Showered with Praise: Weatherscapes in Late Tenth-century Skaldic Verse

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-88
Author(s):  
Hannah Burrows
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century

“The Truth of Reliable Tradition”: Saadya Gaon, Arabic Rhetoric, and the Challenge to Rhetorical Historiography

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-188
Author(s):  
Brandon Katzir
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Medieval Rhetoric ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Latin Language ◽  
Arabic Rhetoric ◽  
Rhetorical Traditions ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article explores the rhetoric of medieval rabbi and philosopher Saadya Gaon, arguing that Saadya typifies what LuMing Mao calls the “interconnectivity” of rhetorical cultures (Mao 46). Suggesting that Saadya makes use of argumentative techniques from Greek-inspired, rationalist Islamic theologians, I show how his rhetoric challenges dominant works of rhetorical historiography by participating in three interconnected cultures: Greek, Jewish, and Islamic. Taking into account recent scholarship on Jewish rhetoric, I argue that Saadya's amalgamation of Jewish rhetorical genres alongside Greco-Islamic genres demonstrates how Jewish and Islamic rhetoric were closely connected in the Middle Ages. Specifically, the article analyzes the rhetorical significance of Saadya's most famous treatise on Jewish philosophy, The Book of Doctrines and Beliefs, which I argue utilizes Greco-Islamic rhetorical strategies in a polemical defense of rabbinical authority. As a tenth-century writer who worked across multiple rhetorical traditions and genres, Saadya challenges the monocultural, Latin-language histories of medieval rhetoric, demonstrating the importance of investigating Arabic-language and Jewish rhetorics of the Middle Ages.

Rashid Rida’s Struggle to Establish A Modern Islamic State

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Assad N. Busool
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Islamic History ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
The World ◽  
Physical Presence

Reform movements are important religious phenomena which haveoccurred throughout Islamic history. Medieval times saw theappearance of religious reformers, such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Taimiyah,Ibn Qayim al-Jawziyah and others; however, these reform activitiesdiffered significantly from the modern reform movement. The medievalreformers worked within Muslim society; it was not necessary to dealwith the external challenge presented by Europe as it was for themodern Muslim reformers after the world of Islam lost its independenceand fell under European rule. The powers of Europe believed that Islamwas the only force that impeded them in their quest for world dominanceand, relying on the strength of their physical presence in Muslimcountries, tried to convince the Muslim peoples tgat Islam was ahindrance to their progress and development.Another problem, no less serious than the first, faced by the modernMuslim reformers was the shocking ignorance of the Muslim peoples oftheir religion and their history. For more than four centuries,scholarship in all areas had been in an unabated state of decline. Thosereligious studies which were produced veered far from the spirit ofIslam, and they were so blurred and burdened with myths and legends,that they served only to confuse the masses.The ‘Ulama were worst of all: strictly rejecting change, they still hadthe mentality of their medieval forebearers against whom al-Ghazali,Ibn Taimiyah and others had fought. Hundreds of years behind thetimes, their central concern was tuqlid (the imitation of that which hadpreceeded them through the ages). For centuries, no one had dared toquestion this heritage or point out the religious innovations it impaired.In conjunction with their questioning of the tuqlid, the modernreformers strove to revive the concept of ijtihad (indmendentjudgement) in religious matters, an idea which had been disallowedsince the tenth century. The first to raiseanew the banner of $tihad inthe Arab Muslim world was Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani; after himSheikh Muhammad ‘Abduh in Egypt, and after him, his friend and ...

Riflessioni sulle economie dei secoli X e XI

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Molinari
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
Local Exchange ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
New Information ◽  
Recent Conference ◽  
Modern Economic

Chris Wickham has recently turned his attention to the economic and social transformations of the central Middle Ages. In the same period relations between the Christian and Muslim worlds have been presented primarily in terms of holy war or raids, and hardly ever framed in economic terms. Archaeology can help to answer questions about exchange routes, systems of production and settlement patterns, and pottery provides a key element in reconstructing the complexity of pre-modern economic networks. In this paper I want to compare two case studies. I will first examine the role of Palermo in the internal economy of Sicily and beyond. Recent excavations have provided much new information on the Muslim and Christian periods in its history, and particularly on the city’s planned growth and development as a centre of pottery production and export in the tenth century. I will then turn to the archaeological evidence for Rome, which Chris has described as the most complex city between the tenth and twelfth centuries, both economically and socially, in the whole Italian peninsula. In fact, based on the material evidence, Rome was far less complex than Palermo, and unlike Milan, it failed to take off economically in the thirteenth century. Chris has suggested that the success of the latter city was due to its specialized products, local exchange system and connections with a hierarchy of smaller settlements in the locality. Whilst the archaeological evidence for Milan is much scarcer, these features can usefully be tested as a model against which to compare other cities. Comparing Rome and Palermo it is the Sicilian city that can be said to have had the more vibrant economy, with its exports to multiple rural centres some distance away. Whilst a recent conference has underlined the existence of specialized artisans serving Rome’s elite and its numerous pilgrims, unlike Palermo it did not base its economy on production and mercantile activities.

Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī on a Kalām Argument for Creation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Adamson ◽  
Robert Wisnovsky
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
The Universe

This article offers an analysis, translation, and edition of a brief, recently uncovered Arabic text by the tenth-century CE Christian Aristotelian thinker Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī. Ibn ʿAdī here takes issue with an argument for the existence of God, widely used in kalām (Islamic theology). According to this argument, bodies cannot exist without being either in motion or at rest; motion and rest must begin; therefore all bodies and hence the universe as a whole must have begun. Ibn ʿAdī diagnoses various flaws in this reasoning, including a supposed part–whole fallacy. The analysis of the text shows how it fits into Ibn ʿAdī’s intellectual profile and the project of the Baghdad Aristotelian school.

Capitalisms

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
History Of Capitalism ◽  
Commodity Production ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Small Producers ◽  
Circulation Of Knowledge ◽  
Industrial Revolutions

Conventional accounts often conceive the genesis of capitalism in Europe within the conjunctures of agricultural, commercial, and industrial revolutions. Challenging this widely believed cliché, this volume traces the history of capitalism across civilizations, tenth century onwards, and argues that capitalism was neither a monolithic entity nor exclusively an economic phenomenon confined to the West. Looking at regions as diverse as England, South America, Russia, North Africa, and East, South, West, and Southeast Asia, the book explores the plurality of developments across time and space. The chapters analyse aspects such as historical conjunctures, commodity production and distribution, circulation of knowledge and personnel, and the role of mercantile capital, small producers, and force—all the while stressing the necessity to think beyond present-day national boundaries. The book argues that the multiple histories of capitalism can be better understood from a trans-regional, intercontinental, and interconnected perspective.

Beneventan (South Italian/Langobardic) Script

2020 ◽  
pp. 119-142
Author(s):  
Francis Newton
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Important Center

This chapter surveys Beneventan script, the distinctive hand of southern Italy which is particularly associated with the most important center of its use, the Abbey of Monte Cassino. Beneventan arose in the late eighth century and continued in common use through the thirteenth--and even later in isolated instances. Distinct calligraphic high points were achieved in various cities, regions, or centers at different periods, including Naples in the tenth century, Monte Cassino in the second half of the eleventh century, and the region of Bari at the same time. Caroline script was used side-by-side with Beneventan at some centers, until Caroline and Gothic scripts finally replaced Beneventan as the standard bookhand in southern Italy.

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