Arabic Biography

2020 ◽  
pp. 446-459
Author(s):  
Faustina Doufikar-Aerts
Keyword(s):  
Initial Period ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Biographical Tradition

This chapter examines the Arabic biographical tradition. The genre of biographical writing is a celebrated, multifaceted, and widely practised field of Arabic literature. Basic forms of biographical compilation can be shown from the first century of Islam (seventh century), initially orally transmitted and later in writing. The Arabic biographical tradition was mainly developed from within Islam, to which it owes its noticeable character. It probably originated from the earnest aspiration of generations following the initial period to preserve knowledge about the central figures of that era. For that reason, biographical transmission, initially, was a highly religion-orientated discipline. Nevertheless, or perhaps even due to this stimulus, there developed a huge field of different biographical genres and specialized life-writing.

History of Recording Demotic Epigraphy

2020 ◽  
pp. 491-507
Author(s):  
Jan Moje
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Late Period ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Rosetta Stone ◽  
Roman Egypt ◽  
History Of ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter gives an overview of the history of recording and publishing epigraphic sources in Demotic language and script from the Late Period to Greco-Roman Egypt (seventh century bce to third century ce), for example, on stelae, offering tables, coffins, or votive gifts. The history of editing such texts and objects spans over two hundred years. Here, the important steps and pioneering publications on Demotic epigraphy are examined. They start from the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt found the Rosetta stone, until the twenty-first century.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Eltantawi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
Sokoto Caliphate ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Sense Of Power

Eltantawi became interested in the case of Amina Lawal in 2002 when she was working in Washington DC in media and communications after the 9-11 attacks and was inundated with media phone calls about Lawal’s trial. This chapter introduces the book’s themes and lays out its guiding framework, the “sunnaic paradigm”: the concerns of Nigeria’s present, read back into the nineteenth century Sokoto Caliphate, which is then read back into the classical, Prophetic period of Islam. The sunnaic paradigm gave a sense of power to Nigerians as they embarked on the 1999 shar’ia experiment to overcome their societies’ significant challenges. The book wrestles throughout with how the seventh century past (birth of Islam) affects the twenty-first century present (demanding shar’ia).

The Triumph of the Mule

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Symbolic Value ◽  
The Middle Ages

This chapter starts as the Roman Empire fragmented, encompasses the emergence of Christianity and Islam, and explores the donkey’s place in the history of the Middle Ages, as well as what Fernand Braudel termed ‘the triumph of the mule’ in the ensuing early modern period from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Being closer in time to the present, historical documents are generally richer and more plentiful than for earlier periods, but archaeological excavations and surveys—especially of post-medieval sites and landscapes—are still undeveloped in many regions. Inevitably, therefore, what I present draws as much on textual sources as it does on them. I look first at the symbolic value of donkeys and mules in Christianity and Islam. Next, I consider their disappearance from some parts of Europe in the aftermath of Rome’s collapse and their re-expansion and persistence elsewhere. One aspect of this concerns their continuing contribution to agricultural production, another their consumption as food, a very un-Roman practice. A second theme showing continuities from previous centuries is their significance in facilitating trade and communication over both short and long distances. Tackling this requires inserting donkeys and mules into debates about how far pack animals replaced wheeled forms of transport as Late Antiquity gave way to the Middle Ages. Wide-ranging in time and space, this discussion also provides opportunities for exploring their role in human history in areas beyond those on which I have concentrated thus far. West Africa is one, the Silk Road networks linking China to Central Asia a second, and China’s southward connections into Southeast Asia a third. According to the New Testament Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday seated on a donkey (Plate 20). The seventh-century apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew also envisages donkeys carrying His mother to Bethlehem, being present at the Nativity, and conveying the Holy Family into temporary exile in Egypt. Donkeys thus framed both ends of Jesus’ life and, given their importance in moving people and goods in first-century Palestine, must have been a familiar sight. But the implications of their place in Christianity’s narrative were originally quite different from those that are generally understood today.

Seek Knowledge Even If It Takes You to China (Via Washington)Saudi Arabia and China in the Twenty-First Century

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 166-188
Author(s):  
Sean Foley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
The United States ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Strategic Factors ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Two Sides

For much of the last twenty years, China’s ties with Saudi Arabia have been understood in commercial terms, with most scholars arguing that the relationship has little cultural or historical depth. Drawing on multiple trips to China between 2011 and 2015 along with a ten-month period living continuously in Saudi Arabia in 2013 and 2014, this paper argues that there are factors other than economics that should be considered: namely, historical ties dating back to the seventh century, Saudi cultural and geo-strategic linkages to the United States, and the new economic and political geography of Eurasia. While cultural and strategic factors have limited the growth of Saudi-Sino ties since the start of the Arab Spring, they are likely to be the factors that allow for the two sides to realize the potential of their bilateral relationship in the future—even while retaining their close current alliances with other great powers.

Types of Life-Writing in Suetonius’ Lives Of The Caesars and Illustrious Men

2020 ◽  
pp. 195-208
Author(s):  
Dennis Pausch
Keyword(s):  
Life Writing ◽  
Close Connection ◽  
Usual Approach ◽  
Literary Techniques ◽  
Biographical Tradition

This chapter highlights Suetonius’ biographical work, considering some of the literary techniques he employed in both his Lives of the Caesars and Lives of Illustrious Men, and comparing his approach with the biographical tradition in Rome. The usual approach of studying the surviving parts of Suetonius’ œuvre separately from one another and instead comparing them to the works of their predecessors within the respective generic tradition has often led to severe criticism. Many of the typical features of his biographies—such as their stylistic simplicity or thematic idiosyncrasy—can be explained, however, and thus perhaps even seen in a more favourable light, if his writings are studied in close connection with each other. Viewed in this light, it is not at all surprising that he continues his antiquarian approach with regard to both style and content. At the same time, he was fully aware of the tradition of biographical writing and thus adopted the qualities that seemed suitable to him in the Caesars as well as in Illustrious Men.

The Influence of Quran and Islamic Financial Transactions and Banking

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdel Halabi ◽  
Ashraf Kazi
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Islamic Banking ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Universal Language ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Conventional Banks ◽  
Financial Transactions

AbstractThe Quran is the holy book of the followers of Islam, where simple solutions to the day-to-day problems of life are discussed in detail. Whatever the nationality of a Muslim, the Quran and Islamic prayers remain in a single universal language called "Arabic". Thus, uniformity has been maintained throughout the world from the days of the Prophet Mohammed, in the seventh century to the twenty-first century. Financial transactions and banking based upon Shariah are growing rapidly today. Islamic banking has been widely accepted in many countries such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Brunei, and Saudi Arabia, and are an increasing presence in Canada and Australia. Islamic banking and financial transactions are different from conventional banks, and this has led to some criticisms. After tracing the history of Islamic Banking some of these criticisms are discussed. While Islamic Banking does face some challenges, it continues to grow, and this growth reflects the desire for social, political and economic systems based on Islamic principles.

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