The third moment concerns the major conquests to the east and west, and how they enabled Muslims to project beyond their original homelands, introducing an existential need for the presence of 'the other'. He interprets this as a major turning point that led to a cultural and spiritual expansion, influencing Islamic identity and broadening the scope for engagement with other civilisations.
The fourth moment is the period of translation and the formation of Sunni thought. Jelil looks at how the transfer of philosophical, scientific, literary, and ethical knowledge influenced Muslim intellectual life. He explores the development of theological discourse that led to the formation of a Sunni intellectual framework, spanning both Sunni and Shia perspectives, and examines the translation movement and its impact on generating new intellectual debates and shaping Sunnism as a comprehensive intellectual enterprise, rather than a mere sectarian identity.
The fifth and final moment is marked by the abolition or collapse of the Caliphate. Jelil asks why this occurred and considers its implications for Muslim thought. This moment represents a profound transformation in the political consciousness of Muslims, marking the onset of a new era characterised by the search for renewed legitimacy and the formation of diverse visions of authority.
Through his conceptualisation of these five foundational moments, Abdel Jelil offers an interpretative framework that clarifies how Islam—in its current intellectual and political forms—has emerged from significant historical experiences. He stresses the importance of revisiting these moments to better understand the present and envision the future of the Islamic world.
Shadows of Memory: From Tadmor to Sednaya
By: Nassar Yahya
Publisher: Nun House, Netherlands
In these pages, Syrian writer Nassar Yahya presents a personal narrative based on his memory, recounting the time he spent detained in the Syrian regime's prisons, being moved from the investigation branch to the desert prison of Tadmor, and finally to the notorious Sednaya prison near Damascus.
The book is divided into 21 narrative units: 16 dedicated to his experience in Tadmor and five to Sednaya. Through them, Yahya details daily life, agony, the oscillation between hope and despair, and the blurring of fact and fiction, in what former President Bashar al-Assad's men sarcastically referred to as the government's "hospitality".
From the first day in detention, Yahya was subjected to physical and psychological cruelty. This included being stripped, tortured, and deprived of sleep, which led to delirium. He conveys both his experiences and those of other prisoners like a storyteller, employing historical and philosophical metaphors, miraculously highlighting the resistance of the human spirit while in shackles.
He describes how the prisoners organised themselves culturally and undertook activities, from group readings of Nietzsche and Freud, to publishing a magazine, to staging theatrical circles, where plays were no luxury or distraction but an arena for protest and expression.
In the Tales of Tadmor, Yahya presents the internal ideological debates among comrades, disputes within the party, and the wounds that creep in, transforming the prison from a physical restraint to an intellectual battleground. Before prison, he helped organise the Syrian Left, issuing clandestine newspapers and publications.
In Tales of Sednaya, the author finds a path back to his siblings, especially his brothers Uqab and Ali who were also arrested, illustrating how detention inflicted a social trauma, the struggle against the regime extending into family relationships.
The book is rich in literary techniques: dark satire that portrays the faces of pain in a way that lightens their burden, the use of philosophical metaphors from Nietzsche and Aristotle, and the raising of existential questions. Yet it remains a documentary work, with real names, real situations, real decisions, and real trials.
Yahya acknowledges the risk of using real names, publishing the book before the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, arguing that this is vital documentation. In this way, Shadows of Memory is a project to recover collective memory and reflect on the meaning of incarceration, freedom, restraint, and identity. It is a bitter experience presented through the voice of a man resisted prison with words, narrative, and imagination, mining his memory to extract lessons for others to learn.
Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion
Supervised and Edited by: Charles Taliaferro and Elsa Marty
Translator: Hussam Jassim
Publisher: Adnan Library and Publishing House, Iraq
This is a 670-page contemporary encyclopaedic work presenting the concepts, trends, figures, and arguments that have shaped the course of religious thought throughout its long history. It constitutes a qualitative addition to the Arabic library, within which specialised dictionaries for philosophy of religion have been scarce.
The dictionary's translation was three years in the making and is its first of its kind, alphabetised according to the English. Its systematic academic nature does not detract from its precise formulation and clear language, however, so the material remains accessible to the non-specialist reader.
Beyond its concise definitions of terms, it offers historical backgrounds, references to major philosophical debates, and multiple approaches to a single subject. This lets readers enter the field of philosophy of religion via a reliable and diverse intellectual gateway.
Topics covered include the nature of faith, the existence of God, the problem of evil, science and religion, revelation, miracles, freedom and responsibility, and life after death, with several intersecting anthropological, ethical, and theological concepts. It also covers some of the classical philosophers and contemporary thinkers who have raised questions given developments in modern science and knowledge.
Jassim's translation is precise, with clarifications mandated by the context. It includes an introduction written by one of the editors, Charles Taliaferro, who commended Muslim thinkers cited by the 13th-century priest and theologian Thomas Aquinas—such as Ibn Rushd, Al-Ghazali and Ibn Sina—and highlighted the contemporary importance of the philosophy of religion as a field that intersects with human sciences, psychology, theology, and studies of cultural evolution.
The importance of this dictionary also lies in the fact that it represents a significant step in the Arabisation of religious-philosophical terminology, serving as a window into this field. Finally, it is a call for critical thinking and for the re-reading of religious heritage in light of the major, evolving questions over time.
The Palestinian Question in the Documents and Literature of the Soviet Union (1947–1991)
By: Bara'a Ahmad Zaidan
Publisher: Maisloon Publishing and Distribution House, Türkiye
Bara'a Ahmad Zaidan's book is an academic study aimed at understanding the former Soviet Union's role in the Palestinian question during the Cold War era. To create it, the author has delved into the archives and drawn out the salient points in a documentary, analytical presentation.
The study begins in 1947, preceding the UN Partition Resolution, and continues until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. From the outset, Zaidan shows that Jewish migration from Tsarist Russia to Palestine was not merely a spontaneous social phenomenon but part of the Russian Empire's strategy. This is vital for understanding the later relationship between the Soviets and Palestinian nationalists.
The Soviet Union was among the first to recognise the Partition Plan, referring to the 1947 resolution to partition Palestine, and reflecting an inherent duplicity. Zaidan then moves to the 1950s and '60s, when the Soviets supported Arab and Palestinian liberation movements with arms, funding, and media backing. This support was conditional and directed, however. It served the Soviet objective of confronting Western influence in the region, propagating communist ideology, and securing allies.
Zaidan focuses on the role and evolution of the Palestinian Communist Party, which was founded by both Arab and Jewish communists. She considers the party to have been an integral part of the Soviet strategy in Palestine and the Middle East. She also draws on literature to examine Soviet discourse on Palestine, focusing on how Soviet writers and intellectuals framed the 'Palestinian question' and how Party figures used the issue.
The author concludes that Soviet support was not necessarily derived from genuine solidarity but from long-term strategic interest. She also suggests that some Palestinian and Arab leaders erred by trusting Moscow, glossing over the fluctuating Soviet interests. When thinking about the Soviets and Palestine, Zaidan concludes that this cannot be understood only through moral or nationalist dimensions, saying geopolitical and strategic dimensions, interests, and ambitions must also be considered.
The significance of this work lies in its provision of an internal perspective from the Soviet archive regarding Moscow's stance on Palestine, exposing the relationship between ideological support and strategic interests. In so doing, it offers a deeper understanding of international relations that goes beyond public discourse.
