Beholding Beauty : Saʿdi of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry /
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Beholding Beauty: Saʿdi of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry explores the relationship between sexuality, politics, and spirituality in the lyrics of Saʿdi Shirazi (d. 1292 CE), one of the most revered masters of classical Persian literature. Relying on a variety of sources, including unstudied manuscripts, Domenico Ingenito presents the so-called "inimitable smoothness" of Saʿdi's lyric style as a serene yet multifaceted window into the uncanny beauty of the world, the human body, and the realm of the unseen. The book constitutes the first attempt to study Sa'di's lyric meditations on beauty in the context of the major artistic, scientific and intellectual trends of his time. By charting unexplored connections between Islamic philosophy and mysticism, obscene verses and courtly ideals of love, Ingenito approaches Sa'di's literary genius from the perspective of sacred homoeroticism and the psychology of performative lyricism in their historical context.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004435902
9789004435896
Two thousand years in Dendi, northern Benin : archaeology, history and memory /
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In Two Thousand Years in Dendi, Northern Benin an international team examines a little-known part of the Niger River valley, West Africa, over the longue durée. This area, known as Dendi, has often been portrayed as the crossroads of major West African medieval empires but this understanding has been based on a small number of very patchy historical sources. Working from the ground up, from the archaeological sites, standing remains, oral traditions and craft industries of Dendi, Haour and her team offer the first in-depth account of the area. Contributors are: Paul Adderley, Mardjoua Barpougouni, Victor Brunfaut, Louis Champion, Annalisa Christie, Barbara Eichhorn, Anne Filippini, Dorian Fuller, Olivier Gosselain, David Kay, Nadia Khalaf, Nestor Labiyi, Raoul Laibi, Richard Lee, Veerle Linseele, Alexandre Livingstone Smith, Carlos Magnavita, Sonja Magnavita, Didier N'Dah, Nicolas Nikis, Sam Nixon, Franck N'Po Takpara, Jean-François Pinet, Ronika Power, Caroline Robion-Brunner, Lucie Smolderen, Abubakar Sule Sani, Romuald Tchibozo, Jennifer Wexler, Wim Wouters.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004376694
Like Joseph in beauty : Yemeni vernacular poetry and Arab-Jewish symbiosis /
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Like Joseph in Beauty traces the evolution of an Arabic poetic form called 'Humayni poetry'. From Muslim mystical circles, the courts of aristocrats in Highland Yemen, and kabbalist circles of Yemenite Jews, Humayni poetry distinguishes itself with lyricism, musicality, and eroticism. It also plays a variety of code-switching linguistic games. The book addresses the connections between the Humayni poetry of Yemen and the sacred poetry of Jews from Yemen, a hitherto-neglected chapter in the history of Arabic and Jewish literatures. The book culminates with a discussion of ways in which poets and critics in modern-day Yemen and in Israel transformed this poetry.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [327]-339) and index. :
9789047442196 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Prophets, gods and kings in Sirat Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan : an intertextual reading of an Egyptian popular epic /
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This book is a literary, intertextual study of an Egyptian popular epic. In this innovative study, Helen Blatherwick investigates how various sources, including Islamic qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ ('tales of the prophets'), Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman and Coptic Egyptian myths and narratives, and recensions of the Alexander Romance function as intertexts within Sīrat Sayf . Blatherwick argues that these intertexts are deployed as narrative devices which are readily recognisable to the story's audience, and that they are significant carriers of meaning and theme. Crucially, these intertexts also interact within Sīrat Sayf to bring a conceptual continuity to its discussion of kingship and society that stretches from this late-medieval epic back to ancient Egyptian narratives.
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Revised and expanded version of the author's thesis (doctoral)--SOAS, University of London, 2002. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004314801 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Anthologist's Art : Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī and His Yatīmat al-dahr.
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Why did premodern authors in the Arabic-Islamic culture compile literary anthologies, and why were these works remarkably popular? How can an anthology that consists of reproduced material be original and creative, and serve various literary and political ends? How did anthologists select their material, then record and arrange it? This book examines the life and works of Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (350-429/961-1039), an eminent anthologist from Nīshāpūr, paying special attention to his magnum opus, Yatīmat al-dahr ( The Unique Pearl ), and its sequel, Tatimmat al-Yatīma ( The Completion of the Yatīma ). This book is a direct window on to an anthologist's workshop in the second half of the fourth/tenth century. It examines the methodological consciousness expressed in Thaʿālibī's selection and arrangement, and his sophisticated system of internal references and cross-references to other works; how he selected from his contemporaries' oeuvres; how he sought, recorded, memorized, misplaced, and sometimes lost or forgot his selections; how he scrutinized the authenticity of material, accepting, questioning, or rejecting its attribution; and the errors and inconsistencies that resulted from this process.
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Description based upon print version of record. :
1 online resource (291 pages) :
References to the Earlier Version of the Yatīma References to Other Works by Thaʿālibī ; Later Additions to the Yatīma ; Authenticity and Misattribution ; Forgotten, Lost, and Inconsistent Material ; Chapter 4. The Sources of Thaʿālibī in Yatīmat al-Dahr and Tatimmat al-Yatīma; Written Sources ; Dīwāns; Books; Other Written Media ; Oral and Aural Sources ; Main Guarantors in the Yatīma ; Main Guarantors in the Tatimma ; Conclusion ; Chapter 5. Material within the Entry; Categorization and Arrangement of Material within Entries ; The Biographical Summary ; Dates; Deaths of Poets. :
9789004317352 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Looking back at al-Andalus : the poetics of loss and nostalgia in medieval Arabic and Hebrew literature /
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Looking Back at al-Andalus focuses on Arabic and Hebrew Literature that expresses the loss of al-Andalus from multiple vantage points. In doing so, this book examines the definition of al-Andalus' literary borders, the reconstruction of which navigates between traditional generic formulations and actual political, military and cultural challenges. By looking at a variety of genres, the book shows that literature aiming to recall and define al-Andalus expresses a series of symbolic literary objects more than a geographic and political entity fixed in a single time and place. Looking Back at al-Andalus offers a unique examination into the role of memory, language, and subjectivity in presenting a series of interpretations of what al-Andalus represented to different writers at different historical-cultural moments.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-180) and index. :
9789047442721 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The mischievous muse : extant poetry and prose by Ibn Quzman of Cordoba (d. AH 555/AD 1160) /
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The first part of this work includes all the known works of the twelfth-century Andalusi author Ibn Quzmān, most of which are zajal poems composed in the colloquial dialect of Andalus. They have been edited in a Romanized transliteration, and are accompanied by a facing-page English prose translation, along with notes and commentaries intended to elucidate matters relevant to each poem. In the second part of the work, sixteen chapters are devoted to analyzing specific poems from a literary perspective, in order to delve into their meaning and, thereby, explain the poet's literary goals.
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1 online resource (2 volumes (1038 pages ; 500 pages)) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004323773 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
How do you say "epigram" in Arabic? : literary history at the limits of comparison /
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The qaṣīdah and the qiṭʿah are well known to scholars of classical Arabic literature, but the maqṭūʿ , a form of poetry that emerged in the thirteenth century and soon became ubiquitous, is as obscure today as it was once popular. These poems circulated across the Arabo-Islamic world for some six centuries in speech, letters, inscriptions, and, above all, anthologies. Drawing on more than a hundred unpublished and published works, How Do You Say "Epigram" in Arabic? is the first study of this highly popular and adaptable genre of Arabic poetry. By addressing this lacuna, the book models an alternative comparative literature, one in which the history of Arabic poetry has as much to tell us about epigrams as does Greek.
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1 online resource (337 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004350533 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nūbat Ramal al-Māya in cultural context : the pen, the voice, the text /
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In this unique edition, Carl Davila takes an original approach to the texts of the modern Moroccan Andalusian music tradition. This volume offers a literary-critical analysis and English translation of the texts of this nūba , studies their linguistic and thematic features, and compares them with key manuscripts and published anthologies. Four introductory chapters and four appendices discuss the role of orality in the tradition and the manuscripts that lie behind the print anthologies. Two supplements cross-reference key poetic images in English and Arabic, and provide information on known authors of the texts. This groundbreaking contribution will interest scholars and students of pre-modern Arabic poetry, muwashshaḥāt , Andalusian music traditions, Arabic Studies, orality, and sociolinguistics.
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1 online resource (xxii, 624 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004294530 :
1571-5183 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rethinking China, the Middle East and Asia in a 'Multiplex World' /
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"This edited volume critically examines the changing dynamics of multidimensional relations between China, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia in an emerging "multiplex world". It challenges both extremes of "Sinophobia" and "Sinophilia" by studying the real "pragmatist" China. This book, in fifteen chapters, problematizes what MENA and Asia means to China in the age of neoliberalism, explores what are the real or perceived pillars of Sino-MENA-Asia relations, and sheds light on how MENA can benefit from its relations with China while keeping a clear distance from the harms of neoliberal authoritarianism. Contributors are Mojtaba Mahdavi, Tugrul Keskin, Manochehr Dorraj, Sari Hanafi, Habibul Haque Khondker, Dara Conduit, Rigas Arvanitis, Saeed Shafqat, Jordi Quero, Mahesh Ranjan Debata, Andrea Ghiselli, Mher D. Sahakyan, Michael McCall, Yossra M. Taha and Xiaoyue Li"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004510005
9789004391604
The foreign vocabulary of the Qur'ān /
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Republication of Arthur Jeffery's important study, The Foreign Vocabulary of the Qur'ān , offers a new generation of scholars and students access to this foundational text. Arranged in Arabic alphabetical order, Jeffery's compendium of philological scholarship remains an indispensable tool for any serious study of Qur'ānic semantics. Drawing upon etymological examination of languages such as Greek, Persian, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic and Nabataean, Jeffery's work illuminates the rich linguistic texture of Islam's holy book. His lengthy introductory essay explores the exegetical analysis offered by medieval Muslim commentators as well as the insights provided by more recent research.
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Originally published on behalf of the Government of His Highness the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda by Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, Director, Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1938. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [xvii]-xx) and indexes. :
9789047418863 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Why Translate Science? : Documents from Antiquity to the 16th Century in the Historical West (Bactria to the Atlantic) /
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From antiquity to the 16th century, translation united culturally the peoples in the historical West (from Bactria to the shores of the Atlantic) and fueled the production and circulation of knowledge. The Hellenic scientific and philosophical curriculum was translated from and into, to mention the most prevalent languages, Greek, Syriac, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin. To fill a lack in existing scholarship, this volume collects the documents that present the insider evidence provided in contemporary accounts of the motivations and purposes of translation given in the personal statements by the agents in this process, the translators, scholars, and historians of each society. Presented in the original languages with an English translation and introductory essays, these documents offer material for the study of the historical contextualization of the translations, the social history of science and philosophy in their interplay with traditional beliefs, and the cultural policies and ideological underpinnings of these societies. Contributors Michael Angold, Pieter Beullens, Charles Burnett, David Cohen, Gad Freudenthal, Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Anthony Kaldellis, Daniel King, Felix Mundt, Ignacio Sánchez, Isabel Toral, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Mohsen Zakeri.
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A collection of documents from antiquity to the 16th century in the historical West (Bactria to the Atlantic), in the original languages with an English translation and introductory essays, about the motivations and purposes of translation from and into Greek, Syriac, Middle Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin, as given in the personal statements by the translators, scholars, and historians of each society. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004472648
9789004472631
The Thousand and one nights and twentieth-century fiction : intertextual readings /
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It is gradually being acknowledged that the Arabic story-collection Thousand and One Nights has had a major influence on European and world literature. This study analyses the influence of Thousand and One Nights , as an intertextual model, on 20th-century prose from all over the world. Works of approximately forty authors are examined: those who were crucial to the development of the main currents in 20th-century fiction, such as modernism, magical realism and post-modernism. The book contains six thematic sections divided into chapters discussing two or three authors/works, each from a narratological perspective and supplemented by references to the cultural and literary context. It is shown how Thousand and One Nights became deeply rooted in modern world literature especially in phases of renewal and experiment.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004362697 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Liberal thought in the Eastern Mediterranean : late 19th century until the 1960s /
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This volume analyzes liberal thought in the Eastern Mediterranean since the late nineteenth century, highlighting its long-term and ongoing influence, and challenging the conventional wisdom that liberalism has no legitimate place in the region's intellectual discourse. By investigating the activities of diverse institutions, media, and personalities, the authors in this volume examine the liberal ideas and values that emerged during eras of both peace and political turmoil, while recognizing the factors contributing to their decline. Seen from these many perspectives, liberal thought developed not merely from "Westernization," but from the interaction between indigenous intellectual critique and political ideology, political experiences and literary imagination, and a mixture of admiration for and resistance to European ideas and political domination.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047442240 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Culture still matters : notes from the field /
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Varisco's Culture Still Matters: Notes from the Field is on the relationship between ethnographic fieldwork and the culture concept in the ongoing debate over the future of anthropology, drawing on the history of both concepts. Despite being the major social science that offers a methodology and tools to understand diverse cultures worldwide, scholars within and outside anthropology have attacked this field for all manner of sins, including fostering colonialism and essentializing others. This book revitalizes constructive debate of this vibrant field's history, methods and contributions, drawing on the author's ethnographic experience in Yemen. It covers complicated theoretical concepts about culture and their critiques in readable prose, accessible to students and interested social scientists in other fields. With forewords from Bryan S. Turner and Anouar Majid.
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1 online resource. :
9789004381339
Arabic instruction in Israel : lessons in conflict, cognition and failure /
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In Arabic Instruction in Israel Allon J. Uhlmann confronts two conundrums, namely the persistently poor level of Arabic proficiency among Jewish Arabic students and teachers, and the traumatic alienation of Arab students by university Arabic grammar instruction. These are not aberrations but rather direct, albeit unintended, systemic consequences of the field of Arabic instruction, where Jewish students encounter Arabic as a dead, hostile language; Jewish hegemony devalues native Arabic proficiency; and Arab students are locked into a fractured educational trajectory - encountering two alienating and mutually unintelligible grammars of Arabic at school and at university. By tracing systemic variabilities in cognition and learning Uhlmann exposes hitherto misrecognised dynamics that hinder Arabic instruction in Israel, thereby offering new avenues for possible change.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004349957 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Recognition as key for reconciliation : Israel, Palestine, and beyond /
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In these times of growing insecurity, widening inequities and deepening crisis for civilized governance, Recognition as Key for Reconciliation offers meaningful and provocative thoughts on how to advance towards a more just and peaceful future. From the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict we learn of "thin" and "thick" recipes for solutions. Beyond the Middle East region we learn from studies around the globe: South Africa, Northern Ireland and Armenia show the challenges to genuine recognition of our very human connection to each other, and that this recognition is essential for any sustainable positive security for all of us. Contributors are Deina Abdelkader, Gregory Aftandilian, Dale Eickelman, Amal Jamal, Maya Kahanoff, Herbert Kelman, Yoram Meital, Victoria Montgomery, Paula M. Rayman, Albie Sachs and Nira Yuval-Davis.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004355804 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Middle Eastern and North African societies in the interwar period /
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Taking society as its central focus, Middle Eastern and North African Societies in the Interwar Period approaches the region as one of connectivities and fluidity and investigates networks and interregional relations, stratagems adopted to shape society and social resistance to or absorption of change. From tourism to health propaganda, marriage to beauty contest, mass communication to music, this book offers a vibrant and dynamic picture of the region which goes beyond state borders. Contributors are Diana Abbani, Amit Bein, Ebru Boyar, Elizabeth Brownson, Nazan Çiçek, Kate Fleet, Ulrike Freitag, Liat Kozma, Brian L. McLaren and Emilio Spadola.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004369498 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A history of Ottoman political thought up to the early nineteenth century
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In A History of Ottoman Political Thought up to the Early Nineteenth Century , Marinos Sariyannis offers a survey of Ottoman political texts, examined in a book-length study for the first time. From the last glimpses of gazi ideology and the first instances of Persian political philosophy in the fifteenth century until the apologists of Western-style military reform in the early nineteenth century, the author studies a multitude of theories and views, focusing on an identification of ideological trends rather than a simple enumeration of texts and authors. At the same time, the book offers analytical summaries of texts otherwise difficult to find in English.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004385245 :
0169-9423 ;
Religious minorities in the Middle East : domination, self-empowerment, accommodation /
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The relationship between religious majorities and minorities in the Middle East is often construed as one of domination versus powerlessness. While this may indeed be the case, to claim that this is only or always so is to give a simplified picture of a complex reality. Such a description lays emphasis on the challenges faced by the minorities, while overlooking their astonishing ability to mobilize internal and external resources to meet these challenges. Through the study of strategies of domination, resilience, and accommodation among both Muslim and non-Muslim minorities, this volume throws into relief the inherently dynamic character of a relationship which is increasingly influenced by global events and global connections.
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The result of a workshop held in 2008 in Bergen, Norway and in 2009 in Aix-en-Provence, France. :
1 online resource (viii, 369 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216846 :
1385-3376 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.