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Die Autorin beschaftigt sich mit den einschneidenden - traumatisierenden wie faszinierenden - Stationen der Kulturbegegnung von Ost und West. Sie untersucht die vielschichtigen Facetten des Orients als einerseits rein diskursiven, andererseits geografisch und historisch realen, wenngleich imaginar uberfrachteten Topos. Die Analyse des mythischen und modernen Orientbildes in der deutschsprachigen Reiseliteratur ist eine Ruckbesinnung auf die Fahigkeit der westlichen wie der oestlichen Kultur, Off...

The True Dream is a Persian satirical drama set in Isfahan in the lead up to Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11. Although its three authors hail from the clerical class, they criticize the arrogance, corruption and secularity of the Iranian ruling dynasty and clergy, taking Isfahan as their example. The work blends fact and fiction by summoning the prominent men of the city to account for themselves on the Day of Judgement. God speaks offstage, delivering withering judgements of their b...

Les etudes sur Averroes (1126-1198) ont porte jusqu'ici, pour l'essentiel, soit sur un aspect de sa psychologie philosophique, soit sur sa doctrine politique. Le premier type d'etudes se situe dans le prolongement de la reception medievale latine d'Averroes, caracterisee par les controverses suscitees par sa noetique. Le second reflete un courant de la recherche qui a domine l'histoire recente de la philosophie arabe et qui a mis l'accent sur l'etude des rapports entre religion et philosophie....

The missing piece in so many histories of Mesopotamian technical disciplines is the client, who often goes unnoticed by present-day scholars seeking to reconstruct ancient disciplines in the Near East over millennia. The contributions to this volume investigate how Mesopotamian medical specialists interacted with their patients and, in doing so, forged their social and professional identities. The chapters in this book explore rituals for success at court, the social classes who made use of su...

Alexander the Great (356-333 BC) was transformed into a legend by all those he met, leaving an enduring tradition of romances across the world. Aside from its penetration into every language of medieval Europe, the Alexander romance arguably had its greatest impact in the Persian language.Haila Manteghi here offers a complete survey of that deep tradition, ranging from analysis of classical Persian poetry to popular romances and medieval Arabic historiography. She explores how the Greek work fir...

Poetry in Saudi Arabia today is a dramatic manifestation of the rapid changes that are sweeping not only through the country's literature and culture, but also through Saudi life as a whole. The unyielding tension between the forces of change and tradition are nowhere more painfully visible than in the poem. Bringing together three generations of poets -a total of forty, each represented by a number of poems - this anthology reflects the broad spectrum of Saudi poetry over the last half century...

In the long literary history of the Middle East, the notion of 'the beloved' has been a central trope in both the poetry and prose of the region. This book explores the concept of the beloved in a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary manner, revealing how shared ideas on the subject supersede geographical and temporal boundaries, and ideas of nationhood. The book considers the beloved in its classical, modern and postmodern manifestations, taking into account the different sexual orientations an...

This volume provides a systematic study of all the manuscripts of the Greek version of Enoch. The book's central portion examines the extant Greek manuscripts both individually and in their mutual relationships. Attention is also directed to the question of the date of the translation and whether multiple translation of the book existed in antiquity. The third section of the text consists of a comparison of the Aramaic and Greek texts to determine specific translation techniques employed. From t...

From the bestselling author of the Booker Prize finalist The Map of Love–an incisive collection of essays on Arab identity, art, and politics that seeks to locate the mezzaterra, or common ground, in an increasingly globalized world. The twenty-five years’ worth of criticism and commentary collected here have earned Ahdaf Soueif a place among our most prominent Arab intellectuals. Clear-eyed and passionate, and syndicated throughout the world, they are the direct result of Soueif’s own circumsta...

Reforming Modernity is a sweeping intellectual history and philosophical reflection built around the work of the Morocco-based philosopher Abdurrahman Taha, one of the most significant philosophers in the Islamic world since the colonial era. Wael B. Hallaq contends that Taha is at the forefront of forging a new, non-Western-centric philosophical tradition. He explores how Taha’s philosophical project sheds light on recent intellectual currents in the Islamic world and puts forth a formidable cr...

?ik?yat Abu al-Q?sim, probably written in the 11th century by the otherwise unknown al-Azd?, tells the story of a gate-crasher from Baghdad named Ab? al-Q?sim, who shows up uninvited at a party in Isfahan. Dressed as a holy man and reciting religious poetry, he soon relaxes his demeanour, and, growing intoxicated on wine, insults the other dinner guests and their Iranian hometown. Widely hailed as a narrative unique in the history of Arabic literature, ?ik?yah also reflects a much larger tradit...

Drawing from medieval chivalric culture, the prose romance was a popular early modern genre featuring stories of courtship, combat, and travel. Flourishing at the same moment as the growing English trade with the Eastern Mediterranean, prose romances adopted both Eastern settings and new conceptions of masculinity - commercial rather than chivalric, erotic rather than militant. Knights in Arms moves beyond the best-known examples of the genre, such as Philip Sidney's Arcadia, to consider the br...

Shashi Tharoor is once again at his provocative best. In the title essay, we learn the steep price paid by some Iraqis just to obtain a book; what does it mean when selling books, essentially selling culture, out of one's own library is the only way to put bread on the table? Later, Tharoor reminisces about growing up with books in India and the central position of classics like the Mahabharata in developing his own literary identity. The poignant homage to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda recalls his...