One of the ṣaḥābīs of Prophet Muḥammad is ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd from the Ṭāʾif tribe of Thaqīf. He belongs to the Ahlâf part of the Thaqīf tribe and he is the ruler of this part. ʿUrwa’s ancestry is known without any controversy until Kasî (Thaqīf). According to a narrative his epithet was Abū Yaʿfur and another of his epithet was Abū Masʿūd. Father of ʿUrwa an important person too. He is one of the leaders of his tribe and he commanded (...) his part (Aḥlāf) in wars of Fijār. Mother of ʿUrwa is Subay’a bt. ʿAbd Shams from Banū Umayya. In this way ʿUrwa has kinship both with Banū Umayya and Prophet Muḥammad. So ʿUrwa has a very important position because of his lineage, his mother and father. Thefore, his connections with Mecca and Quraysh strengthens his position. In our sources there is no information about his dates of birth and death. It is likely to be over middle age when he became a muslim, considering that he was the leader of his tribe and his son become a muslim after he died. There is too little information about weddings of ʿUrwa. According to narratives, he had ten wives before becoming Muslim. After becoming a Muslim Prophet Muḥammad warned from him to prefer four out of ten wives. One of his four wives is the daughter of Abū Sufyān. Howev-er, there is no information about the names of his wives. Names of his sons: ʿĀṣim, Abū Murra, Abū Mulayḥ, Dāwūd, Hammām and Hishām and names of his daughters: Umm Saʿīd (married with Ḥaẓrat ʿAlī) and Ḥalīma. We could see he served as embassy before the treaty of Hudaybiyah. His embassy duty shows us the superiority of his position. Also, this embassy duty was very effective at peace negotiations. He mentioned kinship relations which connects about Mecca. He said that it could be beneficial to talk to Prophet Muḥammad himself. The Meccans mentioned about their trust in ʿUrwa. During the time of his embassy, he expressed that both sides should be away from war. In this context, he told the Meccans: The people around Prophet Muḥammad are very loyal to him and he told to Prophet Muḥammad: People around him could disintegrate easily. This mission shows us he is intelligent, respectable and had high persuasion skills. ʿUrwa, observed loyalty of ṣaḥābīs to Prophet Muḥammad. He confessed this loyalty can not be for any ruler. This observa-tion probably affected ʿUrwa’s conversion to Islam. Because of the conquest of Meccah and the events that followed, the people of Ṭāʾif were very worried. Because of this reason people of Ṭāʾif took part in the side of Hawāzin’s and they bat-tled with Muslims. In this time they sent ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd and Ghaylān b. Salama to the city of D̲j̲aras̲h̲ of Yemen, to learn about some war machines and techniques. Therefore they did not join wars of Hunayn and Ṭāʾif. Prophet Muḥammad ended the siege of Ṭāʾif and went to Medina. Meanwhile, ʿUrwa and his friend returned from Yemen. According to narratives when the Prophet Muḥammad returned Medina or he was way in Medina ʿUrwa visited him and became Muslim. Some people tell about the date of ʿUrwa’s being Muslim at before or after Abū Bakr’s emirate of Hadj. However, when the narrations are examined, it can be said he became Muslim after four or five months from Prophet’s siege of Ṭāʾif and before three or four months from Tabūk expedition of Rabīʿ al-awwal or “Rabīʿ al-ākhir” (July or August) in the year 9/630. As for the conversion of ʿUrwa, basic sources report that “Allah, inspired Islam to the heart of ʿUrwa and he changed his situation. He went to the Messenger of Allah and he became Muslim.” They do not give a specific reason. But after this period the narratives tell the reason for ʿUrwa’s becoming a Muslim as due to an experience he had while travelling to Najrān for trade. In this travel, two mysterious young girls and the priest in Najrān said the last prophet came and ʿUrwa must be subject to him and ʿUrwa became Muslim after he returned. But this narrative is prob-lematic with regard to evidence and text. After being Muslim, ʿUrwa wanted permission from the Prophet to invite his tribe to accept Islam. The prophet did not want to accept this at first. Because the people of Ṭāʾif had an arro-gant stance against Islam, and he said that the people of Thaqīf could kill ʿUrwa. Eventually ʿUrwa went to his hometown with permission of Prophet and invited people to Islam and they did not accept this invitation and cursed ʿUrwa. The next morning ʿUrwa read adhan of fajr and people of Ṭāʾif killed him. ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd was likened to Prophet Jesus by the Prophet Muḥammad. It is generally accept-ed that ʿUrwa b. Masʿūd el-Thaqafī is “one of the biggest from two cities” expressed in sūra Zukhruf. Only two weak narrations were reported of Urwa who could live as a Muslim for a few days and was matyred by his tribe. (shrink)

The city of Melitene in eastern Asia Minor/western Armenia presents a peculiar case in the study of Byzantine-Islamic commerce in the early Middle Ages, because, unlike Trebizond or Attaleia, its commerce was entirely based on land-route connections, and the available evidence does not identify it as a town deliberately designated as a commercial exchange point by the Byzantine authorities. My purpose is to find an answer to the question of how Byzantine- Islamic trade took place in a location on the (...) eastern land frontier where the coexistence of war and trade was a daily reality. The products and export items as well as the routes of the Melitene zone and its neighboring regions (Cappadocia, Pontos, Armenia) are examined in order to situate Melitene in a larger commercial context. I argue that Melitene prospered commercially in the middle of war zone for centuries and that its commercial fortunes began to improve especially by the beginning of the tenth century, reaching their climax in the eleventh century. (shrink)

The subject of this study is the review of the book titled Akitlerde Şart Hürriyeti (Freedom of Provisions in Contracts) written by Mahmut Samar. For this purpose, the book, in this review, is being subjected to a multifaceted analysis taking into account several aspects such as the contents, subject order, the language, the style, the way the subject topics are discussed, the criticisms it received andthe sources it used. Moreover, the shortcomings and weaknesses of the book were pointed out and (...) some suggestions were made to be taken into consideration in subsequent editions. (shrink)

Religious songs have an important place in Turkish Classical Music in terms of maqam, usul, form, composers, and songwriters. The main purpose of this study is to examine the religious songs in Segâh Maqam in the TRT Turkish Classical Music Repertoire in terms of form, usul, composers, and songwriters. The data of the research were obtained through literature and document review. In this context, the musical notes of religious songs in Segâh Maqam were analyzed through content analysis. As a result (...) of the reviews of TRT Turkish Classical Music Repertoire, a total of 107 religious songs in Segâh Maqam has been identified. In the form analyses of the identified religious songs, it was found that İlâhi, Durak, and Teşvih forms were used frequently; in the usul analyses, it was found that Sofyan, Düyek, Devr-i Hindî, Durak Evferi, Yürük Semaî and Nim Sofyan usuls are used frequently; in the composer analyses, it was found that Bekir Sıtkı Sezgin, Güldeniz Ekmen, Amir Ateş,, Hüseyin Sâdettin Arel, Erdinç Çelikkol Zeki Altun, Faruk Şahin, Halil İbrâhim Taşkent, Hüseyin Sebilci, Mehmet Tulûî, Sadettin Kaynak, Süleyman Erguner, and Ümit Gürelman have more religious songs compared to other identified composers; in the songwriter analyses, it was found that Yûnûs Emre, Niyâzî-i Mısrî, Eşrefoğlu Rûmî, Hamdi Özer, İbrâhim Hakkı, Sezâî, and Yûnûs have more songs compared to other identified songwriters. (shrink)

City-dwellers who are threatened by the risk of natural or social disasters are in search of safer houses. Each attempt to satisfy their need for safety, however, turns into another version of the security problem; so much so that, escaping from risk itself turns into different risks. The film 10 to 11 focuses on the socio-spatial conflict between a stranger and his neighbours who are anxious about a possible earthquake risk in Istanbul. Mithat, the protagonist of the film, is (...) a stranger not only to place but essentially to time. He lives within time and understands place as an essential means loaded by temporal experiences and memories. This paper deals with the multiple dichotomies between time and memory, between risk and fear, between aesthetics and security, and between attachment and profit in the context of urban transformation. The stranger, who is analysed for the first time as a temporal being in this paper, is discussed using Zygmunt Bauman’s concepts of uncertainty and liquid modernity, Richard Sennett’s capitalism, Ulrich Beck’s risk society, Frank Furedi’s culture of fear, Stephen Bertman’s hurried culture, Elias Canetti’s death, Giorgio Agamben’s forgotten and gone, Svetlana Boym’s nostalgia, and Halbwachs, Assmann, Connerton, and Arendt’s memory, as well as around the temporal spaces of museums, bibliopoles, antique shops, and cemeteries. (shrink)

Günümüzde eğitim, rotasını kimi zaman çeşitli türden izm’lerin, ideolojilerin, kültürel veya ahlaki normların, kimi zaman ise ulusal ya da bireysel çıkarların belirlediği, “her şey gider” anlayışından hareket eden, içi tıklım tıklım yolcularla dolu bir trene benzemektedir. Ancak dur durak bilmeksizin yol alan, hangi istasyonda duracağı da belli olmayan bu tren, yolcularına, kendilerini, diğer insanları, dünyayı ve hayatı, insan olmanın değerinin bilgisine açılan bir pencereden değil, rotasını belirleyenin istediği ve seçtiği pencereden göstermekte, onları her geçen gün insanın olmanın ne demek (...) olduğundan hızla uzaklaştırmaktadır. Başka bir deyişle, yolcularının çoğunluğunu, kendisi dışında geride kalanı umursamayan, insanın değerini hiçe sayan, sınır tanımazlığı, yararcılığı baş değer yapan, basmakalıp düşüncelere saplanıp kalmış, insanlaşamamış bireyler olarak uğurlayan ve geride nakarat olarak sadece koca bir “boşuna” çınlatan bu tren, insanlığı hızla sıradanlığın, sorumsuzluğun, başıboşluğun ve anlamsızlığın yamacından aşağıya, dekadansa doğru sürüklemektedir. Nitekim dünya genelinde artan şiddet, terör olayları, açlık, yoksulluk, çevre kirliliği, salgın bulaşıcı hastalıklar gibi yaşamı yaşanmaya değer olmaktan çıkaran, gözlerimizin hemen her gün şahitlik ettiği insanlık dışı manzaralar, günümüz eğitim anlayışına ve bu anlayışın yetiştirdiği insan tipine yönelik böyle bir tespitin en açık kanıtıdır. Bu nedenle, aslında çoktan ıskartaya çıkmış olan bu kara treni zaman kaybetmeden durdurmamız ve “insan nedir?” sorusuyla bağlantılı olarak eğitimin neliğini ve amacını yeniden düşünmemiz gerekmektedir. Bu noktada, eğitimi, insan onuruna yakışır bir yaşamı inşâ edebilmenin olanağının koşullarından biri olarak gören ve eğitime ilişkin felsefi bilginin realiteye bakarak nasıl ve ne şekilde ortaya konulabileceğini gösteren Kuçuradi’nin, ontolojik temelli felsefi antropolojiye dayanan insan, değer ve eğitim görüşüne kulak vermek bizler için yol gösterici olacaktır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma, eğitimin kişilere öncelikle “insan kimliği bilinci” kazandırması gerektiğini düşünen Kuçuradi’nin insan ve değer görüşünü, buradan hareketle dile getirdiği eğitimin neliğine ilişkin düşüncelerini irdelemeyi konu edinmekte, eğitimin her şeyden önce olanaklar varlığı olan insan için bir insanlaşma sorunu olduğuna dikkat çekmeyi amaçlamaktadır. (shrink)