Licit Magic – GlobalLit Working Papers 3. Amīr Khusraw's Introduction to His Third Dīvān, The Full Moon of Perfection

Nicknamed as the “Parrot of India” for his exceptional eloquence, Amīr Khusraw of Delhi (1253–1325) wrote elaborate prose introductions to all his dīvāns, but the one he wrote to his Ghurrat al-kamāl (The Full Moon of Perfection)—compiled around 1293–94, at the approximate age of 43—is particularly important because of his critique of Arabic and Persian poetry in general, and the critique of his own writing in particular. As a literary critique by an author of Turko-Indian background, who emulated the styles of various great Persian poets from Ghazni (in modern-day Afghanistan) to Shiraz and Isfahan (in modern-day Iran), to Ganja (in modern-day Azerbaijan), Amīr Khusraw’s work would provide valuable insights into the literary sphere of the medieval Persianate world. The present paper summarizes the author’s first part of the introduction to his third dīvān, Ghurrat al-kamāl (The Full Moon of Perfection), followed by an English translation of the section where he critiques his own poetry and prose

Licit Magic – GlobalLit Working Papers 2. Persian Dream Writing (khāb-nāma): With Translations from Khābguzārī (12th or 13th century), and ʿAjā’ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā’ib al-mawjūdāt (12th century)

There is something literary about dreams when they are written down. Dreams and literature intersect in wonder, imagination, and freedom. The excerpts translated here are dream writings from Khābguzārī by an anonymous writer in the twelfth or thirteenth century, and ʿAjā’ib al-makhlūqāt wa gharā’ib al-mawjūdāt by Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd Hamadānī (also known as Ṭūsī) (circa 1161–1178). Translated here for the first time into English, the two excerpts provide examples of how dreams shaped literary imagination in medieval Persian dream interpretation manuals (khāb-nāma) and anthologies of wondrous things (ʿajāyib-nāma)

Arbitrary Constellations: Writing the Imagination in Medieval Persian Astrology, with Translations from Tanklūshā (11th – 12th century)

The book we read today in the name of Tanklūshā in Arabic and Persian versions is pseudepigraphic––most likely an imaginary reconstruction of an astrological work by Teukros, rich with images of everyday life appearing in supernatural tints as constellations on the vast screen of the night sky. Each of the twelve zodiac signs contains depictions, of varying lengths, of thirty sets of triptych images. For those interested in Islamic theories of imagination (khayāl), Tanklūshā offers highly visualised texts and fantastic combinations of images. For those interested in Islamic sciences and practices of divination and prognostication, Tanklūshā presents a vivid map of the constantly changing sky — variously rendered as charkh, gardūn, falak, all meaning “turning,” and all representing fate in classical Persian literature — with its aleatory faces. Falak (sphere), which was described by Khāqānī Shirvānī as a “blank dice [kaʿbatayn-i bī-naqsh],” turns, in Tanklūshā, into a dice with 360 sides each inscribed by its dream-like patchworks of arbitrary images

Al-Rāzī’s Discussion on the Meaning of Speech [Kalām] & its Origins: Introduction & Translation

Known as one of the Sultans of the theologians, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (1150 – 1210) was a Persian Sunnī scholar of Arab origins who was renowned for mastering various disciplines including but not limited to exegesis [tafsīr], principles of Islamic jurisprudence [uṣūl al-fiqh], theology [kalām], logic [manṭiq], astronomy [falak], cosmology, physics, anatomy, and medicine. This paper delves into al-Rāzī’s discussion on semantics and its relation to the foundations of languages by examining multiple views on the composition of speech. By raising the rather simple question as to what constitutes speech (kalām) and what does not, al-Rāzī presents us with a terse, yet enlightening presentation of rhetoric's very building blocks, the word. His focus then moves to the vexed issue of whether the waḍʿ or establishment of speech is through divine revelation or human convention

The role of grassland sward islets in the distribution of arthropods in cattle pastures

1. It is well documented that cattle reduce their grazing activity in the vicinity of cattle dung, which gives rise to distinct patches, or islets as they have been termed, of longer sward. The influence of such islets on pasture utilisation and agronomic performance has been widely studied, but very little information is available concerning their influence on grassland biodiversity. 2. In this study the abundance and distribution of arthropods in relation to islets was assessed, using suction sampling, at 26 commercial farms and in a replicated pasture management experiment in the south and east of Ireland. 3. Islets were found to cover approximately 24% of pastures and to contain between 40% and 50% of arthropod individuals. 4. Islets consistently contained a higher density of arthropods, even when the difference in mean sward height between islets and more strongly grazed sward was accounted for. The relative concentration of arthropods in islets declined with increasing mean sward height, which may be related to the recovery of well-grazed non-islet sward. Islets appear to act as refugia from sward removal. 5. The potential importance of islets in maintaining arthropod biodiversity within intensively grazed pastures and the wider grass-based farming landscape is discussed, particularly with reference to standard agronomic practices such as sward topping and chain harrowing, which aim to remove the sward heterogeneity created by grazing livestock

Asset management as a digital platform industry: a global financial network perspective

While contemporary technological disruption is increasingly conceptualized in terms of the logic and paradoxes of the digital platform economy, discussions of “FinTech” have only engaged to a limited extent with these debates—particularly from an economic geographic standpoint. Here we fill this gap by proposing an adapted Global Financial Network (GFN) framework for conceptualizing the organizational and geographic logic of the digital platform economy in finance, and applying it to examine the impact of the digital platform model on asset management. As we will show, asset management is being profoundly disrupted by what we dub digital asset management platforms—or DAMPs—which encompass services including index fund and ETF provision, robo-advising, and analytics and trading support. Like other digital platforms, DAMPs do not so much leverage technology to enhance their competitiveness within markets, as to radically restructure the market itself. Also, like other platforms, their rise has produced a winner-take-all paradox of centralization through democratization that defies predictions of technology-enabled industry decentralization. However, the logic and implications of the rise of DAMPs diverges, in other respects, from non-financial digital platforms, as finance has long possessed an informational intensity and regulatory and organizational fluidity characteristic of the digital platform economy. Consequently, the digital platform model has mostly developed endogenously in asset management through incremental innovation by major financial firms—in a process that has reinforced the position of leading incumbent asset management centers, and above all New York—rather than being introduced from the outside by upstart technology firms and clusters

Internet Pathways in Suicidality: A Review of the Evidence

The general aim of this study was to review the scientific literature concerning the Internet and suicidality and to examine the different pathways by which suicidal risks and prevention efforts are facilitated through the Internet. An online literature search was conducted using the MEDLINE and Google Scholar databases. The main themes that were investigated included pathological Internet use and suicidality, pro-suicide websites, suicide pacts on the Internet, and suicide prevention via the Internet. Articles were screened based on the titles and abstracts reporting on the themes of interest. Thereafter, articles were selected based on scientific relevance of the study, and included for full text assessment. The results illustrated that specific Internet pathways increased the risk for suicidal behaviours, particularly in adolescents and young people. Several studies found significant correlations between pathological Internet use and suicidal ideation and non-suicidal self-injury. Pro-suicide websites and online suicide pacts were observed as high-risk factors for facilitating suicidal behaviours, particularly among isolated and susceptible individuals. Conversely, the evidence also showed that the Internet could be an effective tool for suicide prevention, especially for socially-isolated and vulnerable individuals, who might otherwise be unreachable. It is this paradox that accentuates the need for further research in this field

An Assessment of Contagion Risks in the Banking System Using Non- Parametric and Copula Approaches

This study endeavours to shed some light on the Contagion risk in the Vietnamese banking system. In so doing, we analyse the contagion risk through stock returns on listed commercial banks by employing non-parametric and Copula approaches. A rich set of empirical approaches are employed, including non-parametric (Chi-plots, Kendall-plots) and parametric Copula estimations to define the dependence structure of pairs of daily returns, balanced by a total of 36 copulas with 17,456 observations over the period from July 2006 to September 2017. Our results show that the risk of each individual bank may transmit to other banks through stock returns, which are reflected in their price information. The results also suggest existence of contagion risk and strong dependency in the structure of stock returns of banks under analysis. As a consequence, to avoid negative returns for the portfolio, careful diversification is required while investing in the Vietnamese banking sector, when showing a Clayton relationship (left-tail dependency). Our findings have profound implications for investors, policymakers and authorities responsible for financial stability