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Author: Nissim Dana
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Published: 2003
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A general discussion of the Druze in the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Druze relationship with the State of Israel.
Author: Anis Obeid
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Published: 2006-07-06
Total Pages: 350
ISBN-13: 0815652577
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →As a small sect that emerged from Islam over a thousand years ago, the Druze religion and society has long been cloaked in a tradition of secrecy. Veiled from the outside world, the religious tenets have been vulnerable to distortion, misunderstanding, and misrepresentation. In this book Dr. Anis Obeid, a Druze layman, provides a penetrating analysis of Druze scriptures and beliefs (Tawhid). Presenting a chronological narrative of the foundation and development of the faith, he explains the historical conditions and religious rationale behind this closed religion. The Druze faith is the product of Abrahamic monotheism as it coalesced with other philosophies, belief systems, and political structures of the West and the East and, as Obeid maintains, should be recognized for its core monotheism, and not fundamentally different from Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. He argues convincingly, with examples and translations from the Druze scriptures, only now accessible to a non-initiate public, that Tawhid is a progressive and dynamic spiritual process based on freedom of choice. This rich exploration of their faith, the author’s appeal for a sincere cultural dialogue will resonate with a wide audience in the West and in the Middle East.
Author: Samy S. Swayd
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13: 0810868369
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The Druzes are one of the smallest, least studied, and most esoteric religious communities in the Middle East. This is because the Druze teachings remain inaccessible not only to outsiders but also to uninitiated members within the Druze community itself. Furthermore, proselytizing--inducing someone to convert to one's own religious faith--has been prohibited since the establishment of the sect in the 11th century. In order to resist assimilation by the various empires and colonial powers that sought to dominate them--the Byzantines, various Arab dynasties, the Mamluks and Ottomans, the British and French, in addition to the nations that govern them--the Druzes disguise and conceal their beliefs. Therefore, not much is known by outsiders about the Druzes. This dictionary provides nearly 1,000 concise and informative cross-referenced A to Z entries on religious, political, and cultural themes, as well as entries on a number of major families and individuals (artists, writers, diplomats, and leaders) who have contributed to the Druze communities. This volume is also complemented with a chronology, an introductory essay, and a bibliography.
Author: Kamal Suleiman Salibi
Publisher:
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →An array of scholars from different parts of the world join in a multidisciplinary effort to study and integrate available knowledge and perceptions regarding the Druze as a religious community and historical society. The scholars whose work appears in this volume will undoubtedly be helpful to those who seek to know more about the Druze-their faith, identity and society, and the role that they have played in the history of the Middle East. In the planning of the first international academic conference of the Druze Heritage Foundation (DHF), held in collaboration with the Middle East Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford, in July 2002, it was thought best not to concentrate on any single aspect of the Druze legacy, but to attempt to cover the widest possible range of themes, the better to bring out the Druze ethos as understood by the Druze themselves and as perceived by others. Thus, of the fifteen papers presented in this volume, which were the ones ultimately received in publishable form, the first four relate to religious issues. An explanation of the Druze faith by Sami Makarem (American University of Beirut) is followed by a critical assessment of the pioneering work of the French Orientalist, Sylvestre de Sacy, on the subject, contributed by Tony P. Nawfal (independent scholar). Next, David R. W. Bryer (former head of OXFAM) presents a survey of Druze religious texts, while Naila Kaidbey (American University of Beirut) describes the career of the fifteenth-century Druze reformer, al-Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Tanukhi, commonly regarded as the founder of what one may call normative Druzism....
Author: Shireen Hunter
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-12-18
Total Pages: 345
ISBN-13: 131746124X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →In recent years, Islamic fundamentalist, revolutionary, and jihadist movements have overshadowed more moderate and reformist voices and trends within Islam. This compelling volume introduces the current generation of reformist thinkers and activists, the intellectual traditions they carry on, and the reasons for the failure of reformist movements to sustain broad support in the Islamic world today. Richly detailed regionally focused chapters cover Iran, the Arab East, the Maghreb, South Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Europe, and North America. The editor's introductory chapter traces the roots of reformist thinking both in Islamic tradition and as a response to the challenge of modernity for Muslims struggling to reconcile the requirements of modernization with their cultural and religious values. The concluding chapter identifies commonalities, comparisons, and trends in the modernizing movements.
Author: Gerard Russell
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2014-11-20
Total Pages: 470
ISBN-13: 1471114724
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Despite its reputation for religious intolerance, the Middle East has long sheltered many distinctive and strange faiths: one regards the Greek prophets as incarnations of God, another reveres Lucifer in the form of a peacock, and yet another believes that their followers are reincarnated beings who have existed in various forms for thousands of years. These religions represent the last vestiges of the magnificent civilizations in ancient history: Persia, Babylon, Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. Their followers have learned how to survive foreign attacks and the perils of assimilation. But today, with the Middle East in turmoil, they face greater challenges than ever before. In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities. Historically a tolerant faith, Islam has, since the early 20th century, witnessed the rise of militant, extremist sects. This development, along with the rippling effects of Western invasion, now pose existential threats to these minority faiths. And as more and more of their youth flee to the West in search of greater freedoms and job prospects, these religions face the dire possibility of extinction. Drawing on his extensive travels and archival research, Russell provides an essential record of the past, present, and perilous future of these remarkable religions.
Author: Kais M. Firro
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2021-10-11
Total Pages: 280
ISBN-13: 9004491910
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Following the war of 1948 Palestine's Druzes became part of the state of Israel. Overwhelmingly rural, they sought to safeguard their community's age-old ethnic independence by holding on to their traditional ethno-religious particularism. Ethnicity and ethnic issues, however, were ready tools for the Zionists in the pursuit of their policy aims vis-à-vis the state's Arab population. Central among these was the cooptation of part of the Druze elite in an obvious effort to alienate the Druzes from the other Arabs - creating "good" Arabs and "bad" Arabs served the Jewish state as a foil for its ongoing policy of dispossession and control. The author painstakingly documents the political, social and economic factors that ensured the "success" of these Zionist policies, but concludes that the fissured identity of Israel's Druzes today bespeaks a feeling of musiba, tragedy, within the community itself.
Author: Jihan Farhoud
Publisher:
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 237
ISBN-13: 9786061716159
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