Islamic Piety in Medieval Syria: Mosques, Cemeteries and Sermons under the Zangids and Ayyūbids (1146-1260)

Focusing on the mosques, public assemblies, cemeteries and shrines of Syrian Muslims in the period of the crusades and the anti-Frankish jihad, the book describes and deciphers religious rites and experiences, liturgical calendars, spiritual leadership, and perceptions of impiety and dissent.

A study of religious thought and practice across a broad social spectrum, but within a well-defined historical context, this book is an interdisciplinary endeavor that incorporates the tools of philology, social-history and historical-anthropology. Focusing on the mosques, public assemblies, cemeteries and shrines of Syrian Muslims in the period of the crusades and the anti-Frankish jihad, the book describes and deciphers religious rites and experiences, liturgical calendars, spiritual leadership, and perceptions of impiety and dissent. Working from a perspective that breaks down the dichotomization of religion into ‘official’ and ‘popular,’ it exposes the negotiation, construction and dissemination of hybrid forms of religious life. The result is an intimate and complex presentation of the texture of medieval Islamic piety.

About the Author

Daniella Talmon-Heller, Ph.D. (1999), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. She co-authored the Israeli Open University “Introduction to Islam,” and published a number of articles on the religious and social history of medieval Syria.

Table of Contents 

Preliminary Materials

Introduction

Chapter One. Mosques In Society

Chapter Two. Society In Mosques

Chapter Three. Preachers (Khaţībs) And Prayer Leaders (Imāms)

Chapter Four. The Assembly Of Exhortation (Majlis Al-Wa’Z)

Chapter Five. The Cemetery

Chapter Six. Shrines (Mashhads And Maqamat)

Chapter Seven. Piety

Chapter Eight. Impiety And Religious Dissent

Conclusions

Appendix I. The Liturgical Calendar

Appendix II. Dynastic Tables And Maps

Bibliographic Information

Title: Islamic Piety in Medieval Syria: Mosques, Cemeteries and Sermons under the Zangids and Ayyūbids (1146-1260)

Author (s): Daniella Talmon-Heller

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

 Language: English

Length: 306 Pages

ISBN: 978-9004158092

Pub. Date: November 13, 2007

Islamic Piety in Medieval Syria