The Middle East is a region that is often overlooked in present-day exhibitions, and when it is not, the focus is mainly on traditional culture. The image that is presented thus denies the fact... Show moreThe Middle East is a region that is often overlooked in present-day exhibitions, and when it is not, the focus is mainly on traditional culture. The image that is presented thus denies the fact that contemporary Arab culture is a pilot region, a political and cultural laboratory that is highly complex. It is because of this complexity that Catherine David does not focus exclusively on 'contemporary art' in her new project, but also envisages the whole of cultural production, whether literature, philosophy, or journalism, as well as the images and the patterns of thinking that currently exist in the Arab world. This is what lies behind the project's title: Contemporary Arab Representations. Show less
Abdulkader Tayob, from the University of Cape, joins the ISIM as the ISIM Chair at the University of Nijmegen. His arrival brings with it his wealth of experience in the study of Islam from the... Show moreAbdulkader Tayob, from the University of Cape, joins the ISIM as the ISIM Chair at the University of Nijmegen. His arrival brings with it his wealth of experience in the study of Islam from the perspective of religious studies and South African politics. Tayob is particularly interested in the trends and developments in African Islam since the end of colonial rule. How have Muslims and Islamic institutions developed since the 1960s? Which interpretations of Islam, and which social and political forms, have dominated the public debate among Muslims? In spite of diversity, can one speak of an African experience of Islam? If so, what can this experience tell us about global Muslim experiences? These are the kinds of questions that Tayob will bring to the ISIM in the coming years. Show less
Afghanistan: Tree of Life and Kalashnikov is an exhibition (14 July 2001 - 27 January 2002) at the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. More than 20 years of war, civil war, displacement of people,... Show moreAfghanistan: Tree of Life and Kalashnikov is an exhibition (14 July 2001 - 27 January 2002) at the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. More than 20 years of war, civil war, displacement of people, and the Taliban's iconoclasm have led to immense losses of cultural treasures. At the same time the brutalities of war have inspired a new form of popular art. Baluch and Turkmen tribal women and those from other western Afghan groups weave carpets that depict automatic guns, tanks, helicopters and other motives. The exhibition exemplifies important periods of the region's culture from the Bronze Age to today, and displays a selection of these modern war carpets from a private German collection with photo documents. Show less
The workshop on 'Family, State, and Civil Society in Islamic Communities: Legal and Sociological Perspectives', held in Florence, Italy, from 21 to 25 March 2001, was a follow-up of a previous... Show moreThe workshop on 'Family, State, and Civil Society in Islamic Communities: Legal and Sociological Perspectives', held in Florence, Italy, from 21 to 25 March 2001, was a follow-up of a previous workshop held in Berlin (see ISIM Newsletter, 6, p. 3). Both comprise part of a series of meetings, organized by the ISIM and the AKMI, which is devoted to relations between family, state and civil society in Islamic communities in the Islamic world and Europe. The 'Family, State, and Civil Society' workshop was hosted by the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University Institute in Florence as part of the 2nd Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting. The workshop directors were Abdullahi A. An-Nacim (Emory University, Atlanta, Visiting Professor at ISIM) and Laila al-Zwaini (ISIM). Muhammad Khalid Masud opened the workshop. Show less
From 9 to 11 November 2001 the ISIM will hold a workshop on 'Islam, Women's Rights and Islamic Feminism: Making Connections between Different Perspectives'. Some consider 'Islamic' and 'feminist'... Show moreFrom 9 to 11 November 2001 the ISIM will hold a workshop on 'Islam, Women's Rights and Islamic Feminism: Making Connections between Different Perspectives'. Some consider 'Islamic' and 'feminist' perspectives as mutually exclusive or deny the need for an Islamic feminism with the argument that Islam as it is has already given women all their rights. An investigation of women's activism in Muslim societies through the prism of 'Islamic feminism' takes a different point of departure. Show less
Annelies Moors' interest in the Middle East dates from the 1970s when she travelled extensively in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Having spent time with Arabic-speaking people in... Show moreAnnelies Moors' interest in the Middle East dates from the 1970s when she travelled extensively in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Having spent time with Arabic-speaking people in southern Iran, she decided to study Arabic. Initially she did so through an Arabic language programme at the University of Damascus. After returning to the Netherlands, she continued studying Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Amsterdam, but soon decided to make a disciplinary move to anthropology in order to be able to work not only with texts, but also with people. Her first fieldwork brought her to the Nablus region (West Bank) where she conducted research on transformations in family relations and the division of labour in the rural areas. After graduation, she was appointed as part-time lecturer at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. Show less
From 6 to 8 December 2001 the ISIM, together with the Research Centre Religion and Society, will hold an international conference on 'Religion, Media and the Public Sphere' at the University of... Show moreFrom 6 to 8 December 2001 the ISIM, together with the Research Centre Religion and Society, will hold an international conference on 'Religion, Media and the Public Sphere' at the University of Amsterdam. Since the 1990s, three themes have featured prominently in debates in the social sciences and cultural studies: the crisis of the post-colonial nation-state, the increasing global accessibility and proliferation of electronic media, and the rise of religious movements. Show less
The workshop on 'Family and Family Law in Asia and the Middle East', convened by ISIM and the Working Group Modernity and Islam (30 June - 1 July 2000) at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free... Show moreThe workshop on 'Family and Family Law in Asia and the Middle East', convened by ISIM and the Working Group Modernity and Islam (30 June - 1 July 2000) at the Institute for Islamic Studies, Free University of Berlin, aimed at creating a network of scholars and scholar-activists currently based in the West, who employ a social science methodology and perspective in the study of family law, its history, its regional developments and its interpretation by courts. Show less
In cooperation with the Scherpenzeel Media Foundation, the ISIM held its first Journalists Day on 5 June 2000 in Utrecht. Aimed at journalists with an interest in contemporary Islam, the main topic... Show moreIn cooperation with the Scherpenzeel Media Foundation, the ISIM held its first Journalists Day on 5 June 2000 in Utrecht. Aimed at journalists with an interest in contemporary Islam, the main topic of the day was political Islam in the Middle East and Central Asia with a special focus on Iran and Afghanistan. The Journalists Day was unique in that it brought together scientists and reporters who work in the same field and under similar circumstances, though often with different goals. The input of the speakers - Salah Negm, Olivier Roy and Nazif Shahrani - gave substance to interesting discussions, although it became apparent that scholarly and media discourses do not always coincide. Bertus Hendriks (Radio Netherlands) chaired over all sessions. Show less
Students of Islamic law sometimes observe that Islamic law is not law in the proper sense. This observation primarily refers to the distinction between 'jurists law' and 'judge-made law', the... Show moreStudents of Islamic law sometimes observe that Islamic law is not law in the proper sense. This observation primarily refers to the distinction between 'jurists law' and 'judge-made law', the latter being the only proper law. The observation also reflects that our knowledge of Islamic law is derived more from studying the fiqh texts on legal doctrine than from the actual workings of the qadi courts. One may wish to research the actual qadi judgments, but will quickly notice that few critical studies of these judgments are available. Show less
The ISIM atelier, 'Africa and Islam: moral discourses on Islam and the construction of identities in local, national and transnational perspectives', will take place from February to May 2001. The... Show moreThe ISIM atelier, 'Africa and Islam: moral discourses on Islam and the construction of identities in local, national and transnational perspectives', will take place from February to May 2001. The focus will be on the dynamic relationship between supposedly global processes like Islamic resurgence, seemingly uniform Islamic and Islamist discourses, and the construction of local identities and transformations from the perspectives of local groups and communities. Show less
After Beirut and Cairo, the ISIM held its third Sounding Board Meeting in Jakarta from 14-16 August 2000, in close with cooperation with the Center for the Study of Religion and Society (PPIM).... Show moreAfter Beirut and Cairo, the ISIM held its third Sounding Board Meeting in Jakarta from 14-16 August 2000, in close with cooperation with the Center for the Study of Religion and Society (PPIM). Through these meetings, the ISIM aims to forge links with academic institutions in the South that are actively engaged in the study of contemporary developments in Muslim societies. Moreover, they provide an opportunity to discuss current and future research plans with academics and intellectuals. Show less
From 21-24 June 2000, a group of international scholars met in Paris to discuss modern Islamist movements in a conference under the (translated) heading: 'Twenty Years After...'. The idea was to... Show moreFrom 21-24 June 2000, a group of international scholars met in Paris to discuss modern Islamist movements in a conference under the (translated) heading: 'Twenty Years After...'. The idea was to review and assess the 20 years of the studies of Islamist movements, taking the Iranian Revolution of 1979 as a hypothetical point of reference. These movements, collectively known as 'Political Islam', have been used synonymously with terms as varied as 'fundamentalism', 'alternative modernities', 'Islamic revivalism', and so on. It has been perceived as a 'threat', a force opposing Western culture in the 'clash of civilizations'. The more militant groups, with their calls for 'jihad', are often - and erroneously - considered representative of Political Islam as a whole. Show less
Martin van Bruinessen initially studied theoretical physics and mathematics, only later turning to anthropology and Islamic studies. When still a student in physics, he took a number of long trips... Show moreMartin van Bruinessen initially studied theoretical physics and mathematics, only later turning to anthropology and Islamic studies. When still a student in physics, he took a number of long trips to the MiddleEast that aroused his lasting interest in the region. He then followed courses in anthropology and started learning Turkish and Persian. After a few years as a mathematics teacher, he received a research grant for fieldwork among the Kurds, which allowed him to spend two years in the Kurdish-inhabited arts of Iran, Iraq, Iran and Syria. He received his PhD from Utrecht University in 1978, with a thesis on the social and political organization of Kurdistan. One of the major themes in this thesis concerns the social and political roles of Sufi orders (especially Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya) among the Kurds. This work was established as one of the key texts on Kurdish society, and it was translated into various languages, including Turkish, Kurdish and Persian. Show less
This new Turkish encyclopaedia of Islam is an ambitious and wide-ranging project that will rapidly become an indispensable reference work for the study of social, political and cultural aspects of... Show moreThis new Turkish encyclopaedia of Islam is an ambitious and wide-ranging project that will rapidly become an indispensable reference work for the study of social, political and cultural aspects of the Muslim world. As stated in the preface to Volume 1, the work is a statement of pride and confidence in the Islamic religious and cultural heritage, at a time when the Muslim world is overcoming, with great determination, its long-held inferiority complex vis-a-vis the modern West. Accordingly, the TDV Islam Ansiklopedisi was conceived and designed by - and is being overwhelmingly executed from within - a community of Muslim scholars, mainly Turkish. It is thus markedly different in scope and in tone from Leiden’s Encyclopaedia of Islam. This latter is seen by the editors of the new encyclopaedia as primarily a project of European orientalists. Show less
