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Week 8
Popular Islam
Islam
• Before 622
– Judaism & Christianity spread
– Older polytheistic religion.
• Mecca & Medina
– Mercantile center
– Pilgrimage center.
Gap between two views
• Anthropological view of Islam:
– A cultural tradition that takes many forms.
– Not heterogeneous collection of beliefs and
practices
• Muslim view:
– Coherent Religion,
– Civilization
– Social order
Muhammed
• One God- Tauhid
– Equivalent to Judeo-Christian God
• Prophet
– Equivalent to Biblical prophets.
– Last of 124,000
• Orthopraxy: righteous actions
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Proclamation of faith
Worship
Alms
Fasting
Pilgrimage
Islam-- Commonalities
• Lack of priesthood- anyone can go on path
to knowledge & salvation
– Direct, unmediated relationship with God.
• Egalitarian emphasis.
• Umma= community—Muslim community
must remain undivided.
Muhammed
• Khalifa was his successor.
• Jihad= reform, personal endeavor, or conquest
– military struggle “lesser Jihad”.
– Personal struggle with faith & society “greater Jihad”.
• Ulama; learned ones
– Sharia: “Ways”
– Quest to obey God’s will
– Sunnah & Kuran
• Sufi tradition
Ernst Gellner: Two trends in Islam
• Ulama= scholarly tradition
– Literacy,
– Egalitarianism.
– Universalist ideal of a single deity, available to
all who care to read.
Mosque
• No custom or ritual within Islamic practice for
which one needs any particular set of
credentials
– general rule: most knowledgeable among group
should lead prayers
• Typical function of ‘alim : Imam of mosque
– leads daily prayers
– delivers Friday sermon
– teaches neighborhood children basics of Islamic
law
• Qur'anic recitation
• sometimes writing & calligraphy
Ernst Gellner: Two trends in Islam
• Associationist- Sufi tradition
– Mediation
– Propitiation
– Ritual & devotional excess
– Religious hierarchy.
Shi’a ‘Ulama
• Fifth Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (d. 733)
– Founder of Shi’i law
– to whom Kufans turned increasingly for
rulings on religious matters.
• Sixth Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq (d. 765),
– systematized Shi’i law,
– body of rawis ("transmitters") of sayings of
the Shi’i Imam emerged.
Modern Political Shi’a ‘Ulama
• Shi’a ‘Ulama
– Political leader within Iran
• Iran is governed on Islamic Religious Law
called Governance of the faqih (wilayat-i
faqih)
– wilayat = rule, supremacy or sovereignty
– Also: friendship, loyalty, or guardianship
– Ruling guardianship of jurisprudence
• Gives religious power over the land
Madrasah
• 2 common modes of study in pre-colonial
period:
– tutelage with individual scholars
– attendance at Madrasah
• Mustaniriyah in Baghdad,
• Niiimiyah in Baghdad,
• al-Azhar in Cairo
• Colonization caused radical curriculum
changes
– Like modern Western University
Fatwa: applied law
• Only mufti is qualified to identify what rules apply
• matter of training --not esoteric knowledge
Islam-- diversity
• Islam often associated with Middle East &
Arabs.
– Half of all Muslims live in Southeast Asia.
– Not all Muslims speak Arabic, and not all
Arabs are Muslim.
– Often, local customs defined in terms of Islam;
• “if we do it, and we are Muslim, then it is a Muslim
practice.”
Kohistan-- R. Lincoln Keiser
• Thull—Kohistan; small village on AfganPakistani border.
Kohistan-- R. Lincoln Keiser
• Strict code of honor:
• Dushmani: men engage in blood revenge; will
kill another for slight of honor.
• Special source of shame is women; if a strange
man so much as looks at wives or daughters, he
has dishonored the husband/father.
• Hospitality
• Give refuge to anyone asking.
• Compassion for a fallen adversary.
300 years ago
• Villages organized into endogamous
partilineal descent groups.
• Relationship between men and women
very casual; women not secluded.
• Perhaps some wife stealing; perpetrator
could pay fine.
• Revenge known, but generally against
other tribes.
16th century
• Conversion to Islam; generally, no major
changes in social system.
– God is an imperious ruler.
– God gives ghrairat—personal honor, integrity
to men; at birth.
– Can easily be lost,
19th century: Under British India
• Nawabs- Pathan chief who captured
region in 1888
• Britain threatened by Russia.
• Troops had to go through the region to
protect India from Russian invasions.
• Policy: let Nawabs have unfettered rule;
they keep roads open & maintain them.
19th century: Under British India
Imposed code of honor on people of Thull;
• Ruled by arbitrary decrees.
• The Nawabs exacerbated local disputes
within the community to weaken
opposition.
• Levied light fines for murder; encouraged
people to take revenge rather than pay
fines.
1947 independence
• Pakistani government developed region.
– Schools, roads, telephone service, buses.
– increased importance of potato farming;
undercut ties between herding groups.
– Newfound wealth made guns more easily
available.
1947 independence
• Roads also brought fundamentalist
teachings.
– Saint worship considered heresy; humans
with special access to God.
– Opposition to music and dancing;
• seduced women;
• personalized connection between male honor and
sexual purity of women.
Java: Suzanne Brenner
Java: Suzanne Brenner
• Value restraint; concentration of inner
spiritual strength through self-control.
– Associated more with men; men “naturally’
have greater control than women.
– Upper classes have it more than lower
classes.
• Women don’t always agree with this view.
– Women have absolute control in
• Home- including household finance.
• Market- Women traders
Java: Suzanne Brenner
• Often viewed in terms of Islamic values:
– Men more in control of emotions; women more
irrational or sexual.
– Hence, women need to be controlled by men.
• But some argue that men are less capable of
controlling emotions.
– Lust and greed.
– Women are better at business because men will be
spend money on women—take a second wife or
gamble.
Java: Suzanne Brenner
• Kebaya
• Veil
– Considered “foreign”
– Viewed as “modern” but not “Western.”