Jade-Carving Chisel and Luminous Ocean : Selected Essays by Jao Tsung-i on Literature and Related Topics /
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Jao Tsung-i's scholarship illuminated the development of classical Chinese literature from antiquity through the end of the Qing dynasty. In this volume, eight interviews with and essays by Jao are translated faithfully into English, giving a sampling of his diverse insights into literature and its broader significance. Topics range from the religious beliefs underpinning the earliest Chinese writings, to the influence of Chan Buddhism on Chinese poetics, to Gu Yanwu's (1613-1682) poetic protest against the Manchu conquest. Collectively the essays demonstrate how literary art and spiritual beliefs have been intertwined throughout Chinese history.
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1 online resource (288 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004523562
Islam in South Asia : a short history /
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Islamic South Asia has become a focal point in academia. Where did Muslims come from? How did they fare in interacting with Hindu cultures? How did they negotiate identity as ruling and ruled minorities and majorities? Part I covers early Muslim expansion and the formative phase in context of initial cultural encounter (app. 700-1300). Part II views the establishment of Muslim empire, cultures oscillating between Islamic and Islamicate, centralised and regionalised power (app. 1300-1700). Part III is composed in the backdrop of regional centralisation, territoriality and colonial rule, displaying processes of integration and differentiation of Muslim cultures in colonial setting (app. 1700-1930). Tensions between Muslim pluralism and singularity evolving in public sphere make up the fourth cluster (app. 1930-2002).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [467]-487) and indexes. :
9789047441816 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sufi Women of South Asia : Veiled Friends of God /
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In Sufi Women of South Asia. Veiled Friends of God , the first biographical compendium of hundred and forty-one women, from the eleventh to the twentieth century, Tahera Aftab fills a serious gap in the existing scholarship regarding the historical presence of women in Islam and brings women to the centre of the expanding literature on Sufism. The book's translated excerpts from the original Farsi and Urdu sources that were never put together create a much-needed English-language source base on Sufism and Muslim women. The book questions the spurious religious and cultural traditions that patronise gender inequalities in Muslim societies and convincingly proves that these pious women were exemplars of Islamic piety who as true spiritual masters avoided its public display.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004467187
9789004467170
Thus spake the dervish : Sufism, language, and the religious margins in Central Asia, 1400-1900 /
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Thus Spake the Dervish explores the unfamiliar history of marginal Sufis, known as dervishes, in early modern and modern Central Asia over a period of 500 years. It draws on various sources (Persian chronicles and treatises, Turkic literature, Russian and French ethnography, the author's fieldwork) to examine five successive cases, each of which corresponds to a time period, a specific socially marginal space, and a particular use of mystical language. Including an extensive selection of writings by dervishes, this book demonstrates the diversity and tenacity of Central Asian Sufism over a long period. Here translated into a Western language for the first time, the extracts from primary texts by marginal Sufis allow a rare insight into their world. The original French edition of this book, Ainsi parlait le dervice, was published by Editions du Cerf (Paris, France). Translated by Caroline Kraabel.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004402027
Mani's pictures : the didactic images of the Manichaeans from Sasanian Mesopotamia to Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China /
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The founder of Manichaeism, Mani (216-274/277 CE), not only wrote down his teachings to prevent their adulteration, but also created a set of paintings-the Book of Pictures -to be used in the context of oral instruction. That pictorial handscroll and its later editions became canonical art for Mani's followers for a millennium afterwards. This richly illustrated study systematically explores the artistic culture of religious instruction of the Manichaeans based on textual and artistic evidence. It discusses the doctrinal themes (soteriology, prophetology, theology, and cosmology) depicted in Mani's canonical pictures. Moreover, it identifies 10th-century fragments of canonical picture books, as well as select didactic images adapted to other, non-canonical art objects (murals, hanging scrolls, mortuary banners, and illuminated liturgical manuscripts) in Uygur Central Asia and Tang-Ming China.
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1 online resource (xix, 535 pages) :
9789004308947 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A history of Zoroastrianism /
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This volume traces the history of Zoroastrianism at times and places where its existence has previously been largely ignored, or treated only episodically. Literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence has been drawn on (some of it only recently brought to light), and local developments are distinguished. In Iran itself some 200 years of Macedonian rule had little effect on the national religion. To the east, Zoroastrianism survived in the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms and under Mauryan suzereinty, where it came into contact with Buddhism. In Eastern Mediterranean lands it was maintained by Iranian expatriates well down into Roman imperial times. They adopted Greek for their written tongue, and Zoroastrian doctrines thus became known in the Greco-Roman world. Study is made accordingly of Zoroastrian contributions to Hellenistic thought, and to Judaism, Christianity and Mithraism; and an excursus provides a thorough reassessment of the Zoroastrian pseudepigrapha.
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Vol. 3 written by Mary Boyce and Frantz Grenet, with a conritution by Roger Beck. :
1 online resource (xx, 596 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004293915 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in Manichaean Literature and Art /
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This volume consists of two sections, written by the two authors. The first section contains a study by Manfred Heuser on The Manichaean Myth According to Coptic Sources . This is the first systematic presentation of the basic myth as reflected in Coptic material. The second part is a collection of essays on Manichaeism by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. The essays are concerned, inter alia, with Manichaean art and symbolism, including newly found examples of Manichaean art from Central Asia.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004440432
9789004107168
Johann Ernst Gerhard (1621-1668) : The Life and Work of a Seventeenth-Century Orientalist /
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In this biography of Johann Ernst Gerhard (1621-1668) Asaph Ben-Tov offers a study of a now forgotten yet unusually well documented seventeenth-century orientalist. Gerhard, the son of the famous Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard, is not a towering figure but rather a fascinating representative of the academic culture of his day, especially of seventeenth-century oriental studies. His extant Nachlass allows a close scrutiny of the life and work of an early modern scholar, focussing on his training, travels, the ambitious Harmonia linguarum orientalium (1647) and other works, and the interests he fostered as a professor of history and theology in Jena. It aims to shed light on the broad and understudied field of oriental studies in seventeenth-century Germany.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004466463
9789004466449
The Qur'an, morality and critical reason : the essential Muhammad Shahrur /
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This book presents the work and ideas of the Syrian writer Muhammad Shahrur to the English-speaking world. Shahrur is at the moment the most innovative intellectual thinker in the Arab Middle East. Often described as the 'Martin Luther of Islam,' he offers a liberal, progressive reading of Islam that aims to counter the influences of religious fundamentalism and radical politics. Shahrur's innovative interpretation of the Qur'an offers groundbreaking new ideas, based on his conviction that centuries of historical Islam, including scholarship in the traditional Islamic religious sciences, have obscured or even obliterated the Qur'an's progressive and revolutionary message. That message is one that has endured through each period of human history in which Islam has existed, encouraging Muslims to apply the most contemporary perspective available to interpret the Qur'an's meaning.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [559]-570) and index. :
9789047424345 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 /
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This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.
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1 online resource (xv, 430 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-402) and index. :
9789004276789 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Evlyia Çelebi in Medina /
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Evliyā Çelebī, the famous Ottoman traveler of the seventeenth century, visited many countries under the sovereignity of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, Asia and Africa, including the Mecca and Medina. This book offers a critical edition of the section from Evliyā's Travels about Medina. It includes first-hand information on the administrative, historical, cultural, traditional and etymological structure of the city, and on everyday life in Medina during the seventeenth century. Evliyā Çelebī provides the readers with valuable information not only on the city itself, but also on its environs. This book offers a transliteration of the relevant passages on the basis of several Ottoman manuscripts, as well as an English translation made by Robert Dankoff.
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1 online resource. :
9789004216617 :
0922-7768 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Saxa Judaica loquuntur : lessons from early Jewish inscriptions : radboud prestige lectures 2014 /
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In Saxa judaica loquuntur ('Jewish stones speak out'), Pieter W. van der Horst informs the reader about the recent boom in the study of ancient Jewish epigraphy and he demonstrates what kinds of new information this development yields. After sketching the status quaestionis , this book exemplifies the relevance of early Jewish inscriptions by means of a study of Judaism in Asia Minor on the basis of epigraphic material. It also highlights several areas of research for which this material provides us with insights that the Jewish literary sources do not grant us. Furthermore, the book contains a selection of some 50 inscriptions, in both their original languages and English translation with explanatory notes.
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"Lectures are held at the Radboud University Nijmegen on April 16, 2014"--ECIP foreword. :
1 online resource (x, 191 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-176) and indexes. :
9789004283237 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Portuguese Presence in India : Malabar and Goa /
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The Portuguese mariners under Vasco da Gama in search of spices landed on the Malabar Coast at the fag end of the fifteenth century. Slowly they established factories, fortresses and other commercial establishments in places allotted to them by the local rulers, while their missionary zeal brought them in contact with people of the Malabar Coast, both non-Christians as well as St. Thomas Christians. The economic, social and cultural legacy of the Portuguese interaction with the Malabar Coast is clearly discernible in the geographic segment now known as Kerala. Once the Portuguese obtained territorial possessions outside the Malabar Coast, they commenced to establish political control and introduced European administrative apparatus in Asia. However, these colonies could not be kept under the Portuguese sway forever. They made attempts to liberate themselves from the colonial authority of the Portuguese finally leading to their liberation. During the Portuguese presence in India for over 450 years, innumerable social transformations took place. This book is an attempt to explore the themes related to economy, trade, commercial ventures, urbanization, socio-cultural interactions as well as the various stages of movements connected with the liberation of Portuguese settlements in India.
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1 online resource (564 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004753471
Treasure Trade and Tradition : Post-Kidarite Coins of the Gangetic Plains and Punjab Foothills, 590-820 CE /
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This book has much to offer the numismatic enthusiast drawn to bold coinages shrouded in mystery. But it will also appeal to the general reader interested in a key formative period for the emergence of pre-modern India. It examines our turbulent social, religious, political and economic transition during the sixth through ninth centuries. The author focuses intensely on a single, tell-tale form of evidence, namely the enigmatic base gold dinara coins of the descendants of the Kidarite Huns. By thoroughly investigating the coins in their temporal, geographic and physical contexts, he teases out a fascinating story with three facets: treasure (gold and silver mineral wealth, as well as the spiritual wealth of pilgrimage centres sacred to Buddhism and Hinduism); trade (bearing horses, precious metals and pilgrims alike over the great caravan roads between Central Asia and north India); and tradition (the minting traditions of banking communities, the rulership traditions of royal lineages, and the spiritual traditions of religious art). Through its detailed analysis, the book clears up a great deal of confusion about the monetary systems of ancient Kashmir, the Punjab foothills and the Gangetic plains, from c. 590 to 820. With a large body of new metallurgical tests, the book defines, classifies and attributes this challenging series of trimetallic coins, revealing for the first time the money of Punjab's hill kingdoms nestled in the Siwalik valleys. Along the way, it prepares the groundwork for a new perspective on the role of hard money in early medieval economies, revealing preliminary evidence that the empire of the great Harshavardhana may have had a broadly-used coinage, contrary to expectations of the feudal model.
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1 online resource (228 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004752504
The gospel according to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) : an annotated translation of Tabyīn al-kalām (part 3) /
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"The Gospel According to Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) offers an annotated translation of Tabyīn al-kalām (Part 3), a commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew (Chapters 1-5) by one of South Asia's most innovative public thinkers. Broadly known for his modernist interpretation of Islam, Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817-1898) appears here as a contemplative mystic who is determined to show the interrelated nature of the Bible and Qur'ān, and the affinity of Christian and Muslim scriptural exegesis. Uncommon in the history of Christian-Muslim relations, Sayyid Ahmad Khan presents what can only be described as a serious reading of the Gospel. The work includes an extensive introduction to the early Church in general, and the development of the Trinitarian doctrine in particular. Never before presented in English, the text sheds important new light upon the spiritual and intellectual journey of this leading modern interpreter".
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004417724