The mirage of the Saracen : Christians and nomads in the Sinai Peninsula in late antiquity /
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The Mirage of the Saracen analyzes the growth of monasticism and Christian settlements in the Sinai Peninsula through the early seventh century CE. Walter D. Ward examines the ways in which Christian monks justified occupying the Sinai through creating associations between Biblical narratives and Sinai sites while assigning uncivilized, negative, and oppositional traits to the indigenous nomadic population, whom the Christians pejoratively called "Saracens." By writing edifying tales of hostile nomads and the ensuing martyrdom of the monks, Christians not only reinforced their claims to the spiritual benefits of asceticism but also also provoked the Roman authorities to enhance defense of pilgrimage routes to the Sinai. When Muslim armies later began conquering the Middle East, Christians also labeled these new conquerors as Saracens, connecting Muslims to these pre-Islamic representations. This timely and relevant work builds a historical account of interreligious encounters in the ancient world, showing the Sinai as a crucible for forging long-lasting images of both Christians and Muslims, some of which endure today.'--Provided by publisher.
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xxvii, 193 pages : illustraitons, maps ; 24 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-187) and index. :
9780520283770 :
https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/staffView?searchId=33717&recPointer=0&recCount=25&searchType=0&bibId=18124711
Noura
A Grammar of the Bedouin Dialects of the Northern Sinai Littoral : Bridging the Linguistic Gap between the Eastern and Western Arab World /
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This study offers a thorough analysis of hitherto unknown Arabic dialects spoken by bedouin tribes inhabiting the northern Sinai littoral. The author identifies five different dialect groups in the area. He combines his own extensive material with that from publications on neighbouring dialects to put this material in a larger dialect-geographical perspective. Proposing a total of 82 criteria and introducing 'partial isoglosses' to typologically measure the dialects, he convincingly shows that three dialect groups form a continuum - a 'linguistic bridge' - connecting the bedouin type of dialects spoken in the Negev and southern Jordan with the sedentary type of dialects spoken in the Nile Delta. An appendix with 77 maps completes the picture. Arabists, dialectologists, semitists and sociolinguists will welcome this study as a valuable contribution to their fields.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004491229
9789004118683