Table of ConTenTs Islamic Studies Series Islamic History and Thought In Print.............................................................................................................5 Forthcoming....................................................................................................7 The Modern Muslim World In Print...........................................................................................................15 Forthcoming..................................................................................................16 Gorgias Islamic Studies In Print...........................................................................................................18 Forthcoming..................................................................................................20 Series With Select Islamic Studies Titles Gorgias Chronicles of Late Antiquity..........................................................22 Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity.........................................................23 Gorgias Handbooks In Print...........................................................................................................25 Forthcoming..................................................................................................27 Perspectives on Society and Culture.............................................................28 Judaism in Context..........................................................................................29 Persian Martyr Acts in Syriac: Text and Translation..................................30 In PrInt A Place Between Two Places The Qurʿān’s Intermediate State and the Early History of the Barzakh By George Archer What happens after we die but before the end of time? This is the intermediate state. For most Muslims, it is called the barzakh, and it is a fantastical and frightening time in the grave. Throughout history and today, this belief has been discussed and expressed in many forms: from Sui dreamscapes to theological tests of orthodoxy. But where does the barzakh come from irst? In the present study, the author reconstructs the barzakh’s early history. Analyzing sixteen of the Qurʾān’s sūras in search of oral formulae, subtextual hints, and concentric parallelisms, the early barzakh is exposed as a response to the saint cults of late antiquity, and most especially, the cult of the divine Christ. From here, the Qurʾānic vision of the barzakh is traced forward through later prophetic biographies, Islamic architecture, and the ḥadīth literature in order to show how the barzakh developed into the distinctive claims of the Islamic Middle Ages. 978-1-4632-0612-3 | HB | April 2017 | 480 pp. | $201.00 Princely Authority in the Early Marwānid State The Life of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Marwān By Joshua Mabra ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Marwān (d. 86/705) reigned as the Amīr of Egypt and heir apparent to the Islamic caliphate for over 20 years. Appointed to both positions by his father, the caliph Marwān b. al-Ḥakam (r. 64-65/683-685), ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was the irst long-term heir apparent in Islamic history. Not a single monograph or article has been written about ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz by western scholars, and it is the goal of this book to revive this largely forgotten Amīr and demonstrate the critical role he played in the formation of the Marwānid dynasty. 978-1-4632-0632-1 | HB | June 2017 | 230 pp. | $140.00 Reconstructing a Source of Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra and Early Qurʾān Exegesis A Study of Early Ibn ʿAbbās Traditions By Harald Motzki This important work is a meticulous source-critical, isnād-cum-matn study of a group of traditions found in Ibn Isḥāq’s Biography (Sīra) of the prophet Muḥammad. Through his analysis, the author reveals that Ibn Isḥāq relied on a hitherto undocumented source, Muḥammad b. Abī Muḥammad. These early traditions often exhibit a Qurʾān-exegetical backdrop. The study also sheds new light on problems with Ibn Hishām’s recension of Ibn Isḥāq’s Sīra. 978-1-4632-0659-8 | PB | May 2017 | 150 pp. | $47.00 5 Constantinus Arabicus Historiographische Rezeption des ersten römischen Kaisers „im Haus des Islams” By Jonathan Stutz The conversion of Constantine to Christianity was subject to wide discussion by Arab historians, both Muslim and Christian. The present study is a source-oriented study of various historical works, which will provide a valuable insight into the methodological challenges and approaches linked with an important chapter of pre-Islamic history dealt with by many generations of historians from a Byzantine and Syriac background. At the same time, it will make visible the different discourses through which the story of the irst Christian emperor of Rome was made relevant for readers in the Dār al-islām. Die Bekehrung Konstantins zum Christentum wurde von arabischen Geschichtsschreibern auf verschiedene Weise kommentiert und gedeutet, sowohl von christlicher wie von muslimischer Seite. Eine Quellenorientierte Analyse der jeweiligen Geschichtswerke wird wertvolle Erkenntnisse über die methodologischen Herausforderungen und Ansätze bringen, die mit der Behandlung eines Kapitels aus der vorislamischen Geschichte verbunden sind, zu dem sich schon mehrere Geschichtsschreiber aus dem byzantinischen und syrischen Raum geäußert haben. Es wird dabei gleichzeitig möglich sein, die unterschiedlichen Diskurse sichtbar zu machen, in denen die Konstantingeschichte für Leser im dār al-islām relevant gemacht werden konnte. 978-1-4632-0652-9 | HB | June 2017 | 385 pp. | $178.00 Between the Jurist and the Theologian Theology in Shāiʿī Legal Theory By Mohamed Abdelrahman Eissa This in-depth study examines the relation between legal theory (uṣūl al-iqh) and speculative theology (ʿīlm al-kalām). It compares the legal theory of four classical jurists who belonged to the same school of law, the Shāiʿī school, yet followed three different theological traditions. The aim of this comparison is to understand to what extent, and in what way, the theology of each jurist informed his choices in legal theory. 978-1-4632-0618-5 | HB | October 2017 | 378 pp. | $176.00 Religious Culture in Late Antique Arabia Selected Studies on the Late Antique Religious Mind Edited by Kirill Dmitriev & Isabel Toral-Niehoff The term ‘religious culture’ has often been used in relation to speciic theological systems and ritual practices, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Manichaeism. In this edited volume, a group of internationally renowned scholars have addressed this concept in a more comprehensive sense, focusing on what one might call the Late Antique religious mind. The present volume sets out to emphasise the common religious attitudes and world-views rooted in late antiquity, including various monotheistic and other, pagan attitudes that existed within the orbit of the emerging Islam. The contributors to the volume are: Konstantin Klein, Martin Tamcke, Kirill Dmitriev, Cornelia Horn, Bruno Paoli, Greg Fisher, Mattia Guidetti, Christian Robin, and Francis Breyer. 978-1-4632-0630-7 | HB | October 2017 | 379 pp. | $176.00 6 ForthcomIng In 2018 The Arts and Crafts of Syria and Egypt from the Ayyūbids to World War I Collected Essays By Marcuus Milwright This book addresses the production, distribution and use of manufactured objects in Egypt and Syria from the start of the Ayyūbid dynasty in 1171 through to early twentieth century. The chapters combine archaeological evidence, museum objects, primary texts, and early photographs of the Middle East. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the importance of material culture and traditional craft practices in the reconstruction of social and economic history. The Khāns of Jordan By Reem Alshqour The origin and development of the khān, also known as caravanserai or roadside inns, is an area of research that has not been extensively addressed in the existing studies on the Islamic history and archaeology of Jordan. This is somewhat surprising considering both their historic importance as way stations for pilgrims undertaking the hajj and their ubiquitous presence throughout the Jordanian landscape. This study involves a diachronic study of the development of ʿAqaba castle, an important Islamic khan at the junction of two major pilgrim routes, both based on Arabic and Crusader sources and the results of the excavations undertaken by Ghent University in Aqaba Early Philosophical Suism The Neoplatonic Thought of Ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ By Saer El-Jaichi This study challenges the conventional image of the tenth-century Sui mystic Al-Husayn Ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāğ (d. 929) as an antiphilosophical mystic. Unlike the predominantly theological or text-historical studies which constitute much of the scholarly literature on Ḥallāğ, this study is completely philosophical in nature, placing Ḥallāğ within the tradition of Graeco-Arabic philosophy and emphasizing, in a positive light, his continuity with the pagan Neoplatonism of Plotinus and Proclus. For anyone interested in the origins of philosophical thought in Ṣūism, who wishes to understand the vast inluence that Greek philosophy has had on the development of medieval Islamic mysticism in its formative period, this study will be essential reading. The Evolution of a Ḥadīth Transmission, Growth, and the Science of Rijāl in a Ḥadīth of Saʿd b. Abī Waqqāṣ Hadiths are brief texts claiming to record the words and deeds of the Prophet of Islam and his Companions. Muslims have been studying such texts for centuries, whilst academics in the western world have studied them for roughly two centuries. The hadith scholars within these two academic worlds have often ignored one another, except to question the legitimacy of the other’s approach. Not fully aware of the work being carried out in the other tradition, neither side has been able to beneit from the efforts of the other. This book examines a single hadith applying a method of analysis that would be palatable to scholars working in either tradition. By demonstrating that it is possible to approach the subject of hadith in a manner that could engage scholars of both traditions, the author hopes to open the way to fruitful engagement between scholars within the two traditions of hadith studies. The Islamic Navy and its Commanders during the First Two Centuries of Islam The main goal of this pioneering study is to answer the question: Who were the commanders of the Islamic navy during the early years of Islam? These individuals led the Islamic navy during the irst conquests of the Islamic empire (futūḥ), thus enabling the spread and expansion of Islamic inluence. Using the prosopographical method, the author has attempted to materialize the characters of these commanders during the irst two centuries of Islam. Prosopography has allowed the author to follow these commanders, from their background, tribal and cultural afiliation, to their military and administrative careers. 7 Endless Inspiration One Thousand and One Nights in Comparative Perspective This volume deals with One Thousand and One Nights in yet another novel way -bringing old and new together- by exploring parallels and possible origins of its tales, as well as the wealth of modern and contemporary material that it has given birth to and continues to inspire. The chapters bridge any borders imposed by time and space as well as genre, and – most of all – language, for what we know in European literature as One Thousand and One Nights was born as a transnational text 300 years ago. Der Tamhīd fī Bayān at-Tauḥīd Sunnitische Identitätssuche im Transoxanien des 5./11 (Arabic & German Commentary) The author of the Arabic theological work Al-Tamhīd fī bayān al-tauḥīd (“Introduction to the explanation of monotheism”), Abū Shakūr alSālimī (5 th /11 th Century), belongs to the theological school in the succession of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (died 333/944), which forms the second pillar of Sunni confession alongside the doctrines of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (died 324/935) and his followers. In Transoxanian regions, located in Turkey, and in the Balkan States, the Māturīdī School still has scores of followers, and the Tamhīd served as an important marker of Sunnī theology into the nineteenth century. However, details of Māturīdite kalām remain insuficiently studied. This volume will provide a new edition of the Tamhīd using previously unstudied manuscripts. The edition will be accompanied by a substantial introduction and commentary. Umayyad Christianity John of Damascus as a Contextual Example of Identity Formation in Early Islam This book is a study on the identity-formation process, which the Christians of Syria-Palestine experienced during the Umayyad Rule; at the eve of the birth of the Islamic Caliphate and Civilization. It touches upon this subject by means of taking John of Damascus and his writings on Islam as a case-study. It engages from a frank contextual and cultural- intellectual perspectives the following core-inquiry: Could there be some possible indicators in John’s texts that invite us to surmise that the Damascene was contextually oriented and attentive to his Arabic-Islamic setting, and that this setting played a role, if ever, in his theological thinking, more than we are, or we think we can, scholarly concede? The study takes the available historical data as far as one can take them in order to stimulate some further thought on John of Damascus’s theology and legacy from a contextual and intercultural methodology. Such an examination has not yet been pursued in the scholarship of Byzantine Christianity in that era. By the help of centralizing ‘context’, the monograph invites for re-studying John of Damascus’s legacy (and the Umayyad Christians’ identity-formation in that era) from the perspective of his historical, Islamic-Arabic context, and not from any assumed, mita-narrative, pre-tailored by contemporary pro-Byzantine theology’s scholars, about how should studying this church father proceed and what assessment it The Making of the Mosque A Survey into Religious Imperatives By Essam Ayyad The fact that many features are standard to the oldest surviving mosques suggests that a canonical type, mostly a courtyard surrounded by four porticoes, did exist early in Islamic history. Such a template would have been copied by the builders of later mosques, combined with modiications inspired by the varying local architectural heritage. The evolution of such a universally-endorsed prototype, and the many inluences that shaped it, have been copiously discussed. In the absence of reliable archaeological evidence, nonetheless, the question of how the mosque was made, represents a real challenge. Its origin remains moot, despite many attempts to settle the question. However, the devotional prompts for the mosque institution are either underestimated or totally dismissed by most writings, mainly because of the belief that the Prophet did not fundamentally know the mosque type. The current study provides fresh evidence, based on the Qurʾān, ḥadīth and early poetry, that this structure was indeed built to be a mosque. This inding is decisive for a number of undecided issues, such as the immediate origin of the mosque type and the kind of impulses that shaped its design. 8 Philosophy, Theology, and Mysticism in Medieval Bahrain The common belief that Avicenna (d. 1037) is the most inluential philosophical mind in Islamic intellectual history is rarely disputed. However, in the period following his death, our knowledge of philosophical ideas, theological debates, and those intellectual currents rooted in philosophy, are for the most part, terra incognita. This study offers a major reappraisal of late medieval Arabic-Islamic philosophy, theology, mysticism, and intellectual history by using, for the irst time, a collection of texts from Bahrain written during and after the Mongol Invasions in the 13th century, at a time when centres of learning were supposedly destroyed and intellectual activity hampered in the eastern lands of Islam. These texts, by the shīʿī thinkers Kamāl al-Dīn Ibn Saʿāda al-Baḥrānī (d. 1242), Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-Baḥrānī (d. 1271), and Kamāl al-Dīn Maytham al-Baḥrānī (d. 1300), are largely unpublished and unstudied, but bear witness to a vibrant intellectual culture and innovative philosophical debates often assumed absent in late medieval Islam. Women in Shīʿism Ancient Stories, Modern Ideologies What is the nature and social role of women? In today’s Shīʿism, these questions are often answered through the “separate-but- equal” ideology which emphasizes the role of women as wives and mothers, and places men in authority. But is this the only ideology which can be derived from shīʿī scriptural sources? This book takes a more nuanced approach to that question by exploring how women are portrayed in hadith on ancient sacred narrative – the stories of the prophets. It shows far more diverse views on what it means to be a woman (and, by extension, a man) – and that early shīʿīs held competing views about ideals for women. These beliefs became part and parcel of confessional identity, and uniquely shīʿī views about the nature of women emerged. It also relects a tension between an earthly approach to gender, rooted in patriarchy, compared to the spiritual authority attributed to respected female igures in the shīʿī tradition. The diversity of thought found in these ancient stories sheds new light on beliefs about women in Shī‘ism. The Reliability of Ḥadīth Transmission A Re-examination of Ḥadīth Critical Methods Islamic scholarship has devoted tremendous efforts to gathering and classifying the Ḥadīths and distinguishing the authentic from the false ones. While Muslim scholars have been decisively motivated to study Ḥadīth by the central role played by Ḥadīths as the source of their law and theological doctrine, the interests of modern Western scholars in the study of Ḥadīth literature have essentially been historical. Similarly, when they study Islamic law, for example, they tend to approach it as a mode of thought rather than as a body of rights, obligations and rules of procedure. In other words, they are not lawyers but students of culture. The present study examines a number of leading approaches to hadith analysis and compares the results in order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. 9 ForthcomIng In 2019 Islamic Origins, Arabian Custom, and the Documents of the Prophet By Sarah Mirza Though no physical documents survive from the society of the Prophet, early Islamic literature claims that he authored several hundred pragmatic texts, such as tax records, sale documents, and diplomatic letters, the texts of which are found in later medieval works. These texts are concise, formulaic, and contain little narrative or theological material. Their formulae are distinct from later classical Islamic legal discourse as well as ʿAbbāsid era formula found in papyri, instead drawing on pre-Islamic Arabian customary law. This study outlines a methodology with which to approach material that has generally been considered unreliable and uses it to corroborate archaeological and documentary evidence for shared legal traditions in late antique Arabia, Syria-Palestine, and Egypt. The Exceptional Qurʾān Flexible and Exceptive Rhetoric in Islam’s Holy Book The Qurʾān is known as a text that contains numerous exhortations and prohibitions. In particular, the later legislative material provides apparently strict rules and punitive sanctions, such as those regarding ritual cleansing (Q5:6) and fasting (Q2:183-87). However, the text also presents the possibility of being exempted from many of these rules. This monograph examines the principle of dispensation in the Qurʾān, which seems to be, if not unique, articulated in a new manner compared to previous religions (cf. Deut 12,32). The Qurʾānic dispensations have never been systematically studied and this monograph aims to ill this vacuum in the ields of Qurʾānic studies and the Study of Religion. Furthermore, as popular understandings consistently read and refer to the Qurʾān in basic dichotomies (the very premise of a ‘fundamentalist’ thought), the monograph can clarify that the text often does not function in such a way. Eschewing a view of the Qurʾān as a black-and-white text and instead focusing on its ambiguity, the monograph engages with a broader audience and has the potential to nuance the usage of the Qurʾān in contemporary ‘fundamentalist’ discourses (both inside and outside the Islamic traditions). As such, it has much relevance for the ongoing cultural-political debates on Islam. Conquest and Conversion in Islamic Period Iberia (A.D. 711-1490) A Bioarchaeological Approach This study employs biological distance and mortuary analyses in tandem with historical sources to investigate the degree to which conversion, as opposed to migration, contributed to the spread of Islam in southern Iberia following its 8th-century conquest by Muslim Arab and Berber forces from North Africa. Through the examination of 800 individuals from both Iberian and North African skeletal collections, this study identiied the segments of the population in southern Iberia that appear to have converted to Islam, the general timing of these conversions and the degree to which intermarriage contributed to this process. The Bible Through a Qurʾānic Filter Scripture Falsiication (Taḥrīf) in 8th- and 9th-Century Muslim and Christian Disputational Literature This book is concerned with the manner in which Muslims viewed the Bible in the 8th and 9th centuries CE and focuses speciically on polemical literature from this period. Muslim views on the Bible have traditionally been dichotomized in Western academic discourse into the following categories: taḥrīf al-maʿnā (misinterpretation), which is characterized as the early view, and taḥrīf al-naṣs (textual corruption), which is characterized as the later view. This book argues that the dichotomy is in fact a false one and demonstrates that Muslims in the so-called early period were advancing charges of both the misinterpretation of the Bible and its textual corruption. The inaccuracy of the dichotomy is demonstrated through an examination of the following: (1) al-Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm’s al-Radd ʿalā al-naṣārā, which is the earliest dialectical Muslim refutation of Christian doctrine and often considered the prime exemplar of early Muslim views on the Bible; (2) Muslim disputational literature of the 8th and 9th centuries CE, including the works of Ibn al- Layth (d. 819), ʿAlī al-̣abarī (d. ca. 860), al- Jāḥị (d. 869), and Ibn Qutayba (d. 889f); and (3) Christian perceptions of Muslim views on the Bible, as demonstrated in the works ascribed to (whether legitimately or not) or describing the (real or imagined) encounters of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (d. 741), Theodore Abū Qurrah (d. after 816), Timothy I (d. 823), Ḥabīb ibn Khidma Abū Rāʾịah (d. ca. 825), ʿAmmār al- Baṣrī (d. mid-9th cent.), ʿAbd al- Masīḥ b. Isḥāq al-Kindī (likely d. 9th cent.), and Abraham of Tiberias (ca. late 9th cent.). 10 Divine Hospitality and the Formation of the Notion of Adab in Islam The root of the word adab is not found in the Qurʾān. In pre-Islamic literature, as well as in the hadith compilations, its use is limited exclusively to the sense of “invitation to a banquet”, “education”, “correction”, and “punishment”. In fact, the notion of a divine or sacred ceremonial banquet in the history of ancient civilizations is quite widespread, inding its origin in the archetype of the “Divine Banquet” or “Divine Hospitality”, which had a strong inluence on the religious and cultural contexts of a number of different civilizations. The present work will examine the wider historical background of adab and, in particular, its technical use within Islamic literature from the 3rd/9th century onwards Rule of Law, ‘Natural Law’, and Social Contract in the Early Abbasid Caliphate Al Ṭabarī and the Jarīrī Methodology This book analyses all extant works by Ibn Jarīr al-̣abarī (d. 224/839–310/923), referring to their individual methodologies, their legacy as al-madhhab al-jarīrī, and their scholarly and socio- political contexts. Through the study of al-̣abarī’s works, this study addresses debates over dating the legal and scholarly institutions and their disciplines; authorship and transmission of scholarly writings; political theory and administration; and ‘origins’ of the Qurʾān and Islam. “Community in Motion” Roma/Gypsies in Ottoman State Policy, Public Morality, and at the Sharia Count of ÜSKÜDAR (1530s -1590s) This study explores the position of Roma/Gypsies in the sixteenth century Ottoman Empire in an engagement with the formidable material, historiographical and conceptual challenges that this venture entails. These challenges stem from the limitations of the sources on Gypsies/Roma, the variety of narratives produced in contemporary scholarship on the history of Roma/Gypsies and deployment of contested concepts such as “marginality,” “ethnicity” and “race” with almost no problematization, contextualization and historicization. Le Pacte de Médine Une Relecture Critique / The Pact of Medina: a Critical Re-Reading (French) La ṣaḥīfa de Médine, a suscité l’attention des érudits occidentaux depuis la deuxième moitié du dix-neuvième siècle,à un tel point que P.L. Rose la considère comme « une struc- ture squelettique » qui contrôle les rapports de la sīra. Elle a été préservée grâce à deux historiographes du 3ème/9ème siècle: Ibn Hishām et Abū ‘Ubayd; la recherche contemporaine la place, dans l’ensemble, dans les cinq premières années de l’hégire. Elle illustre clairement, à travers ses variantes présentes et dans le texte lui- même et dans sa chaîne de transmission, les aléas, forcément dommageable, du passage d’une culture de l’oralité à l’écrit. L’accès à l’écrit n’était pas si simple que nous avons toujours cru. Le tournant capital était,lorsque le Barmakide, Jaʿfar Ibn Yaḥyā (m. 187/803), introduit, vers la in du 8e/ début du 9e siècle, l’usage du papier dans les bureaux oficiels. Cette réforme est due au coût moins élevé de cette matière, et notamment à l’impossibilité de gratter ou laver le papier, à l’inverse du papyrus et du parchemin. Cette Ṣaḥīfa a été fondamentalement produite durant la période prophétique, mais elle a été sans doute modiiée postérieurement,en rajoutant des paragraphes, omettant d’autres, en rajoutant des paragraphes, omettant d’autres, et en particulier en réorgani-sant ces derniers d’une façon qui ne se conforme pas toujours à son classement initial. Ce Texte nous fournit également les connotations originales des grands termes islamiques, comme muʾmin et kāir. The Ṣaḥīfa of Medina has drawn the attention of the Western scholars since the second half of the nineteenth century, to such an extent that P. L. Rose considers it as a “skeletal structure’’, which controls the veracity of sīra-reports. It has been preserved thanks to two historiographers of the 3rd/9th century: Ibn Hishām and Abū ʿUbayd; the contemporary research situates it, on the whole, in the irst ive years after Hijra. It clearly illustrates, through its variants present in the text itself, as well as in the chain of transmission, the vagaries, necessarily harmful, moving from an oral transmission, culture to a written one. The access to the writing was not as simple that we have always believed. The crucial turning point was when the Barmakid Jaʿfar Ibn Yaḥyā, (d. 187/803), introduced, by the end of the 8th/ beginning of the 9th century, the usage of the paper in the government ofices. This reform was due to the lower cost of this material and in particular to the impossibility of scratching or washing paper, unlike papyrus and parchment. This Ṣaḥīfa was fundamentally produced during the Prophet’s life time, however it was doubtless modiied later, adding paragraphs, deleting others, and particularly organizing them in a way that does not always comply with its initial ranking. This Text provides too original connotations of great Islamic words, like muʾmin and kāir. 11 ForthcomIng In 2020 Ashʿarism encounters Avicennism Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī on Creation This book takes impetus from the broad scholarly recognition that post-Classical Ashʿarism was profoundly inluenced by the legacy of Avicennism, and from ongoing obscurity surrounding the precise nature of that inluence. In it, I present a case study of the meeting of Ashʿarism with Avicennism in the thought of Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī (d. 631/1233), a post-Avicennan versed in both traditions of falsafa and kalām, whose works represent their convergence. Speciically, this book takes the issue of the world’s creation – traditionally a cite of contention between Muslim philosophers and theologians – and considers how al-Āmidī’s discussions relect the conluence of his inluences. Voices of the Converted Christian Apostate Literature in Medieval Islam In the ninth century, ʿAlī al-̣abarī, a Christian convert to Islam, inaugurated a distinct subgenre of anti-Christian polemical literature written in Arabic in which Christian converts to Islam began to refute their former faith using a variety of dialectical (kalām) reasoning and scriptural proofs. By drawing upon an authority outside of the Qurʾān, Christian converts offered a unique as well as apologetically and polemically potent method of validating the truth claims of Islam while concurrently refuting the major tenets of Christianity. The Voices of the Converted, for the irst time, presents these works as a well-deined and recognizable subgenre of medieval Muslim polemical literature, described in this book as “Christian apostate literature.” The Voices of the Converted will highlight the various ways in which converts to Islam, in their attempt to reclaim and reassert God’s true, uncorrupted monotheistic message, helped to popularize a variety of anti-trinitarian proof-texts along with several important biblical testimonia of Muḥammad. Beginning in the early ʿAbbāsid period and continuing into the Ottoman era, these converts signiicantly inluenced Muslim perceptions of Bible as well as the image of the “true Christian” among the Muslim community. Shīʿī Past in the Great Book of Songs A New Perspective on the Kitāb al-Aghānī by Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī and Shīʿī Islam in the Tenth Century The Kitāb al-Aghānī (the Book of Songs) is one of the most important sources for Arabic literature and Islamic history. It was compiled during the irst half of the tenth century — a pivotal period for the formation of Islamic sectarian identities, the subject of ongoing scholarly debates and fundamental to understanding of later shīʿī Islam. While its compiler, Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣfahānī (died after 356/967), is generally viewed as a “Zaydī shīʿī”, no study has engaged in depth with the manifestation of his sectarian perspective in the Aghānī. This book addresses the question of whether al-Iṣfahānī’s sectarian perspective can be discerned in the Aghānī via an analysis based primarily upon redaction criticism. By examining the compiler’s interventions, this book argues that al-Iṣfahānī, to some extent, presents past people and events central to the shīʿī worldview in accordance with his sectarian afiliation. Furthermore, this work questions the label “Zaydī” that has been attached to al-Iṣfahānī. 12 ForthcomIng In 2021 Baghdad in the time of ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī The object of this monograph is twofold: primarily it is devoted to ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 1166), a major igure in the mystical and pietistic environment during the 6th /12th century, who would attain still higher regard posthumously as a widely venerated Sui saint, and the eponymous founder of the Qādariyya order, amongst the most well-known Sui orders in modern times. The aim of the second part will be to arrive at a more coherent picture of the most prominent trends of pious and mystical thought and practice in Baghdād in the 6th /12th century. In this way, the monograph will attempt to introduce a cultural and geographical angle to the study of Islamic mysticism and piety, which pertains to larger issues, such as, to what extend can geographical regions and cultural environments be tied to speciic modes of piety and mysticism, and how do they differ in this from other geographical regions and cultural environments. The Translingual Character of the Early Muslim Community A Corpus Linguistic Exploration of Ḥadīth Arabic came to be a standardised language in 695, utilised as the administrative language of the multilingual Umayyad Empire (661-750), which stretched from Southern France across Northern Africa to India, the largest empire the world had seen. The main benchmark for its standardisation was the Qurʾān. Before the revelation of the Qurʾān (610-632), the only extant Arabic sources known to us are orally transmitted poetry and a dozen inscriptions written in various scripts. Neither the Qurʾān, nor the language of poetry represents spoken Arabic since the Qurʾān is a religious text to be recited, while Arab poets boasted about their eloquence and use of high language to impress their audiences at notable public gatherings. Using the language of the aḥādīṭh, the proposed book will allow us, for the irst time, to shed fresh light on the important nascent stage of the development of the Arabic language. It will study the language and style of the aḥādīṭh and in turn link their authenticity to speciic stylistic features. Particular focus will be placed on concepts and material culture that highlight cultural and linguistic exchange with neighbouring cultures (especially from disregarded Ancient South Arabian languages), the construction of identity, and Muḥammad’s weltanschauung. The main theme will be to highlight the multinational and translingual character of the early Muslim community as relected in the ḥadīth 13 In PrInt Bethlehem’s Syriac Christians Self, nation and church in dialogue and practice By Mark D. Calder This volume details the challenges faced by Bethlehem’s Syriac Christians and the creative ways in which they narrate themselves, the groups with which they identify, and the wider world, so as to navigate successfully this radically changed environment. While much of their experience of this change is shared with their Muslim compatriots, not least decisive Israeli restrictions on movement and appropriation of land, there are distinctively Christian connections with the town itself, with its past, and environs, and with the outside world have been severed or attenuated in the context of numerous secondary causes: demographic, economic and political. By focusing on Syriac Christians however, Bethlehem’s Syriac Christians departs from existing accounts of Christians’ response to these changes by thinking not only in terms of given belongings or “types” of identity (religious, communal, secular), but in terms of the creative deployment of narratives and symbols drawn from diverse available sources: local patriarchies, Palestinian nationalism, liberal and leftist secularisms, globalized Christianity, Syriac Orthodoxy, and Arameanist civilisationism. 978-1-4632-0637-6 | HB | December 2017 | 318 pp. | $162.00 Jelena Dimitrijević Letters from Salonica By Vladimir D. Bošković An English translation of the Letters from Salonica by Jelena Dimitrijević, accompanied by a substantial critical introduction and commentary of the work. The book presents the author’s impressions from Salonica in the summer of 1908, in the midst of the Young Turk Revolution. The narrative focuses on the question of the “unveiling” of Muslim women, but also vividly portrays the vanished cityscape of Ottoman Salonica and gives accounts of the city’s Turkish, Jewish, Mu’min, and Greek communities. 978-1-4632-0641-3 | HB | February 2018 | 196 pp. | $95.00 Middle Eastern Minorities and the Arab Spring Identity and Community in the Twenty-First Century Edited by K. Scott Parker & Tony E. Nasrallah The present volume examines twelve different minorities of the Middle East and considers their individual participation in, and response to, the Arab Spring. It seeks to ill a substantial void in scholarly research and literature on this subject. As such, the volume stands as a unique contribution to the study of minorities in the Middle East and the Arab Spring. 978-1-4632-0653-6 | HB | October 2017 | 353 pp. | $170.00 15 Struggle to Deine a Nation Rethinking Religious Nationalism in the Contemporary Islamic World Edited by Marco Demichelis & Paolo Maggiolini In the present edited volume, a serious of internationally recognised scholars adopt an interdisciplinary approach to the study of ‘religious nationalism’ and the ‘nationalization’ of religion, through focusing on case studies and the religious afiliations and denominations of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The aim of this book is to reconsider the ongoing debate between different communities of the so-called Islamic World regarding the nature of the nation and state, and the role of religion in a nation-state’s institutional ground, both as a viable integrative or segregating factor. It is through focusing on the state dimension, as the subject of collective action or socio- cultural and political representation, that the book proposes to reconsider the relationship between religion, politics and identity in the perspective of ‘religious nationalism’ and the ‘nationalization’ of religion in the contemporary Islamic World. 978-1-4632-0642-0 | HB | July 2017 | 535 pp. | $214.00 ForthcomIng In 2018 Islamic Constitutionalism and the Western Constitutional Doctrine A Comparison Through Analogies and Differences By Pietro Longo The present work deals with Islamic law and the law of the Muslim countries. More speciically, the author has studied the constitutional law of the Islamic legal tradition, starting from the perspective of the law of Caliphate. Moreover, this work focuses on the process of institutionalization, which, since the irst half of 19th century, led to the adoption of civil law in both sunnī and shīʿī world. Further, this study combines different methodological approaches, based on Islamic law, analyzing sources in Arabic, especially classical and contemporary iqh booklets, and also following the approach of comparative public law to highlight how modern Constitutions of Muslim countries differ from western constitutionalism. Ideological Transformation of Egypt’s Largest Militant Groups This thesis discusses the revisions of the Egyptian Islamic Group and al-Jihād Organisation with a special focus on the theology and ideology of the two movements. The main question that this book seeks to answer is: how could these groups revise their thought using Islamic theological arguments though their previous pro-violence thought was also based on Islamic theological arguments. Textual analysis, coupled with the relevant aspects of framing literature, is the main tool used to discuss the ideology of the two groups and answer the research questions. The thesis shows the level of change in any Jihadist movement thought corresponds with the level of concepts it transfers from the static to the lexible sides of the Sharia, and that the nature and original objectives of each group at the time of its establishment play a great role in any revision process when violence proves counterproductive to the original objectives of that group. Rewriting Islam The Story of Codifying Egypt’s Personal Status Laws This book explores the process, effects, and results of codiication of Egyptian personal status laws as seen through the eyes of the ʿulamāʾ. The codiication process began in the mid-1800s and continued until the abolishment of the Sharīʿa courts in 1955 with the absorption of personal status statutes into the newly drafted civil code and the national courts that administered them. Throughout this time period the codiication process entailed inding appropriate rulings from the annals of Islamic law and structuring these rulings using the model and language of European legal codes, usually the French code. Prior to the abolition of the Sharīʿa courts in 1955 the area of personal status law was the exclusive domain of the ʿulamāʾ and the Sharīʿa. In Egypt, personal status laws were exclusively based on Ḥanafī law, and issues of consolidation and codiication of these laws irst took place within the framework of classical Islamic law, not outside of it. To understand the signiicance of the process of codiication of personal status law, therefore, one must examine the attitudes of the ʿulamāʾ regarding it and consider its place within the ediice of Islamic law. 16 Chinese Heirs to Muhammad Writing Islamic History in Early Modern China This book tells the story of history as imagined by Hui Muslims in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. I argue that this was an especially productive period for historical thought, bookended by the establishment of a robust Sino-Islamic knowledge base by Liu Zhi on one end and Republican China on the other end. Histories from this period unify a vast temporal and spatial expanse: from genesis to antiquity to the modern era, from Arabia to Central Asia to China. Hui historians string together places and times into a coherent, continuous narrative for the community. The author examines surviving woodblock prints and manuscripts including a compendium of Islamic knowledge by Lan Xu, a biographical collection of Hui igures who served the Chinese state by Li Huanyi, and the genealogy of a sayyid family in Yunnan by Ma Yunhua. In reading these works together, I argue that they engage with an overlapping group of key events, igures, and landmarks in the Sino-Islamic past. This past begins in Arabia and ends in China. Each of these locations, however, is limited in time. Arabia holds authority over antiquity while China becomes a greater concern as history approaches the modern era. Living the Qurʾān Selections on Tawḥīd from Said Nursi’s Epistles of Light The current volume is an annotated translation of selections from a noteworthy Muslim theologian Said Nursi (1876-1960) on the Qurānic theme of oneness of God (tawḥīd). Given the scarcity of theological themes in Islamic literature in English as well as the lack of studies on Said Nursi, who wrote in Ottoman Turkish, the book is an important contribution to the ield. It offers a contemporary peek into the view that faith in God could be profoundly meaningful and fulilling spiritual path. ForthcomIng In 2019 Promise, Predicament and Perplexity Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) on Islam This book is a study of the contribution of Isaac Barrow (1630-1677), Master of Trinity College (Cambridge), to Western perceptions of Islam in the 17th century. In particular, it will provide a translation and study of Barrow’s Latin essay on Islam (written in Constantinople), a Sermon on Islam and several other works that set out an embryonic theory of religion. Arguably, Barrow’s writing on Islam is the irst by a mainstream English scholar to move away from total hostility toward an empathetic approach that contemplated the possibility of salvation for Muslims. His work contributes to contemporary dilemmas and challenges on the nature of religion. Clandestine Mediterranean The news and images of migrants drowning on limsy boats on the Mediterranean or washing up along its shores—dead or alive—are becoming a recurring representation in the archive of clandestine migration into Fortress Europe. Clandestine migration has been on the rise since 1995, when several European Union nations implemented the Schengen Agreement to erode internal EU borders and fortify external ones. Beyond the distant images of washed-up bodies on the shore or a packed craft stranded at sea is the everyday theatre of migrant detentions and expulsions from the towns bordering the Mediterranean. Charting literary journeys from the Mediterranean’s southern shores to the global North, this study attempts to contribute to not only the discourse on migration literature but on ideas of the Mediterranean as both a dividing border and unifying contact zone, especially vital to the contemporary resurgence of the study of seas. ForthcomIng In 2019 Embodying the Sunnah The Turn to Ḥadīth in Modern South Asian Ḥanaism Scholars of South Asian Islam have noted seismic changes within traditional Muslim educational syllabi and structures in South Asia over the last two centuries. This project analyzes the relationship between Ḥadīth-centeredness and the Ḥanafī School in early modern and modern South Asia. The project addresses the following questions: (1) what were some of the discursive goals and pedagogical motivations behind the multi-volume commentaries on Ḥadīth written by South Asian Ḥanafīs? (2) How did classical and medieval Ḥanafī legalism it into their Ḥadīth-centered paradigm? (3) In reimagining their legal tradition in light of prophetic words, have modern South Asian Ḥanafīs abandoned the school’s commitment to analogy and comprehensive reasoning? (4) What picture of sunnah emerges from a Ḥadīthcentered interpretations of Ḥanafī positive law? Answers to these questions will throw greater light on the shape and substance of South Asian Muslim orthodoxy, precisely illuminating how modern ʿulamāʾ have subdued the legal tradition of classical and medieval Ḥanaism to an Ahl-i Ḥadīth legal and canonical model. 17 gorgIas IslamIc studIes Gorgias Islamic Studies spans a wide range of subject areas, seeking to understand Islam as a complete cultural and religious unity. This series draws together political, socio-cultural, textual, and historical approaches from across disciplines. Containing monographs, edited collections of essays, and primary source texts in translation, this series seeks to present a comprehensive, critical, and constructive picture of this centuries- and continent-spanning religion. In PrInt Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qurʾān Edited by Andrew Rippin In recent years, the Qurʾān has come to the forefront of scholarly investigations in Islamic studies, in both its role as scripture and as literature within the Muslim community. However, the traditional interpretation of the book, commonly termed tafsīr, remains a vast, virtually untapped ield of investigation. First published in 1988, this collection of essays marks a signiicant turning point in the scholarly study of tafsīr, bringing the discipline a new prominence and stimulating a new generation of scholars to devote their energy to its study. Although the state of research has improved, many Muslims tend to ignore the material, seeing it as a storehouse of traditional restraints, and scholars frequently gloss over its importance as a historical record of the Muslim community, not appreciating the depth and breadth of the literature. Building on the work of Ignas Goldziher’s Die Richtungen der islamischen Koranauslegung and the investigations of Sezgin, Abbott, and Wansbrough, the essays gathered here expose and explore various aspects of the ield of tafsīr, and their potential for scholarly research. The essays are divided into four main sections: formation and development; genres; sectarian dimensions; and modern trends. 978-1-60724-046-4 | HB | June 2013 | 348 pp. | $169.00 Language and Heresy in Ismaili Thought The Kitāb al-Zina of Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī By Jamal Ali The heretofore unpublished Kitāb al-Zina, virtually unknown in western scholarship, is a glossary of important Islamic terms by the 9th/10th century Ismaili polymath Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī. Some lament that Rāzī’s historical approach to etymology failed to catch on and that had it done so, the face of Arabic dictionary writing might have been altered for the better. His organization of material was uniquely Ismaili as he took pains to synthesize contradictory information into a harmonious whole. This study examines sections of Rāzī’s work with a view towards his contributions to the ield of grammar and linguistics. 978-1-59333-781-0 | HB | June 2013 | 210 pp. | $135.00 18 The History, Poetry, and Genealogy of the Yemen The Akhbār of ʿAbīd b. Sharya al-Jurhumī By Elise W. Crosby The History, Poetry, and Genealogy of the Yemen is the earliest known history of pre-Islamic Yemen. Attributed to the South Arabian historian ʿAbīd b. Sharya al-Jurhumī, it recounts in prose and poetry six saga cycles of ancient personages and events of the Yemen. Here, two sagas, the dispersion of Sam’s descendants from Babel to the Yemen, and the destruction of the tribes of ʿAd and Thamūd, are translated with complete annotation. The tales of Luqmān b. ʿAd and his seven vultures, Sulaymān and Bilqīs, the Himyarite kings, and ̣asm and Jadīs are given in full synopses. 978-1-59333-394-2 | HB | June 2013 | 412 pp. | $184.00 Victorian Images of Islam By Clinton Bennett What did a somewhat eccentric Anglican cleric, a Cambridge professor and a Harrow schoolmaster have in common? Developing interest in Islam during the Victorian period, they discovered spiritual and humanitarian value in what others could only depict as unmitigated evil. Their approach shows that Victorian perceptions of Islam were not monochrome, that some saw beyond stereotypical images. This book contrasts their conciliatory approach with the work of three Victorians who saw little if anything of value in Islam. One, William Muir, was a founding father of Orientalist scholarship. The others were missionaries. All wanted to confront Islam with Christian and European superiority. This book challenges the notion that language skills and encounter inevitably result in greater empathy. Rather, our assumptions colour how we see others, whether encounter takes place in person or through literature. 978-1-60724-673-2 | HB | January 2014 | 216 pp. | $172.00 Muslims, Jews, and Pagans Studies on Early Islamic Medina By Michael Lecker Muslims, Jews and Pagans examines in much detail the available source material on the ʿĀliya area south of Medina on the eve of Islam and at the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. It provides part of the necessary background for the study of the Prophet’s history by utilizing in addition to the Prophet’s biographies, various texts about the history, geography and inhabitants of this area. The topics include the landscape, especially the fortiications, the delayed conversion to Islam of part of the Aws tribe, the Qubāʾ village and the incident of Masjid al-Dirār in 9 A.H. The three appendices deal with historical apologetics, pointing to the social context in which the Prophet’s biography emerged during the irst Islamic century. 978-1-4632-0664-2 | PB | March 2017 | 201 pp. | $78.00 The Problem of Evil Ibn Sīna’s Theodicy By Shams Inati Who of us has not wondered why a God with absolute attributes causes or allows evil in the world? This most puzzling issue, known as the problem of evil, received signiicant attention from Ibn Sīna. In the present work, Dr. Inati argues that Ibn Sīna provides seven theses to justify God’s causing or allowing the presence of evil, and that only the thesis which relies on God’s omnipotence as deined by Ibn Sīna eliminates the problem of evil in his philosophy. The book is an original piece of work and the irst comprehensive study of Ibn Sīna’s Theodicy, which helped shape later Islamic and Christian treatments of the subject and left signiicant marks on the thought of major medieval philosophers, including Ibn Rushd, Aquinas and Suarez. 978-1-4632-0654-3 | HB | May 2017 | 201 pp. | $133.00 19 The Arabic Plotinus A Philosophical Study of the ‘‘Theology of Aristotle’’ By Peter Adamson The so-called ‘‘Theology of Aristotle’’ is a translation of the Enneads of Plotinus, the most important representative of late ancient Platonism. It was produced in the 9th century CE within the circle of al-Kindī, one of the most important groups for the early reception of Greek thought in Arabic. In part because the ‘‘Theology’’ was erroneously transmitted under Aristotle’s authorship, it became the single most important conduit by which Neoplatonism reached the Islamic world. It is referred to by such thinkers as al-Fārābī, in an attempt to demonstrate the agreement between Platonism and Aristotelianism, Avicenna, who wrote a set of comments on the text, and later on thinkers of Safavid Persia including Mullā Ṣadrā. Yet the ‘‘Theology’ is not just a translation. It may in fact more accurately be described as a creative paraphrase, which takes frequent liberties with the source text and even includes whole paragraphs’ worth of new material. Adamson’s book offers a philosophical interpretation of the changes introduced in the Arabic version. It is argued that these changes were in part intended to show the relevance of Plotinus’ thought for contemporary Islamic culture, for instance by connecting the Neoplatonist theory of the First Principle to theological disputes within Islam over the status of God’s attributes. At the same time the paraphrase relects a tendency to harmonize the various strands of Greek thought, so that a critique by Plotinus of Aristotle’s theory of the soul is subtly changed into a defense of Aristotle’s theory against a possible misinterpretation. The upshot, or so Adamson argues, is that the ‘‘Theology’’ needs to be read as an original philosophical work in its own right and understood within the context of the ʿAbbāsid era. 978-1-4632-0718-2 | PB | December 2017 | 258 pp. | $70.00 ForthcomIng In 2018 Muslim Traditions Studies on their Dating and Authenticity By Harald Motzki This volume brings together key published articles and books chapters of Dr Harald Motzki, one of the foremost specialists in Islamic history, law and hadith of this age. The book also includes a substantial introduction to the Muslim traditions, past, present and future possibilities. Seeing Islam as Others Saw It A Survey and Evaluation of Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian Writings on Early Islam By Robert Hoyland This seminal work continues to shape the thought of specialists studying the Late Antique crossroads at which Christian, Jewish, Zoroastrian, and Islamic histories met, by offering the ield a new approach to the vexing question of how to write the early history of Islam. The new edition of the study produces the original text with the addition of a substantial forward in which Hoyland discusses how the ield has developed over the two decades that proceeded the book’s irst publication. Hoyland also shares some person relections on how his thinking has since developed and the potential impact of this on the indings of the original study. The book also includes new appendices that detail the later publications of the author. The irst part of the book discusses the nature of the Muslim and non-Muslim source material for the seventh and eighth century Middle East, arguing that by lessening the divide between these two traditions, which has largely been erected by modern scholarship, we can come to a better appreciation of this crucial period. The second part provides a detailed survey of sources and an analysis of some 120 non-Muslim texts, all of which provide information about the irst century and a half of Islam (roughly A.D. 620-780). The third part furnishes examples, according to the approach suggested in the irst part and with the material presented in the second part, of how one might write the history of this time. The fourth part takes the form of excurses on various topics, such as the process of Islamization, the phenomenon of conversion to Islam, the development of techniques for determining the direction of prayer, and the conquest of Egypt. Because this work views Islamic history with the aid of non-Muslim texts and assesses the latter in the light of Muslim writings, it will be essential reading for historians of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or Zoroastrianism--indeed, for all those with an interest in cultures of the eastern Mediterranean in its traditional phase from Late Antiquity to medieval times. Alīf ʿayn 20 Women in Islamic Biographical Collections From Ibn Saʿd to Who’s Who By Ruth Roded This extremely useful book provides the reader with a study of 40 bibliographical collections, dating from the 9th century to the present, investigating which type of woman Muslim scholars have deemed worthy of recording for posterity. The analysis clearly indicates that Muslim women have achieved prominence in certain ields at certain times. Ibn Sīna & Mysticism Remarks and Admonitions By Shams Inati Few igures have been of such enduring importance as Ibn Sīna also known as Avicenna, (980-1037 AD), the great Persian philosopher and physician of the ʿAbāssid period. This work is a study of the fourth part of Ibn Sīna’s late book ‘‘al-Isharāt wat Tanbihāt’’, ‘‘Remarks and Admonitions’’. The present volume includes an introduction, discussing the nature of the fourth part of ‘‘al-Isharāt’’ and the procedures followed in analyzing and translating it; a lengthy analysis of Ibn Sīna’s ideals on the three main topics in this part of ‘‘al-Isharāt’’ (the nature of happiness, the stations of the knowers, and the signs manifested by the knowers); and a translation of this part. The work shows that, to Ibn Sīna, knowledge of the eternal aspects of the universe, primarily of God, is the highest human objective and the only thing that secures human happiness or heavenly existence. While no permanent knowledge of this kind is possible for a human being on earth, signs of its temporary acquisition are evidenced in many ways, one of which is possession of powers that a person who does not know the secrets of the universe may consider extraordinary. Although, the focus of this volume is on the fourth part of ‘‘al-Isharāt’’, references are made to some of Ibn Sīna’s other writings by way of clarifying certain points and placing this part of ‘‘al-Isharāt’’ in the context of the Ibn Sīna’s general philosophy. 21 gorgIas chronIcles oF late antIquIty Gorgias Chronicles of Late Antiquity aims to publish Syriac and Christian Arabic chronicles dating between the 6th and the 14th centuries in their original languages and with facing English translations. The translations will make these unique chronographic sources accessible to as wide an audience as possible, offering the specialist the opportunity to read them in the original languages and to compare them with the translations. In PrInt A Short Chronicle on the End of the Sasanian Empire and Early Islam 590-660 A.D. Edited and Translated by Nasir al-Kaʿbi The Short Chronicle is probably part of a Church History that is no longer extant, and it was written by an Ecclesiastic living in the north of Mesopotamia and belonging to the Church of the East. It is an eyewitness report on a crucial historical period, the mid-7th century that witnessed the demise of two contending world empires, the Sasanian and the Byzantine, and their replacement by Islam, thus signalling the end of Late Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. The Chronicle may be the earliest Syriac document which relies heavily on oficial Sasanian sources, including Khwadāy-nāmag, when it discusses secular history, and on church histories when dealing with ecclesiastical matters. It may also be the oldest Syriac chronicle which deals with the advent of Muḥammad and the ensuing Arab conquest, and which mentions Arab cities for the irst time ever, including Moṣul, Kūfa, and Baṣra. 978-1-4632-0563-8 | HB | September 2016 | 254 pp. | $161.00 The Chronicle of Zuqnīn (Parts I and II) From the Creation to the Year 506/7 AD Edited and Translated by Amir Harrak The Chronicle of Zuqnīn is a universal history beginning with the Creation according to the biblical account and ending with the time of the Chronicler, the years 775-776 AD. The author is most probably Joshua the Stylite, a contemporary of the Caliphs al-Mansur and al-Mahdi, who lived in the monastery of Zuqnīn that was located near Amid, the Diar-Bakr of modern Turkey. Parts I and II contain compiled sources some of which survived only in this Chronicle. Sources include the Bible, Cave of Treasures, the Sleepers of Ephesus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Socrates, and the short Chronicle called Pseudo-Joshua the Stylite that deals with Sassanian-Byzantine warfare at the begging of the 6th century. Parts III and IV cover the years 488 and 775 AD. In this volume, Parts I and II, including the author’s dedicatory letter, are now published in an updated edition of the Syriac text and the irst English translation. 978-1-4632-0663-5 | HB | March 2017 | 539 pp. | $215.00 22 studIes In classIcal and late antIquIty Studies in Classical and Late Antiquity aims to publish monographs, edited volumes, and translations related to the Greco-Roman world and its transition into Late Antiquity, encompassing political and social structures, religion, knowledge and educational ideals, art, architecture, and literature. The series is also interested in studies that look at the interactions between the Greco-Roman worlds with other religious, geographical, and cultural groups in the world — such as those located in Arabia, Persia, Central Asia, and the Far East. ForthcomIng In 2019 From Oriens Christianus to the Islamic Near East Theological, Historical and Cultural Cross-pollination in the Eastern Mediterranean of Late Antiquity This edited volume will shed new light on the crossroads at which the Late Antique world of the Eastern Mediterranean heralded diverse exchanges between Oriental Christendom, Byzantine culture and the Islamic world. Furthermore, how these exchanges impacted the development of diverse regions, cultures, languages, and religions. The volume will provide an inter-disciplinary overview of the various perspectives emerging from the Christian Oriental, Byzantine, Early Islamic and Archaeological approaches to this area of research. The key objective of the volume is to explore the possibilities of a uniied and holistic approach to understanding the “Sattelzeit” (R. Koselleck) – i.e. the period between 500 and 750 CE. He Did Not Fear Xusro Parviz, King of Kings of the Sasanian Empire (570 CE-628 CE) This study spotlights Xusro II, the man who almost conquered the Roman Empire in the Roman-Sasanian War of the Seventh Century CE, and examines historical prominence. This book explores Xusro II who, as a man, was as complex, deep, and complicated as any other historical igure, and compliments Walter Kaegi’s biography of the Roman emperor Heraclius, Xusro II’s contemporary and nemesis. This monograph fully examines the rich cultural and religious landscape of Late Antiquity by analyzing primary sources from the Roman Empire, Zoroastrian tradition, Eastern Christianity, Armenia, Arab Muslim historians, and Persian Muslims, who were trying to ind and hold onto their identity in a changing world. He Did Not Fear: Xusro Parviz, King of Kings of the Sasanian Empire (570-628 CE) ills a missing gap in our knowledge by studying a man who represents a crossroads in Late Antiquity where Persia, the Christian East, the Roman Empire, and Islam all met. The Life of One Chosen by God A Study of the Old Testament Stories of Moses in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Sources Moses is an inspirational prophetic igure in Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious traditions. This book journeys through the Abrahamic faiths and illustrates their respective depictions of the Moses’ stories. Each chapter of the book examines the stories of the Prophet Moses in the biblical narrative of the Old Testament, in the exegesis of the Jewish Midrash and the Christian writer Ephrem the Syrian, and in the passages of the Qurʾān. The book shows the relationship between the four primary sources and consequently between the religious traditions, which they represent. In exploring the differences and similarities between the Hebrew Bible, Jewish rabbinical commentaries, Syriac Christian exegesis and the Qurʾān, this book seeks for a deeper understanding of the Prophet Moses in the religious history of humanity. In doing so the study offers a collaborative portrayal of the igure of Moses from the point of view common to all three of the Abrahamic religions. Towns and Water Supply in Post-Roman Spain (AD 400-1000) Our current knowledge of Roman aqueducts across the Empire is patchy and uneven. Even if the development of “aqueduct studies” (where engineering, archaeology, architecture, hydraulics, and other disciplines converge) in recent years has improved this situation, one of the aspects which has been generally left aside is the chronology of their late antique phases and of their abandonment. In the Iberian Peninsula, there is to date, no general overview of the Roman aqueducts, and all the available information is distributed across various publications, which as expected, hardly mention the late phases. This publication proposal tackles this issue by analysing and reassessing the available evidence for the late phases of the Hispanic aqueducts by looking at a wide range of sources of information, many times derived from the recent interest shown by archaeologists and researchers on late antique urbanism. 24 gorgIas handbooks Gorgias Handbooks provides students and scholars with reference books, textbooks and introductions to different topics or ields of study. In this series, Gorgias welcomes books that are able to communicate information, ideas and concepts effectively and concisely, with useful reference bibliographies for further study. In PrInt Hispano-Arabic Poetry A Student Anthology By J. T. Monroe This handbook is an anthology of chronologically arranged texts of Hispano-Arabic poems that are of exceptionally high literary quality or cultural signiicance. The texts are accompanied by literal translations and explanatory notes for the use of students of Arabic and Romance literatures. 1-59333-115-0 | PB | February 2004 | $63.00 Introduction to Syriac Reading and Writing By George Anton Kiraz This volume introduces the letters of the Syriac alphabet a few at the time, and each set of letters is accompanied by guides to pronunciation and the correct way to write the letters, including helpful charts and illustrations. Practice exercises at the end of each section provide the user with copious opportunities for review to facilitate rapid acquisition. This volume will be helpful to all who want to learn the basics of Syriac pronunciation and orthography without being inundated with technical linguistic jargon. 978-1-4632-0085-5 | PB | August 2011 | 56 pp. | $31.00 25 The New Syriac Primer, 2nd Edition By George Anton Kiraz A truly useful introduction to the Syriac language is a rare ind. This practical initiation to the study of this ancient language of the Christian church speaks with clarity and authority. A fruitful integration of scholarly introduction and practical application, this primer is more than a simple grammar or syntactic introduction to the language. Written in a style designed for beginners, Kiraz avoids technical language and strives for a reader-friendly inductive approach. Readings from actual Syriac texts allow the student to experience the language irst hand and the basics of the grammar of the language are ably explained. The book comes with downloadable material so that readers may listen to all reading sentences and text passages in the book. 978-1-59333-325-6 | PB | June 2013 | 301 pp. | $48.00 By Aaron D. Rubin A Brief Introduction to the Semitic Languages With a written history of nearly ive thousand years, the Semitic languages comprise one of the world’s earliest and longest attested families. This volume provides an overview of this important language family, including both ancient and modern languages. After a brief introduction to the history of the family and its internal classiication, subsequent chapters cover topics in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. Each chapter describes features that are characteristic of the Semitic language family as a whole, as well as some of the more extraordinary developments that take place in the individual languages. 978-1-61719-860-1 | PB | July 2010 | 110 pp. | $40.00 Introduction to Aramean and Syriac Studies A Manual By Arman Akopian Originally published in Armenian, this comprehensive introduction to Aramean and Syriac studies provides a gateway to the history, language, culture, and religion of the Aramean/Syriac people from the ancient times, through to the modern day. Special attention is given to such topics as translation and literary activity of the Syriacs, their missionary zeal and role as an intercultural medium, denominational fragmentation, and identity issues. The book is intended for the students of Oriental and Semitic studies but will be of value to anyone interested in the history and cultural heritage of the Christian Orient. 978-1-4632-0738-0 | PB | December 2017 | 573 pp. | $119.00 26 ForthcomIng In 2018 Studying the Near and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1935–2018 Edited by Sabine Schmidtke The history of Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study dates back to 1935, and it is the one area of scholarship that has been continuously represented at the Institute ever since. The volume opens with a historical sketch of the study of the Near and Middle East at the Institute. The second part of the volume consists of essays and short studies by IAS scholars, past and present, covering ields such as the ancient Near East and early Islamic history, the Bible and the Qurʾān, Islamic intellectual history within and beyond denominational history, Arabic and other Semitic languages and literatures, Islamic religious and legal practices, law and society, the Islamic West, the Ottoman world, Iranian studies, the modern Middle East, and Islam in the West. A Guide to Working with Islamic Manuscripts This handbook aims to address the lacunae that currently exists on working with manuscripts in Islamic studies. It will guide researchers who are new to manuscript study on where to begin and how to read manuscripts. The explanations of the codicological and palaeographical features of manuscripts will enable readers to navigate them for further information as well as develop their conidence to explore the potential of manuscript research. The book will rely on the collection at Cadbury Research Library to provide numerous examples of the features being discussed as well as a range scripts from different periods for palaeography exercises. ForthcomIng In 2020 The Last Empire of Iran By Michael Bonner This multivolume work will present a political and military history of the Sasanian Empire in Late Antiquity (220s to 651 AD). The handbook will take the form of a narrative and situate Sasanian Iran within its proper context as a continental power between Rome and the world of the steppe nomad. The author will emphasise key elements of Sasanian foreign policy that forced the Roman Empire to recognise its equality and explain Sasanian policy vis-à-vis of the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Arabian Peninsula also. The book will show that the Sasanian Empire was far more diplomatically astute and militarily capable than is usually assumed, and that it had remarkable regenerative power when faced with both internal turmoil and external threats. Although literary histories are essential to the task, this book will bring together a great deal of archaeological and sigillographic data which have only recently come to light. 27 PersPectIves on socIety and culture This series explores societal issues in the history of the Near and Middle East, from antiquity to the medieval period. Volumes will include monographs and collections of peer-reviewed essays on aspects of community, family life, legal traditions, and economic affairs. Gorgias particularly welcomes proposals investigating aspects of daily life and sectors of society less visible than others in the historical record. In PrInt Iraq After the Muslim Conquest By Michael Morony Morony compares conditions in late Sasanian and early Islamic Iraq in the seventh century AD and depicts both the emergence of a local form of Islamic society, and the interaction of Muslim conquerors from Arabia with the native population. 978-1-59333-315-7 | HB | January 2015 | 726 pp. | $261.00 The Epistle of the Number by Ibn al-Aḥdab The Transmission of Arabic Mathematics to Hebrew Circles in Medieval Sicily By Ilana Wartenberg This book aims to show how Ibn al-Bannāʾ’s famous Arabic text on arithmetic and algebra Talkhīṣ Aḥmāl al-Ḥisāb (A Summary of the operations of Calculation) was transmitted into Hebrew by the polymath Isaac Ibn al-Aḥdab, resulting in the extensive text The Epistle of the Number. This book presents the irst edition of The Epistle of the Number, which was composed in Syracuse, Sicily, at the end of the 14th century. It also depicts the fascinating igure of Isaac Ibn al-Aḥdab: astronomer, mathematician, poet, exegete and ‘calendar-man’ – shedding new light on his persona and intellectual activity. 978-1-4632-0417-4 | HB | September 2015 | 488 pp. | $203.00 28 Conversos in the Responsa of Sephardic Halakhic Authorities in the 15th Century By Dora Zsom This volume presents a systematic and detailed elaboration of the halakhic (legal) decisions written by ive of the most important authors who wrote responsa concerning conversos between the years 1391 and 1492. The expulsion was an event that radically changed the perspectives of the Iberian conversos. The halakhic authorities were confronted with an absolutely new situation, in which they had to reformulate their position towards the conversos. This volume presents all the responsa written in connection with conversos by Isaac b. Sheshet Perfet, Simeon b. Ṣemaḥ Duran and his descendants: Solomon b. Simeon Duran, Ṣemaḥ b. Solomon Duran and Simeon b. Solomon Duran. 978-1-4632-0239-2 | HB | January 2014 | 262 pp. | $148.00 JudaIsm In context This series explores societal issues in the history of the Near and Middle East, from antiquity to the medieval period. Volumes will include monographs and collections of peer-reviewed essays on aspects of community, family life, legal traditions, and economic affairs. Gorgias particularly welcomes proposals investigating aspects of daily life and sectors of society less visible than others in the historical record. In PrInt Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians Religious Dynamics in a Sasanian Context Edited by Geoffrey Herman The Sasanian Empire was home to many religious communities. It was also a place of meeting and transformation. The studies in this volume encompass a diverse array of topics concerning these religious communities inhabiting the Sasanian Empire. Some include the Roman East in their deliberations. Most, however, deal with the interaction of one or other religious community based in the Sasanian Empire with the dominant religion of the empire, Zoroastrianism. 978-1-4632-0250-7 | HB | October 2015 | 325 pp. | $163.00 29 PersIan martyr acts In syrIac: text and translatIon Persian Martyr Acts in Syriac is a series of Syriac martyrological texts composed from the fourth century into the Islamic period. They detail the martyrdom of a diversity of Christians at the hands of Sasanian kings, bureaucrats, and priests. These documents vary from purely mythological accounts to descriptions of actual events with a clear historical basis, however distorted by the hagiographer’s hand. In PrInt The History of the ‘Slave of Christ’ From Jewish Child to Christian Martyr By Aaron Michael Butts & Simcha Gross The irst critical editions and English translations of the two Syriac recensions of a fascinating text which narrates the story of a young Jewish child, Asher. After converting to Christianity and taking the name ʿAḇdā da-Mšiḥā (‘slave of Christ’), he is martyred by his father. In a detailed introduction, Butts and Gross challenge the use of this text by previous scholars as evidence for historical interactions between Jews and Christians, reevaluating its purpose and situating the story in its Late Antique Babylonian context. 978-1-4632-0573-7 | PB | January 2017 | 269 pp. | $67.00 Persian Marty Acts Under King Yazdgird I Edited and Translated by Geoffrey Herman This volume presents ive vivid tales of Christian martyrs from the ifth century. These accounts thematize the conlict between the martyrs’ identity as Persian subjects loyal to the Zoroastrian king and their devotion to Christianity. 978-1-4632-0623-9 | PB | November 2016 | 91 pp. | $36.00 30 The Martyrs of Mount Ber’ain Edited and Translated by Sebastian P. Brock; Introduction by Paul C. Dilley The Martyrs of Mount Ber’ain is the poignant tale of three noble Iranian siblings who are martyred under Shapur II. Composed in the seventh century, it demonstrates enduring concerns of Christian self-deinition in Iran, especially with respect to the Zoroastrian priesthood. 978-1-4632-0421-1 | PB | December 2014 | 129 pp. | $43.00 The Martyrdom and History of Blessed Simeon Bar Sabba’e By Kyle Smith The Martyrdom, and the later History, of Simeon bar Sabba’e narrate the death of the bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon who was killed around the year 340 C.E. at the beginning of King Shapur II’s “Great Persecution” of Christians in Sasanian Persia. 978-1-4632-0245-3 | PB | November 2014 | 289 pp. | $70.00 The Story of Mar Pinhas Edited and Translated by Adam Carter McCollum This volume contains the Syriac Life of Mar Pinhas, a purported martyr under the Sasanian Empire. This edition contains the Syriac text (irst published in 1894 by Paul Bedjan), an English translation, explanatory annotations, and Addai Scher’s Arabic version of the story. 978-1-4632-0217-0 | PB | March 2013 | 62 pp. | $32.00 31 The History of the Holy Man Ma’in with a Guide to the Persian Martyr Acts By Sebastian P. Brock The History of Holy Mar Ma‘in of Sinjar tells the story of a Sasanian general during the time of Shapur II (309-79) who suffered persecution after his conversion to Christianity. In this volume, the irst in this new series from Gorgias Press, Sebastian P. Brock provides the irst edition ever of the Syriac text of the History of Ma‘in as well as the irst full translation of it. This volume also includes a basic guide to the whole corpus of Persian Martyr Acts as well as useful indices to these numerous texts. 978-1-59333-222-8 | PB | February 2009 | 133 pp. | $44.00 32 www.gorgiaspress.com [email protected] T 732-885-8900 F 732-885-8908 954 River Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA