Koranic Allusions

2013-08-27
Koranic Allusions
Author: Ibn Warraq
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2013-08-27
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1616147601
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For anyone with an interest in the early history of Islam, this erudite anthology will prove to be informative and enlightening. Scholars have long known that the text of the Koran shows evidence of many influences from religious sources outside Islam. For example, stories in the Koran about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other characters from the Bible obviously come from the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. But there is also evidence of borrowing in the Koran from more obscure literature. In this anthology, the acclaimed critic of Islam Ibn Warraq has assembled scholarly articles that delve into these unusual, little-known sources. The contributors examine the connections between pre-Islamic poetry and the text of the Koran; and they explore similarities between various Muslim doctrines and ideas found in the writings of the Ebionites, a Jewish Christian sect that existed from the second to the fourth centuries. Also considered is the influence of Coptic Christian literature on the writing of the traditional biography of Muhammad.

Koranic Allusions

2013
Koranic Allusions
Author: Ibn Warraq
Publisher:
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2013
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1616147598
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"For anyone with an interest in the early history of Islam, this erudite anthology will prove to be informative and enlightening.Scholars have long known that the text of the Koran shows evidence of many influences from religious sources outside Islam. For example, stories in the Koran about Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other characters from the Bible obviously come from the Jewish Torah and the Christian Gospels. But there is also evidence of borrowing in the Koran from more obscure literature. In this anthology, the acclaimed critic of Islam Ibn Warraq has assembled scholarly articles that delve into these unusual, little-known sources. The contributors examine the connections between pre-Islamic poetry and the text of the Koran; and they explore similarities between various Muslim doctrines and ideas found in the writings of the Ebionites, a Jewish Christian sect that existed from the second to the fourth centuries. Also considered is the influence of Coptic Christian literature on the writing of the traditional biography of Muhammad."

Representations of the Divine in Arabic Poetry

2021-11-22
Representations of the Divine in Arabic Poetry
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2021-11-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 900448518X
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In Islam the fascination for “the word” is as vigorous as in Judaism and in Christianity, but an extra dimension is, that the revealed text, the Koran, is considered to be verbatim the word of the Almighty Himself, thereby providing the Arabic language with just an extra quality. No wonder that throughout Islamic history the study of the word, the Koran, the prophet’s utterances and the interpretation of both, has become the main axis of knowledge and education. As a consequence the intellectuals – and also the poets in Islamic culture - were thoroughly familiar with religious terms and the phraseology of a language which was highly estimated because of the divine origin with which it was associated. No wonder therefore, that allusions to religious texts can be found throughout Arabic literature, both classical and modern. The subject of this volume is the representation of the divine in Arabic poetry, be it the experience of the divine as expressed by poets or the use of imagery coined by religion.

The Sufi Path of Knowledge

2010-03-31
The Sufi Path of Knowledge
Author: William C. Chittick
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 507
Release: 2010-03-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0791498980
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Ibn al-'Arabi is still known as "the Great Sheik" among the surviving Sufi orders. Born in Muslim Spain, he has become famous in the West as the greatest mystical thinker of Islamic civilization. He was a great philosopher, theologian, and poet. William Chittick takes a major step toward exposing the breadth and depth of Ibn al-'Arabi's vision. The book offers his view of spiritual perfection and explains his theology, ontology, epistemology, hermeneutics, and soteriology. The clear language, unencumbered by methodological jargon, makes it accessible to those familiar with other spiritual traditions, while its scholarly precision will appeal to specialists. Beginning with a survey of Ibn al-'Arabi's major teachings, the book gradually introduces the most important facets of his thought, devoting attention to definitions of his basic terminology. His teachings are illustrated with many translated passages introducing readers to fascinating byways of spiritual life that would not ordinarily be encountered in an account of a thinker's ideas. Ibn al-'Arabi is allowed to describe in detail the visionary world from which his knowledge derives and to express his teachings in his own words. More than 600 passages from his major work, al-Futuhat al-Makkivva, are translated here, practically for the first time. These alone provide twice the text of the Fusus al-hikam. The exhaustive indexes make the work an invaluable reference tool for research in Sufism and Islamic thought in general.

Aspects of Dostoevskii

2012-01-01
Aspects of Dostoevskii
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9401207895
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Perhaps more than any other nineteenth-century Russian writer, Dostoevskii’s continuing popularity rests on his contemporary relevance. The prophetic streak in his creativity gives him the same lasting appeal as dystopian novelists such as Zamiatin and Orwell whom he influenced and whose ethical concerns he anticipated. Religious themes are prominent in his work, too, and, though he was a believer, his interest seems to lie in the tension between faith and unbelief, which was felt as keenly in the Russia of his time as in our own. The nature of Dostoevskii’s art also continues to be debated. The older tendency to disparage his literary method has given way to a recognition of the originality of his techniques, without which his ideological concerns would not have emerged with such thought-provoking clarity. The chapters which comprise this volume address these issues in a range of Dostoevskii’s works, from shorter classics, such as House of the Dead and Notes from Underground to great novels such as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. This work will be of use to scholars and students of Dostoevskii at all levels as well as to those with an interest in nineteenth-century literature more generally.

Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature

1998
Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature
Author: Julie Scott Meisami
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 460
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780415185721
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This reference work covers the classical, transitional and modern periods. Editors and contributors cover an international scope of Arabic literature in many countries.

Islam and the Challenge of Civilization

2013-06-03
Islam and the Challenge of Civilization
Author: Abdelwahab Meddeb
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2013-06-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0823251233
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"This is the perfect handbook for deepening our understanding of both the incredible richness through time and the paradoxical present obtuseness of Islamic culture. Meddeb achieves this feat--how clear knowledge can disarm belligerent interpretations of a paradoxical faith--through his elegant and polyphonic use of Qu'ranic exegesis, advanced literary poetics, and a strong sense of democratic citizen politics, all of which are informed by a profound cosmopolitanism able to simultaneously draw on Ibn Arabi's eclectic sufism and Voltaire's secular intellect, among many other sources. A necessary exploration, a must read."--Pierre Joris, author of The University of California Book of North African Literature "It is more urgent than ever to allow a voice such as Meddeb's to be heard, the voice of an Arab intellectual familiar with both Muslim civilization and Western culture. In this--and thanks to his immense knowledge and open-mindedness--he is a precious translator capable of seeing both sides at the same time."--Marcel Henaff ". . . an important contribution to knowledge because it gives eloquent voice to a modern Muslim thinker who rejects the narrow legalism of the Wahhabi tradition of Saudi Arabia or the Puritanism of the Egyptian Muslim Brethren."--Patrick J. Ryan S.J., Fordham University.

Judges 1

2021-11-23
Judges 1
Author: Mark S. Smith
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 924
Release: 2021-11-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506480497
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This groundbreaking volume presents a new translation of the text and detailed interpretation of almost every word or phrase in the book of Judges, drawing from archaeology and iconography, textual versions, biblical parallels, and extrabiblical texts, many never noted before. Archaeology also serves to show how a story of the Iron II period employed visible ruins to narrate supposedly early events from the so-called "period of the Judges." The synchronic analysis for each unit sketches its characters and main themes, as well as other literary dynamics. The diachronic, redactional analysis shows the shifting settings of units as well as their development, commonly due to their inner-textual reception and reinterpretation. The result is a remarkably fresh historical-critical treatment of 1:1-10:5.