„Nomos. Czasopismo Religioznawcze” to naukowy periodyk powstały w 1991 roku (w latach 1991-2012 ukazywał się jako „Nomos. Kwartalnik Religioznawczy”), wydawany przez Instytut Religioznawstwa Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.



Redaktor naczelny: dr hab. Henryk Hoffmann, prof. UJ
Sekretarz redakcji: mgr Anna Książek

Summaries Nomos 69/70

Wiesław Bator

MIDDLE AGES RELIGIOUS REPRESENTATIONS AND ISLAMIC PROPAGANDA
IN THE BOOK ONE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS


Alf laila wa laila, or One Thousand and One Nights, is one of the best known literary works in the world, containing syncretic and entertaining fantastical tales. The author of this paper, however, calls into question the assertion that One Thousand and One Nights is solely an entertaining and fictional literary work. Analysing numerous quotations and passages from the book this paper’s author claims that the main objective of the persons behind the text was, in fact, religious propaganda interwoven into folk tales of the of Islam in the Middle Ages. Rifling through various tales of the book shows that matters related to religion play a big role, as is exemplified in ‘Slave-girl Tawaddud’. From this perspective Alf laila wa laila is simply a priceless fount of knowledge regarding Muslim religious convictions, customs, cosmological and eschatological ideas about world, ethical norms and moral ideals. Therefore, it seems that the actual objective of the authors and editors through this work was teaching, explaining and moralize to its readers, under the disguise of a series of fantasy tales. From the point of view of religious studies, Alf laila wa laila is an ideological and cultural continuation of the same kind of literature, which was present in this region form antiquity. Collections of the tales found in the book are the ‘successors’ of the ancient Egyptian sadji as well as of the Biblical parables. Likewise as these predecessor texts, also Alf laila wa laila was designated not only to entertain but also to teach the proper conduct, solidify truth of faith and convince its readers of Muslim cultural supremacy over the competing religions of those days.


Denis Brilow

SUFISM IN UKRAINE: HISTORIC RETROSPECTION AND PRESENT SITUATION

The author of this paper attempts to analyze the phenomenon of Sufism Tariqah (path, way, method) in both the past and present history of Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the role Tariqah played in the development of the social and political situation in Ukraine. Based on the research data and literature, one can arrive at the following conclusions:
– Sufism played a key role in the spreading of Islam in 13th Century Crimea;
– Traditional Sufi are currently actively present in almost all ethnic communities among Ukrainian Muslims;
– It is most likely that Sufi influence on the social and political situation in Ukraine will increase, since there is a world wide tendency to perceive Sufism as the most acceptable version of Islam.


Waldemar Gembalik

ICONOCLASM IN ISLAM AND ITS CONSEQUENCE ON THE MUSLIM CULTURE

The article is concerned with understanding the origins of the Islamic prohibition on human and animal representation, its presence in the Qur’an and hadith tradition, and the way it has influenced Muslim architecture and fine arts. The concept of iconoclasm goes back to the first Muslim dynasty of the Umayyds and to the Byzantine Empire. According to J. Danecki, the prohibition on representation has its roots not only in the doctrinal creeds and theological interpretations of the Islam religion, as is commonly known, but also in the social, religious and political ferment of the 8th and 9th Centuries, related to the „image breaking” movement. The article accentuates the fact established by many scholars that opposition to figural representations in not based on the Qur’an, but rather on various narrations contained within the hadith. The actual application of the prohibition of images is most visible in Muslim architecture. However, we can see that the strict rule banning the depiction of living beings referred mainly to sacral architecture, whereas representational ornamentation was widely used in the rulers’ palaces and castles. Muslim art drew on both western and eastern cultural traditions, namely on the West Hellenic and the Christian Byzantine Empire, and on the East, the fallen Persian Empire of the Sassanid Dynasty. Evolved Muslim fine arts bore a characteristic pattern of arabesque. This ornamental and artistic motifs, containing and mixing together geometrical, floral and calligraphic patterns, finally became an expression for religious and metaphysical contents alike in classical religious representational art of the Moslem World.


Stanisław Grodź

MUSLIM MIGRATIONS IN EUROPEAN AND WEST AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE

Perceiving Muslims and Islam as a threat, the contemporary Western media have adopted a centuries’ long bias, which perceives Islam to be spread almost exclusively through military conquest (‘religion of the sword’). Such a perception tends to overshadow an important factor in the history of Islam’s expansion, namely that Islam has also spread by peaceful migrations of Muslims. Merchants and scholars, and sometimes refugees, frequently have settled in lands not governed by Muslims. These immigrants are not linked to any military expeditions. Moreover, their arrival did not necessarily mean that the region where they settled would become Islamized due to the mere fact of their arrival. Sometimes Muslims lived in cultural and social clusters for centuries in a society that maintained its distinctive, non-Muslim cultural identity. Muslim immigrants tend to settle in urban areas, though it should be noted that over the centuries some did settle in rural areas. In contemporary European societies, Muslims often are not respected, contrary to what has been observed in the West African context. Yet, that respect does not mean uncritical reverence. Some African societies, placing high value on their own cultures, employed Muslim knowledge, skills and worldly connections, while confining Muslims within clear social boundaries that ensured they would
not be allowed to disrupt the social status quo.


The article presents an attempt to view the issue of Muslim migration in a synoptic perspective
of Europe and West Africa. At this stage, it aims at simple juxtaposing of facts and tendencies
without drawing conclusive opinions, as in such a short article, one can only scratch the
surface of this vast subject. The issues raised here require much more thorough analyses.


Anna Książek

LOVE AND SEX IN THE LIFE OF A MUSLIM

The paper deals with love and sexuality in everyday life of Muslim society. In the first section, comprised of Quranic and hadith citations, the rules of conjugal life are quoted. These quotes pertain to the basic principles regulating the matter of regularity of sexual intercourse, techniques and mutual treatment between husband and wife. Further, some disorders ssociated
with sex, which are characteristic of Arabic culture, were mentioned. Then, certain sexual practices, for example, prostitution, muta marriage, adultery, and homosexuality were discussed. The paper is rather written from the historical perspective, with some references to the beginnings of Islam and its classical period.


Agata S. Nalborczyk

TARIQ RAMADAN –
THE EUROPEAN MUSLIM INTELLECTUAL IN THE PUBLIC DEBATE


There is an ever more visible group of Muslims in Western Europe comprised of immigrants and their descendants. The early generations of immigrants usually consist of uneducated people, therefore, participation in public discourse only begins to occur in later generations, among those Moslems born and educated in Europe. Tariq Ramadan, a philosopher and muslim theologian, attracts the most attention. He expresses his opinion, above all, on the issues of the presence of Muslim immigrants and their descendants in Western Europe.Ramadan focuses strictly on religious issues, and his numerous publications can serve as an example of Muslim theological searching, which may help Muslims find a way of functioning in Europe, without losing their Muslim identity. Ramadan remains, however, a controversial figure, where some see him as hope of Islam in Europe, because of his theological support for Muslim integration, whereas others consider him as a dangerous fundamentalist, using inflammatory language. Some also look at him with suspicion, since he is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to Ramadan’s frequent presence in the media (including Polish), it is worth presenting his position in the Western public debate. This article attempts to examine Ramadan’s views, including some pros and cons associated with his public activities.


Adam Wąs

DA.WA. SIGNIFICANCE AND DIVERSITY OF THE ISLAMIC MISSION

In the context of rapid growth of Islam at the beginning of the 21st Century the author of this paper explains the significance and dynamics of the Islamic mission with special emphasis on the role it plays in the processes of intensifying Islam presence in the public sphere – especially in Europe. An attempt also was made to answer the question, whether da‘wa (following the ‘straight way’) makes up an essential part in the general strategy of islamisation of the world. The article consists of four parts. Terminology and theological issues are discussed in the first part. Focusing on the semantic diversity in Islam, the author emphasises the Qur‘anic origin of the term da‘wa and the theological legitimization actions in reference to it. Da‘wa is presented as a call to follow the straight way (sirat mustaqim) and as a remainder to humankind of two elements: tawhid and din al-fitra. The second part focuses on the process of politicizing da‘wa in Islamic history. Hence, in this context, the Fatimid Period and its modern concepts are explored to some extent. Institutionalizing the process of Islamic mission in the 20th Century is also mentioned. In the third part we refer to H. Wrogemann’s analyses of some Muslim thinkers in order to delineate four theories of da‘wa. These are: the reforming theory, the revolutionary theory, the liberating and dialogical theory, and finally, the theory of individual purity. They all aim for the islamisation of society using, however, different methods. In the last part we compare da‘wa with the Christian mission by describing differences and similarities in these two phenomena.

Anna Zaczkowska

BURQA – BARBIE
ADAPTATION MECHANISMS OF THE WESTERN POPULAR CULTURE ICON
INTO MUSLIM CULTURE


The paper intends to illustrate various mechanisms by which Western pop-culture icon ‘Barbie doll’ can cross over into the Muslim culture. In the introductory section, a concise history of fashioning the controversial toy and its perception by conservative Islam believers is outlined. Further, the meaning of two terms – halal and haraam, including their definitions today, is discussed. Halal literally means ‘lawful or legal’, and is the opposite of haraam – meaning ‘forbidden’. These two terms form in integral part of the Islamic worldview. Today, he term halal is closely connected with the economy, as there is a certain market of commodities, which are halal. Barbie doll was the first of Western pop-cultural idols to undergo a transformation process among Moslems. It went through a certain marketing strategy, namely changing its category from haraam to halal before it could be put out for sale. In such way, this distorted icon of the Western pop-culture is somehow being adopted by Islamic world.


Krzysztof Żwirski

TRACES OF SACRALISING WOMAN IN THE MUSLIM CULTURE

The aim of this article is to identify premises, which would allow for the presentation of a balanced picture of women in Classical Islam, as portrayed in professional literature. The discussion concentrates on few aspects of the social and legal status of the Muslim woman, where feminist language is substituted with the key-concepts of Mircea Eliade’s and Rudolph Otto’s theory of sacrum. An attempt is made to reconstruct the masculine view of a woman in Islam, which is phenomenologically described as a mixture of fear and fascination. Compared to hierophany, the idea of a woman points to holy space (the harem) and the place in time, being the archetype of night associated with the veil and its cultural backdrop. Thereby, holy means simply no more than excluded. In Muslim world, a woman becomes sanctified as a mother or as a subject of fatal love in the traditions of classical Arabic literature. In Muslim culture, woman’s semi-real standing and almost mysterious significance is eventually confirmed in huriyah – the heavenly virgin, an ideal image of a woman in the Muslim man’s mind.


Translated and sub-edited by Stanisław A. Wargacki

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