CONTENTS OF Vol. 30, No. 2-4, 2005

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GALINA YEMELIANOVA: “Islam in Russia”

ABSTRACT: Although Russia is widely associated with Orthodox Christianity, it is also home for over 14 million Muslims. Russia’s major Muslim enclaves are situated in the Volga Urals, the North Caucasus and Central Russia. Russia’s Muslims vary significantly in terms of their particular historical evolution, their ethnic make-up, their level of Islamization, their relations with Russian culture and with the Russian political centre in particular. At the same time, they bear scars of more than a century of Russian and Soviet political and cultural domination, with significantly mutated their Islamic beliefs and way of life and turned them, together with other Muslims of the former USSR, into a specific social entity, the ex-Soviet Muslims.
   They have largely adhered to the popular form of Islam, which presents a synthesis of Islam with pre-Islamic local customs and beliefs. After the collapse of Communism, Russia witnessed an Islamic revival which has been part of the process of political and intellectual liberalization of society. The Islamic revival has taken two major forms: the emergence from underground of so-called traditional local Islam and the proliferation of foreign fundamentalist Islam. Traditional Islam reinforces the traditional patriarchal social networks, and the varieties of fundamentalist Islam offer a post-primordial form of social solidarity. The rise of Islam has occurred against a background of poor social and economic conditions, overwhelming corruption and ineffectiveness in the local ethnocratic regimes, as well as the official treatment of Muslims as potential Islamic extremists and terrorists.

JEAN A. BERLIE: “Islamic education in Myanmar (Burma)”

ABSTRACT: This paper describes two particular systems of formal Islamic education: Kengtung enclave defined as an elementary teaching and Yangon’s (Rangoon) more complex system of education.

MOHAMED GUENAD: “Lecture dans la vie du maître à penser de l’Islam contemporain: Sayyid Qutb”

RÉSUMÉ: Sayyid Qutb l’un des penseurs musulmans les plus influents du XXéme siècle, au sein du mouvement fondamentaliste militant en Egypte et dans le monde, par ses écrits en particulier, ses théories sur la jàhiliyya (barbarie), hàkimiyya (souveraineté). C’est une lecture dans la vie et la pensée, du poète, l’éducateur, le journaliste, le critique littéraire et l’un des penseur du mouvement islamique contemporain exécuté en 1966 par Nasser pour conspiration. Cet article met la lumière sur les facteurs de transformation intellectuelle de Qutb avant juillet 1952 et son apparition comme l’un des principaux idéologues des Frères Musulmans. Donc, une vue d’ensemble de la vie de Qutb est présentée.

HÉLENA DE FELIPI: “Spain in Morocco in the 19th and 20th centuries: Providentiality and Colonization”

ABSTRACT: Spanish presence in Morocco since the end of 19th century and the following protectorate (1912-1956) favoured the publication of many works on this country as well as its inhabitants and their manners and customs.
    A growing Spanish bibliographic production about Morocco covered any possible aspect of Morocco life, in direct relationship with individual and collective colonial interests in Spain. Military officers, geographers, botanists, zoologists, anthropologists, journalists or simply, adventurers, were authors of a series of books with the intention of discovering the reality of Morocco, neighbour country of Spain but unknown to the majority of the Spanish audience. Islam was perceived, through this literature, as the religious factor which unified a population of mixed origins, as well as being one of the determining factor in the relationship between the Spanish establishment, and Morocco and its inhabitants.
    The concept of Islam in these books derives from stereotypes resulting from the historical relationship between both countries and, also, from the personal perceptions of their authors.
    “Fanaticism” appears as the inherent factor of a religion which dominates its followers and promotes their dependency from marabouts and ancestral customs.
    Moroccan women and their status are seen as victims of their religion, conforming one of the most frequent commonplaces in this kind of literature.
Finally, public appearances of aissauas and hamashas were perceived by these authors as another demonstration that Spaniards should undertake a civilizing action in Morocco in order to liberate the country from their savage customs.

ODILE MOREAU: “Une ‘Mission Militaire’ Ottomane au Maroc au début du 20e siècle”

RÉSUMÉ: Le présent article vise à aider à la compréhension des vicissitudes des relations entre le Maroc et l’Empire ottoman, en posant l’hypothèse de la pleine participation du Maroc à l’espace musulman et de ses interactions avec le monde ottoman. Cette étude de cas présente une délégation d’experts ottomans qui se rendit au Maroc au début du 20e siècle. A travers le jeu des acteurs, elle permet d’étudier les mécanismes de mise en oeuvre de la résistance opposée par le Maroc aux ambitions françaises et les alliances qu’elle suscite au Maroc. En effet, dès son arrivée au Maroc, la menace du renvoi de cette « mission militaire » ottomane par les autorités françaises fut à l’ordre du jour. Nous essayerons de comprendre pourquoi.

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