This report discusses the ways in which Muslim communities form in Poland, with particular emphasis on the role of migrant men and women from Muslim countries, broken down into activities carried out mainly by women and mainly by men. The division of activities sometimes goes beyond the patterns of Muslim communities in other countries. The specificity of the Muslim community in Poland is related to: the historical context of the origins of its creation, i.e. the presence of Polish Tatars, a small number of Muslims living in Poland, and their diversity in terms of countries of origin.

After the war in Yugoslavia, many Bosnian Muslims emigrated to various European countries. How do they construe their identity when living in a diaspora? How do they perceive their own community?

In this article, the Hui Muslim tradition of posting the names of donors during Ramaḍān and ʿĪd al-Fiṭr is illustrated with an example from the city of Liáochéng in 2019. In the past, these notices were posted on the perimeter walls of the mosques of Chinese Muslims on the eve of the festival of breaking the fast, which is a custom not otherwise found in the Islamic-influenced world, shows Chinese influence, and fulfilled a number of functions for the communities concerned. In the meantime, this tradition is no longer practised and, according to people who can confirm this, has been stopped by the authorities as part of some campaign against religious propaganda.

Since the beginning of islam in the 7th century christians and Muslims have been a permanent challenge for themselves. the confrontation and the closeness which accompany them through the entire history are rooted in the universal and monotheistic character of both religions. From the christian point of view it would be diffcult to talk about interreligious dialogue or at least its modern developments, without the Second Vatican council (1962–1965) and the declaration nostra aetate. The council recognized in it the spiritual, moral and cultural values present in different religions, emphasizing spiritual and moral values between Muslim and christians. For the frst time in the history of the Catholic Church, the council’s fathers offcially called for the co-operation with Muslims. This is the starting point of the real dialogue between Christians and Muslims.

This article attempts to describe and analyse – in three parts – some aspects of the dialogical initiatives of Christian-Muslim relations. A greater part of it refers to the Roman Catholic Church, but some examples of interpretation and dialogical initiatives of the Orthodox and protestant churches are included as well. Islam as a point of reference is taken as a whole. After a short introduction containing a general defnition of dialogue and its interreligious form the frst part deals with historical facts which shaped the dialogical attitudes. The selected historical facts build a background for some theological ideas on islam in orthodox, catholic and protestant traditions. The second part focuses on the practical aspects of dialogue – its forms and representative institutions, i.e. the pontifcal council for interreligious Dialogue, World council of churches and Orthodox center of the ecumenical patriarch in chambésy which are engaged in the dialogue on behalf of the main christian churches. The third part offers some ideas concerning aarguments for dialogue, its effciency and quality which might be important for the future of dialogue. The modern history of Christian-Muslim relations shows that the dialogue between adherents of these two largest religions is possible despite that it is not an easy undertaking. the author underlines that there is no alternative to dialogue as there is no better way to defeat prejudices and heal the wounds of the past.

This paper is based on examining a limited number of Arab–Berber sources whose main objective is to highlight that the Muslim West (Maghreb – al-Andalus) constituted a multilingual geographical space. First, I will look at the question of the Almoravids and the mastery of languages in a context of power. Then, I will raise the question of the linguistic skills of the sovereigns in al-Andalus. After this, I will give some details on the Berber language in the Marinid Maghreb. Finally, I will propose some brief conclusions of a provisional nature, emphasizing the interest of the study of linguistic uses and cultural contacts in the Muslim West in the Middle Ages.

This article provides an isnād cum matn analysis of a hadīt transmitted by Hudayfa Ibn Asīd describing how an angel visits the unborn in the womb. During the visit, several things are predestined. The hadīt has a prominent position at the beginning of the chapter on predestination in the hadīt collection of Muslim. The article shows, how the arrangement of the material in that opening section, which has to be dated to the 9th century CE, had the effect of closing a debate whether the individual’s destiny in the hereafter is predestined.

The Arab Republic of Egypt – the most important Middle Eastern Arabic country, is one of the oldest countries in the world, believed by some to be the cradle of civilization. Patriotic songs are very popular in it. They can be heard in times of peace and when the country may be facing some difficulties. They are shown on television, played on the radio, broadcast during official ceremonies, and used in social media, coffee shops, and weddings. In recent years, there has been something of a phenomenon around songs titled Taḥyā Maṣr. Notwithstanding the main messages – for Egypt to “live long” and show the artist’s love for their country – other messages and differences in how the singer expresses their love can be found. An analysis of six songs released in the years 2013–2018 under the same title, Taḥyā Maṣr, will be presented in this article. Any clear distinctions between them and the reasons for their being made under the same title will be shown.

Up to the present day Suhrawardy remains a controversial figure in both parts of Bengal, with Hindus often seeing him as their fierce persecutor and Bangladeshi Muslims hailing him as their country’s forefather and preacher of communal unity. This article analyses his actions during the period of his Prime Ministership (1946–1947) looking for the sources of the above dichotomy. It argues that although Suhrawardy displayed a mild communal bias at times, circumstances made him inconsistent, being as he was trapped between right wing of Muslim League, the Hindu masses unwilling to trust him and (until the end of 1946) Congress ambitions to inherit the whole Raj. The need to act quickly due to Viceroy Mountbatten’s haste, as well as the PM’s lack of social skills were other factors contributing to failure of his last initiative – United Bengal Scheme – despite his genuine efforts towards Hindu-Muslim settlement and agrarian reforms.

The paper presents how the pluralism of relations in the early Muslim sources concerning the memory the Qādisiyya narrative is problematic for reconstructing the event of the battle by modern scholars. Specific studies of the early Islamic sources concerning the Battle of Al-Qādisiyya lead to the conclusion that it is certainly easier to interpret the functions of particular topoi than to determinate the facts about the Maʿrakat al-Qādisiyya. The main, unsolved questions related to the Qādisiyyah narrative are the uncertainty of the date of the battle, the size of the Muslim and Persian forces that fought in the Maʿrakat al-Qādisiyya as well as some contradictions and different presentations of the battle. Scholars have undertaken many attempts to make the conflicting accounts more coherent but in fact, they only made some speculations or, at the best, case scenario – explanations made on the basis of limited and uncertain evidence. For these reasons, the paper contains the suggestion to avoid an undue emphasis on the importance of the Maʿrakat al-Qādisiyya and to replace this term by the more general expression “the Mesopotamian campaign 634–637.” The critical evaluation of the Muslim sources leads to a more general description of the Battle of Al-Qādisiyya as an element of the campaign (stage 634–637) whose unambiguous evaluation is impossible.