Islam exists in global history with its richly variegated cultural and social realities. When these specific cultural contexts are marginalized, Islam is reduced to an ahistorical religion without the ability to contribute to humanity. This limited understanding of Islam has been a contributing factor in many of the violent conflicts in the present day.

Reflecting on Islam in Indonesia, the world’s third largest democracy, supporting the largest Muslim population, Ahmad Syafii Maarif argues...

El trabajo que aquí se presenta es una propuesta que replantea el vínculo cultural entre presente y pasado en la práctica arqueológica de la Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México. Como parte de una arqueología alternativa se plantea la Gran Línea de Vida, que es una línea que habla del tiempo a partir de la vida misma y que: expresa cambios y continuidades, es continua, es decir, no está fragmentada ni termina en 1521, está en movimiento y fluye en dos direcciones. Asimismo, está ocurriend...

This volume presents six essays devoted to the practices, habits, and preferences of scribes making manuscripts in their native tongue. Despite the dominance of Latin in medieval written culture, vernacular traditions started to develop in Europe in the eleventh century. Focusing on French, Frisian, Icelandic, Italian, Middle High German, and Old English examples, these essays discuss the connectivity of books originating in the same linguistic space.

Given that authors, translators, and rea...

Wim Klooster and Gert Oostindie present a fresh look at the Dutch Atlantic in the period following the imperial moment of the seventeenth century. This epoch (1680–1815), the authors argue, marked a distinct and significant era in which Dutch military power declined and Dutch colonies began to chart a more autonomous path.

The loss of Brazil and New Netherland were twin blows to Dutch imperial pretensions. Yet the Dutch Atlantic hardly faded into insignificance. Instead, the influence of th...

Since the origins of architectural history, proportional systems have served as objects of belief and modes of iconographical communication. Whether they are capable of fulfilling more tangible functions remains a matter of debate today, for this ancient and diverse belief system continues to infiltrate architectural thinking in subtle and sometimes surprising ways.

In this collection of original essays, twenty-six leading scholars reconsider the long history of proportional systems across nu...

Between 1966 and 1980, the War History Office of the National Defense College of Japan (now the Center for Military History of the National Institute for Defense Studies) published the 102-volume Senshi Sōsho (War History Series). These volumes give a detailed account of the operations of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War. The present volume, The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal, volume 26 of the series, des...

"Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen" van Johan Huizinga verscheen voor het eerst in 1919. Honderd jaar later geniet Herfsttij terecht een onverminderde populariteit. Het boek is een van de grootste en meeslependste klassieke geschiedwerken. Zowel in binnen- als buitenland is er grote waardering voor Huizinga’s werk – niet alleen vanwege zijn inlevingsvermogen in de geschiedenis en zijn cultuurhistorische visie, maar ook omwille van zijn prachtige taalgebruik. Herfsttij is in meer dan twintig tale...

This book presents three of the works of Abduʾl-Bahā, son of the founder of the Bahāʾi Faith, dealing with social and political issues.

In ‘The Secret of Divine Civilization’ (1875) Abduʾl-Bahā supports the administrative and broader social reforms of Mirzā Hosayn Khān, but looks mainly for organic reform through the efforts of Iranian intellectuals to waken and educate the masses. In this work, Abduʾl-Bahā gives virtuous and progressive Islamic clerics a leading role among th...

Dat de Nederlanders in de zeventiende eeuw in Azië aan een koloniaal rijk bouwden weet iedereen. Het is veel minder bekend dat hetzelfde ook in het Atlantische gebied gebeurde. In Tussen honger en zwaard laat Wim Klooster zien dat het Atlantische imperium van de Republiek een grote verscheidenheid aan regio’s omvatte: de Afrikaanse Goudkust, eilanden in het Caribisch gebied, een lange strook langs de Noordamerikaanse oostkust en Brazilië. Dit imperium was niet alleen het werk van Nederlan...

This work analyzes ritual practices and knowledge related to the Mesoamerican calendar with the aim of contributing to the understanding of the use and conceptualization of this calendar system in the contemporary K'iche' community of Momostenango, in the Highlands of Guatemala. The research presented here discusses the indigenous calendar system, forms of synergy between the Christian and the Highland Guatemalan calendar, the indigenous perception of history and continuity in time-related sy...