Early Mesopotamian divination literature : its organizational framework and generative and paradigmatic characteristics /
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In Early Mesopotamian Divination Literature: Its Organizational Framework and Generative and Paradigmatic Characteristics , Abraham Winitzer provides a detailed study of the Akkadian Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1600 BC) omen collections stemming from extispicy, the most significant Mesopotamian divination technique for most of that civilization's history. Paying close attention to these texts' organizational structure, Winitzer details the mechanics responsible for their origins and development, and highlights key characteristics of a conceptual framework that helped reconfigure Mesopotamian divination into a literature in line with significant, new forms of literary expression from the same time. This literature, Winitzer concludes, represents an early form of scientific reasoning that began to appreciate the centrality of texts and textual interpretation in this civilization's production, organization, and conception of knowledge.
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1 online resource (xxi, 489 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 460-477) and index. :
9789004347007 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Corpus of Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals /
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Among the most important sources for understanding the cultures and systems of thought of ancient Mesopotamia is a large body of magical and medical texts written in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages. An especially significant branch of this literature centres upon witchcraft. Mesopotamian anti-witchcraft rituals and incantations attribute ill-health and misfortune to the magic machinations of witches and prescribe ceremonies, devices, and treatments for dispelling witchcraft, destroying the witch, and protecting and curing the patient. The Corpus of Mesopotamian Anti-Witchcraft Rituals aims to present a reconstruction of this body of texts; it provides critical editions of the relevant rituals and prescriptions based on the study of the cuneiform tablets and fragments recovered from the libraries of ancient Mesopotamia. \'Now that we have the second volume, we the more admire the thoughtful organisation of the entire project, the strict methods followed, and the insightful observations and decisions made.\' Martin Stol, Bibliotheca Orientalis lxxIV n° 3-4, mei-augustus 2017
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1 online resource : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004318557 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sources of evil : studies in Mesopotamian exorcistic lore /
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Sources of Evil: Studies in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore is a collection of thirteen essays on the body of knowledge employed by ancient Near Eastern healing experts, most prominently the 'exorcist' and the 'physician', to help patients who were suffering from misfortunes caused by divine anger, transgressions of taboos, demons, witches, or other sources of evil. The volume provides new insights into the two most important catalogues of Mesopotamian therapeutic lore, the Exorcist's Manual and the Aššur Medical Catalogue, and contains discussions of agents of evil and causes of illness, ways of repelling evil and treating patients, the interpretation of natural phenomena in the context of exorcistic lore, and a description of the symbolic cosmos with its divine and demonic inhabitants.
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1 online resource (xiii, 382 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004373341 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
L'eau, enjeux politiques et théologiques, de Sumer à la Bible /
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This book investigates a corpus of royal inscriptions and literary texts, with special emphasis on those that are mythological and biblical, stretching over several millennia from the early days of Sumer to the Biblical period, in order to determine the ways in which the concept of water was used, in particular the way it functions in the political and theological ideology of the time. Three literary motifs are the object of a careful study : the crossing of water, the flood and the water of abundance. Though their study shows diversity in evolution, transmission and reception, it appears that their function is common at the heart of the Mesopotamian political theology of royal mediation.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [613]-672) and indexes. :
9789047441335 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Opening the tablet box : Near Eastern studies in honor of Benjamin R. Foster /
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This volume is a scholarly tribute to Benjamin R. Foster, Laffan Professor of Assyriology and Babylonian Literature and Curator of the Babylonian Collection at Yale University, from some of his students, colleagues, and companions, in appreciation of his outstanding achievements and in thanks for his friendship. Reflecting on the remarkable breadth of the honoree's research interests, the twenty-six original papers in this Festschrift cover a wide range of topics in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian literature, economic and social history, as well as art and archaeology.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004186569 :
1566-2055 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Aramaic graffiti from Hatra : a study based on the archive of the Missione Archeologica Italiana /
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Graffiti are an often neglected but crucial witness to everyday life of ancient civilizations. The Aramaic graffiti from Hatra (North Iraq) can make an invaluable contribution in this sense, distributed as they were in various buildings throughout this city which flourished between the 1st and the Third century AD. Thanks to an effective interaction between epigraphy and archaeology, Marco Moriggi and Ilaria Bucci offer a thorough analysis of the Aramaic graffiti from Hatra as documented by the Archive of the Missione Archeologica Italiana (Turin). In addition to the edition of 48 published and 37 unpublished graffiti, this study further includes the concordances of numbers of all Hatran texts published so far and full archaeological information about the graffiti.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004397644
Sons and descendant s a social history of kin groups and family names in the early neo-Babylonian period, 747-626 B.C. /
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Sons and Descendants represents the first comprehensive study of Babylonian family names. Drawing primarily on evidence from legal documents from the early Neo-Babylonian period (747-626 B.C.), the book examines the presence of large, named kin groups at the major Babylonia cities, considering their origins and the important roles their members played as local elites in city governance and temple administration. The period of Neo-Assyrian ascendance over Babylonia marks the first for which there is adequate textual material to allow for a study of these groups, but their continued presence and prominence in Babylonia under the native Neo-Babylonian dynasty and the Persian Empire means that this work is an important contribution to Assyriological understanding of Neo-Babylonian society.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-310) and indexes. :
9789004189645 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
À l'ombre des grandes puissances de Mésopotamie. Une histoire du Sūhu à l'époque néo-assyrienne /
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In À l'ombre des grandes puissances de Mésopotamie. Une histoire du Sūhu à l'époque néo-assyrienne , Philippe Clancier studies the Sūhu region of the Euphrates river, on the border of Assyria and Babylonia. He reconstructs its geography by presenting the fauna and flora, and by identifying sites and the layout of traffic routes. After going back to the 2nd millennium BC to explain the origin of its main dynasty, he highlights the partition of Sūhu into two main kingdoms before its reunification in the 8th century BC and its later conquest by Assyria. Thanks to an interdisciplinary approach that combines written sources, archaeological data and travellers' accounts, Philippe Clancier offers for the first time a history of this region in the neo-Assyrian period.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004433281
9789004433274
The neo-Aramaic dialect of Barwar /
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The Aramaic language has continued to be spoken in various dialects down to modern times. Many of these dialects, however, are now endangered due to political events in the Middle East over the last hundred years. This work, in three volumes, presents a description of one such endangered neo-Aramaic dialect, that of the Assyrian Christian community of the Barwar region in northern Iraq. It is a unique record of the dialect based on interviews with the surviving older generation of the community. Volume one contains a detailed grammatical description of the dialect, including sections on phonology, morphology and syntax. Volume two contains an extensive glossary of the lexicon of the dialect with illustrations of various aspects of the material culture. Volume three contains transcriptions of numerous recorded texts, including folktales, ethnographic texts, songs, and proverbs.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047443490 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
East and west of Zagros : travel, war and politics in Persia and Iraq 1913-1921 /
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C.J. Edmonds published articles in orientalist journals and co-authored with Taufiq Wahby A Kurdish-English dictionary (Oxford, 1966). He published his memoirs of Iraq, Kurds, Turks, and Arabs : politics, travel and research in North-Eastern Iraq, 1919-1925 (London - New York, 1957), but his Persian memoirs remained unpublished. It tells how, after studying oriental languages in Cambridge, he became Consular Officer in Bushire, participated in British campaigns in Mesopotamia during First World War. As a Political Officer in Luristan Edmonds was in charge of the oil fields' security and was sent to Northern Persia after the war, a direct witness of the Jangal upheaval and the 1921 coup d'Etat.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-338) and index. :
9789047426905 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A Jewish philosopher of Baghdad : 'Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammuna (d. 683/1284) and his writings /
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For a long time, the study of the life and work of the Jewish thinker ʿIzz al-Dawla Ibn Kammūna (d. 683/1284) remained limited to a very small number of texts. Interest in Ibn Kammūna in the Western Christian world dates back to the 17th century, when Barthélemy d'Herbelot (1624-1695) included information on two of Ibn Kammūna's works - his examination of the three faiths ( Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth li-l-milal al-thalāt ), id est Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and his commentary on Avicenna's al-Ishārāt wa l-tanbīhā t - in his Bibliothèque orientale . Subsequent generations of Western scholars were focused on Ibn Kammūna's Tanqīḥ al-abḥāth , whereas his fame in the Eastern lands of Islam was based exclusively on his philosophical writings. These include a commentary on the Kitāb al-Talwīḥāt by the founder of Illumationist philosophy, Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) and numerous independent works on philosophy and logic. Since most of the manuscripts of Ibn Kammūna's philosophical writings are located in the public and private libraries of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, they were (and are) out of reach for the majority of Western scholars. The volume gives a detailed account of the available data of Ibn Kammūna's biography, provides an outline of his philosophcial thought and studies in detail the reception of his thought and his writings among later Muslim and Jewish philosophers. An inventory of his entire œuvre provides detailed information on the extant manuscripts. The volume furthermore includes editions of nine of his writings.
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Includes editions of 9 texts by Ibn Kammuna, in Arabic. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [245]-263) and indexes. :
9789047409632 :
0169-8729 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A grammar of neo-Aramaic : the dialect of the Jews of Arbel /
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Being direct descendants of the Aramaic spoken by the Jews in antiquity, the still spoken Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects of Kurdistan deserve special and vivid interest. Geoffrey Khan's A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic is a unique record of one of these dialects, now on the verge of extinction. This volume, the result of extensive fieldwork, contains a description of the dialect spoken by the Jews from the region of Arbel (Iraqi Kurdistan), together with a transcription of recorded texts and a glossary. The grammar consists of sections on phonology, morphology and syntax, preceded by an introductory chapter examining the position of this dialect in relation to the other known Neo-Aramaic dialects. The transcribed texts record folktales and accounts of customs, traditions and experiences of the Jews of Kurdistan.
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1 online resource (xx, 586 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004305045 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Annals of the caliphs' kitchens : Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's tenth-century Baghdadi cookbook /
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Written nearly a thousand years ago, al-Warraq's cookbook is the most comprehensive work of its kind. This traditional cookbook with more than 600 recipes from the luxurious cuisine of medieval Islam is also a rare guide to the contemporary culinary culture. Its numerous anecdotes and poems unfold the role of food in the politics of Islam's golden era. Introducing this elegant translation is a thorough survey of the period and its food culture. An extensive Glossary, in Arabic and English, of medieval ingredients and dishes, and an Appendix of historical figures provide the necessary reference tools for this work. Making this key resource available in English for the first time to scholars and the general reader fills a gap in the cultural history of medieval Islam. Over 30 color illustrations.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [843]-849) and indexes. :
9789047423058 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The revival of the Anu cult and the nocturnal fire ceremony at late Babylonian Uruk /
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In The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk , Julia Krul offers a comprehensive study of the rise of the sky god Anu as patron deity of Uruk in the Late Babylonian period (ca. 480-100 B.C.). She reconstructs the historical development of the Anu cult, its underlying theology, and its daily rites of worship, with a particular focus on the yearly nocturnal fire ceremony at the Anu temple, the Bīt Rēš. Providing the first in-depth analysis of the ceremony, Julia Krul convincingly identifies it as a seasonal renewal festival with an important exorcistic component, but also as a reinforcement of local hierarchical relationships and the elite status of the Anu priesthood.
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Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität Münster, 2014. :
1 online resource (xiii, 310 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 267-290) and indexes. :
9789004364943 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Mesopotamian medicine and magic : studies in honor of Markham J. Geller /
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Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic. Studies in Honour of Markham J. Geller is a thematically focused collection of 34 brand-new essays bringing to light a representative selection of the rich and varied scientific and technical knowledge produced chiefly by the cuneiform cultures. The contributions concentrate mainly on Mesopotamian scholarly descriptions and practices of diagnosing and healing diverse physical ailments and mental distress. The festschrift contains both critical editions of new texts as well as analytical studies dealing with various issues of Mesopotamian medical and magical lore. Currently, this is the largest edited volume devoted to this topic, significantly contributing to the History of Ancient Sciences.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004368088
Caught in a whirlwind : a cultural history of Ottoman Baghdad as reflected in its illustrated manuscripts /
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Caught in a Whirlwind: A Cultural History of Ottoman Baghdad as Reflected in its Illustrated Manuscripts focuses on a period of great artistic vitality in the region of Baghdad, a frontier area that was caught between the rival Ottoman and the Safavid empires. In the period following the peace treaty of 1590, a corpus of more than thirty illustrated manuscripts and several single page paintings were produced. In this book Melis Taner presents a contextual study of the vibrant late sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century Baghdad art market, opening up further avenues of research on art production in provinces and border regions.
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Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral)--Harvard University, 2016, under the title: Caught in a whirlwind : painting in Baghdad in the late sixteenth-early seventeenth centuries. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004412804
Early Islam between Myth and History : Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110H/728CE) and the Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship /
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This volume examines the process through which a historical character named al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was transformed into a myth by several groups in medieval Islam. Al-Ḥasan lived in the city of Basra, southern Iraq, and was famed for his piety, which attracted to him a large number of disciples who went on to play important roles in the formation of several religious trends. The literary corpus (sayings, stories and letters) ascribed to him has been used as a window into early Islamic religious and intellectual thought. But as this study shows, this corpus was largely forged in different periods, in some cases even a thousand years after al-Ḥasan's death. It tells us more about the beliefs of those who forged the sayings, stories and letters rather than about al-Ḥasan's thought and time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047416708
9789004148291
Early Islamic law in Basra in the 2nd/8th century : Aqwāl Qatāda born Diʻāma al-Sadūsī /
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The manuscript of the Aqwāl Qatāda has repeatedly attracted particular interest among modern scholars, as it raises questions concerning the early development of the Ibāḍī Basran community and the emergence of Islamic jurisprudence in Iraq. It is a unique document because it attests to the existence of a scholarly link between Sunnīs and Ibāḍīs during the early development of Islamic law. The fact that the legal responsa and traditions of Qatāda born Diʿāma al-Sadūsī (60/680-117/735) are part of an Ibāḍī collection, in which the traditions of Ibāḍī Imam Jābir born Zayd (d. 93/ 711) have been transmitted through ʿAmr born Harim and ʿAmr born Dīnār, proves that the Ibāḍī lawyers of the first generations considered Qatāda to be a faithful upholder of Jābir's doctrine. Given the lack of material available for Jābir , instructions must have been given to collect whatever was transmitted through Qatāda. Qatāda's legal responsa must have corresponded to those of the first Ibāḍī authorities, which explains why the collator of the Aqwāl Qatāda (probably Abū Ghānim al-Khurāsānī) included them in an Ibāḍī manuscript. The present volume sheds light on the relationship between the Aqwāl Qatāda and Ibāḍī authorities such as al-Rabī, Abū Ubayda, and Jābir.
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1 online resource (516 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004339538 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ornamental Wall Painting in the Art of the Assyrian Empire /
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This study brings together the archaeological record and the pictorial documentation of ornamental wall painting produced in Assyria, from the thirteenth to the seventh centuries B.C. Nimrud, Khorsabad, Til Barsip, and Tell Sheikh Hamad, are among the ancient sites where impressive wall paintings were discovered; unfortunately most of these discoveries now exist in drawings and photographs only. Ornamental wall painting created a colorful and meaningful visual impact to the rooms of residences belonging to the Assyrian kings. The assembled material demonstrates that the polychrome and black-and-white decorated bands of geometric, floral, figural, and animal motifs were arranged into a variety of formulaic designs. Particular attention is given to the changing trends in the selection and combination of motifs, some of which had symbolic meaning. The chronology of the wall paintings at Til Barsip and the accompanying discussion of textile patterns are of special interest to the art historian. This book illustrates the ornamental wall paintings as recorded in the excavation reports.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047406594
9789004141544
Best of Delectable Foods and Dishes from al-Andalus and al-Maghrib: A Cookbook by Thirteenth-Century Andalusi Scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī (1227-1293) : English Translation with Int...
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The thirteenth-century cookbook Fiḍālat al-khiwān fī ṭayyibāt al-ṭaʿām wa-l-alwān by the Andalusi scholar Ibn Razīn al-Tujībī showcases the sophisticated cuisine that developed in the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule through its 475 exquisite recipes. Now available for the first time in English, this edition contains al-Tujībī's complete text, based on a newly discovered manuscript now available for the first time in any language. To introduce readers to the wonders of cooking and foodways in al-Andalus and the Maghreb, the translated text is supplemented with an extensive introduction and glossary, illustrated throughout with 218 color miniatures and artifacts, with 24 modernized recipes to give readers a taste of the cuisine. This is a key resource on medieval material culture and the Arab culinary heritage in Iberia, and a delight to all lovers of food and cookbooks.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004469488
9789004469471