Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its creation in 1920 during the Sam Remo Conference, ... more Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its creation in 1920 during the Sam Remo Conference, led by the victors of WWI, the nation-state of Syria has endured a seemingly perpetual cycle of violence illustrated by numerous revolts, rebellions, coups, uprisings, and internecine conflicts over the decades and which continue to haunt the country of nearly twenty million a hundred years later. Factor in WWI and the decades preceding it, the population of the Ottoman province of Syria (Vilayeti Suriya) has been subjected to what seems like more than a century of utter misfortune. By the end of WWI, some 500,000 people living in Greater Syria succumbed to fighting, famine and disease and it is certain that a substantial number of lives, in fact, were lost to the 1918 flu pandemic that even claimed the life of one of the modern Middle East's chief architects-Sir Mark Sykes (of the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement).
Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its inception as a French mandate at the San Remo Con... more Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its inception as a French mandate at the San Remo Conference in 1920, Lebanon has lived on the cusp of chaos economically, militarily, and politically. For many, life in the mountainous country has been synonymous with major political crises (like the events of 1958 and Operation Blue Bat, the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri in 2005), constant disruption (1978, 1982 and 2006 Israeli Wars and occupation until 2000 as well as the Syrian occupation until 2005 and the Cedar Revolution that same year), civil war (1975-1990), and religious tensions that refuse to dissipate. Moreover, the tiny nation-state, smaller than the size of Connecticut (with a population nearing six million), remains vulnerable to the political ambitions of its neighbors as well.
The seventh century CE in the Near East was an era characterized by major political transition an... more The seventh century CE in the Near East was an era characterized by major political transition and cultural change, representing a historical epoch that witnessed the decline of the region’s long-standing major political institutions alongside the emergence of a powerful Arab Caliphate that supplanted both the offices of the Byzantine Emperor and the Persian, Sasanid Shah in most or all of the region.
This Arab Caliphate, first based out of the Hejaz, then out of Syria-Palestine with the rise of the Umayyads (r. 661-750 CE), the first hereditary dynasty of the Islamic period, embarked on a campaign of Arab and Muslim hegemony across three continents within the course of a century.
Some of the Umayyad’s successes in terms of both the acquisition of and projection of power were not only the result of an organized and determined military and a steady stream of income from its territorial acquisitions, but also due to their ability to construct institutions and bureaucratic machinery that allowed them to create and control narratives through the production of inscribed material culture. Through various administrative and institutional mechanisms, the Umayyad caliphs were able to universalize the Arabic language and script and, by extension, promote a doctrinal form of Islam, both of which were accelerated by the development and expansion of their state and which played a critical role in the attempt to validate their political claims.
Most importantly, an Umayyad monopoly on the cursive Arabic script, an orthography initially used by Christian missionaries in the Levant and Arabia in the sixth century, led to its appropriation for administrative uses by the Muslims which was then wielded as a source of political capital. The weaponization of the Arabic orthography enabled the Umayyads to decisively institute and enforce a new linguistic, cultural, religious and political order over the Near East in the era of Late Antiquity. The extant inscribed material culture implicates the Umayyads as graphophiles, obsessed with the written word and cognizant of its qualities and abilities in helping them impose their political will on their opponents in a battle for cultural, political and ideological primacy.
Thus, this dissertation serves as an archaeolinguistic study of how the Umayyads instrumentalized and exploited the Arabic script on administrative material culture as instruments of authority and as purveyors of a new order in the region.
Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its creation in 1920 during the Sam Remo Conference, ... more Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its creation in 1920 during the Sam Remo Conference, led by the victors of WWI, the nation-state of Syria has endured a seemingly perpetual cycle of violence illustrated by numerous revolts, rebellions, coups, uprisings, and internecine conflicts over the decades and which continue to haunt the country of nearly twenty million a hundred years later. Factor in WWI and the decades preceding it, the population of the Ottoman province of Syria (Vilayeti Suriya) has been subjected to what seems like more than a century of utter misfortune. By the end of WWI, some 500,000 people living in Greater Syria succumbed to fighting, famine and disease and it is certain that a substantial number of lives, in fact, were lost to the 1918 flu pandemic that even claimed the life of one of the modern Middle East's chief architects-Sir Mark Sykes (of the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement).
Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its inception as a French mandate at the San Remo Con... more Detroit (Special to Informed Comment)-Since its inception as a French mandate at the San Remo Conference in 1920, Lebanon has lived on the cusp of chaos economically, militarily, and politically. For many, life in the mountainous country has been synonymous with major political crises (like the events of 1958 and Operation Blue Bat, the assassination of PM Rafic Hariri in 2005), constant disruption (1978, 1982 and 2006 Israeli Wars and occupation until 2000 as well as the Syrian occupation until 2005 and the Cedar Revolution that same year), civil war (1975-1990), and religious tensions that refuse to dissipate. Moreover, the tiny nation-state, smaller than the size of Connecticut (with a population nearing six million), remains vulnerable to the political ambitions of its neighbors as well.
The seventh century CE in the Near East was an era characterized by major political transition an... more The seventh century CE in the Near East was an era characterized by major political transition and cultural change, representing a historical epoch that witnessed the decline of the region’s long-standing major political institutions alongside the emergence of a powerful Arab Caliphate that supplanted both the offices of the Byzantine Emperor and the Persian, Sasanid Shah in most or all of the region.
This Arab Caliphate, first based out of the Hejaz, then out of Syria-Palestine with the rise of the Umayyads (r. 661-750 CE), the first hereditary dynasty of the Islamic period, embarked on a campaign of Arab and Muslim hegemony across three continents within the course of a century.
Some of the Umayyad’s successes in terms of both the acquisition of and projection of power were not only the result of an organized and determined military and a steady stream of income from its territorial acquisitions, but also due to their ability to construct institutions and bureaucratic machinery that allowed them to create and control narratives through the production of inscribed material culture. Through various administrative and institutional mechanisms, the Umayyad caliphs were able to universalize the Arabic language and script and, by extension, promote a doctrinal form of Islam, both of which were accelerated by the development and expansion of their state and which played a critical role in the attempt to validate their political claims.
Most importantly, an Umayyad monopoly on the cursive Arabic script, an orthography initially used by Christian missionaries in the Levant and Arabia in the sixth century, led to its appropriation for administrative uses by the Muslims which was then wielded as a source of political capital. The weaponization of the Arabic orthography enabled the Umayyads to decisively institute and enforce a new linguistic, cultural, religious and political order over the Near East in the era of Late Antiquity. The extant inscribed material culture implicates the Umayyads as graphophiles, obsessed with the written word and cognizant of its qualities and abilities in helping them impose their political will on their opponents in a battle for cultural, political and ideological primacy.
Thus, this dissertation serves as an archaeolinguistic study of how the Umayyads instrumentalized and exploited the Arabic script on administrative material culture as instruments of authority and as purveyors of a new order in the region.
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Papers by Tareq A. Ramadan
This Arab Caliphate, first based out of the Hejaz, then out of Syria-Palestine with the rise of the Umayyads (r. 661-750 CE), the first hereditary dynasty of the Islamic period, embarked on a campaign of Arab and Muslim hegemony across three continents within the course of a century.
Some of the Umayyad’s successes in terms of both the acquisition of and projection of power were not only the result of an organized and determined military and a steady stream of income from its territorial acquisitions, but also due to their ability to construct institutions and bureaucratic machinery that allowed them to create and control narratives through the production of inscribed material culture. Through various administrative and institutional mechanisms, the Umayyad caliphs were able to universalize the Arabic language and script and, by extension, promote a doctrinal form of Islam, both of which were accelerated by the development and expansion of their state and which played a critical role in the attempt to validate their political claims.
Most importantly, an Umayyad monopoly on the cursive Arabic script, an orthography initially used by Christian missionaries in the Levant and Arabia in the sixth century, led to its appropriation for administrative uses by the Muslims which was then wielded as a source of political capital. The weaponization of the Arabic orthography enabled the Umayyads to decisively institute and enforce a new linguistic, cultural, religious and political order over the Near East in the era of Late Antiquity. The extant inscribed material culture implicates the Umayyads as graphophiles, obsessed with the written word and cognizant of its qualities and abilities in helping them impose their political will on their opponents in a battle for cultural, political and ideological primacy.
Thus, this dissertation serves as an archaeolinguistic study of how the Umayyads instrumentalized and exploited the Arabic script on administrative material culture as instruments of authority and as purveyors of a new order in the region.
http://uschaammedia.com/sections/opinions/islam-and-america-a-largely-unknown-history
This Arab Caliphate, first based out of the Hejaz, then out of Syria-Palestine with the rise of the Umayyads (r. 661-750 CE), the first hereditary dynasty of the Islamic period, embarked on a campaign of Arab and Muslim hegemony across three continents within the course of a century.
Some of the Umayyad’s successes in terms of both the acquisition of and projection of power were not only the result of an organized and determined military and a steady stream of income from its territorial acquisitions, but also due to their ability to construct institutions and bureaucratic machinery that allowed them to create and control narratives through the production of inscribed material culture. Through various administrative and institutional mechanisms, the Umayyad caliphs were able to universalize the Arabic language and script and, by extension, promote a doctrinal form of Islam, both of which were accelerated by the development and expansion of their state and which played a critical role in the attempt to validate their political claims.
Most importantly, an Umayyad monopoly on the cursive Arabic script, an orthography initially used by Christian missionaries in the Levant and Arabia in the sixth century, led to its appropriation for administrative uses by the Muslims which was then wielded as a source of political capital. The weaponization of the Arabic orthography enabled the Umayyads to decisively institute and enforce a new linguistic, cultural, religious and political order over the Near East in the era of Late Antiquity. The extant inscribed material culture implicates the Umayyads as graphophiles, obsessed with the written word and cognizant of its qualities and abilities in helping them impose their political will on their opponents in a battle for cultural, political and ideological primacy.
Thus, this dissertation serves as an archaeolinguistic study of how the Umayyads instrumentalized and exploited the Arabic script on administrative material culture as instruments of authority and as purveyors of a new order in the region.
http://uschaammedia.com/sections/opinions/islam-and-america-a-largely-unknown-history