THE OTHER EUROPEAN MUSLIMS A Bosnian Experience THEFikret OTHER Karčić EUROPEAN MUSLIMS A Bosnian Experience Center for Advanced Studies, Sarajevo, 2015 www.cns.ba All rights reserved. Copyright ©2015 Fikret Karčić, Proofreader: Hikmet Karčić CIP - Katalogizacija u publikaciji Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo 28-67(4) 28-12-9 KARČIĆ, Fikret studije = Center for Advanced Studies, 2015. - 216 str. : graf. prikazi ; 24 cm The Other European Muslims : a Bosnian experience / Fikret Karčić. - Sarajevo : Centar za napredne Bibliografija i bilješke uz tekst. ISBN 978-9958-022-19-7 COBISS.BH-ID 22557702 Fikret Karčić THE OTHER EUROPEAN MUSLIMS A Bosnian Experience Cover image: Scene from Sarajevo c. 1898; photograph by Ignatz Lederer. Courtesy by Archive of the Gazi Husrev-beg Library, Sarajevo. Publication of this book has been made possible through the support of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). PREFACE This book includes eleven articles published in English by this author during the period between 1995- 2010. The articles were published in three journals with whom the author collaborated: Intellectual Dis- course, of the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, where the author taught for almost nine years (1993-2002), Islamic Studies, of Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad (Pakistan), whose editor prof. Zafar Ish- aq Ansari long time ago initiated fruitful cooperation with the author as well as London-based The Islamic Quarterly, where the author pub- lished one article. Two articles were published as chapters in books related to Islam in Europe. The articles belong to three main areas of the author’s interest: Islamic studies, Islamic revival and institutions in Bosnia and Herzego- vina and historical destiny of the Balkan Muslims. Consequently, this - thor’s interest. book is divided into three sections reflecting the three areas of the au „Textual Analysis in Islamic Studies: A Short Historical and Comparative Survey“The dealsfirst section with the on methodIslamic Studiesof textual includes analysis four and articles.The its applicability article with regard to the text of Qur’an, the text of Hadith and texts of Islamic heritage. The article „Applying the Shari‘ah in Modern Societies: Main De- velopments and Issues “addresses the theme of the relevance of Islamic normative system for contemporary Muslim majority and minority soci- eties. The article „The Reform of Shari’a Courts and Islamic Law in Bos- nia and Herzegovina 1918-1941“explores developments in the system of administration of Shari’a in Bosnia and Herzegovina in its last phase, be- fore the abolishment of Islamic courts in 1946. Finally, the article “Secular State and Religion(s) – Remarks on the Bosnian Experience in Regulating Religion and Relations in View of the New Law on Freedom of Religion” investigates the concept of secular state and its application in contempo- rary Bosnia and Herzegovina. 5 / The Other European Muslims: a Bosnian Experience Fikret Karčić Four articles are included into the section on Islamic Revival and Institutions in Bosnia: “Islamic Revival in the Balkans 1970-1992” explores developments within Muslim communities of the then Yu- goslavia, Albania and Bulgaria in the last decades of the 20th centu- ry. A focused study of a factor of Islamic revival in Bosnia is provided in the article „PREPOROD Newspaper: An agent of and a Witness to Islamic Revival in Bosnia“, showing the importance of print media in the dynamization of a particular Muslim community. Two other arti- cles deal with the institutional framework of Islamic administration in contemporary Bosnia. The article “Administration of Islamic Affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina“ gives a historical background and contempo- of Ra’is al-Ulama Among the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims)“ attempts torary trace structure the origins, of Islamic the legitimization administration, and while the prerogatives the article „The of the Office top religious leadership of Bosnian Muslims. Finally, the section Balkan Muslims in the 20th Century comprises three articles. The article “The Eastern Question - A Paradigm for Under- standing the Balkan Muslims’ History in the 20th Century” interprets the whole modern history of the Balkan Muslims as a continuation of „Eastern Question“ methods and mentality. The second article “Distort- ed Images of Islam: The Case of Former Yugoslavia” depicts the process - ocidal policy against the Muslims. The third article “Bosnian Young Mus- lims:of vilification A Review of Essay”Islam in shed former lights Yugoslavia on the issue as a preludeof The toYoung the later Muslims gen Association, an Islamist organization active in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the middle of the 20th Century. Collecting articles published in different publications and or- ganizing them in a book gives to those articles a new life and new di- mensions. Separate topics become parts of the new whole and issues separately studied could be seen in a wider perspective. With these thoughts I present this book to the public. Transliteration and style of citation is left as originally published in different periodicals. Fikret Karčić Sarajevo 2015. 6 ISLAMIC STUDIES TEXTUAL ANALYSIS IN ISLAMIC STUDIES: A SHORT HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE SURVEY* The two main sources ofIntroduction Islamic teachings are the Qur’an (the revealed Word of God), and the Sunnah. - stance, were orally transmitted and then reduced to writing and were preserved as such with great careThey by Muslims.are texts The which, efforts in the of Muslims first in to understand these two main sources have also been recorded and preserved in the textual form. Thus, study of texts (dirasat al-nusus) represents the approach predominant in the Islamic scholarly tradition. This approach is also common for the study of the authoritative religious texts in gener- al (scriptures and other religious writs) as well as the works aimed at elucidating them. However, the fundamental premises and proce- even when applied to religious texts, textual studies acquire certain dures in the first category differ from those in the second. Besides, thisspecific context, features textual depending studies include on the study nature of theof thehistory understanding of the text and of itsspecific oral orreligious written texts features. and the They structure also include of the religion analysis, under preservation study. In and transmission of the text as well as the text’s social and cultural roles. The present paper attempts to demarcate the salient features of textual analysis as in vogue among Muslim scholars in approaching the Islamic Revealed Texts as well as the texts pertaining Islamic heritage. * Islamic Studies, 45:2 (2006), pp. 191-220. The Bosnian version of this paper was published as a brochure under the title O meto- du tekstualne analize u islamskim naukama; kratak historijski i uporedni prikaz (Sarajevo: Fakultet islamskih nauka, 2004). 9 / The Other European Muslims: a Bosnian Experience Fikret Karčić This paper opens with consideration of the contemporary concept of text and textual analysis followed by an attempt to compare it with the Muslim understanding of these concepts. This will be followed by a brief history of the development of the method of textual analysis among Muslim scholars and its application to the main Islamic disci- plines. Since for the last two centuries Islamic texts have also drawn the attention of non-Muslim scholars who have produced a considera- the Orientalist discourse will also be surveyed and the salient differ- encesble amount between of literature the Muslim in the and field, the theWestern textual traditions analysis appliedof scholarship within - vantages and limitations of the method employed by Muslim scholars towill be be followed identified. by Finally,a consideration an attempt of willthe possiblebe made improvementsto highlight the that ad can be brought about in this method. Definition of the Method of Textual Analysis - writtenThe essential material. element But there in the are definition different ofkinds textual of texts: analysis literary, is the histor con- ical,cept sacredof the text.and Inprofane. humanities, In contemporary the text is traditionally times, even defined socio-cultural as any 1 Can the origin of a text be simply brushed aside and ignored by the re- searcher?artefacts (film, Contemporary music, group secular behaviour) scholars are answer included this in question this category. in the being no difference between the two. For Muslim scholars, however, theaffirmative origin of and a textsay thatis of every crucial text importance. is a text, be Itsit divine origin or determines human, there its nature and its epistemological status. Since the origin and the nature of texts vary, so do the assumptions, procedures and techniques of tex- tual analysis. Analysis means the breaking down of something into its compo- nent parts. Consequently, to analyse a text means to break it down into its component parts, to examine them, and to offer an interpretation of the component parts as well as of the whole. By means of interpre- 1 See for further explanation, John Mowitt, Text: The Genealogy of an Antidisciplinary Object (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992). 10 Islamic Studies / Textual Analysis in Islamic Studies tation we are able to go beyond the obvious meaning of the text and to read the implied meaning or sub-text. Textual analysis, in its contemporary usage, deals with three main issues, namely: (1) the authenticity of the text; (2) the validity of its interpretation; and (3) the veracity of the facts embodied in the text.2 These three main issues in textual analysis have been dealt with sub-disciplines. throughThe issuespecific of theprocedures authenticity and oftechniques a text belongs of certain to a branch disciplines of schol and- arship conventionally known as textual criticism. This discipline at- tempts to determine the origin or authorship of a text, its authenticity, and its original form in case there is a multiplicity of text forms.3 Mus- lim scholars deal with this issue in different disciplines under a topic known as thubut al-nusus.