«Lo que ha sido escrito en la frente, el ojo lo debe ver»: Un escritor judeoárabe entre Bagdad y el campo de refugiados en Israel

As an integral part of Arab society since the pre-Islamic period, Jews participated in the making of Arabic literature. We know of prominent Jewish poets such as al-Samawʾal ibn ʿᾹdiyāʾ in the sixth century A.D. and Ibrāhīm ibn Sahl in al-Andalus in the thirteenth century. During the first half of the twentieth century, Arabic literature in fuṣḥā (standard Arabic) written by Jews witnessed a great revival, especially in Iraq and Egypt, but this revival was cut short as a casualty of Zionism and Arab nationalism and the conflict between them. We are currently witnessing the demise of Arabic literature written by Jews; the Arabic language among Jews will probably remain mostly a tool of the military establishment and the intelligence systems as encapsulated in the dictum 'know your enemy' instead of being a medium for coexistence and knowing the Other. The article concentrates on the literary activities of one of the most talented Iraqi-Jewish authors, Shalom Darwīsh (1913-1997), whose promising anticipated literary future in Arabic literature encountered a deadlock following the aforementioned exclusion of Jews from 'Arabness'.Desde el período preislámico, los judíos participaron en la producción literaria en árabe como parte integrante de la sociedad araboislámica. Conocemos a poetas judíos prominentes como al-Samawʾal ibn ʿᾹdiyāʾ en el siglo VI d.C. e Ibrāhīm ibn Sahl en al-Andalus en el siglo XIII. Durante la primera mitad del siglo XX, la literatura árabe en fuṣḥā (árabe estándar) escrita por judíos fue testigo de un gran resurgimiento, especialmente en Irak y Egipto, pero este resurgimiento se vio interrumpido a causa del sionismo y el nacionalismo árabe, y el conflicto entre ambos. En la actualidad estamos asistiendo a la desaparición de la literatura árabe escrita por judíos. La lengua árabe se conservará entre los judíos principalmente como una herramienta del ejército y los sistemas de inteligencia, como se resume en el dicho «conoce a tu enemigo», en lugar de ser un medio para la coexistencia y el conocimiento del otro. El artículo se concentra en las actividades literarias de uno de los autores judíos iraquíes con más talento, Shalom Darwīsh (1913-1997), cuyo prometedor futuro en el campo de la literatura árabe fue interrumpido tras la exclusión antes mencionada de los judíos de la arabidad

Autoantibody Epitope Spreading in the Pre-Clinical Phase Predicts Progression to Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prototypical autoimmune arthritis affecting nearly 1% of the world population and is a significant cause of worldwide disability. Though prior studies have demonstrated the appearance of RA-related autoantibodies years before the onset of clinical RA, the pattern of immunologic events preceding the development of RA remains unclear. To characterize the evolution of the autoantibody response in the preclinical phase of RA, we used a novel multiplex autoantigen array to evaluate development of the anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and to determine if epitope spread correlates with rise in serum cytokines and imminent onset of clinical RA. To do so, we utilized a cohort of 81 patients with clinical RA for whom stored serum was available from 1–12 years prior to disease onset. We evaluated the accumulation of ACPA subtypes over time and correlated this accumulation with elevations in serum cytokines. We then used logistic regression to identify a profile of biomarkers which predicts the imminent onset of clinical RA (defined as within 2 years of testing). We observed a time-dependent expansion of ACPA specificity with the number of ACPA subtypes. At the earliest timepoints, we found autoantibodies targeting several innate immune ligands including citrullinated histones, fibrinogen, and biglycan, thus providing insights into the earliest autoantigen targets and potential mechanisms underlying the onset and development of autoimmunity in RA. Additionally, expansion of the ACPA response strongly predicted elevations in many inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12p70, and IFN-γ. Thus, we observe that the preclinical phase of RA is characterized by an accumulation of multiple autoantibody specificities reflecting the process of epitope spread. Epitope expansion is closely correlated with the appearance of preclinical inflammation, and we identify a biomarker profile including autoantibodies and cytokines which predicts the imminent onset of clinical arthritis

“The Eye’s Delight” : Baghdad in Arabic Poetry

The article deals with the role that Baghdad has played in Arabic poetry since its foundation in 762 AD and throughout the history of Arabic literature. Founded at a time when Arabic poetry was at its peak, the glorious image of the city perched on both banks of the Tigris ignited the imagination of subsequent generations of poets to carve it in verse and enshrine it in the mantle of universal myth. There were also periods when Baghdad claimed attention because of its dramatic decline and disintegration as well as for being a theater for bloody wars, but even in such tragic times the image of an alternative, utopian Baghdad, as a metaphor, remained immune to the vicissitudes of time and the dreary reality of the earthly city. The sway of Baghdad, the fabled city of Hārūn al-Rashīd and the enchanted land of A Thousand and One Nights, continues to capture the imagination of successive generations of poets, writers, and artists the world over. Neither East nor West seems immune to its irresistible charm.https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-437598</p

Modern Arabic Literature and Islamist Discourse: "Do not Be Coolness, Do not Flutter Safety"

With the rise of Islam, Arab civilization was given a defined ideological and cultural framework within which it could develop. Islam, as a system of symbols, represents the most significant factor in the explanation of Arab cultural, intellectual, and literary history since the seventh century. Arabic literature was never wholly a religious one, but since the revelation of the Qur'ān, the various activities in the literary system generally occurred within the borders defined by Islam and were guided by a cultural heritage that seemed nearly as sacred as the religious law. Islam and, more specifically, the Qur'ān, was also predominant in consolidating principles that ensured, according to most Arab intellectuals in the twentieth century, that modern Arabic literature could only be a direct extension of the classical literature. The dominance of Islamist discourse in the literary system during the last century was reflected through censorship and banning of books for religious considerations and for the harm they might do to public morality. Nevertheless, Arabic literature witnessed during the second half of the previous century a strong trend towards separation from its strict Islamic moorings in order to follow its course as a completely secularized literature. This trend has found its manifestation in both the interrelations of the literary system with other extra-literary systems as well as on the level of the texts themselves. (The term “Islamist” is used here to refer to the cultural activities and the discourse of the religious circles; conversely, the terms “Muslim” or “Islamic” are applied to general religious and traditional cultural phenomena)

World Literature, Republics of Letters, and the Arabic Literary System: The “Modernists” in the Defendants’ Bench—A Review Article

A review article of "The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction" by Muhsin Jassim al-Musaw

Arabic in the Service of Regeneration of Jews. The participation of Jews in Arabic Press and Journalism in the 19th and 20th Centuries

The first periodical publications carrying news written by and for Arabs appeared during the first part of the 19th century. The major developments in the field of non-governmental Arabic press occurred, however, only during the second half of that century. That was also the time when Jews started to take an active part in founding, editing, and writing for Arabic newspapers, periodicals, and professional journals in various parts of the Arab world. First it included newspapers and periodicals in Judeo-Arabic dialects and only later in standard Arabic language. The main centres of journalistic activity by Jews in the Arab world were Baghdad, Cairo, Beirut, Alexandria, Damascus and Tunis. Newspapers founded by Jews were mostly ephemeral, however, there were also periodicals that prospered for decades. There was a connection between the involvement of Arab Jews in canonical Arab culture and the development of the Arabic-Jewish press and journalism: wherever Jews tried to integrate politically, socially and culturally into society (Iraq, to a lesser extent in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria) there were always active Jewish owners of Arabic newspapers and periodicals as well as editors and journalists writing in standard literary Arabic. But wherever Jews showed no significant interest in the canonical Arabic cultural activities of their society (e.g. North Africa), only periodicals in Judeo-Arabic dialects written in Hebrew letters are to be found (in addition to newspapers in other languages). Jewish newspapers published in both Judeo-Arabic dialects and standard Arabic had generally one main aim in common: promoting modernisation of Jewish life in Arab societies and encouraging Jews to become acquainted with the achievements of Western civilisation. After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there has been a sharp decline in Arabic journalism by Jews; in fact we are currently witnessing the demise of Arab-Jewish culture. A tradition that started more than fifteen hundred years ago is vanishing before our eyes