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Becoming a Sade Pious Woman in a Secular Society: Aknur’s Story

Gul Ozyegin

in New Desires, New Selves: Sex, Love, and Piety among Turkish Youth

Aknur, a 23-year old college student and devout Muslim, actively aspires to be "sade" (pure, simple, frugal) in all aspects of her self-making. Critical of both secularism and the rise of the ... More

Aknur, a 23-year old college student and devout Muslim, actively aspires to be "sade" (pure, simple, frugal) in all aspects of her self-making. Critical of both secularism and the rise of the pro-capitalist Islamic bourgeoises, Aknur seeks a life trajectory based on religious devotion, altruism, and anti-materialism. Although she is well-educated and driven, Aknur has difficulty envisioning her post-graduate life. She aspires to put her education to use in an altruistic career but is aware her commitment to religiously covering will limit her employment opportunities. Her lack of a suitable marriage prospect - someone who is both consciously Muslim and non-domineering - also raises concerns for Aknur about whether she will be able to consummate her religious devotion through marriage and motherhoodLess

La catedral mexicana: St. Francis of Assisi and the Mexican Near West Side, 1940–1962

Deborah E. Kanter

in Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican

Mexicans, tejanos, and braceros converged on Chicago in greater numbers in the World War II era and after. Most settled around St. Francis of Assisi Church, which anchored the city’s largest Mexican ... More

Mexicans, tejanos, and braceros converged on Chicago in greater numbers in the World War II era and after. Most settled around St. Francis of Assisi Church, which anchored the city’s largest Mexican neighborhood, the Near West Side. Puerto Ricans joined other Spanish speakers. Priests and nuns aimed to meet immigrants’ religious and social needs. St. Francis offered a rich Catholic liturgical calendar of feast days, novenas, and Holy Hours. Parishioners avidly took part in personal and communal religious devotion. St. Francis became “el refugio de los mexicanos” and simultaneously grew into a very American parish. As the city’s Latino population dispersed, the faithful came from well beyond the Near West Side. The church’s cathedral-like reputation endures even today.Less

Love and Death

Nathaniel Deutsch

in The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World

This chapter shows that Hannah Rochel eventually made a vow to remain unmarried in order to continue her traditionally male religious behavior into adulthood. However, she fell in love before making ... More

This chapter shows that Hannah Rochel eventually made a vow to remain unmarried in order to continue her traditionally male religious behavior into adulthood. However, she fell in love before making that fateful decision. Horodezky establishes an implicit link between Rochel's intense religious devotion and her passionate longing for her fiancé. Charles Raddock offers one of the most detailed and imaginative reconstructions of the Maiden of Ludmir's romance. After his wife's death, according to Raddock, Monesh Verbermacher informed his only child that she was now the woman of the house. Rochel briefly enjoyed an ideal romantic relationship that allowed her both to continue with her studies and religious devotion, and to engage in traditionally feminine activities. The Maiden of Ludmir's close relationship to her mother and her daily visits to the cemetery are important for another reason: they constitute the first example of her powerful, lifelong connection to other women.Less

Making Parishes Mexican: Pilsen, 1947–1970

Deborah E. Kanter

in Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican

In the 1950s Mexicans moved into Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, which had thirteen mostly Slavic parishes. The ensuing ethnic succession challenges the expected narrative of “white flight.” ... More

In the 1950s Mexicans moved into Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, which had thirteen mostly Slavic parishes. The ensuing ethnic succession challenges the expected narrative of “white flight.” Catholicism offered common ground: the desire to maintain parish structures explains European Americans’ willingness to live and worship with Mexican newcomers. Mexican Americans and immigrants faced slights in the pews and at parochial schools, but parishes transitioned from exclusively European American ethnic enclaves to shared congregations. After 1960 some priests added Spanish Masses and celebrated the Virgin of Guadalupe’s feast day, opening the way to Mexican religious devotion. Mexican laypeople, bolstered by Cursillo training, worked with those clergy who acknowledged their distinct needs and strengths. Together they made the parishes Mexican.Less

In the Holy Land

Nathaniel Deutsch

in The Maiden of Ludmir: A Jewish Holy Woman and Her World

This chapter investigates the theological doctrine and how it may have influenced the Maiden of Ludmir's decision to remain celibate. The Maiden's subsequent experiences in the Holy Land constitute ... More

This chapter investigates the theological doctrine and how it may have influenced the Maiden of Ludmir's decision to remain celibate. The Maiden's subsequent experiences in the Holy Land constitute the final phase of her long and rich life. Instead of portraying her as playing a passive role in the process of emigration, most biographers depict the Maiden as actively seeking to restore her former status by settling in the Holy Land. It is also shown that her wealth appears to have enabled her to function as a religious leader in Jerusalem, just as it had earlier in Ludmir. The Maiden's life in Palestine as an unmitigated success is considered. The Maiden remained committed to the extraordinary piety she had embraced as a young child, and appears to have never wavered in her religious devotion.Less

The Basque Seroras and Lay Female Religious Life in the Early Modern World

Amanda L. Scott

in The Basque Seroras: Local Religion, Gender, and Power in Northern Iberia, 1550-1800

This chapter discusses the lay female religious life in the early modern world. Simultaneously ignored, sanctified, suspected of heresy, lauded, and targeted for reform, devout laywomen presented ... More

This chapter discusses the lay female religious life in the early modern world. Simultaneously ignored, sanctified, suspected of heresy, lauded, and targeted for reform, devout laywomen presented both obstacles and inspiration in the milieu of early modern European religious life. The seroría provided Basque women with a sanctioned and respectable channel, while allowing them freedom of movement and a degree of economic autonomy that was unmatched by other forms of lay religiosity elsewhere in Europe during the late medieval and early modern periods. Yet while the seroría was unique to the Basque lands, it reflected common female impulses to seek spiritual fulfillment at home and in the familiar spheres of their parish communities. These impulses swelled and then tapered off periodically from antiquity through the medieval and early modern periods, yet they were a consistent part of lived Christian experience that mirrored and responded to wider social, economic, and religious movements of the times. The seroras can be understood only within the context of lay and quasi-religious female devotion—in its many permutations—and placing them within this context also helps broaden the definition and parameters of medieval and early modern female religious life.Less

Judah Al-Harizi

David Goldstein

in Hebrew Poems from Spain

This chapter assesses the poetry of Judah al-Harizi. Like Joseph Ibn Zabara, Judah al-Harizi’s fame depends mainly on his collection of rhymed prose narratives, known as ‘Tahkemoni’. He was born in ... More

This chapter assesses the poetry of Judah al-Harizi. Like Joseph Ibn Zabara, Judah al-Harizi’s fame depends mainly on his collection of rhymed prose narratives, known as ‘Tahkemoni’. He was born in Spain in the second half of the twelfth century, and the end of that century saw him living in Provence where he was engaged in the work of translation from Arabic into Hebrew, in which field he attained great eminence. He was a devoted follower of Maimonides, began a translation of his commentary to the Mishna, and completed a translation of his great philosophical work, ‘The Guide for the Perplexed’. In addition to his secular poetry, Judah al-Harizi also wrote poems expressing religious devotion to the Holy Land, on the pattern of those of Judah ha-Levi. The chapter then looks at two of his poems: A Secret Kept and The Lute Sounds.Less

Economics, Patronage, and Politics

Janine Larmon Peterson

in Suspect Saints and Holy Heretics: Disputed Sanctity and Communal Identity in Late Medieval Italy

This chapter assesses a number of motives beyond religious devotion that played a part in local veneration. There were economic, social, and political considerations that motivated segments of ... More

This chapter assesses a number of motives beyond religious devotion that played a part in local veneration. There were economic, social, and political considerations that motivated segments of society to support regional cults even with the threat of papal or inquisitorial censure. Earthly rewards included the wealth that accrued to a church or a town, the prestige of establishing a cult, and the benefits of promoting a new saint as a holy patron for resolving political disputes, either between rival factions within a town, between towns, or between a town and the papacy. The chapter then considers wealth and patronage, looking at the cult of Guglielma of Milan, which serves as a centerpiece to demonstrate this concatenation of motives. It also examines a saint's role in promoting peace in war-torn late medieval Italy. The chapter therefore moves from economic to political motives, and from a narrower focus on individuals and institutions to broader considerations of community and region.Less

Religion and the Samanid Amirs

L. Marlow

in Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran: Volume I: The Nasihat al-muluk of Pseudo-Mawardi: Contexts and Themes

To situate Naṣīḥat al-mulūk in the religious culture of the tenth-century Samanid domains, this chapters explores the orientations and practices of the Samanid amirs from the later ninth century ... More

To situate Naṣīḥat al-mulūk in the religious culture of the tenth-century Samanid domains, this chapters explores the orientations and practices of the Samanid amirs from the later ninth century onwards. It portrays the proclivities towards austerity (zuhd) and religious devotion (ʿibāda) of the earlier amirs, especially the generation of Naṣr I and his brothers, the memory of whose conduct significantly shaped Pseudo-Māwardī’s conception of good governance. The chapter presents the efforts of this generation of amirs to develop mutually supportive relations with the religious scholars, and their active participation in the public religious sphere, in, for example, the hearing and transmission of ḥadīth and participation in the funerary rites of prominent scholars. It treats the social prominence and economic means of religious scholars and renunciants, whose support and co-operation Pseudo-Māwardī urges the king to cultivate. The chapter concludes with a discussion of religious developments during the reign of Naṣr II.Less

Economic Trust and Religious Violence

Taco Terpstra

in Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean: Private Order and Public Institutions

This chapter explores the changing world of the fourth century CE, a time of social ferment heightened by the Roman emperors' adoption of Christianity as a religion of state. Although this shift ... More

This chapter explores the changing world of the fourth century CE, a time of social ferment heightened by the Roman emperors' adoption of Christianity as a religion of state. Although this shift followed a turn toward forced religious centralization initiated by the emperors during the crisis of the third century, the choice for Christianity represented a momentous departure from Roman tradition. The intolerance and violence it engendered upset the equilibrium of Mediterranean diaspora trade, producing an institutional shock. Indeed, religion played a prominent role in how diaspora groups operated. Through the worship of their native gods, group members remained distinct from their hosts and connected to their place of origin, both necessary ingredients for successful intercommunity trade. Equally important, acts of religious devotion signaled commitment and loyalty to the group, encouraged collective action against defectors, and fostered economic trust and collaborative behavior. However, this complex system of socioeconomic interaction came under pressure when emperors began legislating against pagan cults.Less

Purple Candle: Healing

R. Andrew Chesnut

in Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint

This chapter discusses Santa Muerte's role as healer. Drawing on both European and Mexican cultural antecedents in which death possesses awesome curing powers and tapping into the well-established ... More

This chapter discusses Santa Muerte's role as healer. Drawing on both European and Mexican cultural antecedents in which death possesses awesome curing powers and tapping into the well-established tradition of saints (both canonized and folk) who heal through faith, Santa Muerte in just a decade has become one of the greatest healers on the Mexican religious landscape. But judging by the small number of purple votive candles at her altars and shrines, one would surmise that miracles of restored health do not figure as an important part of the cult.Less

Anxious Ambitions and the Financing of Tranquility

Maria Tapias

in Embodied Protests: Emotions and Women's Health in Bolivia

This chapter examines the uneven terrain of economic success in Punata by focusing on the experiences of members of a group of more prosperous career chola and mestiza market women. In particular, it ... More

This chapter examines the uneven terrain of economic success in Punata by focusing on the experiences of members of a group of more prosperous career chola and mestiza market women. In particular, it explores how these women sought to mitigate their fears of envy and sorcery through their religious devotion to an image of Saint James known as “Tata Bombori,” regarded as the patron saint of healers and sorcerers. The chapter begins with a discussion of how concerns about envy and sorcery and the risks they pose to health influenced local embodied understandings of emotional distress in Punata. It then considers the negative connotations of ambition and how public displays of ambition were viewed with ambivalence in Punata. It also provides an overview of the religious pilgrimage to Bombori and its accompanying rituals, showing that devotees perceived it as a way to obtain protection for their entrepreneurial activities as well as an “investment” toward future tranquility.Less

The royal itinerary and roads in England under Edward I

Michael Prestwich

in Roadworks: Medieval Britain, medieval roads

Edward I travelled constantly. This was not in order to govern the country, but for reasons such as visits to shrines, and to go hunting, as well as to go on campaign in Wales and Scotland. The ... More

Edward I travelled constantly. This was not in order to govern the country, but for reasons such as visits to shrines, and to go hunting, as well as to go on campaign in Wales and Scotland. The king’s itinerary was marked by few ceremonies, such as formal entries to towns, and there was no regular pattern of travel, with plans not made long in advance. The royal household, numbering up to 500 men, required twenty or more wagons as it travelled. Main roads were not always followed; those on lesser routes were quite adequate. Waterways were also used. Speed of travel varied. Over 20 miles a day was possible, but up to 15 miles a day was normal. The king’s itinerary for 1297, a time of political crisis, provides a case study.Less

Paths to Chicago: Early Mexican Immigration and Catholicism, 1920–1939

Deborah E. Kanter

in Chicago Católico: Making Catholic Parishes Mexican

The first Mexican newcomers moved to Chicago in the 1920s. Elidia Barroso’s diary offers a personal glimpse into movement in Mexico to Texas and eventually to Illinois. The 1929 ballad “El corrido de ... More

The first Mexican newcomers moved to Chicago in the 1920s. Elidia Barroso’s diary offers a personal glimpse into movement in Mexico to Texas and eventually to Illinois. The 1929 ballad “El corrido de Texas” (recorded in Chicago) also follows Mexicans’ tracks north in search of employment. Mexicans entered a city of diverse immigrant populations and without entrenched anti-Mexican feelings. Mexican settlement patterns and religious life in Chicago were closely connected. The powerful and multiethnic archdiocese welcomed Mexicans and encouraged the establishment of two parishes with Spanish-speaking clergy. These churches recognized Mexican religious devotion. The new Catholic parishes, together with settlement houses, enabled the first wave of Mexicans and their family members to gain a toehold in Chicago, a place that became less diasporic and more like home.Less

The Cronicones in Local Religion: Historia Sacra Writ Small

Katrina B. Olds

in Forging the Past: Invented Histories in Counter-Reformation Spain

This chapter examines how provincial historians integrated textual, material, and visual evidence with the false chronicles to intervene in local religious devotion. It also points toward the ... More

This chapter examines how provincial historians integrated textual, material, and visual evidence with the false chronicles to intervene in local religious devotion. It also points toward the importance of their reliance on regional intellectual and social networks for collecting this evidence, and argues that a vibrant early modern Republic of Letters—which is quite familiar to students of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century French and English history—may have also been part of the regional intellectual life of early modern Spanish antiquaries. Indeed, as the careers of these historians suggest, a plethora of woefully underacknowledged connections bound such regional Spanish scholars not only to “popular” religion in their own communities, but also to mainstream intellectual culture in early modern Europe.Less

The Last Books Written in Arabic in al-Andalus and the Question of Assimilation

in Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614

Briefly, in the final decade of the sixteenth century, there were perpetrated in Granada a series of forgeries in the course of which ostensibly Christian sacred books from the first century A.D. ... More

Briefly, in the final decade of the sixteenth century, there were perpetrated in Granada a series of forgeries in the course of which ostensibly Christian sacred books from the first century A.D. (the days of Nero) written in Arabic were dug up from the ground on the outskirts of the city. These were very soon investigated by the local ecclesiastical hierarchy and, before long, enthusiastically accepted as genuine Christian relics by the then archbishop of Granada, Pedro Vaca de Castro y Quiñones. The religious devotion accorded to them flourished not only in Granada itself, where it was centered on shrines on the Sacromonte itself (the hill where the discoveries had been made), and in the city's cathedral, but also extended to many other parts of Spain and beyond. A cult grew up that was only suppressed (as heretical) many decades later. It flourished in spite of the fact that, almost from the beginning, the Holy Office was fully apprised of developments in Granada and was anxious to bring the cult under its control. We can still today see in Granada monuments (above all, the Sacromonte abbey itself) that bear witness to the success that these forgeries once enjoyed.Less

Why Do Arab Terrorists Kill Themselves?

in Varieties of Muslim Experience: Encounters with Arab Political and Cultural Life

When Westerners attempt to explain why Arab terrorists engage in acts of self-destruction, their arguments usually emphasize religious devotion, unspecified anomie, solidarity with their fellows, or ... More

When Westerners attempt to explain why Arab terrorists engage in acts of self-destruction, their arguments usually emphasize religious devotion, unspecified anomie, solidarity with their fellows, or nationalistic fervor. They correctly note that most Arab “suicide bombers” are young men from a full range of economic and educational backgrounds, sometimes with experience living abroad but more frequently home grown. Whatever the roles of “unit solidarity,” social disaffection, or otherworldly promise, Arabs who kill themselves in terrorist acts—as opposed to those who send them out on such missions—may actually be trying to hold the world together, to confirm by their acts, with a certainty and permanence not normally available, that they have created a network of relationships that alone assures a mature person's identity. But if, instead of limiting analysis by applying the label of “suicide,” we see this self-destruction through the categories available in Arab culture, quite a different ordering suggests itself. Two elements may be important here: the idea of sacrifice and the idea of reciprocity.Less