Why Arabic ? = Hoezo Arabisch ?

In August 2006 a young American called Raed Jarrar discovered Arabic’s potency. Detained by four guards at New York’s Kennedy Airport for wearing a T-shirt with “We will not be silent” on it in Arabic, he was told that he may as well be entering a bank with a T-shirt announcing “I am a robber.” Recently, Arabic writings in the form of slogans on banners and bill boards carried by protestors or sprayed on walls have acquired even more loaded associations for those watching the political developments around the world – from hopes for democratic change to fears of an incipient Islamic extremist takeover. The sheer quantity of baggage that Arabic has acquired on its travels through the Western consciousness is unique. That the West’s complex and intricate relationship with the language is now characterised above all by fear is a special tragedy, argues Arabist and papyrologist Petra Sijpesteijn in Why Arabic? In this vigorous defence of Arabic and the long tradition of Arabic studies, Sijpesteijn shows what can be gained by engaging with this extraordinarily fertile language and culture, and how insight and understanding can be found in the most unexpected places. Arabic’s endless riches continue to surprise and reward.9789400600072 (eisbn)Wetensch. publicati

Closing Ranks

Soon after his arrival as newly appointed governor of Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj (d. 95/714) faced a standoff with a prominent member of the Baṣran garrison, Ibn al-Jārūd al-ʿAbdī (d. 76/695). In this article, I track the course of this rebellion as an example of a political system that, lacking a hegemonic system of coercion and control, was rather characterized by multiple overlapping centers authority in which the caliph, his governor, and those under their rule all played a part. Within this system, power was in an ongoing state of contestation as it was conceived of in different ways by the various stakeholders. Ibn al-Jārūd’s rebellion thus operated as a form of political negotiation, following established, if fragile, norms of communication within which violence was a calculated gambit, one of a repertoire of available and accepted tactical options. Indeed, despite the violent death of Ibn al-Jārūd and a number of his close followers, his supporters, high-ranking commanders among them, were reintegrated into the caliphate and were soon participating again in the political system, including through rebellions. The article thus argues for a re-evaluation of revolts and for their conceptualization not as a breakdown of government structures or as a rejection of them by those rebelling but rather as an understood and even inevitable feature of a political system in which certain tensions between different centers of authority and instruments of control could be mediated and resolved only through open conflict

Introduction

This thematic dossier is a product of the ongoing research project “Embedding conquest: Naturalising Muslim rule in the early Islamic Empire (600–1000 CE)” (EmCo), financed by the European Research Council. EmCo examines how interdependent relationships between individuals and groups contributed to the early caliphate’s longevity and success. One way to understand how these relationships functioned—including what expectations of rights and responsibilities they produced; how they were established, maintained, broken, and restored; who was involved in making and entitled to make decisions about their character, range, and limits; and who felt ownership over them—is to trace what happened when such relationships were tested and threatened in moments of crisis. Rebellions and violent uprisings form an obvious instance of such moments of crisis. This dossier arose from a workshop that examined social interdependency in the early caliphate through the lens of rebellions

Wit and wisdom in classical Arabic literature : Leiden lectures on Arabic language and culture

The Leiden Lectures on Arabic Language and Culture were initiated in 2013 on the occasion of the 400-year anniversary of the founding of the chair of Arabic at Leiden University. Each year an outstanding scholar in the field is invited to present a lecture on the rich and enjoyable variety of classical Arabic texts and their significance and relevance for today’s world. This book contains the first three lectures delivered by Petra Sijpesteijn, James E. Montgomery and Geert Jan van Gelder. From the reasons to study Arabic in the 17th century and today, to the jokes written into apparently serious scientific treatises, these three lectures together demonstrate the historical and cultural richness of the Arabic literary world

Expressing New Rule: Seals from Early Islamic Egypt and Syria, 600–800 CE

This article explores the usage, imagery, and linguistic expressions found on seals produced in the early Muslim empire and reveals how these developed from the seventh century to the ninth. Comparing Islamic and pre- Islamic samples exposes continuities and changes in sealing practices among Byzantine, Sasanian, and Arabian cultures and shows how these developments can be linked to the underlying ideologies and ambitions of Muslim authorities. In particular, it explains how and why different practices unfolded in Egypt and the Levant, and compares this phenomenon to the dissemination of shared forms throughout the Muslim empire, with particular reference to the rich material from Khurasan in the east and al-Andalus in the west

Histories of the Middle East

For four decades Abraham L. Udovitch has been a leading scholar of the medieval Islamic world, its economic institutions, social structures, and legal theory and practice. In pursuing his quest to understand and explain the complex phenomena that these broad rubrics entail, he has published widely, collaborated internationally with other leading scholars of the Middle East and medieval history, and most saliently for the purposes of this volume, taught several cohorts of students at Princeton University

Wit and wisdom in classical Arabic literature: Leiden lectures on Arabic language and culture

The Leiden Lectures on Arabic Language and Culture were initiated in 2013 on the occasion of the 400-year anniversary of the founding of the chair of Arabic at Leiden University. Each year an outstanding scholar in the field is invited to present a lecture on the rich and enjoyable variety of classical Arabic texts and their significance and relevance for today’s world. This book contains the first three lectures delivered by Petra Sijpesteijn, James E. Montgomery and Geert Jan van Gelder. From the reasons to study Arabic in the 17th century and today, to the jokes written into apparently serious scientific treatises, these three lectures together demonstrate the historical and cultural richness of the Arabic literary world