The evolution of Oriental Studies in Britain over the last century is traced in thirteen essays on key figures (twelve of them Fellows of the British Academy). They exemplify the outstanding contribution of British scholars to Oriental scholarship, within the general trend in the West to understand and interpret the civilisations of the East sympathetically. Through the careers and achievements of these influential scholars these essays shed light on studies ranging from Ancient Egyptian and Hebrew, through Arabic, Persian and Turkish, to Indology, Chinese and Japanese. With important changes of methodology and approach to the cultures and religions of Asia, the twentieth century has been an exciting and fruitful period for Oriental Studies in Britain.
The essays in this volume give an account of how the agenda for theology and religious studies was set and reset throughout the twentieth century - by rapid and at times cataclysmic changes (wars, followed by social and academic upheavals in the 1960s), by new movements of thought, by a bounty of archaeological discoveries, and by unprecedented archival research. Further new trends of study and fresh approaches (existentialist, Marxian, postmodern) have in more recent years generated new quests and horizons for reflection and research. Theological enquiry in Great Britain was transformed in the late nineteenth century through the gradual acceptance of the methods and results of historical criticism. New agendas emerged in the various sub-disciplines of theology and religious studies. Some of the issues raised by biblical criticism, for example Christology and the 'quest of the historical Jesus', were to remain topics of controversy throughout the twentieth century. In other important and far-reaching ways, however, the agendas that seemed clear in the early part of the century were abandoned, or transformed and replaced, not only as a result of new discoveries and movements of thought, but also by the unfolding events of a century that brought the appalling carnage and horror of two world wars. Their aftermath brought a shattering of inherited world views, including religious world views, and disillusion with the optimistic trust in inevitable progress that had seemed assured in many quarters and found expression in widely influential 'liberal' theological thought of the time. The centenary of the British Academy in 2002 has provided a most welcome opportunity for reconsidering the contribution of British scholarship to theological and religious studies in the last hundred years.
Studies of Genesis, Isaiah and Psalms, key biblical texts that represent the interests of the honorand, Professor John Emerton. The comparison of biblical texts with the ancient Near East and archaeological finds; intertextual work, literary historical approaches, texts and versions and scholarly interpretations from the past are all represented.
This is an intriguing collection of reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge, and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy. To mark its centenary in 2002 the British Academy, the national academy for the humanities and social sciences, organized a programme of lectures on the current state of various disciplines and their future prospects. The authors of the eight essays and four commentaries are drawn from Britain, Europe and the United States.
This volume examines how the history of the humanities might be written through the prism of scholarly personae, understood as time- and place-specific models of being a scholar. Focusing on the field of study known as Orientalism in the decades around 1900, this volume examines how Semitists, Sinologists, and Japanologists, among others, conceived of their scholarly tasks, what sort of demands these job descriptions made on the scholar in terms of habits, virtues, and skills, and how models of being an orientalist changed over time under influence of new research methods, cross-cultural encounters, and political transformations. Contributors are: Tim Barrett, Christiaan Engberts, Holger Gzella, Hans Martin Krämer, Arie L. Molendijk, Herman Paul, Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn and Henning Trüper.
This book examines the development of English-translated Tang poetry and its propagation to the Western world. It consists of two parts, the first of which addresses the initial stage of English-translated Tang poetry’s propagation, and the second exploring its further development. By analyzing the historical background and characteristics of these two stages, the book traces the trend back to its roots, discusses some well-known early sinologists and their contributions, and familiarizes readers with the general course of Tang poetry’s development. In addition, it presents the translated versions of many Tang poems. The dissemination of Tang poetry to the Western world is a significant event in the history of cross-cultural communication. From the simple imitation of poetic techniques to the acceptance and identification of key poetic concepts, the Tang poetry translators gradually constructed a classic “Chinese style” in modern American poetry. Hence, the traditional Chinese culture represented by Tang poetry spread more widely in the English-speaking world, producing a more lasting impact on societies and cultures outside China – and demonstrating the poetry’s ability to transcend the boundaries of time, region, nationality and culture. Due to different cultural backgrounds, the Tang poets or poems admired most by Western readers may not necessarily receive high acclaim in China. Sometimes language barriers and cultural differences make it impossible to represent certain allusions or cultural and ethnic concepts correctly during the translation process. However, in recent decades, the translation of Tang poetry has evolved considerably in both quantity and quality. As culture is manifested in language, and language is part of culture, the translation of Tang poetry has allowed Western scholars to gain an unprecedented understanding of China and Chinese culture.
I.B.Tauris in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies Few fields of Islamic studies have witnessed as much progress in modern times as Ismaili studies, and in even fewer instances has the role of a single individual been as pivotal in initiating progress as that of Wladimir Ivanow (1886-1970), whose memoirs are now published here for the first time. The breakthrough in modern Ismaili studies occurred mainly as a result of the recovery and study of a large number of texts relating to the field, which had not been available to the earlier generations of orientalists. The Persian and Arabic Ismaili manuscripts, many edited and published by Ivanow, reflect a rich diversity of intellectual and literary traditions. Ivanow left his native Russia soon after the October Revolution of 1917 and settled in India where he was formally commissioned in 1931 by Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III, the 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, to investigate the history and teachings of the Ismailis. Henceforth, Ivanow began the systematic recovery and study of texts from this tradition of Shi'i Islam, discovered in India, the Middle East and Central Asia, amongst other regions. He also played a key role in the establishment of the Ismaili Society - the first research institution of its kind with a major collection of Ismaili manuscripts. Ivanow made these manuscripts available to other scholars, thereby contributing to further progress in the field. Ivanow completed his memoirs, entitled Fifty Years in the East, in 1968, shortly before his death. This work, originally written in Russian, is comprised of an autobiography and vivid accounts from his travels. These convey his ethnologist's interest in 'the archaeology of the way of life' and profound curiosity for regional customs and languages. The memoirs, written in Tehran during Ivanow's final years, have now been edited with substantial annotations by Farhad Daftary. They reveal for the first time the circumstances under which modern Ismaili studies were initiated and an eyewitness account of several regions during the early decades of the twentieth century before the rapid onset of modernisation.
This volume gathers together obituaries of 28 members of the British Academy who `transformed our knowledge of all aspects of the culture - philological, literary, palaeographical, archaeological, art-historical - of early medieval Britain' during the late 19th and 20th centuries.
