Arabic Tradition Research Articles

A corpus-based study of metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse

Abstract This study aims to examine the metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse, adopting a Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach for data analysis. I compiled a specialised corpus containing political and economic articles from two daily Jordanian newspapers. The data was analysed using WordSmith Tools (Scott 2012), which is compatible with Arabic data. The data analysis reveals that several metaphors are used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse. The majority of metaphors employed have negative connotations in the contexts in which they are used, especially in the years 2015 and 2016 compared with 2012. The metaphors used reflect the internal struggle of Jordanians in relation to whether Syrian refugees should stay or leave. The struggle stems from deeply-entrenched Arab traditions, which make receiving guests perceived as a duty on the one hand, and the economic struggle of Jordanians living in a fragile economy, on the other.

Arabic Manuscript Book Traditions: Script, Space Arrangement of the Text and Bibliographical Description

The article deals with the phenomenon of medieval Arabic manuscript book or a book written in Arabic script in non-Arabic language. Despite the large number of works where this phenomenon was analyzed, their authors did not provide a clear list of the criteria, which are specific to the Arabic manuscript book tradition in comparison to other medieval manuscript traditions of the West and East. Methodologically, the work is based on the principles of the “immanent analysis” of the phenomenon developed by the Russian and Soviet philological schools at the beginning of the last century in relation to the analysis of literary works. The authors of this article came to the conclusion that the structure-forming components of the phenomenon of the Arabic medieval manuscript book were as follows: 1) the Arabic script, as well as 2) the architectonics of the text of the Arabic manuscript book and 3) the specific features of the Arabic bibliographic description. The authors believe that these three components identified the Arabic (arabographic) handwritten book throughout its existence: from the 9th century AD to the present and from Eastern Europe to Indonesia. The results allow us to clearly understand what distinguished a book belonging to the Arabic manuscript tradition from manuscript books that were transcribed at the same time and in the same region, such as Coptic or Syriac.

شعر الحرب فی المعلقات السبع: دراسة نحویة دلالیة

شعر الحرب فی المعلقات السبع: دراسة نحویة دلالیة

Towards Developing a Comprehensive Tag Set for the Arabic Language

Abstract This paper presents a comprehensive Tag set as a fundamental component for developing an automated Word Class/Part-of-Speech (PoS) tagging system for the Arabic language. The aim is to develop a standard and comprehensive PoS tag set that based upon PoS classes and Arabic inflectional morphology useful for Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (NLP) developers to extract more linguistic information from it. The tag names in the developed tag set uses terminology from Arabic tradition grammar rather than English grammar. The usability of the presented Tag set has been tested in manual tagging and built up a set of tagged text to serve as a goal corpus used to compare it with the results obtained from the tagger. The tagger has achieved an average accuracy of 90% using the developed detailed tag set.

Canons, Thefts, and Palimpsests in the Arabic Literary Tradition

Abstract The purpose of this essay is to explain and also problematize the reasons behind my use of intertextual interaction as an inclusive term that cuts across time and space. With regard to Arabic literary production, ancient and modern, this inclusive term recalls a similar classical and pre-modern understanding of textual engagements as manifestations of textual subordination, anxiety, empowerment, competitiveness, and supremacy. Therefore, the present essay associates this understanding with Arab philologists’ theories of plagiarism. What came once under the rubric of plagiarism has a shared register, parlance, and postulates with current intertextual practices. Both address textual tapestries and matrices whereby threads are woven in an intricate manner. Over time, words, meanings, motifs, and thence theorizations form a constellation. The essay explores a number of Arabic novels of the third millennium as examples of this textual engagement not only with Arabic literary tradition, but also with texts from the global south. Such a substantial and visible textual appropriation invites this critical intervention which, in turn, is bound in dialogue with contemporary literary forays that reflect on texts as tissues of quotations.

The Sufi Ethics of Annihilation and Responsibility in Al-Jabri’s Critique of the Arabic Ethical Mind

The paper outlines the interpretation of Sufism formulated by Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri, a contemporary Moroccan philosopher and critic of the Arabic tradition. According to him, Sufism, unknown to Arabic culture until the advent of Islam, originated through a historical conspiracy whereby the Persians attempted to weaken their new Arabic colonisers. Sufism is viewed by him as an evasion and a detachment from life and its problems. It leads its adepts, through the mystical journey, to renounce material life. It plunges its adepts into a way of life where the annihilation of the self in God represents the central value. This annihilation of the self in deity is possible only through the blind obedience of the Seeker (Mureed) to his Master (Sheikh). Therefore, Sufism can only thrive by using tyrannical means. It demands that its adepts, through following a predestined path chosen by God, lose their own volition and freedom in favour of their Master. Breaking the law at the end of the Seeker’s mystical journey reflects, paradoxically, a spiritual accomplishment. Additionally, Sufi orders maintain a congenial relationship with political tyranny. Consequently, I argue, Sufism leads to a loss of human responsibility for oneself and other beings. I also claim that in a post-tyrannical Arabic society, where responsibility for oneself and one’s community should be the centralvalue, Sufi ethics are unable to play a role in the promotion of modern values. For this reason, it should be prevented from shaping the political and social choices of a modern society and constrained to the mystical realm.

The Sufi Ethics of Annihilation and Responsibility in Al-Jabri’s Critique of the Arabic Ethical Mind

The paper outlines the interpretation of Sufism formulated by Mohamed Abed Al-Jabri, a contemporary Moroccan philosopher and critic of the Arabic tradition. According to him, Sufism, unknown to Arabic culture until the advent of Islam, originated through a historical conspiracy whereby the Persians attempted to weaken their new Arabic colonisers. Sufism is viewed by him as an evasion and a detachment from life and its problems. It leads its adepts, through the mystical journey, to renounce material life. It plunges its adepts into a way of life where the annihilation of the self in God represents the central value. This annihilation of the self in deity is possible only through the blind obedience of the Seeker (Mureed) to his Master (Sheikh). Therefore, Sufism can only thrive by using tyrannical means. It demands that its adepts, through following a predestined path chosen by God, lose their own volition and freedom in favour of their Master. Breaking the law at the end of the Seeker’s mystical journey reflects, paradoxically, a spiritual accomplishment. Additionally, Sufi orders maintain a congenial relationship with political tyranny. Consequently, I argue, Sufism leads to a loss of human responsibility for oneself and other beings. I also claim that in a post-tyrannical Arabic society, where responsibility for oneself and one’s community should be the centralvalue, Sufi ethics are unable to play a role in the promotion of modern values. For this reason, it should be prevented from shaping the political and social choices of a modern society and constrained to the mystical realm.

Grammars of Classical Arabic in Judaeo-Arabic

Abstract This article presents an overview of medieval Classical Arabic grammars written in Judaeo-Arabic that are preserved in the Cairo Genizah and the Firkovich Collections. Unlike Jewish grammarians’ application of the Arabic theoretical model to describing Biblical Hebrew, Arabic grammars transliterated into Hebrew characters bear clear evidence of Jewish engagement with the Arabic grammatical tradition for its own sake. In addition, such manuscripts furnish new material on the history of the Arabic grammatical tradition by preserving otherwise unknown texts. The article discusses individual grammars of Classical Arabic in Judaeo-Arabic and tries to answer more general questions on this little known area of Jewish intellectual activity. An analysis of the corpus suggests that Jews who copied and used these texts were less interested in the intricacies of abstract theory than in attaining a solid knowledge of Classical Arabic. Court scribes appear to have been among those interested in the study of Classical Arabic grammar.

Witnesses of poetry in two exegesis "Attibyan " and "qurtubi"

Poetry had a significance role in the Arab traditions that they used to give grave importance to poets as compared to speakers and leaders. Arabs had considered the poets as the defenders of their tribes and casts. Furthermore, it was a common praxis in Arabic tradition to celebrate the birth anniversaries of their prominent poets with dignity as the people of other tribes also used to pay commendations and aspirations on that occasions. The quotation of the well-known and specialist of Quranic sciences , Ibne Abbas , shows the emerging strength as he said , Arabic poetry may be helpful and useful to absorb and elucidate the meanings of the Quranic words. whith reference to this importance, many interpreters of the Qur'an seek help from arabic poetry to exegete the verses of the Holy Quran. Abū Ja'far Muḥammad Ibn Ḥasan Tūsī “995- 1067 AD” in his exegesis "Al-Tibbyan Fi Tasir al Quran " and " Imam Abu Abdullah Al-Qurtubi " , 1214 -1273 AD , in his exegesis "Jami’li-Ahkam" and "Al-Jami' li Ahkam al-Qur'an ", used many verses of Arabic poetry to interpret the verses of the Holy Quran.so in this reference, we will discuss in this article ;
 
 poetry and its importance
 promotion of " Istishhad "
 models of istishhad with Arabic poetry in two exegesis

Osmanlı Müelliflerinin Çalışmalarında Zeyd-Zeyneb Hadisesi Bağlamında Voltaire’in “Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı” Adlı Tiyatro Eseri Üzerine Değerlendirmeler

İslamiyet, tarih sahnesine çıkışından kısa bir süre sonra bu yeni dini kendilerine en büyük rakip olarak gören diğer din mensubu çevrelerin hedefi haline gelmeye başlamıştır. Kısa süre içerisinde İslam’ın Arap Yarımadası’ndan Çin’e ve Ortadoğu’dan Avrupa içlerine kadar yayılması neticesinde başta Hıristiyanlık olmak üzere gayrimüslim dünya İslam’a karşı bir mücadele içerisine girmişlerdir. Girişilen bu mücadele siyasi ve askeri alanda olduğu gibi, ilmî ve kültürel alanda da kendisini göstermeye başlamış ve yalnızca dinin kendisine karşı değil onu tebliğ eden peygamberine yani Hz. Muhammed’e karşı da yürütülmüştür. İslam’ın Doğu’da ve Batı’da kısa zaman içerisinde hızlı bir ilerleyiş sağlaması, Batı toplumunun dikkatlerini bu yeni din üzerine çekti ve onları İslam ve İslâmî ilimler üzerinde birtakım araştırmalara sevk etti. Ancak Avrupalıların bu ilgisi İslam’a olan hayranlıklarından değil, onu yakından tanımak suretiyle hem İslam’a hem de Müslümanlara zarar vermek istemelerinden ileri gelmekteydi. İşte bu doğrultuda Batı dünyası, İslam peygamberi Hz. Muhammed’i küçük düşürmek için haksız ithamlarla karalamaya çalışmışlar ve bu yönde çok sayıda eser yazmışlardır. Bu noktada en çok kullandıkları konu ise Hz. Peygamber’in aile hayatı olmuştur. Hz. Peygamber’in çok eşliliği ve özellikle de evlatlığı Zeyd b. Hârise’nin boşamış olduğu hanımı Zeyneb bint Cahş ile gerçekleştirdiği evlilik, Batılı yazarlar tarafından Hz. Peygamber’i ve onun özelinde de İslamiyet’i eleştiri ve hatta İslam’a saldırı amacıyla kullanılmıştır. İşte bu şekilde Hz. Peygamber ve İslamiyet hakkında tarihî gerçekleri çarpıtarak bir eser ortaya koyanlardan birisi de Fransız yazar Voltaire olmuştur. Voltaire’in kaleme aldığı ve birkaç kez Avrupa tiyatrolarında da sahnelenen Le Fanatisme ou Mahomet le Prophete Tragedie / Fanatizm veya Peygamber Muhammed’in Bağnazlığı adlı piyesi başta Osmanlı kamuoyu olmak üzere İslam toplumunda büyük bir infial uyandırmıştır. Bu araştırmamızda konuyla ilgili rivayetler ve yorumlar üzerinden Osmanlı’nın son döneminde yazılmış veya bu dönemde yetişmiş müelliflerin Cumhuriyet döneminde kaleme almış olduğu eserlerde konuya nasıl yaklaşıldığı tespit edilmeye çalışılacak ve onların bir değerlendirmesi yapılacaktır.

The Politics and Aesthetics of Storytelling in Diana Abu-Jaber’s "Crescent": A Strategic Implementation of an Old Folkloric Arab Tradition

This paper discusses the politics and multi-functionality of storytelling in Diana Abu-Jaber’s novel Crescent (2003). I argue that the strategic use of storytelling places Crescent as a complex hybrid text that projects the nature, and development, of Arab American literature in the contemporary era. In addition to having the practice of storytelling as an apparatus to project identity in Crescent, Abu-Jaber re-appropriates its empowered status in Arab culture as well as politicizes its image in the mind of her readers. Besides employing critical and analytical approaches to the novel, this paper relies on arguments and perspectives of prominent postcolonial and literary critics and theorists such as Edward Said, Suzanne Keen, Walter Benjamin, and Samaya Sami Sabry, to name a few.

A positive energy building for the Middle East climate: ReStart4Smart Solar House at Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018

Abstract The city of Dubai (UAE), in accordance with its program of transformation into one of the most smart and sustainable cities, hosted the 2018 edition of Solar Decathlon, the first in the Middle East (SDME 2018). The harsh climate of UAE, along with the booming construction industry and energy consumptions and CO2 emissions among the world’s highest, tasked participating university teams to find innovative solutions able to drive the region building sector towards a more sustainable future. Sapienza University of Rome participated, representing Italy, to SDME 2018 with the project ReStart4Smart, a full scale prototype of a single family energy positive smart home specifically designed for the Middle East climate and fully consistent with the Arab culture. This article examines the ReStart4Smart project in terms of energy strategies, architectural concept and technological solutions adopted, in order to verify, through a detailed analysis of energy simulations and monitoring carried out on the prototype built in Dubai, the expected performance levels. Results achieved demonstrate how the Restart4 Smart project represents, consistently with the Arab tradition, a valid proposal for zero-energy intelligent housing, perfectly responsive to the social demand emerging from the populations of the Middle East.

Al-Kindi on education: Curriculum theorizing and the intercultural Minhaj

This article presents Al-Kindi as the first Arab intercultural curriculum theorizer, rather than the first Arab philosopher as is often argued. He envisioned an intercultural and interdisciplinary curriculum within the Arabic intellectual tradition. This article proposes Al-Kindism as a conceptual framework for education that revisits interdisciplinary and intercultural possibilities geared toward conflict resolution and synthesis. It also explores how Al-Kindi was arguably the first in the Arabic intellectual tradition to initiate a move from Majlis to Minhaj, that is from Masjid learning practices centered on theological studies to schooling. In other words, in the absence of actual schooling, his educational vision offered a possibility of a conceptualized curriculum to be taught. Al-Kindi’s scholarly eagerness was driven not necessarily by, as generally perceived, the desire to promote philosophy, but more importantly, by the need to develop an intellectually responsive educational tradition to accommodate emerging intercultural encounters. He believed that the acquisition of true knowledge could only be achieved through intercultural competence and that such competence would eliminate the tension between Greek thought and Islamic culture. Thus, as a curriculum theorizer, Al-Kindi initiated a Minhaj marked by indebtedness to intercultural encounters, by a shift away from Majlis, and by the implementation of interdisciplinarity.

“Unhomeliness” and the Arab Woman in Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt (1996)

The concept of “Unhomeliness” as defined by Homi Bhabha will be used in this work to analyse Pillars of Salt, written by Fadia Faqir in 1996. This paper intends to demonstrate how this concept, describing the psychological pressure experienced by the female characters of this novel and the feeling of displacement engendered by the different “unhomely” situations from which the female characters suffer, reflect the author’s Arabo-islamic womanism in this literary production. It consists in exploring different Arab traditions, colonial encroachments and a hegemonic orientalist vision as present in the novel, representing patriarchal, colonial and imperial “unhomeliness” for the female characters.

Quṭbaddīn an-Nahrawālī’s (917-990/1511-1582) Treasure of Names and Other Ottoman-Era Arabic Treatises on the Art of the Muʿammā

In Timurid times Persian littérateurs devised a new kind of logogriph (muʿammā) that differed con­siderably from the muʿammā as was known in the Arabic tradition. The most salient feature of the new, Persianate muʿammā, which is normally a couplet, is that it has two levels of meaning: an obvious or surface meaning (‘the poetic meaning’), and an encoded ‘riddle meaning’, which gives the clues to the solution of the riddle. Since the 16th century the new, Persianate muʿammā became very popular with Ottoman Turkish and Arabic littérateurs as well. In fact, to judge by the available evidence, it appears that the new muʿammā gradually became the most popular kind of literary riddle in Arabic. The present paper presents Quṭbaddīn an-Nahrawālī’s (917-990/1511-1582) Treasure of Names, the most influential Arabic treatise on the new muʿammā, which is modelled on earlier Persian treatises. It discusses the growth of the new muʿammā in Arabic, describes the rules applying to it as presented in an-Nahrawālī’s treatise, analyses several Arabic muʿammayāt cited in that treatise and concludes by mentioning some additional Ottoman-era Arabic treatises on the riddle that testify to the great popularity of the new muʿammā in Arabic until the late 19th century.

The Technical Aspests of Abdul-Qahir AL-Jurjani's Theory of Versification

: This paper is an attempt to explore the technical aspects of Sheikh Abdul-Qahir Al-Jurjani's theory of versification which is scattered in his book Dala'il ul-I'jaz and to collect these dispersed parts. Al-Jurjani's theory of versification represented an outstanding critical and rhetorical achievement in the Arabic critical rhetorical tradition because it provided answers to many critical questions at that early epoch in the history of Arabic literary criticism. It, therefore, attracted the attention of critics and rhetoricians at all subsequent times. Such a theory can never be found in his predecessors except for some hints in Ibnul Muqaffa' and Al-Jahidh's works though the idea of versification was common among the Mu'tazila and Ash'ariya but it was not evident; it was just mere hints which no one had interpreted in detail except Al-Jurjani who gave it much importance and talked about it in details, linking sound to sense, rhetorical figures of speech to the miraculous nature of Qur'anic language. Al-Jurjani's theory of versification has become a scientific basis for the interpretation of the Holy Qur'an. Furthermore, some critics tried to link Al-Jurjani's theory with contemporary stylistics and poetics

Ibn Ashur's Concept of Maqasid Sharia-Finding Method

This paper aims to reveal the concept of maqasid sharia-finding method according to Tahir ibn Ashur. It argues that Ibn Ashur’s approach to search for maqasid sharia revolves around three methods. The first is inductive method. This method can be done through the induction of many ‘illat (reasons) that have the same hikmah (goals) and the induction of many dalil (provisions) that have the same ‘illat (reasons). The second is al-bayan al-nashshi method. This method refers to understanding of explicit provisions (dalil) in the Qur'an as they leave no room for alternative interpretations according to Arabic language traditions. The third is sunnah mutawatirah method. This method is divided into mutawatir ma’nawi and mutawatir 'amali. Mutawatir ma'nawi is an inference resulted from testimonies of many shahaba (the Prophet's companions) concerning a Prophet's particular action. Actions that are considered mutawatir ma'nawi include those that are clear, bright and axiomatic in nature (ma'lum min al-din bi al-dharurah), or at least close to ma'lum min al-din bi al-dharurah. Meanwhile, mutawatir ‘amali is an inference resulted from a testimony of one shahaba concerning actions always repeated by the Prophet.

The Story of a Lost Book: Two Recent Studies on the Khwadāynāmag

The Arabic historiographical tradition is considered to be one of the most important textual sources for the reconstruction of Sāsānian history. Historians such as al-Ṭabarī, al- Masʿūdī or al-Thaʿālibī explicitly claimed to have used older material of Persian origin. The basis of their accounts seem to have been translations, excerpts and adaptations of translations, which commonly are traced back to the Middle-Persian “Book of Kings”, the Khwadāynāmag. While it may be assumed a scientific consensus that there were in the late Sāsānian period books dealing with Iran’s history, the opaque character of this historical tradition has repeatedly given rise to scientific controversy over the question of whether there was one or several books bearing the title Khwadāynāmag, when the content was first written down, whether the tradition could be regarded as sound or not, which earlier sources finally became a part of the Khwadāynamag, etc. In the following, two inspiring recent contributions to the research on the Khwadāynāmag will be presented.

The Muḥīṭ al-Muḥīṭ Dictionary

This article discusses the contribution of the Muḥīṭ al-Muḥīṭ dictionary written by Buṭrus al-Bustānī, one of the leading figures of the Nahḍa, to the development of modern Arabic lexicography. This lexical endeavor is examined not only as part of a proto-national project, but as a pivotal moment in the development of modern Arabic lexical thought and in particular in al-Bustānī’s vision.
 Muḥīṭ al-Muḥīṭ constituted an important pedagogical step in transforming classical Arabic into “a living” language adapted to the needs of the Arab nation. However, although Muḥīṭ al-Muḥīṭ took the first crucial steps toward creating a modern Arabic lexical source, this dictionary mainly extends the age-old Arabic tradition of lexicography. It nevertheless paved the way to al-Bustānī’s final work, the encyclopedia Dāʾirat al-maʿārif, his most monumental effort and the cornerstone of al-Bustānī’s modern lexical vision.

Perspectives on the Notion of Truth in Arabic Philosophy

Abstract In the present paper, I assume that the notion of “truth” in philosophy would not have been clarified and tackled properly, if philosophers did not take into account earlier Arabic Medieval research contributions and build upon previous research findings. In the first place, I embark on the scrutiny of the rich aspect (or nature) of the Arabic Lexicon in terms of the “truth” meaning. In the second place, I take on the assumption that Arabic linguistic traditions imply different kinds of truths, depending on various spheres of human thoughts and actions based on the logical approach to “truth” (from Al-Kindi up to Averroes via Al-Farabi and Avicenna) and the term “al-haqiqha” as transliterated from Arabic, remain central. In conclusion, I take on an approach to “truth” that gives worth to logical perspectives at the very heart of Medieval Arab traditions in the light of what I would label as the “Omni-cultural Universality of Logic and Science”.