DOCSLIB.ORG

The Hajj and the Hindi: the Ascent of the Indian Sufi Lodge in the Ottoman

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Hajj and the Hindi: the Ascent of the Indian Sufi Lodge in the Ottoman Modern Asian Studies 50, 6 (2016) pp. 1888–1931. C Cambridge University Press 2016 doi:10.1017/S0026749X15000530 First published online 1 July 2016 The Hajj and the Hindi: The ascent of the Indian Sufi lodge in the Ottoman empire∗ RISHAD CHOUDHURY The Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University, United States of America Email: [email protected] Abstract This article charts several historical paths, hitherto underexplored, through the Hindi or ‘Indian’ Sufi lodges of the Ottoman empire. Focusing on the ‘long eighteenth century (circa 1695–1808)’, it tracks their remarkable ascendance as an institutional network for mobile and migrant Indian Sufi pilgrims. From Istanbul to the provinces, the article demonstrates how Naqshbandis and Qadiris on the Hajj circuit drew on local channels of social communications, legal petitioning strategies, and state and inter-state linkages to forge unique identities as ‘trans-imperial subjects’ in an age of decentralization in the Ottoman world. I argue that central to their social success was the creation of new corporate regimes of itinerant piety. But first, I place the little-known lodges at the heart of a specific shift in early modern attitudes to identity, as the story behind ‘Hindi’ beckons wider inquiry into emergent differences among Sufi pilgrims in the Ottoman empire. ∗ For valuable comments on early drafts, I am grateful to Suraiya Faroqhi, Durba Ghosh, Eric Tagliacozzo, and Robert Travers. I am thankful, as well, to Nida Nebahat Nalçacı for eye-opening trips to Istanbul’s Sufi lodges, old and new. Previous iterations of these arguments were presented at Cornell University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Princeton University, and the Social Science Research Council. I am indebted to participants at each venue, and in particular to the referees of this journal, for suggestions that greatly improved the manuscript. Research for this article was made possible by the Cornell University Graduate School and the Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship. The writing was in part supported by the Brett de Bary/Mellon Interdisciplinary Writing Group Grant from the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University and the Sydney N. Fisher Prize from the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. All errors are mine alone. 1888 THE HAJJ AND THE HINDI 1889 Introduction ‘Every line was in pure Persian, but a change in the diacritics made them Arabic. If those words were altered they turned Turkish. And when written again, they became Hindi.’ Shahnawaz Khan, Ma’¯asir al-Umar¯a Sometime between 1741 and 1747 in the Deccan state of Hyderabad, a retired Indian nobleman penned a brief biographical portrait of a Sufi at the Mughal emperor Akbar’s sixteenth-century court.1 The Sufi in question was ‘Abdul ‘Azim, later to be distinguished as Sultan Khwaja Naqshbandi. The descendant of a long line of Naqshbandis from Samarqand, ‘Abdul ‘Azim later became the imperial Am¯ır H¯aj or Commander of the Pilgrimage in the middle decades of Akbar’s reign. Entrusted with funds and the oversight of Hajjis from India, he was also sent to the Hijaz to bring back first-hand information on the renouncing Sufi mystics (tajarrud-manish¯an) in that part of the world.2 Yet, ‘Abdul ‘Azim’s eighteenth-century biographer Shahnawaz Khan clearly wanted to place this historical figure in further context. He thus continued in his writing to provide some comments on the broader cultural ambience of the epoch. To give an idea of the famously eclectic religious ideology of the Akbari regime, he wrote of local and trans- local influences, of Brahmans, Jews, Nazarenes, Sunnis, and Shi‘as at the Mughal court. He also wrote of how Akbar had once summoned from Iran the head of the Zoroastrian community there. But, we are told, the latter declined the invitation. All the same, in his place he sent a book to Hindustan, one whose fabulous contents are described in the epigraph.3 Both the ‘fictional’ account of this codex—and the more ‘factual’ story within which it was embedded—throw into sharp relief an early modern world of Indo-Islamic piety in motion. They gesture to an Islamic religious ecumene spanning India, Central Asia, Iran, and the Ottoman empire, and to the exceptional place of the Hajj and itinerant Sufi pilgrims in bringing it all together. They speak too of how even in the late Mughal period, Indian men of letters could imagine 1 See also in this regard, Muzaffar Alam, ‘The Mughals, the Sufi Shaikhs and the Formation of the Akbari Dispensation’, Modern Asian Studies vol. 43:1 (2009), pp. 135–174. 2 Nawab Samsam-ud-Daula Shahnawaz Khan, Ma’¯asir al-Umar¯a, vol. 2, ‘Abdur Rahim and Mirza Ashraf ‘Ali (eds), Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1890, p. 380. 3 Ibid., pp. 385–386. 1890 RISHAD CHOUDHURY and occupy a larger Perso-Turkic space of learning and conversation which, though diverse, could nevertheless be ‘translated’ to fit local patterns of thought. This article picks up some of the historical threads and themes underscored by Shahnawaz Khan. In doing so, it draws attention to a little-known but sprawling network of Indian Sufi lodges across the Ottoman empire. Using principally Turkish sources and archives, the article illustrates how Indian Sufis and their pilgrim movements gradually cemented in the early modern Ottoman world an important but historically overlooked institutional assemblage. Variously referred to by Ottoman Turks as ‘Hindi’ or ‘Hindu’— that is to say ‘Indian’—tekkes, these Sufi lodges were fundamental in functioning as waystations and as centres of hospitality for pilgrims who embarked on the long road to the Hijaz.4 But though their histories reached back to the beginnings of the early modern era, I argue that their significance as hubs for the communal activities of Indian Sufis only began to gather significant social force and acceleration over a ‘long’ and ‘eventful’ eighteenth century (circa 1695–1808).5 Past scholarship on the Ottoman empire and Mughal India alike has demonstrated how political decentralization in this period led to the parallel formation of new elite and middling groups. As the centralist hegemony of these empires ebbed, new fiscal practices and methods of rent extraction led power to coalesce at the local and provincial levels.6 4 Broadly construed, Sufi tekkes were places of worship and religious ceremony for adherents of particular orders of ‘mystical’ Islam (tasawwuf/Tr. tasavvuf). Most commonly referred to as tekkes in Turkish (Ar./Per. takiya), in different contexts and circumstances they are also dubbed zaviyes (Ar./Per. z¯awiya), hangahs(Per.kh¯anq¯ah), kalendarhanes(Per.qalandarkh¯ana), and dergahs(Per.darg¯ah). They are also called ‘hospices’ or ‘convents’ in English. As a rule I use tekke in this article, but invoke its other names in deference to the sources cited. Historically, Sufi lodges were found all over the Islamic world. Their functions extended beyond acting as spaces for ritual performance, however. They operated as waystations for travellers and pilgrims, as centres of pedagogical training and commercial brokerage, and, more controversially and infrequently, as sites of secular authority. For a discussion, see the classic work by J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders in Islam, Oxford University Press, London, 1971, pp. 5–30; cf. Nathalie Clayer, ‘Tekke’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, Brill Online, 2012; and for recent insights from Ottoman history, Raymond Lifchez (ed.), The Dervish Lodge: Architecture, Art, and Sufism in Ottoman Turkey, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992. 5 Karen Barkey, Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003. 6 Ariel Salzmann, ‘An Ancién Regime Revisited: “Privatization” and Political Economy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Empire’, Politics & Society vol. 21:4 (1993), pp. 393–423; Norman Itzkowitz, ‘Eighteenth Century Ottoman Realities’, THE HAJJ AND THE HINDI 1891 Meanwhile, new forms of sociability mushroomed in multiple sites and locations—including in coffee houses, elite households, bazaars, myriad channels of oral and written communications, and, indeed, in Sufi lodges.7 In a sense the aim of this article is to conjugate these two previously discrete terrains of historical inquiry, and to further evaluate the ‘global thrust’ that led South Asians to engage in trans-imperial webs spanning India and the wider Muslim world.8 My contribution to the literature therefore makes a case for viewing the Indian Sufi lodges of the Ottoman empire as spaces of patron-client sociability, but also as institutions that gave corporate meanings and values to the practices of itinerant pilgrim piety. This article thus reflects on the careers of the Indian Sufi lodges through a period of rapid political transition in the late Ottoman empire. It achieves this through two overlapping, if distinct, interventions. It shows, first and foremost, the significance of the tekkes in mediating exchanges between South Asia and the Ottoman domains, and how these links transformed with emergent pilgrimage and state connections over the course of the eighteenth century. Second, it argues that the mobile and migrant Indian Sufis utilized local intellectual, legal, and fiscal regimes to root both their pious practices and themselves in substantive ways in the Ottoman empire. At the most general level, then, what follows also concerns the logistical demands of Sufi pilgrim movements on the wider circuits of the Hajj. I offer a closer look at the humdrum but essential activities and politics of having to feed, lodge, set in transit, and, in the case of death, bury Indian Sufi pilgrims in the early modern Ottoman world. But I also ask: precisely how were these Sufi networks of Studia Islamica vol. 16 (1962), pp. 73–94; Barkey, Empire of Difference, pp. 270 et seq.; Muzaffar Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab, 1707– 48, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1986, pp.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Konsep Kedaulatan
    KONSEP KEDAULATAN MENURUT AYATULLÂH KHOMEINI DAN BARON DE MONTESQUIEU SKRIPSI DIAJUKAN KEPADA FAKULTAS SYARI’AH UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGRI SUNAN KALIJAGA YOGYAKARTA UNTUK MEMENUHI SEBAGIAN SYARAT-SYARAT MEMPEROLEH GELAR SARJANA STRATA SATU DALAM ILMU HUKUM ISLAM OLEH ARIFUDDIN NIM: 02361160 PEMBIMBING 1. Dr. AHMAD YANI ANSHORI 2. Drs.OCKTOBERRINSYAH. M.Ag PERBANDINGAN MAZHAB DAN HUKUM FAKULTAS SYARI’AH UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI SUNAN KALIJAGA YOGYAKARTA 2008 © 2008 Perpustakaan Digital UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta ABSTRAK Kedaulatan dalam kehidupan bernegara mempunyai peran yang sangat penting, karena kedaulatan merupakan simbol kekuasaan dalam sebuah negara. Berkaitan dengan kedaulatan sebuah negara adalah legitimasi bagi penguasa. Dalam wacana politik, dua hal tersebut sangat berkaitan antara satu dengan yang lainnya. Banyak tokoh yang telah menjelaskan perihal kedaulatan dalam negara melalui sistem pemerintahan, di antaranya Baron de Montesqueiu dan Ayatullâh Khomeini. Baron de Montesquieu (selanjutnya: Montesquieu) mengembangkan teori John Locke tentang pembagian kekuasaan dalam negara. Konsep yang digagas oleh Montesquieu menekankan, bahwa sistem pemerintahan harus dipisah/dibagi antara satu bagian dengan yang lain, agar tidak ada penguasa yang kejam, menindas terhadap rakyat, despotik dalam memimpin pemerintahan, karena sumber kekuasaan dalam negara berasal dari rakyat. Kemudian Montesquieu membagi kekuasaan menjadi kekuasaan Legislatif, Eksekutif dan Yudikataif. Berbeda dengan Montesquieu, Ayatullâh Khomeini (selanjutnya; Khomeini) seorang ulama Syi’ah Itsnâ’ Asy’ariyyah yang mengarsiteki langsung Wilâyah Faqîh sebagai sistem pemerintahan di Iran. Dalam sistem ini pemimpin tertinggi adalah faqih dibantu dengan tiga elemen legislatif, eksekutif (Presiden) dan yudikatif. Walaupun konsep atau gagasan Wilâyah Faqîh ini menggunakan konsep kedaulatan Tuhan, namun Khomeini tidak meninggalkan peran rakyat dalam menjalankan atau mengarahkan jalan pemerintahan, melalui pemilihan wakil di legislatif dan pemilihan presiden.
    [Show full text]
  • MIDDLE EAST WATCH OVERVIEW Human Rights Developments The
    MIDDLE EAST WATCH OVERVIEW Human Rights Developments The political earthquake that shook the Middle East on September 13, when Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed an interim self-government accord, may have marked the beginning of the end of the forty-five-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict. In the medium term, it may also come to mark a parallel improvement in human rights conditionsCnot just in the Israeli-occupied territories, but in those frontline states that have long used the conflict as a pretext for violations of the fundamental rights of their own peoples. Such aspirations could, equally, prove to be mere wishful thinking: human rights per se figured little in the interstate negotiations that took place during 1993, and few officials from any party to the talks, including the United States, publicly articulated concern for human rights. Under prodding, PLO Chairman Yassir Arafat was one of those who did, after the signing; but, misgivings persisted as to whether the PLO was truly committed to a future in which respect for human rights and a pluralistic democracy would be realized. In counterpoint, there were no early signs of an Israeli reassessment of long-established abusive policies and practices in the occupied territories. Welcome though the Israel-PLO agreement was as an augury of peace, in the region as a wholeCfrom the Maghreb states of North Africa to IranCthe accord was overshadowed by a broader conflict with pervasive implications for human rights: a contest for power, ideological domination, and control over social behavior between insurgent Islamists and established regimes, themselves often of little popular legitimacy and a secular, pro-Western cast.
    [Show full text]
  • Khomeini's Theory of Islamic State and the Making of the Iranian
    Khomeini's Theory of Islamic State and the Making of the Iranian Revolution 1 Mehdi Shadmehr2 1I wish to thank Hassan Ansari, Charles Cameron, Jose Cheibub, Amaney Jamal, Ali Kadivar, Mehran Kamrava, Charles Kurzman, Paulina Marek, Charles Ragin, Kris Ramsay and seminar par- ticipants at the University of Rochester and the University of South Carolina, and MPSA Conference for helpful suggestions and comments. 2Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: (305) 747-5896. Abstract The Iranian Revolution is one of the most influential events of the late twentieth century, with far-reaching consequences that still echo through the rise of Islamic state. Drawing from both primary (interviews, autobiographies, documents, and data) and secondary sources, the paper shows that Khomeini's the doctrine of the Guardianship of the Jurist played a decisive role in the making of the Iranian Revolution by changing the goals and strategies of the religious opposition from reforming government policies to establishing an Islamic state. Khomeini's doctrine was first published in 1970 in his treatise, Islamic State. The paper argues that Khomeini's ideological innovation can account for the sharp contrast between the outcomes of widespread protests in the early 1960s and the late 1970s: they both shook the Pahlavi regime, but the former protests dissipated, while the latter culminated in the Iranian Revolution. Expanding the scope beyond Iran and Islam, the paper explores the role of ideological innovations in the Russian and American Revolutions, and discusses the potentially critical role of ideological innovations in democracy movements in Islamic countries. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations..
    [Show full text]
  • Bab Iii Transformasi Politik Dan Posisi Pemikiran Ali Syari’Ati Di Iran
    BAB III TRANSFORMASI POLITIK DAN POSISI PEMIKIRAN ALI SYARI’ATI DI IRAN Dalam sejarahnya, Iran1, sebelum revolusi tahun 1979 yang menggulingkan dinasti Pahlevi, adalah bangsa yang mempunyai bentuk pemeritahan model monarki. Sejak jaman Cyrus yang mendirikan kerajaan Archaemenia pada era kuno dan Dinasti Safawi serta Dinasti Qajar, sistem pemerintahan yang ada saat itu adalah monarki. Sebenarnya Dinasti Qajar sudah meletakkan dasar-dasar pemerintahan yang mengarah pada bentuk pemerintahan yang lebih demokratis melalui Revolusi Konstitusional tahun 1906, akan tetapi dinasti yang menggantikan, yakni dinasti Pahlevi mengingkari konstitusi itu dan cenderung pada bentuk pemerintahan monarki- absolut. Revolusi Iran 1979 merupakan sesuatu yang monumental dalam sejarah Iran, bahkan sejarah umat Islam atau sejarah dunia, karena tradisi absolutisme politik dalam sistem pemeritahan monarki dapat diganti dengan sistem pemerintahan ulama bercampur dengan sistem demokrasi modern. Peristiwa penting itu sudah selayaknya mendapat apresiasi yang cukup memadai melalui kajian dan penelitian yang mendalam, untuk mendapatkan gambaran peristiwa yang komprehensif dan otentik. Maka, langkah pertama dalam mengkaji tentang revolusi Iran adalah menelisik jauh ke belakang sejarah Iran yang panjang dan berliku. Revolusi yang terjadi pada tahun 1979 bukanlah peristiwa yang berdiri sendiri dan a-historis. Revolusi itu 1 Iran, secara bahasa artinya dataran Arya. Secara geografis letaknya berada di timur Indo-Europeans (tempat asal suku bangsa Arya). Mereka bereksodus ke dataran Iran pada sekitar 2000 SM, sehingga merekalah nenek moyang bangsa Iran modern sekarang ini. Lihat Herodotus, The Histories, terj. Aubrey de Salincourt (London: Penguin Classics, 1996), hlm. 8 85 mempunyai akar geneologis dalam sejarah revolusi Iran pada masa silam dan sejarah bangsa itu yang kaya dan komplek.
    [Show full text]
  • In Het Spoor Van Het Soefisme
    WANDELREPORTAGE | Turkije Eeen briesje blaast de bloesemblaadjes als sneeuw op ons pad. In het spoor van het Soefisme Eerder in Op Weg (2015, 3) kwam het Sultans Trail aan bod, een wandel- en cultuurproject tussen Wenen en Istanbul in het spoor van het Ottomaanse leger van Sultan Suleyman. Met het Sufi Trail kan je vandaag verder het Turkse binnenland intrekken, langs tal van Soefiheiligdommen en plekken met een grote historische waarde voor christendom en islam. ÆÆTekst en foto’s Iris Bezuijen 22 | Op Weg 2018-3 Een van de vele bijzondere plekken voor de Soefi’s. Slapen onder de sterren vlakbij de Turbe van Haydar Sultan. Getoeter concentreren op het traject van het Sufi Trail dat toch vooral interessant om onze eigen Er waait een briesje in de metro op weg naar en zijn moskeeën kleine oases van rust die ons angsten te onderdrukken. Op een bepaald het bruisende Istanbul. Van diep onder de steeds weer in een andere sensatie dompelen. moment, wanneer we door een heuvelachtig grond reizen we van het Aziatische deel naar Vlakbij het stadsdeel Eminönü dalen we via een weiland stappen, horen we in de verte een hele het Europese deel. De drukte en het wilde kleine ingang een prachtig verscholen Turbe groep honden blaffen. Gelukkig zitten ze alle- verkeer overvallen ons, maar op een bijzondere (tombe) in, waar we gevraagd worden even maal binnen in de boerderij, op een zwerfhond wijze loopt het toch altijd goed af. De volgende te wachten. Na enige tijd komt er een groep na die op zoek is naar een hapje eten.
    [Show full text]
  • The Urbanization and Ottomanization of the Halvetiye Sufi Order by the City of Amasya in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
    The City as a Historical Actor: The Urbanization and Ottomanization of the Halvetiye Sufi Order by the City of Amasya in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries By Hasan Karatas A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Hamid Algar, Chair Professor Leslie Peirce Professor Beshara Doumani Professor Wali Ahmadi Spring 2011 The City as a Historical Actor: The Urbanization and Ottomanization of the Halvetiye Sufi Order by the City of Amasya in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries ©2011 by Hasan Karatas Abstract The City as a Historical Actor: The Urbanization and Ottomanization of the Halvetiye Sufi Order by the City of Amasya in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries by Hasan Karatas Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Hamid Algar, Chair This dissertation argues for the historical agency of the North Anatolian city of Amasya through an analysis of the social and political history of Islamic mysticism in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Ottoman Empire. The story of the transmission of the Halvetiye Sufi order from geographical and political margins to the imperial center in both ideological and physical sense underlines Amasya’s contribution to the making of the socio-religious scene of the Ottoman capital at its formative stages. The city exerted its agency as it urbanized, “Ottomanized” and catapulted marginalized Halvetiye Sufi order to Istanbul where the Ottoman socio-religious fabric was in the making. This study constitutes one of the first broad-ranging histories of an Ottoman Sufi order, as a social group shaped by regional networks of politics and patronage in the formative fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922, Second Edition
    This page intentionally left blank The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922 The Ottoman Empire was one of the most important non-Western states to survive from medieval to modern times, and played a vital role in European and global history. It continues to affect the peoples of the Middle East, the Balkans, and Central and Western Europe to the present day. This new survey examines the major trends during the latter years of the empire; it pays attention to gender issues and to hotly de- bated topics such as the treatment of minorities. In this second edition, Donald Quataert has updated his lively and authoritative text, revised the bibliographies, and included brief bibliographies of major works on the Byzantine Empire and the post–Ottoman Middle East. This ac- cessible narrative is supported by maps, illustrations, and genealogical and chronological tables, which will be of help to students and non- specialists alike. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the Middle East. DONALD QUATAERT is Professor of History at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He has published many books on Middle East and Ottoman history, including An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914 (1994). NEW APPROACHES TO EUROPEAN HISTORY Series editors WILLIAM BEIK Emory University T . C . W . BLANNING Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge New Approaches to European History is an important textbook series, which provides concise but authoritative surveys of major themes and problems in European history since the Renaissance. Written at a level and length accessible to advanced school students and undergraduates, each book in the series addresses topics or themes that students of Eu- ropean history encounter daily: the series will embrace both some of the more “traditional” subjects of study, and those cultural and social issues to which increasing numbers of school and college courses are devoted.
    [Show full text]
  • Khomeinism Essays on the Islamic Republic Ervand Abrahamian
    Khomeinism Essays on the Islamic Republic Ervand Abrahamian Suggested citation: Abrahamian, Ervand. Khomeinism: Essays on the Islamic Republic. Berkeley: University of California, 1993. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft6c6006wp/ Contents • Acknowledgments • Introduction • 1 Fundamentalism or Populism? • 2 Perceptions of Private Property, Society, and the State • 3 May Day in the Islamic Republic • 4 History Used and Abused • 5 The Paranoid Style in Iranian Politics • Epilogue • Notes • Glossary • Select Bibliography on Khomeini Comments? Questions? University of California Press eScholarship Editions are published by eScholarship, the California Digital Library © 2003 The Regents of the University of California 1 Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Baruch College of the City University of New York for fellowships in 1989-91 to carry out the research for this book. I would also like to thank Shahen Abrahamian, Mohammad Reza Afshari, Sharough Akhavi, Abbas Amanat, Ali Gheissari, Ali Ashtiyani Mirsepasi, and Molly Nolan for reading and commenting on sections of the manuscript. Of course, they are in no way responsible for opinions or mistakes found in these pages. ― 1 ― 2 1 Fundamentalism or Populism? How did Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini become an imam? Much like the Holy Prophet Abraham: he carried out God's will, smashed idols, was willing to sacrifice his own son, rose up against tyrants, and led the oppressed against their oppressors. A parliamentary deputy, Kayhan-e Hava'i, 21 June 1989 Introduction The slippery label of fundamentalist has been thrown at Khomeini so often that it has stuck — so much so that his own supporters in Iran, finding no equivalent in Persian or Arabic, have proudly coined a new word, bonyadegar, by translating literally the English term "fundamental-ist." This is especially ironic since the same individuals never tire of denouncing their opponents as elteqati (eclectic) and gharbzadeh (contaminated with Western diseases).
    [Show full text]
  • Turkey: Politics of Identity and Power
    Turkey: Politics of Identity and Power Carol Migdalovitz Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs September 21, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov R41368 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Turkey: Politics of Identity and Power Summary Turkey has long been a valued U.S. NATO ally and strategic partner. Successive administrations have viewed it as a secular democracy that could serve as an inspiration or model for other Muslim majority countries. However, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) foreign policy decisions have led some U.S. observers, including Members of Congress, to question its future course. Domestic political developments may be enabling the AKP’s greater assertiveness in international affairs and are, therefore, worthy of closer scrutiny. This report provides that examination via an overview of the current Turkish domestic political scene. The main theme of the report is that the ongoing struggle for power in Turkey will determine the country’s identity, and that will have consequences for U.S. policymakers. Turkey’s secular identity has long been considered unique among majority Muslim states, as secularism was a founding principle of the modern Turkish Republic as well as the principle that has produced the most domestic political tension. The AKP, formed in 2001, has Islamist roots but claims to be conservative and democratic. Its emergence and acquisition of power have exacerbated concerns, especially in secularist circles, about whether AKP is intent on altering Turkey’s identity. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP have governed in an increasingly confident manner since a court refused to ban the party for being “a focal point of anti-secular activities” in 2008.
    [Show full text]
  • 3119185.PDF (5.147Mb)
    UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE TRANSPORTING THE SUBJECT: THE FICTION OF NATIONALITY IN AN ERA OF TRANSNATIONALISM A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for c'ne degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Nyla Ali Khan Norman, Oklahoma 2004 UMI Number: 3119185 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3119185 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright by Nyla Ali Khan 2 00 4 Ail Rights Reserved TRANSPORTING THE SUBJECT: THE FICTION OF NATIONALITY IN AN ERA OF TRANSNATIONALISM A Dissertation APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH BY (/I Daniel Cottom .X' .Vrncent B . Leitch Robert Warrior Su Fang Ng Jidlap Kamoche Acknowledgments I worked on this dissertation for sixteen months, and I am indebted to my entire graduate committee. Professors Daniel Cottom, Vincent B. Leitch, Robert Warrior, Su Fang Ng, and Jidlap Kamoche provided a challenging and supportive intellectual community and also generously gave me the leeway that enabled me to carry the project forward.
    [Show full text]
  • Fm Affirms Qatar's Full Support for Int'l Humanitarian Efforts
    SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2021 MUHARRAM 28, 1443 VOL.15 NO. 5355 QR 2 Fajr: 3:58 am Dhuhr: 11:33 am FINE Asr: 3:02 pm Maghrib: 5:50 pm HIGH : 43°C LOW : 34°C Isha: 7:20 pm World 5 Business 7 Sports 12 Biden orders review of Qatar Chamber’s Kuwari invites Nine-man Qatar fight hard in classified 9/11 probes Ukrainian firms to invest in Qatar 3-1 loss to Portugal Amir congratulates PM HOSTS DINNER BANQUET IN Abdulqader for HONOUR OF SAUDI MINISTER FM affirmsQ atar’s winning bronze at Tokyo Paralympics full support for int’l TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK DOHA humanitarian efforts His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has congratulated Team Qatar Paralympian Abdulrahman Abdulqader for winning the bronze medal in the shot put at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. “We congratulate the shot put cham- pion Abdulrahman Abdulqader for win- ning the bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in 2020. This is his second medal after winning the silver in Rio de Janeiro 2016,” HH the Amir said in a tweet. Abdulqader finished in third place after Jordan’s Ahmed Hindi who won the gold medal, and Morocco’s Izz Eddin Al Nouiri who won the silver medal. Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani hosted a dinner banquet in honour of HRH Minister of Interior of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the accom- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani panying delegation at Al-Marmar Palace on Saturday.
    [Show full text]
  • Corbyn Condemns 'Appalling Coup'
    WWW.TEHRANTIMES.COM I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y 16 Pages Price 40,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 39th year No.13526 Tuesday NOVEMBER 12, 2019 Aban 21, 1398 Rabi’ Al awwal 14, 1441 Arms embargo U.S. operation I believe and hope I Kurdish writer Mastureh on Iran will expire a trick, Baghdadi will be one who will Ardalan subject of next year 2 may be hiding 13 pray in Al-Quds 13 Iranian docudrama 16 Iran hosting 7th UIC Next Stations Conference TEHRAN — Islamic Republic of Iran participants from 25 countries including Railways (known as RAI) is hosting the 14 European ones. 7th UIC Next Stations Conference in Addressing the first day of the confer- American Tehran from November 11 to 13, IRNA ence, the official said, “Railway develop- reported. ment is one of the main objectives of the It is the first time that this conference Iranian government and in this due we of the International Union of Railways have implanted some joint projects with (UIC) is held in an Asian country. the neighboring countries for improving As announced by RAI Head Saeid Ra- passenger and cargo transportation via fascism souli, the conference is hosting 70 foreign railway.” 4 Iran to spend $100 million to seal southeastern borders: governor TEHRAN — Ahmad Ali Mohebati, gov- cannot seal the borders unilaterally ernor of southeastern border province of and has reached agreements with Pa- Sistan-Balouchestan, said on Sunday that kistan in this respect and this country against the government has decided to withdraw [Pakistan] has also started sealing the 100 million dollars from the National De- borders.” velopment Fund (NDF) to seal borders “Pakistan has sealed 50 kilometers of with Pakistan the borders by constructing barbed wire “This amount of money will speed up and fences,” he said.
    [Show full text]