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Examines the socio-cultural history of the regions where Islam took hold between the 7th and 16th century. This two-volume work contains 700 alphabetically arranged entries, and provides a portrait of Islamic civilization. It is of use in understanding the roots of Islamic society as well to explore the culture of medieval civilization.
In The Inimitable Qurʾān: Some Problems in English Translations of the Qurʾān with Reference to Rhetorical Features, Khalid Yahya Blankinship examines certain Arabic rhetorical features of the Qurʾān as represented in seven English translations.
This book presents a collection of articles that put forward original research and significant insight regarding several key issues related to knowledge and language in Middle Eastern societies. The aspects studied include: the role of knowledge and language in affirming and negating political agendas and self-identities within areas of conflict and tension; ideas regarding the usefulness and interaction of religious and secular knowledge; and the attributes that render knowledge and language, especially that which is believed to be of divine origin, outstanding and worthy of admiration. The selection of studies has been purposefully diverse to include a variety of languages, including Arabi...
The Qur'an is probably the most self-referential text in the history of world religions. It often describes its own textuality, it reflects on Arabic as its linguistic medium, it distances itself from other genres of mantic speech such as poetry or soothsaying, it justifies itself vis-a-vis other revelations, and finally it contains important elements of exegesis. Muslim scripture is a message and at the same time often a message about the message. The self-reflexive mood of the Qur'an has only recently become a focus of Qur'anic studies. This collection of papers by a number of experts in the field outlines the role of selfreferentiality for the inner history of Qur'anic recitation, for the canonization of the Qur'anic text and for a better understanding of Qur'anic revelation in its historical embedding.
For many Muslims, the textual sources of Islam provide the guiding principles on which they base their beliefs. These texts have also been studied by Western scholars of Islam for centuries. Most of their work has focussed on the historicity of the texts, often at the expense of the study of Muslims' highly diverse interpretation and application of these sources in everyday life. This volume provides new insights into the transmission of these sources (primarily the Qurʾān and the Ḥadīth) and combines this with the dynamics of these scriptures by paying close attention to how believers in the Muslim world as well as the West interpret and apply them. As such, this volume provides a fascinating overview of how the sources of Islam are dated, debated and negotiated. Contributors include: Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort, Gregor Schoeler, Maribel Fierro, Fred Leemhuis, Claude Gilliot, Andreas Görke, Jens Scheiner, Michael Lecker, Maher Jarrar, Gerard Wiegers, Uri Rubin, Kees Versteegh, Joas Wagemakers, Herbert Berg, Abdulkader Tayob, Roel Meijer, Martijn de Koning, Carmen Becker and Ulrike Mitter.
How do we understand current events in Egypt? Prior to January 25, 2011, when asked about unusual images, sights, or sounds, Cairene responses ranged from a litany of complaints to well-rehearsed, guidebook descriptions of picturesque neighborhoods and magnificent ruins. Occasionally, however, a thoughtful resident would remain silent, leaving visitors and guests to accept the surrounding smiles, shrugs, honking horns, blaring loudspeakers, and strings of expletives as background ambience. During the revolution, when the call for freedom and democracy became more coherent, the demand for change further complicated questions about Egyptian identity. This volume focuses on written and oral expression as viewed through the lenses of rhetoric, language and communication in order to further understand some of the changes that appear to have altered and strengthened Egyptians’ perceptions of themselves.
Writing in the eighteenth century, the Persian-language litterateurs of late Mughal Delhi were aware that they could no longer take for granted the relations of Persian with Islamic imperial power, relations that had enabled Persian literary life to flourish in India since the tenth century C.E. Persian Authorship and Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi situates the diverse textual projects of ‘Abd al-Qādir “Bīdil” and his students within the context of politically threatened but poetically prestigious Delhi, exploring the writers’ use of the Perso-Arabic and Hindavi literary canons to fashion their authorship. Breaking with the tendency to categorize and characterize Persian literatur...
SQL For Dummies shows programmers and web developers how to use SQL to build relational databases and get valuable information from them. The book covers the core features of the SQL language as well as other topics such as how to use SQL to structure a DBMS and implement a database design, secure a database or retrieve info from a database. This revision covers the enhancements on SQL specification in SQL:2003, including how to handle data stored in XML files and on the web, and expanded coverage of image and sound files. It also covers some hot trends, such as OLE DB.
In The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction, Muhsin J. al-Musawi offers a groundbreaking study of literary heritage in the medieval and premodern Islamic period. Al-Musawi challenges the paradigm that considers the period from the fall of Baghdad in 1258 to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1919 as an "Age of Decay" followed by an "Awakening" (al-nahdah). His sweeping synthesis debunks this view by carefully documenting a "republic of letters" in the Islamic Near East and South Asia that was vibrant and dynamic, one varying considerably from the generally accepted image of a centuries-long period of intellectual and literary stagnation. Al-Musawi argues tha...
Kawar, an oasis in the centre of the Sahara, rose to prominence on revenues from the vast quantities of salt it produced and traded with the south. This study traces Kawar's history from classical times to the colonial conquest and occupation of 1906, focusing on its role in salt production.