Synopses & Reviews
From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities in Muslim societies. So an understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.
These 9 case studies link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability serves.
Synopsis
From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities in Muslim societies. These case studies link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted.
Synopsis
These case studies link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability serves. From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities in Muslim societies. So an understanding of genealogy is vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.
Synopsis
Published in Association with the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations Explores the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge
From the Prophet's family tree to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped communal and national identities in Muslim societies. So an understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.
These 9 case studies link genealogical knowledge to particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability serves.
Key Features
- Draws on primary sources from across the Middle East, the Maghreb, and Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging from works of the classical Arabic heritage to oral testimonies gained from fieldwork
- Questions how genealogical knowledge has been generated, how it has empowered political and religious elites and how it has shaped understandings about the past - including those of modern scholars
- Examines the authenticity, legitimacy and institutionalisation of genealogical knowledge
- Looks at the bases for sectarian, tribal, ethnic and other identities
- Explores hierarchy and grounds for prestige and infamy
About the Author
Sarah Bowen Savant is a historian of religion and an Associate Professor at the Aga Khan University's Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London. Her publications include
The New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran: Tradition, Memory, and Conversion (Cambridge University Press, 2013), as well as book chapters and journal articles treating early Islamic history and historiography.
Helena de Felipe lectures in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Universidad de Alcalá. Her publications include Identidad y onomástica de los bereberes de al-Andalus (CSIC, 1997) and, co-edited with F. Rodríguez Mediano, El Protectorado español en Marruecos: Gestión colonial e identidades (CSIC, 2002). She is the author of articles and book chapters on Berbers in the medieval period and the Spanish-Moroccan relationship in the colonial period.
Table of Contents
IntroductionSarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe
Part I: The Generation of Genealogical Knowledge
Keeping the Prophet's Family Alive: Profile of a Genealogical Discipline
Kazuo Morimoto
Techniques of Genealogical Forgery and Procedures of Genealogical Verification in Pre-Modern Muslim Societies
Zoltán Szombathy
The Genealogy of Power and the Power of Genealogy in Morocco: History, Imaginary and Politics
Zakaria Rhani
Part II: Empowering Political and Religious Elites
Berber Leadership and Genealogical Legitimacy: The Almoravid Case
Helena de Felipe
Ways of Connecting with the Past: Genealogies in Nasrid Granada
Maribel Fierro
Embarrassing Cousins: Genealogical Conundrums in the Central Sahara
Judith Scheele
Part III: Genealogy as Source for Writing History
Was Marwan ibn al-Hakam the First "Real" Muslim?
Fred Donner
Genealogy and Ethnogenesis in al-Mas'udi's Muruj al-dhahab
Sarah Bowen Savant
Genealogical Prestige and Marriage Policy among the Ahl al-Bayt: The Case of the al-Sadr Family in Recent Times
Raffaele Mauriello
About the Contributors
Index