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Mathal/Mashal : Journal of Islamic and Judaic Multidisciplinary Studies
Number of Followers: 5

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2168-538X
Published by U of Iowa

[9 journals]

The Shapers of Memory: The Theatrics of Islamic Historiography
- Authors: Aaron M. Hagler
  Abstract: This paper employs and describes an experimental methodology of viewing medieval Arabic authors through the lens of stage actor performance theory. In particular, it argues that semi-canonical writings, such as al-Ṭabarī’s History of the Prophets and Kings, become the “script” that later authors, such as Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Kathīr “perform” as actors. This methodology is novel, and argues that by examining the changes authors made to narratives presented in earlier Arabic texts, we can draw important conclusions about the authors’ opinions of the relative importance of narrative elements, the authors’ literary-narrative strategies for endowing memories with meaning, and establish each author's "super-objective" (his primary thematic or narrative concerns).
  PubDate: Thu, 17 May 2018 18:34:20 PDT
The Moroccan Jurist al-Khamlīshī: Can a Woman Become a
Legislator (Mujtahid)?
- Authors: Nayel A. Badareen 2564414
  Abstract: The idea of deducing legal rulings in Islamic law, or ijtihād, as well as the qualifications of the person who practices ijtihād, known as the mujtahid, has been a complex issue among Muslim ʿulamāʾ for centuries. Many Muslim ʿulamāʾ and Western scholars have maintained that the gate of ijtihād was closed. The title of mujtahid was therefore impossible to attain. The Moroccan intellectual al-Khamlīshī maintains that the strenuous conditions put forth by some of the Sunni jurists to qualify an individual to become a mujtahid actually contributed to the demise of ijtihād. These qualifications, according to al-Khamlīshī, were proven to be unachievable and stood as myriad obstacles in creating new generations to reform the old Islamic fiqh. This essay shows that, despite the extremely strenuous set of qualifications, through the writings of al-Khamlīshī, Moroccan women penetrated men’s domain in Islamic family law, breaking the long-standing monopoly men held therein.
  PubDate: Mon, 21 Nov 2016 11:15:39 PST
The Location of Memory: Diachronic and Synchronic Alibism and Hui
Identity.
- Authors: Ziad Bentahar
  Abstract: Among China’s various Muslim groups, the Hui stand out on the basis of their ethnicity, history and location, and are considered unlike the Turkic groups in Western territories. The Hui are not confined to a definite region but are present throughout China, and exist in continuous juxtaposition with other groups. For this reason, they determine their identity by simultaneous associations to an exogenous tradition that differentiates them from other Chinese groups, and to endogenous elements that situate them as inherently Chinese.This position of the Hui at the intersection of two presumably mutually-exclusive cultural spheres, namely Muslim and Chinese, results in mode of identity-formation, which I call alibism, and in which identity is founded on the basis of perpetual deferment to an alternative location.
  PubDate: Mon, 28 Mar 2016 18:15:33 PDT

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