Accusations of Unbelief in Islam: A Diachronic Perspective on Takfīr

Erscheinungsjahr 2015
ISBN: 978-90-04-30473-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 123, 534 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 970 g

Reihe: Islamic History and Civilizati

The present volume—the first of its kind—deals with takfir: accusing one´s opponents of unbelief (kufr). Originating in the first decades of Islam, this practice has been applied intermittently ever since. The nineteen studies included here deal with cases, covering different periods and parts of the Muslim world, of individuals or groups that used the instrument of takfir to brand their opponents—either persons, groups or even institutions—as unbelievers who should be condemned, anathematized or even persecuted. Each case presented is placed in its sociopolitical and religious context. Together the contributions show the multifariousness that has always characterized Islam and the various ways in which Muslims either sought to suppress or to come to terms with this diversity.

With contributions by: Roswitha Badry, Sonja Brentjes, Brian J. Didier, Michael Ebstein, Simeon Evstatiev, Ersilia Francesca, Robert Gleave, Steven Judd, István T. Kristó-Nagy, Göran Larsson, Amalia Levanoni, Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Hossein Modarressi, Justyna Nedza, Intisar A. Rabb, Sajjad Rizvi, Daniel de Smet, Zoltan Szombathy, Joas Wagemakers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Adang, Camilla

Ansari, Hassan

Fierro, Maribel

Schmidtke, Sabine

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamisches Recht
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam: Theologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Islamisches Recht

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

List of contributors

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

I. Takfir Through Islamic History

1. The Early Period (First/Seventh-Fourth/Tenth Centuries)

Self-defining through Faith: The walaya and bara'a Dynamics among the Early Ibadis
Ersilia Francesca

Were the Umayyad-Era Qadarites Kafirs?
Steven Judd

Denouncing the Damned Zindiq! Struggle and Interaction between Monotheism and Dualism
István T. Kristó-Nagy

Kufr et takfir dans l’ismaélisme fatimide: Le Kitab Tanbih al-hadi de Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani
Daniel De Smet

2. The Classical and Post-Classical Period (Fifth/Eleventh-Eleventh/Eighteenth Centuries)

The Vocabulary of "Unbelief" in Three Biographical Dictionaries and Two Historical Chronicles of the 7th/13th and 8th/14th Centuries
Sonja Brentjes

Takfir in Egypt and Syria during the Mamluk Period
Amalia Levanoni

Takfir and Messianism: The Hurufi Case
Orkhan Mir-Kasimov

The Qadizadeli Movement and the Revival of takfir in the Ottoman Age
Simeon Evstatiev

The takfir of the Philosophers (and Sufis) in Safavid Iran
Sajjad Rizvi

3. The Modern Period

The Cost of Condemnation: Heresy and takfir in a South Indian Community
Brian J. Didier

The Sum of its Parts: The State as Apostate in Contemporary Saudi Militant Islamism
Justyna Nedza

“The Kafir Religion of the West”: Takfir of Democracy and Democrats by Radical Islamists
Joas Wagemakers

On the takfir of Arab Women Rights Advocates in Recent Times
Roswitha Badry

Apostasy in the West: A Swedish Case Study
Göran Larsson

II. Discussing Takfir:Different Perspectives

Essential Islam: The Minimum that a Muslim is Required to Acknowledge
Hossein Modarressi

Abandoning Prayer and the Declaration of Unbelief in Imami Jurisprudence
Robert Gleave

Society and Propriety: The Cultural Construction of Defamation and Blasphemy as Crimes in Islamic Law
Intisar A. Rabb

Literary Works as Evidence of Unbelief
Zoltan Szombathy

“Religions, Opinions and Beliefs Are Nothing but Roads and Paths … While the Goal Is One”: Between Unity and Diversity in Islamic Mysticism
Michael Ebstein