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L’apport du Fonds François Abou Salem à la connaissance des débuts de la pratique théâtrale palestinienne dans les années 1970 Arabica Pub Date : 2020-12-23 Najla Nakhlé-Cerruti
Résumé Cet article propose d’étudier la période de l’émergence de l’activité théâtrale en Palestine à partir du fonds d’archives François Abou Salem car il apporte un éclairage particulier sur plusieurs processus en cours à ce moment : processus historique de l’émergence de la pratique et sa pérennisation, processus de création théâtrale et professionnalisation du mouvement. Le fonds François Abou
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Le fāʾ al-sababiyya vu par Raḍī l-Dīn al-Astarābāḏī : logique et pragmatique Arabica Pub Date : 2020-12-23 Pierre Larcher
Résumé Pour le grammairien Raḍī l-Dīn al-Astarābāḏī (m. après 688/1289), le fāʾ al-sababiyya (« causal ») constitue une intersection entre deux des trois fāʾ distingués par la grammaire arabe : le fāʾ d’apodose (fāʾ al-ǧawāb ou al-ǧazāʾ), apparaissant entre protase et apodose d’un système conditionnel (in p fa-q) et systèmes assimilés, c’est-à-dire circonstancielles et relatives ayant une valeur conditionnelle
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Monks, Monasteries, and Muslim Scribes: Three Parchment House Sales from the 4th/10th-Century Fayyūm Arabica Pub Date : 2020-12-23 Naïm Vanthieghem, Lev Weitz
This article presents editions of three Arabic parchment deeds of sale from the 4th/10th-century Fayyūm Oasis belonging to two monks, Babā Banīla and Babā Buṭrus, of the Dayr al-Qalamūn monastery. The transactions recorded in our documents are mundane in and of themselves. But put together they offer bits of insight into Christian society in rural medieval Egypt, the notarial practice of provincial
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Arabic as a Language of the South Asian Chancery: Bahmani Communications to the Mamluk Sultanate Arabica Pub Date : 2020-12-07 Meia Walravens
A growing body of literature on trade and cultural exchange between the Indian Ocean regions has already contributed significantly to our understanding of these processes and the role of language and writing within them. Yet, the question remains how Arabic correspondence played a part in communications between South Asian powers and the rulers in the Red Sea region. In order to begin filling this
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Sinless, Sonless and Seal of Prophets: Muḥammad and Kor 33, 36-40, Revisited Arabica Pub Date : 2020-12-07 David Stephan Powers
In his article, “Between History and Exegesis: the Origins and Transformation of the Story of Muḥammad and Zaynab bt Ǧaḥš,” published in Arabica, 65/1-2 (2018), p. 31-63, Andreas Görke argues that the reference in Kor 33, 37 to Muḥammad’s marriage to the former wife of a man named Zayd “seems to refer to an historical event” and that later exegetical expansions of the episode are based on an “historical
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L’abrégé de Dībāǧat al-iftiḫār : un texte du IXe/XVe siècle récemment édité relatif aux saints de la vallée du Chélif (Maghreb central) à la fin du Moyen Âge Arabica Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Allaoua Amara
Résumé La présente note est consacrée à la présentation d’un dictionnaire hagiographique, relatif aux saints de la vallée de Chélif, située dans le Maghreb central, à la fin du Moyen Âge, récemment publié en Algérie. Il s’agit de l’abrégé de Dībāǧat al-iftiḫār fī manāqib awliyāʾ Allāh al-aḫyār de Mūsā b. ʿĪsā l-Māzūnī (m. vers 833/1430), dont la seule copie manuscrite a fait l’objet de trois éditions
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La polémique autour du roman ʿAzāzīl de Yūsuf Zaydān Arabica Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Marcella Rubino
Résumé Depuis l’affaire de la censure du roman Awlād ḥāratinā (Les fils de la médina) de Naǧīb Maḥfūẓ, publié en 1968, aucun roman n’avait suscité autant de polémiques en Égypte que le roman historique de Yūsuf Zaydān ʿAzāzīl, paru en 2008. Centré sur l’histoire du christianisme égyptien et oriental au IVe siècle, le roman aborde notamment les questions des querelles christologiques entre les Églises
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The Qurʾān Commentaries of Šams al-Dīn al-Ḫuwayyī (583/1193-637/1247) Arabica Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Nasr Sarsour, Y. Tzvi Langermann
Did Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī complete his great Koranic commentary? Scholars have suggested that al-Rāzī’s disciple Šams al-Dīn al-Ḫuwayyī may have contributed to the final tafsīr, but were unable to come to any definitive conclusions, partly because they had no tafsīr by al-Ḫuwayyī that could be used for comparison. In fact, we know of two commentaries of al-Ḫuwayyī: a section of his encyclopedia which
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Scents of Space: Early Islamic Pilgrimage, Perfume, and Paradise Arabica Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Adam Bursi
Within some of the earliest textual and material evidence for the history of Islam, pilgrimage appears as an important ritual of devotion, identity, and community. Yet modern scholarship has given little attention to early Muslims’ sensory experiences of pilgrimage sites and what they physically encountered while there. This article examines the importance of smell within Islamic pilgrimage practices
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Why Are You Talking Like That, Sir? Il-Limbi, Phonology and Class in Contemporary Egypt Arabica Pub Date : 2020-11-10 Islam Youssef
This article investigates the phonological patternings in the speech of il-Limbi, an immensely popular character in Egyptian comedy; and it stands therefore at a crossroads between cultural studies and linguistics. Il-Limbi represents the urban working classes, and his speech often mocks social conventions through ludicrous parody of educated speech. Masquerading as socially superior personas, his
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Authorship and Unity of the Classical Arabic Poem through the Lens of Collaborative Composition Arabica Pub Date : 2020-05-21 Erez Naaman
When a classical Arabic poem lacked a noticeable degree of thematic coherence and formal structure, it was at risk of foreign intervention aiming to improve it. Who was recognized in such a case as the author of the poem and on which grounds? This article looks at the interrelated questions of the poem’s unity and its authorship through the lens of collaborative poetry that was practiced by completing
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Ibrāhīm al-Naḫaʿī (Kufan, d. 96/714) Arabica Pub Date : 2020-05-21 Christopher Melchert
Ibrāhīm al-Naḫaʿī (d. 96/714) was the most prominent Follower (tābiʿī) in the Kufan legal tradition, also prominent in the areas of hadith transmission, koranic commentary, and piety. Later adherents of both hadith and raʾy cited his opinions as authoritative precedents. Presumptively, most quotations of him give us the gist of what he said, not his very words; an undetermined proportion of quotations
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The Living City of the Dead: Representation of Life in the Cemeteries in Two Egyptian Novels Arabica Pub Date : 2020-05-21 Tania Al Saadi
The City of the Dead is a large area on the periphery of Cairo where people live in house-like tombs. This study focuses on two Egyptian novels Šakāwā l-miṣrī l-faṣīḥ (1981-1985) by Yūsuf al-Qaʿīd and Madad (2014) by Maḥmūd al-Wirwārī, in which living in the cemeteries is portrayed as a paradoxical reality where life and death overlap. Limits between the two are blurred, and this creates a confusing
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La joute satirique au début de l’époque abbasside (132/750-197/813) : un espace poétique autonome ? Arabica Pub Date : 2019-12-20 Mathias Hoorelbeke
Résumé L’art des poètes des débuts de l’époque abbasside est soumis à de fortes contraintes que leur dictent leurs patrons. Cette influence est maximale dans les genres par lesquels le poète exprime sa satisfaction ou son déplaisir. Mais elle est également sensible sur d’autres genres, telle la poésie amoureuse ou la description. Les joutes satiriques offrent en revanche, à première vue, un espace
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Le chant de l’amour et de la mort d’une poétesse de l’Arabie antique Arabica Pub Date : 2019-12-20 Georgine Ayoub
Résumé Si la déploration de la perte et les lamentations autour du brancard funèbre sont le fait des pleureuses, depuis la plus haute antiquité arabe, si les poétesses pleureuses dans l’Arabie antique ne sont point rares, bien rares, néanmoins, sont les poétesses qui ont chanté publiquement leur amour pour un homme. Or, il est une poétesse du Ier/VIIe siècle, qui, justement, est célèbre pour les poèmes
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Le lieu de l’abus : poésie et taḫyīl chez ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Ǧurǧānī (m. 471/1078) Arabica Pub Date : 2019-12-20 Loïc Bertrand
This article aims to determine the specificity of the notion of taḫyīl in ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Ǧurǧānī’s (d. 471/1078) work. We will attempt to define this rhetorical device and explain the rhetorician’s interest in it. Taḫyīl consists in taking a word or sentence used in a figurative sense, in its literal sense. Although this definition is well-known, it remains uncertain in many respects (what is its
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Les citations probantes du Livre du palmier (Kitāb al-Naḫl) d’Abū Ḥātim al-Siǧistānī (m. 255/869) Arabica Pub Date : 2019-12-20 Brigitte Foulon
Résumé Parmi les usages du vers attestés dans la culture arabe classique, thème d’une journée d’étude organisée en 2017 à l’INALCO, notre étude a retenu celui consistant à faire du vers un šāhid, ou « citation probante » (Gilliot, 1996). En effet, de nombreuses sciences arabes, au premier plan desquelles figurent les sciences du langage (grammaire, lexicologie, philologie…), ont eu recours aux šawāhid
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The Ascent of Ishmael: Genealogy, Covenant, and Identity in Early Islam Arabica Pub Date : 2019-11-14 Mohsen Goudarzi
This essay argues that biblical genealogy serves as a fundamental organizing principle in the Qurʾān. In particular, the Qurʾān anchors the cultic and scriptural aspects of the Prophet’s mission squarely on his community’s descent from Abraham via Ishmael. The first part of the essay marshals qurʾānic evidence in support of this claim and critiques a number of recent studies that downplay or deny the
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Ḥadīṯ Scholar and Historiography: Some Reflections on the Sīra Corpora of Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī’s (d. 354/965) Kitāb al-Ṯiqāt Arabica Pub Date : 2019-11-14 Muhammad Fawwaz Bin Muhammad Yusoff
In a recent volume of the Encyclopaedia of Arabic Literature, Ibn Ḥibbān is credited as the author of the Kitāb al-Ṯiqāt, and is described as “a widely travelled traditionist and prolific writer.” The Kitāb al-Ṯiqāt is one of the most valuable sources for the study of the biographies of the transmitters of the ḥadīṯs over the first three centuries and is a record of medieval Islamicate history, even
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Urban Levantine Dialectal Features and the Levantine-Mesopotamian Dialect Continuum in the Light of the Dialect of Damascus Arabica Pub Date : 2019-11-14 Carmen Berlinches Ramos
The Levantine-Mesopotamian dialect continuum is the result of important linguistic contacts through the centuries, and the existence of an Aramaic substrate in both areas. The linguistic situation in the Levant today is extremely heterogeneous. Among the different vernaculars spoken there, Damascus Arabic has established itself as the model urban Levantine variety. Therefore, it is commonly heard in
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Kātib or muwaṯṯiq? New Approaches to the Writing of Private Arabic Documents in Granada Arabica Pub Date : 2019-07-30 Sergio Carro Martín
The particular style of the Granadan notaries (muwaṯṯiqūn) incorporates atypical letters, graphs and symbols that give their documents a formal and original character that is more befitting of the works of the secretaries (kuttāb). The presence of these features in documents within an official and administrative environment (dīwān al-inšāʾ) yields the question of whether the training of Granadan notaries
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La chancellerie almohade de Tinmāl : l’imām Ibn Tūmart et la formation de la structure de la lettre almohade (515/1121-524/1129) Arabica Pub Date : 2019-07-30 Jaafar Benelhaj Soulami
Résumé Écrire l’histoire d’une dynastie, d’une institution, d’un phénomène ou d’une personne exige en premier lieu une consultation minutieuse des archives et l’étude de l’histoire des institutions qui produisaient systématiquement ces archives. L’histoire des chancelleries musulmanes du Moyen Âge, et surtout celle de la chancellerie de l’empire almohade, reste encore à faire, à refaire ou à compléter
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Les citations de lettres de la chancellerie almohade dans les chroniques : rôle, place et fonction narrative Arabica Pub Date : 2019-07-30 Mehdi Ghouirgate
Résumé Les lettres de chancellerie almohade qui nous ont été transmises l’ont été pour une partie à travers des chroniques rédigées entre la seconde moitié du VIe/XIIe siècle et la fin du VIIIe/XIVe siècle. Or la recherche contemporaine n’a probablement qu’insuffisamment mis l’accent sur le fait qu’il existait de grandes différences entre les lettres citées dans les chroniques rédigées par des obligés
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Li-kull dahr dawla wa-riǧāl : temps, auteurs et autorité chez les théoriciens andalous de la kitāba, Ve/XIe-VIe/XIIe siècles Arabica Pub Date : 2019-07-30 Bruna Soravia
Résumé À travers l’analyse de l’Iqtiḍāb fī šarḥ adab al-kuttāb (L’abrégé : commentaire de L’éducation des secrétaires) d’Ibn al-Sīd al-Baṭalyawsī (m. 521/1127) et de l’Iḥkām ṣanʿat al-kalām (La maîtrise de l’art de la prose) d’Ibn ʿAbd al-Ġafūr al-Kalāʿī (m. après 542/1148), cet essai se propose de montrer que le discours andalou autour de l’adab al-kātib a cherché à rénover la tradition de ce genre
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“Though This Be Madness, Yet There Is Method In’t”: The mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf (Diptotes) in Arabic Grammatical Tradition Arabica Pub Date : 2019-03-11 Jean N. Druel, Almog Kasher
This article discusses theories designed by medieval Arabic grammarians to explain one of the most puzzling topics in Arabic grammar, mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf (diptotes). The mainstream theory of mamnūʿ min al-ṣarf probably took on its definitive form in the early 4th/10th century; it differs from Sībawayhi’s (d. ca 180/796) theory, yet consists of a generalisation of features found in the latter. A later
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Textual Silences and Literary Choices in al-Kisāʾī’s Account of the Annunciation and the Birth of Jesus Arabica Pub Date : 2019-03-11 Helen Blatherwick
The story of the annunciation to Mary and the birth of Jesus in the Qur’an and the Bible has been the subject of several recent literary studies that bring up the use of textual silences, and the significance of speech and speechlessness as themes in the text. This paper focuses on three recensions of the story available to us in printed editions of al-Kisāʾī’s Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ in similar vein, through
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Le druzisme prémoderne en Syrie : émergence du droit druze et des premières institutions religieuses Arabica Pub Date : 2018-08-31 Wissam Halabi Halawi
Les premiers traites du Canon druze dont la redaction remonte au V e / XI e siecle jettent les bases d’une doctrine religieuse nouvelle et ebauchent succinctement et de maniere souvent ambigue les preceptes moraux, mais aussi juridiques et juridictionnels auxquels les adeptes devaient desormais se soumettre, les lois ( sarāʾiʿ ) anterieures ayant ete abrogees par la Volonte divine. Les savants druzes
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Un aspect de l’art de la guerre de l’armée mamelouke : la pratique de la « fausse ouverture » à la bataille de Šaqḥab (702/1303) Arabica Pub Date : 2018-08-31 Mehdi Berriah
Le dimanche 3 ramaḍān 702/21 avril 1303, a Saqḥab, une localite situee a une quarantaine de kilometres au sud de Damas, les Mamelouks vainquirent l’armee ilkhanide apres deux jours de rudes combats. Cette nouvelle defaite des Mongols ilkhanides marqua la fin de tout espoir pour ces derniers de reconquerir un jour la Syrie. Outre la victoire, la maniere par laquelle les Mamelouks battirent leurs ennemis
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Fonctions de l’alternance entre arabe standard et vernaculaire libanais et connotations des deux codes dans un discours politique d’opposition Arabica Pub Date : 2018-08-31 Marie-Aimée Germanos
Cet article s’interesse aux fonctions de l’alternance entre arabe standard et vernaculaire ainsi qu’aux connotations des deux codes dans un discours prononce par Hassan Nasrallah. Au regard des travaux anterieurs adoptant une approche fonctionnelle – comme c’est le cas ici – de l’alternance dans le discours politique arabophone, l’interet du texte analyse est double. Le premier aspect interessant de
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Maǧnūn et mabrūk : des participes en quête de verbes Arabica Pub Date : 2018-08-31 Pierre Larcher
Dans le present article, nous proposons de voir dans la phrase bihi ǧinna la base meme du nom maǧnūn (« fou ») : les deux expressions sont synonymes, ayant la meme distribution dans le Coran (Cor 34, 46 et 81, 22). De maǧnūn est derive regressivement le passif ǧunna (« etre fou »), seul atteste. Celui-ci coincide avec le passif de ǧanna (« cacher »). Cette coincidence explique la contamination d’une
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Le témoignage d’Amīn Fikrī sur l’Exposition universelle de 1889 et la rue du Caire : petite polémique avec Timothy Mitchell Arabica Pub Date : 2018-05-08 Randa Sabry
In light of Amīn Fikrī’s biography and the composition of his journey to Europe, Irsād al-alibbā ilā maḥāsin Ūrūbbā ( The Guide for Enlightened Minds to the sights of Europe ), this article is an attempt to explain the circumstances of his visit to the World Exhibition of 1889 in Paris and to contextualize his description of the Rue du Caire. This passage was made the object of a famous comment at
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Les terres de l’Alitaje (Grenade) et le pouvoir socio-politique et économique dans l’al-Andalus naṣride : édition, traduction et étude de deux actes notariés de 878/1473-879/1474 Arabica Pub Date : 2018-05-07 María Dolores Rodríguez-Gómez, Francisco Vidal-Castro
Dans l’al-Andalus de l’epoque naṣride (629/1232-897/1492) et son epilogue mudejar-morisque ( IX e / XV e - X e / XVI e siecles), la propriete de la terre fut une strategie du pouvoir a trois niveaux (politique, economique et social) excercee par trois acteurs principaux (les souverains, les notables et les familles aisees). Dans le present travail, nous allons demontrer (1) que le souverain naṣride
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A Mirror for the Modern Man: The Siyar Šaʿbiyya as Advice Literature in Tunisian Judeo-Arabic Editions Arabica Pub Date : 2018-05-07 Rachel Schine
Historically, the siyar saʿbiyya (sing. sīra ) corpus—a collection of popular, orally-performed Arabic chivalric legends—have been cast as being outside of the ambit of adab ( belles-lettres ). Rather, scholars and critics both classical and modern have tended to regard them as tall tales and pseudo-histories. In closing his 1887 Judeo-Arabic edition of Sīrat Sayf b. Ḏī Yazan ( Sīrat al-azaliyya )
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Unity through Omission: Literary Strategies of Recension in Ibn al-Aṯīr’s al-Kāmil fī l-Taʾrīḫ Arabica Pub Date : 2018-05-07 Aaron M. Hagler
The historical chronicle al-Kāmil fī l-taʾrīḫ ( The Complete History ) of Ibn al-Aṯīr al-Ǧazarī (555/1160-630/1233) treats conservatively the existing corpus of narratives of the fitna , the first Muslim civil war (36/656-41/661). Ibn al-Aṯīr alters his main source’s accounts of troublesome moments, usually through omission, to present a universal history that serves to rehabilitate the reputation
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Muʿtazila in der arabischen Bibelübersetzung des Bišr b. al-Sirrī Arabica Pub Date : 2018-05-07 Christian Blumenthal
In his significant Arabic translation and interpretation of the Pauline Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles, Bisr b. al-Sirrī used muʿtazila to translate Pharisee throughout his work. This paper elaborates upon the multiple difficulties in revealing the connotations of muʿtazila in Bisr’s work from the middle of the third/tenth century. Furthermore, it offers an explication of his particular use
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Muḥammad as an Episcopal Figure Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Nicolai Sinai
The Medinan stratum of the Qurʾān ascribes to Muḥammad a noticeably elevated status and a far wider range of functions than the earlier Meccan layer. Although this shift may well have responded to, and been facilitated by, historical circumstances, it is nonetheless appropriate to inquire whether specific aspects of it might be drawing on pre-Qurʾānic precedents. I argue that the Christian episcopate
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Between History and Exegesis: the Origins and Transformation of the Story of Muḥammad and Zaynab bt Ǧaḥš Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Andreas Görke
This article examines the origins of the story of the Prophet Muḥammad’s controversial marriage with Zaynab bt Ǧaḥs as well as its transformation and reinterpretation through the centuries. The fact that the story features in different genres of Islamic literature as well as in non-Muslim sources allows for a reconstruction of how and where the story emerged, how it spread and to what extent it was
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The “ḥadīṯ literature”: What is it and where is it? Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Stephen R. Burge
This article seeks to explore what the ḥadīṯ literature is from a theoretical perspective. Developing ideas first formulated by Andrew Newman, it will be argued that the “ ḥadīṯ literature” is an abstract concept, which, subsequently, raises a number of issues and questions. Using a comparison of two works on ǧihād as a case study—al-Biqāʿī’s (d. 885/1480) Ḏayl al-istishād bi-āyāt al-ǧihād and al-Suyūṭī’s
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Collaborative Composition of Classical Arabic Poetry Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Erez Naaman
Evidence of collaborative composition of poetry goes back to the earliest documented phases in the history of Arabic literature. Already during pre-Islamic times, poets like Imruʾ al-Qays used to challenge others to complete their impromptu verse and create poetry collaboratively with them. This practice—commonly called iǧāza or tamlīṭ and essentially different from the better known poetic dueling
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The Chronology of al-Qāḍī l-Nuʿmān’s Works Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Ismail K. Poonawala
A chronology of an author’s works is necessary for understanding his or her intellectual evolution. Al-Qāḍī l-Nuʿmān wrote numerous books on diverse disciplines, such as jurisprudence, history, traditions of the Messenger of God and the Ismāʿīlī imams, biographies of the Fāṭimid caliph-imams, refutations of the Sunnī schools of law, and allegorical interpretation of the Qurʾān and the sarīʿa . The
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Procédés de décrédibilisation dans al-Fīl al-azraq, roman noir d’Aḥmad Murād Arabica Pub Date : 2018-02-27 Katia Ghosn
Contemporary Egyptian author Aḥmad Murād writes works of fiction as well as crime novels. The detective genre emerged very late on the Arab literary scene in comparison to its birth in the 19th century in the West. Al-Fīl al-azraq ( The blue elephant ), that we are about to analyse, is based on a psychological story. It fits into the matrix of the black novel as it appeared in the United States in
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The Feminine Ending -at as a Diptote in the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text and Its Implications for Proto-Arabic and Proto-Semitic Arabica Pub Date : 2017-11-07 Marijn van Putten
This paper examines the feminine ending -at in the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text. It argues that from the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text, and various data of comparative linguistic evidence, it is likely that the language of the Qurʾānic Consonantal Text goes back to a variety of Arabic where the feminine ending was treated as a diptote. It is moreover argued, that this feminine ending was likely also diptotic
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Sequence Organization of Requests among Australian English and Saudi Arabic Speakers: A Contrastive Study Arabica Pub Date : 2017-11-07 Saad Al-Gahtani
Previous research on cross-cultural pragmatics has primarily focused on how native speakers of different languages perform speech acts in relation to politeness and directness. However, Gabriele Kasper (2006), among others, has called for adopting a more discursive approach rather than analyzing data according to the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP) coding scheme. Therefore, this
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Naǧīb al-Kīlānī and the Islamic Storyteller Arabica Pub Date : 2017-11-07 Samira al-Khawaldeh
Naǧīb al-Kīlānī is an Egyptian novelist and theorist whose work acquires more importance by virtue of its unique position as a literary manifestation of the thought and worldview of the Society of the Muslim Brotherhood. To embark on such a writing career in Egypt at mid-twentieth century meant first the antagonisation of certain power centers, leading to political jail, and ultimate diaspora; and
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Grammaticalization in Emirati Arabic Arabica Pub Date : 2017-11-07 Najib Ismail Jarad
This paper is concerned with the process of language change whereby lexical items and constructions, in specific contexts, come to serve new grammatical functions. Emirati Arabic provides us with a wide range of grammaticalization phenomena. The aim of this paper is twofold: to shed light on the basic concepts relating to grammaticalization phenomena and to examine the grammaticalization of a number
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Illuminating the Lunar Mansions (manāzil al-qamar) in Šams al-maʿārif Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-15 Daniel Martin Varisco
The lunar zodiac, generally known as the manāzil al-qamar in Arabic, served both as an astronomical and an astrological system. This was a system of 28 lunar “mansions” or “stations” in which the moon was said to station ( nazala ) each night of the sidereal month. For each of the asterisms of the mansions there were prognostications, astrological and mystical connections. One of the more widely traveled
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In Defense of Geomancy: Šaraf al-Dīn Yazdī Rebuts Ibn Ḫaldūn’s Critique of the Occult Sciences Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Matthew Melvin-Koushki
The late 8th/14th century saw a renaissance of high occultism throughout Islamdom—a development alarming to puritan scholars. This includes Ibn Ḫaldūn (d. 808/1406), whose anti-occultist position in the Muqaddima is often assumed to be an example of his visionary empiricism; yet his goal is simply the recategorization of all occult sciences under the twin rubrics of magic and divination, and his veto
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Objectifying the Occult: Studying an Islamic Talismanic Shirt as an Embodied Object Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Rose E. Muravchick
Islamic talismanic shirts from pre-Mughal South Asia form a stylistically cohesive subset within the larger corpus of Islamic talismanic shirts from the patrimonial-bureaucratic period. These objects have eluded sustained study due, in large part, to their wide geographical purview and dissimilarity from other period textiles. While these objects bear some similarities with talismans of smaller shape
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Fears, Hopes, and Dreams: The Talismanic Shirts of Murād iii Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Özgen Felek
There is much evidence that Ottoman Turks were interested in talismans and magic. However, this area has not yet been studied in depth. A few recent studies present information about material artifacts, but without deep analysis of the use of talismans and magic among Ottoman Sufis. The present study examines talismanic shirts prepared for the Ottoman sultans, in particular the shirts of Murād III
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From Ġāyat al-ḥakīm to Šams al-maʿārif: Ways of Knowing and Paths of Power in Medieval Islam Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Liana Saif
In recent years, we have witnessed an efflorescence of research on Islamic esoteric traditions and occult thought. Such scholarly activity has established that the occult sciences are part of Islamic intellectual history that cannot be overlooked; rather, they constituted a primary mode by which people thought about the hidden, the extraordinary, and their potential for partaking in the divine and
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Physiognomy (ʿilm-i firāsat) and Ottoman Statecraft: Discerning Morality and Justice Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Emin Lelić
In the tenth/sixteenth century six treatises on physiognomy ( ʿilm-i firāsat )—a science widely considered able to predict inner moral dispositions ( aḫlāq-i bāṭina ) based on external appearances ( aḥwāl-i ẓāhira )—were written for the Ottoman court. In a world in which statecraft and politics were ultimately based on questions of morality ( aḫlāq ), physiognomy was presented as a particularly useful
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In Search of ʿIzz al-Dīn Aydamir al-Ǧildakī, Mamlūk Alchemist Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Nicholas G. Harris
This article attempts to establish basic biographical information about the prolific Egyptian alchemist ʿIzz al-Dīn Aydamir al-Ǧildakī, more specifically his birth and death dates and his origin. To this end, the article makes use of and critics manuscripts and secondary sources in order to untangle probable facts from unsubstantiated assumptions. The result moves closer to identifying the time and
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Magie et politique : événements historiques et pensée politique dans le Šams al-maʿārif attribué à al-Būnī (mort en 622/1225) Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Jean-Charles Coulon
A la fin de l’epoque medievale, les cercles du pouvoir se sont beaucoup interesses aux sciences occultes. Que l’on etudie les civilisations chretienne ou islamique, on constate que des gouverneurs, leurs conseillers ou leurs agents faisaient la promotion de l’astrologie, de l’alchimie, de la magie, etc. A titre d’exemple, nous trouvons des copies de l’ouvrage de magie le plus important de l’Islam medieval
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Reading the Stars at the Ottoman Court: Bāyezīd ii (r. 886/1481-918/1512) and His Celestial Interests Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Ahmet Tunç Şen
This study seeks to determine the extent of the patronage of the science of the stars ( ʿilm al-nuǧūm ) at the court of the eighth Ottoman sultan Bāyezīd II (r. 886/1481-918/1512). Throughout the medieval and early modern Islamicate world munaǧǧim s (astronomer-astrologers) offered rulers their expertise in calculating heavenly configurations and interpreting them with a view to predicting future events;
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Esotericist Reading Communities and the Early Circulation of the Sufi Occultist Aḥmad al-Būnī’s Works Arabica Pub Date : 2017-09-13 Noah Gardiner
The Ifrīqiyan cum Cairene Sufi Aḥmad al-Būnī (d. ca 622/1225 or 630/1232-1233) is a key figure in the history of the Islamicate occult sciences, particularly with regard to the “science of letters and names” ( ʿilm al-ḥurūf wa-l-asmāʾ ). Drawing on textual and manuscript evidence, this paper examines the role of esotericism—religious secrecy and exclusivity—in al-Būnī’s thought and in the promulgation
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Réforme des monnaies et spéculation dans le sultanat mamlouk au début du IX e/XV e siècle : al-Maqrīzī et la question de la responsabilité de l’élite mamlouk dans l’instabilité monétaire Arabica Pub Date : 2017-06-13 Clément Onimus
The terrible famine that struck Egypt at the beginning of the 9th/15th century led to al-Maqrīzī’s (d. 845/1442) critique of the Mamluk government’s misadministration. Al-Maqrīzī identified the monetary reform as the main reason behind the crisis. Among the multiple causes of this reform were the opposing interests of the Mamluk elite and the sultanic household regarding the value of gold and copper
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A Note on the Aḫī-Qādiriyya Order Arabica Pub Date : 2017-06-13 Ines Aščerić-Todd
This article compares the contents of a 17th century futuwwa statute of Bosnian tanners with those of a similar document found in Albania, and assesses what implications these two documents together, and the similarities between them, have on the thesis about the existence of an Aḫī-Qādiriyya Sufi order in the Balkans, and wider in the Ottoman Empire.Cette note compare le contenu d’un statut de futuwwa
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Al-Fawāʾid al-ḍiyāʾiyya fī šarḥ al-Kāfiya de Ǧāmī ou quand un poète se fait grammairien pour son fils Arabica Pub Date : 2017-06-13 Pierre Larcher
This note presents the commentary on Ibn al-Ḥāǧib’s (d. 646/1249) Kāfiya written by the Persian mystic poet Ǧāmī (d. 896/1492) for his son Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn. It is mainly inspired by two other commentaries on the Kāfiya, Ibn al-Ḥāǧib’s own commentary and Raḍī l-Dīn al-Astarābāḏī’s (d. 688/1289) commentary, as well as it is inspired by the Ḥāsiya on this latter written by al-sayyid al-sarīf al-Ǧurǧānī (d
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Noah’s Lost Son in the Qurʾān Arabica Pub Date : 2017-06-13 Gabriel Said Reynolds
In Kor 11 (Hūd), 42-47 the Qurʾān has Noah address one of his sons and plead with him to enter the ark. Noah’s son refuses to do so, explaining that he plans to seek refuge from the flood on a mountain. When the son is lost in the flood, Noah turns to God in order to ask that his son be forgiven. In the present article, I discuss the relationship of this Qurʾānic episode with larger themes in the Qurʾān—seen
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من الواقع إلى الخيال ؟أبو العنبس الصيمري وأبو الفتح الإسكندري : قراءة في مقامات بديع الزمان الهمذاني1 Arabica Pub Date : 2017-03-17 عبد الله الشيخ موسى
This study aims to see whether the absence of Abū l-Fatḥ al-Iskandarī, and his replacement by Abū l-ʿAnbas al-Ṣaymarī, truly moves the narrative of the Maqāmāt of al-Hamaḏānī from fiction to the allegedly factual “autobiography,” or whether, on the contrary, it confirms that the identity of the “hero” is, and whatever his name or kunya is, at least, double, which makes it impossible to distinguish
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