Yasir Suleiman considers national identity in relation to language, the way in which language can be manipulated to signal political, cultural or historical difference. As a language with a long-recorded heritage spoken by the majority of peoples in the Middle East, Arabic is a particularly appropriate language to study and provides a penetrating means of exploring the conflicts of the Middle East.

Yasir Suleiman considers national identity in relation to language, the way in which language can be manipulated to signal political, cultural or historical difference. As a language with a long-recorded heritage spoken by the majority of peoples in the Middle East, Arabic is a particularly appropriate language to study and provides a penetrating means of exploring the conflicts of the Middle East.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The concept of taclil occupies a central position in the Arabic intellectual tradition. In grammar it covers a host of areas of immense theoretical interest, including description, methodology, epistemology and explanation. This book sets out to deal with the concept by investigating the major works of those grammarians who have contributed most in theoretical terms to its development and elaboration in the Arabic Grammatical Tradition. It seeks to do so by considering the relation between grammar, on the one hand, and jurisprudence and theology, on the other. In dealing with the above issues...

This compelling study presents an original look at how 'the nation' is represented in the literature of the Middle East. It includes chapters on Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine and Israel, drawing on the expertise of literary scholars, historians, political scientists and cultural theorists.
The book offers a synthesising contribution to knowledge, placing Arab literature within the context of emergent or conflicting nationalist projects in the area.
The approaches taken by the authors range from textual and rhetorical analysis to historical accounts of the role of literature...

The publication of this book honours Professor Carole Hillenbrand's outstanding achievements in and service to Islamic and Middle Eastern Scholarship.
It gathers original research from a range of leading international scholars from the UK, Europe and the USA whose chapters throw new light on a set of topics in medieval Islamic history, Islamic doctrine and practice, and the interaction between Islam and the modern world. Seeking to present fresh evidence and engaging ways of looking at old and new material, the authors contribute to a richer understanding of the interaction between...

Arabic, Self, and Identity uses autoethnography, autobiography, and a detailed study of names to investigate the links between conflict and displacement, and between the Self and group identity. In the process it raises questions about trauma and globalization, underscoring the complex roles of language and identity in society.

Yasir Suleiman frames his findings against a far-reaching critique of the dominant, correlational approach in Arabic sociolinguitics. He argues that this approach does not sufficiently explore the link between language and the major narratives of identity...

Devlops Yasir Suleiman's groundbreaking project on Arabic in the social world. Starting with the symbolic and cognitive roles of language, Yasir Suleiman investigates how Arabic is involved in ideological and cultural debates in which conflict is a defining feature. He shows how discussions about the inimitability of the Qur'an in the pre-modern period were, at some deep level, concerned with issues of ethnic election against the background of inter-ethnic strife among Arabs and non-Arabs, mainly Persians. Further, he shows how discussions of the (un)translatability of the Qur'an were related...

Is being Palestinian a 'pain in the neck', or a 'sentence to suffer gladly'? Does Palestinian identity reside in cross-stitch embroidery, sweet knafeh and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, or defending the rights of oppressed communities around the world? How does it feel when you cannot find Palestine under 'P' in the encyclopedia? Why grow fig and orange trees in the Arizona desert? What does it mean to know every inch of a village that no longer exists?
In this ground-breaking volume, 102 contributors now living in the UK and North America reflect in their own words on what it means to be...

Is being Palestinian a 'pain in the neck', or a 'sentence to suffer gladly'? Does Palestinian identity reside in cross-stitch embroidery, sweet knafeh and the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, or defending the rights of oppressed communities around the world? How does it feel when you cannot find Palestine under 'P' in the encyclopedia? Why grow fig and orange trees in the Arizona desert? What does it mean to know every inch of a village that no longer exists?
In this ground-breaking volume, 102 contributors now living in the UK and North America reflect in their own words on what it means to be...