Sorcery or Science?

Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim though...

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Tác giả chính: µarcus-Sells, Ariela
Định dạng: Online
Ngôn ngữ:Tiếng Anh
Được phát hành: Pennsylvania State University Press 2023
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Truy cập trực tuyến:ONIX_20231005_9780271093079_8
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author µarcus-Sells, Ariela
author_browse µarcus-Sells, Ariela
author_facet µarcus-Sells, Ariela
author_sort µarcus-Sells, Ariela
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim thought in West Africa.Known as the Kunta scholars, Mukhtār al-Kuntī and Muḥammad al-Kuntī were influential teachers who developed a pedagogical network of students across the Sahara. In exploring their understanding of “the realm of the unseen"—a vast, invisible world that is both surrounded and interpenetrated by the visible world—Ariela Marcus-Sells reveals how these theologians developed a set of practices that depended on knowledge of this unseen world and that allowed practitioners to manipulate the visible and invisible realms. They called these practices “the sciences of the unseen." While they acknowledged that some Muslims—particularly self-identified “white" Muslim elites—might consider these practices to be “sorcery," the Kunta scholars argued that these were legitimate Islamic practices. Marcus-Sells situates their ideas and beliefs within the historical and cultural context of the Sahara Desert, surveying the cosmology and metaphysics of the realm of the unseen and the history of magical discourses within the Hellenistic and Arabo-Islamic worlds. Erudite and innovative, this volume connects the Islamic sciences of the unseen with the reception of Hellenistic discourses of magic and proposes a new methodology for reading written devotional aids in historical context. It will be welcomed by scholars of magic and specialists in Africana religious studies, Islamic occultism, and Islamic manuscript culture.
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publisherStr Pennsylvania State University Press
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1142092024-04-02T22:11:55Z Sorcery or Science? µarcus-Sells, Ariela History African Studies Religion thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRP Islam::QRPB Islam: branches and groups::QRPB4 Islamic groups: Sufis thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVK Spirituality and religious experience::QRVK2 Mysticism Sorcery or Science? examines how two Sufi Muslim theologians who rose to prominence in the western Sahara Desert in the late eighteenth century, Sīdi al-Mukhtār al-Kuntī (d. 1811) and his son and successor, Sīdi Muḥammad al-Kuntī (d. 1826), decisively influenced the development of Sufi Muslim thought in West Africa.Known as the Kunta scholars, Mukhtār al-Kuntī and Muḥammad al-Kuntī were influential teachers who developed a pedagogical network of students across the Sahara. In exploring their understanding of “the realm of the unseen"—a vast, invisible world that is both surrounded and interpenetrated by the visible world—Ariela Marcus-Sells reveals how these theologians developed a set of practices that depended on knowledge of this unseen world and that allowed practitioners to manipulate the visible and invisible realms. They called these practices “the sciences of the unseen." While they acknowledged that some Muslims—particularly self-identified “white" Muslim elites—might consider these practices to be “sorcery," the Kunta scholars argued that these were legitimate Islamic practices. Marcus-Sells situates their ideas and beliefs within the historical and cultural context of the Sahara Desert, surveying the cosmology and metaphysics of the realm of the unseen and the history of magical discourses within the Hellenistic and Arabo-Islamic worlds. Erudite and innovative, this volume connects the Islamic sciences of the unseen with the reception of Hellenistic discourses of magic and proposes a new methodology for reading written devotional aids in historical context. It will be welcomed by scholars of magic and specialists in Africana religious studies, Islamic occultism, and Islamic manuscript culture. 2023-10-05T10:00:31Z 2023-10-05T10:00:31Z 2022 book ONIX_20231005_9780271093079_8 9780271093079 9780271092294 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/114209 eng Magic in History image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctv2cc5rgr Pennsylvania State University Press University of Pennsylvania Press 10.5325/j.ctv2cc5rgr 10.5325/j.ctv2cc5rgr 5f6aba83-9290-4e4e-af60-525660c7305e 017e79ce-d7e7-4078-a112-a7efdf69afd0 dcf50849-b837-420d-ac46-64995a7bf0d4 9780271093079 9780271092294 [...] National Endowment for the Humanities U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities 10.13039/100000103 open access
spellingShingle History
African Studies
Religion
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRP Islam::QRPB Islam: branches and groups::QRPB4 Islamic groups: Sufis
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVK Spirituality and religious experience::QRVK2 Mysticism
µarcus-Sells, Ariela
Sorcery or Science?
title Sorcery or Science?
title_full Sorcery or Science?
title_fullStr Sorcery or Science?
title_full_unstemmed Sorcery or Science?
title_short Sorcery or Science?
title_sort sorcery or science
topic History
African Studies
Religion
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRP Islam::QRPB Islam: branches and groups::QRPB4 Islamic groups: Sufis
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVK Spirituality and religious experience::QRVK2 Mysticism
topic_facet History
African Studies
Religion
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHH African history
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRP Islam::QRPB Islam: branches and groups::QRPB4 Islamic groups: Sufis
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QR Religion and beliefs::QRV Aspects of religion::QRVK Spirituality and religious experience::QRVK2 Mysticism
url ONIX_20231005_9780271093079_8
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