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There is no shortage of Black characters in Miguel de Cervantes’s works, yet there has been a profound silence about the Spanish author’s compelling literary construction and cultural codification of Black Africans and sub-Saharan Africa. In Cervantine Blackness, Nicholas R. Jones reconsiders in what sense Black subjects possess an inherent value within Cervantes’s cultural purview and literary corpus. In this unflinching critique, Jones charts important new methodological and theoretical terrain, problematizing the ways emphasis on agency has stifled and truncated the study of Black Africans and their descendants in early modern Spanish cultural and literary production. Through the le...
The motto of the Royal Society—Nullius in verba—was intended to highlight the members’ rejection of received knowledge and the new place they afforded direct empirical evidence in their quest for genuine, useful knowledge about the world. But while many studies have raised questions about the construction, reception and authentication of knowledge, Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences is the first to examine the problem of evidence at this pivotal moment in European intellectual history. What constituted evidence—and for whom? Where might it be found? How should it be collected and organized? What is the relationship between evidence and proof? These are crucial questions, for wha...
“A magisterial tour de force that will be received as a significant contribution to the historiography of race in colonial Latin America.” —Cecily Jones, H-Caribbean The colonization of Spanish America resulted in the mixing of Natives, Europeans, and Africans and the subsequent creation of a casta system that discriminated against them. Members of mixed races could, however, free themselves from such burdensome restrictions through the purchase of a gracias al sacar—a royal exemption that provided the privileges of Whiteness. For more than a century, the whitening gracias al sacar has fascinated historians. Even while the documents remained elusive, scholars continually mentioned th...
“Science” and “Religion” have been two major elements in the building of modern nation-states. While contemporary historiography of science has studied the interactions between nation building and the construction of modern scientific and technological institutions, “science-and-religion” is still largely based on a supposed universal historiography in which global notions of “science” and of “religion” are seldom challenged. This book explores the interface between science, religion and nationalism at a local level, paying attention to the roles religious institutions, specific confessional traditions, or an undefined notion of “religion” played in the construction o...
During the early modern period, regional specified compendia – which combine information on local moral and natural history, towns and fortifications with historiography, antiquarianism, images series or maps – gain a new agency in the production of knowledge. Via literary and aesthetic practices, the compilations construct a display of regional specified knowledge. In some cases this display of regional knowledge is presented as a display of a local cultural identity and is linked to early modern practices of comparing and classifying civilizations. At the core of the publication are compendia on the Americas which research has described as chorographies, encyclopeadias or – more recently – 'cultural encyclopaedias'. Studies on Asian and European encyclopeadias, universal histories and chorographies help to contextualize the American examples in the broader field of an early modern and transcultural knowledge production, which inherits and modifies the ancient and medieval tradition.
This volume belongs to the new critical edition of the complete works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626). The edition presents the works in broadly chronological order and in accordance with the principles of modern textual scholarship. This volume comprises the first critical edition since the nineteenth century of New Atlantis, Bacon's posthumously published semi-utopian fable of reformed knowledge. New Atlantis is set on an imaginary island whose central institution--Salomon's House--is a fictional embodiment of the kind of research institute Bacon dreamed of founding in order to pursue his vast project, the Instauratio magna, and one which generates works that both expand knowledge and benefit...
Long dependent on the Asian spice trade, Portugal suffered serious setbacks during the period of political union with Spain (1580–1640), as the Dutch and others seized key regions and destroyed commercial monopolies. By 1668, the greatest hope for a renewed Portuguese empire lay to the west. This book examines the “Atlanticization” of Lisbon during the early modern era, investigating the social, economic, religious, and political evolution that took place in Portugal’s capital during a period of upheaval and transformation in Europe and in the Atlantic world. In this book, Cacey Bowen Farnsworth shows how, between 1668 and 1750, Lisbon became a crossroads where colonial developments ...
This text offers a comprehensive discussion of minorities and ethnic politics in eight Arab countries. Focusing on the strategic political chaos made by minorities, majorities and regimes in power, the authors point to probable future developments in majority-minority relations in the region.
This volume explores the decision by the government of Egypt in the 1970s to constitutionalize Islamic sharīʿa and discusses its impact on Egypt’s constitutional jurisprudence. The author, who is trained in Islamic intellectual history and comparative law, begins by examining the evolution of Sunni Islamic legal theory and describes competing theories of Islamic law that co-exist in modern Egypt. The book then explores how the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt has developed its own approach to interrpreting sharīʿa—one that permits the Court to argue that sharī‘a principles are consistent with international human rights norms. The book concludes with a discussion of the public reception of the Court’s theory. This book will be essential for anyone interested in the evolution of Islamic law, the development of constitutional thought in the Middle East, or the relationship between Islam and human rights.
At the heart of London's spy operations, Mossad head of station Eli carries the scars of a past disaster while grappling with the turbulent political landscape back home. His resolve to uphold his duty and keep his job is tested like never before. Desperate to tip the scales in the espionage game, Eli concocts a risky plan involving tampered drones destined for Russian hands. But to execute this plan, he has to exploit those closest to him. Eli's moral compass clashes with the mission, leading him down a treacherous path of betrayal. As the stakes escalate, Eli finds himself embroiled in a deadly web, racing to foil an apocalyptic agenda. With the clock ticking, alliances are tested, sacrifices are made, and Eli must confront the consequence of his actions head-on. Eli and his team must navigate a shadowy underworld to prevent a terrorist plot from unleashing chaos on a global scale. Will they emerge victorious, or will the darkness consume them all? A must-read for fans of Homeland and NCIS, it will also appeal to readers of Charles Cumming and John le Carré.