DOCSLIB.ORG

Law, Religion, and Islamic Names

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Law, Religion, and Islamic Names Denver Journal of International Law & Policy Volume 26 Number 2 Winter Article 2 May 2020 What's in a Name: Law, Religion, and Islamic Names K. M. Sharma Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/djilp Recommended Citation K. M. Sharma, What's in a Name: Law, Religion, and Islamic Names, 26 Denv. J. Int'l L. & Pol'y 151 (1998). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Denver Journal of International Law & Policy by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Law, Religion, and Islamic Names K.M. SHARMA" I. INTRODUCTION: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A NAME "What's in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet." These memorable and oft-misunderstood lines of Juliet's speech' in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, an outpouring of B.A., M.A., LL.B., Diploma in Labor Laws, LL.M. (Rajasthan); LL.M., S.J.D. (Harvard); Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia. The author gratefully acknowledges the perceptive comments of his colleague, Professor George Win- terton, who very graciously reviewed an earlier draft of this paper. 1. Since Juliet was referring specifically to surnames, her tardiness may perhaps be understandable. The practice of surnames developed at the end of the fourteenth century in England when it became essential to distinguish between the several "Johns" and "Marys" in the same community. Hitherto a person's given name was the most important one, given at baptism, and could only be changed at confirmation. PERCY H. REANEY, THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH SURNAMES 83 (1967); G.S. Arnold, Personal Names, 15 YALE L.J. 227, 227 (1905). Thus, in Juliet's time, since surnames were comparative latecomers, they were accorded somewhat less respect, though first names of all kinds had been in vogue from the most distant times in history. The play involves the tale of two young in- nocent lovers unnecessarily dying for love through misunderstandings and because of the really alive and deadly feud between their families (the Montagues and the Capulets). It does not seem to concern Romeo that Juliet is of the opposing faction, but Juliet speaks at last of the feud (though she does not know that Romeo is listening): O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I'll no longer be a Capulet. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ROMEO AND JULIET act. 2, sc. 2, 11. 33-36 (1594-95) [hereinafter ROMEO AND JULIET], in THE ANNOTATED SHAKESPEARE 1604, 1627 (A.L. Rowse ed., Greenwich House 1984) [hereinafter ANNOTATED SHAKESPEARE]. "Wherefore" means "why" and Juliet of Capulet is asking the absent Romeo of Montague why he is called "Montague." Oh, if only he weren't. All she can lament is his cursed clan-name: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though [you were] not a Montague. What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. 0, be some other name! What's in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, DENV. J. INT'L L. & POLY VOL. 26:2 romantic agony, should not be taken to mean that the versatile Bard was a flimsy etymologist oblivious to the importance of the "naming game" or the legal implications thereof.2 In fact, naming a newborn child, except in cases where family tradition or the desire to propitiate wealthy relatives or to honor some favorite relative or godparent take precedence over personal wishes, is one of the important parental du- ties and is a matter usually of considerable thought. 3 Moreover, contro- versies over legitimate and illegitimate children's names, particularly surnames involving familial autonomy, divorced spouses or de facto couples, and equal treatment, are arising today with much greater fre- quency than before as century-old naming practices collide with modern sensitivities about children's best interests and women's rights. Specifi- cally, the traditional deference to a father's prerogative to name his children the way he likes, unless forfeited by misconduct or neglect, has been seriously questioned as being completely out-of-tune with current social mores and gender-justice-oriented realities. A recent tastefully produced book 4 reminds us that the first thing that Allah taught Adam was all the names of all the things. Many Qur'anic verses (aayats), personal acts and sayings of the Prophet And for that name which is no part of thee Take all myself. ROMEO AND JULIET, supra, at 11. 38-48; ANNOTATED SHAKESPEARE, supra, at 1627. Ro- meo makes himself known and somewhat dramatically denounces his name, saying: I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be now baptized; Henceforth I never will be Romeo. ROMEO AND JULIET, supra, at 11. 49-51; ANNOTATED SHAKESPEARE, supra, at 1627. Ro- meo's and Juliet's fateful outcome attests, however, to the problems that arise as a result of a system based on customs and traditions attached to surnames. 2. References to "Name" and "Names" occur frequently in Shakespeare's plays. For a select sampling, see app. I. 3. For an examination of the various views of some philosophers, logicians, and lin- guistics on the protean functions of names, see FARHANG ZABEEH, WHAT IS IN A NAME?: AN INQUIRY INTO THE SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS OF PROPER NAMES (1968). 4. SALAHUDDIN AHMED, MUSLIM NAMES - WITH QUOTATIONS FROM THE QUR'AN: A FACET OF MUSLIM CULTURE (Ahmed Publishers, Sydney, Australia, 1997, Pp. ix+307) [hereinafter AHMED]; see infra notes 40-49 and the accompanying text for some comments on this book; see generally THE HOLY QUR-AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE MEANINGS AND COMMENTARY (Ustadh Abdullah Yusuf Ali trans.; the Presidency of Islamic Re- searches, Ifta, Call and Guidance rev. & ed., Holy Qur-iin Printing Complex, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, 1410 H [1990], under the auspices of the Ministry of Hajj and Endow- ment, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) [hereinafter ENGLISH TRANSLATION] (most references to Qur'anic texts in this Article are to this monumental work, though, some capitaliza- tions have been omitted); THE MEANING OF THE GLORIOUS KORAN (Marmaduke Pickthall trans., Dorset Press, New York, n.d.). 1998 WHAT'S IN A NAME? Muhammad (hadith)5 and those of his Companions constitute a major source of Islamic law and religion, extolling the importance of carefully selecting beautiful names for one's children, 6 - for on the Day of Resur- rection everyone will be summoned by their names and the names of their fathers. For example, when the wife of Imraan gave birth to a daughter who later became the mother of Prophet 'Isa, she told Allah: "I have named her Maryam." 7 This indicates the importance of naming a child soon after its birth. Many Muslims are not aware of the true meaning or bearing on Islamic heritage of their names, particularly be- cause of their unfamiliarity, or only a superficial acquaintance with Arabic or Persian. Furthermore, the extremely complex vocabulary of the Arabic language results in multiple meanings and subtle nuances; thus, Muslims oftentimes end up selecting names which are bereft of any real meaning, or have no relation to the existing stock of names. Names go in and out of fashion for reasons that can be recorded, but there are always fastidious individuals in India who complain that they are tired of Rajiv or Sanjay or Priyanka or whatever may be the vogue name of the year, and that they want something novel. In virtu- ally all cultures, rich and varied, the search for a beautiful name begins with the birth of a baby.8 Relatives and friends are approached for sug- 5. Of the different versions of the hadith that emerged in the ninth century, only six are considered genuine. JOHN L. ESPOSITO, WOMEN IN MUSLIM FAMILY LAW 7, 112-13 (1982) (acknowledging existence of forgeries, fabrications and inauthentic hadith) [here- inafter ESPOSITO]; ABDULLAHI AHMED AN-NA'IM, TOWARD AN ISLAMIC REFORMATION: CIVIL LIBERTIES, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW 22-23 (1990) [hereinafter AN- NA'IM]. 6. .For a commentary in verse from various Oriental sources on the ninety-nine "beautiful names" of Allah in the form of stories, see SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, M.A. C.S.I., PEARLS OF THE FAITH OR ISLAM'S ROSARY, BEING THE NINETY-NINE BEAUTIFUL NAMES OF ALLAH (ASMA-EL-HUSNA) (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co., 5th ed. 1891) (1883). These stories are of an uneven quality, but a fine example is furnished by No. 4, al-Malik ("The King of Kings"). Id. at 9. 7. Sura Aal'Imraan 3:36. The mother of Maryam had expected a male child, but she was not disappointed in Maryam's birth. For she had faith in Allah's Plan, as Maryam was no ordinary girl, but a miracle-child destined to be the mother of the miracle-child, 'Isa. 8. In fact, the world in which things are nameless would be a strange world. Alice is momentarily confronted with such a domain: "This must be the wood," she said thoughtfully to herself, "where things have no names.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sufi and Bhakti Performers and Followers at the Margins Of
    religions Article Sufi and Bhakti Performers and Followers at the Margins of the Global South: Communication Strategies to Negotiate Situated Adversities Uttaran Dutta The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA; [email protected] Received: 13 January 2019; Accepted: 15 March 2019; Published: 18 March 2019 Abstract: Throughout the globe (particularly in the global South), religious orthodoxy and their discriminatory intolerances are negatively impacting religious freedom of underserved populations, particularly those who practice/follow alternate spiritual praxis, like the Sufi and Bhakti performers from rural and geographically remote spaces of South Asia. Hindu and Islamic fundamentalist discourses/doctrines are propagating their conservative religious agendas and thereby creating tensions and separatism across the subcontinent. Such religious extremism is responsible for the threatening and even murdering of nonsectarian torchbearers, and their free thoughts. This study focused on various alternate communication strategies espoused by Sufi and bhakti performers and followers in order to negotiate and overcome their marginalized existence as well as to promote the plurality of voices and values in the society. This article identified the following communication strategies—innovative usages of language of inversion or enigmatic language; strategic camouflaging of authors’/writers’ identity, and intergenerational communication of discourses and spiritual values to ensure freedom and survival of their traditions. Keywords: Sufi; bhakti; South Asia; enigmatic language; performance 1. Introduction Throughout the globe, religious dogma and orthodoxies are negatively affecting, and even sometimes destroying, religious freedom of underserved and marginalized populations, particularly those who practice and follow alternate spiritual praxis (Mamoon 2008; Robinson 2001). Rural and geographically remote spaces of South Asia are not an exception.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Kufic Script in Islamic Calligraphy and Its Relevance To
    University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 1999 A study of Kufic script in Islamic calligraphy and its relevance to Turkish graphic art using Latin fonts in the late twentieth century Enis Timuçin Tan University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Tan, Enis Timuçin, A study of Kufic crs ipt in Islamic calligraphy and its relevance to Turkish graphic art using Latin fonts in the late twentieth century, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 1999. http://ro.uow.edu.au/ theses/1749 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact Manager Repository Services: [email protected]. A Study ofKufic script in Islamic calligraphy and its relevance to Turkish graphic art using Latin fonts in the late twentieth century. DOCTORATE OF PHILOSOPHY from UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG by ENiS TIMUgiN TAN, GRAD DIP, MCA FACULTY OF CREATIVE ARTS 1999 CERTIFICATION I certify that this work has not been submitted for a degree to any university or institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by any other person, expect where due reference has been made in the text. Enis Timucin Tan December 1999 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I acknowledge with appreciation Dr. Diana Wood Conroy, who acted not only as my supervisor, but was also a good friend to me. I acknowledge all staff of the Faculty of Creative Arts, specially Olena Cullen, Liz Jeneid and Associate Professor Stephen Ingham for the variety of help they have given to me.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ancient Mesopotamian Place Name “Meluḫḫa”
    THE ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN PLACE NAME “meluḫḫa” Stephan Hillyer Levitt INTRODUCTION The location of the Ancient Mesopotamian place name “Meluḫḫa” has proved to be difficult to determine. Most modern scholars assume it to be the area we associate with Indus Valley Civilization, now including the so-called Kulli culture of mountainous southern Baluchistan. As far as a possible place at which Meluḫḫa might have begun with an approach from the west, Sutkagen-dor in the Dasht valley is probably as good a place as any to suggest (Possehl 1996: 136–138; for map see 134, fig. 1). Leemans argued that Meluḫḫa was an area beyond Magan, and was to be identified with the Sind and coastal regions of Western India, including probably Gujarat. Magan he identified first with southeast Arabia (Oman), but later with both the Arabian and Persian sides of the Gulf of Oman, thus including the southeast coast of Iran, the area now known as Makran (1960a: 9, 162, 164; 1960b: 29; 1968: 219, 224, 226). Hansman identifies Meluḫḫa, on the basis of references to products of Meluḫḫa being brought down from the mountains, as eastern Baluchistan in what is today Pakistan. There are no mountains in the Indus plain that in its southern extent is Sind. Eastern Baluchistan, on the other hand, is marked throughout its southern and central parts by trellised ridges that run parallel to the western edge of the Indus plain (1973: 559–560; see map [=fig. 1] facing 554). Thapar argues that it is unlikely that a single name would refer to the entire area of a civilization as varied and widespread as Indus Valley Civilization.
    [Show full text]
  • The Late Sheikh Abdullah Azzam's Books
    Combating Terrorism Center Guest Commentary The Late Sheikh Abdullah Azzam’s Books Part III: Radical Theories on Defending Muslim Land through Jihad LCDR Youssef Aboul‐Enein, MSC, USN The Combating Terrorism Center United States Military Academy West Point, NY http://www.ctc.usma.edu Please direct all inquiries to Brian Fishman [email protected] 845.938.2801 Introduction Sheikh Abdullah Azzam is a name that only gets attention among true students of Islamist militancy, yet he has had a tremendous impact on Usama Bin Laden and left him with the tools needed to establish a global jihadist network. Azzam was born in Jenin, Palestine in 1941, and was evicted from his hometown of Jenin in the 1967 Six‐Day War. He spent years pursuing his studies in Islamic jurisprudence attending university in Syria and graduating with a doctorate in Islamic studies from the prestigious Al‐Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He was nicknamed the fighting cleric for his obsession with jihadist ideology and the militant works of ibn Taymiyyah (1258 AD). Azzam believed the only way to reclaim his lost homeland was through violent jihad which later became his bsession. On or about 1980, Azzam realized that the Arab jihadists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan required organization, safe house, and structure. He established Maktab al‐Khidmat lil Mujahideen (The Services Offices for Arab Jihadists) which attracted Usama Bin Laden, then graduating from King Abdul‐ Aziz University to join his new venture. Azzam convinced Bin Laden that his financial connections, business experience, and dedication would be of great use to his new organization in Pakistan.
    [Show full text]
  • Al-Qaida Sanctions List Last Updated on 12 December 2014
    Al-Qaida Sanctions List Last updated on 12 December 2014 The List established and maintained by the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee with respect to individuals, groups, undertakings and other entities associated with Al-Qaida Last updated on: 12 December 2014 Composition of the List The list consists of the two sections specified below: A. Individuals associated with Al Qaida B. Entities and other groups and undertakings associated with Al Qaida Information about de-listing may be found on the Committee's website at: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/delisting.shtml . A. Individuals associated with Al-Qaida QI.A.12.01. Name: 1: NASHWAN 2: ABD AL-RAZZAQ 3: ABD AL-BAQI 4: na وان د ارزاق د ا :(Name (original script Title: na Designation: na DOB: 1961 POB: Mosul, Iraq Good quality a.k.a.: a) Abdal Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi b) Abd Al-Hadi Al-Iraqi Low quality a.k.a.: Abu Abdallah Nationality: Iraqi Passport no.: na National identification no.: na Address: na Listed on: 6 Oct. 2001 (amended on 14 May 2007, 27 Jul. 2007) Other information: Al-Qaida senior official. In custody of the United States of America, as of July 2007. Review pursuant to Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) was concluded on 15 Jun. 2010. QI.A.157.04. Name: 1: ABD AL WAHAB 2: ABD AL HAFIZ 3: na 4: na د اوھب د اظ :(Name (original script Title: na Designation: na DOB: 7 Sep. 1967 POB: Algiers, Algeria Good quality a.k.a.: a) Ferdjani Mouloud b) Rabah Di Roma c) Abdel Wahab Abdelhafid, born 30 Oct.
    [Show full text]
  • Surnames in Europe
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org./10.17651/ONOMAST.61.1.9 JUSTYNA B. WALKOWIAK Onomastica LXI/1, 2017 Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu PL ISSN 0078-4648 [email protected] FUNCTION WORDS IN SURNAMES — “ALIEN BODIES” IN ANTHROPONYMY (WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO POLAND) K e y w o r d s: multipart surnames, compound surnames, complex surnames, nobiliary particles, function words in surnames INTRODUCTION Surnames in Europe (and in those countries outside Europe whose surnaming patterns have been influenced by European traditions) are mostly conceptualised as single entities, genetically nominal or adjectival. Even if a person bears two or more surnames, they are treated on a par, which may be further emphasized by hyphenation, yielding the phenomenon known as double-barrelled (or even multi-barrelled) surnames. However, this single-entity approach, visible e.g. in official forms, is largely an oversimplification. This becomes more obvious when one remembers such household names as Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander von Humboldt, Oscar de la Renta, or Olivia de Havilland. Contemporary surnames resulted from long and complicated historical processes. Consequently, certain surnames contain also function words — “alien bodies” in the realm of proper names, in a manner of speaking. Among these words one can distinguish: — prepositions, such as the Portuguese de; Swedish von, af; Dutch bij, onder, ten, ter, van; Italian d’, de, di; German von, zu, etc.; — articles, e.g. Dutch de, het, ’t; Italian l’, la, le, lo — they will interest us here only when used in combination with another category, such as prepositions; — combinations of prepositions and articles/conjunctions, or the contracted forms that evolved from such combinations, such as the Italian del, dello, del- la, dell’, dei, degli, delle; Dutch van de, van der, von der; German von und zu; Portuguese do, dos, da, das; — conjunctions, e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Bramwell, Ellen S. (2012) Naming in Society: a Cross-Cultural Study of Five Communities in Scotland
    Bramwell, Ellen S. (2012) Naming in society: a cross-cultural study of five communities in Scotland. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3173/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ENGLISH LANGUAGE, COLLEGE OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Naming in Society A cross-cultural study of five communities in Scotland Ellen Sage Bramwell September 2011 © Ellen S. Bramwell 2011 Abstract Personal names are a human universal, but systems of naming vary across cultures. While a person’s name identifies them immediately with a particular cultural background, this aspect of identity is rarely researched in a systematic way. This thesis examines naming patterns as a product of the society in which they are used. Personal names have been studied within separate disciplines, but to date there has been little intersection between them. This study marries approaches from anthropology and linguistic research to provide a more comprehensive approach to name-study. Specifically, this is a cross-cultural study of the naming practices of several diverse communities in Scotland, United Kingdom.
    [Show full text]
  • ACDIS Occasional Paper
    ACDIS FFIRS:3 1996 OCCPAP ACDIS Library ACDIS Occasional Paper Collected papers of the Ford Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Pathological States ISpring 1996 Research of the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign December 1996 This publication is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation and is produced by the Program m Arms Control Disarmament and International Security at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign The University of Illinois is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action institution ACDIS Publication Senes ACDIS Swords and Ploughshares is the quarterly bulletin of ACDIS and publishes scholarly articles for a general audience The ACDIS Occasional Paper series is the principle publication to circulate the research and analytical results of faculty and students associated with ACDIS Publications of ACDIS are available upon request Published 1996 by ACDIS//ACDIS FFIRS 3 1996 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 359 Armory Building 505 E Armory Ave Champaign IL 61820 Program ßfia Asma O esssrelg KJ aamisawE^ «««fl ^sôÊKïÂîMïnsS Secasnsy Pathological States The Origins, Detection, and Treatment of Dysfunctional Societies Collected Papers of the Ford Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Spring 1996 Directed by Stephen Philip Cohen and Kathleen Cloud Program m Arms Control Disarmament and International Security University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 359 Armory Building 505 East Armory Avenue Champaign IL 61820 ACDIS Occasional
    [Show full text]
  • Iran: Ethnic and Religious Minorities
    Order Code RL34021 Iran: Ethnic and Religious Minorities Updated November 25, 2008 Hussein D. Hassan Information Research Specialist Knowledge Services Group Iran: Ethnic and Religious Minorities Summary Iran is home to approximately 70.5 million people who are ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse. The central authority is dominated by Persians who constitute 51% of Iran’s population. Iranians speak diverse Indo-Iranian, Semitic, Armenian, and Turkic languages. The state religion is Shia, Islam. After installation by Ayatollah Khomeini of an Islamic regime in February 1979, treatment of ethnic and religious minorities grew worse. By summer of 1979, initial violent conflicts erupted between the central authority and members of several tribal, regional, and ethnic minority groups. This initial conflict dashed the hope and expectation of these minorities who were hoping for greater cultural autonomy under the newly created Islamic State. The U.S. State Department’s 2008 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, released September 19, 2008, cited Iran for widespread serious abuses, including unjust executions, politically motivated abductions by security forces, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and arrests of women’s rights activists. According to the State Department’s 2007 Country Report on Human Rights (released on March 11, 2008), Iran’s poor human rights record worsened, and it continued to commit numerous, serious abuses. The government placed severe restrictions on freedom of religion. The report also cited violence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities. Incitement to anti-Semitism also remained a problem. Members of the country’s non-Muslim religious minorities, particularly Baha’is, reported imprisonment, harassment, and intimidation based on their religious beliefs.
    [Show full text]
  • Islamic Esotericism in the Bengali Bāul Songs of Lālan Fakir Keith Cantú [email protected]
    Research Article Correspondences 7, no. 1 (2019): 109–165 Special Issue: Islamic Esotericism Islamic Esotericism in the Bengali Bāul Songs of Lālan Fakir Keith Cantú [email protected] Abstract This article makes use of the author’s field research as well as primary and secondary textual sour- ces to examine Islamic esoteric content, as mediated by local forms of Bengali Sufism, in Bāul Fa- kiri songs. I provide a general summary of Bāul Fakiri poets, including their relationship to Islam as well as their departure from Islamic orthodoxy, and present critical annotated translations of five songs attributed to the nineteenth-century Bengali poet Lālan Fakir (popularly known as “Lalon”). I also examine the relationship of Bāul Fakiri sexual rites (sādhanā) and principles of embodiment (dehatattva), framed in Islamic terminology, to extant scholarship on Haṭhayoga and Tantra. In the final part of the article I emphasize how the content of these songs demonstrates the importance of esotericism as a salient category in a Bāul Fakiri context and offer an argument for its explanatory power outside of domains that are perceived to be exclusively Western. Keywords: Sufism; Islam; Esotericism; Metaphysics; Traditionalism The history of the Bāul Fakirs includes centuries of religious innovation in which various poets have gradually created a folk tradition highly unique to Bengal, that is, Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. While there have been several important works published on Bāul Fakirs in recent years,1 in this ar- ticle I aim to contribute specifically to scholarship on Islamic esoteric con- tent in Bāul Fakiri songs, as mediated by local forms of Sufism.2 Analyses in 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Gaelic Names of Plants
    [DA 1] <eng> GAELIC NAMES OF PLANTS [DA 2] “I study to bring forth some acceptable work: not striving to shew any rare invention that passeth a man’s capacity, but to utter and receive matter of some moment known and talked of long ago, yet over long hath been buried, and, as it seemed, lain dead, for any fruit it hath shewed in the memory of man.”—Churchward, 1588. [DA 3] GAELIC NAMES OE PLANTS (SCOTTISH AND IRISH) COLLECTED AND ARRANGED IN SCIENTIFIC ORDER, WITH NOTES ON THEIR ETYMOLOGY, THEIR USES, PLANT SUPERSTITIONS, ETC., AMONG THE CELTS, WITH COPIOUS GAELIC, ENGLISH, AND SCIENTIFIC INDICES BY JOHN CAMERON SUNDERLAND “WHAT’S IN A NAME? THAT WHICH WE CALL A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD SMELL AS SWEET.” —Shakespeare. WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBURGH AND LONDON MDCCCLXXXIII All Rights reserved [DA 4] [Blank] [DA 5] TO J. BUCHANAN WHITE, M.D., F.L.S. WHOSE LIFE HAS BEEN DEVOTED TO NATURAL SCIENCE, AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS COLLECTION OF GAELIC NAMES OF PLANTS WAS UNDERTAKEN, This Work IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. [DA 6] [Blank] [DA 7] PREFACE. THE Gaelic Names of Plants, reprinted from a series of articles in the ‘Scottish Naturalist,’ which have appeared during the last four years, are published at the request of many who wish to have them in a more convenient form. There might, perhaps, be grounds for hesitation in obtruding on the public a work of this description, which can only be of use to comparatively few; but the fact that no book exists containing a complete catalogue of Gaelic names of plants is at least some excuse for their publication in this separate form.
    [Show full text]
  • Gandhi's View on Judaism and Zionism in Light of an Interreligious
    religions Article Gandhi’s View on Judaism and Zionism in Light of an Interreligious Theology Ephraim Meir 1,2 1 Department of Jewish Philosophy, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; [email protected] 2 Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa Abstract: This article describes Gandhi’s view on Judaism and Zionism and places it in the framework of an interreligious theology. In such a theology, the notion of “trans-difference” appreciates the differences between cultures and religions with the aim of building bridges between them. It is argued that Gandhi’s understanding of Judaism was limited, mainly because he looked at Judaism through Christian lenses. He reduced Judaism to a religion without considering its peoplehood dimension. This reduction, together with his political endeavors in favor of the Hindu–Muslim unity and with his advice of satyagraha to the Jews in the 1930s determined his view on Zionism. Notwithstanding Gandhi’s problematic views on Judaism and Zionism, his satyagraha opens a wide-open window to possibilities and challenges in the Near East. In the spirit of an interreligious theology, bridges are built between Gandhi’s satyagraha and Jewish transformational dialogical thinking. Keywords: Gandhi; interreligious theology; Judaism; Zionism; satyagraha satyagraha This article situates Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s in the perspective of a Jewish dialogical philosophy and theology. I focus upon the question to what extent Citation: Meir, Ephraim. 2021. Gandhi’s religious outlook and satyagraha, initiated during his period in South Africa, con- Gandhi’s View on Judaism and tribute to intercultural and interreligious understanding and communication.
    [Show full text]