Sūrat Maryam (Q. 19): Lexicon, Lexical Echoes, English Translation

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawkat M. Toorawa

Q. 19 (Sūrat Maryam) – an end-rhyming, and, by general consensus, middle to late Meccan sura of 98 (or 99) verses – has been the subject of considerable exegetical and scholarly attention. Besides commentary, naturally, in every tafsīr of the Qur'an, Sura 19 has also benefited from separate, individual treatment. It has been the object of special attention by modern Western scholars, in particular those of comparative religion and of Christianity, whose attention has centred largely on the virtue and piety of Mary, on the miraculous nature of the birth of Jesus, on Jesus' ministry, and on how Jesus' time on Earth came to an end. In addition, Sura 19 is a favourite of the interfaith community. Given this sustained and multivectored scrutiny, it is remarkable how little analysis has been devoted to its lexicon. This article is a contribution to the study of the lexicon of this sura, with a particular emphasis on three features: rhyming end words, hapaxes, and repeating words and roots, some of which occur in this sura alone.

Author(s):  
Justine Pila

This chapter considers the relative absence of scholarly attention to the meaning of the terms used to denote the subject matter that IP rights protect and the nature of those subject matter themselves. It then outlines the aims and methods of the definitional task undertaken in later chapters, and the stages in which that task proceeds. Using the distinction drawn by Richard Robinson, it proposes a nominal word:thing definitional exercise, rather than a word:word exercise, that considers recent use of the terms to be defined by European and UK legal officials. Drawing on the stipulative nature of authoritative legal definition, it also proposes an explicative aspect to the definitional exercise, focused on clarifying legal officials’ understandings of the relevant terms in the light of the relevant legal and policy context. And finally, it summarizes the conclusions reached at each stage of the definitional exercise undertaken in later chapters.


2000 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 70-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Batty

The appearance in 1998 of F. E. Romer's English translation of Pomponius Mela's De Chorographia has helped to raise further the profile of this previously rather obscure author. Indeed, since the publication a decade previously of the Budé edition by Alain Silberman, interest in Mela seems to have grown quite steadily. Important contributions in German by Kai Brodersen have widened our appreciation of Mela's place within ancient geography as a whole, and his role within the history of cartography has been the subject of a number of shorter pieces.One element common to all these works, however, is a continuing tendency to disparage both Mela himself and the work he created. This is typified by Romer, for whom Mela was ‘a minor writer, a popularizer, not a first-class geographer’; one ‘shocking reason’ for his choice of genre was simply poor preparation, ‘insufficient for technical writing in geography’. Similar judgements appear in the works of Brodersen and Silberman. Mela's inaccuracies are, for these critics, typical of the wider decline of geography in the Roman period. Perhaps such negative views sprang initially from a sense of frustration: it was counted as one of our author's chief defects that he failed to list many sources for his work. For scholars interested in Quellenforschung it makes poor reading. Yet, quite clearly, the De Chorographia has also been damned by comparison. Mela's work has been held against the best Graeco-Roman learning on geography during antiquity—against Strabo, Ptolemy, or Pliny—and it has usually been found wanting. Set against the achievements of his peers, his work does not stand close scrutiny. Thus, for most scholars, the text has been read as a failed exercise in technical geography, or a markedly inferior document in the wider Graeco-Roman geographical tradition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence I. Conrad

The caliphate of Hisham ibn ‘Abd al-Malik (105–25/724–43) was undoubtedly one of the most important periods in early Islamic history, and as witness to the history of this era a source of paramount importance is certainly the Ta'rīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk of al-Ṭabarī. This in itself makes the publication of Volume xxv of the English translation of this work by Dr Khalid Yahya Blankinship, covering all but the last five years of Hishām's long reign, a matter of special interest to historians of the eastern lands of Islam. The reader will immediately notice that al-Ṭabarī devotes the bulk of his narrative for this period to events in Khurāsān and Transoxania, specifically, to the Umayyad campaigns there and hostilities with the Türgish khāqān Sü-lü Čur. In the course of this narrative one finds not only a wealth of information on military matters, but also much valuable data on the customs of the western Turks and life in Central Asia in general. The author's reasons for giving his work such a markedly eastern emphasis at this point are not unrelated to a desire, as Blankinship observes, to set forth the background for the 'Abbāsid revolution. But most of what al-Ṭabarī reports for this period is in fact not of immediate relevance to the advent of the 'Abbāsids, and indeed, the subject of 'Abbāsid propaganda activities hardly seems to be a prominent one in this volume.


2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAYLOR C. SHERMAN

AbstractWhilst the history of the Indian diaspora after independence has been the subject of much scholarly attention, very little is known about non-Indian migrants in India. This paper traces the fate of Arabs, Afghans and other Muslim migrants after the forcible integration of the princely state of Hyderabad into the Indian Union in 1948. Because these non-Indian Muslims were doubly marked as outsiders by virtue of their foreign birth and their religious affiliation, the government of India wished to deport these men and their families. But the attempt to repatriate these people floundered on both political and legal shoals. In the process, many were left legally stateless. Nonetheless, migrants were able to creatively change the way they self-identified both to circumvent immigration controls and to secure greater privileges within India.


1915 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lauder ◽  
T. W. Fagan

The various factors which are supposed to influence the composition of milk have already been the subject of numerous investigations. The general result of these has been to show that within very wide limits the composition of milk is very little affected by the nature of the food supplied. As regards the mineral constituents the results of some of the investigations are rather conflicting, and while there is a general consensus of opinion that the composition and amount of the mineral constituents are independent of the food-supply, certain investigators claim to have been able to increase both the calcium and phosphoric acid in the milk by slight amounts.


1976 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Fuchs

As missionary priest and anthropological researcher, Stephen Fuchs presents this case study in comparative religion from the missiological viewpoint. Ritual observances are seen in their wider sociological context. The resultant view of sin emerges not only as inadequate from a Christian perspective, but as a source of the continuing misery, spiritually and socially, of the subject people. Father Fuchs' colleagues can draw direct benefit, both motivational and strategic, from this study — a practical goal of all missiological research. At the same time, the value of such models for wider application puts all of us in the author's debt.


2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdy Shaddel

AbstractThe subject of the present paper is a prophetic tradition found in some compendia of eschatologicalaḥādīthwhich has received considerable scholarly attention since Wilferd Madelung dedicated an article to it in 1981. Whereas Madelung shares the opinion of earlier scholars that only some of the incidents “prophesied” by this tradition are historical, this study aims to show that it is a whollyex post factocomposition which, in its various strata, remarkably captures episodes from the Zubayrid war of propaganda against their rivals as well as their later attempts to redeem the memory of their lost cause as a just one. The discussion closes by producing a highly singular Syrian tradition most certainly put into circulation with the intent of countering these Zubayrid propaganda efforts.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (296) ◽  
pp. 640-658
Author(s):  
Vanessa Lim

Abstract Hamlet’s ‘To be or not to be’ speech has long been the subject of intense scholarly attention. By situating the speech against the backdrop of classical and Renaissance rhetorical theory, this essay demonstrates that there is still much more to be said about it. The speech ostensibly examines a quaestio infinita or a thesis, and follows the rhetorical rule that the right way to do so is by the invocation of commonplaces. This reading of Hamlet’s speech is not only consistent with Shakespeare’s characterization of the university-educated prince, who frequently invokes commonplaces, but also has significant implications for our understanding of the play and Shakespeare’s own practice as a writer. The book that Hamlet is reading could well be his own commonplace collection, and it is perhaps in looking up his entries under the heading of ‘Death’ that Hamlet finds what he needs in order to examine his quaestio.


Traditio ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 37-61
Author(s):  
Michael S. Driscoll

The subject of penance and confession is central in the writings of Alcuin of York (†804), and found in many different literary genres: e.g., liturgical writings, devotional works, letters, and small treatises. The genius of Alcuin, as well as the principal thrust of his work at the court of Charlemagne, lay in pedagogical concerns. Within the school reform, however, we find traces of theological thought, most notably his ideas regarding penance. His overriding interest was pastoral rather than theoretical. He was concerned about the well-being of his pupils and it was for them that he composed his most important treatise on confession and penance, Ad pueros sancti Martini.


2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 356-367
Author(s):  
Robyn Faith Walsh

The Satyrica has long been associated with a Neronian courtier named Petronius, mentioned by Tacitus in his Annals. As such, the text is usually dated to the mid first century c.e. This view is so established that certain scholars have suggested it is ‘little short of perverse not to accept the general consensus and read the Satyrica as a Neronian text of the mid-60s ad’. In recent years, however, there has been a groundswell of support for re-evaluating this long-held position. Laird, after comparing the ‘form and content’ of the text to the Greek novel, came to the ‘unattractive’ conclusion that the text may be second century. Similarly, in two recent pieces in CQ, Roth argues that the manumission scene in the Cena establishes a new terminus post quem for the text; she suggests that the freedoms granted by Trimalchio closely parallel—and parody—descriptions of awarding ciuitas found in the letters of Pliny the Younger. Indeed, the three slaves manumitted in the novel are associated with a boar (Sat. 40.3–41.4), Dionysus (Sat. 41.6–7) and a falling star (Sat. 54.1–5); likewise, the three slaves that are the subject of Pliny's letter are C. Valerius Aper (boar), C. Valerius Dionysius (god of wine) and C. Valerius Astraeus (stars). Roth's argument suggests that the author of the Satyrica was not Nero's contemporary but a member of Pliny's intellectual circle, offering strong circumstantial evidence that troubles the accepted tradition on the work's authorship and date.


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