Abstract This article examines the circulation in al-Andalus of Rāʾiʿ al-durar, a sīra treatise attributed to Ibn Fāris, disseminated in the Iberian Peninsula through Qāḍī Abū Bakr b. al-ʿArabī and transmitted there for at least four centuries. I explore the authenticity of the text’s authorial attribution and the authenticity of this recension. I then analyse two manuscripts, MS BAV Borg. Ar. 132 and MS Escurial 1615, which constitute the oldest material evidence of this text’s circulation in al-Andalus. The latter is especially valuable, written in 731/1331 in Granada by Ibn Simāk al-ʿĀmilī (d. 750/1349), a secretary of a Nasrid ruler from the Banū al-Aḥmar dynasty. He studied the text under Ibn ʿAtīq (d. 744/1343), a muḥaddith who authenticated the transcription and granted him an ijāza with an uninterrupted chain of transmission going back to Ibn Fāris. This chain passes through several prominent Andalusian figures of sīra, including Ibn Diḥya (d. 633/1235), al-Suhaylī (d. 581/1185), and Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 543/1148). This manuscript provides a means to trace the history of sīra in al-Andalus. The analysis focuses on the attestation of audition (samāʿ) found in the second manuscript, allowing us to reconstruct the chain of transmission back to Ibn Fāris. This chain is studied in detail, alongside other chains found in Andalusian transmission catalogues (barāmij) of the same period, offering an enriching perspective on the dynamics of textual transmission. The study highlights the importance Andalusian scholars placed on preserving the sīra, an importance seemingly dictated by the region’s sensitive political context.
Abstract The Russian Revolution (1917) and the subsequent civil war led to an increase in emigration of Tatar Muslims of the erstwhile Russian Empire, some of whom began settling in Japan as early as 1919. Tatar émigrés established their publishing house, the Tōkyō’da Mäṭbaʿä-i Islāmiyyä (Tokyo Mohammedan Press), which printed Islamic textbooks for children from 1930 to 1942. Despite numerous sociological and historical studies on Tatar exiles in Japan, their Islamic publications remain understudied. The present article argues that the Tōkyō’da Mäṭbaʿä-i Islāmiyyä’s publication of religious textbooks contributed to the preservation of Muslim identity among Tatar émigrés. Briefly outlining the transition of Tatar Islamic publications from pre-revolutionary Kazan to post-revolutionary Tokyo, this research analyses the three catechismal texts contained in the Shärāʾiṭ al-īmān wä-Yā Sīn shärīf (The Conditions for Faith and the Noble Qurʾānic Chapter of Yā Sīn), a textbook published by the Tōkyō’da Mäṭbaʿä-i Islāmiyyä (1934). This textual analysis sheds light on the doctrinal, legal, and Sufi affiliations of the Tatar émigrés, enabling a deeper understanding of their Muslim identity.
Abstract The present article explores the work of ʿAbd al-Vahhāb Daybulī Shīrāzī (d. after 1662), a little known Shiʿi scholar active in mid-seventeenth-century Delhi. The study situates the work in the context of the shifts in political theology in the Mughal Empire during the late years of Shāh Jahān (r. 1628–58) and the early years of Awrangzīb (r. 1658–1707). It seeks to understand how the author combined common tropes of Sunni–Shiʿi polemics with context-specific issues. Special attention is given to the treatment of legal questions and to the validity of independent reasoning (ijtihād) among Sunnis and Shiʿa. The study argues that Daybulī’s work attests to an environment of ambiguity, whereby the Shiʿa were seen as a major ideological nemesis within the shifting political theology of the time but were nonetheless able to find ways to present their positions in open theological debates.
