Al-Jahiz: in Praise of Books (Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature)

Montgomery, James E.

Edinburgh University Press（2013/11発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 592 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780748683321
• DDC分類 892.78308

Full Description

Edinburgh University Press will publish two self-contained guides to reading al-Jahiz that also shed light on his society and its writings. This first volume, 'In Praise of Books', is devoted to bibliomania and al-Jahiz's bibliophilia. Volume 2, In Censure of Books, explores Al-Jahiz's bibliophobia. Al-Jahiz was a bibliomaniac, theologian, and spokesman for the political and cultural elite, a writer who lived, counselled and wrote in Iraq during the first century of the 'Abbasid caliphate. He advised, argued and rubbed shoulders with the major power brokers and leading religious and intellectual figures of his day, and crossed swords in debate and argument with the architects of the Islamic religious, theological, philosophical and cultural canon. His many, tumultuous writings engage with these figures, their ideas, theories and policies. They give us an invaluable but much-neglected window onto the values and beliefs of this cosmopolitan elite.

Contents

Preface; Part I: Physiognomy of An Apocalyptic Age; Part II: The Book of Living; Part III: The Jaḥiẓian Library Under Attack; Part IV: The Salvific Book; Part V: The Architecture of Design; Part VI: Appreciating Design; Postface; Appendix: The Praise of Books; Bibliography; Endnotes.