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Kevin
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Topic: Literature of the Islamic World? Posted: 10-Jul-2008 at 23:56 |
Can anyone recommend me some Islamic literature?
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Zagros
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Posted: 10-Jul-2008 at 23:57 |
You mean religious literature?
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Kevin
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Posted: 11-Jul-2008 at 00:35 |
Originally posted by Zagros
You mean religious literature?
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Ether religious or not?
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Reginmund
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Posted: 11-Jul-2008 at 01:06 |
Non-religious Islamic literature? That's a paradox. I believe you are talking about literature from the Islamic world though, which can be Arab, Persian, Turkish/Ottoman and a whole lot more. Personally I'd recommend the memoirs of Usama ibn Munqidh, titled Kitab al-I'tibar. He was a 12th century Arab politician, historian and diplomat from Shayzar, and as such had much to say about the relationship between the Crusaders and the Muslims, often with a humurous tone. Here is an excerpt: "The Franks are void of all zeal and jealousy. One of them may be walking along with his
wife. He meets another man who takes the wife by the hand and steps aside to converse with
her while the husband is standing on one side waiting for his wife to conclude the
conversation. If she lingers too long for him, he leaves her alone with the conversant and
goes away.
Here is an illustration which I myself witnessed:
When I used to visit Nablus, I always took lodging with a man named Mu'izz, whose home
was a lodging house for the Muslims. The house had windows which opened to the road, and
there stood opposite to it on the other side of the road a house belonging to a Frank who
sold wine for the merchants. He would take some wine in a bottle and go around announcing
it by shouting, "So and so, the merchant, has just opened a cask full of this wine.
He who wants to buy some of it will find it in such and such a place." The Frank's
pay for the announcement made would be the wine in that bottle. One day this Frank went
home and found a man with his wife in the same bed. He asked him, "What could have
made you enter into my wife's room?" The man replied, "I was tired, so I went in
to rest." "But how," asked he, "didst thou get into my bed?" The
other replied, "I found a bed that was spread, so I slept in it."
"But," said be, "my wife was sleeping together with you!" The other
replied, "Well, the bed is hers. How could I therefore have prevented her from using
her own bed?"
"By the truth of my religion," said the husband, "if thou shouldst do it
again, thou and I would have a quarrel." Such was for the Frank the entire expression
of his disapproval and the limit of his jealousy. . . ."
Edited by Reginmund - 11-Jul-2008 at 01:09
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Kevin
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Posted: 11-Jul-2008 at 03:39 |
Originally posted by Reginmund
Non-religious Islamic literature? That's a paradox.
I believe you are talking about literature from the Islamic world though, which can be Arab, Persian, Turkish/Ottoman and a whole lot more. Personally I'd recommend the memoirs of Usama ibn Munqidh, titled Kitab al-I'tibar. He was a 12th century Arab politician, historian and diplomat from Shayzar, and as such had much to say about the relationship between the Crusaders and the Muslims, often with a humurous tone.
Here is an excerpt:
"The Franks are void of all zeal and jealousy. One of them may be walking along with his
wife. He meets another man who takes the wife by the hand and steps aside to converse with
her while the husband is standing on one side waiting for his wife to conclude the
conversation. If she lingers too long for him, he leaves her alone with the conversant and
goes away.
Here is an illustration which I myself witnessed:
When I used to visit Nablus, I always took lodging with a man named Mu'izz, whose home
was a lodging house for the Muslims. The house had windows which opened to the road, and
there stood opposite to it on the other side of the road a house belonging to a Frank who
sold wine for the merchants. He would take some wine in a bottle and go around announcing
it by shouting, "So and so, the merchant, has just opened a cask full of this wine.
He who wants to buy some of it will find it in such and such a place." The Frank's
pay for the announcement made would be the wine in that bottle. One day this Frank went
home and found a man with his wife in the same bed. He asked him, "What could have
made you enter into my wife's room?" The man replied, "I was tired, so I went in
to rest." "But how," asked he, "didst thou get into my bed?" The
other replied, "I found a bed that was spread, so I slept in it."
"But," said be, "my wife was sleeping together with you!" The other
replied, "Well, the bed is hers. How could I therefore have prevented her from using
her own bed?"
"By the truth of my religion," said the husband, "if thou shouldst do it
again, thou and I would have a quarrel." Such was for the Frank the entire expression
of his disapproval and the limit of his jealousy. . . ."
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Thanks I'll look that one up!
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Al Jassas
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Posted: 11-Jul-2008 at 09:40 |
Hello Kevin
The 1001 nights can give you quite an excellent portrait about life in nearly all Islamic societies because nearly half of the stories describe life from and Iranian perspective and the rest from an Arab, mainly Egyptian, one.
For poetry, I have several links that I hope you will find what you like:
All are arabic.
Al-Jassas
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eaglecap
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Posted: 18-Nov-2008 at 22:19 |
I picked up via interlibrary loan from Colorado "The History of Mehmed the Conquerer by Tursun Beg - translated by Halil Inalclik and Rhoads Murphey- the latter sounds British-???
This is will give me a look at this great man from the other side and not so biased as Nicolo Barbaro, George Sprantzes or Doukas. I do not say biased in an all negative way but there is always more than one viewpoint. The Fall of Constantinople -1453
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Λοιπόν, αδελφοί και οι συμπολίτες και οι στρατιώτες, να θυμάστε αυτό ώστε μνημόσυνο σας, φήμη και ελευθερία σας θα ε
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Suren
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Posted: 18-Nov-2008 at 22:52 |
I'd recommend the memoirs of Usama bin Ladin, titled Kitab al-eftaziat
fi harakat-u-Jihadi fi sanat-el-akhir! Also al-Muhareghat fe Jahanam
bayn-ul-shayatin.
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Anfører
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eaglecap
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Posted: 19-Nov-2008 at 21:34 |
Originally posted by Suren
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I'd recommend the memoirs of Usama bin Ladin, titled Kitab al-eftaziat
fi harakat-u-Jihadi fi sanat-el-akhir! Also al-Muhareghat fe Jahanam
bayn-ul-shayatin.
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I wonder if its in English??
Tursun Beg offers a few descprition not in the other sources but overall it is short and lacks the details that one finds in: Nicolo Barbaro, George Sprantzes, Doukas or Kritovoulos.
I thought it was funny when it said the only thing left standing with the Hagia Sophia was it dome. So, if you took it literal then you would see a dome hanging mid-air with no support- LOL
Probably the translation!!
Unlike the Greeks and one Italian writers he calls the city Istanbul and not Constantinople but he did not write this until 1488, by then it was Istanbul. I was at the military museum in Taksim and I saw a replicaton of Constantinople during the great siege of 1453 but they called it Istanbul. I was a bit irritated but I soon learn that Istanbul came from a Greek word which meant "the city."
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Λοιπόν, αδελφοί και οι συμπολίτες και οι στρατιώτες, να θυμάστε αυτό ώστε μνημόσυνο σας, φήμη και ελευθερία σας θα ε
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eaglecap
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Posted: 20-Nov-2008 at 19:35 |
It is interesting to see the two different accounts of the Emperor death. In the Greek and Italian account he is seen dying as a hero but in the Turkish source his death does not seem so heroic.
The Emperors horse slipped as he was attacking a wounded ‘azeb, whereupon the azeb pulled himself together and cut off the Emperors head.
17. Beg, Tursun. The History of Mehmed the Conqueror, Bibliotheca Islamica, Chicago, 1978 translated by: Halil Inalcik and Rhoads Murphey
I have embellished it but I got my material from Doukas and mostly George Sprantzes
In those last hours of the siege Emperor Constantine Palaeologus XI held, in his right arm of valor, his swords high in defiance of the Turks; who were swarming through the breaches in the cities’ broken walls.
Feeling abandoned and isolated Constantine XI uttered his final words, “Is there no Christian who will take my head?”2 Shortly afterwards, like brave Achilles, who died by the thrust of a Trojan, poison tipped, arrow; Emperor Constantine was cut down by the edge of a Turkish sword. A Turk struck him in the face and wounded him but in turn, like a lion, Constantine struck back. Another mortal blow struck him down; bringing a dramatic end to the life of the last Byzantine Emperor.” Her adversaries have become the master, Her enemies prosper…Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy.” Lamentations 1:53
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Λοιπόν, αδελφοί και οι συμπολίτες και οι στρατιώτες, να θυμάστε αυτό ώστε μνημόσυνο σας, φήμη και ελευθερία σας θα ε
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faram
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Posted: 05-Jan-2009 at 12:34 |
If you're looking for a XXth century writer, I recommend you the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfuz, specially his tale's books. He was awarded with the Nobel prize in 1988, becoming the first writer in Arab language with it.
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