Intimate Invocations: Al-Ghazzi’s Biography of ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641–1731) by Samer Akkach (review)

Book Reviews 395 The author sees some common aspects between that theory and the views of the Protestant reformers. For the humanist Erasmus, who had defended peace throughout his life, WKHYLHZWR¿JKWWKH7XUNVPXVWKDYHEHHQDELJFKDOOHQJHDVWKDWZRXOGPHDQ to resist God, who had sent them to punish the Christians who had sinned. However in his later years Erasmus was forced to admit that it would be a crime not to defend Western civilization against the aggressors, who were the Turks. T T ThebookliststhevisionsofagreatmanythinkersabouttheTurks/ T T Ottomans during the Renaissance and their possible future existence or decline. Many RIWKHVHWKLQNHUVKDGEHHQLQÀXHQFHGE\WKHYLHZVRIWKHDERYHPHQWLRQHG opinion shapers of their time. A chapter of the book devoted to A Turco-British T T relationships during the Renaissance, gives ample space to the trade relationships of the Levant Company, the travel accounts of several British authors, and the Turks on the T T Elizabethan stage. Another issue dealt with in the book is WKHVLJQL¿FDQWUROHWKDWUHOLJLRQSOD\HGLQLPDJHFUHDWLQJHJWKHFDVHRIWKH GLIIHUHQW&KULVWLDQFKXUFKHVWRZDUGVWKH7XUNLVKWKUHDWDQGWKHLUXQL¿FDWLRQ attempts to overcome it. Andrei Pippidi’s book is a rather objective historical survey of the image of the Turk in T T Renaissance Europe. It does not end with a direct statement for or against Turkey’s attempts to join the T T European Union, in spite of the fact that this was mentioned at the beginning of the book, but since it is a book of ideas and not a book of politics this should neither be expected by the readers nor expressed by the author in the “Introduction” of the book. The book is also recommended for its comprehensive list of references. Nedret Kuran K K Yeditepe University doi:10.2979/jottturstuass.3.2.16 Samer Akkach. Intimate Invocations: Al-Ghazzi’s Biography of ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi (1641–1731). Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2012. Islamic History and Civilization Series. 824 pp. Cloth, $159.00. ISBN: 978-9004211414. The study of Ottoman Syria has come a long way in the last decades. Political and social historians have produced a string of monographs devoted to its major and minor cities. Its intellectual history is coming to fruition. Since the late 1990s, historians of Ottoman Syria have unearthed evidence for nuance and innovation in the interpretation of Islamic law and the development of QHZK\EULGIRUPVRIKLVWRU\ZULWLQJ7KHWRZHULQJ¿JXUHRIµ$EGDO*KDQL 396 Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 3.2 DO1DEXOXVL ±  LV ¿QDOO\ UHFHLYLQJ WKH DWWHQWLRQ KH GHVHUYHV Scholarly editions of his four travelogues have been in circulation for decades SULPDULO\IRUWKHLUXWLOLW\IRUWKHUHJLRQ¶VSROLWLFDOKLVWRU\7KH¿UVWPDMRUSXElished study devoted to al-Nabulusi’s thought was Bakri Alladin’s introduction to his edition of al-Nabulusi’s central work, al-Wujud al-Haqq wa-l-Kitab al-Sidqq (Damascus: Institut Français des Études Arabes de Damas, 1995), ZKLFKEULGJHVWKH¿HOGVRIWKHRORJ\SKLORVRSK\DQGP\VWLFLVP6LQFHWKHQ three book-length studies in English have appeared as well as a host of critiFDO HGLWLRQVRIDO1DEXOXVL¶VRZQZULWLQJV,QWKH¿UVWDFDGHPLFJDWKering devoted to al-Nabulusi convened in Tübingen, Germany, signaling that “Nabulusi Studies” has come into its own. Samer Akkach is the most prodigious scholar of al-Nabulusi, particularly RIKLVWKHRVRSK\DQGKLVGHIHQVHRI6X¿VP:LWK‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulusi: Islam and Enlightenment ( t Oxford: Oneworld, 2007) he joined the ranks of revisionist scholars who have challenged the Eurocentrism of most discussions of the intellectual roots of modernity. He argues that al-Nabulusi was DQLQWHOOHFWXDOLQQRYDWRULQDYDULHW\RI¿HOGVDQGQRWMXVWWKHP\VWLFKHLV usually remembered as. Al-Nabulusi, writes Akkach, saw no contradiction between worldly pleasure and spiritual devotion and was committed to exploring the power of mysticism through a series of systematic, rationalist arguments grounded in (but not imitative of) classical Islamic sacred, theological, philosophical, and legal texts. The holistic...