Conférence inaugurale Jeudi 16 septembre 2021

Colloque Prophètes itinérants

Jeudi 16 septembre
Institut du monde arabe 
Salle du Haut Conseil
19h00
 
Rachida CHIH, CNRS (France)
 
De quoi Muḥammad est-il le nom ? Le prophète de l’islam au miroir de sa communauté
 
(autour du projet ANR-DFG : La présence du Prophète)
 
 
Qui est le Prophète pour les musulmans ? Que vénèrent-ils quand ils prient pour lui ou se recueillent sur sa tombe à Médine ? Quelle relation ont-ils entretenue avec lui dans l’histoire, jusqu’à nos jours, dans l’intimité de leur foi et collectivement, comme communauté ? Le projet ANR La présence du Prophète était parti d’un constat observé à la suite d’une série de rencontres scientifiques sur l’histoire du soufisme et de la spiritualité, celui du développement exponentiel dans la période moderne de la dévotion savante et populaire au prophète de l’islam et de la captation de son héritage par les autorités religieuses et les élites politiques. Il fallait donc en comprendre le pourquoi et le comment et les situer dans le temps, tout comme les débats et les conflits actuels autour de cette dévotion, qui participent d’une actualité souvent brûlante.  Dans le Coran, Muhammad n’est qu’un homme comme les autres, son humanité est maintes fois affirmée et toute confusion avec le divin écartée ; cependant, il est aussi un élu de Dieu et les allusions aux grâces exceptionnelles dont il est l’objet de la part de Dieu ne manquent pas. Cette ambivalence, dans le texte coranique lui-même, de la figure prophétique dans sa double réalité humaine et sacrée et métahistorique, traverse l’islam et alimente jusqu’à ce jour ses débats théologiques, philosophiques et théosophiques. Elle est aussi au cœur de la relation des musulmans à leur prophète. 

Publication prochaine volume 1

The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam

Volume 1

The Prophet Between Doctrine, Literature and Arts: Historical Legacies and Their Unfolding

 

Editors:

Denis Gril, Stefan Reichmuth, and Dilek Sarmis

 

Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East, Volume: 159/1

Cover The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam

https://brill.com/view/title/60454

The three-volume series titled The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam, is the first attempt to explore the dynamics of the representation of the Prophet Muhammad in the course of Muslim history until the present.
This first collective volume outlines his figure in the early Islamic tradition, and its later transformations until recent times that were shaped by Prophet-centered piety and politics. A variety of case studies offers a unique overview of the interplay of Sunnī amd Shīʿī doctrines with literature and arts in the formation of his image. They trace the integrative and conflictual qualities of a “Prophetic culture”, in which the Prophet of Islam continues his presence among the Muslim believers.

Contributors
Hiba Abid, Nelly Amri, Caterina Bori, Francesco Chiabotti, Rachida Chih, Adrien de Jarmy, Daniel De Smet, Mohamed Thami El Harrak, Brigitte Foulon, Denis Gril, Christiane Gruber, Tobias Heinzelmann, David Jordan, Pierre Lory, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Samuela Pagani, Alexandre Papas, Michele Petrone, Stefan Reichmuth, Meryem Sebti, Dilek Sarmis, Matthieu Terrier, Jean-Jacques Thibon, Marc Toutant, Ruggiero Vimercati Sanseverino.

 

 

 

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF) Availability: Not Yet Published ISBN: 978-90-04-46673-9 Publication Date: 16 Dec 2021

Hardback Availability: Not Yet Published ISBN: 978-90-04-46672-2 Publication Date: 16 Dec 2021

Publication prochaine volume 2

The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam


Volume 2

Heirs of the Prophet: Authority and Power

 

Editors:

Rachida Chih, Stefan Reichmuth, and David Jordan

 

Series: Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East, Volume: 159/2

Cover The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam

https://brill.com/view/title/60455

This second collective volume of the series The Presence of the Prophet explores the growing importance of the figure of the Prophet Muhammad for questions of authority and power in early modern and modern times.
The authors provide a rich collection of case studies on how Muhammad’s material, spiritual, and genealogical heritage has been claimed for the foundation of Muslim empires, revolutionary movements, the formation of modern nation states and ideologies, as well as for communal mobilization and social reform.
This novel comparative, and diachronic study, which is unique for its wide coverage of regional cases and perspectives, reveals diverse political representations of the Prophet in an increasingly globalised struggle over the control of his image between secularization and sacralization.

Contributors
Gianfranco Bria, Rachida Chih, Christoph Günther, Gottfried Hagen, Jan-Peter Hartung, David Jordan, Soraya Khodamoradi, Jamal Malik, Catherine Mayeur-Jaouen, Alix Philippon, Martin Riexinger, Stefan Reichmuth, Dilek Sarmis, Renaud Soler, Jaafar Ben El Haj Soulami, Florian Zemmin.

 

Copyright Year: 2022

E-Book (PDF) Availability: Not Yet Published ISBN: 978-90-04-46675-3 Publication Date: 16 Dec 2021

Hardback Availability: Not Yet Published ISBN: 978-90-04-46674-6 Publication Date: 16 Dec 2021

GIS Moyen-Orient July 2019 “The Perception of the Prophet among Young Muslims in France and Germany: Sociological and Anthropological Cross Surveys”

The Perception of the Prophet among Young Muslims in France and Germany: Sociological and Anthropological Cross Surveys

La perception du Prophète chez les jeunes musulmans de France et d’Allemagne : enquêtes sociologiques et anthropologiques croisées

Responsable de l’atelier : Dilek SARMIS (CETOBaC-EHESS)

Le programme de recherches ANR-DFG Prophet (CETOBaC-EHESS et université de Bochum, Allemagne) a mis en place, en coopération avec l’Iremam (Institut de recherches et d’études sur le monde arabe et musulman-Aix-en-Provence) et l’Institut d’études politiques (IEP) d’Aix-en-Provence, une série d’enquêtes sociologiques et anthropologiques, auprès de jeunes musulmans ou bien de type intergénérationnel, sur leur perception du prophète Muhammad et leur relation à lui. Ces enquêtes sont menées parallèlement en France et en Allemagne, à partir d’un ensemble de questions axées sur la transmission et la mémoire, d’entretiens semi-directifs et d’une observation directe (prières intimes, prières à la mosquée, participation à des cercles spirituels, lectures religieuses de l’enquêté, discussions familiales sur le Prophète etc.).

L’atelier proposé consistera en une présentation des résultats et une discussion approfondie des implications de cette investigation de la relation contemporaine de jeunes musulmans d’Europe au Prophète Muhammad. Celle-ci est en effet de nature à éclairer plusieurs dimensions de la figure prophétique en Islam : les modalités de sa représentation, son importance dans la pratique rituelle et la vie quotidienne des croyants, sa dimension de ciment et de miroir communautaire, ainsi que la compréhension des différentes orientations de l’Islam contemporain ainsi favorisée.

 

Programme

Geisser Vincent (CNRS-IREMAM, Sciences Po Aix)

Nouiouar Youssef (Université de Montpellier)

Pratiques et représentations du Prophète Mohamed chez les jeunes musulmans français

Les attentats contre la rédaction du journal satirique Charlie Hebdo commis en janvier 2015 et revendiqués par ses auteurs, les frères Kouachi, comme une « réparation » de l’honneur du Prophète Mohamed, a relancé dans le débat public la dimension prophétique de la socialisation religieuse des jeunes musulmans français. Malgré un nombre substantiel de commentaires écrits et oraux sur le rapport émotionnel des croyants et pratiquants musulmans à la figure de Mohamed peu de travaux sociologiques se sont penchés de manière approfondie sur les représentations, les discours et les pratiques sociales des jeunes musulmans autour du Prophète. Au-delà des discours de sens commun postulant une « radicale spécificité » du personnage du Prophète Mohamed dans la religion musulmane (comparé, par exemple, au rapport des croyants des autres religions monothéistes à leurs prophètes), l’objectif de cette communication est d’analyser les représentations, les discours et les pratiques sociales des jeunes musulmans français, en s’interrogeant sur la dimension prophétique de leur socialisation religieuse. Cette étude se fonde sur une cinquantaine d’entretiens semi-directifs avec des jeunes français de religion musulmane entre 16 et 25 ans, ainsi que sur des observations participantes dans le cadre des groupes de parole conduites au cours de l’année 2018.

 

Thielmann Jörn (Erlangen Zentrum für Islam und Recht in Europa)

Coming of Age as Muslim: Looking at Young Muslims in Germany and their attitude towards the Prophetic model

Young Muslims, especially male, are often perceived as a threat to German society. Showing religious devotion and referring to Islam, its scriptural sources and even the prophetic model itself count in post-secular society as radical, at best as irritating. The paper critically examines German research on young Muslims and compares the dominant representations in the scientific literature with self-perceptions by this group. It is asked what role the Prophet Muhammad plays in their lives and daily practices and how their religious frames of reference are formed. The assumed dominance of this religious frame for everyday life will be questioned. Instead, I propose to understand the discourses and practices of young Muslims in Germany as deeply embedded in quite normal adolescent processes.

 

Reichmuth Stefan (Université de Bochum)

Perceptions of the Prophet among young Muslims in Western Germany: explorations and preliminary results

As a model for personal emulation and normative precedence, and as a source of hope, pride and empowerment, the Prophet of Islam remains of central importance for the Muslim believers. Conflicts within Islam, but even more so with non-Muslims,  gained in intensity whenever the Prophet and his image was at stake. But the personal dimension of the Muslim’s perception of the Prophet, especially in present times, has found only minimal attention and remains largely underexplored both in Islamological and in anthropological research. The paper presents the course and results of an exploration which was undertaken by students of Islamic and Religious Studies at Bochum University among young Muslim people of the Ruhr Area (between 15 and 25 years). 15 lengthy guided interviews with young Muslims of a highly varied background were conducted in the course of this seminar and were then scrutinized for the major lines of attachment and commitment to the Prophet which can be identified in them. Family and mosque socialization as well as religious youth circles and school and university milieus can be seen as contributing in their own specific ways to the image of the Prophet and to its changes in the course of the life of the young Muslim interview partners. Their varied responses to the public controversies related to the Prophet, and the – apparently rather limited – impact which these have exerted on them will finally be discussed.

 

 

 

4th Workshop Anr-Dfg Prophet 2-3 May 2019 “The Presence and Eschatological Role of the Prophet Muḥammad between Individual and Collective Experience”

Lien vers le programme téléchargeable
http://iismm.ehess.fr/index.php?1891

The Presence and Eschatological Role of the Prophet Muḥammad between Individual and Collective Experience

 

2019/05/02-03 : Workshop « The Presence and Eschatological Role of the Prophet Muḥammad between Individual and Collective Experience »


2-3 May 2019

Ecole des Hautes études en Sciences sociales (EHESS), 54 boulevard Raspail, Paris

Room BS1_28

 

PROGRAM

 

Thursday, 2 May 2019, Morning

9.30-9.45      Welcoming Coffee

9.45-10.00    Opening of the Workshop

 

First Session  9.30-13.00

The Prophet and the Construction of the Self: Morals and Emotions

10.00-10.30 Abdoulaye Sounaye (Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin), Son Manzon Allah: Reclaiming the Prophet through Performance

10.40-11.10  Fabio Vicini (29 Mayis University, Istanbul), Embodying the sunna, Cultivating the Brotherhood: Muslim exemplary conduct in a Sufi-inspired reformist community in contemporary Turkey

11.20-11.40 Coffee Break

11.40-12.10  Samuela Pagani (University of Salento, Lecce, Italy), « Priez comme vous m’avez vu prier » : l’intériorisation du modèle de Muhammad selon Mahmūd Muhammad Tāhā (“Pray as you have seen me pray”: The Interiorisation of the Model of Muhammad According to Mahmūd Muhammad Tāhā)

12.20-12.50  General Discussion

13.00-14.45 Lunch

 

Thursday, 2 May 2019, Afternoon

Second Session 15.00-16.35

The Prophet and his Heritage: Between Recital, Encounter, and Vision

15.00-15.30  Denis Gril (Iremam, Aix-en-Provence), Le Maître des maîtres: de la vision du Prophète en songe et à l’état de veille (The Master of Masters: About the Vision of the Prophet in Dreams and in the Waking State)  

15.40-16.10  Thomas Pierret (CNRS, Iremam, Aix-en-Provence), Prophet-related ritual innovations in modern Syria :defending the “old orthodoxy” with the ulama in it

 

16.20-16.35 Coffee Break

 

Third Session 16.35-17.45

Materiality of the Prophetic Presence : Body, Relics, Places, Symbols

16.35-17.05  Hiba Abid (post-doc Collège de France, Paris), Anouk Cohen (Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat), Uniting with the Prophet: Codicological and Anthropological Approaches to the Material, Sensory and Aesthetic Experience of the Dalā’il al-Khayrāt Collection

17.15-17.45  General Discussion

Dinner for the participants

 

Friday, 3 May, Morning

Fourth Session 9.00-12.00

Materiality of the Prophetic Presence : Body, Relics, Places, Symbols

9.00-09.30    Luca Patrizi (University of Turin), “Drinking” the Baraka of the Prophet : The Role of Water in the Veneration of the Âthâr al-Nabî in Contemporary Islam

9.40-10.10    Sean McLoughlin (University of Leeds), Visiting the Prophet’s Grave: Contested Pieties, Performativity and Translocal Circulations of Material Religion in UK Muslim Diasporas

10.20-10.40 Coffee Break

10.40-11.10  Patrick Eisenlohr (University of Göttingen), Sonic Atmospheres and the Presence of the Prophet in Mauritian Muslim Devotional Practices

11.20-12.00  General Discussion

12.00-14.00 Lunch

 

Friday, 3 May, Afternoon

Fifth Session 14.00-16.45

Benedictions of the Prophet and Prayers for his Intersession (tawassul and istighâtha)

14.00-14.30  Nelly Amri (Université de la Manouba- Tunis), Les assemblées nocturnes de « prière sur le Prophète » au Maghreb ou Majâlis al-‘Arûsî (m. v. 897/1492). Une pratique dévotionnelle toujours vivante et son ancrage soufi (The Nocturnal Meetings of “Prayer on the Prophet” in the Maghreb or Majâlis al-‘Arûsî (v. 897/1492). A Devotional Practice still alive and its Sufi Anchoring)

14.40-15.10  Michele Petrone (Université de Copenhague – Islam in the Horn of Africa Project), From Tunisia to Ethiopia: the uses of a collection of prayers on the Prophet, the Tanbīh al-Anām of Ibn ʻAzzūm (d. 1552-3)

15.20-15.50  Andrea Brigaglia (Université de Capetown), Beyond “Devotional literature”: reading the writings of Muhammad Ghibrima al-Dâghirî (d. 1975) in the Longer History of the Salawât as a literary Genre

16.00-16.30  General Discussion

16.30-16.45 Coffee Break

Sixth Session 16.45-17.30 

Conclusions

 

Argumentaire du workshop :

The rise of Prophetic piety among Muslim communities, anchored in forms of faith and doctrine which emerged already since the 12th century, gained momentum in the early modern period and has continued ever since. Continuer la lecture de 4th Workshop Anr-Dfg Prophet 2-3 May 2019 “The Presence and Eschatological Role of the Prophet Muḥammad between Individual and Collective Experience”

International Conference “Presence of the Prophet and His Heritage” – Marrakech 4-7 November 2018

Mithāl al-ni’āl al-nabawiyya al-sharīfa (The Prophet’s sandals), Marocco, Royal Library num. 7875. In : al-Shaykh Muḥāmmad al-Mu’ṭā ibn al-Ṣāliḥ, Dhakhīrat al-muḥtāj fī ṣalāt ʿalā ṣāḥib al-liwā’ wa-l-tāj (Preliminary Pages), published by  the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs of the Kingdom of Marocco, Rabat, 2009. 

حضور الرسول وتراثه

مؤتمر دولي


Presence of the Prophet and his Heritage: Piety, Dissent and Revival in Muslim Culture since the Early Modern Period

The conference, which is hosted by the Ministry of Habous and Islamic Affairs, combines two central themes of the ANR/DFG Project on The Presence of the Prophet. Muhammad in the Mirror of his Community in Early Modern and Modern Islam. Representations of the figure of the Prophet in the sphere of knowledge and literary expression and performance shall be discussed together with his function in political and eschatological movements of revival and reform and in the formation of early modern Muslim polities. Pious and political mobilization centering on the Prophet involves the double relation of the Muslim believers to the human and, at the same time, to the supra-human realities of his person. This found expression in a wide range of emotions in everyday practice and in the spirituality of the Sufi paths, and it provided a strong focus for eschatological expectation as well as for the formation of individual, social and political identities.

The double relation to the Prophet generated far-reaching controversies over his personal status and that of his Sunna for the believers. At the same time, important collections of prayers in praise of the Prophet were created that have retained their importance to this day. [read more]

The full program in English, here.

تحميل البرنامج بالعربية هنا
Le programme, en français, ici.

3rd Workshop Anr-Dfg Prophet, The Prophet and the Modern State

ANR/DFG Workshop,

Ruhr University Bochum, 17-18 May 2018

Venue: Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien (CERES)

 

(Read the full program here)

Since the emergence of the early Muslim empires, the image of the Prophet Muḥammad as a successful and divinely guided war leader and statesman became a model inspiring many Muslim communities of different times and regions in their manifold and often rivalling political projects, whether in imamates, caliphates sultanates, or in the different forms of tribal or communal confederation. More recently, the aura of the Prophet was also evoked by them for the establishment of modern nation states with their monopoly of legitimate violence, their political and bureaucratic structure, their legal and economic system, and especially for their ethical and ideological legitimation. Time and again, the Prophetic model has also been instrumental for the self-empowerment of Muslim individuals and communities in their resistance against foreign powers and, later, against their own governments, justifying an opposition that often included militant action and even terrorism. The political dimensions of the claim to Prophetic legitimacy for Muslim statehood in the 20thand 21th century, after the disempowerment of the larger Muslim states and empires and the ensuing experience of European hegemony, still need to be fully worked out within a comparative framework of study.

The third workshop of our ANR/DFG project The Presence of the Prophet: Muhammad in the Mirror of His Community in Early Modern and Modern Islamengages with this task, as it shall analyse representations of the Prophet that have operated in Muslim states and political movements since the end of the 19thcentury. Four periods of intense political change will shape our approach to his political image:

The first period (ca. 1908-1925)includes the Young Turk revolution, the First World War, the Bolshevik revolution 1917 in Russia, the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate. It also covers the transformation of Iran between the Constitutional Revolution and the establishment of the Pahlavi monarchy. Along with the modernist projects in Turkey, Iran and the Soviet Union with their sometimes fiercely secular and even anti-religious policies, the resilience and novel establishment of sharifianmonarchies (in Morocco, Libya, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen), often instrumentalized by European colonial policies, also belongs to this period.

The second period (ca. 1947-1968)is characterized by the successes of national independence movements and socialist revolutions after the Second World War. Tension between political groups and parties formed by Islamists and secular nationalists, socialists and communists in different configurations and alliances shaped the emergence and development of the new states established in Pakistan (1947) and Indonesia (1949), and also the new independent states of the Arab world. Whereas Islamist mass movements – in this period largely suppressed – pursued their own vision of an Islamic society based on the model of the Prophetic sunna, the regimes established by socialist and nationalist revolutions forced the traditional religious institutions under tight control by the state, at the same time promoting their own ideological images of the Prophet. The defeat of the Arab nationalist and socialist regimes in the Six Day War 1967 and, at the same time, the general crackdown on communist parties in different Muslim countries (beginning in Indonesia 1965) prepared the ground for a novel rise of Islamist political aspirations.

The third period (ca. 1979-1991)was preceded by an unmistakable growth of Islamic religious practice in different Muslim countries and shaped by a continuing weakening of the Soviet Union and her communist and socialist allies. It began with the Iranian Revolution and the attack on the Ḥaram in Mecca, and finally culminated in the breakdown of the Soviet Union. In the course of these events, social Islamization and Islamic political and military movements gained further momentum in many Muslim countries, including several post-Soviet states.

The fourth period (2000 to the present)can be regarded as culmination of Islamist social and political influence and activities. It has been shaped to a large extent by the rise and spectacular successes of new jihadist movements in different parts of the Muslim world and beyond, the outcome and impact of which still remains to be assessed.

The comparative study of the diverse and competing political representations of the Prophet will bring out an ongoing process of both secularization and renewed sacralization of the Prophetic image and model, a process which has gone along with an increasingly globalized struggle over this image and its control. The recourse to Muḥammad’s authority for political legitimation can be found oscillating between the sacralization of existing rule and the political ideologization of the Prophetic image itself. The mentioned sharifianmonarchies base their very legitimacy on the claim to Prophetic descent. The socialist regimes of the 1950s and 1960s, on the other hand, ideologized his figure as the first socialist (Nasserism) or as an ideal revolutionary (Baʿthism). In opposition to secular ideology, Ayatollah Khomeynī even attributed an authority approaching that of Muḥammad himself to the leading Islamic scholar for the administration of society.

A further field of inquiry will focus on the role of the Prophetic model in state and nation building, and in the formation of public institutions and structures. Its central questions will be related to the sacralization of modern constitutions through Prophetic references, the synthesis of modern law with classical Islamic law and hadith, and the significance of the Prophetic biography (sīra) for public education. This also includes Islamic ceremonies which came under state patronage and control in the 20thcentury, such as the still widely used oath of allegiance (bayʿa) to the ruler, the official organization of the pilgrimage (ḥajj), the control and political use of Friday sermons, and of the celebrations of Muḥammad’s birthday (mawlid) and his night journey (miʿrāj).

A final section of the workshop will discuss the Prophet’s significance for individual and collective mobilization and empowerment and will concentrate on Islamic mass organizations and missionary daʿwamovements with their religious activities, their social and educational programs, and their interaction with the state. It further focuses on the transformation of religious living practice into a mobilization tool of political and sectarian struggle, ushering in the rise of militant jihadist organizations such as the Ṭālibān,al-Qāʿida, and lately the so-called Islamic State, where the Prophet has been brought out again as a model warrior fighting against a world of unbelievers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Prophet as a ‘Sacred Spring’: Late Ottoman Hilye Bottles

Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan)

* Paper presented at workshop « Between God and Man: Representations of the Prophet in Literature, Arts, and Media » Bochum, 9-10 November 2017.

The Topkapi Palace Library is one of the world’s largest and most important repository of Islamic paintings and manuscripts. It thus came as a surprise to me when, after a decade of research in the collection, the librarian Zeynep Çelik Atbaş pulled me aside last summer to tell me that I should take a look at some glass bottles, which remain unknown and unpublished, and yet surely would interest me. Zeynep could not have been more correct in her assessment: I was left astounded when the staff brought out four large glass bottles into the reading room. These were no manuscripts, and I had never seen objects like these in my fifteen years of working in Turkish collections. Before me were three bottles containing hilyes, or verbal descriptions of the Prophet Muḥammad, while a fourth bottle housed a miniature Qur’an displayed on a wooden stand decorated with colorful beads. Executed by the under-glass painter Mehmed Refat and dated 1308/1891, this bottle has at least four companion pieces held in two other museums in Istanbul.

 

However, to my knowledge, the three hilye bottles are not attested to in any other publicly accessible institution in Turkey or elsewhere in the world. While one bottle emerged on the art market under the title “lodge hilye” (tekke hilyesi), it is evident from their preservation in Topkapi Palace that these artworks should not be restricted to Sufi practitioners. Rather, as my paper aims to demonstrate, these rare objects appear to have been used for both talismanic and curative purposes. Their therapeutic role in particular is suggested by the hilyes’ use in the production of gold powder, which in all likelihood was combined with water drawn either from local Constantinopolitan sacred springs or else the holy water collected from the Zamzam well in Mecca. As a result, these hilye bottles, I argue, provided a new kind of prophetic pharmacon, whereby Muḥammad was reified—and most likely imbibed—as the ultimate elixir vitae.

 

A close examination of the three hilye bottles lead us to a number of preliminary conclusions. Depending on use and location, such items could be shut closed, opened on demand, or permanently kept ajar. One functioned as a Muḥammadan talismanic art object destined to protect an individual and his home. In the latter case, no further interactions were necessary. In other cases, however, a chain and rope suggest more ritualistic uses, including carrying or suspension in festive commemorations of the Prophet or other religious holidays, including the celebration of his celestial ascension. In such cases, a removable cap and silkcovered stopper enabled the collection and extraction of gold flecks, rubbed off the gilt papers lining the hilye panels’ back sides. Last but not least, in at least one instance, this gold dust or pigment is equated with the nūr Muḥammad, itself the primordial and generative material used by God to create the entire world.

 

These newly uncovered hilye bottles raise a number of issues concerned with late Ottoman artistic traditions as these intersect with devotional practices dedicated to the Prophet, especially in a larger Constantinopolitan setting. Perhaps the two most important questions that arise are: first, what were the uses and purposes of creating gold dust, and, second, what are the origins and hence symbolic meanings of these icon bottles? Examining related textual and artistic evidence can help us expand and refine our range of possible interpretations, chief among them the bottles’ likely use in late Ottoman magico-medicinal practices that involved the mixing of sacred dust or soil with holy water in order to produce liquid suspensions and curative potions believed saturated with prophetic baraka.

 

In addition, these bottles—just like other contemporary devotional icons devoted to the Prophet—provided a material mechanism to make and gather gold pigments. The fact that one of them mentions the nūr Muḥammad leads us, in part, to associate such pigments with the Prophet’s primordial light. That two bottles included hilyes meant to scrape at the inside walls further strengthens this hypothesis. In addition, at this time, the collecting of the water run-off from the ritual washing of the Prophet’s footprint and mantle was a well-known practice in Ottoman palace quarters. This prophetic liquid was then preserved in small flasks, imbibed to break the evening fast during Ramadan, and administered as a curative potion throughout the year. Libations that came into contact with Muḥammad’s relics were understood as the ultimate panacea, and such magico-medicinal liquids quite possibly included other tonics and potions into which were mixed gold prophetic precipitate extracted or poured from hilye bottles. Lastly, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries these hilye bottles formed part of a larger production of vessels produced to contain the consecrated water of the Zamzam well in Mecca. Known as Zamzamiyyas, these flasks were made of both transparent glass and imported Chinese porcelain, their necks often fastened shut with a rope or thread in a manner reminiscent of the hilye bottles. The sacred water contained in these Zamzamiyyas was thought to heal the sick and bring them baraka through the process of imbibing and hence physical absorption.

 

Still acting as the carriers of Meccan blessings to the present day, Zamzam water bottles are sold to pilgrims to the holy city. They also remain a staple product in stores located around the Eyüp shrine in Istanbul, which sell devotional goods, souvenirs depicting the Prophet’s relics, and, above all, a wide range of hilyes made in both monumental and miniature size.

 

In sum, it appears that these newly discovered hilye bottles essentially provided a new type of prophetic pharmacon in the Ottoman palace during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in particular. At this time, the Prophet’s verbal icon transformed from an amuletic object of visual meditation to an encased relic whose golden by-product was most likely mixed into medicinal paste or Zamzam water destined to be ingested and therefore alloyed with the body of the faithful. Such pious engagements involved multiple senses, especially sight, touch, and taste. Late Ottoman multisensorial practices that involved the imbibing of prophetic baraka heralded a new turn in Muḥammad-centered devotional products as these intersected with proto-medical practices in elite spheres. Like other healing tonics, these new products essentially provided a new kind of prophetic antidote promising cure for illness and a long life. They also reasserted Muḥammad’s supreme standing as the ultimate healing agent ready to be primed, gathered, absorbed, and, above all, embodied by his pious followers.

Numéro spécial ASSR : Le prophète de l’islam

Nouvelle publication : Le prophète de l’islam, numéro special des Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions (ASSR), sous la direction de Nelly Amri, Rachida Chih, Denis Gril (n° 178, Juillet-septembre 2017, ISBN 978-2-7132-2693-9, 23€)

 

Comment les musulmans, depuis les origines, perçoivent-ils leur prophète ? Quelle relation entretiennent- ils avec lui, dans l’intimité de leur foi et collectivement, comme communauté une ou selon leurs appartenances particulières ? Les études réunies ici répondent à une double inscription, dans le temps et dans l’espace, de la dévotion au Prophète. Elles intéressent aussi bien le Proche et le Moyen-Orient que le Maghreb, les mondes turc et persan et le sous-continent indien et couvrent trois périodes qui correspondent aux trois parties du volume : l’islam primitif ou encore la période « fondatrice » ; la période de formation ou de constitution des savoirs et des appartenances (IXe -XIe  siècles) ; et enfin, du ove  au axe  siècle, l’affirmation croissante de la vénération du Prophète et de son rôle dans la réalisation spirituelle et dans les attentes messianiques.

• Télécharger et lire l’introduction de Nelly Amri, Rachida Chih, Denis Gril.

 

TABLE DES MATIÈRES :

 Introduction

Nelly Amri, Rachida Chih et Denis Gril – La dévotion au Prophète de l’islam : une histoire qui reste à faire , p. 11

 I – Entre humanité ordinaire et sacralité : la construction d’un modèle

Denis Gril – « Comme s’il y avait des oiseaux sur leurs têtes ». L’attitude des Compagnons envers le Prophète, 25

Samuela Pagani – « Roi ou serviteur » ? La tentation du Prophète, ou le choix d’un modèle, p. 43

 II – Le prophète dans les premières vocations mystiques

Jean-Jacques Thibon – Transmission du hadith et modèle prophétique chez les premiers soufis, 71

Pierre Lory – Le modèle prophétique chez Hallâj, 89

 III – Normalisation de la présence et de la vénération du Prophète

Nelly Amri – Figures du Prophète et modalités de sa présence dans les récits visionnaires du Maghreb : la Ru’y. de ‘Abd al-Salâm al-Asmar al-Faytûrî (m. 981/1573), p. 103

Stefan Reichmuth – Aspects of Prophetic Piety in the Early Modern Period, p. 129

Hiba Abid – La vénération du Prophète en Occident musulman à travers l’étude codicologique de livres de piété (xie/xviie-xiiie/xixe siècles), p. 151

Rachida Chih – Anthropologie d’une fête musulmane non canonique. La célébration de la naissance du Prophète (al-Mawlid al-nabawî), p. 177

 

 

Conference on the emergence of the Ḥadīṯ, Cairo 2018

 

 

IDEO Conference

The emergence of the Ḥadīṯ as the authority of knowledge
ظهور الحديث النبويّ كمرجعيّة علميّة
يوم الخميس ١١ يناير / Thursday, January 11
(بمسرح المعهد الفرنسيّ بالمنيرة / French Institute in Munira)
٩:٣٠—١٠ صبحًا    كلمة الافتتاح
كلمة الأب جون درويل، مدير المعهد الدومينكيّ للدراسات الشرقيّة
١٠—١١ صبحًا    وليد صالح، أستاذ شرف، أستاذ في الأديان، جامعة تورونتو (كندا)
الحديث والتفسير، عودة التبصّراستراحة / pause

١١:٣٠—١٢ ظهرًا    سعيد الطارشيّ، باحث ثقافيّ في وزارة التراث والثقافة (سلطانة عمان)
الحديث النبويّ كمرجعيّة علميّة عند الإباضيّة في عمان: متى ولماذا؟
١٢—١٢:٣٠ ظهرًا    أحمد وجيه، مدرّس بدار العلوم، جامعة القاهرة (مصر)
موقع الحديث النبويّ من البنية الاستدلاليّة لعلم الكلام: كتاب أساس التقديس للرازيّ نموذجًا
١٢:٣٠—١ ظهرًا    جيوم دفو، باحث بالمعهد الدومينكيّ للدراسات الشرقيّة (مصر)
دراسة تأويليّة: حديث العلماء ورثة الأنبياء

غداء / lunch

٢—٢:٣٠ ظهرًا    إلياس أمحرار، مدرّس مساعد بجامعة مرسيليا (فرنسا)
العقلانية والحديث عند الخطيب البغدادي (٤٦٣/١٠٦٣): قراءة مقتطف لـ«الفقيه والمتفقّه»
٢:٣٠—٣ مساءً    عبد الكريم شتويّ، باحث مستقلّ في الدراسات العربيّة والإسلاميّة (فرنسا)
الحديث كمرجعيّة علميّة وشرعيّة، مثال: خلافة عمر بن عبد العزيز (١٠١/٧٢٠)
(مداخلة باللغة الفرنسيّة)
٣—٣:٣٠ مساءً    علاء بدويّ، باحث في تاريخ الطبّ الإسلاميّ (مصر)
الرؤى الحديثيّة في معالجة وباء الطاعون واستخداماتها في العصر المملوكيّ

Friday, January 12 / يوم الجمعة ١٢ يناير
(French Institute in Munira / بمسرح المعهد الفرنسيّ بالمنيرة)2‒2:30 pm    Presentation and summary of the previous day’s talks
2:30‒3:30 pm    Aisha Geissinger, Guest speaker, Carleton University, Ottawa (Canada)
Ḥadīths, exegetical authority, and gender: From al-Bukhārī’s (256/870) Ṣaḥīḥ to al-Baghawī’s (516/1122) Maʿālim al-Tanzīl

Pause / استراحة

4‒4:30 pm    Raashid S. Goyal, PhD Candidate, Cornell University, Ithaca NY (USA)
The Arghal tradition: A primitive ruling concerning male circumcision, evincing a shared Judaic and Islamic context
4:30‒5 pm    Adrien Candiard, OP, PhD Candidate, EPHE (France) / IDEO (Egypt)
Ḍaʿīf al-ḥadīṯ ḫayr min raʾy: Weakness and strength of the ḥadīṯ in Ibn Taymiyya’s (728/1328) theological thinking (728/ 1328)
5‒5:30 pm    Kamaluddin Ahmed, PhD candidate, Oxford University (United Kingdom)
Revisiting the Raʾy and Ḥadīth synthesis in Islamic law

Pause / استراحة

6‒6:30 pm    Usman Ghani, Assistant professor, University of Sharja (Emirates)
Justifying the role of Prophetic narration in Ḥanafī jurisprudence: The case of al-Zaylaʿī’s (762/1360) Naṣb al-rāya as a Ḥadīth companion to al-Marghīnānī’s (593/1197) al-Hidāya
6:30‒7 pm    Ruggero Sanseverino, Junior-Professor, University of Tübingen (Germany)
Transmission and authenticity in the Maghreb of the 12th century: Conditions and significance of the conservation of the Prophet’s legacy according to al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s (544/1149) ‘Elucidation concerning the knowledge of hadith transmission’

Saturday, January 13 / يوم السبت ١٣ يناير

10‒12 am Workshops / العمل ورش / ateliers
Participation to the workshops is subject to prior registration at the end of the second day.

يشترط المشاركة في ورش العمل التسجيل مسبّقًا في نهاية اليوم الثاني من الندوة

Lunch

2‒3 pm Plenary session (English)
3‒4 pm Conclusions (English)

A four years research program

Tomb cover, Turkey, 1800s, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 

Attachment to the Prophet in Islam

Attachment to the Prophet is shared by all the  different  individuals,  groups  and communities which define themselves as Muslims, whether Sunnī or Shīʿī, whether attached to the letter or rather the spirit of Islam, whether proponents of Islamic reform or secular Muslims. As a focus for personal emulation and normative precedence and as a source of hope for salvation, cultural pride and empowerment, the Prophet of Islam continues his presence among the Muslim believers. This includes eschatological beliefs about him which connect the beginnings of Islam (and for some also the origin oft he whole created world) with the present time and the end of days. A metahistorical immediacy is also evoked by the transmitted Prophetical sayings, which speak to the believer and suggest blessing and even victory for those who keep hold the Prophetic Sunna. Building on patterns of piety which emerged already in later medieval times, the Prophetic model has since the early modern period (its beginning taken here from c. 1450) increasingly moved among both Sunnī and Shīʿī Muslims into the core of personal and collective efforts to strengthen the individual and to renew Islamic culture and politics. But the increased attachment to  the  Prophet  has equally reinforced and deepened the existing fractures within Islam, and also the tensions and conflicts with non-­Muslims, which have gained in intensity whenever the Prophet and his image are at stake.

A Franco-­German research group

Bochum – April 2017

 The joint explorative enterprise intended by this Franco-­German research group, which has been engaged in academic exchange for a number  of  years,  seeks  to  explore  the  various forms of attachment to the Prophet which have contributed to the formation of the Muslim individual and to the development of Islamic culture and politics since  the  early  modern period,  in  a  time  of  continuing  expansion  but  also  decentering  of  the  Muslim  world.

A four-years program

The four-­years programme will in its first year focus on the development of  the  doctrinal, cultural and medial representations of the Prophet (1. ʺRepresentations of the Prophet: figurations and controversies”). It will shift in the second year to the Prophet as a ressource of personal and collective empowerment and of legal and political authority and power (2. “Heirs of the Prophet: authority and power”). The third year will be dedicated to the dynamics of individual and collective experience connected with  Prophetic  piety  (3. “Prophetic piety between individual and collective experience”). The last year will be devoted to the publications. The programme is designed to clear the ground for interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the history of Prophetic piety and its different dimensions since the early modern period. Its larger goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between religion, society and politics in a central field of Islamic culture which has turned over the last decades into an arena of conflict on an increasingly global scale.

PROPHET at DOT 2017

33. DEUTSCHER ORIENTALISTENTAG, SEPTEMBER 2017

Panel 83: Der Prophet Muḥammad in Früher Neuzeit und Moderne: Repräsentation und Vergegenwärtigung

Organisator: Prof. Stefan Reichmuth (Ruhr Universität Bochum)

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Campus
 Ernst-Abbe-Platz 8, 07743 Jena

Program and abstracts available here.

Representations of the Prophet during the expeditions, as depicted in the maghāzī literature and the ḥadīt̲h̲-s of al-Bukhārī

Adrien de JARMY (PhD candidate at Paris-Sorbonne University).

Paper presented at the workshop « Between God and Man. The Representations of the Prophet in the Construction of Islamic Knowledge » (Paris, 5-6 July 2017)

Introduction : from Muḥammad to the character of the Prophet

The Prophet is without a doubt the most emblematic figure of Islam. Yet hopes of writing an actual historical biography of Muḥammad took a major hit, as skepticism grew among historians, fuelled by the publications of John Wansbrough[1] in the late seventies, and Yehuda D. Nevo and Judith Koren’s study in 2003[2]. Despite the remarkable work of the late Martin Lings and Fred McGraw Donner, using the isnād methodology developed by Ignaz Goldziher to rewrite the Prophet’s life, it seems extremely difficult to overcome the 200 year long gap between the early 7th century C.E. expeditions and the earliest sources we have access to. However, following the steps of Uri Rubin[3] and Jacqueline Chabbi[4], historians are now encouraged to embrace its “impossible biography” and the wide variety of tales and legends that comes with it.

Sources such as the sīra of Ibn Isḥāq as it appears in Ibn Hishām’s recensions, as well as the maghāzī by al-Wāqidī, and narratives from Ṭabarī, give us a keen insight into how early Muslims conceived and wrote their founding narratives for the ūmma. Such is not the case for the Koran, which provides very few information about Muḥammad, who is referred to as a mere man. His representations are much more elaborated in the maghāzī and ḥadīt̲h̲-s literatures. The simple man turned into a Prophet thanks to his ability to see in the future and to perform miracles. These features are particularly highlighted in the narratives of his expeditions, where he is depicted as a great warrior who could change the course of a battle by himself, and a leader who embodies political authority. It is worth underlining that during the Abbasid era, from which our most ancient sources are drawn, the new caliphate was seeking legitimacy in order to support its rise to power between the 8th and the 9th century C.E. Considering this context, we can assume that the writing of the maghāzī contributed to the religious and political foundations of the Abbassid dynasty, although it was not its only purpose. Therefore, it has played a decisive part in shaping the figure of the Prophet, defining his features and contributing to the emergence of his worship, regardless of the prohibitions displayed in the Koran. Thanks to the many narratives recorded in the ḥadīt̲h̲-s compilations, along with the maghāzī literature, traditionalists were able to establish that Muḥammad became a role-model not only for the caliph, but also for all Muslims in their everyday life. In addition to a ruthless warrior, the Prophet was also a caring man, providing for his religious kin and capable of forgiving. The ḥadīt̲h̲-s compilations, like the work of al-Bukhārī, are heavily connected to the maghāzī, and were used to serve the law for the community. In this normative literature, stories of the Prophet can be seen as exempla, i.e. moral anecdotes for the early Muslims.

The Warrior-Prophet

Battles and combat

Muḥammad is first and foremost depicted as a warlord in the maghāzī literature. His expeditions[5] can be classified in four categories: raids or razzias[6], ranked battles, sieges and assassinations. In each of them the Prophet plays a key part, choosing the strategy for battles, selecting targets, blessing the warriors before and after combat and fighting side by side with his companions[7]. The traditionalists pay tribute to his heroic deeds at war, quoting his companions and poems that were allegedly composed by early Muslims around him. These extracts include features of epic literature, as the Prophet is truly seen as a hero, fighting for the quest that was given to him, that is to say spreading Islam with the use of his sword if necessary. Indeed, Muḥammad is described as the most formidable warrior by ʿAlī at the battle of Badr (624 C.E.), charging enemies without fear or hesitation. These epic depictions reach a climactic point during duels, where the Prophet displayed a tremendous force against a single foe, usually the champion of the opposite camp. An outstanding example of this heroic representation can be read in the story of his combat against Ubayy Ibn Ḵh̲alaf at the battle of Uhud a year later (625 C.E.). With a single blow, the Prophet instantly killed Ubayy who fell to the ground. This story is well known among traditionalists and can be found in several maghāzī with interesting variations. For example, Ṭabarī reports Ubayy’s words at the end of the duel : “Even if  he had just spat on me he would have killed me”, illustrating Muḥammad’s strength and the gap between the simple man and the Prophet. As early as the second half of the 8th century C.E., the Prophet seemed to be already worshipped and perceived as more than a man.

Relics from the Warrior-Prophet

The relics play a central part in these devotions, as there are numerous references to the Prophet’s weapons in the sources, sometimes making the core of whole chapters.  Muḥammad is known for possessing seven swords, Dhū al-Faqār[8] being the deadliest one. The sword was obtained as spoil at the battle of Badr and given to ʿAlī at Uhud, providing him with huge strength as he entered a trance state and performed a war dance. For the Shiites, the anecdote would confirm ʿAlī as the true successor of the Prophet and his rightful heir. The transmission of relics such as swords could determine one’s legitimacy to rule over the Muslim community. Other relics include the three swords taken from the armory of the Banū Qaynuqāʿ, one of the three Jewish tribes from Yathrib : Qalaʿī[9], Battār[10] and al-Hatf[11]. Ibn Isḥāq is also prolific with descriptions of his coat of mail, the value of which he stressed before the Battle of Uhud : “A prophet who has put on his armor should not lay it aside until he has fought”. This large collection of weapons and gear has contributed to shaping the image of the Prophet as a warlord and an epic hero. According to traditionalists, part of Muḥammad’s regalia besides his weapons were his cloak[12] and staff, which were carefully stored by the Abbasid caliphs to confirm their succession and power.

The miracle-maker and the thaumaturge

Miracles at war

As a warlord and a messenger of God, the Prophet was also capable of performing miracles in the heat of the battle. For example at Badr, the Quraych were in great number against the Believers and decided to charge quickly. Muḥammad bent to the ground and picked up sand and stones in his right hand, throwing them at the face of the enemy. With this simple gesture, the Quraych were blinded and could not keep fighting, forced to retreat. The anecdote is related in the sīra of Ibn Isḥāq and by al-Bukhārī. According al-Wāqidī, the miracle occurred again at the siege of the fortress of al-Nizār at Khaybar (around 629 C.E.), where the Prophet threw stones at the walls and created an earthquake to knock them down. The walls collapsed and the Muslims invaded the fortress, leading them to victory. The Prophet had no power of his own, but rather called upon God who expressed his power and wrath through him. This could be seen at Badr where Muḥammad invoked the help of God in the middle of the battlefield. Allāh sent an army of angels[13] which dived to the enemy from the sky and decapitated them. Only Muḥammad and a few of his companions were able to see the angels, whereas the others could only watch in horror heads falling from bodies. This miracle is the only one that can be found in the Koran as well[14]. Conjuring up the protection of angels was already a common practice before Islam, as Glen W. Bowersock analyzed in a series of inscriptions and ex-voto in Petra[15]. Although the Koran contains very few information about supernatural events at the time of the Prophet, the traditionalists are well aware of them and have rewritten most of the Judeo-Christian miracle tradition.

The power to heal

Like the prophets of the Bible and especially Jesus, Muḥammad could heal others. However, most of his miracles were performed in times of war. These miracles can be sorted in categories as well. First the Prophet could restore eyesight. The first instance of this healing power took place before the battle of Badr, when ʿAlī contracted an infection. The Prophet spat in his eyes, thus restoring his sight. Later during combat, as another companion was hit in the eyeball by an arrow, the Messenger of God took the eyeball out of the orbit, then blew on it before putting it back in. The companion was able to recover his eyesight, and his vision was even improved. Other similar miracles included healing of Hārith’s head who was injured during the assassination of Kaʿb the poet, and the healing of ʿAbdallāh Ibn ‘Atik’s broken leg, who was in charge of the assassination of Abū Rāfi. In other versions, the Prophet simply touched the injured part of their limbs, resulting in an instant recovery. Following the Judeo-Christian miracle tradition, Muḥammad was perceived as a thaumaturge Prophet. After the conquests, in a time where Muslims lived in territories inhabited by Christians, the figure of Muḥammad was in competition with other prophets from the People of the Book, and conquerors needed to assert their domination over the ḏh̲immi-s.

From the maghāzī literature to the ḥadīt̲h̲-s collections : writing the Prophet’s exempla

 

The ḥadīt̲h̲-s collections as well as the maghāzī literature offer numerous extracts from battles and expeditions, but the depiction of the Prophet is a vast one, evincing multiple facets.  Muḥammad is much more than a warlord, as he can be merciful and show forgiveness as well:

عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ قَالَ كَأَنِّي أَنْظُرُ إِلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَحْكِي نَبِيًّا مِنَ الأَنْبِيَاءِ ضَرَبَهُ قَوْمُهُ وَهُوَ يَمْسَحُ الدَّمَ عَنْ وَجْهِهِ  وَيَقُولُ‏” رَبِّ اغْفِرْ لِقَوْمِي فَإِنَّهُمْ لاَ يَعْلَمُو

“ʿAbdallāh [Ibn Mas’ud] reported: I remember seeing the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings be upon him, tell the story of a prophet who was beaten by his people and  wiping the blood from his face, he said “My Lord, forgive my people for they do not know.”[16]

This ḥadīt̲h̲ may refer to the Prophet’s time in Mekka and the persecution he suffered from, at the hands of the early Believers. The Prophet, burdened by his message and mission, was doomed to be persecuted by those who refused the ultimate Revelation. Since it was inevitable, he prayed to God for them, so they would avoid His wrath on the day of the Apocalypse. On other occasions, the Prophet taught prayers to his closest companions like Abū Bakr:

عَنْ أَبِي بَكْرٍ قَالَ لِرَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ عَلِّمْنِي دُعَاءً أَدْعُو بِهِ فِي صَلَاتِي قَالَ قُلْ اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي ظُلْمًا كَبِيرًا وَقَالَ قُتَيْبَةُ كَثِيرًا وَلَا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ فَاغْفِرْ لِي مَغْفِرَةً مِنْ عِنْدِكَ وَارْحَمْنِي إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ

 

“Abū Bakr reported: He said to the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings be upon him, “O Messenger of Allāh, teach me a supplication to say in my prayers.” The Prophet said, “Say: O Allāh, I have wronged myself with many great wrongs and none forgives sin but you, so forgive me and have mercy upon me. Verily, you alone are the Forgiving, the Merciful.”[17]

In this ḥadīt̲h̲, the Prophet is clearly referred to as a teacher for the everyday life of Muslims. Muḥammad taught Abū Bakr to repent himself in front of God for his sins, and maybe his behavior, before he converted to Islam. Furthermore, these ḥadīt̲h̲ exhort Muslims to forgive each other and to rely on God for every moral decision. Hence, these anecdotes taken from the life of the Prophet can be interpreted as moral lessons or exempla, which encourage Muslims to follow the path indicated by the Messenger of Allāh.

As food for thought for the PhD[18], I am considering looking into the muṣannafāt literature, which dates back from even earlier than the maghāzī and ḥadīt̲h̲-s collections, and contains previous versions of these narratives and anecdotes. From the muṣannafāt material, I would study the different ways traditionalists used to shape the character of the Prophet: the narrative path with the maghāzī literature and the normative path with ḥadīt̲h̲-s collections.

Selected bibliography

Sources

al-Bukhārī, Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Beyrout, Dār Ibn Hazm, 2003.

Ibn Isḥaq, Sīra, ed. F. Wüstenfeld, 1860. See also translation by Alfred Guillaume.

Ṭabarī, Tārīkh al-Rusul wa al-Mulūk, ed. University of California, 1923, 23 volumes.

Wāqidī, Kitāb al-Maghāzī, Oxford University press, 1966.

                   Literature on the subject

Jonathan Brown, The canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim : the formation and function of the Sunnī ḥadīth canon, Leyde, Brill, 2007.

Jonathan E. Brockopp, The Cambridge companion to Muḥammad, Cambridge, Cambridge university press, 2010.

Jacqueline Chabbi, Le seigneur des tribus : l’Islam de Mahomet, Paris, Paris : Éd. Noêsis, 1997.

Jacqueline Chabbi, « Histoire et tradition sacrée. La biographie impossible de Mahomet », Arabica, 1996, vol. 43, no 1, p. 189‑205.

Abdesselam Cheddadi, Les Arabes et l’appropriation de l’Histoire. Emergence et premiers développements de l’historiographie musulmane jusqu’au IIe/VIIIe siècle, Paris, Sindbad, Actes Sud, 2004.

Patricia Crone et Michael Cook, Hagarism : The Making of the Islamic World, Cambridge, Cambridge university press, 1977.

Patricia Crone et Martin Hinds, God’s Caliph : Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam, London, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Fred McGraw Donner, Narratives of Islamic origins : The beginnings of islamic historical writing, Princeton, The Darwin Press, 1998.

Fred McGraw Donner, Muḥammad and the Believers : at the origins of islam, Cambridge, Belknap Press of Harvard university press, 2010.

Denis Gril, « Le corps du Prophète », Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2006, p. 37‑57.

Robert Gerard Hoyland, In God’s path. The Arab Conquest and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, New York, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the age of caliphate : the Islamic Near East from the Sixth to the Eleventh century, Harlow, Pearson, 2004.

Wilfried Madelung, The Succession to Muḥammad. A study of the early Caliphate, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Harald Motzki, The biography of Muḥammad : the issue of the sources, Leiden, Brill, 2000.

Harald Motzki, Hadith : Origins and Developments, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2000.

Harald Motzki et Gregor Schoeler, « Methods of Dating Early Legal Traditions », Islamic Law and Society, 2012, p. 1‑10.

Yehuda D. Nevo et Judith Koren, The Crossroads to Islam, New York, 2003.

Albrecht Noth et Lawrence Conrad, The Early Arabic Historical Tradition. A Source-Critical Study, Princeton, Darwin Press, 1994.

Alfred-Louis Prémare, Les fondations de l’Islam : entre écriture et histoire, Paris, Seuil, 2002.

Uri Rubin, Muḥammad the Prophet and Arabia, Farnham, Ashgate, 2011.

Uri Rubin, The Life of Muḥammad, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1998.

Uri Rubin, The Eye of the Beholder : The Life of Muḥammad as viewed by the Early Muslims : A Textual Analysis, Princeton, Darwin Press, 1995.

John Schacht, The Origins of Muḥammadan Jurisprudence, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1967.

Gregor Schoeler, The Biography of Muḥammad : Nature and Authenticity, London, Routledge, 2011.

Gregor Schoeler, Ecrire et transmettre dans les débuts de l’Islam, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 2002.

William Montgomery Watt, W. M. Watt. Mahomet : prophète et homme d’Etat, Paris, Payot, 1962.

 

NOTES

[1]    John Wansbrough and Gerald Hawting, The Sectarian Milieu : Content and Composition of Islamic Salvation History, London, Oxford University Press, 1978.

[2]    Yehuda D Nevo et Judith Koren, The Crossroads to Islam, New York, 2003.

[3]    Uri Rubin, The Eye of the Beholder : The Life of Muḥammad as viewed by the Early Muslims : A Textual Analysis, Princeton, Darwin Press, 1995.

[4]    Jacqueline Chabbi, « Histoire et tradition sacrée. La biographie impossible de Mahomet », Arabica, 1996, vol. 43, no 1, p. 189‑205.

[5]    Around 80 depending on sources and counting.

[6]    From which comes the original term maghāzī.

[7]      Also know as al-ṣaḥābah.

[8]    Can be translated as “two-edges”, could be meaning “the one who separates the Good from Evil”.

[9]    « Taken by force ».

[10]  « Really sharp ».

[11]  « Death ».

[12]  Burda.

[13]  malāʿika.

[14]  VIII, 9.

[15]  « Les anges païens dans l’antiquité tardive », conference by Glen W. Bowersock at the Collège de France, 09/09/2013.

[16]  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6530. Also see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Muslim, 1792. Translations from Arabic are taken from Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research and NYU Abu Dhabi’s websites, little revised by myself.

[17]  Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 6953. Also see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Muslim, 2705.

[18]  Under the supervision of Mathieu Tillier, full professor at Paris-Sorbonne University.

 

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