scholarly journals Three Fragments of a Judaeo-Arabic Translation of Ecclesiastes with Full Tiberian Vocalisation

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Nick Posegay ◽  
Estara J Arrant
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Transcription System ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Cairo Genizah

Abstract Judaeo-Arabic manuscripts with complete vocalisation are rare, a problem which makes reconstructing the pronunciation of the medieval language challenging. This study presents an edition of a Judaeo-Arabic translation of Ecclesiastes from the Cairo Genizah with full Tiberian vocalisation. This manuscript exhibits noteworthy features of dialectal medieval Arabic and a palaeographic style which places it in twelfth-century Egypt-Palestine. The transcription system provides specific evidence for the pronunciation of a type of medieval Judaeo-Arabic, while the translation offers a window into the culture of popular Bible translations and scribal activity in the medieval Middle East.

scholarly journals Christian Witness in the Middle East

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Wilbert van Saane
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Development Work ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Christian Witness

This contribution discusses the reception to and relevance of ‘Christian witness in a multi-religious world’ in the Middle East. After a brief survey of the reception and some comments on the Arabic translation of the document, it argues that the guidelines offered in ‘Christian witness’ are especially relevant with regard to intra-Christian proselytism, relief and development work, and religious freedom and conversion.

Intercultural relations between Arabs and Israeli Jews as reflected in Arabic translations of modern Hebrew literature

Target ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmoud Kayyal
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
The Other ◽  
Intercultural Dialogue ◽  
Intercultural Relations ◽  
Hebrew Literature ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
Modern Hebrew ◽  
Arab Minority

Contacts between Arabic and Israeli Hebrew cultures have taken place in the shadow of a prolonged and violent political conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. The intercultural dialogue between them has, therefore, been antagonistic, polemical, and fraught with stereotypes and prejudices. This antagonistic dialogue is also reflected in Hebrew–Arabic translation activity, since the elements involved in this activity and the considerations which guided them both before and in the course of the translation were, first and foremost, political. The translations themselves were not accepted as literary creations, but rather as documents reflecting the culture of the other. Neither the presence of an ethnic Arab minority in Israel nor the peace agreements between Israel and certain Arab states brought about any significant change in the nature of translation activity. Clearly, therefore, in a state of violent national conflict translation activity will produce translations whose purpose is ideological rather than literary.

scholarly journals Joseph’s Food Politics as Life-Keeper of Many People: A Close Rereading of Genesis 47:13–26

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonky Karman
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Food Politics ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Bible Translations ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Agricultural Knowledge ◽  
Form Criticism ◽  
Traditional Image

The Septuagint reading predominantly influences the interpretation of Genesis 47:13-26 (primarily v. 21). Despite a positive portrayal of Joseph, he is also seen as Pharaoh’s accomplice to enslave the Egyptian people. This connection with slavery activities contradicts the traditional image of Joseph as the life-keeper of many people. Solution for the negative portrait of Joseph usually refers to the Masoretic Text, although it is not a reference to many modern Bible translations and commentaries. The Septuagint as a reference, in this case, is indeed difficult to reject. However, that does not mean that Joseph promotes the slavery of the Egyptian people throughout the land, but rather an ancient form of state capitalism. This article draws on textual criticism, word studies, form criticism, and agricultural knowledge background in the ancient Middle East. The contribution of this research is to show that, instead of enslaving, Joseph formulated an Egyptian food politics in the larger context of Joseph’s narrative reality as the life-keeper of many people. 

scholarly journals THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC COMMENTARY ON PLATO’S REPUBLIC: IBN RUSHD’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE POSITION AND POTENTIAL OF WOMEN

Islamology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Tineke Melkebeek
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Ibn Rushd ◽  
The Republic ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

This paper investigates the twelfth-century commentary on Plato’s Republic by the Andalusian Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes). Ibn Rushd is considered to be the only Muslim philosopher who commented on the Republic. Written around 375 BC, Plato’s Republic discusses the order and character of a just city-state and contains revolutionary ideas on the position and qualities of women, which remained contested also in Ibn Rushd’s time. This Muslim philosopher is primarily known as the most esteemed commentator of Aristotle. However, for the lack of an Arabic translation of Aristotle’s Politics, Ibn Rushd commented on the political theory of Aristotle’s teacher, i.e. Plato’s Republic, instead. In his commentary, Ibn Rushd juxtaposes examples from Plato’s context and those from contemporary Muslim societies. Notably, when he diverges from the text, he does not drift off toward more patriarchal, Aristotelian interpretations. On the contrary, he argues that women are capable of being rulers and philosophers, that their true competencies remain unknown as long as they are deprived of education, and that this situation is detrimental to the flourishing of the city. This article aims to critically analyse Ibn Rushd’s statements on the position of women, as well as their reception in scholarly literature. 

The Realm of the Imām the Faṭīmids in the tenth century

1996 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-449
Author(s):  
Michael Brett
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Modern History ◽  
The Third ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Middle Ages

Despite their period from the tenth to the twelfth century, at the height of the Middle Ages; despite their position in Egypt, at the centre of the civilization of the Near and Middle East; and despite their prominence as the third Caliphate of Islam, the Fāṭimids lack a satisfactory modern history of their dynasty. This is partly because of the length of their life, which covers the histories of so many hundreds of years; partly because of the span of their empire from North Africa to Egypt and Syria, stretching across the histories of so many regions; and finally because, at the level of Islam itself, their empire was divided between their dawla or state and their daՙwa or doctrine. The doctrine, which focused on the Fāṭimid Imām as the quṭb or pole of faith, gave the dynasty its peculiar strength and endurance. The failure of that doctrine to supersede the Islam of the schools, however, left the Fāṭimids increasingly isolated and ultimately vulnerable. Standing outside the mainstream of Islamic tradition, the dynasty's own version of its history was disregarded. Instead, its components passed out of their original context to be incorporated into the regional or universal histories of subsequent authors. Maqrīzī was alone in compiling his Ittiՙāẓ al-ḥunafā' as a history of the dynasty in Egypt, introduced by a miscellany of information on its origins and previous career.

Some reflections on the Arabic translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Haseeb Shehadeh
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Arabic Version ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
Arabic Dialects

The various Arabic translations of the Bible, Rabbinic, Karaite, Samaritan and Christian, are a vivid witness to the fact that the Bible has remained firmly roots to the civilization of the Middle East. These religious communities, with the exception of the Karaites, lived before the advent of Islam in the 7th century and continued all to exist until the present day. These religious communities called by Islamic law the people of the book, had gradually been arabicized by the end of the 11th century. The Samaritans had been speaking and writing Arabic without interruption for about a dozen of centuries. Their Arabic version of the Pentateuch is undoubtedly an important source for a better understanding of their concepts and beliefs, of their medieval exegesis and of their Aramaic and Arabic dialects.

Agapius of Manbiǧ, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā and the Graeco-Roman Past

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 7-41
Author(s):  
Robert G. Hoyland
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Arabic Translation ◽  
Historical Material ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Islamic Empire

Abstract This article looks at the routes by which knowledge of the Greco-Roman past was transmitted from late antiquity by Christian communities living under Muslim rule. The process involved translation from Greek to Syriac and from Greek and Syriac to Arabic. Once in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Abbasid Middle East, this historical material could be used by Muslim scholars to work into their histories of the pre-Islamic Middle East. This article also shows that historical texts could easily cross interconfessional lines and that their transmission, although handled very differently to scientific texts, was still part of the broader transfer of late antique culture to the Islamic Empire that is commonly referred to as the Graeco-Arabic translation movement.

The life of Aq-Sunqur al-Bursuqi: some notes on twelfth-century Islamic history and thirteenth-century Muslim historiography

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Alex Mallett
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Wide Region ◽  
Islamic History

AbstractThis article examines the career of the Turkish emir Aq Sunqur al-Bursuqi, who was active across a wide region of the Middle East in the first half of the twelfth century. In so doing, it highlights important aspects of the Crusades and Counter-Crusade more widely during this period. It also analyses the presentation of al-Bursuqi in the historical chronicles which form the basis of studying the early twelfth century, in order to further understanding of the late-sixth/twelfth and early-seventh/thirteenth century societies in which they were written.

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