Table Of ContentIslamIc myths and memorIes
To the memory of Joseph Kostiner
Islamic Myths and Memories
Mediators of Globalization
Edited by
Itzchak WeIsMann
Haifa University, Israel
Mark sedGWIck
Aarhus University, Denmark
UlrIka Mårtensson
Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim, Norway
© Itzchak Weismann, mark sedgwick and Ulrika mårtensson 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Itzchak Weismann, mark sedgwick and Ulrika mårtensson have asserted their right under
the copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Islamic myths and memories : mediators of globalization / edited by Itzchak Weismann, mark
sedgwick and Ulrika mårtensson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
IsBn 978-1-4724-1149-5 (hardcover) – IsBn 978-1-4724-1150-1 (ebook) – IsBn 978-
1-4724-1151-8 (epub) 1. Globalization–religious aspects–Islam. 2. Islam–historiography. 3.
Islamic sociology. I. Weismann, Itzchak. II. sedgwick, mark J. III. mårtensson, Ulrika.
BP190.5.G56I85 2014
297.2'7–dc23
2013051040
IsBn 9781472411495 (hbk)
IsBn 9781472411501 (ebk – PdF)
IsBn 9781472411518 (ebk – ePUB)
IV
Printed in the United kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset Press, dorchester, dt1 1hd
Contents
List of Figures and Tables vii
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction: Islamic Myths and Memories
Facing the Challenge of Globalization 1
Itzchak Weismann, Mark Sedgwick and Ulrika Mårtensson
PART I The PAsT In The PResenT
1 Modern and Islamic Icons in Arab-Islamic Popular
historical Memory 15
Mark Sedgwick
2 The Ottoman empire as harmonious Utopia: A historical
Myth and its Function 35
Martin Riexinger
3 From a Red Guard to a Jahrinya: A Chinese Author’s Return
to Islam 53
Xiaofei Tu
4 satan and the Temptation of state Power: Medieval Islamic
Myth in Global society 71
Ulrika Mårtensson
vi Islamic Myths and Memories
PART II sACRed PlACes And PeRsOns
5 The Glocalization of al-haram al-sharif: designing Memory,
Mystifying Place 99
Nimrod Luz
6 The Myth of Perpetual departure: sufis in a new (Age)
Global (dis)Order 121
Itzchak Weismann
7 shaykh Osama Bin laden: An evolving Global Myth 139
Anne Birgitta Nilsen
PART III PReAChInG, new And Old
8 The Postmodern Reconstitution of an Islamic Memory:
Theory and Practice in the Case of Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s
Virtual Umma 163
Uriya Shavit
9 The Rating of Allah: The Renaissance of Preaching in the
Age of Globalization 185
Shosh Ben-Ari
10 The Reception of Islamic Prophet stories within Muslim
Communities in norway and Germany 209
Gerd Marie Ådna
Select Bibliography 233
Index 257
List of Figures and Tables
Figures
7.1 Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri in the mountains of Afghanistan 150
7.2 Al-mujahid 151
7.3 The shaykh 153
7.4 The mythical shaykh 156
7.5 The mythical mujahid 157
Tables
1.1 Top ten Arab searches (excluding Muhammad) by area 25
1.2 Top Arab searches 26
1.3 National searches 27
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Notes on Contributors
Gerd Marie Ådna is an associate professor at the School of Mission and
Theology in Stavanger, Norway, where she teaches Religious Studies. She works
on Islam, rituals, and the pedagogics and didactics of religion. Her doctoral
thesis, “O Son of the Two Sacrifices: Muhammad and the Formation of Sacrifice
in Early Islam,” was defended at the University of Bergen in 2007.
Shosh Ben-Ari is a senior lecturer in Middle East History and Arabic and Islamic
Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her PhD, on Abraham in Islamic
literature, was awarded by Tel Aviv University in 2003. As well as publishing on
Abraham, she has researched historical periodicity and the evolution of language
in Ibn Khaldun’s al-Muqaddima, and the transition from nomad to sedentary
life (acculturation) in the Arab world and its reflection in social and cultural life.
She also researches Islamic preaching and preachers’ adaptation to globalization.
Nimrod Luz is a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology at the Western Galilee College, Israel. His areas of research
include the relationship between culture, politics, and the built environment,
focusing mostly on the Middle East and the Muslim world. He explored
urbanism in the premodern Middle East and published several monographs
on minority communities in Israel as well as numerous articles in Middle
Eastern and geographical journals. He has held several research posts in Indiana
University South Bend and the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. His latest
project, “Enchanted Places in the Margins,” focuses on the politics of sacred
places among Palestinian communities in Israel.
Ulrika Mårtensson is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and
Technology, Trondheim, Norway, where she teaches Religious Studies, including
religion and globalization. Her main work focuses on relations between social
institutions and Islam in medieval and contemporary contexts. Her recent
works include Tabari (2009, in the series Makers of Islamic Civilization), and
she has recently co-edited Fundamentalism in the Modern World (2 volumes,
