Papers by Ulrika Mårtensson
Knowledge and Education in Classical Islam: Religious Learning between Continuity and Change (2 vols)
Comparative Islamic Studies
Journal of Qur'anic Studies
The article is a comparative study of Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī's (d. 310/923) concepts of ... more The article is a comparative study of Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī's (d. 310/923) concepts of Qur'anic language, rhetoric, and composition. Al-Ṭabarī identified the Qur'an semantically and generically with the Biblical scriptures, as prophecy, and with Arabic rhetoric ( balāgha and khaṭāba). At the same time, he claimed that the Qur'an superseded them all in terms of how its forms convey God's intended message about Covenant, through its clarity of distinctions between universals and particulars, its persuasive proof, and innovative composition. Based on a comparative analysis of al-Ṭabarī's concepts, I conclude that he theorised Qur'anic language, rhetoric, and composition in ways that offer new insights into their relationship to the Biblical scriptures and Arabic rhetoric. His theory confirms and adds to parts of current research, opening up new paths for further research, also of a comparative theoretical kind. The study consists of four parts. Part 1 ...
Journal of Qur'anic Studies
Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations
Comparative Islamic Studies
Comparative Islamic Studies
Comparative Islamic Studies
Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, 2014
This is not a stand-alone article but the introduction to the special issue ‘Public Islam and the... more This is not a stand-alone article but the introduction to the special issue ‘Public Islam and the Nordic Welfare State: Changing Realities?’ The introduction surveys the emergence of the Nordic welfare state model with the Reformation and its development to the present day, focusing on religion, welfare and institutional order, and how national identities correspond and change with the institutional orders, as they develop. Included in this survey is the academic debate about de-secularization, actualized in the European and Nordic contexts by immigration of Muslims. It is argued that the Nordic states are moving towards an increasingly secularized institutional order and national identity, which in itself explains why Muslims are publicly perceived as a potentially problematic group.
Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, 2014
The article is a study of the Norwegian Salafi organization Islam Net, which aims at defining Isl... more The article is a study of the Norwegian Salafi organization Islam Net, which aims at defining Islam Net in terms of recent research on European Salafism and assessing its capacity for public civic engagement. With reference to de Certeau’s concept of discourse, and Habermas’ concepts of democratic legitimacy and religion in the public sphere, it is found that Islam Net’s capacity for civic engagement is severely restricted by its non-acceptance of human rights-based values, since this non-acceptance justifies for public institutions to deny the organization presence and refuse dialogue with Islam Net. From Habermas’ viewpoint this is a potential democratic deficiency, since it may weaken the legitimacy of democracy among Islam Net’s members.
Tidsskrift for Islamforskning, 2014
The article describes and analyzes the founding and development of Muslim Society Trondheim (MST)... more The article describes and analyzes the founding and development of Muslim Society Trondheim (MST), a jâmi‘ mosque and Islamic organization in Norway’s third largest city, Trondheim. The aim is to explore the significance for integration policy on ‘active citizenship’ and two-way accommodation between majority and minority of MST’s dialogues with the church and public institutions, with reference to Casanova’s concept ‘de-privatized public religion’ and Roy’s ‘churchification of Islam’. Main findings are that the dialogue with the church was the one which achieved the best results in terms of two-way accommodation; that MST’s dialogues have contributed towards the city’s Muslims claiming their civil and human rights; and that because this does represent a ‘churchification’ of Islam, it does not make MST a case of ‘de-privatized public Islam’ in Casanova’s sense.
Comparative Islamic Studies, 2016
Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2016
This article seeks to define al-Ṭabarī’s concept of the Qur'an by exploring the systemic natu... more This article seeks to define al-Ṭabarī’s concept of the Qur'an by exploring the systemic nature of al-Ṭabarī’s whole scholarly oeuvre, with reference to the political and scholarly context of debates between rationalism and traditionalism, and the development of uṣūl al-fiqh. Drawing on recent research on uṣūl al-fiqh (Vishanoff 2011) and al-Ṭabarī’s own madhhab (Stewart 2004; 2013), it is argued that al-Ṭabarī on the one hand politically agreed with the traditionalist camp regarding the need for written and publicly accessible law, and on the other hand developed his own independent legal methodology and dogma. Because of his basic agreement with traditionalism at the legal-political level, he also aligned with the traditionalist doctrine of the uncreated Qur'an, against the rationalist doctrine of the created Qur'an. Finally, it is demonstrated that al-Ṭabarī defined the uncreated Qur'an's nature in terms of rhetoric, including both grammatical-syntactic and de...
Journal of Qur'anic Studies, 2015
Journal of Muslims in Europe, 2015
Comparative Islamic Studies, 2014
The article defines the Norwegian organization Islam Net with reference to current research on Sa... more The article defines the Norwegian organization Islam Net with reference to current research on Salafism, and analyses Islam Net’s capacity for civil engagement through de Certeau’s and Habermas’ concepts of discourse. The main findings are that Islam Net can be defined both as “European ?arak? Salafism” and “neo-fundamentalism”. It is a publicly oriented and negotiated form of Salafism which engages in civic political activities for the sake of “clarifying misunderstanding of Islam”, while maintaining Salafi creed and legal method. Yet their capacity for civic engagement is limited by public refusal to both accept and discuss gender segregation at public meetings, a practice that Islam Net’s members in their turn refuse to negotiate. With reference to Habermas’ concept of public discourse, it is argued that public refusal to dialogue with Islam Net over this issue potentially weakens the legitimacy of liberal democracy.
Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2011
The article argues that al-abarī’s History of the Prophets and the Kings provides a free rider-an... more The article argues that al-abarī’s History of the Prophets and the Kings provides a free rider-analysis of the decline of Abbasid state power. Al-abarī’s historical analysis considers state policy on land tax, and religion as a legal norm related to the social contract between the head of state and the landlords. It is concluded that al-abarī saw the misāa tax system and ‘rule of law’ as the principal conditions for imperial rule, and that al-abarī’s History already provides an answer to modern historians’ questions as to why the Abbasid state crumbled, and what role religion played in the political economy.
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Papers by Ulrika Mårtensson