Jews as Producers and Consumers of History in the Medieval Islamicate World

The Jews of the medieval Islamicate world were avid consumers and producers of history. In this article, I discuss the major modes of historical writing among the Jews of the period and introduce the question of how that historical writing was used by those Jews. In considering the Sitz im Leben of historical writing, I explore the role of internal communal apologetic, anti-sectarian polemic, inter-religious attack, political support and challenge, entertainment, the contextualizing of philosophy, consolation after adversity, and preparation for eschatological redemption. I pay particular attention to the rewriting of Others’ histories – Christian, Islamic, and Jewish sectarian – and the role these often-popular rewritten histories played in medieval Jewish society. This panoply of historical writing challenges an important scholarly view that Jewish consumption of history was minimal and served a limited range of “religious” needs within the medieval Jewish community.

Livy’s Cato and Commodities at Centre and Periphery

This paper is part of a larger project on how Livy represents the Elder Cato, from his entrance into the text in Book 29 to his last witticism preserved in the summary of Book 50, the longest biographical arc in this first third of Livy’s text. It views Cato through the lens of his relationship with objects, and with Livy’s narrative as an object as well. This paper focuses on one episode in the life of Livy’s Cato, the debate over the repeal of the Lex Oppia, and builds on previous scholars’ work to unite three arguments: 1) Livy weaves together textual space and Roman topography so as to emphasise the simultaneous marginality and centrality of this debate; 2) Livy’s Cato and Valerius fill Rome’s urban topography with images of things so as to draw attention via women’s bodies to the relationship between luxury and Rome’s imperium; 3) Livy uses this episode to make an argument about his own historical writing and its active relationship to the expansion of empire. This project focusing on Livy’s Cato is itself part of an even larger reexamination of how we read, and might read, Livy.

A.J. TOYNBEE: HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE AND COTEMPORANEITY

Рассматривается интерпретация А.Д. Тойнби взаимосвязи исторического опыта и современности. Показано, что видение исторического опыта этим автором обосновывается на базе антропологии, позволяющей обосновать его эпистемологические характеристики. Рассмотрены истоки концепции исторического опыта Тойнби в воззрениях А. Бергсона, П. Тейяра де Шардена и других авторов. Взгляды Тойнби на живой индивидуальный и коллективный опыт, их соотношение с историописанием сопоставлены с идеями Ф. Анкерсмита и других философов. В свете подхода Тойнби к историческому опыту рассмотрена его деятельность как историка и аналитика современного состояния мирового сообщества. The article is focused on A.J. Toynbee's interpretation of the relationship between historical experience and contemporaneity. It reveals that the vision of historical experience by this author is justified on the basis of anthropology, which allows to substantiate its epistemological characteristics. The sources of Toynbee's views on historical experience in the heritage of A. Bergson, P. Teilhard de Chardin, and other authors are considered. Toynbee's views on live individual and collective experience, as well as their correlation with historical writing are compared to the ideas of F. Ankersmit, and other philosophers. In the light of Toynbee's approach to historical experience, his activity as a historian and analyst of the current state of the world community is considered.

A Comparative Study of Implications of the Term of History in the Islamic and Western Perception

The present study deals with the term of history linguistically and terminologically from Arab and Western Europe. This term is radically intertwined between East and West, specifically the Greek language. The present study covers the views of ancient historians and modernists as much as possible to have a clear idea of the topic. Section two is devoted to answering the important question of whether history is a science or an art by presenting most of the opinions that have been put forward in this regard, whether by Western or Arab historians to ultimately reach a comprehensive, complete, and final answer, at least until present time. Section three is related to the science of history for Muslims and its impact on the science of history in the West. Rosenthal’s opinion, which reflects the views of the majority of orientalists will be explained to respond to it showing evidence of the extent of this influence and how it was the initiation step and the most influential catalyst for the intellectual renaissance of Europe in general and in historical writing in particular.

Tocqueville, Napoleon, and History-Writing in a Democratic Age

In Democracy in America, Tocqueville posited a contrast between the way history is written in “aristocratic” and “democratic” ages. In the former, historians tend to assign great weight to the actions of individuals; in the latter, they privilege great impersonal forces that act upon the mass. The essay examines Tocqueville’s views of Napoleon Bonaparte in light of these reflections. It concludes that despite his occasional vulnerability to the lure of Napoleonic grandeur, and despite his own desire, as an aristocrat writing in a democratic age, to effect a synthesis of the two modes of historical writing, in the end he fundamentally viewed Napoleon’s actions as determined by the forces of democratic equality and revolution.

Encounters Across Time

'Story telling is an art deep within human nature.' A timely collection of writings on history, from one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most distinguished scholars. These essays bring forth important questions for New Zealand history about autonomy, restoration and power that continue to reverberate today. They also serve as a pathway into the rigorous and imaginative scholarship that characterised Judith Binney's acclaimed historical writing.

Small events and transdisciplinarity

В современной исторической науке большую роль играет малая событийность, изучаемая с помощью вероятностных статистических методов. Применение количественных методов в историописании, распространенное с 1960-х гг., сочетается с воз-росшим интересом к малой однородной будничной событийности, образующей исторические тенденции, традиции и процессы. In modern historical science, a large role is played by small events, which are studied by using probabilistic statistical methods. The use of quantitative methods in historical writing, which has been widespread since the 60s of the twentieth century, is combined with an increased interest in small, homogeneous everyday events that form historical trends, traditions and processes.

Remembering St Brictius: Conspiracy, Violence and Liturgical Time in the Danish Massacre of 1002

This article builds upon recent scholarship on the role of church ‘reform’ and the cult of saints in English royal politics around the turn of the second millennium, arguing that the infamous ‘St Brice's Day massacre’ of 13 November 1002 may have been planned for that date in part because of the associations of the cult of Brice/Brictius. After outlining this hypothesis, the article explores the broader implications of the emergence of a universal martyrological calendar for historical writing and political action, and for the exercise and communication of violence in particular.

Opium and Addiction in a Cross-Cultural Context: De Quincey's ‘Confessions’ (1821) and the Chinese Novel, Romantic Illusions of the Fool of Yangzhou (Fengyue meng) (c. 1848)

This essay examines De Quincey's representation of opium ‘addiction’ in the cross-cultural context of Britain and China in the light of recent revisionist medical discussions of addiction and dependence, and revisionist historical writing about opium use in nineteenth-century China. De Quincey's representation of the opium user is compared to that of China's first ‘city novel’, Courtesans and Opium: Romantic Illusions of the Fool of Yangzhou believed to have been written in 1848 (trans 2009). In this complex fiction, opium smoking is presented as a largely pleasurable and common pastime which has the potential for danger if abused by the unwary. It is not connected with dreams and nightmares, or figured as a stimulus of, or analogy for, the creative imagination. It offers a fascinating view of the leisure world of nineteenth-century China, where recreational opium smoking is common and not problematic when undertaken moderately.