Journal of Arabic and Islamic
Studies
CONTENTS
Volume VI, 2005-2006
Edited by Joseph Norment Bell with Walter Herman Bell and Lutz
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Samer Mahdy Ali. Singing
Samarra (861-956): Poetry and the Burgeoning of Historiography upon the Death
of al-Mutawakkil.ʃ (Adobe Acrobat 7.0 PDF file, 215 kB, pp. 1-23).
HTML Unicode version.
Abstract: Historiography on the
patricide/regicide of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil (d. 861) developed from a stage
of simple description to a burgeoning of mytho-historical narrative. It would
appear that what began as a palace scandal—profaning to a putatively sacral
community already torn by civil war—developed into a redemptive tragedy
with perennial appeal. In a patronage society governed by loyalty to
one’s patron or father, this transformation should count as nothing less
than conspicuous. This article examines the role of a major Abbasid poet, al-Buḥturī (d. 897), in shaping
public perception by cultivating genuine sympathy for the Abbasids and planting
the seeds of questions that would be addressed in historical narratives. In
particular, I discuss the importance of literary salons or gatherings as a
social institution where poetry and historical narratives were recited orally
as a means of transmitting knowledge to future generations. These gatherings
provide a likely forum where mythic questions of poetry could inspire
narrative.
Zev bar-Lev. Arabic Key
Consonants. (Adobe Acrobat 7.0 PDF file, 328 kB, pp. 24-63). HTML Unicode version to be posted later.
Abstract:
This article
outlines an approach to lexicon in Arabic linguistics, with special
implications for teaching Arabic as a foreign language. Its basic insight is
that individual initial consonants have their own meanings. On a theoretical
level, this key-consonant system offers a pervasive theoretical insight
about the structure of a lexicon, and the nature of lexical acquisition; and on
a practical level, it offers a powerful key to learning vocabulary
L2—which in turn may offer the best possible validation of the
theoretical claim. It is here related to insights in linguistic theory on the submorpheme
(and analogical modeling); in L2 learning, such submorphemes can help
make learning of vocabulary easier, and sometimes even make it possible to
guess the meanings of new roots in context. An additional implication for the
history of Semitic linguistics is also drawn, proposing to bring back into
Semitic linguistics a set of insights that had been “banished” from
the mainstream with the advent of “scientific” Semitic grammar over
a thousand years ago. On the other hand, we will draw a sharp distinction
between the proposal and biconsonantal root theory, with which it might be
confused on first impression.
Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafez. The
Development of Future Markers in Arabic and the Nile Nubian Languages.
(Adobe Acrobat 7.0 PDF file, 169 kB, pp. 64-79). HTML Unicode
version.
Abstract: This paper deals with the rise of
the grammatical elements of simple future in the Nile Nubian languages (i.e.
Kenzi and Fadicca) and Arabic (i.e. Standard Arabic and Cairene Colloquial
Arabic). Using grammaticalization as a frame of reference, I attempt to
determine the sources, the mechanisms and processes involved in the development
of the grammatical elements in these languages. In addition, the study sheds
light on the points of similarity and difference between these languages as far
as the rise of future expression is concerned.
Peter Marteinson. La Disjonction de la voix
narrative et la manipulation de la vraisemblance dans Le Rocher de Tanios
d’Amin Maalouf. (Adobe Acrobat 7.0 PDF file, 147 kB, pp. 80-94). HTML Unicode version to be posted later.
Abstract: This investigation of the
narrative voice in Maalouf’s Prix-Goncourt winning novel Le Rocher de
Tanios observes the manner in which the multiplicity of enunciators, in the form of secondary narrators
“cited” intertextually by the primary narrator, engenders a
subtle play upon points of view, epochs, and cultural outlooks, an artifice
which lends the novel a breadth in its generic status and veridictory
grounding. It manages to be both an entirely possible, realistic narrative, and
a fantastical legend, in which the “strange and the marvelous”, in
the words of one of the secondary narrators, form a counterpoint against the
rigorous historical research of the primary narrative. The result is a tale in
which the appearance of a coherent and inevitable progression of providence
melds with a capricious logic of chance events. The work raises the question of
fiction and history and answers yes to each one; it is not only a fiction
aspiring to verisimilitude, but conversely, it is also an actual history
transformed into a novel – into the sort of novel that leads the reader
to question his sense of truth and falsehood.
Last
modified February 9, 2009.
