Congrès Mondial des Études sur le Moyen-Orient et l'Afrique du Nord

Barcelone du 19 au 24 Juillet 2010

· Langue: English

· Description: Chair: Josep Lluis Mateo Dieste (Professor, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Paper Presenter:Tetsuya Ohtoshi (Associate Professor, University of Tokyo) “The Creation of Holy Tombs and Saints in Medieval Egypt”
A recent increase in historical studies on the cult of saints in Muslim societies has given us easier access to a higher level of scholarship, in terms of both quality and quantity. Still, there is much left to investigate in this field, such as the pivotal issues of how the sainthood of Muslim saints and the holiness of holy loci were created, and also how they were controlled or authorized in their societies. These constitute the topics that I will take up in this presentation. I will try to grasp the process of creation/invention of Muslim sainthood and holy loci especially in Mamluk Egypt, examining it from many angles, particularly in comparison to cases in which sainthood or holy status failed to be created, and also by comparing cases of the veneration of deceased saints with that of living saints. In addition, this presentation will explore concrete examples of the authorities and systems that conferred holiness in Mamluk Egypt. The more I have studied how the governing elites participated in the management of saints and holy tombs, the more I have felt it necessary to scrutinize the role they played in the creation/invention of saints and holy spaces. First, I will delineate the general conditions for the creation of sainthood in Mamluk Egypt, and then discuss at length a failed attempt to create a holy tomb. Through the latter, I hope to elucidate the dynamic structures that validated -or invalidated- sainthood in Muslim society. Furthermore, I will compare this case in which a holy tomb failed to be created with cases in which the creation succeeded; I will then compare cases in which living men were successfully established as saints with a case in which the saint designation failed. Finally, a comparative analysis will be conducted on all of these proposed categories

Paper Presenter: Sara Mondini (Researcher, Ca' Foscari University, Venice) "The Zawiya and its Role: Netween Politics and Religion in the Western Mediterranean"
The term zawiya, lit. corner (of a building), in the Islamic context has came to indicate a small mosque, a prayer room or an oratory. In the Western Mediterranean, in late Medieval times, zawiya designated a building that answer the purpose of welcome travellers, but more often became the conventional place where Sufis members of brotherhoods were hosted. Widespread through the whole Islamic world, in North Africa, the zawiya, in the course of its evolution, became a social and political institution destined to deeply influence the history of Islamic dynasties until modern times. Equally present in urban centres as in rural contexts, in Maghreb this institution, from played a crucial commercial role, protecting trade routes and creating networks, achieved in functioning as an intellectual centre, a sanctuary offering asylum and a political focus. Through the time, while often the urban zawiyas remains limited to a prayer hall and a room to host its members, the rural ones grew as architectural complexes, affirming the evolution and growing of their functions according to their forms. The association with a religious lineage transformed zawiyas in pilgrimage centres and shrines, where the mausoleum of the founder has often remained until nowadays the main destination of thousands pilgrims each year. Despite the great difficulties in studying zawiyas, their great diffusion through Maghreb seems to contrast with the scant information and evidences we have on the institution in al-Andalus, historically closely connected to North Africa both politically and religiously. Purpose of the paper is to try to reconstruct the role of zawiya in the Western Mediterranean seeing how it reflected or conditioned the social stratification, how it entertained relations with the local powers and venture possible circumstances that influenced its diffusion and spread in al-Andalus.

Paper Presenter:Anselm Schelcher (Leipzig University) “The Mausoleum of Yasir Arafat as an Expression of Palestinian Collective Memory”
My paper investigates the connection between the mausoleum of the late Palestinian president Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian collective memory. The first official commemoration building in modern Palestine can be viewed as an indication of a cultural claim that challenges the predominant Jewish-Israeli memorial culture. The building inside the “muqata’a” the presidential compound in Ramallah comprises a variety of symbols and elements deeply connected to Palestinian collective memory. It also displays, I argue, a strong connection to Jerusalem, given its tremendous importance for Palestinian and Islamic history. Furthermore, I will point out dimensions of the compound that represent land and soil of Palestine. Commissioned by a presidential decree, and being part of the official protocol for foreign guests of state, the mausoleum represents a national state narrative of Palestinian collective memory. Here, Arafat is commemorated as the father of the nation in a move to give legitimacy to his successor and the nation state institutions. Finally, the architecture mirrors Yasir Arafat’s ostensibly simple lifestyle. In discussing my findings, I show how the mausoleum serves to emphasize a specific version of Palestinian collective memory that legitimises the PA institutions, while at the same time contending the Jewish-Israeli memory culture.

Paper Presenter: Azim Malikov (Assistant professor, Samarkand State University) “Sacred places of the Samarkand Province of Uzbekistan”
This paper is focused on the issues of sacred places (shrines) of the Samarkand Province of Uzbekistan. My contribution to the study of sacred places of the Samarkand Province of Uzbekistan, consists of that beside the summary of the existing material on pre-Soviet and Soviet periods I used my own data. For this the field material was collected from some districts of Samarkand provinces, which allows to define the peculiarities of sacred places in different villages. In my paper I am trying to analyze field data from 20 sacred places in Urgut and Akdarya districts of the Samarkand province. Most of them are tombs of different saints, shakhids and etc. In early Islam, it was allowed that some individuals can be saint, however, no their cults or worship of them or their tombs was permitted. However, popular belief in mediators between the God and individuals was gradually legitimated and teaching of hierarchy of saints was developed. Islam lacks official apotheosis of saints like in Christianity. However, there appeared a lot of saints that received wide recognition - common or just local. Saints of various categories became worshiped. They included Prophet Mohammed, a number of his relatives, especially Ali, Fatima, Hussein, etc., prominent Islamic religious figures, a number of Christian saints e.g. Mary the Virgin. Heroic epic of Arabic conquests initiated the cult of 'martyrs', e.g. those who died in 'war for the belief'. Islam also inherited the cult of various pre-Islamic local saints, heroes, in many cases legendary, and even local pagan deities that were transferred to Muslim saints. Pilgrimage to saints tombs is usually referred to as ziyara. Pilgrimage to the tombs of particularly worshiped imams, sheikhs, and other saints is considered to be the 'Little Pilgrimage' to Mecca. The main attribute of a sanctuary is a tomb (one or several). In the front wall of the tomb there is a small bay with a lamp of traditional shape to light ritual fire. The room itself or its surroundings features flags ' tugs' a distinctive feature of a saint's tomb. Specific standard of ritual of pilgrimage to sacred places has been developed for many years. The mausoleum of Khodja Daniyar is one of the unique sacred places in Samarqand. According to legends, Khodja Daniyar represents the prophet Daniel, and this place is recognized as sacred by Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

Paper Presenter: Gebhard Fartacek (Researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences AAA) “Kullna mitl ba'd!' Holy Places and the Ideology of Local Pilgrimage in Syria”

“Kullna mitl ba’d” - we are all the same! This was the statement by many pilgrims when I asked them about the interaction of different ethnic-religious communities at local pilgrimage sites in Syria. In general the pilgrims emphasize that all holy places are common shared by members of any ethnic-religious community (Sunnites, Christians, Alawites, Druzes, Ismailis): In everyday life, we don’t have so much contact together, but here ? at the holy place ? we are all the same. Here is an exception, we are coming from different parts of Syria and even from different parts of the world together for celebrating this festival; there aren’t any problems between us!? From an anthropological point of view this argumentation is reminiscent of the classical concept of communitas. For Victor Turner pilgrimage is anti-structural: It always tends into communitas, which for him means a state of egalitarian association of individuals, who are temporarily free of their roles and statuses which they bear in everyday life. The concept of communitas was criticized by John Eade and Michael Sallnow, among others. They review that Turner’s remarks could be seen as representative of a particular discourse about pilgrimage rather than as an empirical description of it. Actually my research in contemporary Syria shows, that there are just a few places which can be classified as common shared by two or more ethnic-religious communities. In most of the cases it’s quite clear, to which ethnic community a pilgrimage site belongs. To visit a sanctuary of the others is something what happens not too often ? but if it happens, it is considered as a very holy act. My argument is that statements in the sense of “Kullna mitl ba’d!” are an upshot of the principle constitution of holy places in the context of baraka. It’s mainly an ideological way of thinking the sacred which is common shared by members of all the different ethnic-religious communities? Within the little tradition.

Paper Presenter:Shirin Darvish Rohani (Expert, Iranian Cultural Heritage , Handicrafts and Tourism Organization) “Takht-e Soleyman a valuable pale for visits by artistic, religious, mythic lover, history fond and cultural visitors”
In my paper I have focused on Takht-e soleyman which is one of the Iranian World Heritage site. Takht-e Soleyman is the unique survival of one of the three principal fire temples of the Zoroastrian faith. Called Azargoshnasb (Atur-Gushnasp), and built by the Sassanian emperor Khosroès I (531-578 A.D.) around the sacred Avestan Chechasta Lake, it is the largest and the best-preserved vestige of its kind known in the world. The site was esteemed by the early Christian Armenians and was respected by the Muslims who identified it with Solomon’s palace. Takht-e Soleyman knew its last grandeur at the time when the Shamanistic Mongols chose it as their summer place in the late 13th century, and built an imposing palace overlooking its magnificent lake. As at Persepolis and Pasargadae of the Achaemenid period (550-331 B.C.), Takht-e Soleyman is mingled with the Kingdom of Solomon?s legends; here he had his throne, hence the name Throne (takht) of Solomon. The ruins at Takht-e Soleyman around its mythical lake are also connected to legends related to the birth of Zarathustra and the Child Christ. I will focus on different aspects that reveals architectural achievements of outstanding universal values, which from artistic, religious, mythical, and historical points of view, emerge from a symbiosis of man-made and spectacular natural setting, the variety of visitors are a lot.