Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past PDF
Preview Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past
page size 234 x 156mm but follows EUP PPC jacket Hires CMYK pdf from Indesign CS5 17mm 3mm Established in London in 2002, the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study Exploring Muslim Contexts of Muslim Civilisations aims to strengthen research and teaching about the heritages of Muslim societies as they have evolved over time, and to examine the challenges these societies face in today’s globalised world. It also seeks to create anEd oinpnpoovarttuivneit itehsin foker rins taenradc lteioand aerms,o inn ga na ceaffdoretm toic psr,o trmaodtietio dniaallolyg turaei naendd s bcuhioldla brsri dagneds . d Hited e b ley Exploring Muslim Contexts na Sa Genealogy and Series Editor: Farouk Topan de Ferah B lo This series seeks to address salient and urgent issues faced by Muslim societies ipw as they evolve in a rapidly globalising world. It brings together the scholarship of een leading specialists from various academic fields, representing a wide range of S Knowledge in a theoretical and practical perspectives. v a n t Genealogy is one of the most important and authoritative organising principles of G Muslim Societies Muslim societies. From the Prophet’s day to the present, ideas about kinship and e n descent have shaped tribal, ethnic, sectarian and other identities. An understanding e a of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly lo with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical g y knowledge. a Un Understanding the Past d This book addresses the subject through a range of case studies that link n dK genealogical knowledge to the particular circumstances in which it was created, e rn circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and sto Edited by Sarah Bowen Savant aw the interests this malleability has served. ndle id and Helena de Felipe n 234mm K• ey D Freaawtsu roens a vast reservoir of primary sources from across the Middle East, the g tge hin Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from works of the classical Arabic e P M heritage to oral testimonies gained from fieldwork asu • Asks stimulating questions about how genealogical knowledge has been tsl i generated, how it has empowered political and religious elites, and how it has m shaped understandings about the past – including those of modern scholars S o • Explores the authenticity, legitimacy and institutionalisation of genealogical c knowledge; the bases for sectarian, tribal, ethnic and other identities; and iet hierarchy and grounds for prestige and infamy ie s • Provides an important window onto a set of ways in which Muslims have articulated their relationship to the past Sarah Bowen Savant is Associate Professor at the Helena de Felipe is Lecturer at the Universidad de Alcalá Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim (Arabic and Islamic Studies). Her publications include Civilisations in London. Her publications include The New Identidad y onomástica de los bereberes de al-Andalus Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and (1997) and, co-edited with F. Rodríguez Mediano, Conversion (2013). El Protectorado español en Marruecos: Gestión colonial e identidades (2002). Cover design: www.richardbudddesign.co.uk ISBN 978-0-7486-4497-1 E d in b u r g www.euppublishing.com h 3mm 17mm 2mm 2mm 17mm 3mm 156 mm 156mm 3mm 17mm spine17mm Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies Exploring Muslim Contexts Series Editor: Farouk Topan Books in the series include Ethnographies of Islam: Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices Edited by Badouin Dupret, Thomas Pierret, Paulo Pinto and Kathryn Spellman-Poots The Challenge of Pluralism: Paradigms from Muslim Contexts Edited by Abdou Filali-Ansary and Sikeena Karmali Ahmed Cosmopolitanisms in Muslim Contexts: Perspectives from the Past Edited by Derryl MacLean and Sikeena Karmali Ahmed Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies: Understanding the Past Edited by Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe Development Models in Muslim Contexts: Chinese, “Islamic” and Neo-liberal Alternatives Edited by Robert Springborg www.euppublishing.com/series/ecmc Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies Understanding the Past Edited by Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe in association with THE AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations The opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. © Editorial matter and organisation Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe, 2014 © The chapters, their several authors, 2014 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ www.euppublishing.com Typeset in Goudy Oldstyle by Koinonia, Manchester and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 4497 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 4498 8 (webready PDF) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Introduction 1 Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe Part One: The Generation of Genealogical Knowledge 1. Keeping the Prophet’s Family Alive: Profile of a Genealogical Discipline 11 Kazuo Morimoto 2. Motives and Techniques of Genealogical Forgery in Pre-modern Muslim Societies 24 Zoltán Szombathy 3. The Genealogy of Power and the Power of Genealogy in Morocco: History, Imaginary and Politics 37 Zakaria Rhani Part Two: Empowering Political and Religious Elites 4. Berber Leadership and Genealogical Legitimacy: The Almoravid Case 55 Helena de Felipe 5. Ways of Connecting with the Past: Genealogies in Nasrid Granada 71 Maribel Fierro 6. Embarrassing Cousins: Genealogical Conundrums in the Central Sahara 89 Judith Scheele Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies Part Three: Genealogy as a Source for Writing History 7. Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First “Real” Muslim? 105 Fred M. Donner 8. Genealogy and Ethnogenesis in al-MasÆudi’s Muruj al-dhahab 115 Sarah Bowen Savant 9. Genealogical Prestige and Marriage Strategy among the Ahl al-Bayt: The Case of the al-Sadr Family in Recent Times 131 Raffaele Mauriello About the Contributors 149 Index 151 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 Pages of a genealogy in “tree” format 14 3.1 Idrisids vs ÆAlawites 38 3.2 Ben Yeffu’s mystical and genealogical transmission lines as indicated in the al-jafriyya document 41 Tables 1.1 Excerpt from a Table on Martyrs in Ibn Funduq’s Lubab al-ansab 16 9.1 Marriages involving Members of the al-Sadr Family 139 Introduction Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe Genealogy has long been recognised as one of the most important and authori- tative organising principles in Muslim societies. Expressions of genealogy have over the course of history taken particular forms and performed important func- tions in Muslim societies, so many in fact that it would be impossible to describe them comprehensively. The Prophet’s family tree, including his ancestors, descendants (the sayyids or sharÈfs) and adoptive clients (mawÅlÈ), has provided an important paradigm, underwriting dynastic arrangements, providing access to patronage and supporting power brokers and mediators. Other patterns of kinship, including tribal lineages, descent from the Companions of the Prophet or descent from Sufi saints, have conferred similar forms of opportunity and/ or prestige. Converts with family ties to other Muslims have felt a stronger sense of connection to their new faith; in the first centuries of Islam, converts even became fictively adopted into Arab tribes. Today, ideas about kinship and descent continue to shape communal and national identities in virtually every Muslim country, where they operate at the very highest levels of state and religion and where there is often a certain truth to the Arabic saying, “Nobility is genealogy. The noble in any one people shares kinship with the noble in every other people.”1 As a result of the importance of genealogy, debates abound, the most enduring ones centring on the worthiness of particular ancestors, the legitimacy of prestige based on genealogy and the authenticity of different lineages as well as of the claims of individuals to belong to them. Several contradictory statements are attributed to the Prophet, æAli ibn Abi Talib and the earliest Muslims in support or denial of the social value of noble kinship, and these give a sense that during the first centuries Muslims could not agree on this question. For example, the — 1 —
The list of books you might like
