The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability

For more than two centuries, Muslims have been retelling different stories about the origin of their call to prayer. While the converging details of these narratives offer a glimpse of Muslim cultural memory and its preservation, the diverging elements reflect different mechanisms that facilitate th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Maroussia Bednarkiewicz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
Series:Religions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/10/817
_version_ 1797513257620078592
author Maroussia Bednarkiewicz
author_facet Maroussia Bednarkiewicz
author_sort Maroussia Bednarkiewicz
collection DOAJ
description For more than two centuries, Muslims have been retelling different stories about the origin of their call to prayer. While the converging details of these narratives offer a glimpse of Muslim cultural memory and its preservation, the diverging elements reflect different mechanisms that facilitate the adaption of this cultural memory to new contexts and concerns. Based on the work of Jan Assmann, the present study explores how Muslims conserved and adapted their cultural memory to keep their common identity and expand their diversity following distinctive religious, political, or personal forms of belongings. The narratives concerned with the origin of the Islamic call to prayer and preserved in various written text collections offer a fertile ground to analyze how this part of Muslim cultural memory became the vehicle of a permanent but adaptable Muslim identity.
first_indexed 2024-03-10T06:14:08Z
format Article
id doaj.art-3a36c4425a27495e8737d0a12cb1d563
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2077-1444
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-10T06:14:08Z
publishDate 2021-09-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Religions
spelling doaj.art-3a36c4425a27495e8737d0a12cb1d5632023-11-22T19:51:33ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442021-09-01121081710.3390/rel12100817The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and AdaptabilityMaroussia Bednarkiewicz0Faculty of Humanities, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, 72074 Tübingen, GermanyFor more than two centuries, Muslims have been retelling different stories about the origin of their call to prayer. While the converging details of these narratives offer a glimpse of Muslim cultural memory and its preservation, the diverging elements reflect different mechanisms that facilitate the adaption of this cultural memory to new contexts and concerns. Based on the work of Jan Assmann, the present study explores how Muslims conserved and adapted their cultural memory to keep their common identity and expand their diversity following distinctive religious, political, or personal forms of belongings. The narratives concerned with the origin of the Islamic call to prayer and preserved in various written text collections offer a fertile ground to analyze how this part of Muslim cultural memory became the vehicle of a permanent but adaptable Muslim identity.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/10/817Islamic historycultural memory
spellingShingle Maroussia Bednarkiewicz
The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
Religions
Islamic history
cultural memory
title The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
title_full The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
title_fullStr The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
title_full_unstemmed The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
title_short The Islamic Call to Prayer and Its Origin: A Story about Cultural Memory’s Permanence and Adaptability
title_sort islamic call to prayer and its origin a story about cultural memory s permanence and adaptability
topic Islamic history
cultural memory
url https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/10/817
work_keys_str_mv AT maroussiabednarkiewicz theislamiccalltoprayeranditsoriginastoryaboutculturalmemoryspermanenceandadaptability
AT maroussiabednarkiewicz islamiccalltoprayeranditsoriginastoryaboutculturalmemoryspermanenceandadaptability