Friedman offers new and updated research on the Nusayr - Alaw sect, today a leading group in Syria, covering a variety of aspects and focusing on the Middle Ages. A century after Dussaud's "Histoire et religion des Nosair s" (1900), he reviews the history and religion of the sect in the light of old documents used by orientalists in the nineteenth century, documents that became available in the twentieth century, and later sources of the Nu ayr - Alaw sect published most recently in Lebanon. Also studied in depth for the first time is the question of the identity of the sect through the Alaw -Sunn -Sh triangle.
Light upon Light: Essays in Islamic Thought and History in Honor of Gerhard Bowering brings together studies that explore the richness of Islamic intellectual life in the pre-modern period.
This companion provides information on the lives and works of about 150 authors who write primarily in Arabic, covering the first known works of Arabic literature in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. to the present day. While concentrating on literary authors, writers from the fields of history, geography, and philosophy are also represented. The individuals represented were chosen primarily from the Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Among the major authors are Najib Mahfuz, the 1988 Nobel laureate; Nawal Saadawi, the Egyptian physician who is the leading female literary author in the Arab world and the most frequently translated into English; Abu al-Ala' al-Ma'arri, the 11th century poet whose verses are taught to every Arab schoolchild; and Avicenna, the great physician and philosopher, transmitter and interpreter of Aristotle, whose work on medicine was long the standard not only in the Middle East but also (in Latin translation) in Europe. In addition, entries will be included for the anonymous romances so common in Arabic literature, such as The Arabian Nights, a cycle of stories perhaps even better known in the West than in the Arab world. Interest in the history and culture of the Arab world at U.S. universities has taken a quantum leap since the events of September 11, 2001. In this book, the author demonstrates that at least three major, distinct literary and cultural traditions are included within the fields of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies—Arabic, Persian, and Turkic. The Arabic tradition is the oldest, largest, and most widely dispersed. Undergraduate courses in Arabic literature and culture are now being taught at both lower- and upper-levels at many universities. Such courses are often used by undergraduates to fulfill basic educational requirements for their degrees. Students in such courses often have difficulty finding information on Arab writers, and this volume fills the void.
This volume contains six articles on Ibn ʿAsākir and his Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq illustrating a variety of perspectives and approaches to the material. It includes a seventh article that discusses the process by which the now standard Dār al-fikr edition was compiled. The contributions address both the geographical and biographical sections of the Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq. Some of the authors examine Ibn ʿAsākir’s sources, while others describe how Ibn ʿAsākir’s works were used by later generations of scholars and how he influenced multiple genres of later writings. The volume also contains analyses of individual biographies and discussions of Ibn ʿAsākir’s treatment of larger classes of people, including the first analysis of his biographies of women. In sum, it illustrates both the wide range of topics that the Taʾrīkh madīnat Dimashq covers and the latest techniques for analyzing Ibn ʿAsākir and his work. Contributors: Zayde Antrim, Steven Judd, Nancy Khalek, James Lindsay, Suleiman Mourad, Dana Sajdi, Jens Scheiner, Monika Winet.
A controversial episode in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Muslims now universally deny that the Satanic verses incident took place. But Muslims did not always hold this view. Shahab Ahmed uses this case to explore how religions establish truth.
