The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs 1 the STANFORD JOURNAL on MUSLIM AFFAIRS Avicenna the STANFORD JOURNAL on MUSLIM AFFAIRS

The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs 1 the STANFORD JOURNAL on MUSLIM AFFAIRS Avicenna the STANFORD JOURNAL on MUSLIM AFFAIRS

fall 2014 vol 5 no 1 avicennathe stanford journal on muslim affairs 1 THE STANFORD JOURNAL ON MUSLIM AFFAIRS avicenna THE STANFORD JOURNAL ON MUSLIM AFFAIRS FALL 2014 VOL 5 NO 1 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Sevde Kaldiroglu ’17 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Ayesha Rasheed ’14 Hana Al-Henaid ’14 Afia Khan ’16 Osama El-Gabalawy ‘15 Samra Adeni ‘14 FINANCIAL OFFICER Samuel Jacobo ’17 Avicenna—The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs would like to thank the ASSU Publications Board for their support. All images in this journal are in the public domain with Creative Commons copyright licenses unless otherwise noted. More information about these licences can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. Front cover image by Dr. Waqas Mustafeez ‘12 Back cover image by Johnny Winston ‘15 2 avicenna CONTENTS Editorial Note 4 SEVDE KALDIROGLU and AYESHA RASHEED Islamic Manuscripts and Rare Books at Lane Medical Library, Stanford University Medical Center 6 SAMEER ALI Sacred and Secular in Traditional Egyptian Soundscapes: A False Dichotomy? 9 FATIMA LAHHAM The Poet of Turkish Cinema, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Melancholic Questions of Distance and Gender 12 PERI UNVER A Winter in India 18 Photos by JOHNNY WINSTON An Interview with author Farha Ghannam on Gender Dynamics in Urban Egypt 22 SAVANNAH HAYNES Reflections on Islamic Law and Translation in Early Modern Iberia 26 VINCENT BARLETTA Profiling of Arabs and Muslims: Intolerable and Ineffective 30 OSAMA EL-GABALAWY the stanford journal on muslim affairs 3 Editorial Note The piece below belongs to Ayesha Rasheed ‘14, the previous editor of Avicenna, who graduated last year. Due to some technical problems, the issue was not published last spring. We are now happy to share it with you this fall. As the new editor-in-chief of Avicenna, I would like to thank Ayesha for all of her amazing contributions to the journal. Along with my editorial team, I am looking forward to a fruitful year where we will carry Avicenna even further. I hope you enjoy Ayesha’s beautiful editorial note! Sincerely, Sevde Kaldiroglu ‘17 Editor-in-Chief “… No knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its ac- cidents and accompanying essentials.” – Avicenna, On Medicine, (c. 1020) My favorite part of the above quote by Avicenna has always been its acceptance and, perhaps, encouragement of incorporating life’s “accidents” into the pursuit of knowl- edge. However, his words beg the question: what constitutes an accident? Retrospec- tive analysis often makes it easy to trace a narrative thread through or pick out a pattern from what seemed like unrelated events at the time. It could be that this is what Avicenna was alluding to – the inclusionary tendency of hindsight – and that that is what is necessary to truly acquire knowledge. There have been a couple of “accidents” of late that I think have made subtle, but collectively notable, changes to the way we present and understand Islam. The first is The Honesty Policy’s video of British Muslims dancing and lip-syncing to Pharrell’s “Happy,” and the second is the booming success of Marvel’s first American-Muslim, female superhero, Ms. Marvel (aka Kamala Khan). Both are smile inducing, thought provoking, and above all, fresh, projects that advance an image of Islam more realis- tic and less-well known than the public is generally used to. This brings me to my main point - the “Muslim World” has never been a static con- cept. Now, a new generation of Muslims, many of whom have grown up almost ex- clusively in North American and Western Europe or with some exposure to the same, need to find novel ways to explain their unique narratives – how their stories fit into the picture of changing global Islam, what the benefits and drawbacks to that conflu- ence are, and why telling a new narrative is important at all. 4 avicenna As always, Avicenna: The Stanford Journal on Muslim Affairs, seeks to provide a space in which to do just that. We want to shine a spotlight on the nuances of the Muslim World, and our authors, both Muslim and not, have a special aptitude for sending us submissions that reflect and cater to these broad interests. In particular, this issue’s essays focus on new challenges and changing perceptions of Islam. With the exception of Professor Vincent Barletta’s excellent reflection of the importance of translation and connotation in Iberian Early Islamic Law, many of our articles for you this fall have to do with remarkably current issues. For example, Fatima Lahham, from the University of Oxford, gives us an analysis of the balance between secular and sacred in the Egyptian soundscape, while Stan- ford graduate student Savannah Haynes presents an introduction and interview of Farha Ghannam on her book about changing gender dynamics in urban Egypt. Then, Stanford student Peri Unver moves us north with a review on several recent Turkish films before undergraduate student Johnny Winston takes us east with his photos of Muslim influences in India. Moving back to our Journal’s American home base, we round out the issue with our own Osama El-Gabalawy’s investigation of Arab/ Muslim profiling in the U.S. after 9/11 and graduate student Sameer Ali’s showcase of his incredible find of Islamic manuscripts and rare books kept in the Lane Medical Library at the Stanford School of Medicine. We at Avicenna have always been proud of the diversity of our content and its reflec- tion of both our contributors and readership. Thus, we hope you enjoy the issue – because we certainly enjoyed putting it together for you! Yours truly, Ayesha Rasheed ‘14 The Taj Mahal as viewed from inside the Great gate (photo by Johnny Winston ‘15) the stanford journal on muslim affairs 5 Islamic Manuscripts and Rare Books at Lane Medical Library, Stanford University Medical Center Sameer Ali PhD Candidate, Dept. of Religious Studies, Stanford University History Qur’an fragments, prayer manuals, and theological treatises from the early mod- The Lane Medical Library, Stanford Uni- ern period. The majority of items are in versity Medical Center holds close to 300 Arabic, followed by Persian, Turkish, and items from the Islamic world. These items Urdu; and some in Armenian. are listed under the ‘Non-Western’ sub- set of its Ernst Siedel Collection. Manu- Rare books scripts and rare books from the Islamic world form part of a larger collection of Around 215 rare books (Call Numbers: books, manuscripts, and archival mate- Z1-Z169; Z212-Z257) printed in cities rial acquired in 1922 by Dr. Adolph Bar- such as Beirut, Cairo, and Bombay, com- kan (1845-1935) with the cooperation prise the rare book collection. The majori- of Dr. Ernst Sudhoff. Acting on behalf of ty of the rare books are in Arabic, followed Stanford University, Dr. Barkan, acquired by items in Persian, Turkish, and Urdu. them from the estate of the German phy- Altogether this collection reflects a wide sician and Orientalist, Dr. Ernst Siedel variety of subjects, including literature, (1863-1916) of Meissen, Germany. They theology, and history. Arabic books in- are currently housed at the Stanford Medi- clude Ibn Sina’s al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (Z32), cal History Corner, Lane Medical Library; printed in 18721 by al-Matbah al-Amirah Drew Bourn, PhD, is the current Histori- in Cairo; Lane holds the complete three cal Curator of the collection. volume set. This particular printing press was located in the area of Cairo known as Nature of Holdings Bulaq, originally from the French ‘beau lac’. It also was part of the first set of print- The holdings from the Islamic world in- ing presses that emerged in Egypt in the clude 215 rare books and 90 manuscripts middle of the nineteenth century; this edi- originating between the twelfth and nine- tion is dedicated to Ismail b. Ibrahim b. teenth centuries. These items originate Muhammad Ali, the Khedive of Egypt. in cities and countries that historically formed the greater Islamic world, includ- Rare Books of Special Interest ing the Middle East and South Asia. Sub- jects including literature, medicine, sci- Lane holds around 40 rare books written ence, and political history are reflected in in Urdu and printed in India. Bagh-i Urdu the collection. There are also a number of 1 1294 (according to the Islamic Calendar) 6 avicenna (Z237) is an Urdu translation of the Per- Amthal (Z168), printed in 18722 in Bom- sian Gulistan of Saadi by Sher Ali Jafari , bay, is probably a very early version of pen-named Afsos (1735-1809), printed what is today known as a travel guide. It in Calctutta in 1802 at Hindustani Chap- contains everyday phrases in Hindustani, Khana. It takes its place along with the Persian, Arabic, and English, along with earliest set of books printed at presses es- idioms and proverbs. The proverbs are tablished in Bengal the late 18th century of Arabic origin and are accompanied by the British. Afsos also authored Araish- by translations into the other languages; i Mahfil, a history of India and of its prov- this work reflects the encounters between inces. The collection also holdsMaqasid Indo-Islamic and Western intellectual al-Ulum (Z239), an Urdu translation of traditions that occurred in Indian institu- the Treatise on the Objects, Advantag- tions of higher learning. The Tuhfat was es, and Pleasures of Science of the Lord written by Sayyid Abdul Fattah Moulvi Chancellor of Great Britain, Henry Peter Ashraf Ali, teacher of Arabic and Persian Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux at Elphinstone College and High School; (1778-1869).

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