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The series published one volume over the last 5 years.
Abstract
The Persian-speaking Iranian Sunnīs of the Khurāsān province feel a deep collective resonance with the historical roots of Greater Khurāsān in their social identity. Even today, they continue to praise and illustrate the glorious Islamic past through their narratives. This is in contrast to most Iranian Sunnīs with a non-Persian-speaking ethnic identity. Khurāsān has long been recognized as the center of Sunnī education. However, the central status of this eastern region of the Islamic world was diminished following the fifteenth century – in particular, due to the early sixteenth century expansion of Shīʿī Islam under the Ṣafavīds. Yet the sense or idea of centrality has continued like a thread weaving through the social identity of the Iranian Sunnīs in Khurāsān and remains reflected in their religious and historical narratives. This paper aims to characterize the continuity of Greater Khurāsān, and show how the historical roots of Khurāsān shaped the social identity of Sunnīs in the province. Applying the concept of identity in social theory, I investigate transnational identity within the local social identity. To this goal, I will utilize a variety of materials on under-researched primary topics, both recent and historical, in addition to numerous interviews with Sunnī the communities.
Abstract
The much debated concept of social capital, although beset with definitional and measurement problems, provides a useful lens through which to analyse issues of interpersonal relationships and social cohesion in diverse urban communities. To date the literature reveals limited application of social capital theories to the world of children, or to religious diversity. A theoretical framework of different types of capital operating in various social fields suggested by Bourdieu, allows us to see children as social agents operating in a complex social and religious environment.
This paper, based on some findings from 2003–2004 research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on Children’s Perspectives on Believing and Belonging, discusses the social networks and social capital resources of pre adolescent children in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods in two English cities. Data drawn from in depth interviews with nearly 100 children, aged between 9 and 11 years, from Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Christian backgrounds, classroom data gathering and participant observation in the schools and neighbourhoods allow us to address these questions from the children’s own viewpoint.
Although the research is almost 20 years old, it shows how for many children, religious affiliation and involvement in the activities of local religious institutions, played a major role in shaping their social networks and their use of time and space. It reveals a complex interplay of religious and ethnic identities, children from all faith backgrounds who varied in the level of their involvement and commitment to organised or personal religion, and lifestyles in which religious organisations continued to play a significant part for the majority of children. While religion in itself is not necessarily a barrier to friendships and bridging social capital, the strong bonding associated with faith communities in neighbourhoods divided along ethno-religious lines may make it difficult for children to sustain cross community relationships.
Abstract
In nineteenth and early twentieth century Khurāsān, Jewish traders were integral in connecting the region to a variety of places, ranging from Central Asia, Afghanistan and India, to Russia and Europe. Expanding the geographical focus beyond the nation state and looking at the connections that were significant at the time enables us to move towards decentered considerations of belonging and provides a more precise understanding of regions that tend to be considered as “peripheral”. Based on family histories, interviews, memoirs and archival research, this chapter will point out a broad spectrum of relations that Jews in and from Khurāsān maintained to different kinds of actors, polities and communities, persisting well into the twentieth century. As such, Jews were one of the main pillars for sustaining the traditional economy in the region. The border regimes between Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century affected the mobility and forms of identification among tradesmen profoundly. By following their routes, I will point out how the evolvement of new political and economic spheres led to the dispersion of traditional Jewish trade networks from Khurāsān.
Abstract
Maktab-i Tafkīk (the Separation School) in Imāmīyya Shīʿa insists on the separation of philosophical and mystical beliefs from Islamic teachings. The School is also known as the School of Khurāsān and continues to have a great impact on seminaries in the region. It was established by the Iranian scholar Mīrzā Māhdī Iṣfahānī (1886–1946). One of the most important books of Mīrzā, and indeed the one which is said to have a great role in forming the school, is ʾAbwāb al-Hudā. In this book, Mīrzā introduces a different epistemology against philosophers, which he considers as the miracle of the Qurʾān. “Light” is a key word in this epistemology. Mīrzā’s epistemological theory in Abwāb al-Hudā does not seem to be original in all aspects, though. It is just like a more Shīʿītized version of what already existed. The article discusses Mīrzā’s shining epistemology, and takes a look at some of the earlier similar approaches to the knowledge. All of this should be seen in the context of traditionalists’ attempt to distinguish human knowledge from divine knowledge. There are several editions of Abwāb al-Hudā, of which the edition of Ḥusayn Mufīd (Munīr publication) will be used as the main source in this research.
Abstract
During successive ethnographic studies, based at the University of Warwick, children and young people have articulated their religious identities. This article reflects retrospectively on elements in the identity formation of children and young people from a range of ethnic and faith backgrounds. With particular reference to religion, but also noting other aspects such as ethnicity and caste, this article examines the children’s and young people’s disclosures of their identities and whether they are discovering or constructing them. Their articulations of identity suggest changes and continuities for individuals during their school years, as well as similarities and divergences between the experience of individuals from diverse backgrounds and over several decades. They reveal the situational and interactive aspect of identity and of self-differentiation from ‘others’, the contribution of family members, supplementary classes, school (teachers and peers), of technology and of the researcher. The research interview, it is suggested, both facilitates young people’s articulation of their identity and exemplifies the encounter-based narrations that cumulatively constitute identity.
Abstract
The Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) conceptualised poor work-related psychological health in the terms of the classic model of balanced affect proposed by Bradburn. Operationalised specifically for application among clergy and religious professionals, in the FBI negative affect is assessed by the 11-item Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM) and positive affect is assessed by the 11-item Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS). In the present study the FBI was completed by 803 Methodist ministers in Great Britain together with two independent measures hypothesised as reflecting the consequence of burnout, dissatisfaction with present appointment, and thoughts of leaving ministry. These data were employed to test the significance of the interaction between SEEM and SIMS in predicting these independent measures. In support of the theory of balanced affect, these data demonstrated that the mitigating impact of positive affect increased with increasing levels of negative affect.