Solomon,his Demons and Jongleurs: the Meeting of Islamic,Judaic and Christian Culture

The legend of Solomon's special ability to control demons originated in Jewish-Hellenistic circles and became widespread in later Judaic, Islamic and Christian culture. In the Qur’ān, as well as in the earlier Babylonian Talmud and other rabbinic sources, the legend was adopted with a clear tendency to avoid the pragmatic demonic aspects of the story. In a similar vein, Qur’ānic commentators presented the relations between Solomon and the demons as an expression of the supernatural rule of the king over the cosmos and ignored his shameful end. The inclusion of the legend in the most sacred canonical text of Islam, and its connotation of eternity may explain the frequent representation in Muslim art. On the other hand, the avoidance by the Christian establishment authorities and the relegation to profane literature mocking the king may account for its absence in western official art. A combination between the high and low aspects of Solomon is seen in an illuminated medieval Hebrew Mahzor from South Germany. The divine aspect of Solomon as he appears in the Mahzor is paralleled in the Muslim examples. These similarities are the result of close textual traditions deriving from the same sources. Yet a possible pictorial testimony linking East and West may be discerned in the Ottoman illuminated Book of Suleiman, possibly based on a western tradition.     

Ka Pō, Ka Ao,Ka Awatea: The Interface between Epistemology and Māori Subject Headings

Cataloging and classification provide intellectual access for organizing resources in libraries. In New Zealand, bibliographic control is largely through the application of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). LCSH provide a sense of context and order. In Indigenous frameworks this sense of order can be found in the link between epistemology and knowledge structure. This article argues that the development and application of Māori subject headings is directly related to the natural order that is pivotal to a Māori worldview. The impact of this worldview and its associated values are explored in the context of the construction of Ngā ūpoko Tukutuku.     

Otherness ‘without ostracism or levelling’: towards fresh orientations to teacher foreigners in early childhood education

Abstract

This article attempts to conceptualise the notion of the foreigner in relation to immigrant early childhood teachers. Sparked by Kristeva’s challenge, to live with and as others without ostracism or levelling, it highlights tensions that arise in a juxtaposition of the Aotearoa/New Zealand early childhood curriculum document, Te Whāriki and other guidelines for cross-cultural practices, with perspectives on the foreigner and foreignness. Situated in the neoliberal sociopolitical and cultural landscape of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the analysis foregrounds and re-frames orientations towards immigrant teachers as they may play out in the early childhood realm. Kristeva’s insights into foreigners’ raw and intimate experiences provide a freeing lens to emphasise influences on and consequences of a foreigner’s otherness. While Kristeva’s challenge may be a never-ending story of a utopian future in education, its use in this analysis is intended to provoke an awareness of complex conceptualisations of foreignness and of tensions that could subvert the aim of working towards this, possibly elusive, ideal.     

Piracy as Statecraft: The Mediterranean Policies of the Fifth/Eleventh-Century Taifa of Denia

The taifa of Denia on the Iberian eastern seaboard was one of the most dynamic of the regional polities that emerged from the disintegrated Cordovan caliphate. Mujāhid al-‘āmirī based his state not only on its continental territories, but especially on the maritime networks that linked it with the Mediterranean. Commerce with Muslim and Christian ports played a role in Denia's success, but both Latin and Arabic sources emphasise its practice of piracy on a grand scale. In fact, Mujāhid al-‘āmirī built his state as a continuation of the maritime policies of the Cordovan caliphate under which the piracy of independent coastal communities was adopted and expanded into a state-sponsored guerre de course. Mujāhid's pursuance of this policy stemmed from his role in the erstwhile caliphate, but was also motivated by a combination of religious, political and economic factors. The legitimacy provided by his “jihād on the sea” helped to shore up his power at a time of political instability. This policy also provided the taifa's economic foundation for much of its history. In fact, the Mediterranean maritime lanes became as much an extension of Denia as its continental territories. Denia's piracy thus reflects a coherent form of statecraft, informing definitions of the medieval state and territoriality.     

A Thirteenth-Century Scholar in the Eastern Mediterranean: Sirāj al-Dīn Urmavī, Jurist,Logician, Diplomat

This essay examines the career of the Shafi?ī jurist and logician Sirāj al-Dīn Urmavī (1198–1283), who combined his scholarly and judicial activities with ambassadorial appointments to Frederick II, King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor, and the Ilkhan Hülegü. Originally from Azerbaijan, Sirāj al-Dīn spent most of his professional life in Ayyūbid Cairo and, from 1257, in Seljuk Konya, where he spent the final decades of his life as chief qadi. Through a contextualised reading of the extant biographical information for Sirāj al-Dīn, the article draws particular attention to two aspects of his physical and professional trajectory. First, the essay situates Sirāj al-Dīn's career in the context of processes of cultural change in thirteenth-century Anatolia. It seeks to demonstrate both the transfer and adaptation to the Anatolian urban milieu of social–cultural patterns attested for the a?yān in neighbouring predominantly Muslim societies, and the shaping of the social and cultural functions of immigrant scholars to Anatolia by local conditions. Second, the article identifies Sirāj al-Dīn as a prominent participant in an intellectual community engaged in inter-cultural exchange across political and confessional boundaries in the thirteenth-century eastern Mediterranean.     

Ibn Baṭṭūṭa on Shedding of Blood in the Delhi Sultanate

Ibn Ba??ū?a's longest sojourn (734–748/1333-ca. 1347) in his famous world travels was in the domains of the Delhi sultanate ruled by Mu?ammad b. Tughluq. He presents a vivid picture of court life in Delhi and a portrait of the sultan, whom Ibn Ba??ū?a describes in contrasting terms of generosity and violence. This essay examines the latter phenomenon, first by briefly noting the contribution of two contrasting studies on the complex nature of violence itself (Part One), followed by Ibn Ba??ū?a's depiction of Ibn Tughluq's accession to power (Part Two), and then his perception of the sultan's use of capital punishment during his reign (Part Three). The last section (Part Four) adds further detail on the sultan's policy and then briefly compares Ibn Ba??ū?a's perception of the sultan's violence with that of another contemporary witness, the historian ?iyā? al-Dīn Baranī. The result suggests that Ibn Ba??ū?a's representation of violence is as nuanced as the phenomenon of violence itself.     

Amalfitans in the Caliphate of Cordoba – Or Not?

This article concerns itself with the references in Ibn ?ayyān's Muqtabis, Book V, to an Amalfitan presence at the court of Cordoba in the middle of the fourth/tenth century. It will be argued that these isolated references to a precociously early, Italian, mercantile presence in Spain, taken largely at face value by the text's editor and all but neglected in Amalfitan historiography, need to be interrogated to determine whether they fit the fourth/tenth-century context of Amalfitan–Muslim relations, or should be read against their fifth/eleventh-century context as evidence for a golden age of the Caliphate which, by Ibn ?ayyān's day, was already passing into memory and myth. Using contemporary, comparative evidence from Barcelona, the article examines the possibility of communications between Italy and Spain in the earlier period, and concludes that the conditions were probably right for an Amalfitan arrival, but rapidly changed by Ibn ?ayyān's day to exclude them from further contacts.     

Louis IX in Medieval Arabic Sources: The Saint,the King,and the Sicilian Connection

This article examines the portrayal of Louis IX in medieval Arabic historiography to show the importance of cross-cultural Mediterranean interaction. It argues that the image of Louis was influenced by information originating from the Sicilian Hohenstaufen court and reports that Frederick II sent to Egypt. Arab historians connected to the courts of Frederick and Manfred disseminated a “Sicilian narrative” that shaped Louis's portrayal in Arabic historiography. This argument on the importance of cross-cultural transfer in understanding Arabic historiography is buttressed by reports about the King, the Pope, and the Emperor that are traced back to the entourage of prominent Muslims closely linked to Sicily. Moreover, it is argued that Arab authors were aware of Louis's proto-sanctity and pious reputation. This led to the infusion of medieval Arabic historiography with Western ideas about sacrosanctity. Finally, this research assesses how the portrayal of King Louis during his captivity was used in internal Muslim rivalries.     

Judicial Authority and Qāḍīs' Autonomy under the ʿAbbāsids

As Joseph Schacht argued in the 1950s, the office of qā?ī began in the Umayyad period as that of a “legal secretary” to provincial governors. Documentary evidence from Egypt confirms that governors were indeed regarded as the highest judicial authority in early Islam, and that their legal powers far surpassed that of any other judge. In large cities, governors appointed and dismissed qā?īs at will; decisions taken by qā?īs could be swiftly overruled by political authorities.

Although the ?Abbāsids reformed and centralised the judiciary in the second half of second/eighth century, qā?īs were still subordinate to reigning rulers and unable to impose judgements that displeased the caliph or his main representatives. The increasing political and social influence of scholars and the development of classical schools of law eventually changed this situation. Relying on a body of both narrative and legal literature, this article addresses the qā?īs' attempts to resist political rulers' interference with the judiciary by asserting themselves as true representatives of the sharī?a. It argues that ?anafī legal literature, dating from the third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries, gradually elaborated a theory on the relationship between the qā?ī and the ruler. This theory was instrumental in doing away with political infringement on the judicial prerogative and was soon incorporated into adab literature, whose stories of rulers entirely subjugated to the rule of law became a new political model.     

Did muslim survivors of the 1099 massacre of jerusalem settle in damascus? the true origins of the al-.(S)āli.(h)iyya suburb

This article retraces the genealogy of a mistaken contention, quoted and requoted by a legion of historians of the Crusades; namely, that Muslim survivors of the 1099 massacre in Jerusalem settled in the al-.(S)āli.(h)iyya suburb of Damascus. Actually, the al-.(S)āli.(h)iyya suburb was established some 60 years after the foundation of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099, by emigrants from Muslim villages in central Palestine, then under Frankish rule. Medieval Muslim sources hold no evidence to the relocation of any Jerusalemites of Damascus in 1099.