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Narratives of tampering in the earliest commentaries on the Qurʻan /
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The Muslim accusation of the corruption or deliberate falsification of pre-Qur'ānic scriptures has been a major component of interfaith polemic for a millenium or more. The accusation has frequently sought attestation from a series of \'tampering\' verses in the Qur'ān. Investigation of the interpretation of these verses in the earliest commentaries on the Qur'ān, however, reveals a discrepancy between the confident polemical accusation and the tentative understandings of the first Muslims. Of greater interest to early commentators was a story of deception and obstinacy by the \'People of the Book\' in response to the truth claims of Islam. Focusing on the eighth-century commentary of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān and the great exegetical compendium of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923), this book sketches the outlines of the earliest Muslim approach to pre-Qur'ānic scriptures. The resulting discoveries provide a rare opportunity to peek behind the curtain of doctrinaire claim and polemical debate.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-245) and index. :
9789004192393 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The narrative voice in the Theogony of Hesiod /
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This volume offers analysis of the narratological structure of the Theogony with the purpose of elucidating a major, unifying theme in this poem: the relationship between the divine and mortal realms. The techniques of narratology are herein employed to support the argument that Hesiod portrays the cosmos as sharply divided between gods and men. The Theogony should therefore be read as a didactic poem explaining primarily the position of man vis-à-vis the gods. The first half of this book discusses relevant scholarship and introduces the theme of relationship of gods to men in the Theogony . The second half of the book discusses how Hesiod employs Character-Text, Attributive Discourse, Embedded Focalization, Anachrony, and Commentary to achieve his didactic purposes.
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1 online resource (xv, 206 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-202) and indexes. :
9789047413851 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A commentary on Augustine's De cura pro mortuis gerenda : rhetoric in practice /
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In De cura pro mortuis gerenda Augustine interweaves an assessment of burial near the memorial of a martyr with a series of dream narratives. The seeming lack of coherence between argument and narrative in this treatise has puzzled many scholars. Combining an analysis of the overall structure of the argument and a detailed philological commentary, this study shows that Augustine's text forms a well-composed unity. The study is based on discourse-linguistic and narratological concepts as well as an analysis of the global structure of the narratives. Relying on this combined approach Rose demonstrates how Augustine explores the full breadth of his narrative material in the service of his argument. In addition, this book situates Augustine's text in its cultural-historical context.
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1 online resource (xxi, 622 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004251281 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Plato's Apology of Socrates : a literary and philosophical study with a running commentary /
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There have been many recent studies on the Apology . This book differs from them in that it attempts a synthesis of philosophical and literary approaches. A great deal of attention is paid to the philosophical and religious views that are present-often implicitly-in the text; they are much closer to the philosophy of Plato's main works than is usually assumed. But the Apology is also analysed as a rhetorical text: its close relationship with fourth-century rhetorical theory and practice is highlighted. The analyses of the various parts of the speech are followed by a detailed line-by-line commentary. The work was started by E. de Strycker, S.J.; after his death, it was revised and completed by S.R. Slings.
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In English and Greek. :
1 online resource (xvii, 404 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004329423 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Book of conviviality in exile (Kitāb al-īnās bi-'l-jalwa) : the Judaeo-Arabic translation and commentary of Saadia Gaon on the Book of Esther /
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This volume presents a critical edition of the Judaeo-Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Esther by Saadia Gaon (882-942). This edition, accompanied by an introduction and extensively annotated English translation, affords access to the first-known personalized, rationalistic Jewish commentary on this biblical book. Saadia innovatively organizes the biblical narrative-and his commentary thereon-according to seven "guidelines" that provide a practical blueprint by which Israel can live as an abased people under Gentile dominion. Saadia's prodigious acumen and sense of communal solicitude find vivid expression throughout his commentary in his carefully-defined structural and linguistic analyses, his elucidative references to a broad range of contemporary socio-religious and vocational realia, his anti-Karaite polemics, and his attention to various issues, both psychological and practical, attending Jewish-Gentile conviviality in a 10th-century Islamicate milieu.
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1 online resource (xiii, 670 pages) : color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004284524 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Iranian reception of Islam. the non-traditionalist strands : collected studies in three volumes /
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Patricia Crone's Collected Studies in Three Volumes brings together a number of her published, unpublished, and revised writings on Near Eastern and Islamic history, arranged around three distinct but interconnected themes. Volume 2, The Iranian Reception of Islam: The Non-Traditionalist Strands , examines the reception of pre-Islamic legacies in Islam, above all that of the Iranians. Volume 1, The Qurʾānic Pagans and Related Matters , pursues the reconstruction of the religious environment in which Islam arose and develops an intertextual approach to studying the Qurʾānic religious milieu. Volume 3, Islam, the Ancient Near East and Varieties of Godlessness , places the rise of Islam in the context of the ancient Near East and investigates sceptical and subversive ideas in the Islamic world. The Qurʾānic Pagans and Related Matters Islam, the Ancient Near East and Varieties of Godlessness
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and inbdex. :
9789004319295 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Homer and the Bible in the eyes of ancient interpreters /
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Thus far intepretations of Homer and the Bible have largely been studied in isolation even though both texts became foundational for Western civilisation and were often commented upon in the same cultural context. The present collection of articles redresses this imbalance by bringing together scholars from different fields and offering prioneering essays, which cross traditional boundaries and interpret Biblical and Homeric interpreters in light of each other. The picture which emerges from these studies in highly complex: Greek, Jewish and Christian readers were concerned with similar literary and religious questions, often defining their own position in dialogue with others. Special attention is given to three central corpora: the Alexandrian scholia, Philo, Platonic writers of the Imperial Age, rabbinic exegesis.
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1 online resource (x, 372 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004226111 :
1570-078X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Strangers in the Land: Traveling Texts, Imagined Others, and Captured Souls in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions in Late Antique and Mediaeval Times /
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This volume explores the ways in which representatives of different monotheistic traditions perceived and described or experienced themselves as "the other." This central category - which includes not only those of different religions, but also converts, foreigners, sectarians, and women - is studied from various perspectives in a range of texts composed by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authors during late antique and mediaeval times. Conceptualizations of such "others" are often intrinsically related to the idea of exile, another important category that is analysed in this work.
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1 online resource (285 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004693319
Memory - Papers Read at the Jewish and Christian Perspectives Conference, Utrecht 2022 /
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Memory - Papers Read at the Jewish and Christian Perspectives Conference, Utrecht 2022 connects past, present, and future. This conference volume demonstrates the diversity of 'memory' in the Jewish and Christian traditions. 'Memory' turns out to be a key to investigating and better understanding many aspects of Judaism and Christianity, including their mutual relationship. In these traditions, memory is not simply about recalling events, but about preserving identity, culture, and divine teachings. The act of remembering is central to how communities pass down their religious beliefs, laws, and moral frameworks across generations. It also plays a role in communal cohesion, ensuring that the experiences of the fathers and their wisdom would not get lost, but rather actively re-lived and celebrated.
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1 online resource (284 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004737532
The Comparative Poetics of Homeric Literary Imitation from Antiquity to Renaissance France : Aphrodite's Charm /
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Aphrodite's famous ribbon known as the cestus , the irresistible love charm that she loaned to Hera in the Iliad, was, thanks to a fruitful early misreading, transformed by ancient, medieval, and Renaissance authors into a symbol of honorable feminine chastity: in Maurice Scève's 1560 Microcosme , an epic rewriting of Genesis, Eve first appears before an astonished Adam wearing the virginal cestus as a symbolic guarantee of her sexual innocence. This book traces the history of this curious development from Homer to the end of the sixteenth century in France. Through analyses of both famous and little-known texts, it illustrates the complexity and fecund liberty of Homeric reception.
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1 online resource (552 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004720879
Isagogical Crossroads from the Early Imperial Age to the End of Antiquity /
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This book explores how introductory methods shaped school practice and intellectual activity in various fields of thought of the Early Imperial Age and Late Antiquity. The isagogical crossroads-the intersection of philosophical, philological, religious and scientific introductory methods-embody a fascinating narrative of the methods regulating ancient readers' approach to authoritative texts and disciplines. The strongly innovative character of this book consists exactly in the attempt to explore isagogical issues in a wide-ranging and comprehensive perspective-from philosophy to religion, from medicine to exact sciences-with the aim of detecting connections, reciprocal influences, and interactions shaping the intellectual environment of the Early Imperial Age and Late Antiquity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004506190
9789004506183
The Character of David in Judaism, Christianity and Islam : Warrior, Poet, Prophet and King /
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King David if one of the most central figures in all of the major monotheistic traditions. He generally connotes the heroic past of the (more imagined than real) ancient Israelite empire and is associated with messianic hopes for the future. Nevertheless, his richly ambivalent and fascinating literary portrayal in the Hebrew Bible is one of the most complex of all biblical characters. This volume aims at taking a new, critical look at the process of biblical creation and subsequent exegetical transformation of the character of David and his attributed literary composition (the Psalms), with particular emphasis put on the multilateral fertilization and cross-cultural interchanges among Jews, Christians and Muslims.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004465978
9789004465961
Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on the Figure of Job : The Disruptive Challenges of God /
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The Book of Job remains one of the most profound and unsettling texts in religious and philosophical thought, raising timeless questions about suffering, justice, and the human relationship with the divine. Philosophical and Theological Perspectives on the Figure of Job brings together a diverse collection of essays that explore Job's narrative from multiple perspectives-philosophical, theological, comparative, and literary-without reducing its complexity or imposing a singular interpretation. Engaging with thinkers such as Kant, Kierkegaard, and René Girard, as well as Islamic kalām , William Blake's visual reinterpretations, and María Zambrano's poetic reason, this volume examines Job both as a subject of inquiry and as a figure that continues to challenge and inspire. Rather than offering definitive answers, these essays preserve the tensions within Job's story, demonstrating its enduring relevance in contemporary debates on suffering, justice, and the limits of human understanding.
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1 online resource (331 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004744288
Christian churches in Dahomey-Benin : a study of their socio-political role /
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This book, divided into two broad sections, examines the state in the Republic of Benin and the socio-political role of the Christian churches. The first looks at the remarkable pre-colonial kingdom of Danxomέ and its place in the imagining of the modern contrat social béninois . The second section looks at both the historical role of the mainline churches and the more recent development of a Christianisme béninois . The study concludes that the churches are above all a commentary upon the society in which they find themselves. Rather than an overt challenge to the state, they articulate social distress and the desire for a different future. In times of stress they may prove to be the only viable institutional buttress as well as the arbiter. This study seeks to make a contribution to the understanding of the public role of Christian churches in Africa.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-324) and index. :
9789047419778 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Malay court religion, culture and language : interpreting the Qur'an in 17th century Aceh /
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In Malay Court Religion, Culture and Language: Interpreting the Qurʾān in 17th Century Aceh Peter G. Riddell undertakes a detailed study of the two earliest works of Qur'anic exegesis from the Malay-Indonesian world. Riddell explores the 17th century context in the Sultanate of Aceh that produced the two works, and the history of both texts. He argues that political, social and religious factors provide important windows into the content and approaches of both Qur'anic commentaries. He also provides a transliteration of the Jawi Malay text of both commentaries on sūra 18 of the Qur'ān ( al-Kahf ), as well as an annotated translation into English. This work represents an important contribution to the search for greater understanding of the early Islamic history of the Malay-Indonesian world.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004341326 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Dialogue in the Book of signs : a polyvalent analysis of John 1:19-12:50 /
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Dialogue in the Book of Signs offers a polyvalent analysis of John 1:19-12:50 at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. With the help of several synchronic methods, including genre, narrative, rhetorical, and dramatic studies, the author analyzes the content, form, and function of John's dialogue. Thus, the divine-human dialogue, which is interwoven within the text, provides a key to the understanding of the dialogue between the narrator and the reader. In this volume, after setting a background and a theoretical framework, an extensive exploration of dialogue at the exchange, episode, and narrative levels is offered. The connection of dialogue with other literary aspects such as monologues, signs, I AM sayings, and metaphors is also established. Thus, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of dialogue in John 1-12.
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1 online resource (xviii, 542 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004301610 :
0928-0731 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Women, Islam and Familial Intimacy in Colonial South Asia /
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Women, Islam and Familial Intimacy in Colonial South Asia highlights the rich tradition of protest and defiance among the Muslim women of colonial India. Bringing together a range of archival material including novels, pamphlets, commentaries and journalistic essays, it narrates a history of Muslim feminism conversing with, and confronting the dominant and influential narratives of didactic social reform. The book reveals how discussion about marriage and family evoked claims of women's freedom and rights in a highly charged literary and cultural landscape where lesser-known female intellectuals jostled for public space alongside well-known male social reformers. Definitions of Islamic ethics remained central to these debates, and the book illustrates how claims of social obligation, religious duty and freedom balanced and negotiated each other in a period of nationalism and reform. By doing so, it also illuminates a story of Muslim politics that goes beyond the well-established accounts of Muslim separatism and the Pakistan movement.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004438491
9789004421103