Fasting in Early Sufi Literature [Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies] – Atif Khalil

Abstract:

In Plato’s Phaedo we encounter a dialogue between Socrates and Cebes around the nature of the soul and its relation to the body. The soul we learn is divine-like, deathless, intelligent, uniform, indissoluble and of course invisible, while the body in contrast is mortal, multiform, changing, soluble and visible. If the body gains mastery over the soul it is bound to drag it down into the sludge and sediment of the lower, material world through the tentacles of desire, and embroil it in confusion and dizziness. On the other hand, if the soul frees itself from the allure of the transient pleasures offered to it by the senses, and in turn gains mastery over the body by assuming its proper and naturally ordered relation to it, then the soul will be prepared for its own inevitable departure and ascent, and thereby, its eternal felicity. Philosophy

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In the Steps of the Sultan – Bilal Orfali

Abstract:

“The AUB Press is pleased to announce the newest title from our Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Series in honor of Dr. Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn. For forty years, Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn’s work at the American University of Beirut revised how we understand the relations of power between the Ottoman center and its Arab peripheries. His ambitious research brought material from the imperial archives into conversation with local chronicles to shed light on the past while simultaneously challenging its misplaced mythologies. However, despite his imposing professions credentials, Abu-Husayn was just as renowned for his sparkling charm and magnanimous personality, which made “the Sultan” beloved by those who know him. In the Steps of the Sultan seeks to pay tribute to both Abu-Husayn the historian and Abed the man. Chapters by colleagues, friends, and former protégées offer new perspectives on themes that intersect with Abu-Husayn’s own varied interests, ranging from Lebanese histography to views from Istanbul, from Syrian provincial political to the Syriac heritage of Qatar, and from conceptualizations of the caliphate to depictions of divine beauty”

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A Treatise on Practical and Theoretical Sufism in the Sokoto Caliphate

Abstract:

“This article presents an annotated translation of The Exposition of Devotions, a short text by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muṣtafā (1218–1280/1804–1864) about his spiritual master and maternal uncle, Muḥammad Sambo (1195–1242/1782–1826). Muḥammad Sambo was the son of ʿUthmān ibn Fūdī (also known as Usman dan Fodio), the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, one of the largest pre-colonial polities on the African continent. While modern scholarship has tended to focus on the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions of the jihad movement that created the Sokoto Caliphate,this text provides a brief, but detailed account of the spiritual practices and discussions amongst Usman dan Fodio’s clan (the Fodiawa), demonstrating the centrality of the Akbarī tradition in technical discussions, as well as the unique developments of this tradition in thirteenth/nineteenth century West Africa. The work begins with an account of a dream of the then-deceased Muḥammad Sambo that occasioned its composition, and after a brief discussion of the status of dreams and their importance, gives an account of Sambo’s spiritual method and practices. The short treatise concludes with the author’s summary of Sambo’s responses to several technical and highly esoteric questions posed to him by the author, illustrating the profound mastery and unique perspectives developed on these topics by the Fodiawa. Combining oneirology, hagiography, practical and theoretical Sufism, this short treatise is an illuminating window into the spiritual and intellectual traditions of the founders of the Sokoto Caliphate”

The History of Sufism in Multan: New Data from the Urdu Tadhkirah Tradition – Muhammad Touseef

Abstract:

“The medieval history of Sufism in Multan is relatively well known. A figure such as the famous Suhrawardi Shaykh Baha’ al- Dn Zakariyya from the thirteenth century embodies this prestigious period. Our article shows that the Sufi brotherhoods have continued to flourish until today, far beyond what traditional historiography describes. Using unexplored sources mostly modern Urdu hagiographies devoted tot he sacred history of Multan—we reconstruct the biography and the bibliography of many Sufi shaykhs as well as the lineages, especially Qadiri and Chishti, from which they come; we identify several mausoleums and lodges across the city; eventually, we reveal the existence of marginal mystics who marked the religious memory of this heritage city of the Pakistani Punjab”

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African Philosophy Reconsidered Africa, Religion, Race, and Philosophy – Oludamini Ogunnaike

Abstract:
“The still-nascent academic discipline of African philosophy has spent most of its energy and ink wrestling with issues of authenticity (what makes it “African”) and validity (what makes it “philosophy”). In this article, I argue for a reconsideration of these categories—“African” and “philosophy”—by tracing the closely related history of their development. Then, on the basis of this genealogy and after critiqu- ing some of the most influential academic attempts to engage with African religious/intellectual traditions (by Evans-Pritchard, Horton, Wiredu, Appiah, Hountondji, and Mudimbe), I propose an alternative framework for approaching and understanding the intellectual tra- ditions of the continent. Drawing on Pierre Hadot’s work on ancient philosophy, I argue that the vast majority of religious/intellectual tra- ditions in Africa are better described by the “philosophy as a way of life” paradigm exemplified by the ancient Greeks and Neoplatonists than the “philosophy as written, rational discourse” model of the Enlightenment. I conclude by exploring the implications of this reconsideration of “African philosophy” for our academic approach to African religious/intellectual traditions, theory, and methodology in the social sciences and humanities, and our understandings of race, rationality, progress, and development“

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Knowledge Triumphant – The Concept of Knowledge in Medieval Islam – Franz Rosenthal

Abstract:

“Civilizations tend to revolve around meaningful concepts of an abstract nature which more than anything else give them their distinctive nature,” Rosenthal begins his study, introducing his subject; this concept is, for Islamic civilization, knowledge, { ilm. The audacity of the undertaking is stunning; because, in essence, I regard Knowledge Triumphant as Rosenthal’s response to Ibn Huldun’s Muqaddima: the latter aimed at describing and analyzing the motor of world history, or actually, Islamic history; Rosenthal responded by claiming to have identified knowledge as the”

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