Written Culture

Also CSST Working Paper #96.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/51271/1/505.pd

Books in Arabic Script

The chapter approaches the book in Arabic script as the indispensable means for the transmission of knowledge across Eurasia and Africa, within cultures and across cultural boundaries, since the seventh century ad. The state of research can be divided into manuscript and print studies, but there is not yet a history of the book in Arabic script that captures its plurilinear development for over fourteen hundred years. The chapter explores the conceptual and practical challenges that impede the integration of the book in Arabic script into book history at large and includes an extensive reference list that reflects its diversity. The final published version was slightly updated, and includes seven illustrations of six Qurans from the holdings of Columbia University Libraries, four manuscripts and two printed versions. Moreover, the illustrations are images of historical artifacts which are in the public domain - despite Wiley's copyright claim

The calligraphic state: textual domination and history in a Muslim society

In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explored this process and the ways in which it changes, especially outside the Western world.Messick brings together intensive ethnography and textual analysis from a wealth of material: Islamic jurisprudence, Yemeni histories, local documents. In exploring the structure and transformation of literacy, law, and statecraft in Yemen, he raises important issues that are of comparative significance for understanding political life in other Muslim and nonwestern states as well

L'écriture en procès : les récits d'un meurtre devant un tribunal sharʻî

The Trial of Writing : Murder Narratives in a Shariʻa Court. A murder judgement from a shariʻa court in mid-twentieth-century Yemen is the point of departure for an analysis intended to advance an "archival anthropology". This ethnographic and historical project centers on a close reading of the judgement in question using methods inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin. Attention is given to how the judgement is composed of fragments of other texts, both oral and written. This work also is meant to complement inquiries into the "source" texts of Islamic legal practice and to shed light specifically on the handling of homicide cases, which are little studied in Islamic settings.Le jugement d'un tribunal sharʻî prononcé dans une affaire de meurtre, au Yémen, dans les années 1960, sert de point de départ à une analyse visant à promouvoir une « anthropologie archivistique ». Ce projet anthropologique et historique procède à la lecture attentive du jugement, à l'aide de méthodes inspirées de Mikhail Bakhtin. On s'intéresse à la façon dont le jugement est composé de fragments d'autres textes, à la fois oraux et écrits. Ce travail cherche également à poursuivre la recherche des textes de référence de la pratique juridique islamique et, plus particulièrement, à éclairer la manière de traiter les cas d'homicide, qui ont été peu étudiés en contexte islamique.Messick Brinkley, Dupret Baudouin. L'écriture en procès : les récits d'un meurtre devant un tribunal sharʻî. In: Droit et société, n°39, 1998. Une sociologie non culturaliste de la norme en contexte arabe. pp. 237-256

Islamic Legal Interpretation:Muftis and their fatwas

vi, 431 p.; 24 c

Pashas and protests: revelation and enlightenment in Cyprus

This article takes the case of Derviş Paşa, an important Cypriot notable, as a starting point for examining controversies about knowledge in the late Ottoman Empire. In particular, the article argues that much of the controversy in Cyprus around Derviş centered around the role of the ‘enlightened’-individual, who was the representative of ‘truth’ or orthodoxy, and who was able to make truth claims on the basis of his behavior or comportment. This is discussed in terms of the distinction drawn at this time between ‘ revelation’ and ‘enlightenment’ as descriptions of the type of authority that the modern state should have. The article then argues that in both these descriptions truth is something that should be ‘revealed’ or ‘laid bare’. This has consequences for leadership, where leaders had visibly to embody the truth claims that supported their authority