Impact Factor: 0.5

Published since January 1, 1910

Der Islam

Journal of the History and Culture of the Middle East

ISSN: 1613-0928

Edited by: Stefan Heidemann, Gottfried Hagen, Andreas Kaplony, Rudi Matthee, Kristina L. Richardson

About this journal

Founded by Carl Heinrich Becker in 1910, the Journal Der Islam provides a forum for the study of the history and culture of the Middle East before the age of modernisation in the 19th century, from the Iberian Peninsula to Central Asia. Articles present the latest research in the humanities and social sciences based on literary traditions, and archival, material, as well as archaeological evidence.

Corresponding book series "SME" (Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East): http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/278659

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Supplementary Materials

Topics

Volume 101 (2024)

Volume 100 (2023)

Volume 99 (2022)

Volume 98 (2021)

Volume 97 (2020)

Volume 96 (2019)

Volume 95 (2018)

Volume 94 (2017)

Volume 93 (2016)

Volume 92 (2015)

Volume 91 (2014)

Volume 90 (2013)

Volume 89 (2012)

Issue 1-2

Volume 88 (2012)

Volume 87 (2012)

Issue 1-2

Volume 86 (2011)

Volume 85 (2011)

Volume 84 (2008)

Volume 83 (2008)

Volume 82 (2005)

Volume 81 (2004)

Volume 80 (2003)

Volume 79 (2002)

Volume 78 (2001)

Volume 77 (2000)

Issue 1

Volume 76 (1999)

Volume 75 (1998)

Volume 74 (1997)

Volume 73 (1996)

Volume 72 (1995)

Volume 71 (1994)

Volume 70 (1993)

Volume 69 (1992)

Volume 68 (1991)

Volume 67 (1990)

Volume 66 (1989)

Volume 65 (1988)

Volume 64 (1987)

Volume 63 (1986)

Volume 62 (1985)

Volume 61 (1984)

Volume 60 (1983)

Volume 59 (1982)

Volume 58 (1981)

Volume 57 (1980)

Volume 56 (1979)

Volume 55 (1978)

Volume 54 (1977)

Volume 53 (1976)

Volume 52 (1975)

Volume 51 (1974)

Volume 50 (1973)

Volume 49 (1972)

Volume 48 (1971)

Volume 47 (1971)

Issue Jahresband

Volume 46 (1970)

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Volume 45 (1969)

Volume 44 (1968)

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Volume 43 (1967)

Issue 1-2

Volume 42 (1966)

Volume 36 (1961)

Volume 35 (1960)

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Volume 34 (1959)

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Volume 33 (1958)

Volume 32 (1957)

Volume 31 (1954)

Volume 30 (1952)

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Volume 29 (1950)

Volume 28 (1948)

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Volume 27 (1946)

Issue 1-3

Volume 26 (1942)

Volume 25 (1938)

Volume 24 (1937)

Volume 23 (1936)

Volume 22 (1935)

Volume 21 (1933)

Volume 20 (1932)

Volume 19 (1930)

Volume 18 (1929)

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Volume 17 (1928)

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Volume 16 (1927)

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Volume 15 (1926)

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Volume 14 (1925)

Volume 13 (1923)

Volume 12 (1922)

Volume 11 (1921)

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Volume 10 (1920)

Issue 3-4

Volume 9 (1919)

Issue 1

Volume 8 (1918)

Volume 7 (1916)

Volume 6 (1915)

Volume 5 (1914)

Volume 4 (1913)

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Volume 3 (1912)

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Volume 2 (1911)

Issue Jahresband

Volume 1 (1910)

Journal Impact Factor	0.5	2023, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2024)
5-year Journal Impact Factor	0.5	2023, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2024)
Journal Citation Indicator	0.74	2023, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2024)
CiteScore	0.5	2023, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2024)
SCImago Journal Rank	0.159	2023, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2024; Data Source: Scopus)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	1.378	2023, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2024; Data Source: Scopus)

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Please send all manuscripts, correspondence, and review copies directly to the editorial office. The editors request that manuscripts for publication in 'Der Islam' only be sent to the editorial office after an agreement in writing has been reached with the editor. All other correspondence (business, requests, and orders) should be sent to the publisher. The responsibility for contributions rests solely with the authors.

Editorial

Founded By

Carl Heinrich Becker

Editor in Chief

Stefan Heidemann, Hamburg

Editors

Gottfried Hagen, Ann Arbor (MI)
Andreas Kaplony, München

Rudi Matthee, Newark (DE)

Kristina L. Richardson, New York

Editorial Office

Universität Hamburg
Asien-Afrika-Institut
Redaktion „Der Islam“
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 - Ost
20146 Hamburg
Germany
phone: +49 (0)40 428 38-56 91
fax: +49 (0)40 428 38-56 74
email: Der_Islam.aai@uni-hamburg.de

Review Editor and Editorial Manager:

Amke Dietert

Editorial Advisory Board

Frédéric Bauden, Université de Liège
Thomas Bauer, University of Münster
Michael Cook, Princeton University
Suraiya Faroqhi, Istanbul Bilgi University
Maribel Fierro, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Nelly Hanna, The American University in Cairo
Benjamin Jokisch, University of Hamburg
Benjamin Kedar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Geoffrey Khan, Cambridge University
Alastair Northedge, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Jürgen Paul, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Christian Robin, Centre national de la recherche scientifique
Mansour Sefatgol, University of Tehran
Florian Schwarz, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Maya Shatzmiller, University of Western Ontario

Volume 101 Issue 2

October 2024

Publicly Available October 10, 2024

Titelseiten

Page range: i-v

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Articles

Open Access October 10, 2024

The Ark of the Covenant’s Spelling Controversy: A Historical Linguistic Perspective

Marijn van Putten

Page range: 293-300

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Abstract

This article examines a famous element in the reports on the canonization of the Qurʾānic text under the auspices of Uthman, in which the committee of scribes that were to write the standard text came to a disagreement on how to write the Qurʾānic word for at-tābūt “Ark.” After examining the different versions of the report that contain this episode, and concluding that the report of this episode goes back to the common link of Ibn Šihāb al-Zuhrī (d. 124/741–2), it is shown that early on the linguistic details of this disagreement were no longer understood. However, by examining how Aramaic and Classical Ethiopic loanwords that end in stem-final -ūt or -ōt are treated, this report can be understood as referring to two competing adaptations of this foreign word into Arabic. On the one hand at-tābūt , the form that ends up in the standard text, and on the other hand at-tābāh (or more precisely: at-tābōh ), which shows a similar strategy of adaptation as several other central loanwords in the Qurʾān such as aṣ-ṣalāh “prayer” and az-zakāh “alms.”

October 10, 2024

In Search of a Sinful Pun: A Granular Analysis of Q 2:58–59

David Gyllenhaal, Shlomo Zuckier

Page range: 301-331

Abstract

This paper offers a new reading of Q 2:58–59 by way of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān’s Tafsīr and its use of the Hebrew Bible and Jewish or possibly Christian traditions. While the scholarly study of the Qurʾān in its late antique context has often been ambivalent toward medieval Arabic tafsīr , this paper uses the testimony of the tafsīr corpus on a single mysterious passage to reconstruct a plausible meaning in its original Qurʾānic milieu and shed light on the exegetical intimacies of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the first Hijri centuries. Q 2:58–59 contain a puzzling pericope about God punishing the Israelites because they substituted one word, which God had commanded them to say, with another. The word God commanded them to say, ḥiṭṭa , does not represent any Arabic word that makes good sense in context. The word they substituted is never specified. Later Arabic exegetes were thus puzzled by the passage and proposed many different solutions. The paper closely analyzes Muqātil ibn Sulaymān’s reading of the relevant passage in light of biblical intertexts and Jewish or Christian traditions, yielding an interpretation of this passage with reference to a perfidious pun on the words for “sin” and “grain” that works in Aramaic or possibly Hebrew, but not in Arabic.

October 10, 2024

On the Sound of Qurʾān: Nasalization (ghunna) as Ornamentation and Accentuation in Recitation

Stephanie Schewe

Page range: 332-345

Abstract

The sound of Qurʾān recitation will be studied with a new approach. As the Qurʾān is a sacred text, it is performed with an exalted voice. Its performance mode extends beyond ordinary speech, but at the same time it is clearly distinguished from singing. The investigation exemplifies that the holy text and its pronunciation rules, which are preserved in the rules of tajwīd , somewhat predetermine the sound of recitation – regardless of its recitation style. For this purpose, it is necessary to first grasp the grammatical and rhetorical structure of the text, then to apply the specific rules of pronunciation when reading the text, and finally to evaluate their realization in melodic modes of recitation. Musical and linguistic criteria must be considered equally when interpreting the sound of Qurʾān recitation. This paper considers nasalization ( ghunna ) not just as a phonetic feature of tajwīd but also as an ornamentation that can be performed musically in recitation, thus marking rhetorically significant passages in the holy text.

October 10, 2024

“Superiority is due to us, and the king should come from among us”: The Arab Conquests and Conflicts of the Early Umayyad Era in a 7th-Century Syriac Universal History of Yoḥannān bar Penkāyē

Yulia Furman, Dmitry Cherkashin

Page range: 346-382

Abstract

The last few decades have seen considerable interest in non-Muslim sources that contain material on the earliest stage of Islam. This paper examines one such witness, The Book of the Main Points by Yoḥannān bar Penkāyē, a 7th-century Syriac universal history, that provides an account of the Arab conquests, the first decades of the Umayyad caliphate, with a special focus on the events of the Second Fitna. The paper includes a commentary on selected passages from the History concerning the conquests and early Muslim rule, a comparative study of Syriac Christian sources on the Second Fitna, and a lexico-historical sketch of the phenomenon of the šurṭa (slaves and prisoners of war) fighting on the side of al-Muḫtār during the Second Fitna.

Open Access October 10, 2024

The Time of the Chancery: Normative and Discretionary Dating in 7th–8th-century Arabic Epistolography

Eugenio Garosi

Page range: 383-408

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Abstract

One of the signs of the early implementation of shared bureaucratic practices across the newly established Islamic empire are the highly standardized formulaic features of seventh- and eighth-century Arabic official documents. At the same time, the use of dates and dating formulae appears to have been less closely regimented compared to other components of Arabic documentary templates. This article offers an overview of the different dating formulae used in the early Islamic official correspondence with an emphasis on patterns of difference (e. g., how norms for date formulations varied depending not only on the function of the document but also on the issuing office, scribe, recipient, direction of the communication). In particular, it is argued that the comparatively high variability of dating formulae suggests that the dates were not considered to be a structural part of documentary templates and were therefore more prone to respond to social variables, such as corporate designs of single chanceries and scribal styles. Furthermore, evidence suggests that dating formulae (or the absence of a date) reflect the register of written communication.

Open Access October 10, 2024

Rayḥāna “The Mad”: Her Persona and Poetry

Marlé Hammond, Geert Jan van Gelder

Page range: 409-438

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Abstract

This article on the intriguing second-/eighth-century Iraqi Muslim ascetic poet Rayḥāna al-Majnūna, or Rayḥāna “The Mad,” consists of two parts: (1) a study contextualizing her persona and corpus and arguing that her historical and folkloric identity as a black woman poet situates her at a creative nexus of wisdom, madness, and worship, and (2) appendices including translations of her poems and their anecdotal frameworks as they are preserved in three medieval sources: ʿUqalāʾ al-majānīn by Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥabīb al-Nīsābūrī (d. 406 H/1015–16 CE), Ṣifat al-ṣafwa by Ibn al-Jawzī (d. circa 597 H/1201 CE), and Talkhīṣ al-mutashābih by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d. 463 H/1071 CE). It is hoped that the translations will give the reader direct knowledge of Rayḥāna’s distinctive poems and that the contextual analysis will support informed interpretations of both the poems and the narratives in which they are embedded through its attention to various discursive prisms including textual traditions relating to mental health, religious devotion, and women’s writing.

Open Access October 10, 2024

Binding and Unbinding: The Knotted Serpents on the Lining of the So-called Mantle of Roger II (528/1133–4)

Sara Kuehn

Page range: 439-468

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Abstract

In a recent thought-provoking analysis of the iconography on the exterior of the Mantle of Roger II (r. 1105–1154), the Norman ruler of Sicily and southern Italy, William Tronzo has advanced a compelling hypothesis suggesting that the Mantle may actually have been intended to serve as Roger’s shroud. This article examines the intriguing but rarely discussed figured silks found within the Mantle’s lining to assess whether their iconography aligns with Tronzo ’s hypothesis, which focuses primarily on the Mantle’s exterior. The interior consists of a patchwork of silk fragments inserted into the famous garment as a relic-like lining, revealing a fascinating but often overlooked iconography: knotted serpents. Continuing an earlier practice, the repetition of the knotted serpent motif appears to have been deliberately employed to reinforce a beneficial effect, perhaps invoking the notion of unceasing, everlasting protection. This study contextualizes the richly multivalent symbol of the knotted serpent within the broader realm of southern Italian iconography, as well as its significance in the wider Mediterranean world and beyond. In particular, the research incorporates a fascinating discovery: a previously unnoticed silk fragment from the Afghan province of Samangan, now in the Al-Sabāh Collection in Kuwait. This fragment bears striking similarities to the textiles used in the cloak’s lining, further enriching our understanding of its cultural and historical import.

October 10, 2024

Delegation of Authority to Human Beings: A Late Safavid Theologian’s Account on the Legislative Meaning of Tafwīḍ

Zakieh Azadani

Page range: 469-487

Abstract

In this article, I intend to examine an account of human free will suggested by one of the most prominent figures in religious institutions during the Safavid reign, which had a long-term effect on subsequent discussions on the subject. Muḥammad Bāqir Majlisī (1627–1699), a renowned theologian, muḥaddith, and jurist who played a significant role in shaping Shīʿism in Iran, emphasized human free will ( ikhtiyār ) in his various works. While he considers it a self-evident truth, Majlisī attempts to justify human agency in voluntary activities through his arguments. However, it appears that his emphasis on human free will is primarily aimed at demonstrating that individuals are legally bound. Due to the limitations of human intellect, Majlisī argues that humans cannot be considered competent to create the legal rules they must follow. Consequently, individuals are not authorized to determine their own obligations even though they are responsible for their actions. Thus, while Majlisī was determined to establish that humans possess free will, he believed that individuals were not allowed to exercise this freedom in the realm of social and political affairs.

October 10, 2024

The Challenges of a Purchase by the Berlin Papyrus Collection in 1926

Leonora Sonego

Page range: 488-520

Abstract

Where do Arabic papyri come from? The article shifts the question to “How did the Arabic papyri reach modern institutions, and why do we know so little about their provenance”? In an exemplary way, the purchase of 142 texts from Maurice Nahman in Cairo by the Berlin Papyrus collection in 1926, which is exceptionally well documented, will be discussed here. The collection was then headed by Wilhelm Schubart, who was assisted in this purchase by Adolf Grohmann and Ludwig Borchardt. It turns out that several of the steps from the findspot to the museum were settled on the margin of legal norms, which meant that the actors had an interest to disguise business partners and archeological contexts. For this reason, most acquisitions cannot be traced back to the original findspot. If we intend to reconstruct groups of related documents, it will probably be easier to analyze internal features, like the mentioned persons and the style of handwriting. Museum archives can then complement this information.