Ira M. Lapidus > Quotes

“There is nothing in the Quran or early Muslim religious literature to suggest an iconoclastic attitude. Grabar has argued that Muslim calligraphy and vegetal arts were most likely a pragmatic adaptation to the need for a new imperial-Islamic emblem distinct from the Byzantine and Sasanian portraits of emperors. The use of vegetal designs and writing was prior to any religious theory about them. Once adopted, they became the norm for Islamic public art. Theories about Islamic iconoclasm were developed later.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Many Europeans see immigrants as they saw colonial subjects – as lower peoples who have to be assimilated by education – and assume that their civilization will be defined only on European terms.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“The merger of religion and politics is a classical Islamic ideal; in the recent era, they have again been brought together. The utopian aspirations of the Islamic movements evoke the Muslim ideal of the caliphate, but in many respects they are an altogether novel adaptation of Islamic concepts to modern conditions.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Perhaps the most contested aspect of Muhammad’s career is warfare and the presumed legacy of jihad (holy struggle). In fact, Quranic statements about war are quite different from later Muslim interpretations and from contemporary Western concepts. Jihad in the Quran does not mean holy war. In the Quran, the words for war are “qital” – generally used for religiously authorized war – and “harb” – generally used for profane war. “Jihad” means striving to one’s utmost, including striving to be pious, showing religious loyalty through the observance of rituals, and supporting one’s fellow believers.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Inscriptions in the Dome of the Rock proclaimed the mission of Islam, the truth of the new faith, and the surpassing of the old faith. These passages name Muhammad as the envoy of God, but they bless Jesus and acknowledge him as a prophet and messiah. They acknowledge blessings for the day when Jesus is raised up again but deny that he is the son of God. Is the mention of Jesus meant to include him in the Muslim pantheon and thus appeal to Christians? Or is the intention to refute the Christian doctrines of Jesus’s divinity and to convert them to Islam?”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“The Kharijis who had repudiated ʿAli after the battle of Siffin formed small bands, usually of between thirty and a hundred men. Each group was at once an outlaw gang and a fanatical religious sect. They were held together by the conviction that they were the only true Muslims and that their rebellions had profound religious justification. A group of Kharijis (called Najda) controlled a good part of Arabia – including Bahrain, Oman, Hadhramaut, and Yemen – before they were finally crushed. These Khariji bands were most likely formed by uprooted individuals looking for communal affiliation through sectarian movements. The second civil war, then, was a crisis for the cohesion of the Arab-Muslim elite, for its political authority, and for its concepts of true belief and communal leadership.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Many verses in the Quran can be construed as including Christians and Jews in the Muslim community, because Muhammad saw himself at first as a missionary to all peoples but later narrowed his intended audience to pagan Arabs. Muhammad became disillusioned with the People of the Book and condemned them as “unbelievers.” Conflict with the Jews led to the redefinition of Islam as a new confessional religion and led to new laws and rituals to provide Muslims with a separate identity.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Battle of Ajnadayn”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Byzantium was both a source to emulate and a foil against which to define the distinctiveness of the Muslim regime.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Because the Arabic-Muslim accounts of the Prophet and early Islamic history are based on later materials, some scholars reasoned that the only way to know the true history is to use non-Muslim sources. One result was an account of the origin of Islam as a messianic Jewish sect in Palestine and North Arabia that much later was redefined as a new religion. In general, however, this effort has failed, because the non-Muslim sources are themselves fragmentary, poorly informed, and prejudiced.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies

“Reformist–political, also called “Islamist” movements, may function as political parties in countries where there are democratic elections, or as opposition movements in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes. They may be national or international. Many of these movements call for the implementation of “shariʿa.” This is a political ideological slogan intended to rally support for the creation of a utopian, divinely governed Islamic state and society, often with the implication that a truly Islamic state would legislate regressive punishments and family regulations. What it means in practice is obscure because historically, Islamic law (fiqh) was and is variable and changeable.”
― Ira M. Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies