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Background Information on the “Great Schism” (1054) – HW for Thursday, Jan. 6Long before there was an open and formal schism between east and west, the two sides had become strangers to one another; and in attempting to understand how and why the communion of Christendom was broken, we must start with this fact of increasing estrangement. When Paul and the other Apostles traveled around the Mediterranean world, they moved within a closely knit political and cultural unity: the Roman Empire. This Empire embraced many different national groups, often with languages and dialects of their own. But all these groups were governed by the same Emperor; there was a broad Greco-Roman civilization in which educated people throughout the Empire shared; either Greek or Latin was understood almost everywhere in the Empire, and many could speak both languages. These facts greatly assisted the early Church in its missionary work.But in the centuries that followed, the unity of the Mediterranean world gradually disappeared. The political unity was the first to go. From the end of the third century the Empire, while still theoretically one, was usually divided into two parts, an eastern and a western, each under its own Emperor. Constantine furthered this process of separation by founding a second imperial capital in the east, alongside Old Rome in Italy. Then came the barbarian invasions at the start of the fifth century. The political unity of the Greek east and the Latin west was destroyed by the barbarian invasions, and never permanently restored.Cut off from Byzantium and in need of military and financial help, in 754 Pope Stephen turned northwards and visited the Frankish ruler, Pepin. This marked the first step in a decisive change of orientation so far as the Papacy was concerned. Hitherto Rome had continued in many ways to be part of the Byzantine world, but now it passed increasingly under Frankish influence, although the effects of this reorientation did not become fully apparent until the middle of the eleventh century. Pope Stephen's visit to Pepin was followed half a century later by a much more dramatic event. On Christmas Day in the year 800 Pope Leo III crowned Charles the Great, King of the Franks, as Emperor. Charlemagne sought recognition from the ruler at Byzantium, but without success; for the Byzantines, still adhering to the principle of imperial unity, regarded Charlemagne as an intruder and the Papal coronation as an act of schism within the Empire. The creation of a Holy Roman Empire in the west, instead of drawing Europe closer together, only served to alienate east and west more than before.Matters were made more difficult by problems of language. The days when educated people were bilingual were over. By the year 450 there were very few in western Europe who could read Greek, and after 600, although Byzantium still called itself the Roman Empire, it was rare for a Byzantine to speak Latin, the language of the Romans. Because they no longer drew upon the same sources nor read the same books, Greek east and Latin west drifted more and more apart.In the east there were many Churches whose foundation went back to the Apostles; there was a strong sense of the equality of all bishops, of the collegial and conciliar nature of the Church. The east acknowledged the Pope as the first bishop in the Church, but saw him as the first among equals. In the west, on the other hand, there was only one great see claiming Apostolic foundation - Rome - so that Rome came to be regarded as the Apostolic see. In the east there was a strong secular head, the Emperor, to uphold the civilized order and to enforce law. In the west, after the advent of the barbarians, there was only a plurality of warring chiefs, all more or less usurpers. For the most part it was the Papacy alone which could act as a centre of unity, as an element of continuity and stability in the spiritual and political life of western Europe. By force of circumstances, the Pope assumed a part which the Greek Patriarchs were not called to play, issuing commands not only to his ecclesiastical subordinates but to secular rulers as well. Byzantium and the west (chiefly the Germans) were both launching great missionary ventures among the Slavs. The two lines of missionary advance, from the east and from the west, soon converged; and when Greek and German missionaries found themselves at work in the same land, it was difficult to avoid a conflict, since the two missions were run on widely different principles. The chief point of trouble was Bulgaria, a country which Rome and Constantinople alike were anxious to add to their sphere of jurisdiction. Matters were made worse by political factors, such as the military aggression of the Normans in Byzantine Italy, and the commercial encroachments of the Italian maritime cities in the eastern Mediterranean during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.Southernization / The Origins of the Modern World The term southernization is a new one for many people. It is used here to refer to a process that began in Southern Asia and spread from there to various other places around the globe. Among the most important developments were the development of mathematics; the production and marketing of subtropical or tropical spices; the pioneering of new trade routes; the cultivation, processing, and marketing of southern crops such as sugar and cotton; and the development of various related technologies.?The term southernization is meant to be analogous to westernization. Westernization refers to 18th and 19th century developments that first occurred in Western Europe. Those developments changed Europe and eventually spread to other places and changed them as well. In the same way, southernization changed Southern Asia and later spread to other areas, which then underwent a process of change.?Southernization was well under way in Southern Asia by the 5th century, C.E., during the reign of India’s Gupta kings [320-535 C.E.]. It was by that time already spreading to China. In the 8th century, various elements characteristic of southernization began spreading through the lands of the Muslim caliphates. Both in China and in the Islamic lands, the process led to dramatic changes, and by the year 1200, it was beginning to have an impact on the Christian Mediterranean. One could argue that, by this time, the process of southernization had created an eastern hemisphere characterized by a rich south and a north that was poor in comparison. ??The Indian BeginningsSouthernization was the result of developments that took place in many parts of Southern Asia, both on the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia. By the time of the Gupta kings, several of its constituent parts already had a long history in India. Perhaps the oldest strand in the process was the cultivation of cotton and the production of cotton textiles for export. Cotton was first domesticated in the Indus River Valley some time between 2300 and 1760 B.C.E., and gradually the Indians began to develop sophisticated dyeing techniques. During this time, Indus River Valley merchants are known to have lived in Mesopotamia, where they sold cotton textiles. In the 1st century C.E., Egypt became an important overseas market for Indian cottons. By the next century, there was a strong demand for these textiles, both in the Mediterranean and in East Africa, and by the 5th century, they were being traded in Southeast Asia. The Indian textile trade continued to grow throughout the next millennium. Even after the arrival of European ships in Asian ports at the turn of the 16th century, it continued unscathed. According to one textile expert, “India virtually clothed the world” by the mid-1700s. The subcontinent’s position was not undermined until Britain’s Industrial Revolution, when steam engines began to power the production of cotton textiles.It was also during this time period that the Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar.?Another strand in the process of southernization, the search for new sources of bullion [precious metals – gold and silver], can be traced back in India to the end of the Mauryan Empire [321-185 B.C.E.].? The Indians’ search for gold may also have led them to the shores of Africa. There is also one report that gold was being sought in East Africa by Ethiopian merchants, who were among India’s most important trading partners.?Indian voyages on the Indian Ocean were part of a more general development, more or less contemporary with the Mauryan Empire, in which sailors of various nationalities began to knit together the shores of the “Southern Ocean”, a Chinese term referring to all the waters from the South China Sea to the eastern coast of Africa. During the period, there is no doubt that the most intrepid sailors were the Malays, peoples who lived in what is now Malaysia, Indonesia, the southeastern coast of Vietnam, and the Philippines. In the last century B.C.E., if not earlier, Malay sailors were delivering cinnamon from South China Sea ports to East Africa and the Red Sea. By about 400 C.E., Malay sailors could be found 2/3rds of the way around the world, from Easter Island to East Africa. They rode the monsoons without a compass, out of sight of land.?Indian traders and shippers and Malay sailors were also responsible for opening up an all-sea route to China. The traders’ desire for silk drew them out into dangerous waters in search of a more direct way to its sources. By the 2nd century C.E., Indian merchants could make the trip by sea, but the route was slow, and it took at least 2 years to make a round trip. Merchants leaving from India’s eastern coast rounded the shores of the Bay of Bengal and went on to the coast of Vietnam and on to China with the monsoon winds.??The Indians also laid the foundation for modern mathematics during the time of the Gupta Empire. Western numerals, which the Europeans called Arabic since they acquired them from the Arabs, actually came from India. The Arabs still call them ‘Hindi’ numbers. The most significant feature of the Indian system was the invention of the zero as a number concept. The oldest existing work that used the zero in the modern way is a mathematical work attached to a text on astronomy, which is dated 499 C.E. The Indian zero made the place value system of writing numbers superior to all others. Without it, the use of this system, base ten or otherwise, was fraught with difficulties and did not seem any better than alternative systems. With the zero, the Indians were able to perform calculations rapidly and accurately, to perform much more complicated calculations, and to discern mathematical relationships more aptly. These numerals, and the mathematics the Indians developed with them, are now universal – just one indication of the global significance of southernization.?As a result of these developments, India acquired a reputation as a place of marvels, a reputation that was maintained for many centuries after the Gupta dynasty fell. ?The Southernization of ChinaThese Southern Asian developments began to have a significant impact on China after 350 C.E. The Han dynasty had fallen in China in 221 C.E., and for more than 350 years thereafter, China was ruled by an ever-changing collection of regional kingdoms. During these centuries in which Buddhism became increasingly important in China, Buddhist monasteries spread throughout the disunited realm, and cultural exchange between India and China grew accordingly. By 581, when the Chinese empire was reunited under the Sui dynasty, processes associated with southernization had already had a major impact on China. The influence of southernization continued during the Tang dynasty [618-906] and the Song dynasty [960-1279]. ?The Chinese reformed their mathematics, incorporating the advantages of the Indian system, even though they did not adopt the Indian numerals at that time. They then went on to develop an advanced mathematics, which was flourishing by the time of the Song dynasty. Cotton and indigo became well established, giving rise to the blue-black peasant garb that became common in China. Also in the Song period, the Chinese first developed cotton canvas, which they used to make a more efficient sail for ocean-going ships.?The process also introduced new varieties of rice. The most important of these was what the Chinese called “Champa rice”, since it came to China from Champa, a Malay kingdom located on what is now the southern coast of Vietnam. Champa rice was a drought-resistant, early ripening variety that made it possible to extend cultivation up well-watered hillsides, thereby doubling the area of rice cultivation in China. Once Champa rice was introduced and rice cultivation spread up the hillsides, the Chinese began systematic terracing and made use of sophisticated techniques of water control on mountain slopes. Between the mid-8th and early 12th century, the population of southern China tripled, and the total Chinese population doubled. ?Before the process of southernization, northern China had always been predominant, intellectually, socially, and politically. The imperial center of gravity was clearly in the north, and the southern part of China was perceived as a frontier area. However, southernization changed this situation dramatically. By 600, southern China was well on its way to becoming the most prosperous and most commercial part of the empire. The most telling evidence for this is the construction of the Grand Canal, which was completed around 610, during the Sui Dynasty that could deliver southern rice to northern cities, and northern military regiments to the south.?The Tang dynasty, when Buddhist influence in China was especially strong, saw two exceedingly important technological innovations – the invention of printing and gunpowder. These developments may also be linked to southernization. Printing seems to have developed within the walls of Buddhist monasteries between 700 and 750. The invention of gunpowder in China by Taoist alchemists in the 9th century may also be related to the linkages between India and China created by Buddhists. In 644, an Indian monk identified soils in China that contained saltpeter and demonstrated the purple flame that results from its ignition. As early as 919 C.E., gunpowder was used as an igniter in a flamethrower, and the 10th century also saw the use of flaming arrows, rockets, and bombs thrown by catapults. ?By the time of the Song dynasty, the Chinese also had perfected the ‘south-pointing needle,’ otherwise known as the compass. Various prototypes of the compass had existed in China from the 3rd century B.C.E., but the new version developed during the Song dynasty was particularly well suited for navigation. Soon Chinese mariners were using the south-pointing needle on the oceans, publishing ‘needle charts’ for the benefit of the sea captains, and following ‘needle routes’ on the Southern Ocean. Once the Chinese had the compass, they, like Columbus, set out to find a direct route to the spice markets of Southeast Asia. Cities on China’s southern coast became centers of overseas commerce. Silk remained an important export, and by the Tang dynasty it had been joined by porcelain, which was developed in China sometime before 400 C.E. China’s southern ports were also exporting to Southeast Asia large quantities of ordinary consumer goods, including iron hardware, such as needles, scissors, and cooking pots. Until the British Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, no other place equaled the iron production of Song China. The Islamic Caliphates [Empires]?In the 7th century C.E., Arab cavalries, recently converted to the new religion of Islam, conquered eastern and southern Mediterranean shores that had been Byzantine and Christian, as well as the Persian empire of what is now Iraq and Iran. In the 8th century they went on to conquer Spain and Turkish areas of Central Asia, as well as northwestern India. Once established on the Indian frontier, they became acquainted with many of the elements of southernization.?The Arabs were responsible for the spread of many important crops, developed or improved in India, to the Middle East, North Africa, and Islamic Spain. Among the most important were sugar, cotton, and citrus fruits. The Arabs were responsible for moving sugarcane cultivation and sugar manufacturing westward from southern Iraq into other relatively arid lands. Growers had to adapt the plant to new conditions, and they had to develop more efficient irrigation technologies. By 1000 or so, sugarcane had become an important crop in much of the Middle East and Spain. By this time, cotton had also become a major crop in the Islamic empires, with cotton industries producing for both local and distant markets.?Under Arab auspices, Indian mathematicians followed the same routes as the crops. By 825, mathematicians within the Islamic empires drew upon the Indian tradition, as well as the Greek and Persian. On this foundation, Muslim scientists of many nationalities made remarkable advances in both algebra and trigonometry.?The Arab conquests also led to an increase in long-distance commerce and the ‘discovery’ of new sources of bullion. Soon after the Abbasid caliphate established its capital at Baghdad in the 700s, Arab ships were plying the maritime routes from the Persian Gulf to China, and they soon outnumbered all others using these routes. By the 9th century they had acquired the compass (in China, most likely), and they may well have been the first to use it for marine navigation, since the Chinese do not seem to have used it for this purpose until after the 10th century.The Arabs “pioneered” or improved an existing long-distance route across the Sahara, an ocean of sand rather than water. The numbers of people and animals crossing this ocean of sand were limited until the 8th century when the Arabs, desiring to go directly to the source of the gold, prompted an expansion of trade across the Sahara. This Arab “discovery” of West African gold eventually doubled the amount of gold in international circulation. East Africa, too, became a source of gold for the Arabs. ?Europe’s Connection to the “Southern” World?By 1200, the process of southernization had created a prosperous south from China to the Islamic Mediterranean, based on mathematics, the pioneering of new ocean routes and ‘discoveries’ of bullion and crops such as sugar, cotton and spices.?In the 17th century, Francis Bacon singled out three technologies that changed the face and state of things throughout the world. These were all Chinese inventions – the compass, printing and gunpowder. It is most likely that the Arabs introduced the compass into Mediterranean waters. Block printing and gunpowder appeared first in Italy in the 1300s, probably through the Mongols.?The rise of Europe’s northwest began with the appropriation of those elements of southernization that were not confined by geography. In the wake of their southern European neighbors, they became partially southernized, but they could not engage in all aspects of the process due to their distance from the tropical sources of cotton, sugar and spices. Full southernization, and the wealth we now associate with northwestern Europe, came about only after their outright seizure of tropical and subtropical territories in the Americas and after they rounded Africa and participated in the Southern Ocean trade.?Many scholars now argue that Europe’s northwest did not rise until it was reaping the profits of southernization. Therefore, the rise of the North Atlantic powers should not be oversimplified so that it appears to be an isolated and solely European phenomenon. Rather, it should be portrayed as one part of a hemisphere-wide process, in which a northwestern Europe ran to catch up with a more developed south – a race not completed until the 18th century.Questions for Shaffer’s Article on “Southernization”What is Shaffer’s thesis in the article?What does the author mean by “Southernization”? How is the “South” defined in her article? List the ideas, the agricultural, mineral, and manufactured products and the inventions that she associates with “Southernization.” Do you agree with her thesis? What additional information would you need? Hajj HandoutsMecca and Moderation (NY Times: May 2, 2008)For many people in the West, Islam is increasingly associated with violence and terrorism. Does increased religious orthodoxy promote violence and intolerance? Our research on the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca suggests this association is wrong. The hajj is one of the most important institutions in Islam and a singular experience for many Muslims. Our recent study of Pakistani pilgrims shows that while performing the hajj leads to greater religious orthodoxy, it also increases pilgrims' desire for peace and tolerance toward others. And this greater tolerance is not just toward fellow Muslims - it also extends to non-Muslims.These findings echo the experience of Malcolm X, who drastically altered his views on race after performing the hajj. In a letter from the hajj, he wrote: "We were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white ... what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought patterns previously held." The hajj is an inherently communal and international phenomenon, with over 2 million Muslims from all over the world gathering for several days in intense prayer and rituals. Pilgrims interact with fellow Muslims of different races and ethnicities in a religious context. At the hajj, men and women often pray alongside one another, an entirely new experience for many pilgrims.Our study isolates the impact of performing the hajj by taking advantage of a randomized lottery for allocating hajj visas in Pakistan. We compare the attitudes of 800 successful lottery applicants to an equal number of unsuccessful ones. Pilgrims are more observant of orthodox religious practice after returning from the hajj. They are 16 percent more likely to pray, 26 percent more likely to do so regularly in the mosque. What may be surprising to some is that the hajj makes pilgrims more tolerant of both fellow Muslims and non-Muslims. The experience of diversity on the hajj really does seem to matter: Hajjis have more positive views about people from other Muslim countries. Pilgrims are also 22 percent more likely to declare that people of different religions are equal and 11 percent more likely to state that different religions can live in harmony by compromising over their disagreements.Pakistani Hajjis report more positive views on women's abilities, greater concern for their quality of life, and are also more likely to favor educating girls and women participating in the workforce. Hajjis are also less likely to support the use of violence and show no evidence of any increased hostility toward the West. They are more than twice as likely to declare that the goals of Osama bin Laden are incorrect, more likely to express a preference for peace between Pakistan and India, and more likely to declare that it is incorrect to physically punish someone if they have dishonored the family. Hajjis also become more sensitive to crimes against women.The impact of an event like the hajj demonstrates a broader lesson about exposure to a diversity of peoples. Mixing with others across national, sect, and gender lines can help promote tolerance - both toward fellow participants but even more significantly, to those who are not part of the experience.Islamic Pilgrims Bring Cosmopolitan Air to Unlikely City (NY Times: Jan. 20, 2005)The two-hour panel presentation on "Mecca: The Cultural Capital of Islam" got rolling in the question and answer session, in a way that was quintessentially Meccan. Audience members, a surprising number of them women, came to the microphone and tossed out questions. "How will we deal with the issue of terrorism?" asked one woman. "Why do we look only into the past and not to the future?" another woman demanded. The session soon grew into a series of debates about the issues facing Muslims - disunity, extremism, leadership. The willingness to debate and raise seemingly taboo questions is standard here in the birthplace of Islam and the site of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage that attracts about 1.5 million Muslims from all corners of the world for five days of meditation, prayer and, often, vigorous debate. "This city is a stage where people from all over the world can come and find an audience to listen to them," says Dr. Bagader, a Meccan native. "There is an acceptance of being different here."Typically, in conservative Islamic societies like Saudi Arabia, men and women are strictly separated during prayers, and they are here. But with the enormous crowds that gather for meditation around the Kaaba - the small temple in the center of the Grand Mosque that Muslims believe was built by the prophet Abraham and consider the defining symbol of Islam - men and women are jammed in side by side. But what really makes Mecca so open is its diversity, a product largely of the hajj, which for 1,425 years has been attracting believers from all over the world. Many stay on. Mecca is by far the Muslim world's most diverse city - some 100 ethnicities are represented here, and almost every sect and creed lives in peace, whether Shia, Sunni or Ismaili. The average Meccan is just as likely to be Asian as Arab, just as likely to be light-skinned as dark-skinned, just as likely to speak English as Arabic, and almost everyone who lives here is bilingual or better. These days, many are from Africa or the Arab world. But in generations past, many were Chinese, Malay, Turkish, even Albanian. Some came for spirituality and others came to escape subjugation."Other cities claim to be melting pots, but this is the original melting pot," says Salah Abdel Jalil, an educator. "You feel a certain level of peace and openness here that you won't find elsewhere." Mr. Abdel Jalil is a third-generation Chinese-Saudi whose grandfather, a general under Chiang Kai-shek, escaped the Communist takeover of China and came to Mecca for solace. "I was born here, raised here, and educated here. I belong to this soil says Mr. Abdel Jalil. " Here you have so many races and nationalities that you have to keep an open mind and be able to give and take."All that has resulted in an unlikely liberalism - a striking oasis of open thought and discussion in a world of hardened politics and interests. Increasingly, Meccans see themselves as a bulwark against the creeping extremism that has overtaken much Islamic debate. It is little surprise, then, that Meccans still bristle at the description of extremists as "fundamentalists." In this city, the fundamentals are neither militancy nor intolerance, but openness and free thought.HW for Wednesday Jan. 12 – Answer questions for each readingMuslim Group Is Urging Women to Lead PrayersNY Times: March 18, 2005What happens when a historical tradition and a dominant cultural viewpoint (equality) come into conflict in this article? How does this relate to women’s status in the dar al-Islam, as discussed in your textbook? As they do every Friday, Muslims will answer the call to prayer at mosques around the city today. But in a bold move, some plan to break with convention and attend a service led by a woman at a conference hall on the Upper West Side -- an act that has stirred a modest but fierce debate about the role of women in Islam. The event is the work of a small but growing group of activists, journalists and scholars who consider themselves among the pioneers of a ''progressive Muslim'' movement in the United States. They hope to encourage discussion about the centuries-old tradition that separates men from women during congregational prayer, and reserves the role of prayer leader, or imam, for men.''People have to really focus on the second-class status that women have in the Muslim world,'' Ms. Nomani said. ''We are taking actions that no one else would have dared to think about before. Nobody cared that we didn't have a place in the faith. We were just abandoned.'' Whether Muslim women are permitted by Islamic law to serve as prayer leaders is the subject of continued debate among scholars. It is generally accepted that women cannot lead congregational prayers or any kind of prayer in a mosque and must pray in a separate area of the mosque -- either in separate rows, another room or behind a partition, said Khaled Abou El Fadl, a law professor who specializes in Islamic law at the University of California, Los Angeles. ''My concern is a backlash,'' said Aisha al-Adawiya, the executive director of Women in Islam. ''This kind of change has to come from within the community. It's being driven from outside.'' The view that the event is somehow being orchestrated from outside the Muslim community is commonly expressed and may reflect a challenging schism between immigrant Muslims and their children and grandchildren. ''A new generation of Muslims is coming into its own,'' said Yvonne Haddad, a professor of history who specializes in women and Islam at Georgetown University. ''The children of the immigrants are looking for new ways to create an American Islam, one in which they feel comfortable in an American context.'' Quoting studies that show that only 10 percent of Muslims attend mosque every week, Mr. Nassef said he believes that the Muslim community is in a crisis. The root of the problem, he said, is that the nation's mosques and Islamic centers are largely run by immigrants who are out of touch with the new generation of Muslims. ''Many of our institutions really don't speak for us,'' he said.Saudi Women Have Message For U.S. EnvoyNY Times: September 28, 2005What additional information might you want to get a fuller picture of the status and attitudes of women in Islamic nations today? The audience -- 500 women covered in black at a Saudi university -- seemed an ideal place for Karen P. Hughes, a senior Bush administration official charged with spreading the American message in the Muslim world, to make her pitch. But the response on Tuesday was not what she and her aides expected. When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and ''fully participate in society'' much as they do in her country, many challenged her. 'The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn't happy,'' one audience member said. ''Well, we're all pretty happy.'' The room, full of students, faculty members and some professionals, resounded with applause. Many in this region say they resent the American assumption that, given the chance, everyone would live like Americans.Ms. Hughes, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, seemed clearly taken aback as the women told her that just because they were not allowed to vote or drive that did not mean they were treated unfairly or imprisoned in their own homes. Several women said later that Americans failed to understand that their traditional society was embraced by men and women alike. ''There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country,'' said Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, an obstetrician and gynecologist who runs her own hospital. ''I don't want to drive a car,'' she said. ''I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's license?'' ''Women have more than equal rights,'' added her daughter, Dr. Fouzia Pasha, also an obstetrician and gynecologist, asserting that men have obligations accompanying their rights, and that women can go to court to hold them accountable. Like some of her friends, Ms. Sabbagh said Westerners failed to appreciate the advantages of wearing the traditional black head-to-foot covering known as an abaya. ''I love my abaya,'' she explained. ''It's convenient and it can be very fashionable.''Reconsideration: A Secret History(NY Times: February 25, 2007)What is the significance of Akram’s historical research?Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a 43-year-old Sunni alim, or religious scholar, has rediscovered a long-lost tradition of Muslim women teaching the Koran, transmitting hadith (deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and even making Islamic law as jurists. Akram embarked eight years ago on a single-volume biographical dictionary of female hadith scholars. “I thought I’d find maybe 20 or 30 women,” he says. To date, he has found 8,000 of them, dating back 1,400 years, and his dictionary now fills 40 volumes. The dictionary’s diverse entries include a 10th-century Baghdad-born jurist who traveled through Syria and Egypt, teaching other women; a female scholar in 12th-century Egypt whose male students marveled at her mastery of a “camel load” of texts; and a 15th-century woman who taught hadith at the Prophet’s grave in Medina. One 7th-century Medina woman who reached the academic rank of jurist issued key fatwas on hajj rituals and commerce.About a century ago, the Hungarian Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher estimated that about 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women. Akram’s entry for someone like Umm al-Darda, a prominent jurist in seventh-century Damascus, is startling. As a young woman, al-Darda used to sit with male scholars in the mosque, talking shop. “I’ve tried to worship Allah in every way,” she wrote, “but I’ve never found a better one than sitting around, debating other scholars.” She went on to teach hadith and fiqh, or law, at the mosque, and even lectured in the men’s section; her students included the caliph of Damascus. She shocked her contemporaries by praying shoulder to shoulder with men and issuing a fatwa that allowed women to pray in the same position as men.It’s after the 16th century that citations of women scholars dwindle. Some historians venture that this is because Islamic education grew more formal, excluding women as it became increasingly oriented toward establishing careers in the courts and mosques. The erosion of women’s religious education in recent times, Akram says, reflects “decline in every aspect of Islam.” Flabby leadership and a focus on politics rather than scholarship has left Muslims ignorant of their own history. Islam’s current cultural insecurity has been bad for both its scholarship and its women, Akram says. “Our traditions have grown weak, and when people are weak, they grow cautious. When they’re cautious, they don’t give their women freedoms.”Akram says he hopes that uncovering past hadith scholars could help reform present-day Islamic culture. Many Muslims see historical precedents — particularly when they date back to the golden age of Muhammad — as blueprints for sound modern societies and look to scholars to evaluate and interpret those precedents. Akram is a working alim, lecturing in mosques and universities and dispensing fatwas on issues like inheritance and divorce. “Here you’ve got a guy who’s coming from the tradition, who knows the stuff and who’s able to give us that level of detail which is missing in the self-proclaimed progressive Muslim writers,” says James Piscatori, a professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University.When I spoke with him, Akram invoked a favorite poem, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray’s 18th-century lament for dead English farmers. “Gray said that villagers could have been like [great English poet John] Milton,” if only they’d had the chance, Akram observes. “Muslim women are in the same situation. There could have been so many Miltons.” ................
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