Studies in the Syriac Magical Traditions /
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The study of the Syriac magical traditions has largely been marginalised within Syriac studies, with the earliest treatments displaying a disparaging attitude towards both the culture and its magical practices. Despite significant progress in more recent scholarship in respect of the culture, its magical practices and their associated literatures remain on the margins of the scholarly imagination. This volume aims to open a discussion on the history of the field, to evaluate how things have progressed, and to suggest a fruitful way forward. In doing so, this volume demonstrates the incredible riches contained within the Syriac magical traditions, and the necessity of their study.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004467200
9789004467194
Syria's monuments : their survival and destruction /
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Syria's Monuments: their Survival and Destruction examines the fate of the various monuments in Syria (including present-day Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine/Israel) from Late Antiquity to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. It examines travellers' accounts, mainly from the 17th to 19th centuries, which describe religious buildings and housing in numbers and quality unknown elsewhere. The book charts the reasons why monuments lived or died, varying from earthquakes and desertification to neglect and re-use, and sets the political and social context for the Empire's transformation toward a modern state, provoked by Western trade and example. An epilogue assesses the impact of the recent civil war on the state of the monuments, and strategies for their resurrection, with plentiful references and web links.
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1 online resource. :
9789004334601 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Peace in ancient Egypt /
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"Around the year 1257 bce, the Egyptian king Ramesses II concluded a treaty with Hattu'ili III, the king of the Hittite empire based in Anatolia. This treaty was not the first that an Egyptian king entered into with another king"--
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xv, 211 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004380219 :
2352-7501
Architecture and asceticism : cultural interaction between Syria and Georgia in late antiquity /
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In Architecture and Asceticism Loosley Leeming presents the first interdisciplinary exploration of Late Antique Syrian-Georgian relations available in English. The author takes an inter-disciplinary approach and examines the question from archaeological, art historical, historical, literary and theological viewpoints to try and explore the relationship as thoroughly as possible. Taking the Georgian belief that 'Thirteen Syrian Fathers' introduced monasticism to the country in the sixth century as a starting point, this volume explores the evidence for trade, cultural and religious relations between Syria and the Kingdom of Kartli (what is now eastern Georgia) between the fourth and seventh centuries CE. It considers whether there is any evidence to support the medieval texts and tries to place this posited relationship within a wider regional context.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004375314 :
2213-0039 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Notes on the Sanctuary of St. Symeon Stylites at Qalʻat Simʻān
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This book is the first full-length work concerning the restoration and excavations carried out at Qal'at Sem'an in Syria in the twentieth century. It was written by the notable architect and archaeologist Georges Tchalenko based on his notes, plans, photographs and sketches as he undertook the work in the years before and during the Second World War. Left unpublished at the time of his death during the Lebanese Civil War, it is published here for the first time in the original French with an English translation. The text is richly illustrated throughout and accompanied by a biographical essay by John Tchalenko and an introduction to the historiography of Qal'at Sem'an and Symeon Stylites by Emma Loosley Leeming.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004388451 :
2213-0039 ;
Ancient Jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora /
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Jewish Diaspora in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods from first to the eighth centuries C.E. is the subject of this work. The author thoroughly investigates origin, symbolism and significance of the mainly synagogal and funerary art forms in the Diaspora. Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Diaspora is the companion volume to the successful Ancient Jewish Art and Archeaeology in the Land of Israel (1988) by the same author. The geographical area covered includes Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa and Mediterranean Europe. The first section examines the characteristic features of Diaspora Art synagogue architecture and art (including the Torah shrine and mosaic pavements). Another section deals with burial and funerary practices. Of special importance are the sections on the Biblical scenes , designs and iconography of the Dura Europos synagogue, and the Jewish symbols such as the Menorah, ritual objects, the Ark, the conch and the Torah Scrolls . The book is richly illustrated with more than 325 drawings and photographs, some in colour.
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1 online resource (xxxiii, 499 pages, [64] pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 466-486) and index. :
9789004294042 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae : j (1).
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Western Palestine is extremely rich in Arabic inscriptions, whose dates range from as early as CE 150 until modern times. Most of the inscriptions date from the Islamic period, for under Islam the country gained particular religious and strategic importance, even though it made up only part of the larger province of Syria. This historical importance is clearly reflected in the hundreds of inscriptions, the texts of which cover a variety of topics: construction, dedication, religious endowments, epitaphs, Qur'anic texts, prayers and invocations, all now assembled in the Corpus Inscriptionum Arabicarum Palaestinae ( CIAP ). The CIAP follows the method established at the end of the 19th century by Max van Berchem, namely, the studying of the Arabic inscriptions 'in context'. Van Berchem managed to publish two volumes of the inscriptions from Jerusalem: the CIAP covers the entire country. The inscriptions are arranged according to site, and are studied in their respective topographical, historical and cultural context. In this way the CIAP offers more than a survey of inscriptions: it represents the epigraphical angle of the geographical history of the Holy Land. Volume One: A, was published in 1997, Volume Two: -B-C- in 1999, Volume Three: -D-F- in 2004, Volume Four: G in 2008, an Addendum in 2007 and Volume Five: -H-I- in 2013. All volumes are still available.
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1 online resource (xiii, 304 pages) : illustrations, maps, plans. :
9789004325159 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Bodies of knowledge in ancient Mesopotamia : the diviners of late Bronze Age Emar and their table collection /
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In Bodies of Knowledge in Ancient Mesopotamia Matthew Rutz explores the relationship between ancient collections of texts, commonly deemed libraries and archives, and the modern interpretation of titles like 'diviner'. By looking at cuneiform tablets as artifacts with archaeological contexts, this work probes the modern analytical categories used to study ancient diviners and investigates the transmission of Babylonian/Assyrian scholarship in Syria. During the Late Bronze Age diviners acted as high-ranking scribes and cultic functionaries in Emar, a town on the Syrian Euphrates (ca. 1375-1175 BCE). This book's centerpiece is an extensive analytical catalogue of the excavated tablet collection of one family of diviners. Over seventy-five fragments are identified for the first time, along with many proposed joins between fragments.
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1 online resource (xxi, 682 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004245686 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Heralds of That Good Realm : Syro-Mesopotamian Gnosis and Jewish Traditions /
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This volume examines the transmission of biblical pseudepigraphic literature and motifs from their largely Jewish cultural contexts in Palestine to developing gnostic milieux of Syria and Mesopotamia, particularly that one lying behind the birth and growth of Manichaeism. It surveys biblical pseudepigraphic literary activity in the late antique Near East, devoting special attention to revelatory works attributed to the five biblical forefathers who are cited in the Cologne Mani Codex : Adam, Seth, Enosh, Shem, and Enoch. The author provides a philological, literary, and religio-historical analysis of each of the five pseudepigraphic citations contained in the Codex , and offers hypotheses regarding the original provenance of each citation and the means by which these traditions have been adapted to their present context. This study is an important contribution to the scholarly reassessment of the roles played by Second Temple Judaism, Jewish Christian sectarianism, and classical gnosis in the formulation and development of Syro-Mesopotamian religious currents.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439702
9789004104594
Die Rifa'iya aus Damaskus : Eine Privatbibliothek im Osmanischen Syrien und ihr kulturelles Umfeld /
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In Die Rifāʽīya spürt Boris Liebrenz der Buchkultur des Osmanischen Syrien (16. - 19. Jahrhundert) durch den Fokus der einzig überlebenden Privatbibliothek der Epoche nach. Er fragt nach der Produktion und Transmission von Wissen sowie dem sozialen Hintergrund der Leserschaft im Zeitalter der Handschrift. Studien der arabischen Bibliotheksgeschichte haben oft nur das Mittelalter in den Blick genommen und basierten fast ausschließlich auf literarischen Quellen. Dies ist die erste Monographie, die eine einzige Region während der Osmanischen Periode in den Fokus nimmt und deren auf uns gekommene Handschriften und Notizen ihrer Leser und Besitzer systematisch als dokumentarische Quelle benutzt. So erhellt sie die materiellen, rechtlichen und sozialen Voraussetzungen von Buchbesitz und Lesepraxis. In Die Rifāʽīya Boris Liebrenz explores the book culture of Ottoman Syria (16th to 19th century), using the only surviving Damascene private library of the time as a vantage point. He asks about the production and transmission of knowledge as well as the social background of the reading audience in a manuscript age. Scholarship on Arabic libraries has often focussed on the medieval period and relied nearly exclusively on literary accounts. This is the first book-length study that focuses on a single region in the Ottoman period and systematically uses the vast number of surviving manuscripts as a documentary source by means of the notes left by their readers and possessors. Thus, it sheds light on the material, juridical, and social basis of book-ownership and reading.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004314894 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Intimate invocations : Al-Ghazzī's biography of ʻAbd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641-1731) /
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Despite the growing interest in the intellectual history of early modern Arabs and Ottomans, many key figures of the period remain unknown. In this unique biographical account, edited and published here for the first time, Muḥammad Kamāl al-Dīn al-Ghazzī (1760-1799), the chief Shafi'i jurisconcult of Damascus, introduces us to one of the leading figures of early modernity, 'Abd al-Ghanī al-Nābulusī (1641-1731). Being al-Nābulusī's great grandson, al-Ghazzī had direct access to the family's collective memory through his parents and grandparents, as well as to his great grandfather's scattered memoirs. Written about fifty years after al-Nābulusī's death, al-Ghazzī's biography, al-Wird al-Unsī, remains the authoritative account of the great master's distinguished career, covering many aspects of his life and work in breadth, depth, and sophistication unmatched by any of the competing biographies.
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1 online resource (1 volumes (various pagings)) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004216716 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Roman war of Antiochos the Great /
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This is the first detailed study of the collision of the two greatest powers of the Hellenistic world. The Roman Republic, victorious over Carthage and Macedon, met the Seleukid kingdom, which had crushed Ptolemaic Egypt. The preliminary diplomatic sparring was complicated by Rome's attempts to control Greece, and by the military activities of Antiocohos the Great, and ended in war. Despite well-meaning attempts on both sides to avoid and solve disputes, areas of disagreement could not be removed. Each great power was hounded by the ambitions of its subsidiary clients. When the Aitolian League deliberately challenged Rome, and Rome seemed not to respond, Antiochos moved into Greece to take Rome's place. The Roman reaction produced the war, and a complex campaign by land and sea resulted in another Roman victory.
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1 online resource (xii, 386 pages) : maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 369-373) and index. :
9789004350861 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Migration and Islamic ethics : issues of residence, naturalization and citizenship /
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Migration and Islamic Ethics, Issues of Residence, Naturalization and Citizenship addresses how Islamic ethical and legal traditions can contribute to current global debates on migration and displacement; how Islamic ethics of muʾakha, ḍiyāfa, ijāra, amān, jiwār, sutra, kafāla, among others, may provide common ethical grounds for a new paradigm of social and political virtues applicable to all humanity, not only Muslims. The present volume more broadly defines the Islamic tradition to cover not only theology but also to encompass ethics, customs and social norms, as well as modern political, humanitarian and rights discourses. The first section addresses theorizations and conceptualizations using contemporary Islamic examples, mainly in the treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees; the second, contains empirical analyses of contemporary case studies; the third provides historical accounts of Muslim migratory experiences. Contributors are: Abbas Barzegar, Abdul Jaleel, Dina Taha, Khalid Abou El Fadl, Mettursun Beydulla, Radhika Kanchana, Ray Jureidini, Rebecca Gould, Said Fares Hassan, Sari Hanafi, Tahir Zaman.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographic references and index. :
9789004417342
Handbook of Ugaritic studies /
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Over the past seven decades, the scores of publications on Ugarit in Northern Syria (15th to 11th centuries BCE) are so scattered that a good overall view of the subject is virtually impossible. Wilfred Watson and Nicolas Wyatt, the editors of the present Handbook in the series Handbook of Oriental Studies, have brought together and made accessible this accumulated knowledge on the archives from Ugarit, called 'the foremost literary discovery of the twentieth century' by Cyrus Gordon. In 16 chapters a careful selection of specialists in the field deal with all important aspects of Ugarit, such as the discovery and decipherment of a previously unknown script (alphabetic cuneiform) used to write both the local language (Ugaritic) and Hurrian and its grammar, vocabulary and style; documents in other languages (including Akkadian and Hittite), as well as the literature and letters, culture, economy, social life, religion, history and iconography of the ancient kingdom of Ugarit. A chapter on computer analysis of these documents concludes the work. This first such wide-ranging survey, which includes recent scholarship, an extensive up-to-date bibliography, illustrations and maps, will be of particular use to those studying the history, religion, cultures and languages of the ancient Near East, and also of the Bible and to all those interested in the background to Greek and Phoenician cultures.
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1 online resource (xiii, 892 (3) pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 755-823) and index. :
9789004294103 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Le corps dans le roman des écrivaines syriennes contemporaines : dire, écrire, inscrire la différence /
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Le Corps dans le roman des écrivaines syriennes contemporaines , de Martina Censi, explore les représentations du corps dans un corpus de romans en arabe publiés (entre 2004 et 2011) par six écrivaines syriennes. L'auteure conjugue l'analyse du texte littéraire avec la critique féministe et les études de genre. Par cette approche interdisciplinaire, Censi démontre que l'attention reservée par ces écrivaines aux représentations du corps féminin et masculin témoigne de leurs engagements dans la lutte pour l'émancipation des femmes, mais aussi, et surtout, dans celle pour l'affirmation de l'individu dans la société syrienne contemporaine. Les corps des personnages, marqués par leur différence unique, sont le lieu symbolique de la négociation entre les instances individuelles et collectives. In Le Corps dans le roman des écrivaines syriennes contemporaines , Martina Censi explores the representation of the body in a selection of Arabic novels published (between 2004 and 2011) by six Syrian women authors. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, which combines analysis of the literary texts with Feminist Criticism and Gender Studies, Censi demonstrates that, by focusing on the representation of female and male bodies, these novelists deal not only with feminist issues related to women's emancipation. The author reveals that they also engage in a broader analysis concerning the status of the individual in contemporary Syrian society. Marked by their unique difference, the characters' bodies become the symbolic location for the negotiation between individual and collective claims.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004315259 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika : die Pneumatologie und ihr Kontext /
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Isaac of Nineveh (7th century AD), or Isaac the Syrian, was, among all the Syriac writers, the one to exert the greatest influence outside the Syriac-speaking world, becoming a highly venerated Father of Byzantine Orthodox spirituality and theology. In Isaak von Nineve und seine Kephalaia Gnostika , Nestor Kavvadas first draws out the frictions between East Syrian episcopacy and the anchorite mystical movement as represented by Isaac, in search of the historical context of Isaac's teaching on the working of the Holy Spirit on the monk. Then, he draws out of Isaac's writings, and especially the Kephalaia Gnostika , the underlying structure of Isaac's thought on the working of the Holy Spirit, with the tension here between the here and now and the 'New World' that can be momentarily anticipated in the present world. Isaak von Ninive (7. Jh. n.Chr.), oder Isaak der Syrer, war unter allen Syrischen Autoren derjenige, der den größten Einfluss außerhalb der syrischsprachigen Welt ausübte, indem er ein besonders verehrter Vater der byzantinischen orthodoxen Spiritualität und Theologie wurde. In Isaak von Ninive und seine Kephalaia Gnostika zeichnet Nestor Kavvadas zuerst die Reibungen zwischen dem ostsyrischen Episkopat und der volumea. durch Isaak vertretenen, anachoretischen mystischen Strömung nach, auf der Suche nach dem historischen Kontext der Lehre Isaaks vom Wirken des Heiligen Geistes auf den Mönch. Dann rekonstruiert er aus den Schriften Isaaks, insbesondere aus den Kephalaia Gnostika , die Isaaks Denken vom Wirken des Heiligen Geistes zugrundeliegende Struktur; leitend ist hier die Spannung zwischen dem "hier und jetzt" und der "Neuen Welt", die in dieser Welt augenblicklich antizipiert werden kann.
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1 online resource (xvi, 189 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284838 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
East and West in late antiquity : invasion, settlement, ethnogenesis and conflicts of religion /
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East and West in Late Antiquity combines published and unpublished articles by emeritus professor Wolf Liebeschuetz. The collection concerns aspects of what Gibbon called 'the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. This interpretation is now much criticized, but the author agrees with Gibbon. Topics discussed are defensive strategies, the settlement inside the Empire of invaders and immigrants, and the modification of identities with the formation of new communities. Liebeschuetz is interested in both the eastern and the western halves of the Empire. In the East he is particularly concerned with Syria, the expansion of settlement up to the edge of the desert, and Christianisation. The book ends with an examination of the role of the Christian Arab Ghassanids in the defense of the Syrian provinces in the century leading up to the conquest of the provinces by the Islamic Arabs.
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1 online resource (xxix, 477 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004289529 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.