In addition, the series will include re-editions or entirely new translations into English of 'classic' accounts in the field which have been out of print for many years and have become rare books even in larger university libraries. Each of these new editions will be prefaced by an introductory essay by a present-day specialist in the discipline who will place the book in its original historical context and analyze its significance in the light of contemporary work in the history of linguistic thought
This book frames the fascinating life and influential works of the Hungarian Orientalist, Arminius Vambéry (1832–1913), within the context of nineteenth century identity politics and contemporary criticisms of Orientalism. Based on extensive research, the book authoritatively presents a comprehensive narrative of Arminius Vambéry’s multiple identities as represented in Hungary and in Great Britain. The author traces Vambéry’s development from a marginalized Jewish child to a recognized authority on Hungarian ethnogenesis as well as on Central Asian and Turkish geopolitical developments. Throughout the book, the reader meets Vambéry as the Hungarian traveler to Central Asia, the British and Ottoman secret agent, the mostly self-taught professor of Oriental languages, the political pundit, and the highly sought after guest lecturer in Great Britain known for his fierce Russophobe pronouncements. The author devotes special attention to the period that transformed Vambéry from a linguistically talented but penniless Hungarian Jewish youth into a pioneering traveler in the double-disguise of a Turkish effendi masquerading as a dervish to Central Asia in 1863–64. He does so because Vambéry’s published observations of an arena still closed to Europeans facilitated his emergence as a colorful personality and a significant authority on Central Asia and Turkey in Great Britain for the next fifty years. In addition, the book also devotes significant space to Vambéry’s dynamic relationship to his most famous student, Ignác Goldziher (1850–1921), who is considered to be one of the founders of modern Islamic Studies. Lastly, Vambéry’s impact on Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, is also explored. Original Language: English
The Jayhānī tradition contains the most detailed description of the Magyars/Hungarians before the Conquest of the Carpathian Basin (895). Unfortunately, the book itself was lost and it can only be reconstructed from late Arabic, Persian and Turkic copies. The reconstruction is primarily based on the texts of al-Marwazī, Ibn Rusta and Gardīzī. The original text has shorter and longer versions. The basic text was reformed at least twice and later copyists added further emendation. This study focuses on the philological comments and historical interpretation of the Magyar chapter, integrating the results in the fields of medieval Islamic studies, the medieval history of Eurasian steppe, and the historiography of early Hungarian history.
This book argues that the historic city we know as Medieval Cairo was created in the nineteenth century by both Egyptians and Europeans against a background of four overlapping political and cultural contexts: the local Egyptian, Anglo-Egyptian, Anglo-Indian, and Ottoman imperial milieux. Addressing the interrelated topics of empire, local history, religion, and transnational heritage, historian Paula Sanders shows how Cairo's architectural heritage became canonized in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book also explains why and how the city assumed its characteristically Mamluk appearance and situates the activities of the European-dominated architectural preservation committee (known as the Comité) within the history of religious life in nineteenth-century Cairo. Offering fresh perspectives and keen historical analysis, this volume examines the unacknowledged colonial legacy that continues to inform the practice of and debates over preservation in Cairo.
This book includes papers presented in Kiel in 1982 on Galen's chief therapeutic manual, the Methodus medendi. The papers describe the composition of the book, its surgical content, its emphasis on logic, and its fortuna in medieval Islam and Renaissance Europe. No such study in depth of a major Galenic work has hitherto been attempted.
Built as a temporary structure and made of ephemeral materials, "Cairo Street" had a dual nature. On the one hand it was a purely scientific installation, a piece of anthropology. On the other, it became the most popular entertainment venue at the World's Columbian Exposition of Chicago (1893), a place where "people went wild with excitement". Far from being a copy of any actual street, it was an assemblage of authentic architectural elements put together in such a way as to conjure up the atmosphere of the Arab-Islamic metropolis, the city of the Thousand and One Nights. Its impact was greatly enhanced by the presence of local Cairo inhabitants, who plied their trade, some of them with their camels, donkeys, monkeys, and even snakes. The belly dancing on Cairo Street caused an enormous stir: many claimed that it was immoral and called for its immediate suspension; others regarded it as a performance of important scientific and ethnological value. It was never suspended-and people flocked to see it. An immense amount has been written about world's fairs. This monograph represents a novel approach in that it subjects a single project, the Cairo Street, to detailed analysis, placing particular emphasis on interpreting it within the context of the Fair as a whole. What was the great uproar about the belly dancing? What motivated it? In order to answer these questions, this monograph attempts to offer a complex, multi-faceted, interpretation within the context of the society of the time. Cairo Street was the sensation of the World's Columbian Exposition, a fair which many sold their stoves, mortgaged their houses, spent their life savings or their funeral money to see. This monograph is enhanced with a ground plan and 168 illustrations.
There can be few if any historians working in the wide field of Middle East Studies--and certainly none in the world of Islamic art and architecture--who are unacquainted with historian and archaeologist George Scanlon. At different times from the mid-1950s to the present day he has lived, worked, and studied in Egypt. For a major part of that period, he has been associated with the American University in Cairo, where he is currently professor of Islamic art and architecture in the Department of Arabic Studies. Although diverse in subject matter, the essays collected here in his honor together present a composite picture of Cairo, and more broadly of Islamic history and culture, from early medieval times to the present day. As such they provide a fitting tribute to one of the most eminent of scholars in the field. Some contributors are one-time students of Professor Scanlon, others are colleagues who, over the years, have worked with him in Egypt, the United States, or Britain. The essays themselves reflect the wide variety of sources contributors have drawn on from international Islamic collections and archives for topics that range broadly from medieval artifacts, architecture, and society to current issues of law, literature, philosophy, and urban change.
