Arabic-L:GEN: JAIS Articles online

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 20 Dec 1999
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1) Subject: JAIS Article online
2) Subject: JAIS Articles address correction and additional info

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1)
Date: 20 Dec 1999
From: Joseph Norment Bell <joseph.bell at msk.uib.no>
Subject: JAIS Article online

The pre-publication version of the following article in Volume 2(1998-99)
has been posted:

3.Pavel Pavlovitch. Qad kunna la na'budu 'llaha wa-la na'rifuhu. On the
Problem of the Pre-Islamic Lord of the Ka'ba. Pre-Publication Version.
(Adobe Acrobat PDF file, pp. 49-74). This is a temporary posting. Readers
noticing spelling, formatting, or other errors are requested to notify
joseph.bell at msk.uib.no. HTML version to be posted later.

Regards,

Joseph Bell

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2)
Date: 20 Dec 1999
From: Joseph Norment Bell <joseph.bell at msk.uib.no>
Subject: JAIS Articles address correction and additional info

It seems that in the announcments concerning three new articles in volume 2
(1998-99) of the Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, I neglected to give
the Journal's Web address, which is:

www.uib.no/jais

The articles in question:

1. Ibrahim Taha. Openness and Closedness: Four Categories of Closurization
in Modern
Arabic Fiction. (Adobe Acrobat PDF file, pp. 1-23).

Abstract: The discussion of the four categories of ending and closure in
modern Arabic literature in terms of openness and closedness clearly
indicates the interrelations between the ending and the model of the textual
reality, and the interrelations between this model and the extra-literary
reality. It seems that when the historical, and especially the political and
the social reality slaps writers across the face and stands before them in
all its might and immediacy, they do not remain indifferent and write a
literature with optimistic, promising, and closed endings; and vice versa: a
text with a model of reality which does not relate to a well defined piece
of history ends with a more open type of ending and becomes a closure in the
reader.

2. Celia E. Rothenberg. A Review of the Anthropological Literature in
English on the Palestinian Hamula and the Status of Women. (Adobe Acrobat
PDF file,  pp. 24-48).

Abstract: The following is a survey of the anthropological literature in
English on the Palestinian hamula, the extended family or clan, and
Palestinian women’s lives in the West Bank. Both areas of the literature are
in certain respects problematic; in particular, actors’ agency and women’s
experiences are often overlooked. The article concludes by presenting the
notion of social geography—a concept which looks at how the geographical
location of neighbors, friends, and family, as well as ideas of relatedness,
create ties and shape the way women practice and experience social
relations. Recognizing the importance of social geography may provide a way
of wedding these two areas of the literature and addressing some of its gaps.

3.Pavel Pavlovitch. Qad kunna la na'budu 'llaha wa-la na'rifuhu. On the
Problem of the Pre-Islamic Lord of the Ka'ba. Pre-Publication Version.
(Adobe Acrobat PDF file, pp. 49-74). This is a temporary posting. The final
file will be posted in a few weeks, when this notice will be removed.
Readers noticing spelling, formatting, or other errors are requested to
notify joseph.bell at msk.uib.no. HTML version to be posted later.

Abstract: This article deals with the problem of the pre-Islamic Lord of the
Ka'ba. An attempt is made to critically review the accepted theory that
Allah had been the main deity of this shrine long before Islam was revealed
to the Prophet Muhammad. The evidence of scripture and our other sources
suggests that the heathen Arabs may not have been particularly familiar with
the notion of Allah as the greatest deity reigning over a swarm of lesser
idols. Deities other than Allah were apparently greatly revered in the
Ka'ba, and their role as lords of the sanctuary cannot be easily discarded.
As for the concept of Allah as the main deity in the Ka'ba, the evidence
seems to stem from the early Islamic period, when the monotheistic notion of
God prevailed and brought with it a new understanding of history as a
sequence of monotheistic prophecies beginning with the very creation of the
world. This concept appears to be mainly responsible for the emergence of
the belief that Allah was present in people’s faith from the days of Adam
until the final reincarnation of His religion inMuhammad’s da'wa.

These are temporary postings. The final files will be posted in a few weeks.
Readers noticing spelling, formatting, or other errors are requested to
notify joseph.bell at msk.uib.no. HTML versions to be posted later.

In Volume 1(1996-97), one article is delayed for technical reasons:

Petra G. Schmidl. Two Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass. Pp. 81-XX.

Abstract: In this paper two previously unpublished texts on the magnetic
compass from the medieval Islamic world will be discussed, the first by the
Yemeni Sultan al Ashraf (ca. 1290) and the second by the Cairene astronomer
Ibn Sim'un (ca. 1300). These two treatises constitute the earliest known
evidence attesting the use of the magnetic compass for the determination of
the qibla, the sacred direction of Islam. A brief introduction glimpses at
history of the magnetic compass in Europe and China and mentions previously
known early Arabic sources on the instrument and its use. This is followed
by some remarks on the authors and the manuscripts, the Arabic texts with
English translations, and comments on problems encountered while working on
the texts.

Regards,

Joseph Bell

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End of Arabic-L: 20 Dec 1999