Heavenly Journeys, Earthly Concerns : The Legacy of the Mi'raj in the Formation of Islam

ISBN-13: 9780415967853 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 178 str.

Brooke Olson Vuckovic

Opis

This book examines how an elite group of traditionalists, historians and theologians shaped Muslims' perceptions of their prophet, their community and their behaviour by retelling and interpreting the story of Muhammad's ascent to heaven (the mi'raj). Although the 'facts' surrounding Muhammad's ascent are lost to historians, the legacy of his journey remains, and has contributed greatly to the construction of shared Islamic history, memory and meaning. Focusing on issues of interpretation, this book collects and translates a number of medieval mi'raj accounts. The narratives of Muhammad's heavenly journey offer a prism through which to view the medieval elite's communal, political and theological motives. These accounts reveal the historiographic process in which a single event becomes a focal point for those struggling to define the past and establish a communal, confessional and political identity by reporting the apparant facts about a particular moment in time. In other words, these tales have real stakes for both their authors and their audiences, and shed light on Muslim communal concerns from the late eighth through to the fourteenth century. Brooke Olson Vuckovic's groundbr

Spis treści

Introduction; Chapter 1 Constructing the Prophet of God: Confirmation and Initiation in the Mi'raj; Chapter 2 The Mi'raj and the Early Muslims’ Communal and Confessional Identity; Chapter 3 Communal Reaction: Trials, Betrayal, and True Belief; Chapter 4 The Formation of Communal Morality: The Moral Concerns of the Medieval Elite;

O autorze

Brooke Olson Vuckovic is currently Vice President of Course Development at Cardean University. Prior to joining Cardean, she was manageing director of Writing Unlimited, a writing consulting group. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where she taught in the Divinity School, the College, and the Graduate School of Business.