Portuguese discovery of the sea route.  (less)

lexicography to epigraphy. These papers were read at the Eighteenth International Congress of the Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, organized by the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) from 3 to 10 September 1996. A second volume of proceedings, that appears along with this one (OLA 86), is more concerned with questions of actuality and political organisation, including Christian minorities in the Arab world, in their relation to the Muslim environment. As such the two volumes put together, will provide to the world of learning, we may say, an overall picture of the current scientific investigations about Islamic culture and society. (Peeters 1997)  (less)

rigid strictures of African-Islamic culture, Kadi managed to educate herself and even started a successful business of her own in Bangkok. When she learned that Amadou had been shot, she came to New York and fought to present a true picture of her son. Candid, wise, and generous, and with great pride and searing love, Kadi Diallo finally shares the astonishing, inspiring story of her life, her loss, and the defiant strength she has always found within.  (less)

the Pacific: Concepts and Issues (published as No. 14 in this series), the editors, widely regarded as leaders in the field in the Asia-Pacific region, have gone beyond broad citizenship education frameworks to examine the realities, tensions and pressures that influence the formation of the citizenship curriculum. Chapter authors from different societies have addressed two fundamental questions: (1) how is citizenship education featured in the current curriculum reform agenda in terms of both policy contexts and values; and (2) to what extent do the reforms in citizenship education reflect current debates within the society? From comparative analysis of these 11 case studies the editors have found a complex picture of curriculum reform that indicates deep tensions between global and local agendas. On one hand, there is substantial evidence of an increasingly common policy rhetoric in the debates about citizenship education. On the other, it is evident that this discourse does not necessarily extend to citizenship curriculum, which in most places continues to be constructed according to distinctive social, political and cultural contexts. Whether the focus is on Islamic values in Pakistan, an emerging discourse about Chinese a democracya (TM), a nostalgic conservatism in Australia, or a continuing nation-building project in Malaysia a" the cases show that distinctive social values and ideologies construct national citizenshipcurricula in Asian contexts even in this increasingly globalized era. This impressive collection of case studies of a diverse group of societies informs and enriches understanding of the complex relationship between citizenship education and the curriculum both regionally and globally.  (less)

Bibles are entirely indebted to Islamic culture. The volume elaborates in particular on the cultural history of the decorative motifs and types of ornamentation in an era of cultural transition in Iberia and culture struggle within Spanish Jewry. The first two chapters describe the cultural, social and artistic background in which the Bibles were produced, whereas the other chapters describe the works of the different schools and discuss them within different cultural, historical and social contexts.  (less)

who have emigrated, most in the past three decades, to the United States, have adapted to their new surroundings. Anthropologist Linda Walbridge delves into the ways in which politics and religion have converged as the Lebanese Shi'i community has remade its identity and accommodated itself to a new environment. She captures a broad picture of religious life within the realm of community living and within the mosques which have proliferated in Dearborn. Walbridge explains how Shi'ites, affected in one way or another by Islamic revivalism, have brought different notions of how their religion should be expressed and carried out in America. These differences are reflected in mosque rituals, social functions, sermons, and educational activities. She also explores how contemporary Middle Eastern politics and the religious leadership in Iran and Iraq influence the functioning of the mosques.  (less)

the public sphere. In order to root out these heretics, the courts of the Inquisition published checklists of Jewish household habits and koshering practices and grilled the servants, neighbors, and even the children of those suspected of practicing their religion at home. From these testimonies and other primary sources, Gitlitz and Davidson have drawn a fascinating picture of the secret culinary life of the crypto-Jews and the customs and foods that threatened their existence while securing their precarious sense of identity. From nearly a hundred specific references to Sephardic cuisine, the authors have recreated these recipes. They combine Christian and Islamic traditions in cooking lamb, beef, fish, eggplants, chickpeas, and greens and use seasonings such as saffron, mace, ginger, and cinnamon. These recipes, with accompanying text that tells the stories of their creators, promise to delight the adventurous palate and give insights into the foundations of modern Sephardic cuisine.  (less)

in November.  (less)

responded primarily to security and socio-economic considerations but it has important implications for the development of communication systems as well. Written by some of the most outstanding researchers in the field of Jewish history, this collection offers a rich and consistent picture of the main developments in communications in the Jewish world before the era of mass-media. This pioneering research reconsiders the principal means of communication among the Jewish communities in the Islamic world, Christian Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and the New World, from the seventh until the nineteenth centuries."  (less)

have focused mostly on miniatures commissioned by India's emperors and maharajas and have largely ignored the many splendid types of painting prepared for India's common peoples.brNow, in this groundbreaking publication, Barbara Rossi, who has traveled and researched extensively in India, presents 101 works of extraordinary beauty representing twenty-one forms of popular painting and spanning 400 years. Based on a traveling exhibition that Rossi curated,From the Ocean of Painting is the first comprehensive overview of this diverse material and is organized around the primary functions these artworks serve, from ritual traditions that lead, through the act of painting, to spiritual and material benefits; to iconic and pilgrimage traditions that supply sacred pictures for worship; to narrative traditions that provide illustrations used in storytelling performances of epics and legends. This volume enables readers to see the folk, tribal, and urban contexts in which these generally unknown forms of painting arose, and to gain a fuller understanding of the representative works, all of which are illustrated and given in-depth commentaries. Introductory essays by Stuart Cary Welch, retired curator of Islamic and Later Indian art, Harvard University Art Museums, and by the late Roy C. Craven, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Indian Art History at the University of Florida, illuminate the connections between popular and sophisticated painting in India and offer an insightful assessment if the scholarship to date on India's popular painting. But the chief pleasure here is, of course, the art itself--a wealth of remarkable pictorial images rendered in vibrantly rich palettes.brGorgeously illustrated with fifty-seven color and fifty-three black-and-@b8  (less)