Nimrod Luz
Biographic Data
| ID | 529704 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nimrod Luz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nimrod |
| FAMILY NAME | Luz |
| SIGNATURE | LUZ N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western Galilee College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7398-1618 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The enchanted moments of place: Mythology, rituals and materiality at the saint Mariam Bawardy Shrine
One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political dynamics of enchantment by examining its stages in depth. We use the term ‘enchanted moments of place’ to challenge the use of the term ‘enchanted’ as a static historical or historiographical designation. It takes long-term ethnographic work at a recentl…
The Politics of Sacred Places: A View from Israel-Palestine
The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel–Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles for recognition, and diversity issues. This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred p…
Transformations in Islamic Pilgrimage Patterns and Meanings: Piety, Politics, Resistance, and Places of Memory in Islamic Pilgrimage Sites in Israel/Palestine
This paper explores recent transformations in Islamic pilgrimage patterns in Israel/Palestine. The meanings assigned to traditional Muslim sites, and the conduct and practices of the dwindling number of pilgrims who visit them, are the struggling victims of strategic socio-political erasures caused by dramatic geo-political changes. Since 1948, the hegemony of the State of Israel has perversely politicized sacred Islamic sites beyond their tradit…
ReligioCity in Acre: Religious Processions, Parades, and Festivities in a Multi-Religious City
Religious Gentrification as Heterarchies of Urban Planning: Reflections on the Religious Neighborhood in Acre
This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of heterarchy as suggesting a diversity of relationships among elements in a system, the argument is made that the religious-cum-ethnic component is becoming part of an urban habitus that influences and redefines modern urb…
Materiality as an Agency of Knowledge
Materiality has become a compelling register through which to examine religious manifestations and matters of belief. There is a mounting awareness among scholars of both the tangible aspects of religion and the ways in which material objects are never neutral. Following these theoretical developments, I argue that materiality can serve as a form of agency for a particular version of knowledge to become conventional and accepted as true. This eme…
Pilgrimage and religious tourism in Islam
Religious urban decolonization: New mosques/antique cities
This article explores the changing nature of urban landscapes and everyday life in the context of indigenous religion within settler-colonial societies. We argue that against the rationalization of modern cities in which marginalized and minority groups are generally muted, religion, particularly within settler-colonial societies, increasingly becomes a way of claiming the city. Our empirical case study is the reconstruction, inauguration, and da…
Medieval Jerusalem: Forging an Islamic City in Spaces Sacred to Christians and Jews, by Jacob Lassner
In this book, Jacob Lassner sets out to re-examine the role of Jerusalem in the unfolding politics of the early Islamic period. As part of this undertaking he revisits (and generally opposes) recent explorations into the meaning of the Umayyad building project in the city. His goal in the book is to make clear the city’s evolution as a revered Islamic religious site comparable to the holy cities Mecca and Medina. The main body of the work consist…
Scripting Mamlūk Cities: Insider's Look. Explorations into Landscape Narratives
In a memorial lecture for Charles Beckingham, David Morgan 1 evoked one of this prolific travel literature scholar's astute observations: “[T]he study of travel narratives, especially travel narratives about a culture quite different from the traveller's own, can be very revealing, not only about the culture he observed, but about the culture to which he belonged”. 2 This insight indeed undergirds my own approach to the descriptions of cities by …
Introduction: Materialities, Histories, and the Spatialization of State Sovereignty
In the introduction to this special section of Religion and Society, we discuss existing and potentially new intersections of border theories and religious studies in relation to two contested regions—US-Mexico and Israel-Palestine (as part of the history of the Levant)—respectively. We argue for a recentering of borderland studies through an analysis of political theologies, affective labor, and differing configurations of religious heritage, tr…
Two Venerated Mothers Separated by a Wall: Iconic Spaces, Territoriality, and Borders in Israel-Palestine
This article explores the role of sacred places and pilgrimage centers in the context of contemporary geopolitical strife and border disputes. Following and expanding on the growing body of literature engaged with the contested nature of the sacred, this article argues that sacred sites are becoming more influential in processes of determining physical borders. We scrutinize this phenomenon through the prism of a small parcel of land on the two s…
The Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape
The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on three less-explored but politically significant cities in the Syrian region - Jerusalem, Safad (now in Israel), and Tripoli (now in Lebanon) - and presents a new approach and methodology for understanding historical cities. Drawing …
Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape
The Veneration of Womb Tombs: Body-Based Rituals and Politics at Mary’s Tomb and Maqam Abu al-Hijja (Israel/Palestine)
This article examines the social dynamics at sacred “womb tombs” in an effort to discern this architectural form’s impact on contemporary religious experience, politics, and landscapes. With this objective in mind, Christian veneration at Jerusalem’s Tomb of Mary is compared with Muslim worship at Maqam Abu al-Hijja in the Galilee. Drawing on our ethnographic findings, we posit that the ancient structure of these shrines mimics the poetry of the …
Metamorphosis of food taste and desertification of foodscape in Nazareth. The construction of “Authentic” Palestinian fast food
The Politics of Sacred Places: Palestinian Identity, Collective Memory, and Resistance in the Hassan Bek Mosque Conflict
Geographers dealing with religion have pointed to the process of conflict and contestation involved in the production of sacred sites. This paper explores the conflict over a sacred site in the formulation of a minority identity through transformation of the place into a nexus of resistance and collective memory formation. I argue that under hegemonic secularizing states and within the context of ethnonational conflicts minority groups mobilize a…
The Construction of an Islamic City in Palestine. The Case of Umayyad al-Ramla
At the beginning of the eighth century A.D. a new town was built in Palestine, called al- Ramla (Ramlah of today). It was founded by the then provincial governor, Sulaymān b. ‘Abd al-Malik (d. 717) in order to serve as the capital of Jund Filasṭīn, the southern province of Palestine. The building of a new town, and especially of a capital city, constituted a significant departure in the Palestine environment, for two main reasons. First, it was t…
The Politics of Sacred Places: Palestinian Identity, Collective Memory, and Resistance in the Hassan Bek Mosque Conflict
Geographers dealing with religion have pointed to the process of conflict and contestation involved in the production of sacred sites. This paper explores the conflict over a sacred site in the formulation of a minority identity through transformation of the place into a nexus of resistance and collective memory formation. I argue that under hegemonic secularizing states and within the context of ethnonational conflicts minority groups mobilize a…
Pilgrimage and religious tourism in Islam
ReligioCity in Acre: Religious Processions, Parades, and Festivities in a Multi-Religious City
Introduction: Materialities, Histories, and the Spatialization of State Sovereignty
In the introduction to this special section of Religion and Society, we discuss existing and potentially new intersections of border theories and religious studies in relation to two contested regions—US-Mexico and Israel-Palestine (as part of the history of the Levant)—respectively. We argue for a recentering of borderland studies through an analysis of political theologies, affective labor, and differing configurations of religious heritage, tr…
The Veneration of Womb Tombs: Body-Based Rituals and Politics at Mary’s Tomb and Maqam Abu al-Hijja (Israel/Palestine)
This article examines the social dynamics at sacred “womb tombs” in an effort to discern this architectural form’s impact on contemporary religious experience, politics, and landscapes. With this objective in mind, Christian veneration at Jerusalem’s Tomb of Mary is compared with Muslim worship at Maqam Abu al-Hijja in the Galilee. Drawing on our ethnographic findings, we posit that the ancient structure of these shrines mimics the poetry of the …
Religious Gentrification as Heterarchies of Urban Planning: Reflections on the Religious Neighborhood in Acre
This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of heterarchy as suggesting a diversity of relationships among elements in a system, the argument is made that the religious-cum-ethnic component is becoming part of an urban habitus that influences and redefines modern urb…
Two Venerated Mothers Separated by a Wall: Iconic Spaces, Territoriality, and Borders in Israel-Palestine
This article explores the role of sacred places and pilgrimage centers in the context of contemporary geopolitical strife and border disputes. Following and expanding on the growing body of literature engaged with the contested nature of the sacred, this article argues that sacred sites are becoming more influential in processes of determining physical borders. We scrutinize this phenomenon through the prism of a small parcel of land on the two s…
The Construction of an Islamic City in Palestine. The Case of Umayyad al-Ramla
At the beginning of the eighth century A.D. a new town was built in Palestine, called al- Ramla (Ramlah of today). It was founded by the then provincial governor, Sulaymān b. ‘Abd al-Malik (d. 717) in order to serve as the capital of Jund Filasṭīn, the southern province of Palestine. The building of a new town, and especially of a capital city, constituted a significant departure in the Palestine environment, for two main reasons. First, it was t…
The Construction of an Islamic City in Palestine. The Case of Umayyad al-Ramla
At the beginning of the eighth century A.D. a new town was built in Palestine, called al- Ramla (Ramlah of today). It was founded by the then provincial governor, Sulaymān b. ‘Abd al-Malik (d. 717) in order to serve as the capital of Jund Filasṭīn, the southern province of Palestine. The building of a new town, and especially of a capital city, constituted a significant departure in the Palestine environment, for two main reasons. First, it was t…
The Politics of Sacred Places: Palestinian Identity, Collective Memory, and Resistance in the Hassan Bek Mosque Conflict
Geographers dealing with religion have pointed to the process of conflict and contestation involved in the production of sacred sites. This paper explores the conflict over a sacred site in the formulation of a minority identity through transformation of the place into a nexus of resistance and collective memory formation. I argue that under hegemonic secularizing states and within the context of ethnonational conflicts minority groups mobilize a…
Metamorphosis of food taste and desertification of foodscape in Nazareth. The construction of “Authentic” Palestinian fast food
The Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape
The Mamluk City in the Middle East offers an interdisciplinary study of urban history, urban experience, and the nature of urbanism in the region under the rule of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). The book focuses on three less-explored but politically significant cities in the Syrian region - Jerusalem, Safad (now in Israel), and Tripoli (now in Lebanon) - and presents a new approach and methodology for understanding historical cities. Drawing …
Mamluk City in the Middle East: History, Culture, and the Urban Landscape
The Veneration of Womb Tombs: Body-Based Rituals and Politics at Mary’s Tomb and Maqam Abu al-Hijja (Israel/Palestine)
This article examines the social dynamics at sacred “womb tombs” in an effort to discern this architectural form’s impact on contemporary religious experience, politics, and landscapes. With this objective in mind, Christian veneration at Jerusalem’s Tomb of Mary is compared with Muslim worship at Maqam Abu al-Hijja in the Galilee. Drawing on our ethnographic findings, we posit that the ancient structure of these shrines mimics the poetry of the …
Introduction: Materialities, Histories, and the Spatialization of State Sovereignty
In the introduction to this special section of Religion and Society, we discuss existing and potentially new intersections of border theories and religious studies in relation to two contested regions—US-Mexico and Israel-Palestine (as part of the history of the Levant)—respectively. We argue for a recentering of borderland studies through an analysis of political theologies, affective labor, and differing configurations of religious heritage, tr…
Two Venerated Mothers Separated by a Wall: Iconic Spaces, Territoriality, and Borders in Israel-Palestine
This article explores the role of sacred places and pilgrimage centers in the context of contemporary geopolitical strife and border disputes. Following and expanding on the growing body of literature engaged with the contested nature of the sacred, this article argues that sacred sites are becoming more influential in processes of determining physical borders. We scrutinize this phenomenon through the prism of a small parcel of land on the two s…
Scripting Mamlūk Cities: Insider's Look. Explorations into Landscape Narratives
In a memorial lecture for Charles Beckingham, David Morgan 1 evoked one of this prolific travel literature scholar's astute observations: “[T]he study of travel narratives, especially travel narratives about a culture quite different from the traveller's own, can be very revealing, not only about the culture he observed, but about the culture to which he belonged”. 2 This insight indeed undergirds my own approach to the descriptions of cities by …
Religious urban decolonization: New mosques/antique cities
This article explores the changing nature of urban landscapes and everyday life in the context of indigenous religion within settler-colonial societies. We argue that against the rationalization of modern cities in which marginalized and minority groups are generally muted, religion, particularly within settler-colonial societies, increasingly becomes a way of claiming the city. Our empirical case study is the reconstruction, inauguration, and da…
Medieval Jerusalem: Forging an Islamic City in Spaces Sacred to Christians and Jews, by Jacob Lassner
In this book, Jacob Lassner sets out to re-examine the role of Jerusalem in the unfolding politics of the early Islamic period. As part of this undertaking he revisits (and generally opposes) recent explorations into the meaning of the Umayyad building project in the city. His goal in the book is to make clear the city’s evolution as a revered Islamic religious site comparable to the holy cities Mecca and Medina. The main body of the work consist…
Materiality as an Agency of Knowledge
Materiality has become a compelling register through which to examine religious manifestations and matters of belief. There is a mounting awareness among scholars of both the tangible aspects of religion and the ways in which material objects are never neutral. Following these theoretical developments, I argue that materiality can serve as a form of agency for a particular version of knowledge to become conventional and accepted as true. This eme…
Pilgrimage and religious tourism in Islam
ReligioCity in Acre: Religious Processions, Parades, and Festivities in a Multi-Religious City
Religious Gentrification as Heterarchies of Urban Planning: Reflections on the Religious Neighborhood in Acre
This article explores the ways in which religion(s) and religious groups are increasingly contributing to changes in the politics of planning of cities and challenge the hierarchical modern planning order. Following the notion of heterarchy as suggesting a diversity of relationships among elements in a system, the argument is made that the religious-cum-ethnic component is becoming part of an urban habitus that influences and redefines modern urb…
The Politics of Sacred Places: A View from Israel-Palestine
The Politics of Sacred Places is a study of the socio-political dimensions of sacred sites in Israel–Palestine, drawing on over 20 years of in-depth ethnographic research which introduces cutting-edge theories on secularization, struggles for recognition, and diversity issues. This book focuses on contemporary sacred sites and their socio-political meanings for minorities within a hegemonic and a secularizing state-system. It argues that sacred p…
Transformations in Islamic Pilgrimage Patterns and Meanings: Piety, Politics, Resistance, and Places of Memory in Islamic Pilgrimage Sites in Israel/Palestine
This paper explores recent transformations in Islamic pilgrimage patterns in Israel/Palestine. The meanings assigned to traditional Muslim sites, and the conduct and practices of the dwindling number of pilgrims who visit them, are the struggling victims of strategic socio-political erasures caused by dramatic geo-political changes. Since 1948, the hegemony of the State of Israel has perversely politicized sacred Islamic sites beyond their tradit…
The enchanted moments of place: Mythology, rituals and materiality at the saint Mariam Bawardy Shrine
One of the major paradoxes embedded in religion is the complex dynamics between enchantment and disenchantment. This article takes a critical look at the theoretical implications of the political dynamics of enchantment by examining its stages in depth. We use the term ‘enchanted moments of place’ to challenge the use of the term ‘enchanted’ as a static historical or historiographical designation. It takes long-term ethnographic work at a recentl…
Law (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Politics (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Archaeology (12 works) · History (11 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (8 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works)