Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East : Collected Papers of the International Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Ne...
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This volume deals with Islamic sects in the Near East such as the Alevis (Turkey), Druzes (Libanon), Alawis (Syria), Ahl-i Haqq (Iran, Iraq) and Shabak (Iraq), which have in common a syncretistic system of belief with a strong Shi'ite influence, as well as secrecy and endogamy. The contributions in this volume focus on the present situation of these communities, their relation to mainstream Islam, their involvement in national and ethnic politics, aspects of faith and rituals, the relevance of sacred texts, modes of religious and social transformation, and the recent revival of Alevism. In view of the new visibility of these formerly "hidden" sects and their increasing social and political importance, this volume provides important information for all scholars interested in the religious and political situation of the region.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004378988 :
0169-8834 ;
Defending the "people of truth" in the early Islamic period : the Christian apologies of Abū Rā̕̕iṭah /
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The apologetical writings of the Jacobite Christian, Abū Rā'iṭah al-Takrītī († c. 835) have remained relatively unknown in Western scholarship. Yet his engagement with Muslim questions about Christianity provides a significant insight into the theological debate between the two communities in the early ʿAbbāsid period. Abū Rā'iṭah's treatises take up many of the topics that become standard for Christian-Muslim apologetics: proofs of the true religion, the Trinity, the Incarnation, and Christian practices. In each case, he provides his reader with complex arguments in defense of Christian doctrines that can be used to convince both Muslims and wavering Christians of the truth of Christianity. This new Arabic edition and English translation seeks to contextualize Abū Rā'iṭah's important writings and to make the original texts available to modern scholars interested in all aspects of the early development of Muslim-Christian relations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [359]-365) and index. :
9789047408550 :
1570-7350 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Arabic life of Antony attributed to Serapion of Thmuis : cultural memory reinterpreted /
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In The Arabic Life of Antony Attributed to Serapion of Thmuis , Elizabeth Agaiby demonstrates how the redacted Life of Antony , the "Father of all monks and star of the wilderness", gained widespread acceptance within Egypt shortly after its composition in the 13th century and dominated Coptic liturgical texts on Antony for over 600 years - the influence of which is still felt up to the present day. By providing a first edition and translation, Agaiby demonstrates how the Arabic Life bears witness to the reinterpretation of the religious memory of Antony in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
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"This book is a revision of my doctoral thesis, 'Whoever Writes Your Life-story I will Write His Name in the Book of Life.' The Arabic Life of Antony Attributed to Serapion of Thmuis in Manuscripts of the Red Sea Monasteries"-- Author's acknowledgments. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004383272 :
2213-0039 ;
The Qurʼān in context : historical and literary investigations into the Qurʼānic milieu /
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Although recent scholarship has increasingly situated the Qur'ān in the historical context of Late Antiquity, such a perspective is only rarely accompanied by the kind of microstructural literary analysis routinely applied to the Bible. The present volume seeks to redress this lack of contact between literary and historical studies. Contributions to the first part of the volume address various general aspects of the Qur'an's political, economic, linguistic, and cultural context, while the second part contains a number of close readings of specific Qur'ānic passages in the light of Judeo-Christian tradition and ancient Arabic poetry, as well as discussions of the Qur'ān's internal chronology and transmission history. Throughout, special emphasis is given to methodological questions. This title is available as paperback .
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"This volume has emerged from the conference 'Historische Sondierungen und methodische Reflexionen zur Korangenese: Wege zur Rekonstruktion des vorkanonischen Koran' January 2004, Berlin"--T.p. verso. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047430322 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Letters of a Sufi scholar : the correspondence of ʻAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641-1731) /
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As a leading Muslim thinker, 'Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī of Damascus creatively engaged with the social, religious, and intellectual challenges that emerged during the early modern period in which he lived. Yet, at a time of high anti-mystical fervour, his Sufi-inspired views faced strong local antipathy. Through extensive correspondence, presented here for the first time, 'Abd al-Ghanī projected his ideas and teachings beyond the parochial boundaries of Damascus, and was thus able to assert his authority at a wider regional level. The letters he himself selected, compiled, and titled shed fresh lights on the religious and intellectual exchanges among scholars in the eastern Ottoman provinces, revealing a dynamic and rigorous image of Islam, one that is profoundly inspired by humility, tolerance, and love. http://tntypography.com/brill.html
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047424338 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Unveiling of Secrets (Kashf al-Asrār) : The Visionary Autobiography of Rūzbihān al-Baqlī (1128-1209 A.D.) /
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The Unveiling of Secrets ( Kashf al-Asrār ) is the visionary autobiography of one of the most significant mystics of twelfth-century Iran, Rūzbihān al-Baqlī (522/1128-606/1209). Written in Arabic, it describes the life of the author primarily as comprised of his mystical visions. Rūzbihān depicts himself in the unseen world ( ʿālam al-ghayb ) in the company of God, saints, prophets, and angels. His self-portrait in this manner communicates his special status with God. The sublime quality of these visions is well captured in the style of Kashf al-Asrār : the writing is simultaneously simple and clear, but eloquent and rich with extraordinary images. This is the first critical edition of the manuscipt of Kashf al-Asrār which provides an intriguing case in the genre of Islamic autobiographies.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047417774
9789004144088
Materialien zur alten islamischen Frommigkeit /
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Arabic texts dating from the Third-4th/9th-10th centuries by the following five authors are here presented: Abū Shaykh al-Burjulānī, Ibrāhīm al-Khuttalī, Ibn al-Naḥḥās, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Rūdhabārī and Ibn Ḥamakān. The texts appear in transliteration along with a German translation. Their chains of transmission (isnāds) are analyzed and parallels with other authors are noted. The subject dealt with throughout is mystical piety. These highly interesting materials throw light on Islamic mysticism's early stage of development.
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1 online resource (xxvii, 374 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-335) and indexes. :
9789047443667 :
1875-0664 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rasāʾil-i Fārsi-yi Jurjānī : Rasāʾil-i kalāmī, taʾlīf ḥudūd-i qarn-i nuhum-i hijrī /
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From the time that ʿAlī b. Mūsā al-Riḍā (d. 203/818) was designated to be the successor of al-Maʾmūn b. Hārūn al-Rashīd (d. 218/833) and then murdered shortly after that, various Shīʿa groups have been at odds with whoever opposed their claim to leadership in Islam. The author of the Persian dissertations contained in the present volume, the otherwise unknown Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn b. Sadīd al-Dīn Jurjānī (ca. 9th/15th cent.), clearly issues from this polemic tradition. Reading his work, it is clear that Jurjānī had a full command of all the theological registers to be played upon in a traditional sectarian debate. This is especially the case for the first treatise in this collection, in which he opposes such movements as the Ashʿarīs, the Ḥanbalīs, the Ismāʿīlīs, and the Sufis. The treatises that follow, too, are all about religious dogma ( ʿaqāʾid ), with some of them showing clear signs of thematic, not to say temporal, association.
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1 online resource. :
9789004401846
9789645568175
Early Ibadi Theology: New Material on Rational Thought in Islam from the Pen of al-Fazārī (2nd/8th Century) /
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Al-Fazārī's writings are a unique source of information about Ibadi teachings on ʿilm al-kalām and the early development of this branch of religious knowledge. It is for this reason that scholars of Islamic theology are particularly interested in early Ibadi theology. In this volume newly discovered, re-edited texts by al-Fazārī are presented, with previously lacking fragments included, texts that had already begun to offer new perspectives on Islamic ʿilm al-kalām , and on its origins and the sources of its concepts and debating techniques. In their revised state these Ibadi texts represent a major contribution to scholastic theology. They demonstrate how their respective theological debates already took place at the beginning of the second/eighth century and how associated ideas, as well as related sects and treatises, remained current for some time afterwards, thereby contradicting earlier claims that these debates started in the third/ninth century.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004459571
9789004399136
Takmila-yi Nafaḥāt al-uns /
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Regarded by many as the last great mystical poet of medieval Persia, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Jāmī (d. 898/1492) spent the greater part of his life in Herat. As a student he excelled in every subject he engaged in and appeared destined for an academic career. But then, in his early thirties, he went through a spiritual crisis that ended in his joining the Herat branch of the mystical Naqshbandiyya order, led by the charismatic Saʿd al-Dīn Kāshgharī (d. 860/1456). A protégé of three successive Timurid rulers in Herat, Jāmī's wide network of friendships and relations extended from spiritual and literary circles through the political to the academic. With 39.000 lines of verse and over 30 prose works to his name, Jāmī's literary production is impressive. In his biographical handbook on Sufi masters, the Nafaḥāt al-uns , Jāmī did not mention himself. This is why his student ʿAbd al-Ghafūr Lārī (d. 912/1506) wrote this biographical supplement to it.
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1 online resource. :
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9786002031334
The Exoteric Aḥmad Ibn Idrīs : A Sufi's Critique on the Madhāhib and the Wahhābīs /
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The Moroccan mystic and theologian Aḥmad b. Idrīs (1749-1837) was one of the most dynamic personalities in the Islamic world of the 19th century. Through his teachings and the activity of his students important Sufi orders were founded which exerted wide-ranging social and political influence, orders such as the Sanūsiyya in Libya and the Khatmiyya in the Sudan. To date, publications dealing with him have especially focused on his biography and particular aspects of his mystical doctrines. In the present work an Arabic edition and translation with commentary of two texts are made available which throw light on Ibn Idrīs' attitude towards the religious-dogmatic questions of his day and age. The first text, Risālat al-Radd 'alā ahl al-ra'y , provides information about Ibn Idrīs' relation to the Islamic schools of jurisprudence, in particular his position regarding the ijtihād-taqlīd debate which was so significant in the 18th and 19th centuries. Like many similarly minded scholars of his time, Aḥmad b. Idrīs categorically rejects the authority of the established schools of jurisprudence and favors instead the application of personal methods in deriving a legal judgement. The second text presented here is a vivid report by one of his students describing a debate which Ibn Idrīs, at an advanced age, entered into with a Wahhābī theologian in the Yemenite city of sabyā in 1832. The text makes clear with regard to which points Ibn Idrīs hoped to establish agreement with the Wahhābīs, and where it was not possible to reach any mutual understanding. The introduction of the present book examines the tumultuous political circumstances in which both Arabic texts were composed and sketches the larger cultural and intellectual context which shaped Ibn Idrīs' world of ideas.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004492004
9789004113756
The book of noble character : critical edition of Makārim al-aklāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb wa-badāʼiʻ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʼib al-tashbīhāy, attributed to Abū Manṣūr al- Thaʻālibī (d. 429/1...
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This critical Arabic text edition of K. Makārim al-akhlāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb wa-badāʾiʿ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʾib al-tashbīhāt ( Book of Noble Character, Excellent Conduct, Admirable Descriptions, and Curious Similes ) is a substantial work of adab attributed to the prominent littérateur Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1039) that consists of a short introduction and three chapters. The first chapter addresses acquiring noble character and excellent conduct ( al-taḥallī bi-makārim al-akhlāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb ); the second addresses shunning away from base character and ugly traits ( al-tazakkī ʿan masāwiʾ al-akhlāq wa-maqābiḥ al-shiyam ); and the third addresses admirable descriptions and curious similes ( badāʾiʿ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʾib al-tashbīhāt ). At the end of the text one finds a relatively large collection of widely circulating proverbs ( amthāl sāʾira ) that are alphabetically arranged. Makārim al-akhlāq is in essence an anthology of "good conduct" and of quotations suitable for social and literary discourse. It reflects the three ingredients of adab : behavior, literary culture, and learning. The work is introduced by an analytical study discussing the attribution of the work, the related genres, and the unique manuscript of the text.
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Critical edition.
Introduction in English. :
1 online resource (26, 274 pages) : some color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004300934 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Al-Radd al-jamil : a fitting refutation of the divinity of Jesus /
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al-Radd al-jamīl attributed to al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) is the most extensive and detailed refutation of the divinity of Jesus by a Muslim author in the classical period of Islam. Since the discovery of the manuscript in the 1930's scholars have debated whether the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazālī was really the author. This is a new critical edition of the Arabic text and the first complete English translation. The introduction situates this work in the history of Muslim anti-Christian polemical writing. Mark Beaumont and Maha El Kaisy-Friemuth argue that this refutation comes from an admirer of al-Ghazālī who sought to advance some of his key ideas for an Egyptian audience.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004322806 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage /
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The Qur'an is the living source of all Islamic teaching, and is of singular importance to those interested in Islam and the study of religions. Despite this, there exists a long-felt lack of research tools for English first-language speakers who wish to access the Qur'an in the original Arabic. The Dictionary of Qur'anic Usage is the first comprehensive, fully-researched and contextualised Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage, compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods by scholars who have a lifelong immersion in Qur'anic Studies. Based on Classical Arabic dictionaries and Qur'an commentaries, this work also emphasises the role of context in determining the meaning-scatter of each vocabulary item. Illustrative examples from Qur'anic verses are provided in support of the definitions given for each context in which a particular word occurs, with cross-references to other usages. Frequently occurring grammatical particles are likewise thoroughly explained, insofar as they are used in conveying various nuances of meaning in the text.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047423775 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Christian doctrines in Islamic theology /
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By the tenth century Islamic theology had become an integrated system by which theologians constructed sophisticated accounts of the nature of the world and God's relationship with it. They also used it to establish proofs that Islam was the only rationally tenable form of belief, building these in part on proofs of the illogicalities in other faiths, including Christianity. Through excerpts from key works of the theologians al-Nashi' al-Akbar, al-Maturidi, al-Baqillani and ʿAbd al-Jabbar, this book shows how Muslim theologians in this period made use of Christian doctrines as examples of misguided thinking to help confirm the correctness of their own theology, and how among Muslim theologians Christianity had ceased to attract serious attention as a rival to Islam.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-383) and index. :
9789047442059 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ḥikmat-i Khāqāniyya : Shāmil-i yak dawra-yi mukhtaṣar-i mantiq, ṭabīʿiyyāt u ilāhiyyāt /
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Bahāʾ al-Dīn Iṣfahānī (d. 1137/1725), better known as Fāḍil Hindī, was born into a comfortable home in Isfahan. Being a particularly precocious child, he completed his studies in the traditional and the foreign sciences by the age of thirteen, even carrying the title of mujtahid (someone authorized to issue legal opinions in Shīʿī Islam). He then accompanied his father to the court of the Mughal emperor Awrangzīb (r. 1658-1707), where he remained for several years before returning to Isfahan. At a time at which Isfahan was under the spell of the anti-speculative, literalist Akhbārī school in Shīʿism, Fāḍil Hindī was one of the few to engage in philosophy, so much so that one could call him equally a juristic philosopher or a philosophical jurist. The present work is a very readable, complete course in logic and philosophy that bears witness to his originality as a thinker in each of these domains.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402126
9789649073361
Sharḥ al-arbaʿīn /
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In the history of Islamic literature, the 'Forty Traditions' genre goes back as far as the 3th/9th century at least and exists in all of Islam's major and minor languages. It finds its origin in the tradition saying that whoever commits forty traditions to memory will be reckoned among the jurists on Resurrection Day. Collections vary, from a simple listing of the basic teachings of Islam to more dedicated works around some specific theme, in either case with or without a commentary. Qāḍī Saʿīd Qumī (d. after 1107/1696) is a Shīʿite philosopher, jurist, physician and mystic of the Safavid period. Having been trained by some of the foremost scholars of his time, he spent most of his active life in Qum, where he divided his time between his judgeship and teaching. The literary, mystical and philosophical explanations in the present, unfinished collection are all written from the viewpoint of the author's own, 'transcendent' metaphysics.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402157
9789646781344
Mirʾāt al-akwān : Taḥrīr-i Sharḥ-i Hidāya-yi Mullā Ṣadrā Shīrāzī /
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Aḥmad Ḥusaynī Ardakānī's (d. 1242/1826-7) Mirʾāt al-akwān is a Persian adaptation of Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī's (d. 1050/1640) Sharḥ al-Hidāya , a commentary on Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī's (d. ca 663/1264) seminal philosophical summa the Hidāyat al-ḥikma . The Hidāya has been of tremendous influence in the Islamic world, producing a huge commentary tradition. Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī's commentary yielded its own series of glosses and commentaries, and in India it even became a foundational text in the madrasas. Ardakānī is mostly known as a translator of religious and philosophical works. He wrote the present adaptation at the request of Muḥammad Walī Mīrzā (d. 1285/1869), a son of Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh Qājār (d. 1249/1834). The Mirʾāt al-akwān covers just the physics and the metaphysics, leaving out the logic after the example of Shīrāzī. The metaphysics part being lost, the editor added the section on metaphysics of Ardakānī's translation of Shīrāzī's al-Mabdaʾ wal-maʿād , published earlier by him.
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1 online resource. :
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9789004395213
Maḥbūb al-qulūb. Volume 2 : Al-Maqāla al-thāniya fi aḥwāl ḥukamāʾ al-Islām wal-ʿulamāʾ al-aʿlām wal-udabāʾ al-kirām mimman lahum al-iʿtināʾ bi-shaʾnihim wal-iʿtibār bi-kalāmihim /...
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In the Islamic world, the writing of biographical reference works has a very long tradition. In the field of philosophy and other rational sciences such as medicine, one could, for example, mention Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn's (d. 298/910) Taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ wal-ḥukamāʾ or Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's (d. ca 668/1270) ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ . The present two-volume biographical dictionary of philosophers and physicians of all times thus continues a centuries-old tradition. Its author, Quṭb al-Dīn Ishkawarī Lāhijī (d. ca. 1088-95/1677-78), was a student of the great Safavi thinker and founder of the School of Isfahan in philosophy, Mīr Dāmād (d. 1041/1631). This is also obvious from his spiritually-orientated, inclusive understanding of the various actors and episodes in the history of philosophy. Written in classical Arabic, at times sprinkled with his native Persian, it distinguishes itself from earlier dictionaries in that it also contains many of the author's own philosophical opinions. 2 vols; volume 2.
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1 online resource. :
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The legend of Sergius Baḥīrā : eastern Christian apologetics and apocalyptic in response to Islam /
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From the eighth century onwards, Christians living under Islam have produced numerous apologetic and polemical works, aimed at proving the continuing validity of Christianity. Among these is the Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā, which survives in two Syriac and two Arabic versions, and appears here in edition and translation. Being a counterhistory of Islam, it reshapes early Muslim traditions about a monk recognizing Muḥammad as the final Prophet by turning this monk into Muhammad's tutor and co-author of the Qur'an. In response to Muslim triumphalist propaganda, it portrays Islam's political power as predestined but finite and unrelated to its religious message. This feature sets the legend apart from similar Christian accounts of the origin of Islam, East and West, which are reviewed in this study as well.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-560) and index. :
9789047441953 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.