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Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (BRIIFS)

A Lecture at the Royal Geographic Society, London, 12th January 2016

[First §] In 1999, the sociologist Peter Berger noted that: “the world is as furiously religious as it ever was, and in some places more so than ever.” He called the process ‘desecularization. In the same year, The Economist published its millennium issue and included an article entitled ‘God: After a lengthy career, the Almighty recently passed into history. Or did he?’ The reader was informed that the “test will come on Judgment Day, when man, we are told, will meet his maker. Or will it be God meeting his?”

A disagreement between two philosophers, William Alston and J.L. Schellenberg, on the matter of religious commitment serves to exemplify an important difference between religious believers and religious sceptics. The disagreement occurs in the context of a discussion over the plausibility of Alston’s doxastic practice approach as applied to religious belief. I argue that a close reading of Alston and Schellenberg shows that they do not, despite what they may think, differ greatly from each other. I conclude by drawing some lessons for interreligious dialogue, particularly that the focus of engagement should not necessarily be to convince but rather to uncover differences in attitude.

[First §] Iqbal states that the essence of “Tauhid” ‒ meaning the “oneness of God” ‒ is human unity, human equality and human freedom. Therefore, practically speaking, the spirit of Islamic culture liberates man rather than enslaving him. However, an objection is raised that while the emphasis on human “unity” and “equality” might be understandable, can “freedom” be associated with “Tauhid”? Is not “freedom” a product of contemporary Western thought? Does not every Muslim “bear witness” by offering prayers that the Holy Prophet is “Abdohu,” i.e., the “slave” of Allah. Consequently, are not all Muslims are expected to be the slaves of God?

In February 2007, a conference was held at the British Institute in Amman to explore the impact of constructions of the East/West dichotomy on research around the Mediterranean and to document and understand more complex relationships and cultural realities between these two distinct, yet close political geographies. The conference was organized by the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL) and the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) under the patronage of HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal. This introduction and the following papers have not been updated since the start of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, so do not reflect any of these recent and ongoing events. ‬

The Phoenicians have long been recognized as one of the major cultures of the Mediterranean’s Iron Age period, noted for their maritime activities and over- seas settlements. This contribution explores the origins of Phoenician movement overseas, and assesses the nature of this expansion. It discusses ancient literary perceptions of the Phoenicians and examines how study of the Phoenician over- seas settlements has been considered by the disciplines of Near Eastern and Classical archaeology. When compared to discourse on contemporary Greek colonial activities, a sense of competition between the two disciplines is revealed. At the same time, however, the recognition of common sets of practices and shared bodies of knowledge suggest complex connectivities during the Iron Age, reminding us that cultures should never be considered in isolation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore aspects of international interaction dur- ing the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean, taking a specifically Egyptian perspective. The main foci of attention are the related themes of topos (especially royal propaganda) in the representation of Egyptian relations with foreigners, and the reality of institutional contact between Egyptians and foreigners within and without Egypt’s New Kingdom empire, mimesis. The extent to which personal interactions existed within and alongside this ideological framework and imperial institutional apparatus will be considered. Particular attention will be given to the ways in which particular classes of object can act is cultural indicators, especially in the representation of foreigners in New Kingdom Egypt. Local cultural transformations in objects which have varied resonances will be considered through a case study of ostrich-eggs in the East- ern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age.

This article considers the relationship between Christians and Muslims in Caucasia in the eleventh to fourteenth centuries, with special reference to the King- dom of Georgia, the most powerful non-Muslim state in the region. Georgia already had a Muslim population of its own-Tbilisi was a Muslim city up to the twelfth century-but with the invasion of Turks and Mongols, Muslim culture and institutions came to exert a profound influence on the Christian king- dom, a phenomenon examined in the first part of this paper. Conversely, however, interest in Georgian culture on the part of Georgia’s Muslim inhabitants and vassals was more limited, although not entirely absent. The essay concludes by studying conversion in Caucasia, both Christian conversions to Islam and vice versa, arguing that on both sides, changes of religion among the élite were generally prompted by political necessity, such as the desire to conclude advantageous marriage alliances. ‬

Henri Pirenne’s Mahomet et Charlemagne (1937) is one of the seminal works of history written in the twentieth century. His argument that it was the Arab conquests of the seventh century, not the earlier Germanic invasions, that broke the unity of the Mediterranean world remains valid. The conquering Islamic umma saw the new world in terms of the Dar al-Islam and the Dar al-Harb, the latter being a space filled with fantastic and exotic barbarities that reinforced the Muslim sense of superiority. The old Roman empire, faced with the hard task of adjusting to reduced circumstances, reinvented itself as a New Israel, a Chosen People, whose embattled circumstances were a paradoxical proof of God’s favour. Only in the west did past perspectives survive. In 1096, an expedition now called the First Crusade marched to the east. Where they were going was not a strange and new world, but the most familiar landscape imaginable; a Biblical world whose names were better known than anywhere other than their most immediate local surroundings. The creation of the Crusader states did not pre- figure nineteenth- and twentieth-century imperialism; still less did Crusader attitudes exemplify what Edward Said dubbed ‘Orientalism’. But the Crusading experience did in due course fundamentally alter the Latin vision of the Near East and lead to the creation of a new sense of Europe. ‬

This paper reviews the archaeological and historical evidence for the nature and dynamics of life in town and country during the Ottoman centuries in Greece, from the fourteenth century to the early twentieth in total.