BRIIFS Abstracts vol.3 no.1, 2001

This paper surveys the development of the institution of the funduq in the Islamic Mediterranean world, from its pre-Islamic origins as the Byzantine pandocheion until the fifteenth century AD. This institution mediated relations between different cultural and religious groups in the medieval Islamic world and was itself transferred, in slightly differing forms, between groups. By the twelfth century, the funduq had evolved into the parallel form of the fondaco, the Latinate term for hostelries housing communities of Western Christian merchants in Muslim Mediterranean cities. At the same time, the funduq also served as a charitable facility in the Egyptian Jewish community, as testified by documentation in the Cairo Geniza.

Ornulf Gulbrandsen

CHRISTIANITY IN AN AFRICAN context:

ON THE INADEQUACY OF THE NOTION OF A SACRED/SECULAR DIVIDE

This paper focuses upon the interaction between the Northern Tswana kingdoms, located in present-day Botswana, and evangelizing missionaries. Agents of such highly institutionalized, monotheistic 'religions' as Judaism, Christianity and Islam mutually conceive of their faiths as entirely incompatible with others and as defining radically distinct communities. The relationship between such communities involves issues of conflict and coexistence that are basically different from the case of the Tswana. Where 'religion' is immanent, institutionally as well as culturally, the interface might not only be characterized by processes of separation, but also by mutual adaptation. Evangelizing missionaries, Christianity and the Tswana interacted on the basis of cultural models that only partially overlapped, a fact that gave rise to some controversy. Coexistence may be attributed to the limited extent to which Tswana ideas about superhuman forces are externalized in public rituals that are perceived as 'religious' by missionaries. By extension, notions of 'faith' and the sacred-secular divide are questioned as concepts adequate for cross-cultural comparison. Such considerations suggest that the colonized are not necessarily the passive victims of evangelizing missionaries. Yet, amongst the Tswana, Christianity has, at times, contributed significantly to aggravate the tensions and conflicts inherent in Tswana polities. This has led Tswana rulers to tackle various challenges, including the rise of indigenous Christian movements, by incorporating the missionary church in their polities as a kind of 'state church,' granting it a monopoly.

Brian Glyn Williams

THE FORMATION OF a diaspora:

the CRIMEAN TATARs OF TURKEY, THE BALKANS AND CENTRAL ASIA

Tracing the historical development of the Crimean Tatar diaspora of Turkey, the Balkans and Central Asia, this paper looks first at the migration of this small Muslim ethnie from 1783 to the twentieth century, particularly after the Russian Empire's victory in the Crimean War and Josef Stalin's deportation of Muslim communities in the final year of World War II. Conquered, persecuted and scattered, the Crimean Tatars were either assimilated into host societies, as in Turkey, or rejected by them, as in Bulgaria and Romania. Yet, many maintained or rediscovered their Crimean Tatar identity in the twentieth century, especially during their long period of exile in Central Asia when they came to form a true diasporan community. Supported by their co-ethnics in Turkey and the Balkans, many Tatars took the opening that appeared in the final days of the Soviet Union to return to an uncertain future in their homeland. The case of the this little-studied ethnic group has obvious implications for scholars interested in ethnically-based oppression, national and diasporic identity construction and Muslim-Christian relations in the marginal zone between Christianity and Islam.

Avril M. Makhlouf

HINDIYYA ANNE `AJAYMI, 1727-1798:

A STORY OF ENCOUNTERS, HUMAN AND DIVINE

This paper is primarily concerned with those aspects of the life and spirituality of Hindiyya Anne `Ajaymi (1727-1798) that reveal a unique blending of Western and Syriac elements in an era when the Roman Catholic Church and proponents of the Latin Rite within it exerted a greater influence upon Middle Eastern ecclesiastic circles. The outer framework of Hindiyya's own environment was the Ottoman Empire, in which were situated both her hometown of Aleppo and the rural area of Mount Lebanon, where she spent her adult years. Hindiyya's more intimate environment was the church into which she was born, the Maronite Church of Lebanon and Syria.

Khalid Koser

FROM REFUGEES TO TRANSNATIONAL COMMUNITIES?

Refugees have often been either excluded from recent studies on transnationalism or treated as exceptions to the rule. By contrast, this paper proposes one way of incorporating them more fully into the literature. The paper charts the transition of refugees into transnationals, focusing on the case of Eritreans in the UK and Germany. It suggests that three processes have been instrumental in this transition. First, despite the recognition of Eritrean independence in 1991, most refugees chose not to return, instead securing their statuses in their host countries. Second, notwithstanding this decision, most Eritreans have developed lasting links with their communities and country of origin. Finally, as a result of the current conflict with Ethiopia, the Eritrean state has taken steps to institutionalize the Eritrean diaspora. The paper concludes by considering the wider applicability of this case-study with reference to three possible qualifications: the extent to which the transition has applied to all Eritreans overseas; the extent to which other refugee communities might be expected to undergo a similar transition; and the extent to which the transition is permanent.

Gerd Baumann

CROSS-FAITH CONFLICT AND INTERFAITH COMMUNITY IN BRITAIN: FROM THE 'RUSHDIE AFFAIR' TO THE PRESENT

This article, which is based upon seven years of anthropological field research in London, outlines the reasons why the so-called Rushdie Affair forced Muslims in Britain into a corner that was not of their own choosing. Ultimately, these reasons are based upon a trend, in the West, to reify Islam in an unwarranted manner. There are social forces, however, among Muslims as well as other believers, to overcome reification by new modes of coexistence which go well beyond theological dialogue. They are practice-based and often local in scale; yet, they do entail processes of action and rethinking which can respond to the fundamental sociological findings about pluralist community-building. The article concludes with an assessment of their variables of success.

Ara Sanjian

THE ARMENIAN MINORITY EXPERIENCE

IN THE MODERN ARAB WORLD

This article focuses upon the Armenian diasporan experience in the Arab world after the First World War. It discusses the formation of Armenian communities in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt in the early 1920s and the strategy that they have since pursued to preserve their distinct ethnic identity within the quasi-millet system that is still applied in these countries. The article also analyzes how political and economic instability in the Arab world has affected the local Armenian communities and discusses the challenges that the latter face today, especially in light of the re-emergence of the Republic of Armenia as a sovereign and independent state in 1991.

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