Islamic Studies

This paper is to assess the impact immigration has on economic development and unemployment, by explaining the nature of the causal relationship between immigration and the economic performance. Using Macroeconomics data for Saudi Arabia that contain annual observation in the period between 1990 and 2010, through an econometric analysis based on Jarque-Bera test for normal distribution, Dickey-Fuller unit root test, Johansen cointegration tests and a vector error correction model test reveals that there is no cointegration among the datasets. The Granger causality test shows that when the level of immigration increases, GDP per capita also increases. It has also been found that immigration has no impact on unemployment, and vice versa.
Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies - Volume 20, Number 1, May 2018
The Official Publisher website: http://meea.sites.luc.edu/volume20/meea20.html

Entrepreneurship has a significant effect on the overall welfare of an
economy because it decreases the level of unemployment and helps in
fighting poverty, which dominates in most countries all over the world at
this time. Therefore, the contribution of small, and medium enterprises have been recognised by academics and policymakers. However, there are many factors could influence individuals in starting up a new business and one of these significant factors is perceptions. Thus, this study aims to present an understanding of how perceptions could influence Entrepreneurs' Intention (EI) in Egypt by studying the economic and political turmoil in the period between 2008 and 2012. The data which has been used in this study has been obtained from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). To investigate the relationship between the individuals’ perception and the entrepreneurship intentions the analysis model follows the logistic regression techniques. The primary results of the empirical analysis are that all types of perceptions under investigation- such as factors of characteristics of individuals’ perception, sociocultural perceptions, and economic opportunities- intended to have significant leverage on intentions to start an entrepreneurial venture in this sample. Also, the results support the presumption of the economic and political events in Egypt affect the entrepreneur intentions across the years between 2008 and 2012.

This study explores the daily lives of Egyptians in Milan, including individuals, groups, communities, and as a minority within the context of migration. The experiences of the Egyptian minority in Milan shed light on the interplay of historical, social, economic, and personal factors. Each chapter of the thesis examines various dimensions of this journey, from the motivations behind migration to the influence of social media, and from the dynamics of a super-diverse Milan to the role of material religion. These facets collectively illuminate the diverse narratives shaping the lives of Egyptian migrants. Using a unique theoretical framework centered on 'material religion' and the concept of super-diversity, the research provides an analytical lens to comprehend the dynamics of migration. Migration embodies the human quest for better opportunities and new horizons, and this study navigates the balance between embracing change and preserving one's identity in the face of life's complexities in a foreign land. This research immerses itself in the lives and evolving beliefs of Egyptian migrants through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions. It investigates the role of bodies, physical objects, artefacts, and spaces in religious practices and identity formation, underscoring the significance of human diversity and the enduring human spirit in the context of migration's challenges and opportunities. By celebrating this diversity, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between urban environments, human mobility, and the resilience of faith and culture in Milan. It underscores the profound and diverse narratives that shape the lives of Egyptian migrants, creating a richer depiction of our collective human experience.

Ibn Khaldūn’s The Requirements of the Sufi Path, expertly translated by Carolyn Baugh, is not just a scholarly exploration of Sufism; it is a bridge between the mystical and the legal, a rare fusion of juristic precision and spiritual insight. In this work, Khaldūn steps into the role of a jurist to defend the Sufi tradition, weaving together the wisdom of Sufi masters like Imam al-Ghazālī and Imam al-Qushayrī with his own legal acumen. What emerges is a compelling argument for the necessity of spiritual guidance, framed within the rigorous structure of Islamic law. This book, brought to life through Baugh’s careful translation, is not merely a historical artifact but a living dialogue between the heart’s mystical yearnings and the mind’s demand for order, a conversation as relevant today as it was in the 14th century. To fully appreciate the significance of this work, we must first understand the intellectual legacy of Ibn Khaldūn, whose contributions to human heritage remain unparalleled. In the following sections, we will explore the life and legacy of Ibn Khaldūn, the art of translation that brings his voice to modern readers, and the profound insights this book offers into the Sufi Path.

The following are some comments by a scholar of early Islamic Historiography on the intriguing stelae of the Royal Cemetary of Gao-Saney dating from 11th / 12th century (ce) West Africa. They depart from interpretations focusing on the integration of the stelae into the literary corpus of later Arabic ta'rīkh – works dealing with West Africa by proposing a spatial reconstruction of the ensemble of the tombstones. The resulting spatial arrangement can be intrepreted as reminiscent of the topography of the burial of the Prophet Muḥammad in Medina. It is proposed that the peculiar naming pattern on the tombstones of the recently Islamicized rulers of Gao-Saney replicating the naming pattern of the first three rulers of the ideal Islamic polity of early Islamic Salvation History did not necessarily form a replica of Islamic Salvation History in life, but certainly a replica in death establishing a marker of Islamic Salvational Geography in 11th / 12th century (ce) West Africa.

This chapter scrutinises the negotiation of various actors about the governance of the Mauritanian Islamic heritage. In the context of hopes for democratisation and the war on terror, social frictions are fuelled and lead to a quite confrontational mode of negotiating identity and citizenship. The traditional Islamic educational institution, the maḥḍara, plays a crucial role within these debates. Being perceived as an institution for (re)producing local tradition, the maḥḍara and its visions become the focus of conflict, praised by politicians and the ʿulamaʾ (Islamic scholars) as a driver of social peace, feared by security experts as a breeding ground for terrorism, and finally, wished to be reformed by human right activists. The war on terror goes hand in hand with the threat of terror, producing more rumours than facts and spreading feelings of insecurity that foster violent action.

Since July 2019 the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth has been funding a project dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Cultural Archive (ICA), a database designed for collaborative research in English, French and Arabic connecting researchers based in Germany and four African countries. The ICA pursues individual but interconnected studies revolving around Islamic learning in Africa. With the support of IT specialists, the project team developed a platform that allows us to handle our data through an ontology-based digital research environment building on WissKI, a set of modules that combines the Drupal content management system with semantic web technology. This article discusses the technical implications of our endeavour to connect diverse languages and data from various digital and digitized media. The research team members link their datasets to create synergies between various research foci and interests, ranging from the nexus of Islamic knowledge production, dissemination and acquisition to the socio-religious, political-economic, and cultural dimensions of Islamic learning. The article shows how our platform allows us to collect and archive different types of data, generate metadata through a shared ontology, and connect data beyond language barriers. Most notably, our data description method links the data through multilayered and multilingual tags, as well as through comprehensive cross-references, thus constituting an innovative way of data handling that can benefit researchers in Islamic Studies as well as cultural and literary studies more broadly.

This review article discusses the pros and cons of two bio-bibliographical tools for Western Saharan Arabic manuscripts. Research into this rich manuscript culture has been delayed; at the same time, the inadequate conservation of these manuscripts urgently demands more attention. Both bio-bibliographical tools are the outcome of profound pioneering studies and lay the foundations to foster new research agendas concerned with the Saharan manuscript culture, intellectual history, and social history. However, both compilers come from different academic disciplines. This fact is mirrored by the way data has been presented and compiled. Furthermore, the pluralistic and decentralized scholarly traditions of the Sahara produce their own obstacles and make such data collection a tremendously difficult task. Therefore, such tools-as important as they are-remain a work in progress and might most effectively be continued as an online database with an appointed editorial team that frequently updates the compilation with the new research results.

This chapter scrutinises the negotiation of various actors about the governance of the Mauritanian Islamic heritage. In the context of hopes for democratisation and the war on terror, social frictions are fuelled and lead to a quite confrontational mode of negotiating identity and citizenship. The traditional Islamic educational institution, the maḥḍara, plays a crucial role within these debates. Being perceived as an institution for (re)producing local tradition, the maḥḍara and its visions become the focus of conflict, praised by politicians and the ʿulamaʾ (Islamic scholars) as a driver of social peace, feared by security experts as a breeding ground for terrorism, and finally, wished to be reformed by human right activists. The war on terror goes hand in hand with the threat of terror, producing more rumours than facts and spreading feelings of insecurity that foster violent action.