Islamic Literature in Translation

1972 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-43
Author(s):  
Lois Giffen

This course of one semester for undergraduates samples the literature—broadly defined—of the Arab, Persian and Turkish peoples and a time span of from just before the rise of Muhammad to modern times. It is literature-centered, i.e., the attention is on the reading and discussion of certain works or selections from works, rather than on literary history. Conceived more on the style of a Great Books course, its aim is to give the student as much direct acquaintance as possible in a few weeks with the thought, and the literary sensibilities of a great civilization. An alternative title would be Islamic Humanities, taking a cue from the more inclusive Oriental Humanities courses and the successful Western Humanities courses which led the way for them.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 481-502
Author(s):  
BURKHARDT WOLF

Abstract Vom Untergang zur See zu handeln, führt in der westlichen Erzähltradition seit Homer auf kosmologische und existentielle, politische und ökonomische Belange. Will man von einem regelrechten ,,Schiffbruch-Narrativ“ sprechen, dann ist dieses nicht nur durch eine longue durée motivischer und struktureller Beständigkeit ausgezeichnet, sondern auch durch einen hohen Grad an sprachlich-formaler Selbstreflexivität und seit der Neuzeit durch die Engführung nautischer mit poetischen Innovationen. Wendepunkte markiert das Scheitern nunmehr in seefahrts- und auch literaturhistorischer Hinsicht, weshalb man, wie im Portugal der Entdeckerzeit, von einem maritimen ,,discurso“ sprechen kann.In the Western narrative tradition since Homer, relating to sea losses leads to cosmological and existential, political and economic concerns. The ,,shipwreck narrative“ is characterized by a long-lasting motivic and structural consistency. But furthermore, it exhibits a high degree of linguistic and formal self-reflexiveness, and since modern times, it brings together nautical with poetic innovations. The sinking now marks turning points in terms of maritime navigation as well as literary history, which is why, as in Portugal of the time of discovery, one can speak of a maritime ,,discurso“.


1982 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Morris-Jones

Those who kindly invited me to give this lecture showed some resistance to its sub-title. I insisted on ‘a view from the sidelines’ because I wished to emphasize that my remarks would be based on my own presence at the events of 1947 and confined to those matters with which I had direct acquaintance. This is still largely true: mine is in part an undisguisedly personal tale. But the matter is rather more complicated. For one thing, while I was certainly a spectator I was also able for a couple of months in 1947 to scamper on to a segment of New Delhi's field of fateful play, even to get a touch or two of the ball, before returning to my place on the terraces. But for the purpose of this lecture I could not content myself with recollections; I have, as it were, examined the slow re-plays of the television cameras. In trying to match my memories, diaries and letters from 1947 with the files at India Office Records, there have, I confess, been phases of bewilderment on the way to such modest and provisional enlightenment as I can offer. It is not simply that in the 34 years the world has moved on, the perspective has changed; that is a problem which the historian's whole skill is devoted to overcome. The difficulty is aggravated when the spectator cum minor actor in the drama of yesteryear puts on the historian's robe; for not only the world but he with it has changed.


Author(s):  
Claudia von Collani

Chinese religions, philosophy, and especially Confucianism constituted a great challenge for the Catholic mission since its beginnings in China in early modern times. This essay looks at the way the missionaries, especially the Jesuits, made several attempts to solve the problem. Niccolò Longobardo s.j., for example, refused to use Chinese terms for the Christian God, dismissing them as insufficient or atheistic. Most Jesuits, however, advocated for terms such as Tian, Shangdi, Tianzhu, and Taiji for God in China. The Mandate of the Vicar Apostolic Charles Maigrot m.e.p., prohibiting the use of the Yijing and Taiji as the Chinese name for God, became a great challenge for Joachim Bouvet s.j. in developing his Figurism. With this system, he found complements for Christianity in China and created a new theology combining Eastern and Western ideas. These efforts were stopped by the prohibition of the Chinese rites and by the historical-critical method for reading the old Chinese books.


Author(s):  
Graziella Federici Vescovini

Blasius of Parma was an important Italian philosopher, mathematician and astrologer who popularized the achievements of Oxford logic and Parisian physics in Italy. He questioned the Aristotelian foundations of medieval physical science, mechanics, astronomy and optics, thus helping to open the way to the mathematics, optics and statics of modern times. His teaching influenced the artists of the Florentine Renaissance in their rediscovery of linear perspective, and his discussion of proportions influenced the Paduan mathematicians up to the time of Galileo. He presented an atomist and quantitative account of physical reality, and a materialist account of the human intellect. His consequent denial of the immortality of the soul won him the title of ‘diabolical doctor’ (doctor diabolicus). His position on the human ability to avoid astrological determinism was equivocal. Though his work was scholastic in style, he enjoyed good relations with such Italian humanists as Vittorino da Feltre, whose request for lessons in mathematics he refused. In Florence, he took part in conversations between humanists and scholastics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (03) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Boianovsky

The paper shows how William Barber’s background as a development economist influenced his research agenda in the history of economic thought, in terms of the questions he asked and the way he approached them. The links between the history of economic theory and of policy-making are highlighted, as well as Barber’s investigation of the engagement of British economists with India’s economic matters throughout the time span of the British East India Company.


2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Martindale

The Russian Formalists and Czech Structuralists argued that foregrounding devices such as deformation and deautomatization are central to literature. They saw that such devices build a pressure for novelty into literature. Literature must change constantly because readers gradually become used to and bored with initially novel and interesting deformations. Formalist and Structuralist theorists saw that literature should change but could not explain the direction in which it would change. They hypothesized that the direction of change is determined by extra-literary sociocultural forces. I argue that this hypothesis may be wrong. If we examine the way in which people think of novel word combinations in the first place, we can formulate a theory that explains the direction of literary change. Production of novelty often involves movement away from ordinary waking consciousness toward an altered state of consciousness. Within the confines of a given style, to produce something even more novel, poets must regress to an even more altered state of consciousness. The state of mind in which a poem is produced to some extent determines the words used in the poem. Given that the pressure for novelty is always present whereas other forces acting upon poets vary, we can predict the direction in which poetry tends to move from the alterations in consciousness required to produce ever more novel poetry. Statistical analyses of several poetic traditions show that this is, indeed, the main direction in which poetry evolves.


1968 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
John R. Crawford

A Mong those elements of Christian doctrine which surged anew to the forefront of Christian thinking during the early sixteenth century was that biblical idea which, in more modern times, we have come to call the ‘priesthood of all believers’. Luther used the doctrine almost as a battle-axe, to hew away at the pretensions of the Roman hierarchy and sacramental system. Almost invariably, it is Luther's name which we find linked to this doctrine in studies of the Reformation period. However, any serious study of the idea of the priesthood of God's people would do well to include an examination of the way in which John Calvin dealt with it, and indeed, the way in which the idea found certain expressions within his system of ecclesiastical organisation. It is our purpose here to see what Calvin taught in relationship to this biblical idea, and what elements of the life of the Genevan church may be considered to be, at least in part, an expression of the idea.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNA KRYLOVA

‘Modernity’ has long been a working category of historical analysis in Russian and Soviet studies. Like any established category, it bears a history of its own characterised by founding assumptions, conceptual possibilities and lasting interpretive habits. Stephen Kotkin's work has played a special role in framing the kind of scholarship this category has enabled and the kind of modernity it has assigned to twentieth-century Russia. Kotkin's 1995Magnetic Mountainintroduced the concept of ‘socialist modernity’. His continued work with the concept in his 2001Kritikaarticle ‘Modern Times’ and his 2001Armageddon Avertedmarked crucial moments in the history of the discipline and have positioned the author as a pioneering and dominant voice on the subject for nearly two decades. Given the defining nature of Kotkin's work, a critical discussion of its impact on the way the discipline conceives of Soviet modernisation and presents it to non-Russian fields is perhaps overdue. Here, I approach Kotkin's work on modernity as the field's collective property in need of a critical, deconstructive reading for its underlying assumptions, prescribed master narratives, and resultant paradoxes.


Author(s):  
Bhikkhu Analayo

This chapter examines the legal details surrounding the full ordination of women into the Buddhist monastic traditions. These legal details need be appreciated in order to understand difficulties involved in current attempts to revive an order of female monastics, bhikṣuṇīs, where it has come to be extinct. The chapter begins with the account of the foundation of the bhikṣuṇī order in the way this is found in the Dharmaguptaka, Mūlasarvāstivāda, and Theravāda Vinayas. Next it surveys the legal parameters that emerge from one of these gurudharmas, which concerns bhikṣuṇī ordination, and how according to these three Vinayas subsequent ordinations were carried out. Then it turns to the transmission of the bhikṣuṇī ordination lineage until modern times to set the frame for appreciating the present situation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (8) ◽  
pp. 670-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Konstantinidou ◽  
M Adams

AbstractBackgroundOtorhinolaryngology has an extensive history that spans nearly five millennia, and the history of women as medical and surgical practitioners stretches back to at least 3500 BC.ObjectivesTo explore the history of women in ENT from ancient to modern times, and discover their fascinating role in this field over the years.MethodA literature review was conducted using Google Scholar and PubMed.ResultsIn ancient and medieval times, there were female doctors accomplished in areas pertaining to ENT. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, inspirational women pioneers paved the way for modern female ENT surgeons. This led to a rapid increase in the representation of female otorhinolaryngologists in clinical practice and authorship over the last fifty years.ConclusionThe contribution of women to otorhinolaryngology has evolved since ancient times and the greatest advancement has occurred within the last two hundred years.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document