This publication is a most comprehensive, richly-documented dictionary which presents, in local Arabic dialects and in mostly assimilated Judaeo-Yemeni dialects, the natural, geo-political, economic, and socio-cultural history of Muslim Yemen. It is also an account of the religious inter- and intra-socio-cultural and economic everyday life of the ancient Jewish communities who lived as dhimm's under Muslim rule until their mass emigration to Israel in 1948, leaving behind 5,000 co-religionists. The dictionary is based on about 300 printed and ms sources painstakingly consulted in various libraries all over the world, and many Yemeni language informants now residing in Israel. The text of every single item is adduced, mostly in context, with reference to ms., or book, page, line, or note, and to classical and foreign etymologies. Particular attention has been paid to the dictionaries of Lane and Dozy. This is a milestone in Arabic lexicography, complementing Dozy's "Suppliment aux dictionnaires arabes, and opening up a complete new area sorely missing in the field of Arabic Studies.

This publication is a most comprehensive, richly-documented dictionary which presents, in local Arabic dialects and in mostly assimilated Judaeo-Yemeni dialects, the natural, geo-political, economic, and socio-cultural history of Muslim Yemen. It is also an account of the religious inter- and intra-socio-cultural and economic everyday life of the ancient Jewish communities who lived as dhimm's under Muslim rule until their mass emigration to Israel in 1948, leaving behind 5,000 co-religionists. The dictionary is based on about 300 printed and ms sources painstakingly consulted in various libraries all over the world, and many Yemeni language informants now residing in Israel. The text of every single item is adduced, mostly in context, with reference to ms., or book, page, line, or note, and to classical and foreign etymologies. Particular attention has been paid to the dictionaries of Lane and Dozy. This is a milestone in Arabic lexicography, complementing Dozy's "Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes," and opening up a complete new area sorely missing in the field of Arabic Studies.

A collection of letters from the Moroccan Sufi mystic and teacher Ahmad Ibn Idris (1749-1837) to his students, family and others, presented in facing pages of edited Arabic and English text,

The year 2005 marked the 90th anniversary of the birth of Igor Diakonoff (1915-1999). A classical Semitist in educational background, Diakonoff was most influential in his principal field of research--Assyriology. However, Diakonoff was also broadly interested in various aspects of ancient Near Eastern studies, notably Mesopotamian history, Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics, and biblical studies. Although not major domains of Diakonoff's scholarship, Biblical Hebrew and the ancient Near Eastern background of the Old Testament were areas of expertise that made him one of the leading figures of biblical studies in Russia. For several decades Diakonoff was a "live bridge" between ancient Near Eastern and Semitic scholars working in Russia and the international scholarly community. Fittingly, this volume of Babel & Bibel in memory of Diakonoff contains essays, short notes, and reviews by scholars from the Russian and international scholarly community on topics in ancient Near Eastern, Semitic and Afroasiatic, and Old Testament studies. The contributors include A. Archi, G. F. del Monte, G. del Olmo Lete, J.-M. Durand, B. R. Foster, P. Franzaroli, S. Loesov, J. Marzahn, J. Pasquali, W. Sommerfeld, K. Markina, N. Roudik, M. P. Streck, M. V. Tonietti, W. R. Garr, K. Jongeling, M. Seleznev, V. Blazek, M. Bulakh, T. Frolova, J. Huehnergard, R. M. Kerr, L. Kogan, A. Militarev, J. Sanmartin, G. Takacs, A. Zaborski, N. V. Koslova, S. Loesov, and L. M. Dreyer.

The volume brings together approaches to different elements of Arabic-Islamic civilization, mainly in the areas of linguistics, literature, literary theory, and prosody, but also including religion, ritual, economics, and zoology. Contributions also touch upon the adjacent areas of the Old Iranian, Persian, Greek and Byzantine written traditions. Some take as their points of departure specific Arabic words (cat, giraffe) or morphemes; others explore literary genres, subgenres (oration, ode, macaronic poem, travel narrative) or figures within them (the trickster, the devil). Cultural concepts such as wishing, gift-giving or discourse are treated, as are aspects of broader phenomena, such as the role of gender in dream interpretation or the relative merits of luxury goods and mass-produced commodities.

Aus dem Inhalt: Schriftenverzeichnis Otto Jastrow F. Abu-Haidar, Negation in Iraqi Arabic J. Aguade, Ein marokkanischer Text zum "schlafenden Kind" A. A. Ambros, Eine statistische Exploration in der Geschichte der arabischen Lexik W. Arnold, Neue Lieder aus Ma'lu-la P. Behnstedt, M. Benabbou, Zu den arabischen Dialekten der Gegend von Ta-za (Nordmarokko) L. Bettini, Notes sur la derivation verbale dans les dialectes bedouins de la Jezireh syrienne K. Beyer, Neue Inschriften aus Hatra H. Bobzin, Theodor Noldekes Biographische Blatter aus dem Jahr 1917 F. Corriente, The Berber Adstratum of Andalusi Arabic W. Diem, Nichtsubordinatives modales ?an yaf'ala. Ein Beitrag zur Syntax der nachklassischen arabischen Schriftsprache W. Fischer, Unterordnende und nebenordnende Verbalkomposita in den neuarabischen Dialekten und im Schriftarabischen Weitere Beitrage von: S. E. Fox, A. Geva-Kleinberger, G. Goldenberg, H. Grotzfeld, M.-R. Hayoun, W. Heinrichs, C. Holes, S. Hopkins, B. Ingham, B. Isaksson/A. Lahdo, R. de Jong, O. Kapeliuk, A. S. Kaye, K. Kessler, G. Khan u.v.a.

Sixty-six colleagues, friends, and former students of Edward L. Greenstein present essays honoring him upon his retirement. Throughout Greenstein's half-century career he demonstrated expertise in a host of areas astonishing in its breadth and depth, and each of the essays in these two volumes focuses on an area of particular interest to him. Volume 1 includes essays on ancient Near Eastern studies, Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic languages, and biblical law and narrative. Volume 2 includes essays on biblical wisdom and poetry, biblical reception and exegesis, and postmodern readings of the Bible.

The annotated and translated letters of 11th-12th century traders of the Jewish Indian Ocean, found in the Cairo Geniza, provide fascinating information on commerce between the Far East, Yemen and the Mediterranean, medieval material, social, and spiritual civilization among Jews and Arabs, and Judeo-Arabic.

Cypriot Arabic, an unwritten language and mother tongue of several hundred bilingual (Arabic/Greek) Maronites from Kormakiti (N.W. Cyprus), evolved from a medieval Arabic colloquial brought to the island by Christian Arab migrants (probably from Asia Minor and Syria). It represents the outcome of a unique linguistic and cultural synthesis drawing on Arabic, Aramaic, and Greek; its Arabic component also shows a hybrid areal profile combining Greater Syrian traits with formal features typical of the contemporary S.E.Anatolian-Mesopotamian dialectal continuum. A number of rare Aramaic substratal elements in Cypriot Arabic suggest a relatively early separation of its parent dialect from mainstream Arabic. This lexicon surveys about 2000 Cypriot Arabic terms against the background of extensive comparative material from the Arabic dialects, Old Arabic, and colloquial and literary varieties of Aramaic. Many Cypriot Arabic terms are here cited with illustrative examples and ethnographic commentary where relevant. Cypriot Arabic is an endangered language; the present glossary is the most comprehensive lexical record of this scientifically intriguing variety of peripheral Arabic. It is primarily intended for orientalists and linguists specializing in comparative Semitics and Arabic dialectology.

In 1869, Hayyim Habshush, a Yemeni Jew, accompanied the European orientalist Joseph Halévy on his archaeological tour of Yemen. Twenty years later, Habshush wrote A Vision of Yemen, a memoir of their travels, that provides a vivid account of daily life, religion, and politics. More than a simple travelogue, it is a work of trickster-tales, thick anthropological descriptions, and reflections on Jewish–Muslim relations. At its heart lies the fractious and intimate relationship between the Yemeni coppersmith and the "enlightened" European scholar and the collision between the cultures each represents. The book thus offers a powerful indigenous response to European Orientalism. This edition is the first English translation of Habshush's writings from the original Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew and includes an accessible historical introduction to the work. The translation maintains Habshush's gripping style and rich portrayal of the diverse communities and cultures of Yemen, offering a potent mixture of artful storytelling and cultural criticism, suffused with humor and empathy. Habshush writes about the daily lives of men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Muslim, during a turbulent period of war and both Ottoman and European imperialist encroachment. With this translation, Alan Verskin recovers the lost voice of a man passionately committed to his land and people.