Thesiss

Taqi-l-Di n Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) was a Hanbali theologian and dogmatic follower of the Ahl al-Hadit (the people of the Prophet's traditions). Seeking to reform Muslim society beset by various turmoils, he maintained the need for Muslims to purify their beliefs and a…

This dissertation examines changes in Fatimid legitimacy upon the establishment and then transfer of their state to Egypt in the 4th/10th century. Through an analysis of Fatimid literature on imama (or leadership of the community), it argues that the process of transition from a…

Well before the Occultation of the Twelfth imam in 330/942 and before the time of the great Shi 'i theologians such as al-Shaykh al-Mufi d (d. 413/1022), the Shi 'ah had constructed their own integral and elaborate system of thought. This thought is expressed in the sayings of t…

In the secondary literature on the biblical text it is often generally stated that bamot (so-called "high place" shrines), massebot (standing stones), 'aseri m (so-called "sacred trees" or "poles"), and certain mizbehot (altars), were universally condemned by the biblical writer…

This thesis is a response to the riddle of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab in Bukhari 's Kitab al-Jami'it as-Sahi h: Namely, how is it possible for 'Umar to be at once the staunchest defender of the prophetic tradition and yet, at the same time, in disagreement with the Prophet himself? Ju…

So far, the topic of Moroccan-Ottoman relations from the 16th through the 18th centuries has received only superficial attention in both Moroccan and Ottoman historiographies. The general assumption was that since Morocco was not an Ottoman province, relations between Morocco an…

Within the vast field of dramatic performance, scholarship has focused to a grossly disproportionate degree on the small percentage of drama that is accorded literary status; much the rest is relegated, along with forms of performance having no claim as drama, to the catch-all g…

Deut 32:1-43 is a literary expression of an early Israelite liturgical tradition of covenant renewal which can be dated to the eleventh century BC. Its form and vocabulary have been imitated by the Deuteronomists, the redactors of Jeremiah (2:2-4:2; 5:1-11; 8:23-9:10), the redac…

The dissertation presents a literary historical analysis of an early Ottoman Turkish narrative about Alexander of Macedon. Ahmedi wrote this Iskendername (Alexander narrative) in the late 14th century, the period of the emergence of Turkic political and literary culture in Anato…