Performing Religion: Actors, contexts, and texts: Case studies on Islam

Ines Weinrich

doi:10.5771/9783956503306

Summary

"Performing Religion" investigates the relationship between texts, actors, and contexts in the study of Islam. Research in Islamic Studies to date has taken texts primarily as a medium of information. This volume emphasizes the material quality of texts, both written and oral. It focuses on the sound and rhythm of their performance, on nonverbal elements, and practices of framing and embedding. "Performing Religion" also looks at the interpretation of religious practices not based on lengthy textual foundations but which nevertheless constitute an important part of believers' lives. The assembled case studies encompass contemporary as well as historic perspectives and include examples from Andalusia, Egypt, Italy, Greater Syria, Turkey, Central Asia, Yemen, Iran, and India.

Part I explores objects, actions, and notions in the context of the acquisition of blessing ("baraka"). Part II asks how believers use, alter, and publically enact texts in ritual settings and what kinds of performance are inscribed into the text. Part III analyses the negotiation of meanings, aesthetics, and identity which occurs in new and often transcultural contexts. Rather than viewing texts as a repository of ideas, the present volume accentuates their ritual functions and the aesthetic experiences they provide.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2017
Copyright Year: 2017
ISBN-Print: 978-3-95650-235-4
ISBN-Online: 978-3-95650-330-6
Publisher: Ergon, Baden-Baden
Series: Beiruter Texte und Studien (BTS)
Volume: 122
Language: English
Pages: 260
Product Type: Edited Book

Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis No access Pages 1 - 8
Preface No access Pages 9 - 10
Introduction: From Texts to Performances No access Pages 11 - 23
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1. Antique Phallic Symbol or Mobile Relic? Remarks on the Cult of the qubaʿ in Ḥaḍramawt No access Pages 24 - 36
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2. Shared Rituals through ziyārāt in Lebanon: A Typology of Christian and Muslim Practices No access Pages 37 - 52
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3. Conforming to and Breaking with Social Norms: Two Contrary Modes of baraka No access Pages 53 - 74
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4. The Quest for Sufi Transmissions as Links to the Prophet: Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī (d. 1791) and his Encyclopedic Collections of Sufi salāsil No access Pages 75 - 101
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1. Between Poem and Ritual: The Burda by al-Būṣīrī (d. 1294-1297) No access Pages 102 - 126
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2. “Deserted Site of Display”: Performing the Crafts’ risāla in Pre-socialist Central Asia No access Pages 127 - 144
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3. Woe, a Hundred Woes! 19th-Century Muḥarram Elegies in Iran as Performative Poetry No access Pages 145 - 162
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4. Preaching Performances Revisited: The Narrative Restaging of Sermons in the Travelogue of Ibn Jubayr (d. 1217) No access Pages 163 - 184
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5. Everyday Islamic Practice in Modern Egyptian Literature No access Pages 185 - 199
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1. The Open Ritual: Indeterminacy in a Modern Sufi Ceremony No access Pages 200 - 218
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2. Essentializing Difference: Text, Knowledge, and Ritual Performance in a Sufi Brotherhood in Italy No access Pages 219 - 234
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3. Burning With Love: Consumerism and Recent Trends in Islamic Music in Turkey No access Pages 235 - 244
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The Authors No access Pages 245 - 248
Plates No access Pages 249 - 256
Index No access Pages 257 - 260