A Racial Sense: Hagarism

Year 2019, Issue: 12, 357 - 372, 20.06.2019

İlyas Uçar

https://doi.org/10.18498/amailad.579990

Abstract

The word
Hagar (Arabic: هاجر), in the dictionary as a common meaning to escape, go, migrate,
come to the meaning of migration. Hagar is the Arabic
name used to identify the wife of Abraham and the mother of Ismael. She is a
reverted woman in the Islamic faith. According to Muslim belief, she was the
Egyptian handmaiden of Abraham's first wife Sara. Sara and Hagar, whose
names are not mentioned in the Qur'an, have been the subject of debate as an
important figure in terms of the mission they have undertaken in the history of
religion and in the history of Islam. The sorrows of the Sara and Abraham
couples who have no children despite their long marriages are reflected in the
Quran: “O my Lord! Forgive me a child of the righteous.” (37/100) Finally,
Ismael was born from his marriage to Hagar.

This marriage between Abraham and Hagar after a while turned into
uneasiness and jealousy in Sâra and led him to ask them to send them to another
place. Resisting for a while, thanks to the commandment from God, he took his
wife and son to Mecca, a deserted and lonely area where the Kaaba was located. But the story is traditionally understood to be
referred to in a line from Abraham 's prayer in Sura Abraham (14:37): “I have
settled some of my family in a barren valley near your Sacred House.” Hagar
lived here alone with Ismael for a long time. Hagar worried about his son dying
because of starvation, Hagar used to fled to the valley of Makkah desperately
seven times between the hills called Safa and Marwa, at which time he saw a
water emerge from his son's place. This water is now called “zamzam”. While
these are lived, Isaac was born on the other side. In fact, everything starts
right here. Because the names of Hagar and Ismael in the later periods for
different purposes, it was wanted to be used as a means of discrediting and
othering. This situation gave rise to the term of Hagarism.

Hagarism was first introduced in 1977 in the of Hagarism: The Making of
the Islamic World study published by the Cambridge University Press. Patricia
Crone and Micheal Cook, written by the duo of the work on the basis of the name
Ibrâhim on the basis of the Prophet Muhammad in particular and different views
on the life of Muhammad is to produce a “parallel history of Islam.” This
naming, which appears to be the first in the plan and innocent, is the Prophet
of the first period of the Syriac sources shown as the ancestor of Muslims and
Islamic society. Ismael's mother Hagar was given relative. It would not be wrong
to say that this concept, which is conceptually correct, is basically based on
its syllabic-Islamic style from the point of view of the sources of Islamic
history, which may be considered reasonable in terms of its inclusion of
non-Islamic sources. Crone and Cook did not reject Abraham in his own interest.
He emphasized that the Jews should be used as a means of racism to give birth
to Isaac and that the Jews were more valuable and important, and that Muslims
should not be cared for because they came from Hagar. Although we could not
step back on these views and find enough findings and we started to work with
the excitement of youth, Cook and Crone burned the hagarim torch. Hagarism in
the hands of those who later made anti-Islamic discourses had turned into a
trump that would set fire. For example, Daniel Pipes, the US historian and
founder of the Middle East Forum, was the forerunner of these views as the most
fervent advocate. Pipes, which brings this issue to the agenda frequently in
every environment and especially on its website, has also managed to influence
some people.

Just like Islamophobia,
just like orientalism, there are some names and concepts in his background.
But, the goal was not successful enough due to the use of a very extreme and
hard language. Nevertheless, Hagarism, which emerged as a rhetoric of racism,
emerged with a completely different name, perhaps with the events of September
11, and in a completely different structure. The aim of showing that Islam is
always in a bad and negative situation is still the liveliest form today. In
this context, as Muslims we have to be vigilant and conscious of all sorts of
adversities that have occurred in the past and in the future, without the
prisoner of naming and qualifications.

Keywords

History of Islam, Hagarism, Abraham, Samuel, Racism

Bir Irkçılık Söylemi: Hâcerizm

Abstract

Târih boyunca
her toplum için hem önder hem de rehber kabul edilen peygamberler
gönderilmiştir. İslâm, Yahudilik ve Hıristiyanlık dinlerinin ortak isimlerinden
biri olan İbrâhim, hem Kur’ân-ı Kerîm’de hem de İncil ve Tevrat gibi diğer
kutsal kitaplarda hakkında en fazla malumât bulunan peygamberdir. İslâm dininin
ulu’l-azm olarak kabul ettiği İbrâhim’in yaşadığı coğrafya ve aile hayatı üç
dini de yakından ilgilendirmesi yönüyle pek çok araştırmacının ve din
bilimcinin ilgi alanına girmiştir. Bu bağlamda İbrâhim ile beraber Hâcer, Sâre,
İsmâil ve İshâk ön plana çıkan diğer isimler olmuştur. İlâhi dinlerin menşei
noktasında önemli rol oynayan bu isimlerden Hâcer ve ona nispetle ortaya atılan
bir söylem olan Hâcerizm (Hagarism) Batı’da özellikle 1977 yılından itibaren
popüler olmaya başlamış ve manipülatif bir yöntem ile İslâm aleyhine
kullanılmıştır. Özellikle dini araştırmalar yapanların ilgisini çeken ve
üzerinde pek çok yazı kaleme alınan Hacerizm’in ülkemizde pek fazla
bilinmemesini dikkate alarak bu çalışmada Hâcerizm’in nasıl ve neden doğduğu
ile tarihi gelişimi ele alınmıştır. 

Keywords

İslam Târihi, Hâcerizm, İbrâhim, İsmâil, Irkçılık

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