Download or read book Arab Women in the Middle Ages written by Shirley Guthrie and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regardless of social rank and religion, whether Christian, Jew, or Muslim, Arab women in the middle ages played an important role in the functioning of society. This book is a journey into their daily lives, their private spaces and public roles. First we are introduced into the women's sanctuaries, their homes, and what occurs within its realm - marriage and contraception, childbirth and childcare, culinary traditions, body and beauty rituals - providing rare insight into the rites and rituals prevalent among the different communities of the time. These women were also much present in the public arena and made important contributions in the fields of scholarship and the affairs of state. A number of them were benefactresses, poets, calligraphers, teachers and sales women. Others were singing girls, professional mourners, bath-attendants and prostitutes. How these women managed their daily affairs, both personal and professional, defined their roles in the wider spheres of society. Drawing from the Islamic traditions, as well as legal documents, historical sources and popular chronicles of the time, Guthrie's book offers an informative study of an area which remaisn relatively unexplored. 'A useful survey on Arab (mostly Muslim) women's lives in past centuries.' RJAS 'Of greatest use to educators and lecturers looking for diverse and entertaining details of various aspects of medieval Near Eastern social life.' International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 'Reveals a broad understanding of the subject' MESA Bulletin

Download or read book Arab Social Life in the Middle Ages written by Shirley Guthrie and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2013-08-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vivid portrait of everyday life in the medieval Arab world draws on thirteenth century miniatures from collections as far afield as St Petersburg and Istanbul. The wide range of topi covers every aspect of society in the 'Abbasid period, from life at court to the pomp and ceremony of the military, from the dispensing of justice to the bustle of the suq and slave market. The routine of village life is contrasted with the pleasures of urban society, and we are also introduced to the world of musicians and professional mourners. Women are shown not only as virtuous wives, and in childbirth, but as spirited and articulate individuals. The traditions of Arab hospitality are described, with scenes of drinking, feasting and etiquette. The author has illustrated her study with contemporary miniatures, principally those of al-Wasiti which accompany the celebrated Maqamat of al-Hariri. In his text, al-Hariri made no attempt to conceal his admiration for his unprincipled and thoroughly disreputable protagonist, Abu Zayd - who represents the voice of the common man and possibly provides a prototype for the popular picaresque heroes of later European literature. Al-Hariri frequently used the tales as a subtle and indirect way of satirizing the prevailing social order, yet he was insistent that his work had an underlying moral purpose. 'Guthrie's work is scholarly and her book is a mine of information on both basic and recondite features of Islamic society.' Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement 'Very lively and informative on a wide range of topi in medieval Islamic history. The book ... is eminently accessible to students and non-specialists, and is certainly one that merits close attention.' Medical History 'An essential read for Arabs and non-Arabs alike.' al-Hayat

Download or read book Barren Women written by Sara Verskin and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barren Women is the first scholarly book to explore the ramifications of being infertile in the medieval Arab-Islamic world. Through an examination of legal texts, medical treatises, and works of religious preaching, Sara Verskin illuminates how attitudes toward mixed-gender interactions; legal theories pertaining to marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and scientific theories of reproduction contoured the intellectual and social landscape infertile women had to navigate. In so doing, she highlights underappreciated vulnerabilities and opportunities for women’s autonomy within the system of Islamic family law, and explores the diverse marketplace of medical ideas in the medieval world and the perceived connection between women’s health practices and religious heterodoxy. Featuring copious translations of primary sources and minimal theoretical jargon, Barren Women provides a multidimensional perspective on the experience of infertility, while also enhancing our understanding of institutions and modes of thought which played significant roles in shaping women’s lives more broadly. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

Download or read book Women in the Medieval Islamic World written by Gavin R. G. Hambly and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women often appear invisible in what is widely perceived as the male-oriented society of Islam. This work seeks to redress the balance with a series of essays on women in the pre-modern phase of Islamic history. The reader will encounter here rulers, politicians, poets and patrons, as well as some larger than life fictitious females from the pages of Arabic, Persian and Turkish literature. There are also accounts of quiet or troubled lives of ordinary women preserved in the court records of Mamluk Egypt and Ottoman Turkey, reminders that historical research can resuscitate the lives of subaltern as well as elite women from the past.

Download or read book The Ornament of the World written by Maria Rosa Menocal and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-11-29 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic bestseller — the inspiration for the PBS series — is an "illuminating and even inspiring" portrait of medieval Spain that explores the golden age when Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance (Los Angeles Times). This enthralling history, widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where for more than seven centuries Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and where literature, science, and the arts flourished. "It is no exaggeration to say that what we presumptuously call 'Western' culture is owed in large measure to the Andalusian enlightenment...This book partly restores a world we have lost." —Christopher Hitchens, The Nation

Download or read book Women in Middle Eastern History written by Nikki R. Keddie and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of Middle Eastern women is the first to survey gender relations in the Middle East from the earliest Islamic period to the present. Outstanding scholars analyze a rich array of sources ranging from histories, biographical dictionaries, law books, prescriptive treatises, and archival records, to the Traditions (hadith) of the Prophet and imaginative works like the Thousand and One Nights, to modern writings by Middle Eastern women and by Western writers. They show that gender boundaries in the Middle East have been neither fixed nor immutable: changes in family patterns, religious rituals, socio-economic necessity, myth and ideology—and not least, women’s attitudes—have expanded or circumscribed women’s roles and behavior through the ages.

Download or read book The Matter of Araby in Medieval England written by Dorothee Metlitzki and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand the significance of Arabic material in medieval literature, we must recognize the concrete reality of Islam in the medieval European experience. Intimate contacts beginning with the Crusades yielded considerable knowledge about "Araby" beyond the merely stereotypical and propagandistic. Arabian culture was manifest in scientific and philosophical investigations; and the Arab presence pervaded medieval romance, where caricatures of Saracens were not merely a catering to popular taste but were a way of coping emotionally with a real threat. In England as well as in continental Europe, Islam figured in the best intellectual efforts of the age. Dorothee Metlitzki considers "Scientific and Philosophical Learning" in Part One of this book and discusses the transmission of Arabian culture, by way of the Crusades, and through the courts of Sicily and Spain. She sees the work of Latin translators from the Arabic in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as the background of a medieval heritage of learning that expressed itself in the subject matter, theme, and imagery not only of a scholar-poet like Chaucer but also of the poets of popular romance. In Part Two, "The Literary Heritage," Metlitzki deals with Arabian source books, with Araby in history and romance, and with Mandeville's Travels. She concludes with a general assessment of the cultural force of Araby in England during the middle Ages.

Download or read book The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters written by Muhsin J. al-Musawi and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters: Arabic Knowledge Construction, Muhsin J. al-Musawi offers a groundbreaking study of literary heritage in the medieval and premodern Islamic period. Al-Musawi challenges the paradigm that considers the period from the fall of Baghdad in 1258 to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1919 as an "Age of Decay" followed by an "Awakening" (al-nahdah). His sweeping synthesis debunks this view by carefully documenting a "republic of letters" in the Islamic Near East and South Asia that was vibrant and dynamic, one varying considerably from the generally accepted image of a centuries-long period of intellectual and literary stagnation. Al-Musawi argues that the massive cultural production of the period was not a random enterprise: instead, it arose due to an emerging and growing body of readers across Islamic lands who needed compendiums, lexicons, and commentaries to engage with scholars and writers. Scholars, too, developed their own networks to respond to each other and to their readers. Rather than addressing only the elite, this culture industry supported a common readership that enlarged the creative space and audience for prose and poetry in standard and colloquial Arabic. Works by craftsmen, artisans, and women appeared side by side with those by distinguished scholars and poets. Through careful exploration of these networks, The Medieval Islamic Republic of Letters makes use of relevant theoretical frameworks to situate this culture in the ongoing discussion of non-Islamic and European efforts. Thorough, theoretically rigorous, and nuanced, al-Musawi's book is an original contribution to a range of fields in Arabic and Islamic cultural history of the twelfth to eighteenth centuries.

Download or read book ARAB WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES Private Lives and Public Roles written by برهان زريق and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Women s Lives written by Nahir I. Otaño Gracia and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on a variety of medieval women, which will grant readers a more complete view of medieval women’s lives broadly speaking. These essays largely take a new perspective on their subjects, pushing readers to reconsider preconceived notions about medieval women, authority, and geography. This book will expand the knowledge base of our readers by introducing them to non-canonical and non-European subjects.

Download or read book arab women in the middle ages private lives and public roles written by شيرلي جاثري and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Crossing Borders written by Sahar Amer and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Given Christianity's valuation of celibacy and its persistent association of sexuality with the Fall and of women with sin, Western medieval attitudes toward the erotic could not help but be vexed. In contrast, eroticism is explicitly celebrated in a large number of theological, scientific, and literary texts of the medieval Arab Islamicate tradition, where sexuality was positioned at the very heart of religious piety. In Crossing Borders, Sahar Amer turns to the rich body of Arabic sexological writings to focus, in particular, on their open attitude toward erotic love between women. By juxtaposing these Arabic texts with French works, she reveals a medieval French literary discourse on same-sex desire and sexual practices that has gone all but unnoticed. The Arabic tradition on eroticism breaks through into French literary writings on gender and sexuality in often surprising ways, she argues, and she demonstrates how strategies of gender representation deployed in Arabic texts came to be models to imitate, contest, subvert, and at times censor in the West. Amer's analysis reveals Western literary representations of gender in the Middle Ages as cross-cultural, hybrid discourses as she reexamines borders—cultural, linguistic, historical, geographic—not as elements of separation and division but as fluid spaces of cultural exchange, adaptation, and collaboration. Crossing these borders, she salvages key Arabic and French writings on alternative sexual practices from oblivion to give voice to a group that has long been silenced.

Download or read book Marriage Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society written by Yossef Rapoport and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-04-21 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: High rates of divorce, often taken to be a modern and western phenomenon, were also typical of medieval Islamic societies. By pitting these high rates of divorce against the Islamic ideal of marriage,Yossef Rapoport radically challenges usual assumptions about the legal inferiority of Muslim women and their economic dependence on men. He argues that marriages in late medieval Cairo, Damascus and Jerusalem had little in common with the patriarchal models advocated by jurists and moralists. The transmission of dowries, women's access to waged labour, and the strict separation of property between spouses made divorce easy and normative, initiated by wives as often as by their husbands. This carefully researched work of social history is interwoven with intimate accounts of individual medieval lives, making for a truly compelling read. It will be of interest to scholars of all disciplines concerned with the history of women and gender in Islam.

Download or read book Queens of Jerusalem written by Katherine Pangonis and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1187 Saladin's armies besieged the holy city of Jerusalem. He had previously annihilated Jerusalem's army at the battle of Hattin, and behind the city's high walls a last-ditch defence was being led by an unlikely trio - including Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem. They could not resist Saladin, but, if they were lucky, they could negotiate terms that would save the lives of the city's inhabitants. Queen Sibylla was the last of a line of formidable female rulers in the Crusader States of Outremer. Yet for all the many books written about the Crusades, one aspect is conspicuously absent: the stories of women. Queens and princesses tend to be presented as passive transmitters of land and royal blood. In reality, women ruled, conducted diplomatic negotiations, made military decisions, forged alliances, rebelled, and undertook architectural projects. Sibylla's grandmother Queen Melisende was the first queen to seize real political agency in Jerusalem and rule in her own right. She outmanoeuvred both her husband and son to seize real power in her kingdom, and was a force to be reckoned with in the politics of the medieval Middle East. The lives of her Armenian mother, her three sisters, and their daughters and granddaughters were no less intriguing. The lives of this trailblazing dynasty of royal women, and the crusading Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, are the focus of Katherine Pangonis's debut book. In QUEENS OF JERUSALEM she explores the role women played in the governing of the Middle East during periods of intense instability, and how they persevered to rule and seize greater power for themselves when the opportunity presented itself.

Download or read book The Arabs and Mediaeval Europe written by Norman Daniel and published by London : Longman. This book was released on 1975 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Arab Women and the Media in Changing Landscapes written by Elena Maestri and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the dialogue between Arab media and global developments in the information age, looking at the influence of new technologies in Arab societies and the evolving role of Arab women in ‘old’ and ‘new’ media. By gathering together contributions from both Arab and non-Arab scholars alike, a timely and important collection is presented that sheds new light on the growing involvement, role and image of Arab women in the media.

Download or read book Our Women on the Ground written by Zahra Hankir and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteen Arab women journalists speak out about what it’s like to report on their changing homelands in this first-of-its-kind essay collection, with a foreword by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour “A stirring, provocative and well-made new anthology . . . that rewrites the hoary rules of the foreign correspondent playbook, deactivating the old clichés.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times A growing number of intrepid Arab and Middle Eastern sahafiyat—female journalists—are working tirelessly to shape nuanced narratives about their changing homelands, often risking their lives on the front lines of war. From sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo to the difficulty of traveling without a male relative in Yemen, their challenges are unique—as are their advantages, such as being able to speak candidly with other women at a Syrian medical clinic or with men on Whatsapp who will go on to become ISIS fighters, rebels, or pro-regime soldiers. In Our Women on the Ground, nineteen of these women tell us, in their own words, about what it’s like to report on conflicts that (quite literally) hit close to home. Their daring and heartfelt stories, told here for the first time, shatter stereotypes about the region’s women and provide an urgently needed perspective on a part of the world that is frequently misunderstood. INCLUDING ESSAYS BY: Donna Abu-Nasr, Aida Alami, Hannah Allam, Jane Arraf, Lina Attalah, Nada Bakri, Shamael Elnoor, Zaina Erhaim, Asmaa al-Ghoul, Hind Hassan, Eman Helal, Zeina Karam, Roula Khalaf, Nour Malas, Hwaida Saad, Amira Al-Sharif, Heba Shibani, Lina Sinjab, and Natacha Yazbeck