![]() Head of a man from Qaryat al-Faw (1st century BC) |
Islamic archaeology involves the recovery and scientific investigation of the material remains of past cultures that can illuminate the periods and descriptions in the Quran, and early Islam. [2] The science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. The Egyptian "Antiquities Authority" was established in 1858 and remains a government organization which serves to protect and preserve the heritage and ancient history of Egypt.
Early pioneers in Islamic archaeology included Eduard Glaser and Alois Musil. Khaled al-Asaad was principal custodian of the Palmyra site from 1963, overseeing its elevation to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [3] [4] Some of the earliest areas investigated in Saudi Arabia include Al Faw Village and Madain Saleh. Jodi Magness has covered the archaeology of early Islamic settlement in Palestine. The Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran was opened in 1972. It houses tools dating back 30,000 to 35,000 years and crafted by Mousterian Neanderthals in Yafteh. Among the oldest human artifacts are 9,000-year-old and animal figurines from the Sarab mound in Kermanshah Province. The Gaza Museum of Archaeology was opened in 2008. Objects protected from display include Aphrodite in revealing gown, images of ancient deities and oil lamps featuring menorahs. Since 2016 the Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter, Timothy Insoll, has directed the Centre for Islamic Archaeology. [5] Insoll is on the editorial board of the Journal of Islamic Archaeology.
The oldest extant Islamic monument is The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem which contains some of the earliest extant qurānic text, dated to 692CE. They vary from today's standard text (mainly changes from the first to the third person) and are mixed with pious inscriptions absent from the Quran. [6] During a six-week period in 1833, Frederick Catherwood produced the first known detailed survey. [1]
Pre-Islamic In-situ archaeology includes south Arabian 4th CE rock inscriptions that evidence fewer pagan expressions and the start in use of the monotheistic "rahmān". [6]
Fewer archaeological surveys have taken place in the Arabian peninsula and are considered taboo in Mecca ( The Noble ) and Medina ( The Enlightened City ). There is no architecture from the time of Mohammed in either city and the battlefields of the Quran have not been unearthed. Known settlements from the time, such as Khaybar, remain uninvestigated. Archaeologial evidence for Quranic narratives yet to be uncovered [6] include that for the ʿĀd who built monuments and strongholds at every high point [7] and their fate evident from the remains of their dwellings. [8] [9]
A political dispute in the Uttar Pradesh city of Ayodhya, as noted by academic, K. K. Muhammed, has revolved around archaeological Issues: whether an archaeological plot, believed the temple birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, was demolished or modified to create the Babri Masjid mosque. [10]
Ayodhya is a city situated on the banks of the Sarayu river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ayodhya district as well as the Ayodhya division of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ayodhya city is administered by the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation, the governing civic body of the city.
The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the earliest archaeologically attested religious structure to be built by a Muslim ruler and its inscriptions contain the earliest epigraphic proclamations of Islam and of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Qibli Mosque or Qibli Chapel, is the main congregational mosque or prayer hall in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. In some sources the building is also named al-Masjid al-Aqṣā, but this name primarily applies to the whole compound in which the building sits, which is itself also known as "Al-Aqsa Mosque". The wider compound is known as Al-Aqsa or the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf.
Babri Masjid was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi, the hypothesized birthplace of Rama, a principal deity of Hinduism. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities since the 18th century. According to the mosque's inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 by Mir Baqi, a general of the Mughal emperor Babur. The mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, which ignited communal violence across the Indian subcontinent.
Ram Janmabhoomi is the site that is hypothesized to be the birthplace of Rama, believed to be the seventh avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu. The Ramayana states that the location of Rama's birthplace is on the banks of the Sarayu river in a city called "Ayodhya". Modern-day Ayodhya is in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Tabuk, also spelled Tabouk, is the capital city of the Tabuk Region in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a population of 667,000. It is close to the Jordan–Saudi Arabia border, and houses the largest air force base in Saudi Arabia.
Islam is the largest religion in the Comoros. According to the 2006 estimate by the U.S. Department of State, roughly 98% of the population in the Comoros is Muslim. Virtually all Muslims in the Comoros are Sunni belonging to Shafi'i school of jurisprudence. Most adherents are Arab-Swahili, but there are also people of Indian, largely Gujarati, descent.
al-Lat, also spelled Allat, Allatu, and Alilat, is a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, at one time worshipped under various associations throughout the entire Arabian Peninsula, including Mecca, where she was worshipped alongside Al-Uzza and Manat as one of the daughters of Allah. The word Allat or Elat has been used to refer to various goddesses in the ancient Near East, including the goddess Asherah-Athirat.
History of the Quran is the timeline and origin of the written compilations or manuscripts of the holy book of Islam, based on historical findings. It spans several centuries, and forms an important major part of the early history of Islam.
The Archaeology of Ayodhya concerns the excavations and findings in the Indian city of Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh, much of which surrounds the Babri Mosque location.
The Ayodhya dispute is a political, historical, and socio-religious debate in India, centred on a plot of land in the city of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around the control of a site traditionally regarded among Hindus to be the birthplace of their deity Rama, the history and location of the Babri Masjid mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.
Hegra, known to Muslims as Al-Hijr, also known as Mada’in Salih, is an archaeological site located in the area of Al-'Ula within Medina Province in the Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia. A majority of the remains date from the Nabataean Kingdom. The site constitutes the kingdom's southernmost and second largest city after Petra, its capital city. Traces of Lihyanite and Roman occupation before and after the Nabatean rule, respectively, can also be found.
Ahmed Subhy Mansour is an Egyptian American activist, Islamic Quranist scholar dealing with Islamic history, culture, theology, and politics. He founded a small Egyptian Quranist group that is neither Sunni nor Shia, was exiled from Egypt, and lives in the United States as a political refugee.
Uzair is a figure who is mentioned in the Quran, Surah At-Tawba, verse 9:30, which states that he was revered by the Jews as "the son of God". Uzair is most often identified with the biblical Ezra and according to some with the Egyptian deity Osiris. Modern historians have described the reference as "enigmatic", since such views have not been found in Jewish sources. Islamic scholars have interpreted the Quranic reference in different ways, with some explaining that it alluded to a specific group of Jews.
Mahmoud Khalil al-Hussary, also known as Al-Hussary, was an Egyptian Qari widely acclaimed for his accurate recitation of the Qur'an. Al-Hussary committed the entire Qur'an to memory by age 8 and started reciting at public gatherings by age 12. In 1944, Al-Hussary won Egypt Radio's Qu'ran Recitation competition which had around 200 participants, including veterans like Muhammad Rifat. The quadrumvirate of El Minshawy, Abdul Basit, Mustafa Ismail, and Al-Hussary are generally considered the most important and famous Qurra' of modern times to have had an outsized impact on the Islamic world.
Timothy Insoll is a British archaeologist and Africanist and Islamic Studies scholar. Since 2016 he has been Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He is also founder and director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology. Previously he was at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Manchester (1999–2016).
Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments is a book written in Persian by Dr Ali Asghar Hekmat E Shirazi and published in 1956 and 1958 and 2013. New edition contains the Persian texts of more than 200 epigraphical inscriptions found on historical monuments in India, many of which are currently listed as national heritage sites or registered as UNESCO world heritage, published in Persian; an English edition is also being printed.
Khaled Mohamad al-Asaad was a Syrian archaeologist and the head of antiquities at the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He held this position for over forty years. Al-Asaad was publicly beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on 18 August 2015, at the age of eighty-three.
The Vishnu Hari inscription is the name given to a Sanskrit language inscription found in the Uttar Pradesh state of India. It records the construction of a temple by Anayachandra, a feudatory of the king named Govindachandra, and also contains a eulogy of Anayachandra's dynasty. Its date portion is missing, and its authenticity has been a matter of controversy.
Ayodhya is a legendary city mentioned in the ancient Sanskrit-language texts, including the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These texts describe it as the capital of the Ikshvaku kings, including Rama.
Until 1833 the Dome of the Rock had not been measured or drawn; according to Victor von Hagen, 'no architect had ever sketched its architecture, no antiquarian had traced its interior design...' On 13 November in that year, however, Frederick Catherwood dressed up as an Egyptian officer and accompanied by an Egyptian servant 'of great courage and assurance', entered the buildings of the mosque with his drawing materials... 'During six weeks, I continued to investigate every part of the mosque and its precincts.' Thus, Catherwood made the first complete survey of the Dome of the Rock, and paved the way for many other artists in subsequent years, such as William Harvey, Ernest Richmond and Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner.