Programme

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Sufi orders, institutions, centres for higher learning, and pilgrimages. ...... depictions of Muslim santri in film Tiga Doa Tiga Cinta (Three Prayers Three Loves,.
Contents Introduction Programme and time schedule Tuesday 23 October Wednesday 24 October Thursday 25 October Friday 26 October Keynote lectures: speakers, abstracts and bio Suggested readings workshops, by keynote speakers Titles and abstracts presentations workshops Titles and abstracts presentations workshops Notes

Introduction The NISIS Autumn School 2012 is held in Leiden, from Tuesday 23 October until Friday 26 October. In 2009, eight Dutch universities decided to join forces in a national research school for Islamic studies: the Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS). NISIS facilitates research on Islam and Muslim societies in the Netherlands via the appointment, training and supervision of PhD students. In addition, NISIS organises seasonal schools on themes that are fundamental to the study of Islam and Muslim societies. A research portal offers an overview of Islam-related research that is currently conducted in the Netherlands. In its capacity as a national research school, NISIS has developed a Training Programme, with which NISIS contributes to successful completion of individual research master or dissertation projects in the domain of the study of Islam and Muslim societies. For more information about NISIS, the Training Programme and how to become a NISIS-member, please visit: www.hum.leiden.edu/nisis/

The overall theme of the Autumn School 2012 is ‘Centres and Peripheries. Networks connecting Muslim Societies in Past and Present.’ For many centuries, Muslims living in different societies have been connected to each other through various networks, such as Sufi orders, institutions, centres for higher learning, and pilgrimages. The use of linguae francae, first of all Arabic, but also Persian, Turkish, Swahili, Malay, and several other languages have facilitated these long distance contacts and exchanges.

The NISIS Autumn School 2012 intends to familiarise participants with this long history of networks and exchanges, which leads to a thorough questioning of misleading notions of centres and peripheries. Particular attention will be paid to recent changes in these connections which are linked to developments in technology, politics, and economics. Internet, Salafism, and other political forms of transnational Islam are obvious issues to be discussed.

Relations between six major areas will receive particular attention:

1.

Sub-Saharan Africa

2.

South Asia

3.

South-East Asia

4.

Central-Asia and the Caucasus

5.

Arabia

6.

Europe.

Keynote speakers will address networks existing inside and between these areas. Some will focus on the past, others on contemporary developments. The main concern will be the networks and transnational ties which play a role in the ideas and practices labeled as ‘Islamic’.

Programme and time schedule Tuesday 23 October

Afternoon. Opening session: at Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw, Lorentzzaal 13.15-13.45: Registration 13.45-13.55: Official opening by Simone Buitendijk, Vice-Rector Magnificus Leiden University 13.55-14.15: Welcome and introduction of Autumn School theme – ‘Centres and Peripheries. Networks connecting Muslim Societies in Past and Present’ by Thijl Sunier, chairman of the NISIS board, and Léon Buskens, director of NISIS. Chair:

Thijl Sunier

14.15-15.00: Keynote lecture 1 by Pnina Werbner (Keele University), entitled ‘Sufi Networks, Ethics of Hospitality, and Vernacular Cosmopolitanism.’ 15.00-15.15: Questions and discussion 15.15-15.45: Coffee and tea break Chair:

Léon Buskens

15.45-16.30: Keynote lecture 2 by Benjamin Soares (African Studies Centre/Leiden University), entitled ‘New Muslim Public Figures in Africa.’ 16.30-16.45: Questions and discussion 16.45-18.00: Drinks at Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw.

Wednesday 24 October

Morning programme: workshop at P.N. van Eyckhof 1, Room 003C 09.00

Coffee and tea is served in ‘coffee room’ at P.N. van Eyckhof 3

Chair:

Léon Buskens

09.30-09.45: Introduction by Pnina Werbner 09.45-10.00: Introduction by Benjamin Soares

10.00-10.15: Presentation 1, by Pieter Coppens (Utrecht University). Discussant: Arjan Post (Leiden University). 10.15-10.30: Presentation 2, by Anwar Sadath KT (Hamdard University, New Delhi). Discussant: Mehmet Şahin (VU University Amsterdam). 10.30-11.00: Questions and discussion 11.00-11.30: Coffee and tea break 11.30-11.45: Presentation 3, by Hamdi Echkaou (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh). Discussant: Muhammed Haris KT (Hamdard University, New Delhi). 11.45-12.00: Presentation 4, by Sami al-Dagistani (Leiden University). Discussant: Julio Moreno (Leiden University) 12.00-12.15: Presentation 5, by Anas S.( Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) Discussant: Mònica Colominas (University of Amsterdam). 12.15-12.45: Questions and discussion 12.45-14.15: Lunch, at the Faculty Club. for all participants, NISIS board and keynote speakers

Afternoon programme: at University Library, Grote Vergaderzaal Chair:

Thijl Sunier

14.30-15.15: Keynote lecture 3 by Ulrike Freitag (Freie Universität Berlin), entitled ‘Hajj: Networks converging on the Hijaz.’ 15.15-15.30: Questions and discussion 15.30-16.00: Coffee and tea break Chair:

Thijl Sunier

16.00-16.45: Keynote lecture 4 by Michael Kemper (University of Amsterdam), entitled ‘Arabic, Tatar, Russian: Language Interaction in the Islamic Discourse in Russia.’ 16.45-17.00: Questions and discussion

Thursday 25 October

Morning programme: workshop at P.N. van Eyckhof 1, Room 003C

09.00

Coffee and tea is served in ‘coffee room’ at P.N. van Eyckhof 3

Chair:

Thijl Sunier

09.30-09.45: Introduction by Ulrike Freitag 09.45-10.00: Introduction by Michael Kemper 10.00-10.15: Presentation 1, by Maria Riep (Leiden University). Discussant: Parvina Khojaeva (Tajik Academy of Sciences). 10.15-10.30: Presentation 2, by Mehmet Şahin (VU University Amsterdam). Discussant: Tamás Szenderák (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest). 10.30-10.45: Presentation 3, by Anna Chris Eikelboom (University of technology, Eindhoven). Discussant: Anwar Sadath KT (Hamdard University, New Delhi). 10.45-11.15: Questions and discussion 11.15-11.45: Coffee and tea break 11.45-12.00: Presentation 4, by Annemarie van Geel (Radboud University, Nijmegen). Discussant: Anas S (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi). 12.00-12.15: Presentation 5, by Ammeke Kateman (University of Amsterdam). Discussant: Hamdi Echkaou (Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakesh). 12.15-12.30: Presentation 6, by Alexis Blouet (Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne). Discussant: Pieter Coppens (Utrecht University). 12.30-13.00: Questions and discussion 13.00-14.15: Lunch, at the Grote Beer, for all participants, NISIS board and keynote speakers

Afternoon programme: at University Library, Grote Vergaderzaal Chair:

Herman Beck

14.30-15.15: Keynote lecture 5 by Ghislaine Lydon (University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)), entitled ‘Networks and Trade in the History of Muslim Africa.’ 15.15-15.30: Questions and discussion 15.30-16.00: Coffee and tea break Chair:

Thijl Sunier

16.00-16.45: Keynote lecture 6 by Peter Mandaville(George Mason University, Virginia), entitled ‘Islamic Movement Networks in Europe & North America.’ 16.45-17.00: Questions and discussion 18.30-

Dinner, at De Koets, for for all participants of the workshops, NISIS board and keynote speakers

Friday 26 October

Morning programme: workshop at P.N. van Eyckhof 1, Room 003C 09.00

Coffee and tea is served in ‘coffee room’ at P.N. van Eyckhof 3

Chair:

Léon Buskens

09.30-09.45: Introduction by Ghislaine Lydon 09.45-10.00: Introduction by Peter Mandaville 10.00-10.15: Presentation 1, by Dorrit van Dalen (Leiden University). Discussant: Jafar VK (Hamdard University, New Delhi). 10.15-10.30: Presentation 2, by Nuril Huda (Leiden University). Discussant: Mark Stadler (Leiden University). 10.30-10.45: Presentation 3, by Claudia Carvalho (Tilburg University). Discussant: Mehmet Şahin (VU University Amsterdam). 10.45-11.15: Questions and discussion 11.15-11.45: Coffee and tea break 11.45-12.00: Presentation 4, by Tamás Szenderak (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest). Discussant: Annemarie van Geel (Radboud University, Nijmegen). 12.00-12.15: Presentation 5, by Omar Adam Sayfo (Utrecht University). Discussant: Marloes Hamelink (Utrecht University). 12.15-12.30: Presentation 6, by Mònica Colominas (University of Amsterdam). Discussant: Muhammed Haris KT (Hamdard University, New Delhi). 12.30-13.00: Questions and discussion 13.00-14.15: Lunch, at De Koets, for all participants, NISIS board and keynote speakers

Keynote lectures: speakers, abstracts and bio Pnina Werbner ‘Sufi Networks, Ethics of Hospitality and Vernacular Cosmopolitanism’

This keynote will discuss whether ethical notions of openness and hospitality towards strangers among Pakistani and other Sufis constitute an indigenous, vernacular form of cosmopolitanism beyond the West. More

broadly, the paper

suggests that

cosmopolitanism as an ethical outlook enables us to escape from the straightjacket of globalisation as a market-driven expansionary force, while nevertheless retaining a focus on ideas and values that spread beyond national boundaries or little communities, recognising the qualities of tolerance and open-mindedness that people beyond the West foster in their own terms. I argue that the organisation of Sufi cults, extending across borders, is associated with an ideology of peaceful co-existence. Finally, the paper looks at the capacity of Sufi disciples to travel along global pathways established by their orders and to seek haven and hospitality wherever they land. This has accelerated in an age of national and international migration.

Pnina Werbner is Professor Emerita of Social Anthropology, Keele University, and author of 'The Manchester Migration Trilogy', including The Migration Process: Capital, Gifts and Offerings among British Pakistanis (1990/2002), Imagined Diasporas among Manchester Muslims (2002) and Pilgrims of Love: the Anthropology of a Global Sufi Cult (2003). In 2008 she edited Anthropology and the New Cosmopolitanism: Rooted, Feminist and Vernacular Perspectives, and is the editor of several theoretical collections on hybridity, multiculturalism, migration and citizenship. She has researched in Britain, Pakistan, and Botswana, and has been director of 'New African Migrants in the Gateway City' (ESRC) and 'In the Footsteps of Jesus and the Prophet: Sociality, Caring and the Religion Imagination in the Filipino Diaspora' (AHRC). She is currently recipient of a Wenner Gren award to complete her research and writing of a book on the Manual Workers Union and other public service unions in Botswana.

Benjamin Soares ‘New Muslim Public Figures in Africa’

In recent years, political and economic reforms, cutbacks in state services and education, increased global interconnections, and the spread of new media technologies have all had a dramatic impact in sub-Saharan Africa. Such processes have also had a profound influence on the practice of Islam. In this paper, I focus on some of the new Muslim public figures who have flourished and proliferated in such a changed environment. They include writers of books, pamphlets, newspaper articles, and blogs, preachers whose sermons are aired on radio, television, and circulate on audio, video, and DVD, those involved in Islamic educational institutions, public and private radio stations, and activists in new Islamic associations. Drawing on a series of select case studies of Muslim public figures I reflect on their different educational and career trajectories, transnational ties, affiliations, and aspirations, changing modalities of religious expression, and the kinds of social and political agendas they seek to advance.

Benjamin Soares, an anthropologist, is a senior researcher and the chair of the Researchers’ Assembly at the Afrika-Studiecentrum in Leiden and an affiliated fellow at LUCIS. He has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Sussex. His publications include Islam and the Prayer Economy (University of Michigan Press & Edinburgh University Press, 2005) and the edited collections, Islam, Politics, Anthropology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), with Filippo Osella; Muslim-Christian Encounters in Africa (Brill, 2006); Islam, Etat et société en Afrique (Karthala, 2008) and Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa (Palgrave, 2007) with René Otayek, which has just appeared in Arabic translation (al-Maktabah al-Akādīmīyah, 2012).

Ulrike Freitag ‘Hajj: Networks converging on the Hijaz’

This lecture will deal with the networks which organised the travel and trajectories of pilgrims from different parts of the world.

Ulrike Freitag, a historian of the modern Middle East, has been the director of Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (Center for Modern Oriental Studies) since October 2002. After studying history, Middle Eastern studies and modern German literature in Freiburg, Bonn and Damascus, Ulrike Freitag wrote her PhD on “Syrian Historiography, 1920-1990: between science and ideology” (1991) at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg. Subsequently she worked at the FernUniversität Hagen. From 1993 she was a lecturer for the modern history of the Near and Middle East at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 2002 she completed her state doctorate on “Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut” (Leiden 2003) in the field of Islamic studies at Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. Also in 2002 she moved to Berlin. In addition to her directorship of Zentrum Moderner Orient, she was appointed professor for Middle Eastern Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently working on a history of Jeddah in the 19th century. Her most important publications are Geschichtsschreibung in Syrien, 1920-1990 (Hamburg 1991), Hadhrami Traders, Scholars and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean, 1750s-1960s (ed. with William Clarence-Smith, Leiden 1997), Indian Ocean Migrants and State Formation in Hadhramaut (Leiden 2003), Translocality. Challenging the “Local-Global” Dichotomy (ed. with Achim von Oppen, Leiden 2010), The City in the Ottoman Empire. Migration and the making of urban modernity (London 2011), SaudiArabien – ein Königreich im Wandel? (ed., Paderborn 2010), and Arab Encounters with Fascist Propaganda 1933-1945, Geschichte und Gesellschaft 37:3 (2011), (ed. with Israel Gershoni).

Michael Kemper ‘Arabic, Tatar, Russian: Language Interaction in the Islamic Discourse in Russia’ Islam in the Russian Federation is traditionally linked to a number of historically Muslim nations (esp. Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens, various peoples of the North Caucasus, plus

diasporas of Azeris, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and others); probably some 20 million residents of the RF are Muslim (ca. 14% of the population). All of these nationalities have their own histories of Islamic literature and education as well as their official representatives, in the form of regional Islamic administrations (Muftiates). Research (including our own work) has so far focused on these historical “ethnic Islams”. Over the last two decades Islam began to gradually leave the old-established ethno-national brackets, giving birth to a new Islamic discourse that addresses multinational Muslim audiences in the whole of the Russian Federation. This overall discourse is driven by the expansion of Islamic educational institutions and of Islamic literature, by the increasing mobility of students and teachers, and especially by the Islamic internet. While “national” interpretations of Islam continue to be developed, Islamic schools and interpretations are no longer attached to only one nation or region, and also new trends find adherents among various ethnic groups. And while “national” languages are still important on regional levels, the medium for the overall Islamic discourse is now the Russian language, which is the only language understood by virtually all Muslims in Russia. This complex situation calls for a study in what can be described as translingual religious communication. How is the message of Islam transferred from “Islamic languages” to Russian, and encoded in the latter? And which “Russian” factors are at work in Russia’s overall Islamic discourse?

Michael Kemper is professor and chair of Eastern European Studies, one of the three chair groups of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Kemper studied Slavic as well as Islamic and Oriental Studies at Bochum University, Germany (MA 1994, PhD 1997, habilitation 2004). At Bochum University Kemper also directed, in close collaboration with Prof. Stefan Reichmuth, a Junior Research Group on “Islamic Networks of Education (18th-20th Centuries)”, which was generously supported by the Volkswagen Foundation. Between 1998 and 2007, this group produced seven dissertations on Islamic movements of education in India, Syria, Bosnia and Turkey/the Ottoman Empire. Before coming to UvA Kemper worked as assistant professor for Central

Eurasian

History

at

St.

Lawrence

University

in

Canton,

NY.

Some publications: A.K. Bustanov/M. Kemper [eds.], Islamic Authority and the Russian Language: Studies on Texts from European Russia, the North Caucasus and

West Siberia, Amsterdam: Pegasus, forthcoming October 2012, 408 pp.); The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies, edited by Michael Kemper and Stephan Conermann (London: Routledge, 2011); Kemper, „Red Orientalism: Mikhail Pavlovich and Marxist Oriental Studies in Early Soviet Russia”, Die Welt des Islams 50:3-4 (2010), 435-476; Kemper, “An Island of Classical Arabic in the Caucasus: Daghestan”, in: Fr. Companjen, L. Marácz and L. Versteegh (eds), Exploring the Caucasus in the 21st Century (Amsterdam: AUP, 2010), 63-90; Islamic Education in the Soviet Union and Its Successor States, edited by Michael Kemper, Raoul Motika, Stefan Reichmuth (London: Routledge, 2009), 367 pp.; Kemper, “The Soviet Discourse on the Origin and Class Character of Islam, 1923-1933“, Die Welt des Islams 49/1 (2009), 1-48.; Kemper, "The Changing Images of Jihad Leaders: Shamil and Abd al-Qadir in Daghestani and Algerian Historical Writing", Nova Religio: Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, vol. 11, 2 (2007), 28-58.; Kemper, Herrschaft, Recht und Islam in Daghestan. Von den Khanaten und Gemeindebünden zum ğihād-Staat (Wiesbaden: Reichert-Verlag: Caucasian Studies vol. 7, 2005), 464 pp.; Kemper, Sufis und Gelehrte in Tatarien und Baschkirien. Der islamische Diskurs unter russischer Herrschaft (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1998), 516 pp.; Russian edition Kazan, 2008 (655 pp.).

Ghislaine Lydon ‘Networks and Trade in the History of Muslim Africa’

It is not widely acknowledged that the trade network model was conceived by an anthropologist studying Muslim societies in West Africa. This is a significant fact when considering how influential this concept has been in shaping the study of institutions in the organization of commercial exchange in world history. This lecture will begin with a theoretical discussion of the structure of network systems, with a specific focus on commerce in Muslim Africa. Then we turn to a historiographical overview of scholarship on trade networks in Africa, before ending with a specific case study drawn from Lydon’s research on trans-Saharan caravan trade.

Ghislaine Lydon is an associate professor at UCLA's History Department. She specializes in the legal, cultural and economic history of Muslim Africa. She is the author of a prize winning book about the organization of trans-Saharan camel caravan trade Africa (On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Western Africa. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), and an edited a volume on the Saharan book trade (with Graziano Krätli, The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Arabic Literacy, Manuscript Culture, and Intellectual History in Islamic Africa (Leiden: Brill, 2011). Her articles cover a wide range of topics including economic history, Islamic legal history, Muslim women’s rights, colonial West Africa. Currently, she is working on a book about the place of Arabic literacy and Islamic legal institutions in the economic history of Muslim Africa.

Peter Mandaville ‘Islamic Movement Networks in Europe & North America: Transnationalism & Adaptation’

The public discourse on Muslim organizations in the West tends to figure these groups as "foreign" entities disinterested in social integration and beholden to interests and political agendas dictated from abroad. While many of the Muslim organizations present in Europe and North America today do indeed have their origins in--and, often, ongoing and active ties to--movements that originated in the Muslim majority world, the situation is far more complex with respect to questions of evolution, adaptation, and vectors of influence. Focusing primarily on groups with some affiliation to or history in the Muslim Brotherhood tradition, this presentation will explain how the identity and meaning of these organizations has evolved over multiple generations as the movement has become, to varying degrees, "localized" in the West while still maintaining some measure of transnational connectivity.

Peter Mandaville is the director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University where he also teaches political science and international relations, and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington

DC. During 2011 he was on a leave of absence to serve in government as a member of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Policy Planning Staff. Other past affiliations have included the Pew Research Center, American University, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is the author of Transnational Muslim Politics: Reimagining the Umma (2001) and Global Political Islam (2007), and has co-edited several volumes of essays including, most recently, Politics from Afar: Transnational Networks and Diasporas (Columbia University Press, 2012). His forthcoming book analyzes the impact of neo-liberalism and new media on contemporary Islamic activism.

Suggested readings workshops, by keynote speakers Pnina Werbner: Pnina Werbner, ‘Global pathways. Working class cosmopolitans and the creation of transnational ethnic worlds.’ In Social Anthropology 7 (1999/1), 17-35. Pnina Werbner, ‘Intimate Disciples in the Modern World: The Creation of Translocal Amity among South Asian Sufis in Britain.’, in Martin van Bruinessen and Julia Howell (eds) Sufism and the ‘Modern’ in Islam. London: I.B.Tauris, 2007), 195216. Pnina Werbner, ‘Sufi Cults in South Asia and Indonesia: towards a Comparative Analysis.’, in Kathryn Robinson (ed.) Self and Subject in Motion - Southeast Asian and Pacific Cosmopolitans. London: Palgrave, 2007), 25-46. Benjamin Soares René Otayek and Benjamin F. Soares, ‘Introduction: Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa.’ In Benjamin F. Soares and René Otayek (eds), Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 1-24. Rüdiger Seesemann and Benjamin Soares, ‘Being as Good Muslims as Frenchmen’: On Islam and Colonial Modernity in West Africa.’ Journal of Religion in Africa 39 (2009/1), 91-120. Ulrike Freitag Suraiya Faroqhi, Pilgrims and Sultans. The hajj under the Ottomans 1517-1683 (London and New York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 1994), 1-12; 74-91; 146-173. M.N. Pearson, Pious Passengers. The Hajj in Earlier Times (London: Hurst & Company, 1994), 67-86 and 146-171. F.E. Peters, The Hajj. The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and the holy places (Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994), 272-291 Michael Kemper Alfrid K. Bustanov and Michael Kemper [eds.], Islamic Authority and the Russian Language: Studies on Texts from European Russia, the North Caucasus and West Siberia (Amsterdam: Pegasus, forthcoming October 2012), 1-24 and 25-55.

Ghislaine Lydon

Abner Cohen, ‘Cultural Strategies in the Organization of Trading Diasporas.’ In C. Meillassoux (ed.), Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), 266-81. Ghislaine Lydon, chapter seven in On Trans-Saharan Trails: Islamic Law, Trade Networks and Cross-Cultural Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Western Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 340-86. Peter Mandaville Ralph Grillo, ‘Islam and Transnationalism.’, in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30 (2004/5), 861-878. John Bowen, ‘Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space.’ Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30, (2004/5), 879-894.

Titles and abstracts presentations workshops Pieter Coppens: ‘From periphery to centre? Sufis commenting on the Qurʾān in ʿIrāq and Khurāsān from the 9th to the 13th century.’ The position within the house of Islam of what has become known as Sufism has been contested from early on. One could claim that it evolved from strands of thought that were not part of the ‘central value system’ of the developing new religion, and manifested themselves on the margins of society (even quite literally in the case of the early zuhhād often being frontier soldiers), slowly integrating into one discipline, ‘Sufism’, taking its place in the centre by relating itself to other Islamic sciences. In this presentation some issues on the relation between Sufism and the discipline of Qurʾān commentary (tafsīr) will be addressed. Was commenting on the Qurʾān perhaps a way for early Sufis, legitimizing their ideas by relating them to, or even reading them into the by then unchallenged Qur’ānic text, to move their ideas from the (non-spatial) ‘periphery’ to the ‘centre’ of Islamic thought? Special attention will be paid to the significance of ʿIrāq and Khūrāsān as ‘centres’ of Sufi tafsīr-authorship.

Anwar Sadath KT: ‘Salafi Reform Movement and its Impact on the Educational Development of Kerala Muslims.’ The early period of the twentieth century saw a lot of social movements throughout India along with the independence struggle against the British rule. Similar wave was seen in Kerala, the southernmost state of India, also. Due to the caste system and social inequalities existing within the Hindu community, a lot of them accepted Islam. As Islam doesn’t support any form of social stratification based on one’s birth and his/her socioeconomic situation, they enjoyed a life of no discrimination. But even after accepting Islam, they kept with them certain rituals and practices of their earlier life which was not in accordance with the Islamic texts. This local influence in religion could be seen in all societies. Thus Muslims till the early twentieth century in Kerala were the followers of a ‘localized Islam’. Here I would like to critically evaluate on the following issues: 1) The role of the reform movement and its impact on the educational developments of Kerala

Muslims; 2) The role of the movement in promoting the western education and its consequences on the community; 3) The role of the movement as a revivalist enterprise.

Hamdi Echkaou: ‘The religious gate website of ‘al-rabita al-muhammadiyya li-al ‘ulama’’ A survey published in 2007 claimed a diminishing role of the religious institutions in Morocco. Furthermore and as for the sources of religious knowledge, the survey has demonstrated the ever-growing role of satellite channels, audiovisual media in general, tapes, CDs, and the Internet. These channels have become essential sources, taking the place of traditional written sources, to the level of 85%.1 On the same note, this project is providing a detailed examination of Internet-driven social transformation within an important part of the state-oriented community websites, namely ‘al-rabita almuhammadiyya li-al ‘ulama’’. It mainly relates to the past Muslim tradition for social and political Islamic present resistance. Focusing on the websites positioned on the main page, it appears that this latter is enforced as the gate of the past reproducing the present religious issues for the best exploitation of the Moroccan Islamic heritage.

Sami al-Dagistani: ‘Islamic Economics and Ethics – Imam Al Ghazali in Focus.’ My research on MA thesis bases mostly on the notion of Islamic economics and ethics and the intertwinement of the two in Islam. As a theoretical base, I would like to develop the idea of Islam as a historically ambiguous realm which pertains to ethics (culture) as well as economics (society). In my thesis I will mostly inquire upon the writings of Islamic scholars within the history of Islam on economics. One of the main figures of my research is thus Imam Al Ghazali (d. 1111) who contributed immensely on Islamic theology, philosophy, Sufism and, surprisingly for some, economics. Last field has been largely neglected, although Al Ghazali is still perceived as one of the main Islamic sources for “just”, “fair” and Shari’a-based economic conduct within society.

1

Mohammed El-Ayadi , Hassan Rachik, and Mohamed Tozy, « L’Islam au Quotidien : Etiquette sur les valeurs et les pratiques religieuse au Maroc », Prologue Casablanca, 2007.

Anas S.: ‘Maritime South Indian Networks and the Islamicate World System, 12001700.’ Traditional interpretations of world systems are profoundly grounded in European or western experiences. Taking a cue from the history of Indian Ocean, this paper attempts to identify the existence of alternative world systems. It seeks to conceptualize and understand the notion of ‘Islamicate world system’ by analyzing the role of Muslim merchants in Indian Ocean trade, their mercantile networks and trading diasporas and by highlighting the circuits of commodity movements and faith-related travels during the Medieval period. In the light of new conceptual framework, the distinctive features of South Indian Indigenous Muslim traders and their Arab counterparts and the intricate network they developed over years for their joint circulatory processes are analyzed in this paper. The different segments of Muslims involved in the circulatory processes, the major nodal points of their convergence, the principal markets that emitted the economic forces for cohesion, the faith-related movements etc are emphasized in order to indicate the nature of connectivities between the Islamic peripheries of south India with the core centres of faith in West Asia. The paper also discusses the aspects of systemic transformation from the Asian experience to Western domination.

Maria Riep: ‘The Islam in early medieval Central Asia: networks, trade and archaeology.’ The Islam advanced in Central Asia in phases. In these phases different networks from Central Asia played a part, which had an impact on the conquest and social-cultural change. This lecture will discuss a few of these networks, their impact and how we may observe the change in archaeology today.

Mehmet Şahin: ‘The Gülen movement and its transnational activities: Dialogue with non-Muslims as a way of İrşad (moral and spiritual guidance) and Tebliğ (communication).’ The Gülen movement is the most influential Turkish-Islamic movement in the world. It is a transnational movement with organizations operating in the fields of education, interfaith dialogue, media, and business in more than one hundred forty countries across

the globe. This presentation will further elaborate why the Gulen movement organizes various dialogue activities in more than 140 countries with various political, scientific and religious actors. According to the general theology of the Gulen movement based on the scriptures of Said-i Nursi, Muslims have obligation to get contact with the nonbelievers in order to announce the true word of Allah. The Gulen movement uses the globalization and modern communication means as a way to connect Muslims with various parts of the world.

Anna Chris Eikelboom: ‘The nodes in the network: mosque-tomb complexes in Yemen’ Till nowadays mosques or mosque-tomb complexes form important nodes in the religious networks in Yemen, connecting communities on a local and translocal scale. On a material level they structure the urban fabric, provide services to the quarter, make space for rituals related to important stages of life and some of them are the center of ziyārāt, or Sufi processions. On the immaterial level they are instrumental in shaping the identity of persons and communities by their imams teaching about morals and often about politics too. Finally they are a powerful player in society by their

often elaborate waqf

foundations and by the way new structures represent the power who built them. My research

pivots

around

transformations

in

use/ritual,

material

structure

and

commissioning/finance of a motivated selection of Yemeni mosque and tomb complexes. In my presentation I willll focus on the ziyāra of Qabr Hud, a Sufi mosque/tomb complex in the Hadramawt, and, because I was in Yemen during the protests of 2011, I will also pay attention to the changed use of the University Mosque at Change Square in Sana’a.

Annemarie van Geel: ‘Theorising Modernity in Saudi Arabia.’ The focus of the Spring School is “the history of networks and exchanges, leading to a thorough questioning of misleading notions of centres and peripheries”. At the Istanbul Spring School earlier this year I spoke about women’s liberation, empowerment, and the rise of women in Saudi Arabia in relation to the concepts of westernization and modernity. It is the latter concept that I would like to elaborate upon this time. This paper will focus on the theorizing of and on modernity. It will show how the study of modernity

is connected to ideas about centres and peripheries, and will illustrate the development of a ‘Saudi’ form of modernity; an ‘alternative’ , ‘local’ model of modernity that is enchanted, and of which gender segregation might be an essential part.

Ammeke Kateman: ‘Ideas and Interconnections: Journals and Societies in Muhammad ‘Abduh’s Intellectual Context.’ The Egyptian reformer of Islam Muḥammad ‘Abduh (1849-1905) formulated his influential reinterpretation of Islam in close relation to contemporary discussions about Islam and religion, as these took place in Cairo, but were connected with debates in Beirut, Paris, London, Calcutta, Istanbul – perhaps evidence of an increasingly interconnected or globalizing world in an intellectual respect. In this paper, I will discuss the interconnections of ‘Abduh’s plural and international intellectual context by focusing on some aspects of late-nineteenth-century intellectual networks: travelling, translation, schools, and, particularly, journals and societies – the latter two deemed novel as well as essential for societal reform by ‘Abduh and his contemporaries. Instead of identifying a single centre-periphery relation in ‘Abduh’s interconnected intellectual world, I wish to emphasise the plurality and overlapping nature of centres and peripheries for an historical understanding of ‘Abduh’s ideas on Islam as a religion within his intellectual context.

Alexis Blouet: ‘Islamic stakes of the Egyptian constitutional debate.’ The presentation will introduce the Islamic stakes of the current Egyptian constitutional debate, and addresses how participants perceive the role and position of Islam . Indeed, the debate generates, develops, produce and exposes various and contemporary conceptualizations of the relationship between Islam and the legal field. In this regard, I will present the principle points of contention between actors notably concerning the theory of law, individual liberties and the statute of women, respective viewpoints, and how these debates have been settled in the first draft of the constitution.

Dorrit van Dalen: ‘The making of a man of letters. Exchange as an intellectual strategy in the work of Muhammad al-Wali.’

From the 17th until the 19th century, Muhammad al-Wālī was one of the most respected muslim scholars of central sudanic Africa. He was also known in Cairo and his works were collected up to Timbuktu, Niamey and Legon. A Fulani by descent, his hometown was Abgar, a remote village in Baghirmi. The question this paper addresses is how a shaykh from a small, unknown village gained this great reputation. How did he develop his scholarship and what strategies did he choose? Two of his major texts are studied. The first, a commentary on a canonical text on theology, shows how al-Wālī used the status of this text from an important center of Muslim learning, as well as an established Fulani tradition of teaching religion, to promote not only Islam, but also his own views on a local and probably personal concern: the position of `ulama. The second text, about tobacco, brings forward a movement that is almost inverse. It seems to be adressed at scholars in the heartlands of Islam, but makes use of very unscholarly notions that were popular in al-Wālī’s home environment. In both cases the shaykh from Baghirmi seeks alliance with a discourse on an ‘international’ level, as part of a strategy to enhance his standing.

Nuril Huda: ‘Filming Santri On Screen: Between Islam National and Transnational.’ Within the doctrines of Islam, all Muslims are brothers without regard their backgrounds of ethnicity, economy, nationality and so forth, connection of which is widely known among Muslims as al-ukhuwwah al-Islāmiyyah, or Islamic brotherhood. This doctrine to some extent has made a sort of bonding connection, which unites Muslims throughout the world within a single imagination of an Islamic community, to which Muslim people call “the Ummah”. This is why, for Gellner, Islam may serve as “a functional equivalent of nationalism” (Breuilly, 2006: xxv), as long as the doctrinal and strict Unitarianism of the religion functions as a cohesive factor for uniting identity (Gellner, 2006: 78). At the same time, however, the modern world systems have identified Muslims more heavily through their national identity than that of their religion. In other word, the borders of nation-state imagination often challenge the Islamic idea of the “ummah”, questioning the extent to which an imagination of identity imposed by the religion of Islam, somehow, fits into a state’s programme of national identity formation. To put the question in

another way, how do Muslims negotiate their imagination of an Islamic community with that of their national identity? As far as I am concerned, Indonesian Islamic films, as a means of cultural expression, might be used, consciously or not, as an arena of the formation of Muslims’ religious imagination. My hypothetical argument is that, through the medium of film, certain Indonesian Muslims might imagine what they perceive as an ideal community of Muslims without necessarily relinquishing their national identity. In my presentation I will touch upon this issue by exploring the depictions of Muslim santri in film Tiga Doa Tiga Cinta (Three Prayers Three Loves, 2008) and then relating those depictions with the debates of transnational Islam in general.

Claudia Carvalho: ‘From the cercanias to the Salafist center of Catalonia: connecting the jihad recruitment networks.’ Since the 11-M 2004 terrorist attacks that the crescent presence of Salafi-Jihadi groups in Spain has been notorious, namely its migration to the Autonomous province of Catalonia. The region evolved from being the “cercania” to assuming the center of the Global Salafi Jihad recruitment in Europe, profiting from the geopolitical and socio-economical situation to expand its activism. The present article will connect the nodes of the local jihad networks on the grounds of recruitment and radicalization to the display of power in the assembly of a transnational Salafi-Jihad identity. The methodology is based on a longitudinal research relying on newspapers and official reports for data on the frequency and types of Salafi-Jihad activities in the Catalan region. Furthermore, the works of Spanish authors such as J.Jordan, M.Soriano or F.Reinares will be taken in consideration in to the local analysis of this phenomenon, aligned with the conceptual framework of M. Castells, Arquilla and Rondfelt. The article aims to contribute to the study of jihad networks as a social-religious movement and a morphogenetic process of ritualization of violence within the Muslim societies. Tamás

Szenderák:

‘Qat

Consumption

and

National

Identity

in

Yemen.’

Although Qat “chewing” in Yemen is not a new phenomenon, the social and political

importance of this activity is dynamically changing due to recent economic, technical and political developments. The consumption of the plant gained political significance in the early 20th century, when Imam Yahya started to support the use of the narcotic plant in order to divert people’s attention from rebellion. Both the British ruled South and the republican North Yemen implemented a number of policies to restrict Qat consumption - mainly in the name of progression; but this attitude towards the plant dramatically changed after the two countries became unified and Qat was considered a uniting force in a deeply fragmented country and a distinct feature of Yemeni identity on the level of the Arab-Islamic community (as it is forbidden in other parts of the Islamosphere). In my presentation, which is based on my master’s thesis written on the same topic, I aim to familiarize my audience with the very ambiguous nature of Qat consumption, and the importance of this tradition for the Yemeni society. Omar Adam Sayfo: ‘Transnational Networks in the Arab Children’s Media and animation Industry.’ Since the early 2000s, the number of Arab children’s satellite channels grew tenfold from less than a handful. Therefore the demand for home-grown live and animation productions boomed as well. Most Arab TV stations have neither the necessary expertise, nor the infrastructural background to be self-supplying as regards content, therefore rely on professional producers. The production of childrens programs rarely happen in single centers. Stations and even some production companies chose to perform the conceptual, pre-production and production work and outsource the costly, labour intensive production phases. Professionals working in Arab childrens media shape regional and transnational networks for producing and distributing televized products. These networks are dominated mainly by institutions from Egypt and the Gulf. Some of them are based on shared religious and political values why others work only on purely market considerations. Mònica Colominas: ‘From the periphery with love. Mudejar networks with the Muslim world.’ In this presentation, I talk about the networks of the Mudejars with their Muslim fellowships, both within and outside Christian Spain. Some theoretical models such as the

so-called center-periphery are based on relations of inequality. This model assumes that one of more centers concentrate the greatest authority and influence whereas the periphery -here, the Mudejar minority communities- has only a partial and negligible share in the processes set out by the main cultural and economic Islamic centers. However, the manifold affiliations of the Mudejars with the Muslim world bring this model into question. They show that their communities were not territorially or culturally isolated. Rather, they displayed agency within these relationships and were active both, inside and outside their local communities or quarters, known as aljamas.

Locations of the NISIS Autumn School 2012

1. Kamerlingh Onnes Gebouw | Lorentzzaal (A144) | Steenschuur 25 | opening + keynote lectures Pnina Werbner and Benjamin Soares | Tue 23 Oct (afternoon) 2. University Library | Grote Vergaderzaal | Witte Singel 26-27 | keynote lectures Ulrike Freitag and Michael Kemper (Wed afternoon 24 Oct) & keynote lectures Ghislaine Lydon and Peter Mandaville (Thu afternoon 25 Oct) 3. P.N. van Eyckhof 1 | room 003C | P.N. van Eyckhof 1-4 | workshops Wed, Thu & Fri 24-26 Oct (morning sessions) | coffee and tea are served in the coffee room (P.N. van Eyckhof 3) 4. Faculty Club (Academy Building) | Rapenburg 67-73 | lunch Wed 24 Oct 5. Restaurant De Grote Beer | Rembrandtstraat 27 | lunch Thu 25 Oct 6. Grand Café-Diner De Koets | Doelensteeg 8 | dinner Thu 25 Oct + lunch Fri 26 Oct