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AbstractThis article proposes a comparative analytical framework to study changes in Islamic law during the post-Mongol period, particularly the rise of the official school of law (or statemadhhab). Taking as my case study the Ottoman adoption of a particular branch within the Sunni Hanafi school of law, I suggest that this adoption marks a new chapter in Islamic legal history. In earlier periods, while rulers appointed judges and thus regulated the adjudication procedures, they did not intervene, at least theoretically, in the structure and doctrine of the schools of law, which remained the relatively autonomous realm of the jurists. The Ottoman adoption of the school, by contrast, was not merely an act of state patronage, since the dynasty played an important role in regulating the school's structure and doctrine. To this end, it employed a set of administrative and institutional practices, such as the development of an imperial learned hierarchy with standardized career and training tracks and the appointment of jurisconsults (muftis). Some of these practices were found in other polities across the eastern Islamic lands in the post-Mongol period, but these similarities have not been treated comparatively in modern historiography. They suggest that the Ottoman case was part of a broader legal culture that spanned several polities across the region. This article outlines a framework that will enable historians of Islamic law to treat these similarities in a more coherent manner. The framework raises key issues in the historiography of Islamic law and its nineteenth-century modernization.

The use of intercultural dialogue (ICD) to promote intergroup understanding and respect is considered as a key to reduce tensions and the likelihood of conflict. This paper argues that understanding the differences among religions – those between packaged and lived religion – enhances the chances of success and makes the effort more challenging. Religions contained and packaged are found in formallyorganised expressions of religion – churches, denominations, synagogues, mosques, temples and so on. For packaged religions, religious identity is singular and adherents are expected to identify with only one religion and are assumed to accept the whole package of that religion. ICD in this context involves communicating with religious groups such as organisations and encouraging different leaders to speak with each other resulting in platforms filled with 'heads of faith' – bishops, muftis, ayatollahs, chief rabbis, swamis and so on. In contrast, lived religions involve ritual practices engaged in by individuals and small groups, creation of shrines and sacred spaces, discussing the nature of life, sharing ethical concerns, going on pilgrimages and taking actions to celebrate and sustain hope. There is some evidence that, although packaged religions are declining, lived religions continue at persistent levels. Violent extremism is more likely to be associated with lived rather than packaged forms of religion, making a more balanced intercultural competences approach to ICD critical to countering conflict.1
1 This article is a revised version of Gary D Bouma (2017) 'Religions – lived and packaged – viewed through an intercultural dialogue prism' in Fethi Mansouri (ed) Interculturalism at the Crossroads: Comparative perspectives on concepts, policies and practice, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, France, pp. 129–144.

DOI:10.17336/igusbd.409435 ; Batı Trakya Müslüman Türkleri, 1923'ten günümüze kadar pek çok sorunla ve ayrımcılıkla karşı karşıya kalmış, özelikle Türk-Yunan ilişkilerinin Kıbrıs Sorunu sebebiyle bozulduğu 1970li yıllar sonrasında ayrımcılığın ve sorunların şiddeti artarak devam etmiştir. Bu sorunların başında, etnik kimliğin reddi, eğitim, vatandaşlıktan ıskat, din ve vicdan hürriyeti ve buna bağlı müftülük sorunu, kurumların kontrolü sorunu, demografik yapının değiştirilmesi, ifade özgürlüğüne sınırlamalar gelmektedir. Ancak, 1990'ların son yarısında ve 2000'li yıllarda Yunanistan'da azınlık hakları konusunda olumlu gelişmeler meydana gelmiştir. Bu bağlamda, azınlığı mağdur eden tüm sorunların çözümü sağlanmasa bile bazı alanlardaki gelişmeler incelemeye değerdir. Bu çalışmanın amacı 1990'lardan itibaren Yunanistan'daki azınlık hakları konusunda Avrupalılaşma ve Avrupa kurumlarının etkisini analiz etmektir. ; The Turkish Muslim Minority in Western Thrace has been subject to discriminative practices and human right violations since 1923. Especially after the 1970s, when the Turkish-Greek relations deteriorated due to the Cyprus Problem, the situation for the Minority worsened dramatically. The most significant problems of the Minority are; the denial of ethnic identity, education, de-nationalization of the minority members, freedom of religion and the election of Muftis, the problem concerning the control of the Minority institutions, demographic changes, and the freedom of expression. Since the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, considerable positive developments in minority rights have been taking place in Greece. Despite the liberalization of minority rights and softening of the discriminative measures and repressive policies, as the fundamental problems of Western Thrace Turks still persist, this process is worth examining. The aim of this study is to examine the role of Europeanization and European Institutions on the minority rights in Greece starting with the 1990s.

Статья посвящена проблеме участия религиозных институтов в процессе российского нациестроительства, укрепления духовного суверенитета и национальной безопасности России. Государство и политические элиты в процессе формирования национальной идентичности делают попытки и не всегда безуспешные обратиться к ресурсным возможностям религиозных институтов, в том числе укоренившихся в мусульманском сообществе, в целях преобразования имеющегося у них трансцендентного капитала в символический. Делается вывод о том, что в условиях современной России государство и религиозные организации могут и должны обратить легитимизацию межинституционального взаимодействия религиозных объединений и органов государственной власти на пользу формирующейся российской нации и национальной безопасности России. ; The article deals with the problem of the participation of religious institutions in Russian nation-building, in the strengthening of spiritual sovereignty and national security of Russia. Participating in the process of the construction of national identity, the state and political elites make attempts (not always unsuccessful) to employ the resource capabilities of religious institutions, including those related to the Muslim community, in order to convert their transcendent assets into symbolic ones. The conclusion is made that under the current circumstances the modern Russian state and religious organizations may and should direct the legitimization of inter-institutional cooperation of religious organizations and public authorities towards the benefit of the emerging Russian nation.

Approaches and the state of the field /Ahmad Atif Ahmad --What type of law is Islamic law? /Khaled Abou El Fadl --Shari'a, natural law and the original state /Ahmed Izzidien --'God cannot be harmed' : on ḥuqūq Allah/ḥuqūq al-'ibād continuum /Wael Hallaq --Balancing this world and the next : obligation in Islamic law and jurisprudence /Omar Farahat --Divine command ethics in the Islamic legal tradition /Mariam al-Attar --Islamic law and bioethics /Ayman Shabana --The Qur'an and the Hadith as sources of Islamic law /Amr Osman --The emergence of the major schools of Islamic law/madhhabs /Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul --Qadis and muftis : judicial authority and the social practice of Islamic law /Delfina Serrano Ruano --Ijmā', consensus /Ahmad Atif Ahmad --Superior argument /Ahmad Atif Ahmad --Maqāṣid al-Shari'ah /Felicitas Opwis --Legal pluralism in Sunni Islamic law : the causes and functions of juristic disagreement /Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim --Interpreting Islamic law through legal canons /Intisar A. Rabb --Ijtihād and taqlīd : between the Islamic legal tradition and autonomous Western reason /Sherman A. Jackson --Legal traditions of the 'near East' : the pre-Islamic context /Lena Salaymeh --The place of custom in Islamic law : past and present /Ayman Shabana --Jihad, sovereignty and jurisdiction : the issue of adobe of Islam /Ahmed Al-Dawoody --Fiqh al-aqalliyyāt and Muslim minorities in the West /Said Fares Hassan --Family law and succession /Irene Schneider --Islamic law and the question of gender equality /Ziba Mir-Hosseini --Islamic law and the state in pre-modern Sunni thought /Ovamir Anjun --Concept of state in Shi'i jurisprudence /Amirhassan Boozari --Codification, legal borrowing and the localization of 'Islamic law' /Guy Burak --Modern Islamic constitutional theory /Andrew F. March --Islam, constitutionalism and democratic self-government /Mohammad H. Fadel --Terrorism, religious violence and the Shari'ah /Ahmed Al-Dawoody.

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 led to the end of the Ottoman rule in the Bulgarian lands, which entailed a huge emigration of the Muslim population. The Ottoman elite was the first who decided to leave. Officials, hodjas, imams, officers, landowners, urban dwellers, and the intelligentsia moved to the Ottoman Empire out of fear of retaliation for having links with the former authorities. Additionally, after the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia in 1885, there was a new migration wave of Muslim officials, local activists, and militia officers from Southern Bulgaria. As a result, in 1879–1949 about 80% of the Muslim population of Bulgaria were small farmers, about 19% lived in cities as craftsmen, and only about 1% had a chance to make a career as entrepreneurs or merchants. The paper will focus on the three elite groups who correspond with the traditional division of the elite: the political (muftis), the economic (landowners, merchants, entrepreneurs), and the intellectuals (teachers – hodjas). ; Ciało bez głowy". Elita mniejszości muzułmańskiej na ziemiach bułgarskich na przełomie XIX i XX wieku Wojna rosyjsko-turecka lat 1877–1878 zakończyła panowanie osmańskie na ziemiach bułgarskich, co równocześnie doprowadziło do wielkiej emigracji ludności muzułmańskiej. Osmańskie elity jako pierwsze opuściły odrodzoną Bułgarię. Urzędnicy, hodżowie, imamowie, oficerzy, posiadacze ziemscy, mieszczanie oraz inteligenci wyjeżdżali do Imperium Osmańskiego w obawie przed rozliczeniami za powiązaniami z dawnymi władzami. Następnie, po zjednoczeniu Księstwa Bułgarii i Rumelii Wschodniej w 1885 roku, doszło do nowej fali migracyjnej muzułmańskich urzędników, działaczy lokalnych oraz oficerów milicji z ziem Bułgarii południowej. W okresie 1879–1949, w 80% muzułmanie w Bułgarii byli drobnymi chłopami, 19% żyli w miastach i pracowali jako rzemieślnicy, jedynie 1% miał szanse zrobić karierę. Artykuł skupia się na trzech grupach elity mniejszości muzułmańskiej w Bułgarii, co koresponduje z tradycyjnym podziałem elit: polityczna (mufti), ekonomiczna (posiadacze ziemscy, kupcy, przedsiębiorcy) oraz intelektualna (nauczyciele – hodżowie).

Frontmatter -- PREFACE -- CONTENTS -- Introduction -- I. Networks of Scholars and Sufis -- The Interplay of Local Developments and Transnational Relations in the Islamic World: Perceptions and Perspectives -- The Biographical Genre in Daghestani Arabic-Language Literature: Nadir ad-Durgilfs Nuzhat al-adhänfi tarägim culamä3 Dägistän -- Einige Notizen zur arabischsprachigen Literatur der gihäd- Bewegung in Dagestan und Tschetschenien in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts -- Die Entfaltung der Naqsbandlya mugaddidiya im mittleren Transoxanien vom 18. bis zum Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts: Ein Stück Detektivarbeit -- Political Sufism and the Emirate of Kashgaria (End of the 19th Century): The Role of the Ambassador Yacqüb Xän Türa -- Düköi Isän und der Aufstand von Andizan 1898 -- Die Qozas - Arabische Genalogien in Kasachstan -- II. Inter-Ethnic Relations and Diasporas -- Islam and Ethnic Relations in the Kazakh Inner Horde: Muslim Cossacks, Tatar Merchants and Kazakh Nomads in a Turkic Manuscript, 1870-1910 -- Tatar Settlers in Western China (Second Half of the 19th Century to the First Half of the 20th Century) -- Fraternal and Benevolent Associations of Tatar Students in Muslim Countries at the Beginning of the 20th Century -- Die dagestanische Diaspora in der Türkei und in Syrien -- Die Petersburger Typen des Anatoliy Aleksandroviö Baxtiarov, oder: "Tataren und anderen Schreihälsen ist der Zutritt verboten" -- Politische Integration und religiöse Eigenständigkeit der litauischen Tataren im 19. Jahrhundert -- Die Wolgatataren und Deutschland im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts -- III. Islam and Politics in a Non-MuslimState -- The Muftis of the Orenburg Spiritual Assembly in the 18th and 19th Centuries: The Struggle for Power in Russia's Muslim Institution -- Tsarist Categories, Orthodox Intervention, and Islamic Conversion in a Pagan Udmurt Village, 1870s-1890s -- The Activity of the Muslim Faction of the State Duma and its Significance in the Formation of a Political Culture among the Muslim Peoples of Russia (1906-1917) -- Die Rolle des Islams beim Kampf um die staatliche Eigenständigkeit Tschetscheniens und Inguschetiens (1917-1925) -- Jadids, Young Bukharans, Communists and the Bukharan Revolution: From ail Ideological Debate in the Early Soviet Union -- IV. Literature -- The Perception of Works by Classical Authors in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Central Asia: The Example of the Xamsa of 'Ali Sir Nawa'I -- Rabe fliegt nach Osten, oder Ein tatarischer Weltheimatdichter im Zeitalter der Umbrüche -- V. Architecture -- Festtagsmoscheen und Feste in Mittelasien vom 18. bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts -- APPENDIX -- Transliteration and Transcription -- Contributors -- Bibliography -- Index

This dissertation presents a full-fledged portrait of the muftiate (spiritual administration of Muslims) in modern Russia. Designed initially for the purpose of controlling religious activity, over time the institution of the muftiate was appropriated by Muslims and became a key factor in preserving national identity for different ethnic groups of Tatars. In modern Russia numerous muftiates play the controversial role of administrative bodies responsible for the enforcement of some aspects of domestic and foreign policy on behalf of the state. Bekkin's research focuses on muftiates in the European part of Russia, examining both their historical development and their functioning in the modern context. The analysis draws on academic literature, written and oral texts produced by the ministers of the Islamic religion, and archival sources, as well as numerous interviews with current and former muftis and other Islamic bureaucrats. Following Douglass North's theory of institutions, the author distinguishes between the muftiate as an institution and the muftiate as a religious organization. In the first case the muftiate encompasses a set of rules (restrictions) that are both formal (reflected in the laws, charters of spiritual administrations of Muslims) and informal (not reflected in the legislation). Individual Islamic religious organizations (muftiates in a narrow sense) function according to these rules. By analyzing both the formal and informal precepts which regulate the status and the activity of spiritual administrations of Muslims in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and continue to do so in modern Russia, the author makes an attempt to explain the viability of the institution of the muftiate. Basing himself in the theory of the economics of religion, the author treats Russian muftiates as firms competing in the Islamic segment of the religious market. He applies economic principles in analyzing how the muftiates interact with each other, with other religious organizations in Russia, and with the Russian state. The author provides his own classification of muftiates in Russia, depending on the role they play in the religious market. ; The public defence maybe hosted via Zoom. More information at sh.se

The article covers the long-term participation of the legendary Naib Baisungur from Benoy in the people's liberation struggle under the command of Imams Gazimuhammad, Shamil and Sheikh Tashav-Haji from Endirei. Basing on archival documents, published sources and field data collected by the author and Chechen researchers in the mountains of Dagestan and Chechnya for the last 30 years, the author analyzes military talent, unfailing courage, bravery, organizational skills, kind and noble human qualities of the leader of the mountaineers Naib Baisungur from Benoy. The author emphasizes that Baisungur participated in the people's liberation struggle under the leadership of the first Imam Gazimuhammad until September 1832, the second Imam Gamzatbek until September 1834, Sheikh Tashav-Haji until 1843 and under the leadership of Imam Shamil until August 1859. After Shamil's captivity, from the end of 1859 till February 1861 he continued to lead the liberation struggle of the mountaineers. Among all Imam Shamil's companions (naibs, murids, muftis, kadis, teachers) Baisungur from Benoy held a specific place, he supported and helped Shamil for more than 30 years. He took an active part in the formation and development of the Imamate state at all stages of its construction. For thirty years Baisungur headed the Benoy society, he was the chief of the Benoy society, the naib of Imam Shamil, he participated in many battles against the tsarist troops. In these battles he lost an eye, an arm and a leg. Baisungur overcame all imaginable hardships of the cruel war, and he always remained a living example of unfailing courage and bravery for all Dagestan and Chechen people. He was a particularly bright person, he enjoyed great respect and authority from Imams Gazimuhammad, Shamil, Gamzatbek, many companions of the Imams, and the peoples of Dagestan and Chechnya. The tsarist officers and generals admired him. This is evidenced by many field data, folk songs, legends, stories of old residents, folk sayings in the Chechen, Avar, Kumyk and other languages collected by the author in the villages of Dagestan and Chechnya.

The proposition of female circumcision has become a protracted public polemic in many parts of the world. The polemic arose due to the doctrine of tradition, or it recognizes in the Shari'a until it appoints to the fatwa institution for the legal stipulation. However, there are two contradictory fatwas, namely in Indonesia (MUI) and Egypt (Dār al-Iftā"), which are appropriate to reveal the reasons behind the two different sides in those fatwas. This study aims to explore the background of the enactment of the fatwa and uncover the legal arguments built on it. The type of study used is normative qualitative research with a comparative approach. The results found include: First, the MUI fatwa was determined based on the submission of a fatwa by Indonesian government agencies on the issue of rejecting the practice of circumcision by some people. Nevertheless, the fatwa of Dār al-Iftā" was determined based on the ambiguity of the fatwa by the muftis of Egypt. Second, the MUI fatwa states that female circumcision is part of the Shari'a based on the verse of the Qur'an and hadith. For the time being, Dār al-Iftā" forbids the practice of circumcision by denying the validity of the hadith about of it through fuqaha vows and fatwas. Masalah sirkumsisi perempuan telah menjadi polemik publik yang berkepanjangan di belahan dunia. Polemik tersebut muncul sebab doktrinasi tradisi atau memang diakui dalam syariat hingga diangkat pada lembaga fatwa untuk ditetapkan hukumnya. Namun, muncul fatwa di Indonesia (MUI) dan Mesir (Dār al-Iftā") yang saling bertolak belakang, sehingga layak untuk diungkap alasan dibalik perbedaan fatwa tersebut. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggali latar belakang atas ditetapkannya fatwa dan mengungkap argumen-argumen hukum yang dibangun di dalamnya. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah penelitian kualitatif normatif dengan pendekatan komparatif. Hasil yang ditemukan meliputi: Pertama, fatwa MUI ditetapkan atas dasar pengajuan fatwa oleh instansi pemerintah Indonesia atas isu penolakan praktik sirkumsisi oleh sebagian masyarakat. Sementara fatwa Dār al-Iftā' ditetapkan atas dasar ambiguitas fatwa oleh para mufti Mesir. Kedua, fatwa MUI menyatakan sirkumsisi perempuan termasuk bagian dari syariat yang berlandas pada dalil al-Qur'an dan hadis. Sementara Dār al-Iftā' menyatakan haram praktik tersebut dengan menyangkal keabsahan hadis-hadis sirkumsisi melalui kaul fukaha dan fatwa.

تناولت الدِّرَاسَةُ الطَّلَاقَ اللَفْظِيّ بينَ الإِيْقَاعِ والوقوعِ وخطورتَه على سلامةِ العَلَاقَةِ الزَّوْجِيّةِ، والكثيرُ من الأَزْوَاجِ يتساهلون أو يتهاونون في استعمالِ العديدِ من أَلْفَاظِ الطَّلَاقِ التي اعتادَ عليها لسانُه ودرجَ على نطقِها، وإمّا في ممَّارسةِ عاداتِه اليوميَةِ أو في أثناءِ مخاطبتِه لزوجتِه مازحًا أو هازلًا أو مهددًا أو متوعدًا أو متضجرًا بحجةِ عدمِ اعتبارِها والاعتاد بها قانوينًا لوقوعِ الطَّلَاقِ في الكثيرِ من قَوَانِين الأَحْوَالِ الشَّخْصِيَّةِ التي اتجهتْ إلى الأخذِ بآراءِ بعضِ أهل العلمِ بِعَدَمِ وقوع الطَّلَاقِ بهَذِهِ الأَلْفَاظِ لمصلحةِ الأسْرَةِ واستقرارِها والمحافظةِ على العَلَاقَةِ الزَوْجِيّةِ ومكانتِها، وهدفتْ هَذِهِ الدِّرَاسَةُ إلى مناقشةِ أهمِ القواعدِ والأصولِ والأحكامِ للتعاملِ مع أَلْفَاظ الطَّلَاقِ فِقْهِيًّا وقَانُونِيًّا للتَّمْييزِ بينَ الحالاتِ التي يُوقِعُ فيها الزَّوجُ الطَّلَاقَ ويُعْتَدُّ به، والحالاتُ التي يُوقِعُ فيها الزَّوجُ الطَّلَاقَ؛ ولكن لا يُعْتَدُّ به، وتوصلتِ الدِّرَاسَةُ إلى أنّه وعلى الرغمِ من تضييقِ دائرةِ الأَلْفَاظِ المعتدِ بها لاعتبارِ الطَّلَاقِ واقعًا قَانُونِيًّا إلا أنّ ذلكَ لم يساهمْ كَمَا كان متوقعًا بالتّخفيفِ من نسبِ الطَّلَاقِ المرتفعةِ. وبالمقابلِ إنّ عدمَ الاعتدادِ بعدّدِ من أَلْفَاظِ الطَّلَاقِ لاعتبارِه واقعًا قَانُونِيًّا دفعَ كثيرٌ من الأَزْوَاجِ إلى التَّساهلِ والتَّهاونِ في استعمالِها حتى أصبحتْ هناك ظواهرٌ لفظيةٌ غيرُ مستحبّةٍ ولا مرغوبةٍ منتشرةٍ في العديدِ من مجتمعاتِنا كما هو الحالُ في انتشارِ أيمانِ الطَّلَاق وعليَّ الحرامُ والطَّلَاقٍ المعلّقِ على شرطٍ ونحوها. وأوصتِ الدِّرَاسَةُ بضرورةِ وضعِ جملةٍ من المعالجاتِ القَانُونِيَّةِ الفاعلةِ والتوجيهاتِ والإرشاداتِ الوقائيّةِ للحدِّ من إِيْقَاعِ الطَّلَاقِ بغضِ النظرِ عن مدى اعتبارِه قانوينًا أو عدمِ اعتبارِه لِمَا يشكّلُه من خطرٍ على سلامةِ العَلَاقَةِ الزَوْجِيّةِ ولمنعِ التهاونِ والتساهلِ في إِيْقَاعِ الطَّلَاقِ. ; The present study aims to address the issue of verbal restrictions on divorce to be considered as valid in modern family law and classical Fiqh schools of thought. These verbal restrictions can be employed to playing a crucial role to reducing high numbers of divorce rates. Fiqh opinions of Muslim scholars regarding types of verbal divorce forms are considered legislative sources and legal references not only for Muftis, judges and experts to dealing with cases of divorce but also for any Muslim husband has firm intention to divorce his wife correctly. Legal articles regarding verbal restrictions on divorce have been analysed to investigating their compatibility with Fiqh opinions as well as their impact on reducing rates and numbers of the divorce. This study has come to the conclusions that while it is highly important to reducing divorce rates based on verbal restrictions, divorce rates can also be handled by establishing effective legal treatments and deterrent legal measures for those husbands who using divorce words in an inappropriate way.

In Waqfs and Urban Structures, Richard van Leeuwen gives a clear and coherent
thesis regarding the evolution of Damascene waqfs throughout the Ottoman period. Since the
takeover in 1516 of Greater Syria by the Ottomans, "waqfs were an integral
part of imperial policy and were used as a mechanism to foster the cohesion between the centre of
authority and the conquered provinces" (p. 148). A number of phenomena point in that
direction, all of which seem to confirm the thesis of the strengthening of ties between Damascus
and Istanbul. A number of sultans, beginning with Selim, who entered Damascus in 1516, erected
their own waqfs within the city. Ties were strengthened with local families either through
iqtāע grants or prestigious appointments to religious positions.
Positions of judges, muftis, and administrators to major public waqfs, were all intermittently
infused with elements from outside the city—or, at least, with elements known for their
loyalty to the "center." These elements were not exclusively from within the
hierarchy of aעyān and ulama, and the local would be mixed with loyal
elements from other provinces. Above all, the local governors were for the most part—with
the notable exception of the עĀzms—Turkish, or at least from
non-Arab provinces. Van Leeuwen argues—and that is his main thesis—that such
phenomena constituted a clear indication of "centralizing tendencies" (p. 114)
whose aim was for the imperial state to interfere in and control some of the major local
institutions, among them, of course, the waqfs. Even though van Leeuwen makes it plain that
such practices of "interference" did not imply that "waqfs were
appropriated by the central government" (p. 87), there was nevertheless a deliberate urban
policy of spatial control (the way waqfs were distributed). Control was imposed either through
resource management (how rents and leases were granted) and appointments to major religious
and judicial positions or through a reframing of the law to buttress the imperial grip over the city.
Van Leeuwen's main thesis is indeed far broader than a study of urban waqfs. It uses the
example of waqfs to show that, contrary to many theses of "decentralization" in
which the "center" is portrayed as losing its grip over the provinces (the so-called
peripheries), the state did its best not to relinquish control over major urban institutions. In short,
the "centralizing efforts" (p. 115) of the imperial state is the motto of this
study.

The article studies the issues of the negative impact of the state atheism policy aimed to eradicate the religious beliefs from the minds of people. The abandoning from this policy after the Soviet Union collapse led to the introduction of spiritual and religious (secular) education inUkraine, it assisted growing of the authority of the Church as a whole.The attention is focused on the fact that the atheism as a state ideology was actively promoted by a number of institutions and the mass media. After the Soviet power had been established the "The Union of the Godless Warriors" was created, the various kinds of anti-religious printing and newspaper production were published.The author described the stages of the state atheism policy; he opened the forms and the methods of governmental activities, aimed to eradicate the religious beliefs from the minds of people. These activities often extend beyond the law and human morality. The article shows that physical destruction of the clergy, the destruction of churches, monasteries, mosques and other places of worship had a significant role. State atheism in theSoviet Unionhas gone from primitive criticism of clerical using campaign posters in the 20s of the twentieth century, the so-called "scientific atheism" in the days of Khrushchev – Brezhnev. The article provides examples of activities lecturers and propagandists of scientific atheism inUkraineduring the Soviet era. It contributed to the development of scientific atheism religious studies as a science: there are numerous scientific studies which, although not free from ideological accretions, but created a framework for the development of contemporary academic religious studies.The historical context highlights the stages of religious studies, the meaning and the functions of a spiritual enlightenment education and religious and professional education, which became possible in the independent Ukrainian state as a result of the democratization of all spheres of church-state relations, are described. In the spiritual (religious) education are distinguished: general spiritual awareness education as religious education, education for rooting the faith of the faithful of a particular denomination, and religious and vocational education, which provides training for the future clergy (priests, pastors, mullahs, muftis etc.). The author compares the state of general spiritual awareness education in times of state atheism, which is characterized by a relatively high level of awareness among believers based on their faith, a modern "religious nihilism" when the faithful of many denominations cannot explain in what they believe and why.With respect to religious and vocational education trend is the opposite: the level of education in modern theological academy and seminary greatly exceeds what could get seminarians at the time of the domination of state atheism. This is caused by the fall of the "Iron Curtain", which allowed free access to the world of theological thought, and flourishing their theological studies in Ukrainian theological academy and seminary.In this article the author gives a comparison of secular and spiritual education that exists inUkraine, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each. In particular, highlighted the necessity to keep existing inUkraineis a clear separation of the spiritual and secular education, but offered this field of education mutually enriches each other. This process of mutual enrichment should occur naturally non-coercive way: by understanding and recognition of certain advantages that exist in different educational systems of secular and spiritual.The author defined a number of recommendations concerning the interaction of the state (secular) and spiritual (religious) education; he highlighted the trends of the development in the context of the church-state relations in the present.In particular, the article provides suggestions on procedures for the recognition of diplomas spiritual institutions of higher education by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine by introducing into the curriculum of educational institutions such compulsory public education component. This component can serve as the one minimal but sufficient condition that, on the one hand, will consider certificates that give spiritual (religious) institutions of higher education, so as to meet state standards, on the other hand, minimizes the interference of state bodies in activity of church schools, and consequently, the activity of the Church. ; Рассматриваются вопросы отрицательного влияния политики государственного атеизма, направленной на искоренение из сознания людей религиозных взглядов, отход от которой после распада СССР обусловил учреждение религиозного (духовного) и религиоведческого (светского) образования в Украине та содействовал укреплению авторитета Церкви. ; Розглядаються питання негативного впливу політики державного атеїзму, спрямованої на викорінення зі свідомості людей релігійних поглядів, відхід від якої після розпаду СРСР зумовив запровадження релігійної (духовної) та релігієзнавчої (світської) освіти в Україні та сприяв відродженню авторитету Церкви.

This dissertation investigates the governance of seventeenth-century Damascus by examining claims upon the productive capacity of land, and the collection and redistribution of agricultural taxes. The early modern Ottoman Empire--of which Damascus was a province--was a large agrarian empire wherein the interests of numerous groups and individuals converged around the land and its produce. In light of its centrality to both the subjects and the state, the management of land as a resource has much to tell us about what governance was expected to be in this period, at a time before religious, economic, political or social authority had been disembedded from one another. In this, Damascus is not much different from any other provincial town lying within the early modern empires of Asia and Europe; the issues raised here are not pertinent to the history of the Middle East alone but are relevant to other early modern states. The inquiry into what the state governs and how it does so starts with the observation that Ottoman political literature conceives of a unified political body wherein different groups of people play different roles in allowing the state to function. Through the lens of tax assessment and collection, the first chapter examines the role within the Ottoman state body that is played by the peasant cultivators in the villages surrounding Damascus. The first half of the chapter explores how the prerogatives comparable to other fiscal military states shaped Ottoman taxation policy in the seventeenth century. The importance of obtaining cash led not only to the imposition of new taxes and updated tax registers at the Istanbul finance bureau, but to a new responsibility of the villagers for tax collection. The chapter argues that where compliance with taxation was concerned, the most important governing authority in the village was the villagers themselves. Examining the interactions between villagers, judges, muftis and tax farmers, the chapter examines how individuals and groups that are not state agents strictly speaking, become authorized to exercise state power. The chapter concludes that peasant cultivators do not merely maintain a relationship with the Ottoman government, rather, in some sense they are the government and form an integral part of its machinery.The question of how the governing authority of the state intersects with the authority of Islamic law has long been a question in the historiography of the Ottoman Empire and Islamic societies in general. However, the question of shifts in the configuration of religious and temporal authority in the seventeenth century is not an issue whose importance is confined to the history of the Islamic regions of the world. Rather, the question of expanding state power and the proper role of `religion' in the body politic is a widespread concern of the early modern period. With this question in mind, the second and third chapters explore the changing legal powers of the sultan and his agents to control productive land and peasant labor. Chapter two notes a change in the meaning and scope of sultan's authority to legislate peasant access to the land in the seventeenth century. This expansion in the sultan's legislative role is absorbed into the jurisprudence of the empire's jurist-scholars, and creating a specifically `Ottoman' practice of Islamic scholarship. Starting in the sixteenth century, the sultan's enacted laws--known as `qanun'--regulate with far greater detail the rights and obligations of peasants and soldier-tax collectors. What emerges is a right of usufruct for the peasantry that is controlled by the dynasty's statutes rather than the interests of local military administrators or local custom. The fact that this concept of the usufruct right eventually comes to prevail in Damascene villages suggests that usufruct was an increasingly standardized right across the empire's rural communities. This is despite the fact that the Damascenes had their own local and juridical traditions that ran counter to the concept of usufruct being promulgated by the sultan. What we find in juristic discussion of usufruct is a very slowly changing idea of the boundaries of imperial authority and its legal consequences. While the second chapter demonstrates a growing consensus that the sultan had wider authority to legislate in matters pertaining to the lands of the state treasury, the legality of some land tenure practices sanctioned by the sultan remained controversial. The third chapter examines the limits of state power to pursue its need to fill the coffers, and how it was expected to treat the village taxpayers. There was no debate among Ottoman subjects that a solvent treasury was a necessity. Without exception, we find that keeping fertile land productive and distributing the revenues in appropriate ways are shared priorities. The common reference point defining the limits of the sultan's authority over production and taxation was the shari'ah, yet there was great disagreement on what the shari'ah enjoined, and in some sense, what the shari'ah was. When it came to what means of extraction the shari'ah permitted or the extent to which the state could coerce the villagers to produce, disagreement was rampant. It was not always the ulema (religious scholars) that opposed state actions on the grounds that such actions violated the shari'ah--as this chapter shows, the views of the ulema were sometimes more cooperative with the dynasty's decisions than those held by its temporal administrators. Both chapters address the question of the shifting configuration of state and religious authority in the early modern world, and examine its consequences on the lives and livelihoods of Damascene cultivators. The fourth and fifth chapters investigate two groups in Damascus who were frequent beneficiaries of the revenues produced in the villages, the ulema and the soldiers based in the city. The right of these groups to receive the tax moneys of the peasant cultivators was premised on the services that each provided for the political body as a whole. There did not appear to be much dispute about the nature of the services that each was to perform, but differences did spring up when the question arose of how or whether such services had been performed in specific instances. The chapter maintains that it is these conflicting interpretations of service, status, privilege and vocational responsibility that most clearly reveal how the provincial elites did or did not take part in the exercise of Ottoman authority in Damascus. The ulema earned their access to the revenue sources through their scholarship and teaching and the general duty of providing moral guidance to other Muslims. Part of this duty was to denounce oppression, and to protect the strong from abusing the weak. An argument arose among the ulema of how much honor or revenue one could seek from the state without compromising oneself in the process. Could one covet the sultan's largess and still be adequately critical if he or his agents overstepped their authority? Other ulema found that the dignity of their profession was an asset when their management of cultivators and taxes was called into question. They deflected the accusations of greed and fraud by invoking their dedication to pious works and scholarship. In all cases, the self conception of the ulema as a group with a particular function in the political body was critical to the way they responded to opportunities for gaining wealth and power. For the soldiers stationed in Damascus as well as the great military families of the countryside, access to rural revenues was contingent upon obedient military service. Increasingly, the entirety of the fiscal and military resources of the province of Damascus was oriented towards financing the pilgrimage to Mecca. The need for effective, reliable and obedient military leadership of the pilgrimage began to assume a higher priority for the Ottoman government. From 1660 to 1690, the Damascene janissaries dominated the office of pilgrimage leader, as they had a number of qualities to recommend them for the position: not only did know the routes from accompanying the caravan, but their capacity to create trouble as well as their expectation of reward was modest in comparison with the great military families of the countryside. Through investigation of their economic activities, it is clear that the question of which soldiers were considered `local' to Damascus had more to do with their involvement in the city's commerce rather than their origins or ethnicity. In turn, when the dynasty finally moved to destroy their leadership and punish them for insubordination, the question of how their `local' sympathies had affronted imperial prerogatives played out differently than might be imagined. While the issue of what constituted obedience might be read differently in Damascus than in Istanbul, it was clear that the Damascenes shared the belief that military men, even local military men, must be obedient to the sultan. This dissertation argues that Damascenes from all backgrounds play an important role in Ottoman governance of the province, and one that is comparable to that of other early modern subjects. It shows people trying to locate their place within the political body as a whole, while the limits of their duties and powers associated with different groups underwent great flux and were vigorously debated. It is this uneasy integration of these various groups into the body of state which best demonstrates the relations between the subjects and the state in the early modern Middle East.