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. Leading scholars around the world present nineteen studies that explore diverse areas of Islamic Studies, in honor of a renowned scholar and teacher: Professor Dr. Gerhard Bowering (Yale University). The volume includes contributions in four main areas: (1) Quran and Early Islam; (2) Sufism, Shiʿism, and Esotericism; (3) Philosophy; (4) Literature and Culture. These areas reflect the enormous breadth of...

In The Fatimids and the Sea (909-1171), David Bramoullé shows how in medieval times an Ismaili dynasty of Caliphs used the sea to develop and justify its claims of control over the Muslim world. Dans les Fatimides et la mer (909-1171), David Bramoullé montre comment à à l’époque médiévale une dynastie musulmane de rite ismaélien utilisa la mer pour se développer et justifier ses prétentions à contrôler le monde musulman.

In Damascus Life 1480-1500: A Report of a Local Notary, Boaz Shoshan offers a microhistory of the largest Syrian city at the end of the Mamluk period and on the eve of the Ottoman conquest. Mainly based on a partly preserved diary, the earliest available of its kind and written by Ibn Ṭawq, a local notary, it portrays the life of a lower middle class who originated from the countryside and who, through marriage, was able to become a legal clerk and associate with scholars and bureaucrats. His diary does not only provide us with unique information on his family, social circle and the...

Research that focuses on holograph, autograph and authorial manuscripts in Arabic handwritten script has been casual, although these manuscripts raise important and varied questions. In this volume nine contributions and case studies are gathered that address theoretical issues and convey different, disruptive perspectives. A particularly important subject of this book is the identification of an author’s handwriting.

This book offers students and scholars an introduction to and insight into the wealth of historiographies produced in various Muslim milieus. Four articles deal with the classical period: archaeology and history in early Islamic Amman; an analysis of sources dealing with Muwaḥḥid North Africa; al-Maqrizī’s prosopographical production; the rise of early Ottoman historiography. Three examine sacred history as historiography: in 10th century Fatimid Egypt; in the 16th century Indian Chishtī Sufi milieu; and in the Sino-Muslim Confucian tradition in Qing China. The final two articles...

In Höfische Musikkultur im klassischen Islam wirft Yasemin Gökpinar einen frischen Blick auf die Sängersklavinnen und ihr Liedrepertoire inmitten der Ambiguitäten des Hoflebens von den Abbasiden bis zu den Mamluken. In the present volume Yasemin Gökpinar offers new perspectives on singing slave girls and their song repertoires, in the midst of the ambiguities of court life, from the Abbasids to the Mamluks.

Cette monographie porte sur la question de la connaissance dans le commentaire coranique de Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. Ahmed Oulddali y étudie, à travers plusieurs sources, les théories psychologiques et épistémologiques sur lesquelles cet exégète sunnite fonde son interprétation du Coran. This monograph addresses the question of knowledge in Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's Qurʾān commentary. Utilizing a variety of sources, Ahmed Oulddali presents the psychological and epistemological theories on which this Sunni exegete bases his interpretation of the Qurʾān.

This pioneering study casts important new light on key issues in the development of dogmatic instruction in early Islam, as it examines the creed written by the Basran and Baghdadi Sunni preacher Ghulām Khalīl (d. 275/888). It includes a critical edition of the Arabic text and an English translation of what appears to be one of the earliest statements of religious beliefs in Islam. In particular, this book argues convincingly that this influential text was authored by the ninth century Ghulām Khalīl rather than the Hanbali preacher of Baghdad, al-Barbahārī - a claim repeatedly made by...

In early eleventh century Zaragoza, the eminent Jewish scholar Abū l-Walīd Marwān ibn Janāḥ wrote a glossary containing almost 1100 entries, entitled Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ. This important text, considered lost until recently, contains Arabic and foreign-language names of simple drugs, weights, measures, and other medical terms. In the present volume, the Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ is edited and translated for the first time by Gerrit Bos and Fabian Käs. In detailed commentaries, the editors identify the substances mentioned in the Talkhīṣ. They also elaborate on the role of the text in the...

Mediterranean Captivity through Arab Eyes, 1517-1798 is the first book that examines the Arabic captivity narratives in the early modern period. Based on Arabic sources in archives stretching from Amman to Fez to London and Rome, Matar presents the story of captivity from the perspective of the Arabic-speaking captives who have not been examined in the growing field of captivity studies.