This comparative analysis examines the Islamic and Jewish exegetical narratives on the early life of the forefather Abraham. It reveals how the traditions utilised one another's materials in creating and re-creating the patriarch in their own image.

This book aims to demonstrate that the accounts that feature Muḥammad’s grandfather in Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra are the product of narrative engineering. Through a narrative sequence in which ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib is the hero, several intriguing episodes follow one another in a causal manner and lead to the birth of a future prophet. Articulated with a historical anthropology, the narrative analysis reveals that the Sīra is the heir to the royal literature of the ancient Near East. Using motifs and themes from the culture of the Fertile Crescent, the Sīra makes ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib a royal figure in the service of legitimising the Abbasid dynasty, heir par excellence to Ishmael and restorer of the Abrahamic covenant. Cet ouvrage entend démontrer que les récits qui mettent en scène le grand-père de Muḥammad dans la Sīra d’Ibn Isḥāq sont le produit d’une ingé nierie narrative. À travers une séquence narrative dont ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib est le héros, plusieurs épisodes intriguants s’enchainent d’une manière cau sale et aboutissent à la naissance d’un futur pro phète. Articulée à une anthropologie historique, l’analyse narrative révèle que la Sīra est l’héritière de la littérature royale du Proche-Orient ancien. À partir de motifs et de thématiques issus de la culture du croissant fertile, la Sīra fait de ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib une figure royale au service de la légitimation de la dynastie abbasside, héritier par excellence d’Ismaël et restaurateur de l’alliance abrahamique.

Drawing on the latest in Genesis scholarship, this volume offers twenty-nine essays on a wide range of topics related to Genesis, written by leading experts in the field. Topics include its formation, reception, textual history and translation, themes, theologies, and place within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Arabic and Hebrew Love Poems in al-Andalus investigates a largely overlooked subset of Muslim and Jewish love poetry in medieval Spain: hetero- and homo-erotic love poems written by Muslim and Jewish religious scholars, in which the lover and his sensual experience of the beloved are compared to scriptural characters and storylines. This book examines the ways in which the scriptural referents fit in with, or differ from, the traditional Andalusian poetic conventions. The study then proceeds to compare the scriptural stories and characters as presented in the poems with their scriptural and exegetical sources. This new intertextual analysis reveals that the Jewish and Muslim scholar-poets utilized their sacred literature in their poems of desire as more than poetic ornamentation; in employing Qur’ānic heroes in their secular verses, the Muslim poets presented a justification of profane love and sanctification of erotic human passions. In the Hebrew lust poems, which utilize biblical heroes, we can detect subtle, subversive, and surprisingly placed interpretations of biblical accounts. Moving beyond the concern with literary history to challenge the traditional boundaries between secular and religious poetry, this book provides a new, multidisciplinary, approach to existing materials and will be of interest to students, scholars and researchers of Islamic and Jewish Studies as well as to those with an interest in Hebrew and Arabic poetry of Islamic Spain.

""The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad" is among the most ancient biographies of the Prophet Muhammad to survive into the modern era. Its primary author, Ma'mar ibn Rashid (714-770), was a prominent Muslim scholar who hailed from Basra in southern Iraq and who was revered for his learning in prophetic traditions, Islamic law, and the interpretation of the Qur'an. This fascinating and seminal work contains traditions handed down by Ma'mar to his most prominent pupil, 'Abd al-Razzaq of San'a' (744-827), relating the stories of Muhammad's early life and prophetic career as well as the adventures and tribulations of his earliest followers during their conquest of the Near East in the wake of his death. The Arabic text has been edited anew from its sole surviving manuscript, offers numerous improved readings over those of previous editions, and includes detailed notes on the text's transmission and variants as found in quotations of the text in later works. The translation renders the text into readable, modern English for the first time, and is accompanied by an extended introduction, glossary, and numerous annotations elucidating the cultural, religious and historical context of the historical events and persons that feature within its pages. "The Expeditions: An Early Biography of Muhammad" represents a important testimony to the earliest Muslims' memory of the lives of Muhammad and his companions, and is an indispensable text for gaining insight to the historical biography of Muhammad and the rise of Islam and its empire"--

hen Lee Sun has translated Laozi's Dao De Jing into both plain Chinese and English (Laozi's Dodejing, ISBN9781462067237). She is also self-taught on Daoism and Confucianism but had done studies and discussions on Western philosophies and linguistics in Taiwan University, Oxford University, and the University of California. She had also corresponded with Sir Alfred Ayer (A. J. Ayer) and Sir Karl Popper for many decades.

The basic concern of border studies is to examine and analyze interactions that occur when two groups come into contact with one another. Acculturation and globalization are at the heart of border studies, and cultural studies scholars try to describe the possible interactions in terms of conflicts and resolutions that become the result of those possible encounters. The present book is a peer-reviewed selection of papers presented during the IV Crossing Over Symposium at Cleveland State University held in October, 2011, and it is a follow-up to our discussion on border studies. The main focus of this volume is historical, [inter]national, gender and racial borders, and the implications that all of them have in the construction of an identity.

Through a series of interdisciplinary studies this book argues that the Athenians themselves invented the notion of 'classical' tragedy just a few generations after the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. In the third quarter of the fourth century BC, and specifically during the 'Lycurgan Era' (338–322 BC), a number of measures were taken in Athens to affirm to the Greek world that the achievement of tragedy was owed to the unique character of the city. By means of rhetoric, architecture, inscriptions, statues, archives and even legislation, the 'classical' tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) and their plays came to be presented as both the products and vital embodiments of an idealised Athenian past. This study marks the first account of Athens' invention of its own theatrical heritage and sheds new light upon the interaction between the city's literary and political history.

Veiling Esther, Unveiling Her Story: The Reception of a Biblical Book in Islamic Lands examines the ways in which the Biblical Book of Esther was read, understood, and used in Muslim lands, from ancient to modern times. It focuses on case studies covering works from various periods and regions of the Muslim world, including the Qur'an, pre-modern historical chronicles and literary works, the writings of a nineteenth-century Shia feminist, a twentieth-century Iranian encyclopaedia, and others. These case studies demonstrate that Muslim sources contain valuable materials on Esther, which shed light both on the Esther story itself and on the Muslim peoples and cultures that received it. Adam J. Silverstein argues that Muslim sources preserve important pre-Islamic materials on Esther that have not survived elsewhere, some of which offer answers to ancient questions about Esther, such as the meaning of Haman's epithet in the Greek versions of the story, the reason why Mordecai refused to prostrate before Haman, and the literary context of the 'plot of the eunuchs' to kill the Persian king. Throughout the book, Silverstein shows how each author's cultural and religious background influenced his or her understanding and retelling of the Esther story. In particular, he highlights that Persian Muslims (and Jews) were often forced to reconcile or choose between the conflicting historical narratives provided by their religious and cultural heritages respectively.