country has overcome the path from the Middle Ages to the present, and the art of Jordan has begun to develop. The initial orientation towards the experience of Western European art gradually changed the vector of development into the traditions and canons of local art and crafts. The synthesis of traditions and innovations, the inclusion in the new structural connections of the classical themes and motives of the art of the Arabian East give the art of Jordan the features of regional identity, uniqueness and expressiveness. Today, modernist European influences are combined in the art of Jordan with the classical traditions of Arab-Muslim culture. At the same time, it is in the development of the artistic heritage of Arab culture, modern Jordanian designers see one of the main ways of development. Objectives. The objectives of this study are to broaden the understanding of Jordanian cultural and artistic development and to demonstrate the aesthetic foundations of modern country design; as well as to identify the main trends in contemporary design practice. Methods. In order to solve the set tasks, comprehensive and analytical methods as well as a method of art analysis were the basic ones. Historical, comparative and analytical methods have been applied when working with literary sources. The historical method has led to the identification of successive stages of the development of Jordan art and the latest design trends. The comparative method is used to reveal common and distinctive features between historical patterns and modern projects. An analytical method has allowed to create a clear system of classification division; the chronological method is used for the analysis and submission of the material in the chronological sequence; generalization and systematization methods are used for structuring information and classification of material Results. The results of the research support the idea that the cultural and artistic originality of Jordan (the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) is due to the dynamic change of representatives of various historical and cultural civilizations inhabiting the region in the pre-Islamic period. In the VII-VIII centuries Jordan became one of the centers of the medieval Arab-Muslim artistic culture formation, and the appearance of Islam in&nbsp; the countries of the Caliphate led to the revision of the code as architectural and artistic values and general ideas of art. Being an iconoclastic religion, Islam has made a significant difference in the approach to art between Muslims and non-Muslims. This approach is defined as a rejection of the artistic representation and figurative embodiment of God, or of living beings in general, since any of their artistic expression undermines the meaning and essence of the Muslim faith. To this day, the beauty for Muslims is not an aesthetic image, but a stimulus for understanding the nature of God and the relation of man to him. Researchers distinguish three key factors that have influenced the formation of Islamic artistic style: 1). The Quran, whose verses stimulate consciousness and allow the reader to feel the presence of God (7, 95). 2). Approving the work of those who work on &quot;the memory of Allah&quot; (Quran 26: 227). The work of the artist is estimated from the point of view of &quot;remembering&quot; God in various materials - ceramics, metal, leather, textile industry or in architectural decoration. 3). Religious ban on the image of anthropomorphic or zoomorphic forms, due to the condemnation of worship of idols and figures. Abstract forms of Islamic art can be classified as floral, geometric and calligraphic. These forms are found in most samples of monumental (exterior and interior of architectural constructions) and decorative and applied arts (ceramics, ceramic tiles, carving on wood and leather, stucco, textiles). Under the influence of European tradition, the artistic culture of Jordan enriches with new forms of art, and the attraction to modern European life and lifestyle contributed to the revitalization of project activities identified in the spatial and graphic design areas. Artists and designers turn to Western practices in design and classical Arabic-Muslim culture, offering their own colorful, long-standing tradition. It is proved that the historically drawn attraction to the indexed abstract and sign expression of content in art is a key method for contemporary graphic design, and openness to dialogue with European cultural, artistic and design traditions forms the image of modern Jordanian design.Conclusions. We conclude that the aesthetic phenomenon for Muslims is not just a visual form, but a stimulus for understanding the nature of God and the relation of man to him. This philosophical and practical approach for centuries has been tested in the field of traditional art. At the same time, the modern design of Jordan, based on the unique experience of Islam-related cultural and artistic traditions, at the same time demonstrates the greatest openness among the Arab countries to understanding European artistic doctrines and their adaptation in the direction of solving modern design problems.

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269).&#x0D; Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

Anyone familiar with Bruce Lawrence’s oeuvre knows that the book under review is the culmination of his long and serious engagement with Islam’s foundational texts. His earlier publication, The Qur’an: A Biography (2006), traces the central place of divine revelation in Muslim life and thought for many centuries. The Qur’an inspired its most faithful believers to become predominant in much of the medieval world and, in the process, it was a book that captured the interest and imagination of non-Muslims. Law- rence’s own translation of the Qur’an into English is now in the works. Be- fore completing this admirable feat at the prime of his scholarly life, he offers us an inventory of a number of influential and no less creative—some polemical—attempts at untying the Gordian knot of rendering classical Ar- abic into lucid English. But can God’s eternal word, revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century, be translated into English at all given the deep-seated differences between the two linguistic worlds in space and time? The answer to this question is not a simple yes or no, as Lawrence explains in this slim but indispensable volume. Unlike scriptures of other world religions, the Qur’an stakes a claim on its linguistic authoritativeness from the onset. Its self-image, as specialists such as Daniel Madigan, Toshi- hiko Izutsu, and Fazlur Rahman have it, was rooted in its unique language. The Qur’anic language is thus not merely one language among others of its time (or anytime) but is the distinctive language of God to be read, stud- ied, memorized and disseminated in the original form. From this angle of vision, no translation of the Qur’an is regarded by the majority of Muslims as the Qur’an itself. Lawrence acknowledges this longstanding credo, or the dominant “filter of orthodoxy,” as he puts it (xxi). The translated Qur’an is, to him, best referred to as a “Koran”. Not that the Arabic and translated texts are radically different in terms of their central messages and moral injunctions, but that the Koran was a historical and not an eternal artefact. The Koran was a product of a human endeavor to make the language of God accessible in the world of man. The filter of orthodoxy was however confronted with an ever-growing and cosmopolitan ummah which, for the most part, consisted of non-Ar- abs who knew little but a rudimentary form of Arabic. Translations became inevitable, as Lawrence informs us. The Arabic Qur’an in its pure form gen- erated Korans in other Muslim languages (Persian, Turkish, Malay, etc.) as Islam grew to become a juggernaut after the death of Muhammad (Chapter 1). And yet, as Islam emerged triumphant as a world-conquering faith, its adversaries saw the urgent need to fully discern the scriptures that made Muslims so powerful. Translations into Latin and then English from the twelfth through the eighteenth centuries were largely born out of hate en- meshed with fear and the passionate desire among translators to convince fellow Christians of “falsehood of the Qur’an” (33). Such adverse motives however turned into an emphatic understanding of what the Qur’an actu- ally stood for, as seen in George Sale and Edward Henry Palmer’s transla- tions. The Orientalists were not all cut from the same cloth. What Lawrence does not show quite clearly was how these early English translations provided the raison d’etre for Muslims to produce their own Korans as a corrective project against the biases of Western Orientalism. In South Asian translations by Muhammad Ali, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Mar- maduke Pickhall, and Abdullah Yusuf Ali, allusions were made, be it direct- ly or obliquely, to the problems of earlier (non-Muslim) translations, just as they sought (for example) to undo use of the terms “Mohammedan” or “Mohametan” to describe Muslims. Granted that these translators belonged to different Muslim sects, their overriding concern was that the Qur’an suf- fered from imprecise translations into English. South Asian Muslims, in my view, were not only translating the Qur’an. They were arresting the march of a prejudiced form of Orientalism by producing English Korans of their own. In hindsight, their efforts were successful, at least for a while, until the advent of the digital age. The coming of the internet and the expansion of English as a lingua franca of most of the world, as Lawrence handsomely points out, has led to the proliferation of Korans, both online and offline, by Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, orientalists and their detractors, Sunnis and Shi’ites, feminists and artists. To Lawrence, most translations produced in an era of abundance fail to capture the Qur’an’s rhythmic prose, with the exception of a handful. Contemporary Korans are so often contorted by the politics of ideological hegemony and nationalist parochi- alism that hinder scholarly endeavor (Chapters 4-5). Lawrence singles out Saudi translations that purvey a puritanical strand of Islam. Interestingly, there are, within Saudi Arabia itself, less literalist Korans. One wonders whether the current political transition in Saudi Arabia will give rise to newer, state-sponsored translations of the Qur’an. I certainly believe it will. For now, Lawrence shows that Salafism in Saudi Arabia (as elsewhere in the Muslim world, as many analysts have pointed out) is not by any means monochrome and homogenous. It is therefore unsurprising that different Korans have been produced in a highly controlled and conservative state. Meantime, the market is flooded with highly popular alternatives in the likes of those by Thomas Cleary, Muhammad Abdul Haleem, and Tarif Khalidi. Spoilt for choice, Muslims and non-Muslims have now the liberty to choose which translation squares with their respective lingustic tastes, spiritual quests, and worldviews. Lawrence ends the book with the latest and most innovative venture at translating the Qur’an, by artist Sandow Birk. It is a translation that comes in the form of inventive expressions, a graphic Koran, so to speak, intended for an American audience whom Birk believes can discern how the Qur’an addresses their everyday trials and tribulations. The linguistic beauty of the Qur’an, in Birk’s formulation, is best expressed in colorful images. An American himself, Lawrence is most impressed by Birk’s project, couching it as “visual and visionary, it is a hybrid genre designed to reach a new audience not previously engaged either by the Koran or by Islam” (137). Had George Sale and Henry Palmet lived to this day, they would perhaps shudder over such an Americanization of the Qur’an. In displaying art with a Qur’anic glaze, Birk does more than translating the Qur’an to English. He demonstrates how the Qur’an can be embedded and normalized into Anglo-American lives and sensibilities. Provocatively-written, deftly-researched, and a pleasure to read, The Koran in English opens up many promising pathways and novel directions for future research. The specter of the Palestinian-American scholar, Is- mail al-Faruqi, came to mind as I was reading the book. Al-Faruqi once envisioned English becoming an Islamic language, or a language that can express what Islam is more accurately. Al-Faruqi held that this could be achieved by incorporating Arabic terms into the English corpus. Reading The Koran in English tells us that Al-Faruqi’s vision is currently realized in ways he barely imagined, or perhaps, in ways that are more subtle and sublime. In translating the Koran to English—an enterprise that is now undertaken by scholars, popular writers, and artists, and that will undoubt- edly grow exponentially in the years to come—English has been (or is) Ko- ranized. Or, to borrow and inflect Lawrence’s syllogism in the opening of the book: If you don’t know Arabic, you can still understand the Qur’an. By understanding the Qur’an, you can choose to become a Muslim. And if you do not become a Muslim, you may still appreciate and derive much benefit from the Qur’an. Therefore, the Qur’an, or the Koran, is not only for Muslims but for those who care to think and reflect about life and about the divine. Indeed, “He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been granted much good. And none will grasp the message except the people of intellect” (al-Baqara: 269).&#x0D; Khairudin AljuniedMalaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast AsiaGeorgetown University

Although the Bronze Age in ancient South Arabia (modern-day Yemen) is still poorly understood, there is a wealth of archaeological and epigraphic data for reconstructing the region's history from the beginning of the first millennium BCE onward. While epigraphs in the Ancient South Arabian script may date as early as the 11th century BCE, texts useful to reconstructing South Arabian history and religion only truly begin to emerge from the 8th century BCE onward. These epigraphs attest to a plurality of peoples and city-states who worshipped a variety of gods. Most important among these are the four kingdoms, Saba, Maʿīn, Qataban, and Ḥaḍramawt, the former three which occupied the western highlands of Yemen while the latter was concentrated further east along Wadi Ḥaḍramawt. Each of these kingdoms had its own language (Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic, Ḥaḍramitic) and religion, which consisted in worship of the common high god ʿAthtar in addition to a kingdom's own patron deity (Almaqah for Saba, Wadd for Maʿīn, ʿAmm for Qataban, and Sin for Ḥaḍramawt) and a national pantheon of lesser gods. The influence of South Arabian religion was not restricted to modern-day Yemen. As early as 700 BCE, Sabaic epigraphs, gods, and religious architecture appear in northeast Africa. This eventually disappears in the second half of the first millennium BCE, a time during which other South Arabian kingdoms notably began to expand. Ḥaḍramawt then ventured eastward into modern-day Oman, where it founded a trading port at modern Khor Rori south of Salalah in the Dhofar. In the western South Arabian highlands, a new kingdom called Ḥimyar emerged. Over the next centuries, these Ḥimyarites would gradually increase their influence until they finally conquered all of South Arabia in the late third/early fourth century CE. Under their hegemony, state-sponsored polytheism continued until at least 360 CE, to which the latest known polytheistic text dates. Following this, South Arabia adopted a new monotheistic religion, resulting in the polytheistic gods disappearing from the epigraphic record.

This entry treats the state religion of Pre-Islamic South Arabia from the second half of the fourth century CE until the region was absorbed by the Sassanians in the seventh century CE. During this time, the ruling Himyarites not only expanded South Arabia to its largest territorial extent ever, spanning from modern Yemen to lower Iraq and perhaps even to Palestine (Robin, 2012), but they also adopted a new form of monotheism, which was heavily influenced by but distinct from Judaism. This Judaizing Himyarite Monotheism worshipped a monotheistic deity called either Raḥmānān "The Merciful" or ʾIlān "God." While details about this religion are sparse, Philostorgius provides some hints concerning its character. He records that Constantius II sent an expedition to Himyarites (called "Homeritae") in South Arabia in what would be the time of Thaʾrān Yuhanʿim (324-375 CE). He describes the Himyarites as "of the Israelitish family" but notes that they sacrificed to various native gods. There were also Jews in the royal court, who are said to unsuccessfully oppose the Christian embassy, as Philostorgius alleges that the Himyaritic king converted to Christianity and built three churches. Yet during that time, public state sponsorship of polytheism did not cease in the epigraphic record. It is not until the reign of Thaʾrān's son, Malkīkarib Yuhaʾmin (375-400 CE; Robin, 2012), that worship in the monumental display texts was almost unilaterally directed to Raḥmānān, with mentions of the old gods becoming almost extinct (yet, they still persist in the less public stick inscriptions; Stein, 2009). Explicitly Jewish inscriptions also begin appearing in fourth century CE; albeit, the exact relationship of South Arabian Judaism with other outside contemporary Jewish groups remains unclear (Hughes, 2020a). There is further uncertainty as to whether their God, who is twice explicitly called "The Lord of the Jews," was originally identified via syncretism with Raḥmānān or if he was thought to be a separate distinct but still monotheistic divinity, who existed alongside Raḥmānān (Gajda, 2017). Regardless of this potential distinction, the name Raḥmānān does eventually get absorbed into local Christian and Jewish vocabulary as a moniker for "God." During the fifth century CE, the state continues to sponsor Himyarite Judaizing Monotheism all-the-while tensions between Christians and Jews begin to rise. The Martyrdom of Azqir (Conti-Rossini, 1910) records a priest named Azqir being arrested for proselytizing. He was then brought to trial before the Himyarite king (who is not said to be Jewish) and the Jews on his court. The text ends with Azqir's martyrdom, with the narrator noting that thirty eight Christians had received a similar fate during that king's reign. In the sixth century CE, state sponsorship of Judaizing Himyarite Monotheism disappears as the Ethiopian Aksumites gradually gained control of South Arabia and installed a Christian king, Maʿdīkarib Yaʿfur, on the South Arabian throne in 519 CE. Around this time, the Christians began to persecute the Jews. When Maʿdīkarib dies a few years later in 522 CE, a Jewish prince named Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar (Arabic Dhū Nuwās) began a series of military campaigns seeking to expel the Aksumites and to burn their churches (Robin, 2012). This culminated in the slaying of the Martyrs of Najrān in 523 CE, wherein the Jewish King Yūsuf gained control of Najrān by artifice and then systematically kills the Christians. This event gave justification for the Aksumite King Kaleb to invade South Arabia, during which he killed Yūsuf and violently seeks vengeance on the Jews. South Arabia thereafter would remain under Christian control until it was eventually acquired by the Sassanians.