Haller Park in Bamburi, Kenya

Haller Park is basically the work of the Bamburi Cement Factory, a local institution. They created a sort of nature park/wildlife reserve, stuck a bunch of giraffes, and a couple pliant hippos, and created a pretty awesome urban safari park, where you can feed the giraffes for only 50 shillings. Highly recommended if you are in the Mombasa area.

Read more...

Jumba la Mtwana in Mtwapa, Kenya

Jumba la Mtwana is another in a line of ancient stone cities that dot the East African coast; the stone ruins that remain today are the town center and include the houses of the elite class; their presence probably points to a larger community of mud and thatch houses surrounding the ruins. James Kirkman was among the first to excavate this site, and he published a book called Notes on Jumba la Mtwana (which the Rough Guide to Kenya draws on quite heavily). The Friends of Fort Jesus and Homo Sassoon also published Jumba la Mtwana guide. I wish I'd had my hands on one or the other as I stumbled through the ruins with my girlfriend and a local guide.

Read more...

The Grand Mosque, Oman

Jokingly described by some Omanis as a "tourist attraction, not a masjid" or by those less cynical as "a dawah tool for outsiders" the Grand Mosque is undoubtedly the single most impressive structure in Oman and probably the most beautiful masjid I have ever set foot in, outside of Sultan Hasan in Cairo, and Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi (I have yet to travel to Mecca and Medina).

Read more...

Monsoon by Robert Kaplan (Book Review)

I'm pleased to share with Azanian Sea readers a guest post from Dr. Fahad Bishara. Fahad is a Prize Fellow in Economics, History and Politics at Harvard University's Center for History and Economics, and an Assistant Professor at the College of William and Mary. His current research traces the legal transformation of the Western Indian Ocean through the Arab and Indian settlement and commercialization of the East African coast during the nineteenth century. He received his Ph.D. in History from Duke University in 2012, and holds an M.A. in Arab Gulf Studies from the University of Exeter. Here he reviews Robert Kaplan's recent work on the Indian Ocean. 

Robert D. Kaplan, Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power. Random House. 366 pp. 2010. $28

Review by Fahad Ahmad Bishara (Center for History and Economics, Harvard University)

Historians of the Indian Ocean, and students of world history more broadly, are by now perhaps familiar with the story of the Chinese admiral Zheng He, who in the early 15^th century sailed around the Indian Ocean with a fleet of more than 200 ships, reaching Southeast Asia, East Africa, and even Arabia. Those who know the story, however, have a hard time understanding its historical significance, let alone its contemporary relevance.

Enter Robert Kaplan, seasoned journalist, history aficionado and traveler extraordinaire. The veteran journalist has spent the past two decades or so writing on American military campaigns in the Middle East, the Balkans crises, and world politics more broadly, and has spent even an even longer time as a foreign correspondent covering the Cold War and the Iran-Iraq war. Kaplan’s latest work, Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power extends his time-tested mixture of travelogue, history, journalism, and strategic analysis – and to good effect.

Those who pick up Monsoon are in for something of a treat. With delightful prose and insightful analysis, Kaplan takes his readers on a tour of the Indian Ocean, stopping at some of its lesser-known (but, as he makes abundantly clear, no less important) port cities: Gwadar (in Pakistan), Chittagong (in Burma), and Hambantota (in Sri Lanka), to name just a few. For each, Kaplan is able to pull together a remarkably clear blend of history, anecdote, and analysis, and the reader leaves each chapter with a rather strong grasp of each port city’s past, present and future. His discussion of Gwadar, for example, highlights the port city’s Omani past, while situating its troubled place within the Pakistani nation-state, and suggesting how the ongoing development of a Chinese container port there might reshape both its present situation and its understanding of its own history.

Sandwiching these vignettes are more thematic reflections. Some are on regional history – Arab-Islamic expansion in the Indian Ocean, Zheng He’s voyage and British India all get the full treatment – and other times on more contemporary matters like the muted Sino-Indian jostling that characterizes much of the region’s political economy. Individually, they seem gratuitous; but together, they form the broader context and background, cluing us in to how Kaplan imagines the Indian Ocean as a unified space – an idea, as much a geographic feature, he reminds us.

Over the course of several chapters, the big picture begins to emerge – one in which China’s tentacles slowly make their way across the water to the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, binding them together into a new world system, to borrow Immanuel Wallersein’s provocative concept. In return for its oil, the Gulf receives a steady stream of Chinese manufactures; and for allowing Chinese companies to build a network of ports, governments around the Indian Ocean are compensated with development projects – highways, hospitals, and more – all gratis. Throughout the process, China is careful to stay below the radar – it even refuses to run the very ports it builds, preferring to allow the Singaporeans to do it instead.  This, then, is no plan for Chinese world domination; rather, it is a regional infrastructure built to ensure that China’s insatiable thirst for energy is met and its goods have a secured market. But, as Kaplan makes clear throughout, this is not without its political consequences, both domestic and international.

For all of its strengths, Monsoon can be a frustrating read. Those who read the entire volume are likely to be left wondering what they had just gone through. While Monsoon’s individual vignettes are thorough, stimulating and thought-provoking, the author does little to connect the dots; the book is not too much more than the sum of its parts. Readers are left to guess as to what Zanzibar has to do with Burma, or why a discussion of Gwadar necessarily precedes Gujarat; they get a vivid picture of politics and economics around the Indian Ocean, but little by way of a forceful argument. Kaplan seems to prefer the slow-cooker approach, dropping in bits and pieces of his overall argument and letting them stew together with his travel writing and history. Those looking for an argument presented neatly on a single platter will be disappointed.

Perhaps a more glaring shortcoming is Kaplan’s failure to deliver on the second half of the book’s title. Beyond hanging thoughts and throwaway sentences that pepper the volume, Kaplan does nothing to explain how the United States fits into the picture, let alone establish the Indian Ocean as “the essential place to contemplate the future of U.S. power.” Policy buffs will undoubtedly be left unhappy with the book’s unfulfilled promises.

So then what are we left with? A great deal, actually. Beyond enriching vignettes, the book illuminates the reorientations of different parts of  the Middle East, Africa, and South and Southeast Asia towards China. Indeed, if there is a protagonist to the book at all, it is Chinese capital, which has managed to forge a world of its own, replete with protected sea routes and eager markets. It might not be Zheng He all over again, but it’s certainly something close – and Kaplan does not fail to impress upon his readers the importance of seeing the region in light of its history.

All told, Kaplan has thus given us a thoughtful, balanced and readable – though not always entirely coherent – analysis of the modern Indian Ocean. Those looking to assign students a readable book on the modern Indian Ocean with which to cap a history course, then, can do a lot worse than Kaplan’s Monsoon. The book’s structure makes it easy to pull out chapters to assign, and the prose is both informative and eminently readable – which in itself is a remarkable feat.

Read more...

CFP: Islamic Civilization in Eastern Africa

CALL FOR PAPERS:
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE HISTORY OF THE ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION IN EASTERN AFRICA

Zanzibar, Tanzania

3-6 September 2013


OIC
Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), and the
National Records & Archives Authority of the Sultanate of Oman, are jointly
organizing, in cooperation with Zanzibar University, the International
Symposium on the “History of the Islamic Civilization in Eastern Africa”, in
Zanzibar, Tanzania, on 3-6 September 2013.

Africa was the destination of the first Muslim migrants from Mecca to
Abyssinia in Africa. From then on, Muslims immigrations extended to include
the eastern coast of Africa as a point of destination.
Moreover, Muslim Preachers and merchants along with the immigrants reached
to Central Africa.

Along with Northern Africa, Eastern Africa was one of the places which were
most largely influenced by Islamic civilization. The growth of Muslims
immigrations was due to certain reasons. One reason was the geographical
proximity of Eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Another one was the
environment of Africa with its fertile soil, abundant water, moderate
climate and considerable wealth and bounties.

Muslims settled in these regions of Africa and established Islamic dynasties
and states that played active roles in local and international policy due to
their strategic locations. Some of these dynasties and states are Bata,
Mogadishu, Sefalah, Zanzibar and Mombasa. In addition, these dynasties and
states played and still play a pioneering role in spreading Islam in that
part of the world.

Symposium Objectives

The conference is aimed at highlighting various aspects of Islamic civilization in Eastern Africa and promoting the exchange of views and findings of research on the impact of Islamic civilization in the region. This will be done around the following axes:

1 - Reviewing the historical and cultural dimensions of the Islamic civilization in South Asia and East
Africa.

2 - The role and influence of Arab and Muslim migrations on the convergence of the Islamic sects.

3 - The influence of Islamic civilization in the fields of architecture and traditional crafts.

4 – Acquainting with the history of Islamic civilization, in the past and present, and studying its social, economic and political consequences.

5 - Reviewing the geographical aspects that contributed to the spread of the Islamic civilization.

6 - Shedding light on various forms of the intellectual production in East Africa.

7 - The influence of the Islamic civilization on African social life (customs, traditions and daily life areas).

8 - The Arab and Islamic press, and its role in enriching cultural life in Eastern Africa.

9 - Acquainting with the reality of manuscripts, records, archives, and monuments, and identifying the means of
their development.

Conditions of participation:

The submitted research paper shall comply with the following conditions

-It should be authentic, innovative, and directly relevant to the symposium's themes.

-It should not be published or delivered on earlier occasions.

-The abstract of the research paper
should consist of about 250 words and be submitted in both Arabic and
English.

-The research paper should consist of
800 - 1100 words.

-The papers should be sent by email.

-The scientific committee has the right to reject any research paper that does not meet scientific standards.

-
The accepted research papers will be
published after editing in a special booklet for the symposium events. The
organizing body holds the copyrights. Before publication the papers will be
subject to the applicable Publication Law in the Ministry of Information of
the Sultanate of Oman.

Abstracts and research papers should be mailed to:

symposium@nraa.gov.om  

congress@ircica.org



-       Deadline for submitting the abstracts: 15 March 2013.

-       Informing of the acceptance of the abstracts: by 15 April 2013.

-       Deadline for the submission of full papers: 26 June 2013.



Conditions for citations:


The historical narrations should be cited chronologically.

The references should indicate the sources. 

The views and interpretations introduced by the researcher should be based on historical
events and evidences.

The researcher should indicate the sources or the website from which graphics, maps and records
were taken and used or whether they are his own work.

Sources and references must be cited in the footnotes (at the end of every page)
starting with number 1 in each page.

Sources and references must be cited in a list at the end of the paper under the title
"Sources and References" and ordered alphabetically as follow:

title, name, edition, part,
publisher, city of publishing, year of publishing; any further citation
information might be put in parenthesis.

Symposium Languages

Arabic and
English

For complementary information send an
email to
symposium@nraa.gov.om 

congress@ircica.org

Phone: +968 246 16071,

+968 246 16086,

+90 259 1742

Read more...

The Essentials of Ibadi Islam (Book Review)

When I talk to my American Muslim friends about Oman, they often say, "Oh the Ibadis, aren't they Khawarij?" Beyond that (contested and somewhat innaccurate) opinion, their knowledge of Ibadis is virtually nil. The reasons for this are many, but at least one reason is the paucity of sources in English from which one might understand more about the Ibadis as a collective, including their beliefs, their ideals, their fiqh, and their historical identity. The new book by Valerie Hoffman, The Essentials of Ibadi Islam, aims to change that. It is essentially a translation of two Ibadi texts, one a theological primer called al-Aqeeda al-Wahbiyya by Nasir b. Salim al-Rawahi, and the other a section from Kitab Ma'alim al-Din on The Nature of God's Power, by Abd al-Aziz al-Thamani al-Mus'abi.

The two texts work well together, as the first text is unfinished, likely because of the author's death. Hoffman adds a valuable introduction giving historical perspective on the phases of Ibadi history, the rise and fall of the various permutations of the Imamate, and what Ibadis believe. This is a first rate work of scholarship by a serious scholar. Although the theological works will likely be of interest mainly to specialists, as they are highly technical, Hoffman's translation is clear (with in text renderings of Arabic phrasing and extensive footnotes), and the footnotes provide an excellent guide and explanation for those who might not be aware of what they are reading.

Muslims curious about Ibadism, scholars of Ibadism in Oman and North Africa, and scholars of Zanzibar will all be interested in this book. It exists in a virtual vacuum of clear English-language introductions to Ibadi beliefs and identity and as such will likely be a reference for years to come, as well as an encouragement to other scholars to expand the English-translated corpus of Ibadi theological, and poetic works.

Read more...

The Createdness or Uncreatedness of the Quran

I was inspired to finally release this piece, although I think it is incredibly flawed in many ways, and will likely confuse those unfamiliar with the debate and anger those erudite enough to follow it. I was also inspired by Valerie Hoffman's excellent translation of the Ibadhi scholar Nasser bin Salim al-Rawahi's classic text of Ibadhi fiqh: "al-Aqeeda al-Wahbiyya". Inshallah, I will review Dr. Hoffman's efforts in a later post. The text was inspiring because traditionally Ibadhis argued (I believe correctly) for the createdness of the Quran. At a time, when Sunni lecturers and theologians frequently equate this view with unbelief, it is refreshing to see a scholarly non-Sunni take on the subject. My own views are neither Ibadhi nor Sunni. I hope you learn something from them, nevertheless.

In seeking the truth, the believer in most Abrahamic religions is forced to reckon with the authority of a canon or urtext which purports to be the final moral authority for the conduct and direction of the believer.

Islam is no exception and is indeed the first revelation to be "canonized" so quickly after the inception of the original revelation. By canonized I mean, both actually written down, and preserved in the disposition of the righteous Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The congealing of reverence for this revelation and the consistency by which it was preserved is remarkable. It also makes the Qur'an unique among Abrahamic spiritual revelations in having to wrestle quite early on in the tradition's history with the issue of whether the Qur'an was created or eternal and thus uncreated.

Indeed this is a difficult question! It is made even more difficult by the triumph of so-called orthodoxy on the matter, to the point where people frequently dismiss the opposing view without wrestling with its theological implications. Since the Abbasid caliphs who were Mutazilite and believed in a created Qur'an were at one point implicated in a rather nasty coercive project against the "Traditionalists" (forcing them on pain of death to recant their belief in the Qur'an's eternity), it is often enough to dismiss them by questioning their sincerity as believers. This is unfortunate as it short-circuits the brain cells of many a contemporary believer and leads to unproblematic acceptance of a very problematic concept.

The traditional Sunni view on this difficult philosophical problem is that the Qur'an is an uncreated document. It is eternal and co-existent. Although I disagree with this view, both from the point of view of tawhid and human reason (which I will explore shortly) it is worth exploring why Imam Shafi'i, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Ahmad, Imam Malik, to say nothing of the many scholars before and after them AGGRESSIVELY insisted on the UNCREATEDNESS of the Quran. As imam al-Ghazzali said in his "Foundations of Islamic Belief" (Qawa`id al-`Aqa'id):

    "The Qur'an is read by tongues, written in books, and remembered in the heart, yet it is, nevertheless, uncreated and without beginning, subsisting in the Essence of Allah, not subject to division and or separation through its transmission to the heart and paper. Musa - upon him peace - heard the Speech of Allah without sound and without letter, just as the righteous see the Essence of Allah Most High in the Hereafter, without substance or its quality."

Although I disagree with al-Ghazali, he has illuminated the issue with characteristic subtlety and grace, touching on the Qur'an's Existence vs. its Essence. (We shall return to this point).

Understandably, the average believer is loath to disagree with leading lights of the deen, whose personal adhab was impeccable and whose scholarship was massively important in providing guidance down through the generations. Nevertheless, it is worth noting two things: 1) There was an important (and NOT marginal) group of Muslims in the past who believed the Qur'an WAS created. 2) One could in the past debate this issue and still be considered a believer.

The original doctrine of the 'createdness' of the Qur'an was propagated by several of the Abbasid caliphs and the 'ulama surrounding them from their Baghdad capital. Islam in the one hundred years after the Prophet had developed into a global cosmopolitan civilization of enormous diversity and tremendous wealth. It was a long way (materially, if not necessarily theologically) away from its origins in the desert community of Medina. Its encounter with the plural religious environment of the Near East inspired the development of kalam (speculative theology) in which Muslim philosophers debated their Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian counterparts. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) focused his energies on expanding and strengthening the religion in its material aspect, as well as increasing the unity of all Muslims in the early community and breaking down status barriers. For The Prophet, the strength and power of the Revelation he had received directly from Allah was self evident! There was little need to engage in elaborate cross-cultural translation, dialogue, or theological polemic. This was patently NOT the case at the Abbasid court.

The createdness of the Qur'an was especially a response by the Mutazilites to charges by the Christians that making the Qur'an eternal meant that it was co-existent with God. This meant that the Qur'an was similar to the person of Jesus Christ. If the word of God is eternal and Jesus is the word of God, then Jesus is also eternal. A fictional exchange from Hanging Nodes blog captures it well:

    Arab Muslim: What is your belief regarding Jesus Christ?

    Christian Missionary: He is the word of God. What does your Quran states about him?

    Arab Muslim: [hesitates for a moment and after thinking a lot recites a part of this verse]… “Christ Jesus the son of Mary was a messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him…” [al-Quran 4: 171]

    Christian Missionary: What is the word of Allah, and what is ‘spirit’ and are these created or not created?

If all these are uncreated, we now have not one, but three eternally co-existent 'ideas': Allah, the Qur'an, and Jesus. From a strict tawhid perspective, this is totally unacceptable. There can be only one thing that is eternally existent and that is Allah; all else is contingent on the existence of Allah.

On the other hand, those who asserted the eternity of the Qur'an believed that denying its eternity meant denying the divinity of the revelation and thus its eternal validity. If the Qur'an was a created revelation, this meant that it was contingent upon the cultural matrix it emerged into, and if that cultural matrix disappeared, it would lose its validity. They thus saw the doctrine of Qur'an-createdness as undermining the foundation for a sound aqeedah among the believers and eroding the authority of the Revelation that had elevated Islam to the forefront of world civilization in such a short time.

Contemporary critics of this doctrine typically invoke the argument of the slippery slope when it comes to the Qur'an's created-ness. If the Qur'an is created then Allah can change his mind, which is a denial of Allah's divinity. If you deny Allah's divinity then you are not only a heretic, you are an atheist. The "uncreated-ness-crowd" believed that those who believed in the Qur'an as a created document were denying the special quality of the revelation and instead relying on human reason. It is true that the Mutazilites trusted human reason, partly because it was a reflection of the Divine Creation. Yet contrary to the polemical distortions of their opponents, the Mutazilites in their actual writings actually stress that reason alone is insufficient to grasp the Truth.

Now in a religious environment as polarized as the modern world, where - state projects devoted to demonizing these views are all too common (ahem, France, ahem Turkey, ahem, Sudan), I believe the above argument is an obvious case of not believing the best about the arguments of your opponent. Clearly one can live a moral and God-centered life while believing in the created-ness of the Qur'an. One can even uphold the Islamic tradition while doing so.

These statements have important implications we should explore, especially as it relates to an unwillingness by most Muslim traditionalists to question the viability of aspects of their tradition in the modern world. Muslims have a right to be upset over Western Orientalist critiques of certain theoretically acceptable fiqh practices in Islam (such as the permissibility of slavery, the permissibility of sex with slave girls without their consent, or the punishment of stoning for adultery), since these practices do not define Muslim identity. There is no "Muslim mind" and Islam (as much as the Wahhabis would like it to be) is not a Borg-like belief system.  It is entirely possible for someone to be a good moral and upright person, and indeed to never practice slavery, while believing that slavery is theoretically permissible according to God's law. And certainly people have a right to practice their religion as they see fit. But it would help the larger umma's moral authenticity to acknowledge that these and other fiqh issues I mentioned are both morally problematic from the standpoint of human ethics and human reason AND a part of what constitutes acceptable practice in the theoretical structure of sharia. Acknowledging this gap would help us eliminate double-think from our core-belief system.

My point is this: Billions of people in this world, indeed the majority of people on the planet today engage in some form of double-think. I define double-think as the ability to pledge a specific creed, without full knowledge of its logical specifics, and live according to its wisdom while glossing over its inconsistencies. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, even atheists all do it. Here I am specifically addressing the kinds of double-think that pervade the mind of the Muslim believer. Keep in mind this is not necessarily a moral accusation. It is an observation based on a preference (rooted in tawhid) for struggling to eliminate forms of double-think. One can have logically inconsistent beliefs and still lead a righteous life. And the modern Wahhabi movement has shown us the opposite is true: one can take beliefs to their logical conclusion in an attempt to recover a pristine essence of Truth, and end up reproducing a kind of violent religious fascism characterized by incredible hypocrisy. Nevertheless, a true pursuit of tawhid demands we take up the ontological challenge of ongoing interpretation of revelation (both in the sense of ijtihad and in the sense of wujub al-nazar—the obligation of reason), and not merely dismiss it with such platitudes as "Islam is the answer to every human problem" and "all we need is Quran and Sunna." Such statements, although intended to steer the believer away from problematic and distracting ideas, actually encourage an intensification of double-think.

The idea of double-think helps us to think about why the question of whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated is so complicated. In some sense, the argument I am about to present is incredibly reductive. For a deeper theological viewpoint, I would recommend that anyone pick up two books by Sherman Jackson: Islam and the BlackAmerican and Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering, for an extremely erudite, yet easy to understand introduction to the problems of speculative theology in the Islamic tradition.

What is the Qur'an? It has simultaneously an empirical/historical existence and an eternal reality. The Qur'an itself, insofar as its empirical existence is concerned, is created. It is made from paper or parchment and reproduced in modern times between pieces of leather, wood, cardboard, or more paper. What about the recitation of the Qur'an? Again, from an empirical perspective, the sounds produced during recitation are human creations, emanating from someone's vocal chords. They last for a given duration of time. Even if one believes Allah is the ultimate originator of human speech, it still does not negate the Qur'an's createdness, since the Allah (in a way unknown to us) also spoke the Qur'an and thus gave it existence. Even if the Qur'an refers to the actual auditory/sensory experience that the Prophet Muhammad had in the years in which he received the revelation, then I am still forced to conclude that the rational empirical evidence suggests that the Quran is created and occurred to a finite person in a finite time.

But if we leave the empirical plane of existence, I believe that there was and is an eternal dimension to the Quranic revelation, expressed in the spiritual quality of its audition, which is able to transport the mind of a believer to a higher, eternal spiritual plane, the plane of Allah. This is what happened to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) during his revelations. But it is not the mere audition of the Quran itself that is eternal, but the station to which it elevates the true believer through that experience of recitation. And Allahu 'alim. May Allah forgive me for any errors into which I have fallen.

by Nate Mathews 2010

Read more...