Disorienting Encounters
Disorienting Encounters

Author: Muhammed As-Saffar

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1992-02-14

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780520911413

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In December of 1845, Muhammad as-Saffar was sent by the reigning Moroccan sultan on a special diplomatic mission to Paris. During the journey, as-Saffar took careful notes and upon his return he hurriedly wrote this travel account. Why was the sultan, descendent of the Prophet Muhammad, and head of a dynasty that had ruled Morocco for more than two hundred years, so eager to read this account? Perhaps he thought it would illuminate some troubling matters: how the French acquired their power and their mastery over nature; how they led their daily lives, educated their children, treated their women and servants. In short, the sultan wanted to know the condition of French civilization and why it differed from his. As-Saffar provided the answers. Moreover, as we read the account, Muhammad as-Saffar comes alive for us. We see him reflecting on the beauty of women, contorting during his ritual ablutions, and suffering from boredom at endless dinners. His opinions and ideas infuse every page. For him the journey was more than a catalog of curiosities; it was a transforming experience. Given our very limited knowledge of the time and the absence of other voices that speak with equal clarity, this travel account enlarges our understanding of the relationship between nineteenth-century Morocco and France.

Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature
Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature

Author: Begüm Özden Firat

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2015-08-20

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 0857725998

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The dominant form of Ottoman pictorial art until the eighteenth century, miniatures have traditionally been studied as reflecting the socio-historical contexts, aesthetic concerns and artistic tastes of the era within which they were produced. Begum Ozden Fyrat proposes instead a radical re-reading of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century miniatures in the light of contemporary critical theory, highlighting the viewer's encounter with the image. Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature employs contemporary concepts such as the gaze, frame/framing, reading and re-reading, drawing on thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes and Gilles Deleuze to establish the vibrant cultural agency of miniature paintings. With analysis that illuminates both the social and political situations in which these miniatures were painted as well as emphasising the miniature's contemporary relevance, Firat presents an important new re-imagining of this art form.

Mutual Othering
Mutual Othering

Author: Ahmed Idrissi Alami

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2013-07-01

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1438447337

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Explores interactions between Europeans and Moroccans on both sides of the straits in the latter half of the nineteenth century. For the first time, readings of Moroccan travel writing in Arabic are juxtaposed with French and British writing about Morocco in a critical exploration of nineteenth-century concepts of modernity. Ahmed Idrissi Alami investigates the complex dynamics concerning colonial expansion, military conflict, and societal values. Mutual Othering sets out to rethink generally accepted concepts of European modernity by critically examining its production and contestation within a subaltern context in which the native other—in this case, religious scholars or imams accompanying political missions to Paris and London—presents aspects of European culture to elite members of the Moroccan imperial court. This work also connects the arguments of these texts to the rethinking of tradition and modernity, the rhetoric of reform, democracy and the Arab state, and the compatibility of Islam with the West and secular values in the post-9/11 world. The inclusion of citations in the original French and Arabic, alongside English translations, allows a range of readers to enjoy this critical addition to the fields of literature, travel writing, North African studies, history, international relations, and philosophy, as well as cultural and religious studies.

The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform
The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform

Author: Adeeb Khalid

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0520213564

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"Other scholars have dealt with the Jadid movement, but none approaches this study in the quality of its scholarship and contextual social history."—Dale Eickelman, author of The Middle East and Central Asia "Original and stimulating . . . with both the empathy of a contemporaneous insider and the critical objectivity of an informed outsider."—John Perry, University of Chicago

The World Is Our Classroom
The World Is Our Classroom

Author: Jennie Germann Molz

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2021-02-23

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 147981055X

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How travelling the world allows new ways to educate children and perform family life on the move A growing number of families are selling their houses, quitting their jobs, and taking their children out of traditional school settings to educate them while traveling the globe. In The World is Our Classroom, Jennie Germann Molz explores the hopes and anxieties that drive these parents and children to leave their comfortable lives behind out of a desire to live the “good life” on the move. Drawing on interviews with parents and stories from the blogs they publish during their journeys, as well as her own experience traveling the world with her ten-year-old son, Germann Molz takes us inside a fascinating life spent on trains, boats, and planes. She shows why many parents—disillusioned with standard public schooling—believe the world is a child’s best classroom. Rebelling against convention, these parents combine technology and travel to pursue a different version of the good life, one in which parents can work remotely as “digital nomads,” participate in like-minded communities online, and expose their children to the risks, opportunities, and life lessons that the world has to offer. Ultimately, Germann Molz sheds light on the emerging phenomenon of “worldschooling,” showing that it is not just an alternative way to educate children, but an altogether new kind of mobile lifestyle. The World is Our Classroom paints an extreme portrait of twenty-first century parenting and some families’ attempts to raise global citizens prepared to thrive in the uncertain world of tomorrow.

Heroes of the Age
Heroes of the Age

Author: David B. Edwards

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1996-10-02

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 0520200632

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Edwards contends that Afghanistan's troubles derive less from foreign forces and the ideological divisions between groups than they do from the moral incoherence of Afghanistan itself.

An Introduction to Islam
An Introduction to Islam

Author: David Waines

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-11-06

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1316224317

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This wide-ranging account of the history and theology of one of the world's most dynamic religions tells the story of Islamic beliefs and practices as they developed from the earliest times down to the present day. For this revised and updated second edition, David Waines has added a long section tackling head-on the issues arising from Islam's place in the changing world order at the turn of the new millennium. The wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Israel, and the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, have raised global awareness of Islam at a superficial level - but little has been written which considers Islamic political and military extremism in relation to mainstream Muslim history and theology. Coming at the end of a book which has explored the ideas and traditions of Islam in depth, this new section offers thought-provoking reflections on the place of religion in the current conflicts.

Persona and Humor in Mark Twain's Early Writings
Persona and Humor in Mark Twain's Early Writings

Author: Don Florence

Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 9780826210258

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Challenging mainstream Twain criticism on many fronts, Florence focuses exclusively on Twain's early writings. He demonstrates how Twain evolved in his early narratives into the "Mark Twain" we now recognize. Florence maintains that this process was evolutionary: Although Twain might have been dependent on Clemens for the initial experiences, they become Twain's experiences, necessary for his development as a persona. Traditionally, critics of Twain have been preoccupied with dualities, but Florence sees this emphasis upon polarities as an oversimplification. He argues that much of Twain's humor strives to shape more and more of the world, giving Twain multiple narrative voices and letting him be inclusive, not exclusive. Finally, this study asserts that there is more continuity to Mark Twain's career than has been generally recognized. Many Twain scholars have argued that Twain's later writings are radically different from his earlier writings because of their emphasis upon illusion and dream. Florence argues that the preoccupation with illusion and fantasy is scarcely new. Whether Twain's mood is exuberant or dark, he emphasizes subjectivity over objectivity, the dominance of fantasy, the creative powers of humor, and his ability as persona to determine what we consider "reality". Florence contends that Twain's early writings show Mark Twain gradually evolving into a masterfully comic persona.

Lady Gaga and Popular Music
Lady Gaga and Popular Music

Author: Martin Iddon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-03

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 113407994X

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This book is a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary examination of the music and figure of Lady Gaga, combining approaches from scholars in cultural studies, art, fashion, and music. It represents one of the first scholarly volumes devoted to Lady Gaga, who has become, over a few short years, central to both popular (and, indeed, populist) as well as more scholarly thought in these areas and who, the contributors argue, is helping to shape—directly and indirectly—thought and culture both in the fields of the "scholarly" and the "everyday." Lady Gaga's output is firmly embedded in a self-consciously intellectual pop culture tradition, and her music videos are intertextually linked to icons of pop culture intelligentsia like Alfred Hitchcock and open to multiple interpretations. In examining her music and figure, this volume contributes both to debates on the status of intertextuality, held in tension with originality, and to debates on the figuring of the sexualized female body, and representations of disability. There is interest in these issues from a wide range of disciplines: popular musicology, film studies, queer studies, women’s studies, gender studies, disability studies, popular culture studies, and the burgeoning sub-discipline of aesthetics and philosophy of fashion.

On the Way to the "(Un)Known"?
On the Way to the

Author: Doris Gruber

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 3110698129

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This volume brings together twenty-two authors from various countries who analyze travelogues on the Ottoman Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The travelogues reflect the colorful diversity of the genre, presenting the experiences of individuals and groups from China to Great Britain. The spotlight falls on interdependencies of travel writing and historiography, geographic spaces, and specific practices such as pilgrimages, the hajj, and the harem. Other points of emphasis include the importance of nationalism, the place and time of printing, representations of fashion, and concepts of masculinity and femininity. By displaying close, comparative, and distant readings, the volume offers new insights into perceptions of "otherness", the circulation of knowledge, intermedial relations, gender roles, and digital analysis.