Mohamad Meqdad | Erasmus University Rotterdam (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Mohamad Meqdad

This volume on Interpretations of Law and Ethics in Muslim Contexts would not have seen the light... more This volume on Interpretations of Law and Ethics in Muslim Contexts would not have seen the light of day if it were not for the dedication of colleagues at the Aga Khan University in London and contributors from around the world. Although names mentioned below are not exhaustive, I am nevertheless grateful to all those who participated in this project. Without them, this work would not have been possible. I am indebted to them all. The enthusiastic commitment of our Turkish colleagues in Turkey and elsewhere has been a remarkable asset to this project. Suer Eker of Baskent University cannot be thanked enough for remaining a pillar of the project.

Tickets and Booking: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and staff. Register as soon as ... more Tickets and Booking: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and staff. Register as soon as possible.

Thesis Chapters by Mohamad Meqdad

Communication inside the museum comprises three active agents: curator, visitor, and material cul... more Communication inside the museum comprises three active agents: curator, visitor, and material culture. The process of making meaning results from the interaction between these agents. Each one of them is independent and measuring the success of any exhibit depends on the degree of their engagement. Therefore, three meanings come up here, an organisational meaning, an interactional meaning, and a representational meaning. Each one of these meanings is tied to one agent, the organisational with the physicality of the exhibition, the interactional with the visitors, and the representational with the curators. The result of this triangular interaction is the communication or making meaning. This perspective is adopted by the New museology trend, which one of its branches is Museum as a text or reading the museum as a readable text. This new approach will be adopted to examine the Islamic Gallery in the British Museum (Room 34). It uses New-museological lenses and read this gallery attempting to understand the communications between its three agents. Although it looks an Old-museological gallery, its potentiality of a better communicating with its audience is high. Pioneering the museum studies, this study will uncover this potentiality and specify the gaps of making meaning in John Addis Gallery to bring, for the first time, as one of the most important examples of examining the readability of a museum internationally that exhibits Muslim material culture.

Books by Mohamad Meqdad

200 abstracts of scholarly publications on Islamic law and ethics This volume brings together so... more 200 abstracts of scholarly publications on Islamic law and ethics

This volume brings together some of the many unheard voices of scholars studying law and ethics in languages other than English. It features 200 abstracts with bibliographical details in 3 languages (English, Arabic and Turkish) giving access to information about scholarly publications from Muslim contexts in the fields of law and Shari'ah.

Law within Muslim societies is not uniform; even within Muslim majority regions it can be interpreted differently according to different denominations and legal traditions. As law forms an integral part of normative social practice, reflecting the moral and ethical principles of a society, it is important to highlight the diversity of interpretations to better enable the study of law along with the ethical principles of a community.

A collection of over 200 abstracts of research publications on cities, translated into three lang... more A collection of over 200 abstracts of research publications on cities, translated into three languages

From Tehran in Iran to Istanbul in Turkey, and from Herat in Afghanistan to Khartoum in Sudan, the rich diversity of the Muslim world is strikingly expressed through its myriad of cities. This reference volume presents over 200 abstracts of scholarship examining cities as both built and lived environments. They deal with the important subjects such as urban growth in the last 50 years, infrastructure and the environment and migration from rural areas. The historical periods covered span from the Umayyad Caliphate to the present day.

Each abstract is presented in English, Arabic and Turkish, opening up this body of scholarship to new audiences. These abstracts demonstrate how much cities have varied between countries and over time.

Conference Presentations by Mohamad Meqdad

This study aims to analyse the historical developments and the discourse of inclusion and restric... more This study aims to analyse the historical developments and the discourse of inclusion and restriction of Religious Cultural Heritage (RCH) in the Antiquities Laws that were issued or implemented in the territories of the current Syrian Arab Republic, from the mid of the eighteenth century onwards. It examines the developments of the Ottoman antiquities laws, from the 1869 decree to the ‘antiquitisation’ of RCH in the laws of 1906. Under the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon, RCH was subjugated to the newly developed antiquities laws in 1926 and 1933, through which, the state stripped individuals and religious communities of ‘their’ ownership of RCH. The normative state-ownership was allowed to be contested legally, however, before the common law courts instead of the private law courts. Furthermore, any legal challenge to the state’s expropriation had to be based on ‘convincing’ documentations that had to be provided by the original owners, individuals and religious communities. The state motivated participation in RCH protection by encouraging religious communities to subsidise these works. The post-independent Syrian state expanded their Antiquities Laws further by including all historical mosques, churches, and any other places of worships under their jurisdictions in 1947 and 1963. RCH buildings were allowed to carry on conducting their original functionalities, without any changes, under their managing administrations, which were responsible for any limited minimal maintenance and under the close supervision of the relevant antiquities authorities, who always had/have the final say and the upper hand in handling any preservation works of such buildings.

BRISMES 2017, 2017

In an era of globalisation, the Middle Eastern cultures and academia have been marginalised and n... more In an era of globalisation, the Middle Eastern cultures and academia have been marginalised and neglected which endangered the local sources and made them increasingly voiceless on international levels. Generally, extant primary sources have the advantage of being archived and explored by several researchers which preserve them, however, the secondary sources are often neglected or overlooked. As such, scholarship in Europe and North America is impoverished because of its lack of awareness of contemporary Middle Eastern academic endeavours.

This volume on Interpretations of Law and Ethics in Muslim Contexts would not have seen the light... more This volume on Interpretations of Law and Ethics in Muslim Contexts would not have seen the light of day if it were not for the dedication of colleagues at the Aga Khan University in London and contributors from around the world. Although names mentioned below are not exhaustive, I am nevertheless grateful to all those who participated in this project. Without them, this work would not have been possible. I am indebted to them all. The enthusiastic commitment of our Turkish colleagues in Turkey and elsewhere has been a remarkable asset to this project. Suer Eker of Baskent University cannot be thanked enough for remaining a pillar of the project.

Tickets and Booking: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and staff. Register as soon as ... more Tickets and Booking: £75 professionals | £45 students, AKU alumni and staff. Register as soon as possible.

Communication inside the museum comprises three active agents: curator, visitor, and material cul... more Communication inside the museum comprises three active agents: curator, visitor, and material culture. The process of making meaning results from the interaction between these agents. Each one of them is independent and measuring the success of any exhibit depends on the degree of their engagement. Therefore, three meanings come up here, an organisational meaning, an interactional meaning, and a representational meaning. Each one of these meanings is tied to one agent, the organisational with the physicality of the exhibition, the interactional with the visitors, and the representational with the curators. The result of this triangular interaction is the communication or making meaning. This perspective is adopted by the New museology trend, which one of its branches is Museum as a text or reading the museum as a readable text. This new approach will be adopted to examine the Islamic Gallery in the British Museum (Room 34). It uses New-museological lenses and read this gallery attempting to understand the communications between its three agents. Although it looks an Old-museological gallery, its potentiality of a better communicating with its audience is high. Pioneering the museum studies, this study will uncover this potentiality and specify the gaps of making meaning in John Addis Gallery to bring, for the first time, as one of the most important examples of examining the readability of a museum internationally that exhibits Muslim material culture.

200 abstracts of scholarly publications on Islamic law and ethics This volume brings together so... more 200 abstracts of scholarly publications on Islamic law and ethics

This volume brings together some of the many unheard voices of scholars studying law and ethics in languages other than English. It features 200 abstracts with bibliographical details in 3 languages (English, Arabic and Turkish) giving access to information about scholarly publications from Muslim contexts in the fields of law and Shari'ah.

Law within Muslim societies is not uniform; even within Muslim majority regions it can be interpreted differently according to different denominations and legal traditions. As law forms an integral part of normative social practice, reflecting the moral and ethical principles of a society, it is important to highlight the diversity of interpretations to better enable the study of law along with the ethical principles of a community.

A collection of over 200 abstracts of research publications on cities, translated into three lang... more A collection of over 200 abstracts of research publications on cities, translated into three languages

From Tehran in Iran to Istanbul in Turkey, and from Herat in Afghanistan to Khartoum in Sudan, the rich diversity of the Muslim world is strikingly expressed through its myriad of cities. This reference volume presents over 200 abstracts of scholarship examining cities as both built and lived environments. They deal with the important subjects such as urban growth in the last 50 years, infrastructure and the environment and migration from rural areas. The historical periods covered span from the Umayyad Caliphate to the present day.

Each abstract is presented in English, Arabic and Turkish, opening up this body of scholarship to new audiences. These abstracts demonstrate how much cities have varied between countries and over time.

This study aims to analyse the historical developments and the discourse of inclusion and restric... more This study aims to analyse the historical developments and the discourse of inclusion and restriction of Religious Cultural Heritage (RCH) in the Antiquities Laws that were issued or implemented in the territories of the current Syrian Arab Republic, from the mid of the eighteenth century onwards. It examines the developments of the Ottoman antiquities laws, from the 1869 decree to the ‘antiquitisation’ of RCH in the laws of 1906. Under the French mandate of Syria and Lebanon, RCH was subjugated to the newly developed antiquities laws in 1926 and 1933, through which, the state stripped individuals and religious communities of ‘their’ ownership of RCH. The normative state-ownership was allowed to be contested legally, however, before the common law courts instead of the private law courts. Furthermore, any legal challenge to the state’s expropriation had to be based on ‘convincing’ documentations that had to be provided by the original owners, individuals and religious communities. The state motivated participation in RCH protection by encouraging religious communities to subsidise these works. The post-independent Syrian state expanded their Antiquities Laws further by including all historical mosques, churches, and any other places of worships under their jurisdictions in 1947 and 1963. RCH buildings were allowed to carry on conducting their original functionalities, without any changes, under their managing administrations, which were responsible for any limited minimal maintenance and under the close supervision of the relevant antiquities authorities, who always had/have the final say and the upper hand in handling any preservation works of such buildings.

BRISMES 2017, 2017

In an era of globalisation, the Middle Eastern cultures and academia have been marginalised and n... more In an era of globalisation, the Middle Eastern cultures and academia have been marginalised and neglected which endangered the local sources and made them increasingly voiceless on international levels. Generally, extant primary sources have the advantage of being archived and explored by several researchers which preserve them, however, the secondary sources are often neglected or overlooked. As such, scholarship in Europe and North America is impoverished because of its lack of awareness of contemporary Middle Eastern academic endeavours.