The Emotions of Conversion and Kinship in the Qur'an and the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq

Author:

Bauer Karen1

Affiliation:

1. The Institute of Ismaili Studies

Abstract

This article traces the archetypical development of emotion from individual feeling to collective action by focusing on conversion and kinship as recorded in the Qur'an and the oldest extant biography of the Prophet, the Sīra of Ibn Isḥāq. The article's first part describes an individual's experience of emotions through the conversion story of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Conversion can result in tension with kin networks, and the second part shows how the Qur'anic discourse on kinship evolves through time. The third part examines the social impact of conversion, as told through two narratives in the Sīra. Through these examples, this article proposes a method of reading which gives insight into the function and import of emotions and emotiveness in these texts. I suggest attending not only to emotion words, whether on their own or as an expression of social hierarchies, but also to emotional tension, and to the transformation of emotional states. Tension and transformation can indicate a text's emotiveness. Stories themselves can become objects of emotive attachment for a community, and the emotiveness of a story might be why it sticks in the memory and becomes emblematic, or how it becomes convincing. Such stories can bind people together with a shared vision of the nature of their community, its mores, and its history. Emotion is not always simply an expression of individual feeling. Emotive rhetoric can convince people to do something that they do not wish to do, such as fighting jihad, and emotive stories can create an idealized image of a community. Emotion in these texts can thus be considered in three overlapping spheres: as an expression of a religious experience, as an expression of a social power dynamic, and as a means of expressing and constructing community identity.

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Subject

Political Science and International Relations,History,Cultural Studies

Cited by 6 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3