ABSTRACTS

László CsibiCount Sámuel Teleki’s Unpublished

Documents: Dissertation ExcerptsKeywords: Count Sámuel Teleki, ex-pedition, East-African diary, letters,photography, Lajos Erdélyi Following his expedition in East-Africa, Count Sámuel Teleki becamea representative of the pioneering eraof the great geographic discoveries.This study publishes a large collec-tion of documents from his campaign(1886-1888). Some of them were indanger of destruction at the end ofthe Second World War. The photo-graphs of this expedition were“rediscovered” by Lajos Erdélyi, anda number of them was published in1977. Following this research path,the author discovered in the Roma-nian State Archives a large numberof unpublished photographs anddocuments. Another essential andless known source is the diary thatCount Teleki himself scrupulouslykept during his journey.

George Grigore Wine and Its Significances within

the Islamic Mystical WritingsKeywords: mysticism, Islam, Qur’an,wine, Rabi’a, al-Hallaj, Sohrawardi,Sana’i, RumiThe starting point for embarkingupon this endeavour was our desireto understand the very status – aparadoxical one – that wine holdswithin Islam. On the one hand, wineis prohibited under the Islamic law,but on the other hand, wine repre-sents an outstanding element per-taining to Islamic mysticism. Theresearch we have conducted is basedon the data garnered from mainbooks of Islam – i.e. the Holy Qur’anand the Hadith – as well as from thewritings of many great Muslimmystical writers. From Rabi’a to al-Hallaj, to Sohrawardi, to Sana’i, to

Rumi, the mystical poem with anapparently bacchanalian related sub-ject, that is a subject exclusively usedas pretext for expressing the deepestreligious feelings so unique, beyondany constraint – be it denial or faith,as Sohrawardi said – was for a longtime an essential element of themystical incantation throughout theIslamic world.

Csilla Gyöngyösi Feminist Interpretations of the

Qur'an and SunnahKeywords: feminism, Qur’an, Sunnah,Islam, Amina Wadud, Fatima MernissiFeminism has had a huge impact onIslamic societies recently. This mani-fests itself in theology as well, wherewomen try to define their spacewithin the religious space. Islamicfeminists such as Amina Wadud andFatima Mernissi locate the place ofmodern women inside and notoutside religion, trying to find newways to understand what the Qur’anteaches about women and why. Theyredefine this place using new andold exegetical methods, re-examineold and common misconceptions.This movement aims basically toshow that women have an equalplace in religion and this is in theQur’an.

Klára Hegyi Vicissitudes of the Ottoman Age

in Bihar CountyKeywords: Ottoman Hungary and theTransylvanian border region, theTatar invasion of 1599, increase ofOttoman tribute-paying areasThe border region separating theHungarian Kingdom and the Transyl-vanian Principality from OttomanHungary was a frontline of dailybattles, aimed at forcing new territo-ries to pay tribute. This study pre-sents the submission process inBihar county from the Transylvanianborder region, with special emphasis

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on the Tatar invasion of 1599, whichdevastated more than half of thelocalities. The description of the 17th

century tributes, of the exposure ofthe villages, and of the division ofthe lands between the Hungarianand Turkish landowners is based ona Hungarian investigation from1645. The tributes imposed in theprevious century have increasedmanifold, and the Ottoman ownershave also begun to hold judgementsand impose fines. Neither the Hun-garian soldiers of the Transylvaniancastles, nor the Hungarian owners ofthe settlements were able to limitthese excesses.

Éva Marcinkó The Gülen or Hizmet Movement

Keywords: Turkey, Fethullah Gülen,Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Islam, libe-ralism, religion and scienceThe Gülen or Hizmet movement is awell-organised community of peopleall around the world. The follower ofthe movement build their institutions,schools, universities on the thoughtsof Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic clericliving in the US. According to him,the most important point is to investin education and to teach the newgeneration of young people to find away back to liberal Islam, which isnot separated from the sciences. Inthe course of time, this movementhas evolved into a strong network inTurkey. To stop Gülen’s influence,the Turkish president Recep TayyipErdoğan blamed him and his fol-lowers for the military coup of 2016.The Turkish government formallydeclared the Hizmet movement aterrorist organisation: all their schoolsand institutions had to be closed inTurkey, and the people involved inthe movement had to flee. Hizmetplayed an important role in the risingof Islam in Turkish society. Gülenteaches that the Turks should notforget about the interculturalism and

tolerance of the Ottoman Empire,and that tradition and modernity cansit by the same table.

Péter Tamás Nagy The Kaaba Leaves Mecca: Me-

diaeval Examples for Local Analo-gies of the Holiest Islamic Building Keywords: Islam, Mecca, Kaaba,Mosque of the Haram, Middle AgesThe square sanctuary of the Kaaba,located in the Mosque of the Haramin Mecca, has a central role in Islam:it orients people who pray towards it and desire to visit it once in theirlifetime as part of their religiousbeliefs. Besides these normativeregulations of Islam, there is a pa-rallel, though less known, phenome-non, namely that several buildingswere – and still are – revered as localanalogies of the Kaaba. The presentpaper touches upon some examplesof this phenomenon in the mediae-val Islamic world, ranging from theDome of the Rock in Jerusalem theShalla in Rabat (Morocco), the EskiMosque in Edirne (Turkey), and theShrine of Imam Reza in Meshhed(Iran). What unifies these, admit-tedly diverse and remote, sites is thefact that they have adopted somefunctions of the Kaaba, and madetheir visitors perform rites that aretraditional parts of the pilgrimage toMecca. To that end, given that thejourney to Mecca often led throughhostile territories and was thusrightly considered to be dangerous,many communities in the Islamicworld would rather establish theirown local ‘Kaaba’.

Sárközy MiklósA Brief History of Zurkhāne in Iran

Keywords: Islamic civilization, zur-khāne, Iran, Sufism, Shiitism The present paper addresses thebrief history of the zurkhāne (lite-rally ‘house of strength’), a socio-reli-gious gymnasium of Iranian origins.126

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In the first part of the paper, we try toshed light on the origins of thisinstitution. Unlike many Iranian andWestern authors who support theidea of the ‘pre-Islamic’ Iranian ori-gins of the zurkhānes, we believethat zurkhānes developed graduallyin the Iranian Islamic civilization,and different social and religiousinfluences contributed to its forma-tive period, such as Iranian militarytraditions of the early Islamic period,the movements of urban outlawcircles of Iranian bazars and theinstitutionalization of their sportguilds. Furthermore, one can detect acertain impact of Sufi and Shiirituals on the zurkhānes as well. It isworth noting that zurkhānes ap-peared only in the second half of the16th century. In the second part ofpaper, we offer a brief overview ofthe inner structure of the contempo-rary Iranian zurkhānes, includingtheir different rituals and their sym-bols used during the ceremony. Fur-thermore, a brief summary is addedto demonstrate the modern zurkhānerevival and to introduce the differentideological concepts behind thepresent popularity of the zurkhānemovement in the Middle East.

Laura SitaruThe Representation of the Stran-

ger in Mediaeval Arab Travellers'Notes: Linguistic RemarksKeywords: Middle Ages, Islam, Ara-bian travellers, linguistic alterity,ağam, alterityLinguistic remarks are quite frequentand significant in the characteri-zation of the Stranger in mediaevalArabic travel notes. Our sourcesmeasure the Stranger’s alterity withrespect to their knowledge of Arabic,the medium through which thedomain of alterity is accessed. Thisalterity is constantly associated witha reprehensible social behaviour andwith the strangers’ poor assimilation

of Islam and its rituals. Thus, therepresentatives of the cultural centre(markaziyya) mercilessly note thestrangers’ linguistic, religious, andbehavioural “deficiencies”. A goodknowledge of Arabic has to be asso-ciated with a correct assimilation ofthe Islamic religion, the two elementsjointly representing the essentialcriteria for inclusion in this mostprestigious culture.

Gitta Szekér Islam in Central Asia: Variations

on a ReligionKeywords: Islam, Central Asia, mys-tical Islam, folk-Islam, Bukhara, So-viet UnionThe paper reviews the history ofIslam in Central Asia and its form ofIslamic practices, both “mysticalIslam” and so-called “folk-Islam”.The text examines the importance oforal narratives and their socio-cultural constructions within its par-ticular context. While the presenceof Islam in certain parts of CentralAsia dates back to the 17th century,the spread of the faith in regions thatare now the modern states ofUzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikis-tan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan,was, in actuality, a gradual process.We can talk about the case of Isla-misation in multiple waves. The firstsection of the paper aims to presentthe main historical events, includingBukhara, “the Mecca of the East”,and the importance of the “CentralAsian Golden Age”. It reviews theSoviet era (together with the birth ofthe modern nations within the So-viet nationalities policy), the shapingof Islamic practices during this timeand the effect of both the “under-ground Islam” of the Soviet timesand the foreign impact in the Islamicdiscourse of these independentstates beginning from the Nineties. Itassesses the rebirth of Sufism in anational context and the possible in-

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fluence of foreign jihadi movements.The second part of the research seeksto demonstrate the religiously diversenature of the region and its encoun-ter with Islam. It notes the effect ofcertain Shamanistic rituals and beliefsthat shaped the religious practices,such as the Osh Bibiyo (and, throughthis, women’s possible empowermentby their leading role in healing andreligious rituals), that is now anorganic part of Islam in the region.By exploring the spiritual past ofCentral Asia, the paper aims to provethe deep implantation of Islam intothe life of the people, though withpeculiar local characteristics.

Zoltán Szombathy Pluralism and Secularisation in

Contemporary Muslim Thought:Nurcholish Madjid and AbdullahiAhmad An-Na’imKeywords: Islam, pluralism, secula-rism, liberalism, Nurcholish Madjid,Abdullahi Ahmad An-Na’im

The article offers a sample of tolerantand pluralistic interpretations ofIslamic precepts and law by contem-porary Muslim thinkers, focusing ontheir understandings of the contro-versial concepts of religious pluralismand secularism. It demonstrates theways in which the Indonesian Nur-cholish Madjid and the SudaneseAbdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im use theconcepts and methodological tools of the traditional Islamic religioussciences to find convincing argumentsfor peaceful coexistence with otherreligious communities, for freedomof thought and conscience, and forthe adaptation of Muslim thought tothe demands of contemporary society.It is also shown that, far from beingmarginal figures of contemporaryIslam, the ideas of these thinkers dohave a profound influence amongMuslims wherever people can freelyexpress their opinions and authori-ties do not stifle discussion.

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