Sacred Place and Sacred Time in the Medieval Islamic Middle East : : A Historical Perspective / / Daniella Talmon-Heller.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Edinburgh University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Talmon-Heller, Daniella,
• Place / Publishing House: Edinburgh : : Edinburgh University Press, , [2022]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (288 p.) :; 29 B/W illustrations

Explores the construction of sanctity and its manifestations in the medieval Muslim Middle EastDraws on a wide variety of primary sources from many genres: narrative and documentary sources, travelogues, epigraphic and material evidence, legal, devotional and prescriptive religious literatureDeals with the perspectives of Sunnis, Shi`is of the Ithna`ashariyya and Isma`ilis, which are rarely treated simultaneously in researchThe ‘long durée’ treatment of religious phenomena offers a wide perspective, examining both continuity and change The material is organised to allow modular reading, telling two stories with theoretical implications that go beyond the case studiesTruly interdisciplinary, it studies textual evidence and material sources in tandem and integrates the study of religious thought, practice and literature within political contextsThis book offers a fresh perspective on religious culture in the medieval Middle East. It investigates the ways Muslims thought about and practiced at sacred spaces and in sacred times through two detailed case studies: the shrines in honour of the head of al-Husayn (the martyred grandson of the Prophet), and the holy month of Rajab. The changing expressions of the veneration of the shrine and month are followed from the formative period of Islam until the late Mamluk period, paying attention to historical contexts and power relations. Readers will find interest in the attempt to integrate the two perspectives synchronically and diachronically, in a discussion of the relationship between the sanctification of space and time in individual and communal piety, and in the religious literature of the period.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Map of the Middle East -- Introduction -- 1 Etic Concepts and Emic Terms -- 2 The State of the Art -- PART ONE A Sacred Place: The Shrine of al-Husayn’s Head -- Introduction -- 3 From Karbala to Damascus: A Relic with Multiple Shrines -- 4 The Commemoration of al-Husayn in Fatimid Ascalon -- 5 Excursus: Donations to Mosques and Shrines -- 6 Why Ascalon? Christian Martyrs and Muslim Murābiṭūn (Defenders) -- 7 Excursus: Medieval Pilgrimage – Victor Turner’s Input -- 8 From Ascalon to Cairo: The Duplication of Sacred Space -- 9 Excursus: Arabic Treatises in Praise of Ascalon -- 10 The Shrine in Cairo under the Sunni Ayyubids and Mamluks -- 11 Excursus: al-Husayn and Saladin in Palestinian Lore -- 12 The Shrine in Ascalon under the Ayyubids and Mamluks -- 13 Excursus: Ibn Taymiyya on the Veneration of the Head of al-Husayn -- 14 Summary -- PART TWO A Sacred Time: The Month of Rajab -- Introduction -- 15 Rajab in Pre-Islamic Arabia and in Early Islam -- 16 Excursus: The Founding of an Islamic Lunar Calendar -- 17 Rajab Under Fatimid Rule -- 18 Excursus: Istighfār (Seeking Divine Forgiveness) -- 19 Rajab under the Ayyubids and Mamluks -- 20 Excursus: Arabic Treatises in Praise of the Sacred Months -- 21 Summary -- Final Comments: Spacial and Temporal Sanctity -- Works Cited -- Index