Suchergebnisse

"A probing inquiry into medieval court struggles, this book shows the relationship between intellectual conflict and the geopolitics of empire. It examines the Persian Buyids' takeover of the great Arab caliphate in Iraq, the counter-Crusade under Saladin, and the literature of sovereignty in Spain and Italy at the cusp of the Renaissance. The question of high culture--who best qualified as a poet, the function of race and religion in forming a courtier, what languages to use in which official ceremonies--drove much of medieval writing, and even policy itself. From the last moments of the Abbasid Empire, to the military campaign for Jerusalem, to the rise of Crusades literature in spoken Romance languages, authors and patrons took a competitive stance as a way to assert their place in a shifting imperial landscape."--Back cover

"A Handbook of Modern Arabic Historical Scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Periods presents 16 studies about modern Arab academic scholarship on the Ancient and Medieval Worlds covering disciplines as diverse as Assyriology and Mamluk studies as well as historiographical schools in the Arab World. This unique work is the first of its kind in any language. It is an important resource for scholars and students of the Ancient Near East and North Africa, Classical and Byzantine studies, and medieval Islamic history who would like to learn more about the work done by their colleagues in the Arab World in these fields over the last 7 decades and to benefit from Arabic secondary sources in their research. Contributors: Emad Abou-Ghazi, Al-Amin Abouseada, Youcef Aibeche, Sidi Mohammed Alaioud, Abdulhadi Alajmi, Allaoua Amara, Lotfi Ben Miled, Brahim El Kadiri Boutchich, Usama Gad, Azeddine Guessous, Fayza Haikal, Hani Hamza, Laith Hussein, Nasir al-Kaabi, Khaled Kchir, Mohammed Maraqten, Amr Omar, Abdelaziz Ramadan"--

"In A History of Water Engineering and Management in Yemen, Ingrid Hehmeyer describes the three-way relationship between water, land, and humans from ancient to medieval and premodern times. As illustrated in case studies from four sites, individual ecosystems necessitated different engineering and management approaches in order to make good use of the scarce water resources for both irrigated agriculture and domestic consumption. Material remains and written sources provide the evidence for a comprehensive examination of continuity and change; technical and managerial struggles, failures, and successes; the question of technology transfer; the impact of the religion of Islam on water use and allocation; and people's reactions in times of severe crisis."-- Back cover

Būluṣ ibn Rajāʾ (ca. 955–ca. 1020) was a celebrated writer of Coptic Christianity from Fatimid Egypt. Born to an influential Muslim family in Cairo, Ibn Rajāʾ later converted to Christianity and composed The Truthful Exposer ( Kitāb al-Wāḍiḥ bi-l-Ḥaqq ) outlining his skepticism regarding Islam. His ideas circulated across the Middle East and the Mediterranean in the medieval period, shaping the Christian understanding of the Qurʾan's origins, Muḥammad's life, the practice of Islamic law, and Muslim political history. This book includes a study of Ibn Rajāʾ's life, along with an Arabic edition and English translation of The Truthful Exposer

"For a long time, the history of war was the prerogative of military officers. After World War Two, it saw significant reorientations. Military history evolved into a more global history, which aims to analyse the interaction of war with societies. These historiographical changes progressively affected researchers who deal with the history of the Medieval Near East. This pluridisciplinary book, gathering historians and archeologists, aims to give an assessment of the historiography of war in the Medieval Near East, and to provide new and original research perspectives. This book confirms that war played a key role in the development of Near Eastern societies from the tenth to the fifteenth century"

"The medical compendium entitled Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-ḥāḍir (Provisions for the Traveller and Nourishment for the Sedentary) and compiled by Ibn al-Jazzār from Qayrawān in the tenth century is one of the most influential handbooks in the history of western medicine. In the eleventh century, Constantine the African translated it into Latin; this translation was the basis for several commentaries compiled from the twelfth century on. The text was also translated into Byzantine Greek and three times into medieval Hebrew. The present volume includes a new critical edition of the Arabic text of books I and II, along with an annotated English translation, as well as critical editions of Constantine's Viaticum and the Hebrew versions by Ibn Tibbon, Abraham ben Isaac, and Do'eg ha-Edomi"--

This volume comprises an edition and English translation of the response in Arabic made by the fourteenth century scholar Ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Dimashqī to a Letter sent to him by anonymous Christians from Cyprus. The Christian letter was also sent to al-Dimashqī's contemporary Ibn Taymiyya, and this response is thus a parallel to Ibn Taymiyya's Al-jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ. In their Letter the Christians subtly suggest that the Qur'an supports Christian doctrines. Al-Dimashqī replies with a comprehensive series of elaborate and wide-ranging arguments that incorporate not only themes familiar from earlier polemical works but also his own original points. His response is thus an important source of information about the development of Muslim interfaith attitudes, and a significant example of polemic in the later medieval period. The edition presents the two parts of this correspondence in parallel Arabic and English versions, together with an extensive introduction, textual notes and commentary

La 4e de couverture indique : "Dans cet ouvrage résolument pluridisciplinaire, qui associe des historiens et des archéologues européens, américains et arabes, la guerre et la paix sont envisagées comme un couple indissociable, en interactivité permanente. Les travaux ici réunis montrent que cette interactivité est particulièrement prégnante dans le Proche-Orient arabe et musulman des xe - xvie siècles, où une classe de guerriers non arabes crée de nouveaux régimes politiques marqués par une forte militarisation du pouvoir. Ces guerriers font de la guerre et de la paix des outils de gestion des hommes et des territoires, qu'ils utilisent selon leur bon gré, toujours afin de promouvoir et pérenniser leur pouvoir. Pourtant, l'activité de ces guerriers ne se limite pas au champ militaire. Les contributions réunies dans ce livre permettent de réfuter l'idée, encore trop souvent mise en avant par les spécialistes du Proche-Orient arabe et musulman, selon laquelle ils forment une caste complètement déconnectée des autres groupes sociaux. Certes, ils constituent bien un groupe social singulier, qui prend en charge la lutte contre les Croisés et les Mongols, dont les attaques semblent, un temps, menacer l'existence même du Dār al-islām. Mais les guerriers ne sont pas isolés des autres groupes sociaux, avec lesquels ils partagent bien des valeurs et des pratiques culturelles. Leur activité est multiforme. Elle ne se limite pas au champ politique et militaire : ils investissent aussi les champs religieux, économique et culturel. Progressivement, avec le soutien des élites civiles et religieuses sur lesquelles ils s'appuient pour gouverner et auxquelles ils se mêlent, ils modèlent en profondeur les sociétés qu'ils dominent, dont il apparaît, à la lecture de ce livre, qu'elles ne sont pas socialement segmentées ni cloisonnées."