NSM

Nordisk Midtaustenbulletin
28, september 1996

Tema:

So there was a September bulletin after all. This small extra issue is sent out mainly because of the new telephone numbers in Bergen, to remind anyone who might want to phone or fax here. In addition there are a couple of other items to report; a fuller bulletin will come next month.

New books

The Islamization of Science. Four Muslim positions developing an Islamic Modernity by Leif Stenberg. Lund Studies in History of Religion. 6, Lund: Lunds Universitet 1996, 362 pp (Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell)

This thesis analyses a contemporary debate on the Islamization of science. The four persons discussed here are individuals belonging to a Muslim intellectual élite: the French convert and physician Maurice Bucaille, the Persian-American scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the British-Pakistani author Ziauddin Sardar and the Arab-American scholar Ismail Raji al-Faruqi. The debate on the role and function of a specifically Islamic form of science has intensified during the last 25 years. It can be seen as part of a broader discussion, where the overall question concerns the function of Islam in relation to modernity. This thesis presents their perspectives on the Islamization of science. The most central concept in the analysis used in this thesis is "discourse", here a technical term denoting the practice that shapes different statements, a practice concerned with power. "Islam" is seen as one such discourse, a field where many Islams fight to become the One Islamic tradition. [From the Abstract]

Bergen news:

Telephone numbers

We have thus made the change announced, and all numbers at Bergen University are now on the same pattern, +47-5558 and four digits. Below is a list of all Middle Eastern scholars (in my database) with office telephones and their current telephone number (Not all are new, but for the sake of completeness I include the lot).
Vemund Aarbakke:         5558 3275 --- fax 5558 9891
Tor Aase:                5595 9358 --- fax 5595 9393
Kirsten  A. Kjerland:    5558 8824 --- fax 5558 9664
Asad Asaduzzaman         5558 9265 --- fax 5558 9260
Anne K. Bang:            5558 2848 --- fax 5558 9891
Joseph N. Bell:          5558 2860 --- fax 5558 9410
Anders Bjørkelo:         5558 2318 --- fax 5558 9654
Tone Bringa:             5558 9266 --- fax 5558 9260
Eldar Bråten:            5558 9253 --- fax 5558 9260
Ragnhild B. Finnestad:   5558 2441 --- fax 5558 4742
Ingvild Gilhus:          5558 2448 --- fax 5558 4742
Alf Grannes:             5558 2341 --- fax 5558 9099
Reidar Grønhaug:         5558 9270 --- fax 5558 9260
Sharif Harir:            5558 9323 --- fax 5558 9892
Albrecht Hofheinz:       5558 3129 --- fax 5558 9891
Tomas Hägg:              5558 2292 --- fax 5558 9191
Gunnar Håland:    5558 9327 / 9261 --- fax 5558 9892
Randi Håland:            5558 2940 --- fax 5558 9656
Frode Fadnes Jacobsen:   5558 9258 --- fax 5558 9260
Herbjørn Jenssen:        5558 2860 --- fax 5558 9410
Ahmed M. Jiyad:          5558 9308 --- fax 5558 9892
Ståle Knudsen:           5558 9259 --- fax 5558 9260
Anwar Magid:             5558 9307 --- fax 5558 9892
Leif Manger:             5558 9302 --- fax 5558 9892
Richard Natvig:          5558 2449 --- fax 5558 4742
Tore Nordenstam:         5558 2385 --- fax 5558 9651
Rex Seán O'Fahey:        5558 2324 --- fax 5558 9654
Inger Marie Okkenhaug:   5558 3129* -- fax 5558 9891
Mete Pamir:              5558 2018 --- fax 5558 9425
Richard Holton Pierce:   5558 2286 --- fax 5558 9191
Arnfinn Seim:            5595 9354 --- fax 5595 9393
Ahmed Ibrahim Shouk:     5558 2989 --- fax 5558 9891
Marianne Haslev Skånland:5558 2364 --- fax 5558 9354
Einar Thomassen:         5558 2450 --- fax 5558 4742
Ludmilla Torlakova:      5558 2860 --- fax 5558 9410
Terje Tvedt:             5558 9305 --- fax 5558 9892
Knut S. Vikør:           5558 2711 --- fax 5558 9891
Vibeke Vågenes:          5595 9383 --- fax 5595 9393
* from c. 1 October

Faxes

Program of Middle Eastern Languages (Arabic) 5558 9410
Dept. of Archaeology 5558 9656
Dept. of Comparative Politics 5558 9425
Dept. of Geography 5595 9393
Dept. of History 5558 9654
Dept. of Hist. of Religion, Russian & Classics,
   Section for History of Religions 5558 4742
   Section for Greek, Latin and Egyptology 5558 9191
   Section for Russian 5558 9099
Dept. of Linguistics and Literature, Sect. for Linguistics 5558 9354
Dept. of Philosophy 5558 9651
Dept. of Social Anthropology 5558 9260
Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 5558 9891
Centre for Development Studies 5558 9892

Of course +47 in front of the number if you call from outside Norway. Notice that some Bergen scholars, namely Karin Ask, Mona Dia, Lars Gule, Are Knudsen, Dag Jørund Lønning, Toril Orrestad, Åshild Samnøy, Gunnar Sørbø and Marit Tjomsland are at the Chr. Michelsens Institute, which is independent of the University and is not affected by these changes.

Note also that here at the new fax number has not yet been installed here at the Middle East Centre. Just back from overseas, I do not yet know why or for how long, but observe that as of today, neither the old nor the new Centre fax number seems to work. We are currently reachable at fax 5558 8201. Hopefully, this is merely a temporary glitch.

Two theses

The coming week, two doctoral theses in Middle Eastern studies will be defended in Bergen -- in fact, they will be defended at exactly the same time, but at different faculties, showing perhaps that the production of young scholars on the Middle East is now reaching a level that is difficult to manage. The two are Albrecht Hofheinz, defending a thesis in History with the title "Internalising Islam: Shaykh Muhammad Majdhub, scriptural Islam and local context in early nineteenth-century Sudan", and Zahra Kamalkhani, defending a thesis in Social Anthropology entitled "Women's Islam: Religious Practice among Women in Today's Iran." Thus, neatly one in each of Bergen's main areas of interest, the Sudan and the Turko-Iranian "northern crescent".

Hofheinz is a Berlin student who has been at the Bergen Middle East Centre for the last three years (partly under a Council of Europe scholarship), as part of the "Sufi circle" here. His thesis concerns the Majdhubi Sufis in the eastern Sudan, which represents, he claims, a new type of relationship between scriptural Islam and the individual rural Muslims, giving the individual an inreased role of responsibility for Muslim ethics and practice.

Kamalkhani, originally from Shiraz, is a resident of Bergen of many years' standing. She did her first degree (cand.polit) in Bergen has been a research associate at the Dept. of Social Anthropology. Her topic is the development of women's role in religious practices in post-revolutionary Iran. Repeated field trips have let her discover marked developments in the way women organize their ritual life over the last fifteen years, and the development of new fora for female Islamic interaction in the local communities.

Visitors, new staff

This has occasioned a flurry of visitors to Bergen, in the coming week, the following scholars are present here, either to be opponents (the four first), give lectures, or do research: Josef van Ess, John Voll, Erika Friedl, Fulya Atacan, Aharon Layish, Pemba M'Bow, Muhammad Said Gaddal, Petr Zemanek, Yehudit Ronen and more.

Ståle Knudsen is now settled in as Research Fellow (stipendiat) at the Dept. of Anthropology, and is reachable by his email address there, stale.knudsen@sosantr.uib.no. As we know, he is working on Black Sea fisheries in Turkey. His namesake Are Knudsen, also an anthropologist with a scholarship from the same year, is located at the Chr. Michelsens Institute, email arek@amadeus.cmi.no. They are thus not to be confused! Are K. is working on Pakistan (forestry). Notice also Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland's new telephone number (all new, not just prefix) above.

Knut


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Responsible for this Web page is Knut S. Vikør. Archived 11.9.96