Poetic Knowledge

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 199-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajeev S. Patke

Whether poetry gives knowledge or not is a question that has been debated from a variety of perspectives, depending on how a society or a culture defines knowledge, and on the function it ascribes to poetry in relation to that definition. The civilizations of Asia and the Middle East have generally taken the line that poetry deals primarily with affects, emotions and feelings. The West has had a more complicated history of responses. One way of making sense of this history is to map rival claims as split over the idea of scientific knowledge, where it affects notions of the poetic function. The mapping, through all its manifold branches, gives clear indications that claims to knowledge – both those made on behalf of poetry, and those denied to poetry – depend more on assumptions, predispositions and cultural conditioning than on rational argument or critical debate. The resulting variety also suggests that the cultural relativism that affects such debates is unlikely to arrive at resolutions except of the contingent kind.

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-588
Author(s):  
Michelle U. Campos

Some fifteen years ago, the Israel Museum exhibition “To the East: Orientalism in the Arts in Israel” featured a photograph by the Israeli artist Meir Gal entitled “Nine Out of Four Hundred: The West and the Rest.” At the center of the photograph was Gal, holding the nine pages that dealt with the history of Jews in the Middle East in a textbook of Jewish history used in Israel's education system. As Gal viscerally argued, “these books helped establish a consciousness that the history of the Jewish people took place in Eastern Europe and that Mizrahim have no history worthy of remembering.” More damningly, he wrote that “the advent of Zionism and the establishment of the Israeli State drove a wedge between Mizrahim and their origins, and replaced their Jewish-Arab identity with a new Israeli identity based on European ideals as well as hatred of the Arab world.”


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Guitoo

Is homophobia in Iranian society a product imported from the West? In today's scholarly contributions to the history of sexuality in the Middle East, this question is often answered with a 'yes', pointing to the replacement of local discourses by the Western discourse on sexuality during the imperialist-colonialist phase. The present study is a critical examination of this assumption. Through a historical survey on same-sex desire in Iran, it is argued that the encounter with the West has not resulted in a major epistemological shift in the understanding of sexuality in Iran and that the local knowledge order has remained the dominant discourse regulating same-sex desire and is hence responsible for the anti-homosexual resentments in Iran.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-152
Author(s):  
Valentin A. Bazhanov ◽  
Irving H. Anellis

The article attempts to overview Western scientific knowledge of research in mathematical logic and its history in the USSR and Russia in the first half of the 20th century. We claim that Western scholars followed and were generally aware of the main works of their Soviet and Russian colleagues on mathematical logic and its history. It was possible, firstly, due to the fact that a number of Western scientists knew the Russian language, and, secondly, because Soviet and Russian logicians published their works in English (sometimes in German) in the original journals of mathematical logic or Soviet publishing houses (mainly Mir Publishers) translated Soviet authors into English. Thus, the names of A.G. Dragalin, Yu.L. Ershov, A.S. Karpenko, A.N. Kolmogorov, Z.A. Kuzicheva, Yu.I. Manin, S.Yu. Maslov, F.A. Medvedev, G.E. Mints, V.N. Salii, V.A. Smirnov, A.A. Stolyar, N.I. Styazhkin, V.A. Uspensky, I.M. Yaglom, S.A. Yanovskaya, A.P. Yushkevich, A.A. Zinov’ev were quite known to their Western counterparts. With the dawn of perestroika, contacts of Soviet / Russian logicians expanded significantly. Nevertheless, the analysis of Western works on mathematical logic and the history of logic suggests that by the end of the 20th century the interest of Western scientists in the works of their Russian colleagues had noticeably waned.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Bresheeth

The Arab Spring is one of the most complex and surprising political developments of the new century, especially after a decade of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab western propaganda. While is too early to properly evaluate the process and its various national apparitions, it is important to see it in a historical context. This article places the Arab Spring firmly within the history of pan Arabism, and the threat it posed to the west and Israel in its earlier, Nasserist phase. The work of Amin, Marfleet and others, is used to frame the current developments, and present the limited view offered from an Israeli perspective, where any democratisation of the Arab world is seen as a threat. This is so despite the obvious influence the Arab Spring had on protest in Israel in Summer 1011, a protest which has now seemingly spent itself; it is fascinating to note that the only protest movement in the Middle East not involving violent clashes with the regime it criticised, is also the one which has not achieved any of its aims.


Antiquity ◽  
1934 ◽  
Vol 8 (32) ◽  
pp. 373-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Macdonald

‘That which hath wings shall tell the matter’, says the Preacher. Readers of Antiquity do not need to be reminded of the fresh connotation which aerial photography has given to the text, but never before has its truth been so convincingly driven home as it is by the latest achievement of archaeological aviation. It may be said at once that this account of the Eastern frontier is one of the most important and illuminating contributions ever made to the unwritten history of the Roman Empire. Incidentally, as M. Cumont points out in his lucid and appreciative introduction, its usefulness as a guide for future explorers can hardly be over-estimated. Hundreds of miles of a terra incognita have been thoroughly reconnoitred, so that exponents of the older and less spectacular methods now know exactly where it will profit them to ply the spade and pick. And it is certain that their reward will be rich. Though the sandstorms of the desert may bury, they are in other respects far less destructive than cultivation. In course of time the wonders of Dura-Europos will be repeated or, it may be, eclipsed at other sites. Scholars will then be able to reconstruct with confidence the whole organization of the army of the East, a subject that has hitherto been well-nigh hopelessly obscure. A flood of new light will be thrown on the relations of Rome, first to the Parthians, and then to the Sassanians. At long last we shall learn something of the losing battle which Roman civilization had to fight when it was transplanted to a Semitic countryside, studded here and there with Hellenic towns, —something, that is, of the gradual process by which the legions of the West were slowly but surely transformed into a host of Orientals.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Kasim Abdurrahman

Indonesia is a nation of a diverse civilization. The legacy of Indonesian civilization is significantly influenced by the way of life and religious teachings spread over large and wider regions ranging from Sumatra in the west and Papua in the east. History of Islam in Indonesia culturally has already inherited a number of various historical relics. One of them is the house of worship. This research article discusses one of the historic houses of worship,viz. the Azizi Mosque in Tanjung Pura, Langkat, North Sumatera. With the use of an archaelogical method, by means of techniques of observation, the research focuses on describing, analysing and understanding meaning of architectural, historical objects and religious inscriptions of the mosque as an archaelogical inheritance. The research highlights some important findings. First, the Azizi mosque shows significantly a cultural acculturative mixture of various origin from the Middle East, India, China and Malay. But, in a case of decoration of this mosque, it was affected by the Middle Eastern nuances, especially Arab with Arabic calligraphic inscriptions containing religious messages. Second, philo¬sophically the mosque Azizi represents and symbolizes the Malay’s way of life, characterized by any system of norms and values applied in the Malay community at large, namely the norms of high respects to the power of leaders (umara), clerics (ulama), intellectuals (zumara), the rich (agniya), and the power of the prayers of the poor (fuqara).Keywords: Azizi Mosque, architecture, inscription, Langkat, calligraphyIndonesia adalah satu bangsa yang mempunyai peradaban yang beraneka ragam. Peninggalannya dipengaruhi oleh tradisi kebudayaan maupun keagamaan masyarakat yang tersebar di berbagai wilayah. Sejarah Islam di Indonesia juga termasuk yang memiliki berbagai peninggalan bersejarah. Salah satunya adalah rumah ibadah. Tulisan ini membahas salah satu rumah ibadah bersejarah, yaitu Masjid Azizi di Tanjungpura, Langkat, Sumateran Utara. Tulisan ini menggunakan metode arkeologi, mulai observasi, deskripsi, dan pemaknaannya. Aspek-aspek yang dibahas meliputi arsitektur, benda-benda bersejarah dan inskripsi keagamaan di dalamnya. Arsitektur Mesjid Azizi memperlihatkan perpaduan Timur Tengah, India, Cina, dan Melayu. Secara filosofis mengandung falsafah Melayu, yaitu kekuatan pemimpin (umara), ulama, cerdik pandai (zumara), orang kaya (agniya), dan kekuatan doa orang miskin (fuqara). Hiasan masjid ini bernuansa Timur Tengah, khususnya Arab dengan inskripsi kaligrafi Arab yang mengandung pesan-pesan agamis.Kata kunci: Masjid Azizi, arsitektur, inskripsi, Langkat, kaligrafi


2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-455
Author(s):  
ARTHUR BUEHLER

This edited volume, the outcome of a conference held in 1996 in Istanbul, consists of seventeen articles, sixteen of which concern [ayn]Ali-oriented communities in the Middle East. Ten of the articles are focused on Alevis in Turkey, and the others discuss Ahl-i Haqq studies, the Druze, and the Alawites of Syria. The reader is immediately drawn to the gorgeous, vividly colorful artwork on both covers and the high-quality glossy paper used in this volume, both of which are rare in academic books published in the West. This book will be of interest mainly to Islamicists who are interested in [ayn]Ali-oriented religions, even though Tord Olsson's brief Epilogue is methodologically encompassing for a wider history of religions audience. Libraries should have it in their collections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Jindřich Mleziva

The collection of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen includes significant examples of artworks and decorative arts from Asia. The history of this collection dates back to the last quarter of the 19th century, when these items were a part of a collection of the West Bohemian Museum of Decorative Arts in Pilsen. The first director of the museum, architect Josef Škorpil (1856–1931), contributed to the creation of the decorative arts collection and the acquisition of objects from the Far and Middle East. Thanks to its acquisition activities throughout Europe, a significant decorative arts collection was established in Pilsen. Its importance goes beyond the Pilsen region. The concept of creating this collection was in accordance with the emergence of decorative arts museums in Europe. The collection, together with the Asian objects, was presented to the public as a part of an exposition opened in 1913. Today, the Asian collection consists of Chinese and Korean objects, mainly ceramics and porcelain, as well as exceptionally well-preserved textiles from the late Qing Dynasty. The Japanese portable Buddhist altar zushi or a set of Japanese woodblock prints of the ukiyo-e style are among the most unique acquisitions. A relatively modest set of items from the Middle East includes typical examples of decorative arts from Iran, Turkey or Syria. The objects are still a popular subject of research and have also become a part of the new decorative arts permanent exhibition of the museum that was opened in 2017.


2021 ◽  

A Cultural History of Objects in the Age of Industry covers the period 1760 to 1900, a time of dramatic change in the material world as objects shifted from the handmade to the machine made. The revolution in making, and in consuming the things which were made, impacted on lives at every scale from body to home to workplace to city to nation. Beyond the explosion in technology, scientific knowledge, manufacturing, trade, and museums, changes in class structure, politics, ideology, and morality all acted to transform the world of objects. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Objects examines how objects have been created, used, interpreted and set loose in the world over the last 2500 years. Over this time, the West has developed particular attitudes to the material world, at the centre of which is the idea of the object. The themes covered in each volume are objecthood; technology; economic objects; everyday objects; art; architecture; bodily objects; object worlds.


2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-315
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Wetmore Jr.

One of the greatest challenges to teaching world theatre history in the United States is that the vast majority of survey history books spend two dozen chapters on the theatre of the West, giving the theatres of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East a single chapter each at best. In addition, there have to date been no comprehensive histories of African theatre covering the entire continent, Africa north of the Sahara being linked for cultural reasons with the Middle East instead of geographically with the rest of the continent. A History of Theatre in Africa, edited by the pioneer of African-theatre scholarship, Martin Banham, is an excellent, if uneven, redressing of those imbalances.


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