Thursday, February 15, 2024

2024: Wana - Waqidi

 


Wana
Wana.  Most Wana are not Muslim.  However, as inhabitants of a remote interior region of Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi Province, the Wana offer a distinct perspective on Islamic culture.  The view from the Wana hinterlands maybe unique in details, but it illustrates a pattern widespread in island Southeast Asia, namely, the development of an ethnic self-consciousness on the part of an interior upland population in response to a coastal Muslim presence.

Before Dutch authorities entered the region in the first decade of the twentieth century, some Wana were drawn into the spheres of small Islamic sultanates that once dotted the coasts of Sulawesi.  In the last century, Wana in the southern reaches of the territory paid tribute in the form of beeswax to the Raja of Bungku, a principality located to the southwest of Wanaland.  Likewise Wana in the north presented tiny bamboo tubes filled with uncooked rice to the Raja of Tojo, a sultanate to the northwest of the Wana area.  Some Wana were appointed local representatives of these rajas and carried special titles.  While Wana homage no doubt enhanced the stature of local sultans and may have conferred certain privileges on Wana middlemen, by no means did these demonstrations of vassalage imply that coastal rulers exercised thoroughgoing suzerainty over the Wana.  Then, as now, Wana had the option of fading back into the interior forests when threatened or oppressed in their relations with coastal authorities.  For their part, the rajas occupied themselves with issues of status and prestige at political centers, not with territorial concerns in the hinterlands.  But through contact with these principalities, Wana adopted and reworked for their own purposes some key political and cosmological concepts basic to the Islamic sultanates, including the idea of baraka (magical powers associated with royalty), a tripartite social class system made up of nobles, commoner and slaves (unrealized in Wana social life, but nonetheless present in their thought) and an association of cosmic well-being and political order (a model that Indonesia’s Muslim kingdoms had in turn reworked from earlier Hindu-Buddhist constructions).  And Wana, who attribute all power to sources external to their own society, claim that their legal code was obtained from the Raja of Bungku.


Wanquli, Mehmed ibn Mustafa al-Wani
Wanquli, Mehmed ibn Mustafa al-Wani (Mehmed ibn Mustafa al-Wani Wanquli).  Sixteenth century Ottoman jurist from Van.  His translation of the Arabic lexicon of Abu Nasr Jawhari was printed in 1728 by Ibrahim Muteferriqa, as one of the first books printed in Turkey.

Mehmed ibn Mustafa al-Wani Wanquli see Wanquli, Mehmed ibn Mustafa al-Wani

Wanzo, Melvin
Melvin "Mel" Wanzo, also known as Melvin Wahid Muhammad (b. November 22, 1930, Cleveland, Ohio - d. September 9, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American jazz trombonist. He is best known for his longtime association with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Wanzo received formal education in music at Youngstown University in Youngstown, Ohio, graduating in 1952. He then joined the United States Army and played in a band whose leader was Cannonball Adderley.  In the 1950s, he worked in bands behind blues and R&B singers such as Ruth Brown and Big Joe Turner, then studied music once more, at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In the 1960s, he worked with Woody Herman and Ray McKinley (then leading the Glenn Miller Orchestra), and in 1969 became a member of the Count Basie Orchestra, where he played trombone until 1980. In the early 1980s he played with Frank Capp and Nat Pierce, then re-joined Basie's orchestra after Basie died and leadership passed to Thad Jones and Frank Foster. 



Waqidi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al-
Waqidi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al- (Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al-Waqidi) (b. 747 [130 AH], Medina Abbasid Caliphate - d. 823 [207AH]).  Arab historian from Medina.  A moderate Shi‘a, he owes his fame to the Book of the Campaigns (of the Prophet), the only one of his many writings that has survived as an independent work.  His merit lies mainly in his transmission of a very large amount of material and in fixing its chronology.

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Waqid al-Aslami (Abu ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Waqid al-Aslamiwas a historian commonly referred to as al-Waqidi. His surname is derived from his grandfather's name Waqid, and thus he became famous as al-Imam al-Waqidi. Al-Waqidi was an early Muslim historian and biographer of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, specializing in his military campaigns. He served as a judge (qadi) for the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun. Several of al-Waqidi's works are known through his scribe and student (in the field of the al-maghazi genre), Ibn Sa'd. 

Al-Waqidi was born in Medina around 747 CC (130 AH). He was the mawla (client) of ‘Abd Allah ibn Burayda of the Banu Aslam of Medina. According to Abu Faraj al-Isfahani, al-Waqidi’s mother was the daughter of ‘Isa ibn Ja‘far ibn Sa’ib Khathir, a Persian, and the great-granddaughter of Sa'ib, who introduced music to Medina. Amongst his prominent teachers were Ibn Abi Thahab Ma'mar bin Rashid, Malik ibn Anas and Sufyan ibn Anas and Sufyan al-Thawri. He lived in Medina at the time of Abu Hanifa and Ja'far al-Sadiq and studied in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi as a student of Malik ibn Anas. Al-Waqidi also had access to the grandchildren of Muhammad's companions. Al-Waqidi originally earned a living as a wheat trader, but when a calamity struck at the age of 50, he migrated to Iraq during the reign of Harun ar-Rashid. He was appointed a judge of eastern Baghdad, and Harun ar-Rashid's heir al-Ma'mun later appointed him the qadi of a military camp at Resafa. 

Al-Waqidi concentrated on history and was acknowledged as a master of the genre by many of his peers. His books on the early Islamic expeditions and conquests predate much of the Sunni and Shia literature of the later Abbasid period. His works regarding the battles of Muhammad and his companions were considered reliable by most early Islamic scholars. While still regarded as an important source for early Islamic history, later authors debated the reliability of his works. 

Al-Waqidi is primarily known for his Kitab al-Tarikh wa al-Maghazi ("Book of History and Campaigns"), which is the only part of his corpus that has been fully preserved. It describes the battles fought by Muhammad, as well as Muhammad's life in the city of Medina.  The work draws upon the earlier sira of Ibn Ishaq, though it includes details not found in Ibn Ishaq's text.

A number of works chronicling the Islamic conquests have been attributed to al-Waqidi, though most of these attributions are now believed to be mistaken. Futuh al-Sham ("Book of the Conquests of Syria"), a novelization of the Islamic army's conquests of Byzantine Syria, has traditionally been ascribed to al-Waqidi. Modern scholars generally classify Futuh al-Sham as a falsely-attributed later work, dating it to around the time of the Crusades, though some scholars believe a small portion of the text may be traced back to al-Waqidi. In addition to depicting the battles of the Islamic armies, the work also details the valor of various Muslim women, including Hind bint Utbah, Khawlah bint al-Azwar, and Asma bint Abi Bakr. 

According to Ibn al-Nadim, al-Waqidi authored a book detailing the death of Husayn ibn Ali, though this work has not survived. Other lost texts attributed to al-Waqidi include a book chronicling the last days of Muhammad's life. 

Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Waqidi
Waqidi
 see Waqidi, Muhammad ibn ‘Umar al-

No comments:

Post a Comment