Called Ulama, it is a game played in a few communities in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. If both teams end up having the same number of points after a turn, both sides begin again from zero. According to Duran, the Aztecs “gambled their homes, their fields, their corn granaries, their maguey plants. The reformists therefore gradually became convinced of the need to create European-inspired universities and institutes. These simple examples show how wrong it is to apply to Muslim clerics (and actually to Muslims tout court) the “conservatives vs. reformists” interpretative scheme: ulama and Salafi are both socially conservative, but they justify their positions through two different knowledge structures. Ulama was the popular game in Aztec. The Spanish, who increasingly viewed ulama as a heathen pastime, banned the sport in 1585. At the opening of the thirteenth century they were a horde of nomadic horsemen, living very much as their predecessors, the Huns, had done, subsisting chiefly upon meat and mare’s milk and living in tents of skin. The rubber ball that captivated Europe five centuries ago continues to enthrall us. http://www.donquijote.org/culture/mexico/sports/the-mesoamerican-ballgame-ulama, "The Mesoamerican Ball Game." Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Of course, the official ulama refuse the practice of takfīr (‘accusation of disbelief’), adopt a generally anti-terrorist discourse, do not ask, unlike political Islam, for the return of the caliphate or a modern version of it, and usually accept the principle of citizenship. Today, ulama survives in only a few isolated pockets of rural Mexico, such as in the province of Sinaloa, but its legacy surrounds us. ulamā? Submitted by Josef Bray-Ali, Los Angeles. An example of its usage on this post on a Moroccan website: https://bit.ly/2wvYBbI. The sacrifice of ball-players was intimately related to the celestial cycle of the sun and moon, for both the Maya and Aztecs, as was the game itself. The situation in Saudi Arabia is yet different: the clergy (Wahhabi, in this case) plays a fundamental role in legitimizing political power and continues to exercise a judicial function. Sailing in Stormy Waters. The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Whoever seizes it has taken a bountiful share.[1]. Mount Shasta: Spirits and Danger on a Sacred California Mountain, Mysterious Worlds: Travels to the Faerie and Shamanic Realms, Pharaoh Akhenaten: An Alternative View of the Heretic King, Ancient Ball Courts Found in Mexico Rewrite Deadly Ballgame’s History, 4 Billion People Can’t Be Wrong: The Record-Shattering Popularity of Football, an Ancient Game, Playing Ball in Ancient Belize: 1,300-year-old Stone s Depicting Mayan Ballplayers Revealed, Archaeologists uncover ancient Maya ball court used as a ritual centre, 3,000-Year-Old Ball Game Where Winners Lost Their Heads Is Revived in Mexico, Ancient Pedigree of the Open Championship: Golf’s Long History and Hidden Beginnings, http://www.bouncing-balls.com/timeline/ballgame.htm, http://www.examiner.com/article/pok-a-tok-the-sacred-ball-game-of-the-ancient-maya, http://linux1.tlc.north.denver.k12.co.us/~gmoreno/gmoreno/Mesoamerican_Ballgame.html, http://www.donquijote.org/culture/mexico/sports/the-mesoamerican-ballgame-ulama, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4uNfzBEMXw, Playing Ball in Ancient Belize: 1,300-year-old Stone Panels Depicting Mayan Ballplayers Revealed. The prophets have not left gold or silvers coins as a bequest, but knowledge (‘ilm). In the first place, the ulama lost their monopoly on education. The game was viewed as a battle of the sun against the moon and stars - representing the principle of lightness and darkness. Al-Ghazālī (1058-1111) played a central role in this process. Of Albanian origin, he realized the need to import Western knowledge, at least military sciences, in order to successfully resist European armies. Buried Beneath the Sand, The Ziggurat of Jiroft May be Largest and Oldest of its Kind in the World, The Judean Date Palm: Extinct Tree Resurrected from Ancient Seeds, Le Puy-en-Velay, A Small French Town with a Large Legacy, The Top Ten Ancient History Podcasts You May Not Have Heard.
