In Yemen, Brett describes a situation of internecine warfare between various sectors of Yemeni society. He writes, "Mahdism thus proved unable to transform the society of the Yemen into an enduring new state, as it did the society of Bahrayn" (p. 78). Al-Fadl could not make headway with the southern tribesmen and nobility. In the end, Yemen proved too introverted a place to become a unifying imperial power as the community was fragmenting. To make matters worse, the twelfth imam has just disappeared (Mohammad Al-Mahdi in 941). What were they to do? No one knew, they believed, when he would come out of hiding. So there must be waiting and vigilance, and a strict adherence to the imam's religious and judicial authority in the community. Another Shiite group expecting the Messiah's return was the Fatimids, who traced their legitimacy from Ali and Fatima. Originating in Tunisia, they opposed the northern Abbasids and Buyids not only by conflicting with Sunni beliefs, but in terms of conceiving of the role of the community. The Fatimids believed unquestionably in the spread of empire, not just in local rule. Since the Caliphate had been reduced to Baghdad, the Fatimids took up the imperial mantle and ran their own caliphate out of Cairo. Endress says, "After the political fragmentation of the Islamic empire, the Fatimid anti-caliphate also threatened to disrupt the religious unity of the Islamic community" (Endress, 2002, p. 117). They rested their authority on Ismaili Shiite credentials. As rulers they exercised religious tolerance. Endress says, "The Fatimids indeed never attempted to make Egypt Shi'ite; the esoteric teaching agreed only too well with their political requirements; but they gave the non-Muslims...
115). They were thus not repressive intellectually, but their commitment to the political and religious advance of Islam is doubtless in their missionary zeal and diplomatic relations with other countries at the time.
Islamic History In Russia and Central Asia Approximately twenty million of the world's one billion Muslims live in Russia, even more in Eastern Europe. The media and academics alike are scurrying to react to this seemingly new wave of Islam in Russia, however attention is mainly focused on extremist activity. "Fundamentalism," "Wahhabism," "Islamism," and other such banner concepts are tainting our perception of Islam in Russia. The place of Islam in
Islamic Technology Cultural and Construction History of the Islamic Golden Age Cultural Environment The Islamic Golden Age is also known as the Caliphate of Islam or the Islamic Renaissance. The term refers to a system of political, cultural, and religious authority derived from the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed in the early sixth century AD. At its high point under the Abbassid Dynasty (eighth to thirteenth centuries AD), Islamic civilisation experienced a flourish
The research, methods will seek to establish a common basement of the U.S. President Foreign Policy Decision Making Process. Equitable regard will be accorded to the state of affairs that exist between the U.S.A. And Iran Questionnaires Questionnaires are samples of structured questions that will seek directive responses from the respondents in the field of study. In order to arrive at making decisions, there are several considerations that the president of
Some Chinese researchers assert that Chinese flutes may have evolved from of Indian provenance. In fact, the kind of side-blown, or transverse, flutes musicians play in Southeast Asia have also been discovered in Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, and Central Asia, as well as throughout the Europe of the Roman Empire. This suggests that rather than originating in China or even in India, the transverse flute might have been adopted through the
Thomas Aquinas led the move away from the Platonic and Augustinian and toward Aristotelianism and "developed a philosophy of mind by writing that the mind was at birth a tabula rasa ('blank slate') that was given the ability to think and recognize forms or ideas through a divine spark" (Haskins viii). By 1200 there were reasonably accurate Latin translations of the main works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Archimedes, and
Finally some sects command their followers to perform ziyara, or what they consider to be minor pilgrimages, to the tombs of Imams in addition to the pilgramage to Mecca ("Shiism," 2005). While recognizing the two Islamic holidays Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha, Shi'ites incorporated additional festivals into their system, some of which will be described here. The first major festival is the Festival of Muharram and Ashura, in which Shi'ites observe the
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