Kristian Petersen | Old Dominion University (original) (raw)
Books by Kristian Petersen
Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of... more Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of some its brightest luminaries, in order to identify and explicate pivotal transitions in their engagement with the Islamic tradition. Three prominent Sino-Muslim authors are used to illustrate transformations within this tradition, Wang Daiyu (1590-1658), Liu Zhi (1670-1724), and Ma Dexin (1794-1874).Kristian Petersen puts these scholars in dialogue and demonstrates the continuities and departures within this tradition. Through an analysis of their writings on the subjects of pilgrimage, scripture, and language, he considers several questions: How malleable are religious categories and why are they variously interpreted across time? How do changing historical circumstances affect the interpretation of religious beliefs and practices? How do individuals navigate multiple sources of authority? How do practices inform belief? Overall, he shows, these authors presented an increasingly universalistic portrait of Islam through which Sino-Muslims were encouraged to participate within the global community of Muslims in both theological and experiential spaces. The growing emphasis on performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, comprehensive knowledge of the Qur'an, and personal knowledge of Arabic further stimulated communal engagement. Petersen demonstrates that the integration of Sino-Muslims within a growing global environment, where international travel and communication was increasingly possible, was accompanied by the rising self-awareness of a universally engaged Muslim community.
Digital Projects by Kristian Petersen
Women of Islamic Studies is a crowdsourced database of women scholars who work on Muslims and Isl... more Women of Islamic Studies is a crowdsourced database of women scholars who work on Muslims and Islam. This ongoing project is in its beta version.
Women of Islamic Studies is intended to contest the prevalence of all-male and male dominated academic domains, such as editorial boards, conference panels, publications, guest speakers, bibliographies, books reviews, etc. and provide resources to support the recognition, citation, and inclusion of women scholars in the field of Islamic Studies. Anyone who identifies as a woman, gender non-conforming, or non-binary is welcomed on the list. The scholars listed come from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives. “Islamic Studies” is meant to be as inclusive as possible, meaning anyone whose expertise is related to the understanding of Muslims and the Islamic tradition, and intended to demarcate a disciplinary boundary. Please feel free to list any relevant scholars who work on Islam and Muslims in any capacity. The crowdsourced contents are made possible by many contributors. Please add to our list and help spread the word.
Articles by Kristian Petersen
Journal of Africana Religions, 2019
This essay explores "Islamophobia" through actor Mahershala Ali. I focus on Ali's 2017 awards and... more This essay explores "Islamophobia" through actor Mahershala Ali. I focus on Ali's 2017 awards and their audience reception, especially in Pakistan. Ali frames an analysis of the mediation of Black American Ahmadi Muslim identity within national conditions of anti-Muslim animus, the illegibility of Black Muslimness, and global debates about Muslim "orthodoxy."
This essay explores how Muslims are represented in the two most successful Iraq War films, Americ... more This essay explores how Muslims are represented in the two most successful Iraq War films, American Sniper (2014, US) and The Hurt Locker (2008, US), and offers a comparative analysis of the cultural assertions being deployed in their representation. To do this, I provide a close reading of the films' depictions within visual, discursive, and sonic fields of production and show how their representations of Muslims signify specific meanings to the audience, which render Muslims distrustful, threatening, and uncivilized, thereby legitimizing specific oppressive treatment and policies toward them.
Islamic Thought in China: Sino-Muslim Intellectual Evolution from the 17th to the 21st Century, Jun 2016
This essay argues that there is a predominant media narrative that asserts that Islam is inherent... more This essay argues that there is a predominant media narrative that asserts that Islam is inherently violent, Muslims are foreign and dangerous, we should remain alert and suspicious, and policies or acts of aggression against them are therefore justifiable. Routinized replication of simplistic, patterned, and easily recognizable Muslim identities leads to real social consequences. I demonstrate the dynamics at work in constructing Muslim media identities through an investigation of recent incidents, including the Charlie Hebdo and Chapel Hill shootings, several anti-Muslim crimes, and the media declarations encircling these events. These types of events are best understood within a context where persistent seemingly transparent anti-Muslim bias is part of social life due to the production and circulation of recognized Muslim identities. Overall, I argue that “identity” is not fixed, essential, or natural, and, therefore, examining the processes of identification rather than identity will be the most productive.
Oxford Islamic Studies Online
Modern Asian Studies, 2014
During the nineteenth century, many Sino-Muslim scholars were seeking a more robust relationship ... more During the nineteenth century, many Sino-Muslim scholars were seeking a more robust relationship with their Arab co-religionists. The efforts of Ma Dexin ddd (1794–1874) exemplify this shift to strengthen ties with the Muslim community outside China and situate Sino-Islamic scholarship in widespread Islamic discourses. Ma’s writings provided Sino-Muslims with discursive and pragmatic tools for engaging a global Muslim community. For Ma, Muslim cooperation was negotiated through the means of religious education, which was enabled through travel and language. In this paper, I demonstrate how Ma Dexin modelled the importance of global connections of inter-Asian networks of religious learning by exemplifying the value of Middle Eastern travel and fluency in Arabic. I employ Ma’s Chinese and Arabic written works in relation to those of Wang Daiyu ddd (circa 1590–1658) and Liu Zhi dd (circa 1670–1724) to illustrate how he differed significantly from previous Sino-Muslim authors with regard to the use of Arabic within the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition and in his emphatic urgings to perform the hajj pilgrimage. Finally, I briefly show how his divergent position was embraced, as exhibited through the efforts of one of his intellectual inheritors, Ma Lianyuan ddd (1841–1903).
Journal of Sufi Studies Vol. 2, No. 2, 177–201, 2013
The True Explanation of the Orthodox Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮), published in 1642 by Wan... more The True Explanation of the Orthodox Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮), published in 1642 by Wang Daiyu 王岱輿 (ca. 1590–1658), is the oldest extant text in the Han Kitab, a Sino- Islamic canon. This literature employed Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist language and imagery to explain Islamic thought. Wang was a pioneering figure in the institutionalization of this dis- tinct Sino-Islamic discourse and crystallized much of the terminology used throughout subse- quent Han Kitab literature. In the Zhengjiao zhenquan, Wang analyzes the spiritual nature of the heart, dividing it into three aspects and seven levels. These seven levels are correlative of the classification of subtleties (laṭāʾif ) or stages (aṭwār) developed by authors affiliated with the Kubrawi Sufi order. In this article, Wang’s spiritual taxonomy is analyzed in comparison with delineations of the multiple levels of the heart determined by Najm al-Dīn Rāzī (d. 1256) and Nūr al-Dīn Isfarāyīnī (d. 1317). Through a close reading of the sources I establish the intellectual influences from these authors’ thought on Wang’s explanation of Islam. By doing so we begin to determine the various sources for Sino-Islamic thought and determine an exact lexical register of Chinese language Islamic literature.
Philosophy East and West Vol. 61, No. 3, 546-559, 2011
The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 3, 24-53, 2006
During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began t... more During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began to critically examine their understanding of Islamic knowledge and how to transmit it to future generations. Traditional tutelage based on purely Arabic and Persian sources generally evaded a Muslim population that, for the most part, could no longer read the available rare Islamic texts. The subsequent reconstruction of Islamic knowledge and education emphasized the intersections between the Chinese and the Muslim communities’ cultural and religious heritages. The new specialized educational system, “scripture hall education” (jingtang jiaoyu), utilized Chinese as the language of instruction and incorporated aspects of traditional Chinese literati education in collaboration with newly retrieved Islamic sources from the Muslim heartland. The ensuing standardization and organization of curriculum and pedagogical techniques enabled peripatetic students to replicate this system throughout China. It also allowed the religious community’s leaders to direct the discourse concerning Islam and disseminate a specific interpretation of religious knowledge. This is most clearly displayed through the Han Kitab, the canonized corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written, approximately, during 1600-1750. This literature articulated Islamic principles through the lexicon of literary Chinese and replicated the ideology highlighted by the educational network. This paper analyzes why Islamic knowledge was lost and traces how the new educational system transformed the indigenous Islamic discourse, articulated through the Han Kitab literature, to reflect a distinctive Chinese Muslim interpretation of the faith.
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs Vol. 26, No. 1, 63-73, 2006
This paper surveys the increasing support from the Uighur community for the cre- ation of an inde... more This paper surveys the increasing support from the Uighur community for the cre- ation of an independent nation, “East Turkistan”, from what is today the Xinjiang province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the exposure this has received in global news outlets. The PRC’s often brutal suppression of Uighur nationalism within China has forced the Uighur diaspora community leaders to more forcefully speak of ethnic Uighur rights and act as the voice of all Uighurs. The result of the global exposure to the East Turkistan plea, mainly through the use of the World Wide Web, has been the reification of the Uighur identity. In this study, by examining published materials and websites, I have concluded that while claiming to represent all Uighurs, these outlets only embody a privileged com- munity. I have also established in this study the affects of the Internet on the Uighur nationalist movement. Overall, as with nearly all nations and nation-states world-wide, the physical borders of Xinjiang do not correlate to a unified cultural Uighur identity. Furthermore, the policies implemented by the PRC have de facto encouraged the creation of a borderless national identity that is being used by the Uighur leaders for deliberate political goals. As such, the leaders of Uighur organizations, and intellectuals and activists have led the way in determining this modern Uighur character through the use of the World Wide Web.
Book Reviews by Kristian Petersen
Religious Studies Review, 2015
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 55, 2014
Religious Studies Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2014
project. R. Wisnovksy, and G. Freudenthal and M. Zonta, cover Avicenna's reception within Islamic... more project. R. Wisnovksy, and G. Freudenthal and M. Zonta, cover Avicenna's reception within Islamic and Jewish cultures, respectively, and A. Bertolacci considers his impact on Latin medieval culture. D. J. McGinnis and S. Menn examine Avicenna's views on natural philosophy (i.e., physics) and metaphysics. D. Hasse, D. Black, P. Pormann, and T. Street explicate the nuances of Avicenna's epistemological and logical views. P. Pormann also shows how Avicenna applied his epistemological theories to his medical practice. D. Black argues that Avicenna maintains that sensible and empirical propositions can be immediately known. This, together with D. Black's discussion of Avicenna on the epistemology of testimony, reveals certain externalist tendencies in Avicenna's epistemology and provides a convincing case for interpreting him as a moderate foundationalist. Adamson's paper on Avicenna's First Cause argument explains how Avicenna argues from the conclusion that there is a necessary existent to the further claim that God so conceived has the attributes associated with the God of Islam. Unfortunately, little is said about Avicenna's ethics or political philosophy. However, this relatively minor lacuna doesn't take anything away from the overall value of the book. This book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in Islamic philosophy and medieval philosophy.
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 54, 2013
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 81, No. 3., 2013
Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Vol. 24, No. 1., 2013
Journal of International and Global Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1., 2011
Religious Studies Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, Mar 2010
Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of... more Interpreting Islam in China explores the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition through the works of some its brightest luminaries, in order to identify and explicate pivotal transitions in their engagement with the Islamic tradition. Three prominent Sino-Muslim authors are used to illustrate transformations within this tradition, Wang Daiyu (1590-1658), Liu Zhi (1670-1724), and Ma Dexin (1794-1874).Kristian Petersen puts these scholars in dialogue and demonstrates the continuities and departures within this tradition. Through an analysis of their writings on the subjects of pilgrimage, scripture, and language, he considers several questions: How malleable are religious categories and why are they variously interpreted across time? How do changing historical circumstances affect the interpretation of religious beliefs and practices? How do individuals navigate multiple sources of authority? How do practices inform belief? Overall, he shows, these authors presented an increasingly universalistic portrait of Islam through which Sino-Muslims were encouraged to participate within the global community of Muslims in both theological and experiential spaces. The growing emphasis on performing the pilgrimage to Mecca, comprehensive knowledge of the Qur'an, and personal knowledge of Arabic further stimulated communal engagement. Petersen demonstrates that the integration of Sino-Muslims within a growing global environment, where international travel and communication was increasingly possible, was accompanied by the rising self-awareness of a universally engaged Muslim community.
Women of Islamic Studies is a crowdsourced database of women scholars who work on Muslims and Isl... more Women of Islamic Studies is a crowdsourced database of women scholars who work on Muslims and Islam. This ongoing project is in its beta version.
Women of Islamic Studies is intended to contest the prevalence of all-male and male dominated academic domains, such as editorial boards, conference panels, publications, guest speakers, bibliographies, books reviews, etc. and provide resources to support the recognition, citation, and inclusion of women scholars in the field of Islamic Studies. Anyone who identifies as a woman, gender non-conforming, or non-binary is welcomed on the list. The scholars listed come from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives. “Islamic Studies” is meant to be as inclusive as possible, meaning anyone whose expertise is related to the understanding of Muslims and the Islamic tradition, and intended to demarcate a disciplinary boundary. Please feel free to list any relevant scholars who work on Islam and Muslims in any capacity. The crowdsourced contents are made possible by many contributors. Please add to our list and help spread the word.
Journal of Africana Religions, 2019
This essay explores "Islamophobia" through actor Mahershala Ali. I focus on Ali's 2017 awards and... more This essay explores "Islamophobia" through actor Mahershala Ali. I focus on Ali's 2017 awards and their audience reception, especially in Pakistan. Ali frames an analysis of the mediation of Black American Ahmadi Muslim identity within national conditions of anti-Muslim animus, the illegibility of Black Muslimness, and global debates about Muslim "orthodoxy."
This essay explores how Muslims are represented in the two most successful Iraq War films, Americ... more This essay explores how Muslims are represented in the two most successful Iraq War films, American Sniper (2014, US) and The Hurt Locker (2008, US), and offers a comparative analysis of the cultural assertions being deployed in their representation. To do this, I provide a close reading of the films' depictions within visual, discursive, and sonic fields of production and show how their representations of Muslims signify specific meanings to the audience, which render Muslims distrustful, threatening, and uncivilized, thereby legitimizing specific oppressive treatment and policies toward them.
Islamic Thought in China: Sino-Muslim Intellectual Evolution from the 17th to the 21st Century, Jun 2016
This essay argues that there is a predominant media narrative that asserts that Islam is inherent... more This essay argues that there is a predominant media narrative that asserts that Islam is inherently violent, Muslims are foreign and dangerous, we should remain alert and suspicious, and policies or acts of aggression against them are therefore justifiable. Routinized replication of simplistic, patterned, and easily recognizable Muslim identities leads to real social consequences. I demonstrate the dynamics at work in constructing Muslim media identities through an investigation of recent incidents, including the Charlie Hebdo and Chapel Hill shootings, several anti-Muslim crimes, and the media declarations encircling these events. These types of events are best understood within a context where persistent seemingly transparent anti-Muslim bias is part of social life due to the production and circulation of recognized Muslim identities. Overall, I argue that “identity” is not fixed, essential, or natural, and, therefore, examining the processes of identification rather than identity will be the most productive.
Oxford Islamic Studies Online
Modern Asian Studies, 2014
During the nineteenth century, many Sino-Muslim scholars were seeking a more robust relationship ... more During the nineteenth century, many Sino-Muslim scholars were seeking a more robust relationship with their Arab co-religionists. The efforts of Ma Dexin ddd (1794–1874) exemplify this shift to strengthen ties with the Muslim community outside China and situate Sino-Islamic scholarship in widespread Islamic discourses. Ma’s writings provided Sino-Muslims with discursive and pragmatic tools for engaging a global Muslim community. For Ma, Muslim cooperation was negotiated through the means of religious education, which was enabled through travel and language. In this paper, I demonstrate how Ma Dexin modelled the importance of global connections of inter-Asian networks of religious learning by exemplifying the value of Middle Eastern travel and fluency in Arabic. I employ Ma’s Chinese and Arabic written works in relation to those of Wang Daiyu ddd (circa 1590–1658) and Liu Zhi dd (circa 1670–1724) to illustrate how he differed significantly from previous Sino-Muslim authors with regard to the use of Arabic within the Sino-Islamic intellectual tradition and in his emphatic urgings to perform the hajj pilgrimage. Finally, I briefly show how his divergent position was embraced, as exhibited through the efforts of one of his intellectual inheritors, Ma Lianyuan ddd (1841–1903).
Journal of Sufi Studies Vol. 2, No. 2, 177–201, 2013
The True Explanation of the Orthodox Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮), published in 1642 by Wan... more The True Explanation of the Orthodox Teaching (Zhengjiao zhenquan 正教真詮), published in 1642 by Wang Daiyu 王岱輿 (ca. 1590–1658), is the oldest extant text in the Han Kitab, a Sino- Islamic canon. This literature employed Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist language and imagery to explain Islamic thought. Wang was a pioneering figure in the institutionalization of this dis- tinct Sino-Islamic discourse and crystallized much of the terminology used throughout subse- quent Han Kitab literature. In the Zhengjiao zhenquan, Wang analyzes the spiritual nature of the heart, dividing it into three aspects and seven levels. These seven levels are correlative of the classification of subtleties (laṭāʾif ) or stages (aṭwār) developed by authors affiliated with the Kubrawi Sufi order. In this article, Wang’s spiritual taxonomy is analyzed in comparison with delineations of the multiple levels of the heart determined by Najm al-Dīn Rāzī (d. 1256) and Nūr al-Dīn Isfarāyīnī (d. 1317). Through a close reading of the sources I establish the intellectual influences from these authors’ thought on Wang’s explanation of Islam. By doing so we begin to determine the various sources for Sino-Islamic thought and determine an exact lexical register of Chinese language Islamic literature.
Philosophy East and West Vol. 61, No. 3, 546-559, 2011
The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 3, 24-53, 2006
During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began t... more During the sixteenth century when Islam was already established in China, Chinese Muslims began to critically examine their understanding of Islamic knowledge and how to transmit it to future generations. Traditional tutelage based on purely Arabic and Persian sources generally evaded a Muslim population that, for the most part, could no longer read the available rare Islamic texts. The subsequent reconstruction of Islamic knowledge and education emphasized the intersections between the Chinese and the Muslim communities’ cultural and religious heritages. The new specialized educational system, “scripture hall education” (jingtang jiaoyu), utilized Chinese as the language of instruction and incorporated aspects of traditional Chinese literati education in collaboration with newly retrieved Islamic sources from the Muslim heartland. The ensuing standardization and organization of curriculum and pedagogical techniques enabled peripatetic students to replicate this system throughout China. It also allowed the religious community’s leaders to direct the discourse concerning Islam and disseminate a specific interpretation of religious knowledge. This is most clearly displayed through the Han Kitab, the canonized corpus of Chinese Islamic texts written, approximately, during 1600-1750. This literature articulated Islamic principles through the lexicon of literary Chinese and replicated the ideology highlighted by the educational network. This paper analyzes why Islamic knowledge was lost and traces how the new educational system transformed the indigenous Islamic discourse, articulated through the Han Kitab literature, to reflect a distinctive Chinese Muslim interpretation of the faith.
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs Vol. 26, No. 1, 63-73, 2006
This paper surveys the increasing support from the Uighur community for the cre- ation of an inde... more This paper surveys the increasing support from the Uighur community for the cre- ation of an independent nation, “East Turkistan”, from what is today the Xinjiang province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the exposure this has received in global news outlets. The PRC’s often brutal suppression of Uighur nationalism within China has forced the Uighur diaspora community leaders to more forcefully speak of ethnic Uighur rights and act as the voice of all Uighurs. The result of the global exposure to the East Turkistan plea, mainly through the use of the World Wide Web, has been the reification of the Uighur identity. In this study, by examining published materials and websites, I have concluded that while claiming to represent all Uighurs, these outlets only embody a privileged com- munity. I have also established in this study the affects of the Internet on the Uighur nationalist movement. Overall, as with nearly all nations and nation-states world-wide, the physical borders of Xinjiang do not correlate to a unified cultural Uighur identity. Furthermore, the policies implemented by the PRC have de facto encouraged the creation of a borderless national identity that is being used by the Uighur leaders for deliberate political goals. As such, the leaders of Uighur organizations, and intellectuals and activists have led the way in determining this modern Uighur character through the use of the World Wide Web.
Religious Studies Review, 2015
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 55, 2014
Religious Studies Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2014
project. R. Wisnovksy, and G. Freudenthal and M. Zonta, cover Avicenna's reception within Islamic... more project. R. Wisnovksy, and G. Freudenthal and M. Zonta, cover Avicenna's reception within Islamic and Jewish cultures, respectively, and A. Bertolacci considers his impact on Latin medieval culture. D. J. McGinnis and S. Menn examine Avicenna's views on natural philosophy (i.e., physics) and metaphysics. D. Hasse, D. Black, P. Pormann, and T. Street explicate the nuances of Avicenna's epistemological and logical views. P. Pormann also shows how Avicenna applied his epistemological theories to his medical practice. D. Black argues that Avicenna maintains that sensible and empirical propositions can be immediately known. This, together with D. Black's discussion of Avicenna on the epistemology of testimony, reveals certain externalist tendencies in Avicenna's epistemology and provides a convincing case for interpreting him as a moderate foundationalist. Adamson's paper on Avicenna's First Cause argument explains how Avicenna argues from the conclusion that there is a necessary existent to the further claim that God so conceived has the attributes associated with the God of Islam. Unfortunately, little is said about Avicenna's ethics or political philosophy. However, this relatively minor lacuna doesn't take anything away from the overall value of the book. This book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate level courses in Islamic philosophy and medieval philosophy.
Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society 54, 2013
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 81, No. 3., 2013
Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Vol. 24, No. 1., 2013
Journal of International and Global Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1., 2011
Religious Studies Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, Mar 2010
Journal of Oriental and African Studies Vol. 18, 2009
Journal of Oriental and African Studies Vol. 18 , 2009
This course explores how Islam and Muslims are represented and deployed in filmmic cultures. We w... more This course explores how Islam and Muslims are represented and deployed in filmmic cultures. We will use films as a platform for asking questions about various dimensions of Islam and Muslims. Conversely, we will use images, metaphors, and teachings found in Islam to discuss the layers and elements visually and audibly portrayed on screen. Through different critical theoretical approaches, this course will examine how Islam, as variously defined, pervades classical and modern cinema. We will examine this history through three national cinemas, Hollywood, French, and Iranian. Altogether, we will explore issues of representation, gender, identity, stereotypes, culture, religion, and racism though the depiction of Islam and Muslim on screen and how audiences respond to these portrayals. course schedule
