Jonathan Phillips sees one of the most notorious events in European history as a typical ‘clash of cultures’
The Poet and the Spae-Wife: An Attempt to Reconstruct Al-Ghazal’s Embassy to the Vikings
November 20, 2011 By
Before Dozy’s work,only excerpts from ibn-Dihya in incomplete shape had been known from the writings of the seventeenth-century Maghribi man of letters, al-Maqqari…
Crusader inscription by Frederick II discovered in Israel
November 15, 2011 By
“This is the only Crusader inscription in the Arabic language ever found in the Middle East,” say researchers.
Deplatonising the Celestial Hierarchy. Peter John Olivi’s interpretation of the Pseudo-Dionysius
November 13, 2011 By
These two different pedigrees could not be easily reconciled. The encounter of biblical and Neoplatonic angels produced one of the most crucial questions that theologians had to face in the second half of the thirteenth century…
Illustrious Arab Poets through the centuries
October 23, 2011 By
Illustrious Arab Poets through the centuries By Habeeb Salloum Contemporary Review, Vol.285 (2004) Introduction: In the desert of Arabia long before the Islamic conquests, Arabic had developed an enormous vocabulary. For any object to be found in their barren and inhospitable land, the Arabs had countless names. Hence, the poets had no trouble in rhyming […]
Roots of Oral Tradition in The Arabian Nights
October 16, 2011 By
Roots of Oral Tradition in The Arabian Nights By Zaid Numan Mahir Master’s Thesis, University of Missouri, 2007 Introduction: The rich oral tradition in the Arab world is one of a collective imaginary and a reflection of the collective consciousness. Tales and stories have had a twofold purpose. On the one hand, they provide entertainment […]
The Judgement of Urines
October 16, 2011 By
The Judgement of Urines Canadian Medical Association Journal, v.159:12 (1998) Abstract An earnest physician of Renaissance England counted this as one of the minor benefits of urine. His other jottings concluded that it is an excellent fertilizer for apple trees — it improves the apples’ taste, apparently — and does a fine job treating gout […]
EROTIC IMAGERY IN CLASSICAL ARABIC POETRY
October 2, 2011 By
EROTIC IMAGERY IN CLASSICAL ARABIC POETRY Drodzik, Ladislav (Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences) ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 6, 1997, 1 Abstract Womans charm is an everlasting source of poetic inspiration. With the unlimited variety of its manifestations, it is a challenge to the pagan poet of the Arabian desert, as […]
Sunset in the Gardens of al-Andalus
October 2, 2011 By
Sunset in the Gardens of al-Andalus Abdu-Noor, M. Ikraam Nebula, 2.1, March (2005) Abstract The era of Muslim rule in Spain (early 8th century to 1492), the historical moment known in Arabic as al-Andalus, was an age of great poets and great patrons, when princes in cities like Seville and Cordova and Granada competed to attract […]
The Normans between Byzantium and the Islamic World
September 15, 2011 By
The Normans between Byzantium and the Islamic World TRAVAINI, LUCIA Dumbarton Oaks Papers: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C.(2001) Abstract When dealing with the subject of monetary transactions and exchanges involving the Normans of Italy, Byzantium, and the Islamic world, scholars have been cautioned to use care when discussing terms such as influence […]
“Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste”
August 21, 2011 By
“Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste” Hendrix, John Shannon (Roger Williams University) School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Papers (2008) Abstract Robert Grosseteste was appointed the first chancellor of Oxford University in 1221. He lectured in theology there from 1225 to 1230, and became the first reader to the Greyfriars or Franciscans in […]
In Search of Ibn Sina’s ”Oriental Philosophy“ in Medieval Castile
August 2, 2011 By
In Search of Ibn Sina’s ”Oriental Philosophy“ in Medieval Castile Szpiech, Ryan (University of Michigan) Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol.20, (2010) Abstract Scholars have long debated the possibility of a mystical or illuminationist strain of thought in Ibn Sīnā’s body of writing. This debate has often focused on the meaning and contents of his partly […]
Piracy as Statecraft: The Mediterranean Policies of the Fifth/Eleventh-Century Taifa of Denia
August 1, 2011 By
Piracy as Statecraft: The Mediterranean Policies of the Fifth/Eleventh-Century Taifa of Denia Bruce, Travis Al-Masa ̄q, Vol. 22, No. 3, December (2010) Abstract The taifa of Denia on the Iberian eastern seaboard was one of the most dynamic of the regional polities that emerged from the disintegrated Cordovan caliphate. Muja ̄hid al-‘A ̄mir ̄ı based his […]
The Spanish Shahrazad and her Entourage: The Powers of Storytelling Women in Libro de los engaños de las mujeres
August 1, 2011 By
The Spanish Shahrazad and her Entourage: The Powers of Storytelling Women in Libro de los engañosde las mujeres Hancock, Zennia Désirée Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (2004) Abstract The anonymous Libro de los engaños e asayamientos de las mugeres (LEM) is a collection of exempla consisting of a frame tale and twenty-three interpolated tales. It forms […]
The Crusader Church of the Holy Sepulchre
July 19, 2011 By
The Crusader Church of the Holy Sepulchre Burke, Tiffany L. (University of Notre Dame Department of History) University of Notre Dame, March 22 (2002) Abstract The main focus of this essay is to describe in great detail the events leading up to and following the predominant architectural changes of the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. More precisely, […]
The medical resources and practice of the crusader states in Syria and Palestine 1096-1193
June 26, 2011 By
The medical resources and practice of the crusader states in Syria and Palestine 1096-1193 Woodings, Ann F. Medical History, Vol.15:3 (1971) Abstract At the end of the eleventh century a spate of intellectual activity in all fields,usually known as the Twelfth-Century Renaissance, began in Western Europe. Medical knowledge, consequently, made considerable advances with the rediscovery, mainly […]
Whom did al-Ghazal meet? An Exchange of Embassies Between the Arabs From al-Andalus and the Vikings
May 22, 2011 By
Whom did al-Ghazal meet? An Exchange of Embassies Between the Arabs From al-Andalus and the Vikings Pons-Sanchez, Sara M. Saga Book, Vol.28 (2004) Abstract The Vikings terrorised most of western Europe from the end of the eighth century to approximately the middle of the eleventh century. The Iberian Peninsula was no exception, though the Viking raids […]
Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glycas: A Twelfth-Century Defense and Refutation of Astrology
May 7, 2011 By
Manuel I Komnenos and Michael Glycas: A Twelfth-Century Defense and Refutation ofAstrology George, Demetra Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 5 no 1 (2001) Abstract Manuel Komnenos I, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire composed a defense of astrology to the Church Fathers, in which he asserted that this discipline was compatible with Christian doctrine. Theologian Michael Glykas, possibly imprisoned […]
Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?
February 20, 2011 By
Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman? LaGrandeur, Kevin Comparative Literature and Culture, Volume 12, Issue 3, (September 2010) Article 3 Abstract In his article “Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?” Kevin LaGrandeur analyzes the relationships between literary images of artificial humans associated with medieval alchemists and alchemy, their modified reemergence in the […]
Dietetics in Medieval Islamic Culture
January 16, 2011 By
Dietetics in Medieval Islamic Culture Waines, David Medical History, 43 (1999) Abstract The origins of dietetics understood as”the systematic control of food and drink in order to conserve health or combat disease” may be traced back to the Hippocratic Corpus,written chiefly between 430 and 330BC. In Tradition in medicine the author argues that in the […]
De Saracenico in Latinum transferri: causes and effects of translation in the fiscal administration of Norman Sicily
January 2, 2011 By
De Saracenico in Latinum transferri: causes and effects of translation in the fiscal administration of Norman Sicily Metcalfe, Alex (UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS) Al-Masāq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean 13 (2001) Abstract This article discusses the relationship between the description of boundaries in western Sicily, which were originally copied in Arabic by a scribe of the […]
Mystic Mythopoiesis of Pre-Islamic Arabic Odes
October 24, 2010 By
Mystic Mythopoiesis of Pre-Islamic Arabic Odes By Dalia Urbonaitė Acta Orientalia Vilnensia, Vol. 6:2 (2005) Abstract: Qaùīdas, the Pre-Islamic Arabic odes, were for years regarded as a model of ideal excellence in Arabic poetry, rhetoric and a way of innermost expression of pure Arabic mind. Poems, made up from several rigorously defined elements, although the […]
How you can Follow Us!