CAIRO TO DAMASCUS by JOHN ROY CARLSON. PREFACE: IT seems to me there are two ways, generally speaking, to pre pare a book, take a trip, or, for that matter, to live a life. One may go at it dilettante fashion, as a tourist nibbling at ex perience, titillating the emotions yet emotionally starved, stimulating oneself with ambition yet forever tortured by frustration. Circumstances and temperament, however, may conspire together so that, with the freedom of a nomad, one can escape the straightjacket of everyday boredom, hurdle fences of space and time, and consume life at its sources. Prop erly directed, such an earthly life may give wing to one's imagination, clarity to one's thinking, strength to one's convic tions, and even bring one nearer to the simple, eternal truths of God and spirit This book, I feel, belongs in the second category the cate gory of the primitive. I left my country quite as uninformed, I am afraid, as are most Americans with respect to other peoples and other shores. But everywhere I went I sought to touch reality always honestly, and always at first hand. Everywhere I clung close to the smells, the flora and fauna of native existence. In that spirit I have written of the Arabs among whom I lived. I found much good and much evil evil acquired through a feudal order that, in rny opinion, remains the Arab's greatest enemy and his greatest barrier to emergence from the dark ages. I am grateful for Arab hospitality and the kindness I was shown, but a reporter, like a physician, must not remain blind to the ills plaguing his subject. With no desire to attribute to myself or my writings any viii Preface exaggerated importance, it is my fervent hope that the manyArmenians living in the Arab Middle East will not suffer at the hands of fanatics because an American of Armenian descent happened to write this book. To them I can only say that I have told the story honestly, as I saw it. And to my Arab friends who asked only that I tell the truth/' I can say in all conscience that I have told the truth. Let me assure them that I speak in this book as an American, and purely in an individual capacity, with no ties to or membership in any Armenian-American body save the church into which I was born. Any retribution against the Armenians a minority island in a Moslem sea would be an unwarranted and senseless cruelty. I have written this book with the hope that it will bring both Arabs and Jews into truer focus for the reader; that it will help reveal what they are and what they are not, what may be ex pected of them and what is impossible. I pray that these ancient Semitic peoples will reconcile their differences, that Palestine refugees who, in the main, left their homes because Arab leaders urged them to do so expecting a short war and a quick victory will be resettled. The only alternative to peace is disaster for Arab, Jew, and Christian, for none may hope to prosper alone. Together they may ultimately build a prosperous and democratic Middle East. To remain apart, at dagger's point, means only that Communism and anarchy can be the ultimate victors.

The Damascus Document is one of the key texts to have been discovered in both spectacular Jewish manuscript discoveries of the 20 th century: the Cairo Genizah and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The legal part of this document has until recently received little scholarly attention. With the recent publication of eight manuscripts of the Damascus Document from cave 4, which provide a substantial amount of additional legal material, the legal part of this document is set to be the focus of research in coming years. This volume provides a detailed analysis of the Laws of the Damascus Document which fully incorporates the new cave 4 evidence. The author offers a close reading of the text and identifies a number of literary strata as well as a considerable amount of redactional activity.

The Damascus document is one of the most important texts from the Qumran caves. Part One of this Companion offers a lucid and up-to-date introduction to all the manuscripts, including the eight recently published from Qumran Cave 4. It also provides a review of the key areas of scholarly research on this important Qumran text. Part Two is devoted to the recently published text 4QMiscellaneous Rules (4Q265; olim Serekh Damascus). This text has already become the subject of intense interest among students of the Dead Sea Scrolls because of its unique relationship to both the Community Rule and the Damascus Document.

Early shows and sales of Islamic antiques in Paris -- Expanding trades in late Ottoman Cairo and Damascus -- Conflicted commodification in Cairo -- Fashioning immersive displays in Egypt and beyond -- Guise and disguise before and during the Tanzimat.

The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text that is one of the longest, oldest, & most important of the ancient scrolls usually referred to collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Its oldest parts originate in the mid- to late 2nd century BCE. While the earliest discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls occurred in 1947, the Qumran Damascus Document fragments were discovered in 1952 (but not published in full until 1996), mainly in what is designated as Qumran Cave Four. However, it is unique in that two manuscripts (MS A & MS B) containing parts & variations of the same text were discovered much earlier, in 1896, among the discarded texts of the Cairo Geniza, the latter being written in the 10th-11th centuries CE. Together, the manuscripts of the Damascus Document, both ancient & medieval, are an invaluable source for understanding many aspects of ancient Jewish (& before that Israelite) history, theology, and much more.

This book presents a new perspective on Islamic urban society: a dynamism of social networking and justice which caused both rapid development and sudden decay in the Ṣāliḥiyya quarter. Founded in the northern suburbs of Damascus by Hanbali ulama who migrated from Palestine to Syria in the mid-12th century, the quarter developed into a city through waqf endowments. It has attracted the attention of historians and travelers for its unique location, popular movements and religious features. Through the study of local chronicles, topographies and archival sources and through modern field research, Toru Miura explores the history of the Ṣāliḥiyya quarter from its foundation to the early 20th century, comparing it to European, Chinese and Japanese cities.

In Majd al-Dīn al-Fīrūzābādī (1329-1415): A Polymath on the Eve of the Early Modern Period, Vivian Strotmann provides a detailed reconstruction of the famous lexicographer’s and travelling scholar’s life and works. The ‘author of the Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ’ is widely known for his Arabic lexicon, which overshadows the astounding breadth of his writing. This polymathic aspect is elucidated through detailed reconstruction of al-Fīrūzābādī’s corpus, including examination of works that were considered lost and misapprehensions concerning ascriptions of authorship. Through minute analysis of biographical sources, the book shows al-Fīrūzābādī’s development as a scholar, his central role in the defence of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s teachings and thereby his importance as a powerful intellectual in Timurid times and for developments during the Early Modern Period.

The handbook The Semitic Languages offers a comprehensive reference tool for Semitic Linguistics in its broad sense. It is not restricted to comparative Grammar, although it covers also comparative aspects, including classification. By comprising a chapter on typology and sections with sociolinguistic focus and language contact, the conception of the book aims at a rather complete, unbiased description of the state of the art in Semitics. Articles on individual languages and dialects give basic facts as location, numbers of speakers, scripts, numbers of extant texts and their nature, attestation where appropriate, and salient features of the grammar and lexicon of the respective variety. The handbook is the most comprehensive treatment of the Semitic language family since many decades.