There is no religion that does not seek answers to the questions of life and death or expound on the belief in an afterlife once the bodily self has dissolved. World religions touch upon these questions in varied ways, providing a source of moral behavior that steers people’s relationships with others and the divine. Most of the time, death is described as something one struggles to come to terms with, a struggle often associated with emotions of grief, fear, and despair. But there are cases where death is extolled as a joyful, even ecstatic rupture with worldly attachments or an opportunity for self-elevation. In these cases, death represents something more than just the

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The emergence of the first Saudi state and its territorial expansion coincided with a period of weakening and internal crisis in France, resulting in a lack of interest in political developments in the Arabian Peninsula. But Bonaparte revived the French ambition of undoing the British hold on India by landing in Egypt in 1798. He then failed to forge an alliance against the British with the grand Sharif of Mecca. Once back in France, his interest in developments in the interior of Arabia shows that he was simultaneously exploring the land route to India. In 1803 he instructed his consul in Baghdad, Olivier de Corancez, to get in touch with the Amir Saud ibn Abdelaziz, in case th

This article analyzes a cluster of Moroccan ḥajj accounts – all related to the popular Kattāniyya Sufi order in Fez – to explore the role of the ḥajj and the Ḥijāz in these pilgrims’ own words, at a time when the experiences of imperialism, new technologies and globalization were inevitable for any Moroccan ḥajj traveller. Studying the accounts of the journeys of shaykh Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Kabīr al-Kattānī (1873-1909) (written by his follower ʿAbd al-Salām bin Muḥammad al-Muʿṭī al-ʿAmrānī) and his cousin, the ḥadīth-scholar and biographer Muḥammad bin Jaʿfar al-Kattānī (1858-1927), this article show

This article discusses how the abstract notion of Jeddah as an entrance hall or dihlīz of Mecca translated into social practice. It explores this by using as an example the different ways in which members of the Naṣīf family, most notably Muḥammad Ḥusayn Naṣīf, acted as hosts in their house which had been constructed with view to accommodating high-ranking guests. The hospitality displayed was a religious duty to the pilgrims heading for the “House of God”, the holy mosque in Mecca, a political obligation to the Sharīf of Mecca and later the Saudi King, a function of the economic pursuits as grain merchants as well as an expression of the intellectual

WAN Lei This article discusses the infamous “Nanhua Incident” in 1932 occurred in Shanghai and the consequent responses of two distinguished scholars in modern China, Hui Shih and Lu Xun, and their attitudes toward it. The two scholars happened to have witnessed the protest movements, and wrote their articles, letters and diaries on the matter. By analyzing the texts of such writings, one can grasp the viewpoints of the two scholars on the Muslim movement and on Islam in China.  

Sulaiman bin Abdulrahman al-Dheeb This work is a scientific study of a number of Thamudic inscriptions, classified as religious prayers, which were spotted in a number of sites in the region of Hail. The purpose of the study is to highlight a social phenomenon practiced by the Thamudic people of Hail back then, namely, the practice of religious invocation to the (Gods) or the Objects of worship. I want to point out that this study is part of a larger project in which I seek to track and publish all Thamudic writings across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – which surpassed thousands. The inscriptio

Sulaiman bin Abdulrahman al-Dheeb The settlement of Hail, located in the north of Saudi Arabia, dates back to the Stone Age, and its environment has largely helped in making it a more attractive location than others. Writings known as “Thamudic writings” left by the Hail man - which we would to also refer to as: popular writings, due to  their number, spread and content. These writings were in the thousands, and clearly covered all areas of the Arabian Peninsula from north to south going through the central region, and from west to east, but to a limited extent so far, at least in t

The article by Dr Wan Lei, “The First Chinese Travel Record on the Arab World——Commercial and Diplomatic Communications during the Islamic Golden Age” published by King Fasial Center for Research and Islamic Studies in its bulletin, Qiraat (No. 7 Rabi I - II, 1438; December 2016 - January 2017), is composed of three articles, which are all translations and interpretations from official Chinese historical books recording events during the Tang dynasty (618-917 CE). The first is about Du Huan’s Jingxingji [The Travel Record], who was the first Chinese man who travelled the Arab world; the second article is about Jian Dan’s “Guangzhou

Wan Lei This article explores the earliest Muslim immigration into China during the Tang and Song dynasties. The background of such immigration, along with various Chinese titles to designate Muslims, their communities, and their leaders demonstrate the earliest forms of recognition of the Muslims by the Chinese people. The article focuses on the studies of the Muslim leaders’ duties and their confrontations with the Chinese legal system; to adapt to a new society, a community must undergo acculturation. Finally, the system of Muslim leaders was improved by the succeeding Mongol Yuan dynasty,