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Books Features

New Medieval Books: New Translations of Medieval Texts

Here are seven books offering new translations of medieval texts, all published within the last year.

The History of the Kings of Britain: The First Variant Version

Edited and translated by David W. Burchmore

Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674241367

Excerpt: Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain was among the most widely read and lastingly influential books written in England during the middle ages. The standard, or ‘Vulgate’, text of Geoffrey’s work survives in nearly two hundred manuscripts from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries, even more copies than survive of Bede. Roughly a quarter of the work is devoted to the life of King Arthur, which stands at the head of all subsequent accounts of Arthur’s career in the chronicle tradition.

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Continuatio Eulogii: The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum, 1364-1413

Edited and translated by Chris Given-Wilson

Clarendon Press
ISBN: 978-0-19–882337-7

Overview: The Continuation of the Eulogium Historiarum is one of the major contemporary narratives of the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. It covers the dramatic half century from 1364-1413, including the later years of the ailing Edward III (who died in 1377), the turbulent reign and ultimate fall of Richard II (deposed in 1399), and the struggles of his supplanter, Henry IV (who died in 1413) to establish the Lancastrian regime. It is written in a picturesque and anecdotal style, with a great deal of material not found in other contemporary chronicles.

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Subtle Insights Concerning Knowledge and Practice

By Sa’d ibn Mansur Ibn Kummuna al-Baghdadi

Translated by Y Tzvi Langermann

Yale University Press
ISBN: 978-0-300-20369-1

Overview: Written in the mid-thirteenth century for the newly appointed governor of Isfahan, this compact treatise and philosophical guidebook includes a wide-ranging and accessible set of essays on ethics, psychology, political philosophy, and the unity of God. Ibn Kammuna, a Jewish scholar writing in Baghdad during a time of Mongol occupation, was a controversial figure whose writings sometimes incited riots. He argued, among other things, the commonality of all monotheisms, both prophetic and philosophical. Here, for the first time in English, is a surprisingly modern work on the unity of all monotheistic regimes from a key medieval philosopher.

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The Knight and the Barrel (Le Chevalier au barisel)

Translated by Adrian P. Tudor

Manchester University Press
ISBN: 978 0 7190 9788 1

Excerpt: The poem is a viscerally intimate portrait of conversion, painting at times a brutal picture of a journey from damnation to salvation. This is a spiritual text fulfilling the dual need to edify and entertain. It tells of a bold, bad baron, who is persuaded by his knights to visit a holy hermit, but in a spirit of such stubbornness that he violently refuses to repent of many sins and crimes. After much argument and clearly just to get the hermit out of his hair, however, he agrees to take a small barrel, a keg – no more than a bucket – and to fill it at a stream, as a seemingly meaningless acts of penance. But…

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Warrior Saints of the Silk Road: Legends of the Qarakhanids

By Jeff Eden

Brill
ISBN: 978-90-04-38426-2

Overview: For generations, Central Asian Muslims have told legends of medieval rulers who waged war, died in battle, and achieved sainthood. Among the Uyghurs of East Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang, China), some of the most beloved legends tell of the warrior-saint Satuq Bughra Khan and his descendants, the rulers of the Qarakhanid dynasty. To this day, these tales are recited at the saints’ shrines and retold on any occasion.
Warrior Saints of the Silk Road introduces this rich literary tradition, presenting the first complete English translation of the Qarakhanid narrative cycle along with an accessible commentary. At once mesmerizing, moving, and disturbing, these legends are essential texts in Central Asia’s religious heritage as well as fine, enduring works of mystical literature.

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The Early Muslim Conquest of Syria: An English translation of Al-Azdi’s Futuh Al-Sham

Translated by Hamada Hassanein and Jens Scheiner

Routledge
ISBN: 978-0-367-23025-8

Excerpt: Over the past decades, al-Azdi’s Futuh al-Sham has become a main source for our understanding of the Muslim expansion in Greater Syria during the late antique period. Many scholars consider it the earliest extant historical work in Arabic, belonging to the genre of futuh (conquest) literature.

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The Repose of the Spirits: A Sufi Commentary of the Divine Names

By Ahmad Sam’ ani

Translated by William C. Chittick

Suny Press
ISBN: 9781438473338

Excerpt: The full name of the book translated here is The Repose of the Spirits: Explaining the Names of the All-Opening King. It is the first and one of the longest commentaries on the divine names in the Persian language. It was written by Ahmad Sam’ ani, who belonged to a prominent scholarly family from Merv in Central Asia and died at the young age of forty-six in 1140. It is a remarkable expression of Islamic spirituality and one of the most accessible books on the inner meanings of the Quran ever written.

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