The background of this book was an international symposium on 'Humanism in Islam: An Inter-Cultural Discourse', held from 6 to 8 April 2009 in Alexandria, Egypt. This event was among the international conferences convened by the project 'Humanism in the Era of Globalisation - An Intercultural Dialogue on Humanity, Culture and Values' of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI), Essen, Germany. It was held in cooperation with the Goethe Institute Alexandria at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt"--P. [9].
The papers of this volume move from the abstract scheme of an intercultural humanism of the future to concrete cultural expressions of humanism within the Muslim culture of different times up to the present. They concentrate on three issues. The first is related to contemporary attempts to develop a humanist and historical hermeneutics of the Qur'an and of Islamic history. The second discusses the humanist heritage and the humanitarian trends of Muslim religious and literary culture. The third highlights the discussion on Humanism and Islam as a topic within European identity politics, covering the role of this discussion for the history of Islamic Studies in Europe and America, and the contemporary polemics around Islam in the Netherlands. Taken together, the contributions of the volume attempt to provide the groundwork for an assessment of the roots and prospects of an intercultural humanism with respect to the Muslim world.
Murtada al-Zabidi was a Humanist scholar and a Muslim, whose twelfth-century writings are here examined in the context of their geographical and historical setting. The period when Zabidi was writing saw a shift in the balance of power from the Muslim empires to the Western world, reflected in the stories he told of his travels from India on to Cairo, across vast distances and coming across an extraordinary range of people. The five chapters in this work look at various aspects of Zabidi's life and times, the first one focusing on his life and career and forms a background to studies of his work. The second looks at Zabidi's writing and publishing and the third at his notes on his friends, teachers, students and acquaintances. Chapter four assesses his two largest works; his Arabic lexicon and his commentary on Gazzali's Ihya . Finally, chapter five explores his second major literary achievement, his large commentary on Gazzali's Ihya ulum al-din .
Murtada al-Zabidi was a Humanist scholar and a Muslim, whose twelfth-century writings are here examined in the context of their geographical and historical setting. The period when Zabidi was writing saw a shift in the balance of power from the Muslim empires to the Western world, reflected in the stories he told of his travels from India on to Cairo, across vast distances and coming across an extraordinary range of people. The five chapters in this work look at various aspects of Zabidi's life and times, the first one focusing on his life and career and forms a background to studies of his work. The second looks at Zabidi's writing and publishing and the third at his notes on his friends, teachers, students and acquaintances. Chapter four assesses his two largest works; his Arabic lexicon and his commentary on Gazzali's Ihya . Finally, chapter five explores his second major literary achievement, his large commentary on Gazzali's Ihya ulum al-din .
The book analyzes the multifarious exchange of algorithmic technologies and concepts between the military and the media industry from the early 1990s until now. Unlike most related scholarly work which focuses on digital games, it drafts a model of programmable media which is grounded in a close-reading of the key technologies, most notably the paradigm of object-oriented programming, and reconsiders technical disciplines from a humanities perspective. This model is then applied to analyze the effects of algorithmic logic on the military-civilian continuum, including economic practices, patterns of media usage and military decision-making.
The proposed book is not only a tribute to the work of Brückner (and indeed also a personal tribute, since Brückner wrote his book at the Institute of Geography of the University of Bern), but references to Brückner’s book are also a conceptual tool in the proposed book, though used sparingly and thoughtfully. Apart from providing historical context, references may facilitate introducing some complex topics, for instance by first presenting Brückner’s view and then complementing the picture with today’s understanding. References can be used for contrast: Comparing Brückner’s methods and data with today’s research concepts makes the progress in the field easily understandable. The enormous growth of information since Brükner’s time allows a much more detailed perspective on some scientific problems. Or references can be used to highlight similarity. Some aspects have not changed over time. Finally, the book complements Brückner’s studies by adding the arguably most interesting and certainly most relevant period, the past 120 years.
Since the dawn of the oil era, cities in Saudi Arabia have witnessed rapid growth and profound societal changes. As a response to foreign architectural solutions and the increasing popularity of Western lifestyles, a distinct style of architecture and urban planning has emerged. Characterised by an emphasis on privacy, expressed through high enclosures, gates, blinds, and tinted windows, ‘New Islamic Urbanism’ constitutes for some an important element of piety. For others, it enables alternative ways of life, indulgence in banned social practices, and the formation of both publics and counterpublics. Tracing the emergence of ‘New Islamic Urbanism’, this book sheds light on the changing conceptions of public and private space, in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, in the Saudi city of Jeddah. It challenges the widespread assumption that the public sphere is exclusively male in Muslim contexts such as Saudi Arabia, where women’s public visibility is limited by the veil and strict rules of gender segregation. Showing that the rigid segregation regime for which the country is known serves to constrain the movements of men and women alike, Stefan Maneval provides a nuanced account of the negotiation of public and private spaces in Saudi Arabia.
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