scholarly journals A History of the Modern Middle East, 4th ed.

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-124
Author(s):  
Amr G. E. Sabet
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Good Measure ◽  
Current Status ◽  
American Military ◽  
Military Involvement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Core Issues ◽  
The Continuum

This extensive and lucid book provides a laudable introduction to the politicalhistory of the Middle East, tracing its development from Islam’s rise inthe seventh century to the recent direct American military involvement inIraq and Afghanistan. While the opening chapters start with Islam’s “rise andexpansion,” however, the book’s main chronological focus centers on thelate eighteenth century onward. This only adds to its current status. The geographicalarea covered is from Egypt to Iran, and from Turkey to the ArabianPeninsula. Some omission, however, was necessary (e.g., western NorthAfrica, Sudan, and Afghanistan) in order to keep the book manageable (p.xiii). While extensiveness and generality frequently lead to unavoidable simplificationand superficiality, this book nevertheless contains an insightfulanalysis of the continuum of events and transformations that have helpedshape the region’s history and geography. The authors are to be praised fortheir grasp and clear conceptualization of core issues, as well as for theireffort to maintain a good measure of narrative neutrality and thus eschewingthe usual prejudices and biases ...

Continuity and Intuition in Eighteenth-Century Analysis and in Kant

2020 ◽  
pp. 158-186
Author(s):  
Daniel Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Analysis ◽  
The Continuum ◽  
Interesting Account ◽  
The Way

This chapter considers the status of geometrical and kinematic representations in the foundations of 18th century analysis and in Kant’s understanding of those foundations. It has two aims. First, relying on relatively recent reassessments of the history of analysis, it will attempt to bring forward a more accurate account of intuitive representation in 18th century analysis and the relation between British and Continental mathematics. Second, it will give a better account of Kant’s place in that history. The result shows that although Kant did no better at navigating the labyrinth of the continuum than his contemporaries, he had a more interesting and reasonable account of the foundations of analysis than an easy reading of either Kant or that history provides. It also permits a more accurate and interesting account of how and when a conception of foundations of analysis without intuitive representations emerged, and how that paved the way for Bolzano and Cauchy.

Humanism in the Middle East

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khurram Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
History Of ◽  
European Renaissance

This chapter is an exploration of the concept and practice of humanism in the Muslim Middle East, from the seventh-century Prophetic dispensation to the present times. Humanism has often been described as the peculiar fruit of the European Renaissance. The chapter challenges this claim by investigating the incidence of humanism in the Middle East around a three-tiered axis. First, humanism as a focus on this-worldly rather than other-worldly matters is not only compatible with the “worldliness” of an Islamic ethos but was historically encouraged by it. Second, modernist reformers portray humanism as an earlier “modern” age in the history of the Middle East that they now seek to renew. Finally, inasmuch as humanism is a form of anthropocentrism, theological ideas like al-insān al-kāmil, the perfect man, allow for such humanism to be embedded within a broader Islamic theocentrism. The chapter concludes with possible humanistic futures in the Middle East.

Dark Matter and the History of the Middle East

2018 ◽  
pp. 491-504
Author(s):  
Jack Tannous
Keyword(s):  
Dark Matter ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Small Subset ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
The People ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
Intercultural Exchange ◽  
History Of ◽  
Rich History

This concluding chapter argues that late Roman Syria was a place where linguistic frontiers did not translate into cultural boundaries. The Arab conquests of the seventh century did not change this; instead, the prestige their new scripture enjoyed added a third literary language, Arabic, to the mix of a region with an already rich history of intercultural exchange. Moreover, religious dynamics continued as they had for centuries—viewed against the background of post-Chalcedonian Christian–Christian interaction, the scope and nature of Christian–Muslim interaction looks very familiar. Ultimately, in trying to place the existence of the Middle East's population of simple Christians not just into this story, but at its center, this book has attempted to capture some of the excitement and interest of this process in a way that does justice to all of the people living there, not just a small subset of them.

Artisans, Artists and Hegel's History of Art

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Speight
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Recent Discussion ◽  
Important Distinction ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Continuum

This article examines Hegel's use of the distinction between ‘artist’ (Künstler) and ‘artisan’ (Werkmeister) in light of recent discussion about the ‘end’ of art and the distinction betweeen art and craft that, as some have argued, has been central to the concept of the fine arts since the eighteenth century. Hegel does employ an important distinction between artist and artisan, but he does so within a larger account of the continuum of forms of human making that can take into consideration the importance of the artisan's work as well as the artist's. Hegel's account involves two distinctive features not always at issue in the artist/artisan distinction: the stress on the social changes required for new forms of art to emerge and an embrace of the human being as the essentially retrospective and interpretive animal in whom the decisive intersection of content and form finally makes art what it is.

The Goddess Śītalā and Epidemic Smallpox in Bengal

1981 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph W. Nicholas
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Medical Texts ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
Northern India ◽  
General Distress ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Village

Śītalā, Goddess of Smallpox, is the preeminent tutelary deity of villages in southwestern Bengal, and a goddess of the same name has a prominent role in Hindu pantheons throughout northern India. Her rise to importance is closely related to the history of smallpox, which was not recognized, in Ayurvedic medical texts, as a serious or fatal disease before the seventh century A.D. There is no evidence of the Goddess of Smallpox before the tenth to twelfth centuries, and she appears to have attained her present special significance as goddess of the village in southwestern Bengal abruptly in the eighteenth century. Earlier Indian approaches to smallpox treatment were naturalistic; when Śītalā was added to the etiology of the disease, her worship was not seen as a replacement for the biologically based therapy, but as something different and complementary. The appearance of smallpox as an epidemic calamity, rather than as an ordinary disease, during a period of more general distress in rural Bengal, marked its goddess as a figure especially suitable for community worship.

A naturalist of the Northern Enlightenment: Peter Forsskål after 250 years

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Baack
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Marine Biology ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Plant Geography ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Attention To Detail

Peter Forsskål (1732–1763) was the naturalist on the Royal Danish Expedition to Arabia (1761–1767), a particularly rich example of the eighteenth century era of scientific exploration and a quintessential project of the Enlightenment. Forsskål is noteworthy for his early writings in philosophy and politics and for his outstanding contributions to the botanical and zoological knowledge of the Middle East, specifically Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, principally Yemen. His biological work stands out for the large number of species identified, its attention to detail, the expansiveness of his descriptions, his knowledge and use of Arabic and his early ideas on plant geography. Forsskål's research in the marine biology of the Red Sea was also pioneering. His publications and collections represent the single greatest contribution to the knowledge of the natural history of the Middle East in the eighteenth century and are still valued by scholars today. His skill in retaining local terminology in Arabic and his respect for the contributions of local inhabitants to this work are also worth noting. When he died of malaria in 1763 in Yemen, the eighteenth-century world of natural science lost a promising and adventurous scientist.

Arabic in contact with English in Asia

English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azirah Hashim ◽  
Gerhard Leitner ◽  
Mohammed Al Aqad
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
East Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Trade Network ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global Language ◽  
The Impact

Arabic has a long history of contact with languages outside the Middle East (Lapidus, 2015; Beg, 1979). In Asia, the spread of Arabic began with the trade network that connected the Middle East with South Asia, South-East, East Asia and East Africa from the fifth century. It intensified with the rise of Islam from the seventh century onwards (Morgan & Reid, 2010; Azirah & Leitner, 2016). In this paper we investigate the impact of Arabic on today's English in the context of Asian Englishes. More specifically we ask if the contact of Arabic with English in Asia has led to the creation of an Arabic-Islamic layer of English in countries that have a majority or a significant minority of Muslims. Would such a layer add a new dimension to the texture of English and be integrative across national Englishes? Or would it be divisive inside individual countries? In order to explore such issues we created a corpus of Arabic loanwords in Asian Englishes. Such a database will contribute to a better coverage of the impact of Arabic in dictionaries and to the study of English as a (multiple) national, regional and global language.

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