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...this original and scholarly study upsets received theories on the history of the dramatic art in Arabic...[and] opens up fascinating, new and unexpected vistas...
--R.B. Serjeant, Emeritus Prof. of Arabic, Cambridge University

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Eventually to be completed in six volumes, Arabic Literature of Africawill provide a survey of Muslim authors writing in Arabic in Saharan andsub-Saharan Africa and a bibliography of their works. Falling within thetradition of the great works of Brockelmann and Sezgin, it will form a basicreference tool for the study of Arabic writing in areas of the African Islamicworld that fall outside the parameters of these works. While primarily a workof reference, it will alsoattempt to provide an outline of the intellectualhistory of Muslim societies in the areas it covers: the Nile valley, EastAfrica and the Horn of Africa, West Africa and the western Sahara, fromearliest times to the present.The first volume covers Eastern Sudanic Africa (mainly the modern Sudan)until approximately 1900. It comprises twelve chapters organised by theme orperiod and aims to present as complete a coverage as the present state of ourknowledge will allow. ... Read more

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Enormous political and social changes brought about by modernization have found expression in the literatures of the Near and Middle East. The contributors to this book trace the development of the modern literary sensibility, focusing particularly on the literatures of Turkey, Egypt, Iran, Israel and North Africa. The period is divided roughly into three broad phases: the age of translation from 1850, when formerly self-sufficient Arab communities began to reach out to the West for new ideas and stylistic models; the surge of romantic nationalism after World War I and the collapse of imperialism; and the modern period after 1950. ... Read more

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In this comparative approach to the works of two major contemporary Egyptian writers, Mona Mikhail identifies existentialism as a major force in their work. Her close examination of the images and metaphors that recur in the short fiction of those two writers shows strong affinities with the works of Ernest Hemingway and Albert Camus, concentrating on a central preoccupation with the theme of death as a constant in he works of all four writers. Mikhail shows how Mafouz and Idris not only successfully incorporate myth and folklore but also draw upon the rich heritage of classical Arabic Literature as a source for their work.

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This book brings together pioneering studies of the world's oldest literature, which was composed before and after 2000 BCE in the extinct language Sumerian. All the contributions are based on the Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University that has edited and published nearly four hundred compositions and acts as a repository for research in Sumerian grammar, lexis, and style. The ETCSL, which is accessible through the internet and can be read for pleasure as well as study, is the only linguistically annotated and translated corpus of an ancient Near Eastern language. Each chapter of this book uses the ETCSL to approach a specific question relating to one or more compositions in the corpus, exploiting the new possibilities it offers to use quantitative methods and verify results. In addition to the themed studies, the book includes introductions to Sumerian literary language and corpus-linguistic approaches to research, as well as a catalogue of compositions. The material, methods, and results will be of great value to Assyriologists, literary scholars, and others investigating languages through a corpus. ... Read more

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This eye-witness account of the Holy Places liturgy of the Holy Land describes the experience of a pilgrim who visited Jerusalem fifty years after the reign of Constantine, making hers the earliest surviving account. Her loving attention to detail makes Egeria's work an historical and liturgical source of prime importance today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Geography Shaped by History
John Wilkinson's translation of "Egeria's Travels" provides a thorough account of Egeria's 4th century pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The travelogue is addressed to Egeria's contemporaries, likely nuns or learned women, who can follow along with the pilgrimage in spirit. Accordingly, Egeria documents the physical and spiritual aspects of her pilgrimage, noting routes and staging posts, but also liturgical details. A close inspection of "Egeria's Travels" reveals how her sense of the land is shaped by Biblical history, and how the Bible serves as a marker of authenticity for the sites that she visits.

Egeria's tendency to link scripture with place is evidenced in her visit to Capernaum, which she describes as "[where] the house of the prince of the apostles has been made into a church, with its original walls still standing. It is where the Lord healed the paralytic" (97).Because the original walls are still standing, and these walls are mentioned in the Bible, Egeria is satisfied in the authenticity of the site. Egeria's linkage between scripture and place also extends to geographical sites. For instance, after describing Capernaum Egeria writes, "And this is the field where the Lord fed the people with the five loaves and the two fishes" (97-98). In this way, Egeria makes geographical features become distinct and infused with meaning, as the land is shaped by her sense of the multiplication miracle. The original landscape is now seen through an emotional lens because of this Biblical connection.

All in all, Egeria's writings offer a detailed travelogue, but more importantly show how the pilgrim's sense of the land is formed by Biblical history. In studying pilgrimage, we must realize that sites of pilgrimage have been selectively identified and infused with meaning based on historical accounts, the marker, and the pilgrim's belief in the marker.

Surprising Find!
During my research on the Christian sites of the Holy Land, the name "Egeria" surfaced. I located this book on Amazon and when it arrived, I found it to have a wealth of information. This pilgrim kept a detailed diary which she sent to her "Sisters." She is very specific about the sites and liturgies of the Holy Land. Any one looking to learn more about the spiritual devotion in the Holy Land will enjoy this book. Since her diaries were lost, this partial account is all that exists and it is fascinating to read. Further research links her to St. Sylvia. ... Read more