negar zeilabi

Arabesque (stylized plant and geometric motifs) is sometimes considered as a feature of Islamic art and one of the innovations of Islamic civilization; On the other hand, some art historians, in addition to the characteristics of the Islamic period, have pointed out its pre-Islamic sources, especially the Sassanid and Byzantine sources and the transfer of previous cultural traditions. In this research, in addition to these two sources, Nabatean culture as a rich treasure of ancient pictorial themes has been included as another source in the field of Islamic arabesque plant motifs. The main question of this research is what were the motifs and plant motifs in Nabatean works and based on the similarities between Nabatean and Islamic motifs, to what extent can Nabatean motifs be considered as a source for Islamic arabesque? In this research, with an approach based on cultural history and various evidences, especially material artifacts and reports of archaeologists and obvious cultural similarities, we have shown that the Nabataean motifs can also be counted among the descendants of Arabesque, and on this basis, and considering the multitude of descendants The history of arabesque, the essentialist and mystical views of traditionalists in limiting the scope of interpretation of these motifs to Islamic art, are subjected to a serious revision.

The Nabatean illustrations showcase a rich trove of the time-honored leitmotifs of its neighbors and the autochthonous mentalities. The tradition was grown, expanded, and echoed down the ages, with some motifs appropriated, mutatis mutandis, in neighboring regions, especially in its southern neighbor – Central Arabia. The main questions this study attempts to answer are: What are the myriad mentalities of the Nabataean illustrations, not least their sociocultural signification? And how and to what extent these mentalities informed the pictorial mentalities of Arabs residing in Central Arabia? Adopting a sociocultural and anthropological approach and examining the various pieces of evidence (notably the material finds reported by anthropologists), the social signification and function of images in the daily lives of the people, such as the all-pervasive influence of images and the temporary interdiction against the depiction of humans on tombstones, are investigated. The Nabatean mentalities are shown to have permeated Arabian society via a variety of cultural conduits like commercial exchanges and, more conspicuously, through the importing of figurines of goddesses like ʿUzza/Isis, which culminated in major cultural resemblances between the Nabatean and Arabian cultures.

A number of architectural activities in Egypt during the Mamluks period were influenced by the political context and the goals and factors that associated with it. These contexts added elements and styles to the architecture and provided an area for increasing the number of buildings with such as characteristics. The aim of this research is answer the questions by descriptive-analytical and statistical methods how did political factors affect the architecture of Mamluks in Egypt? Which buildings were created under the influence of these factors? Findings show that factors and goals such as political legitimacy, domination of society, maintaining government and wealth, turning Egypt into the center of the caliphate, and the question of identity, led the country to increase architectural activities.Also, buildings such as ṭibāq, Jām‛, madrasah, khānqāh, zāwiyah, ḥamām, ribāṭ, sabīl-kuttāb and tombs and structures such as squares and bridges are among the buildings that emerged under the influence of political contexts in Egypt.

Wearing footwear to protect the feet from injuries and facilitate moving around has been a common practice for a long time in Persia, Mesopotamia, and the surrounding civilizations, not least in the urban centers. The profession of shoe-making is, therefore, deemed an important and profitable one. The study presents various types of footwear and how the domain worked in the structure of the traditional Islamicate world by examining a wide range of historical, literary, and social sources. To this end, Clifford Geertz’s approach, Thick Description, is used. The modus operandi of the profession is explored via unraveling the material elements in shoes and shoe-making. The elements include a diversity of the jargon used in the profession, the tools, the workplace, professional ethics, the monitoring of the craftsmen and their major and minor incomes, and the vocational and social position they enjoyed. Contrary to the current belief, this craft was not lucrative despite the diversity and high demand for the products. Accordingly, the craftsmen mostly belonged to the lower strata of Muslim societies.

The Belt used to be a part of the formal and regular costumes in the various regions of the Islamic world. The Belt, in addition to the primary function of holding pants, has carried social implications in the different periods of history, according to its varieties of colors, materials, and decorations. Analyzing a wide range of historical, literary, and social sources, the paper draws the scheme of the belt in the structure and context of the world of Islam. A thick description method has been used for this purpose. The ways of belt fastening and its other functions in clothing, such as ornamental or magical, could be considered as evidence for the study of the social status of historical agents in Muslim societies. We also encounter a wide range of the words used to refer to the belts in the Islamic classical world, which testify to the various significations of belts according to social-cultural context.

Egypt’s Alawite community was a noteworthy one before Fatimids established themselves in Egypt. This paper aims to find out what factors and motives made Alawites immigrate to Egypt from various cities of the Muslim World. Finally, it tries to see what objectives and motives contributed to the bilateral policies between Alawites and the ruling class. Examining the data from variegated historical sources indicate that the policy implemented by rulers and governors vis-à-vis Alawites was not of a religious nature before Fatimids began to take root in Egypt. Rather, it was mainly based on the political, social and secular traditions. Contrary to popular belief, Alawites did not form a monolithic society with certain religious, ethnic or political purposes. Hasanids, for instance, were more precautious than their Husainid or Jaʿfarid relatives. In various periods, Hasanids sought to cooperate and reconcile with the ruling system, and with Umayyad and Abbasid governors under the cover of taqiya (precautionary dissimulation of religious belief and practice). They were thus able to both partake of the political, economic and social benefits and pave the way, in propitious moments, for their Fatimid relatives to take power.

Geographical texts of the Muslim world in the medieval period presented the diverse data and readings of Wonders of the World. Rather than serving as objective accounts pertaining to the reality, the data are indicative of the mentalities of the authors’ contemporaneous societal and cultural discourses. The main question addressed here is what mentalities Muslim geographers- from the third/ninth to the seventh/thirteenth century- held about the Pyramids and thereabouts, including Sphinx of Giza. Can we find any instances of scientific investigation or anthropological exploration in their discourse? Are the ideas of those Muslim scholars reflecting the popular narratives and folktales among the commoners? Content analysis serves as the model of this study. First, the data contained in the most important geographical sources about the subject is descriptively explored. Then, history of mentalities is applied in order to inquire, process, and analyse the data. The findings suggest that the mentalities prevailing among the commoners, such as the magical characters to depictions and statues in these historical constructs, has the upper hand over other interpretations.

The unbreakable bond between hadith and history paves the way for the efficiency of each in order to measure the other. In this regard, the explorations of the hadith and history scholars have included incompatible propositions in the drawing of Muawiyah's identity, the first Umayyad Caliphate. In the present study with the approach of social semiology, with emphasis on the process of meaning-making in the context of community and culture, the main question raised is in Imam Ali's letters to Muawiyah, regarding the set of linguistic and content symbols, what are the symbols to draw Muawiyah's personality used and based on this set of symbols, how can the religious and historical identity of Muawiyah be identified? From the authors' point of view, the letters of Imam Ali (AS) have a very good capacity for studying social semiology and provide a clear and comprehensive reflection on the problems of Imam Ali's era. Imam Ali (AS) has analyzed Muawiyah's identity codes using social symbols in various aspects and provided the context of audience access to a clear picture of Muawiyah's identity by providing an identity representation system. The study indicates that the purposeful selections of Imam Ali (AS) in the letters of Nahj al-Balaqah provide a new reading of historical events according to religious, Arab culture and literary symbols and are considered as the reliable sources of measuring contradictory historical propositions.

The misogynous narratives that were reflected in Nahj ul-Balāgha, are typically understood as such by decontextualizing the statements and embedding them in the modern framework. Given the incongruity between the traditional statement and the feminist viewpoints of the modern era, the statements- as part of Islamic and especially, Shiite tradition- are inconsonantly compared with the modern outlooks. The present paper shows that many of those statements regarding women in Nahj ul-Balāgha are not buttressed by any reliable evidence as well as the content of those statements could  be traced in the bulk of similar statements in the literary works written after the fourth century A.H. Moreover, given the cultural circumstances of the time that  Nahj ul-Balāgha was embedded in,  those attitudes towards women are intelligible and also they were accepted and considered to be consonant with the popular mentalities wrought into the historical and literary works contemporary with compiling Nahj ul-Balāgha and those composed in the subsequent centuries. To expound this hypothesis, attempts are made to analyze the evidence, context as well as cultural mentalities about women in Nahj ul-Balāgha, and its exegeses and sundry literary and historical texts produced up to the 6th/12th century in order to compare those texts with the former. The approach is non-confessional 

Blacksmithing, as an instrumental skill since the dawn of humanity, supplied the necessary instruments in the daily life as well as military and civil activities. Examining a wide range of historical, literary and social sources, the present paper draws the scheme of blacksmithing in the structure and context of the traditional Muslim world. The method employed for this purpose is ‘thick description’. This task is undertaken by depicting the general scheme of the profession and investigating the phenomenal aspect of that, such as its various functions, the instruments, the workplace, professional ethics, monitoring and payment of the professional, main and subsidiary income and professional base and social status. Despite the high diversity of productions and demands of various groups of society,the profession was not high-paying and those belonging to this guild were the lower classes in the Muslim world.

One of the important financial resource tax in the tax system of Islam. This type of tax in Egypt, many developments were the prime causes social and political evolution taxes in this period as well as political, social and economic change governors and the financial relationship governors of the Caliphate and also how to impose taxes and obtaining Egypt and other changes in the financial resources of the community have the greatest impact. The consequences of changes in financial resources can be said that these changes will have the greatest impact upon the subjects and citizens left the government and caused riots and protests, some are social.

Mukus tax (customs duty), a type of special tax on the import and export of commercial goods, was an important financial resource for governors in Egypt (19-254 AH/ 640-868 CE). The Mukus tax initiated by the Byzantine tax law of Egypt was adopted and applied in a modified form under the Muslim governors’ rule. The governors tried to capitalize on the proceeds of import and export, improve foreign trade and set up ports and to make them economically prosperous. Drawing on earlier sources, the study will examine the law associated with Mukus tax under Egyptian governors, the similarity of the mucus system with other systems like ʿushūr and how it affected Egypt’s economic system.

The profession of degreasing used to be an important and regular profession in the various parts of the Muslim world. Degreasing was most importantly used in the following areas: food, industry, as flammable substance and for medical purposes. Examining a wide range of historical, literary and social sources, the paper draws the scheme of degreasing profession in the structure and context of the world of Islam. The method employed for this purpose is ‘thick description’. This task is undertaken by depicting the general scheme of the profession and investigating the phenomenal aspect of the profession, like its various functions, the instruments of the task, the workplace, professional ethics, monitoring and payment of the professional, his main and subsidiary income, professional base and social status. Due to the tremendous variety of production and the demands of various groups of society for their production, the profession was high-paying and practitioner of this guild was considered to be affluent in the Muslim world.

The Khazars were a nation of Turkic origin and language who from the 7th to lOth centuries A.D., Ist to 4th A.H., had a strong and independent state in the northeast regions of the Black Sea and the northwest areas of the Caspian sea. In early Islamic sources, the cities of Atel, Balenjar, and Samandar have been mentioned as different capitals of the Khazarian state. In the 2 nd half of the 8th century, the ruling class and the majority of the Khazars embraced Judaism, driven by political motives. In the Ist century A.H., relations between the Muslims and the Khazars were marked by endless and inconclusive wars on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains. Following the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism and the establishment of relatively cordial relations With the Abbasi khalifahs in Baghdad, though the intensity of these conflicts subsides, they sporadically continued until the conquest of the Khazars by the Russians in the 4 Th century A. H. Muslim travelers and geographers have given accounts of large populations of Muslims living in the country of the Khazars. The endeavor of this paper has been to portray a clear picture of the history of the khazars with an emphasis on their relations with the Muslims, based on ancient Islamic texts, and the reconstruction of the existing scattered information on the final fate of the Khazars.