Andalus and Sefarad

Andalus and Sefarad
Author: Sarah Stroumsa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691176434

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An integrative approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus Al-Andalus, the Iberian territory ruled by Islam from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, was home to a flourishing philosophical culture among Muslims and the Jews who lived in their midst. Andalusians spoke proudly of the region's excellence, and indeed it engendered celebrated thinkers such as Maimonides and Averroes. Sarah Stroumsa offers an integrative new approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus, where the cultural commonality of the Islamicate world allowed scholars from diverse religious backgrounds to engage in the same philosophical pursuits. Stroumsa traces the development of philosophy in Muslim Iberia from its introduction to the region to the diverse forms it took over time, from Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism to rational theology and mystical philosophy. She sheds light on the way the politics of the day, including the struggles with the Christians to the north of the peninsula and the Fāṭimids in North Africa, influenced philosophy in al-Andalus yet affected its development among the two religious communities in different ways. While acknowledging the dissimilar social status of Muslims and members of the religious minorities, Andalus and Sefarad highlights the common ground that united philosophers, providing new perspective on the development of philosophy in Islamic Spain.

Andalus and Sefarad

Andalus and Sefarad
Author: Sarah Stroumsa
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691195455

Download Andalus and Sefarad Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

An integrative approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus Al-Andalus, the Iberian territory ruled by Islam from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, was home to a flourishing philosophical culture among Muslims and the Jews who lived in their midst. Andalusians spoke proudly of the region's excellence, and indeed it engendered celebrated thinkers such as Maimonides and Averroes. Sarah Stroumsa offers an integrative new approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus, where the cultural commonality of the Islamicate world allowed scholars from diverse religious backgrounds to engage in the same philosophical pursuits. Stroumsa traces the development of philosophy in Muslim Iberia from its introduction to the region to the diverse forms it took over time, from Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism to rational theology and mystical philosophy. She sheds light on the way the politics of the day, including the struggles with the Christians to the north of the peninsula and the Fāṭimids in North Africa, influenced philosophy in al-Andalus yet affected its development among the two religious communities in different ways. While acknowledging the dissimilar social status of Muslims and members of the religious minorities, Andalus and Sefarad highlights the common ground that united philosophers, providing new perspective on the development of philosophy in Islamic Spain.

Iberian Moorings

Iberian Moorings
Author: Ross Brann
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2021-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812252888

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To Christians the Iberian Peninsula was Hispania, to Muslims al-Andalus, and to Jews Sefarad. As much as these were all names given to the same real place, the names also constituted ideas, and like all ideas, they have histories of their own. To some, al-Andalus and Sefarad were the subjects of conventional expressions of attachment to and pride in homeland of the universal sort displayed in other Islamic lands and Jewish communities; but other Muslim and Jewish political, literary, and religious actors variously developed the notion that al-Andalus or Sefarad, its inhabitants, and their culture were exceptional and destined to play a central role in the history of their peoples. In Iberian Moorings Ross Brann traces how al-Andalus and Sefarad were invested with special political, cultural, and historical significance across the Middle Ages. This is the first work to analyze the tropes of Andalusi and Sefardi exceptionalism in comparative perspective. Brann focuses on the social power of these tropes in Andalusi Islamic and Sefardi Jewish cultures from the tenth through the twelfth century and reflects on their enduring influence and its expressions in scholarship, literature, and film down to the present day.

Iberian Moorings

Iberian Moorings
Author: Ross Brann
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2021-05-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812297873

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To Christians the Iberian Peninsula was Hispania, to Muslims al-Andalus, and to Jews Sefarad. As much as these were all names given to the same real place, the names also constituted ideas, and like all ideas, they have histories of their own. To some, al-Andalus and Sefarad were the subjects of conventional expressions of attachment to and pride in homeland of the universal sort displayed in other Islamic lands and Jewish communities; but other Muslim and Jewish political, literary, and religious actors variously developed the notion that al-Andalus or Sefarad, its inhabitants, and their culture were exceptional and destined to play a central role in the history of their peoples. In Iberian Moorings Ross Brann traces how al-Andalus and Sefarad were invested with special political, cultural, and historical significance across the Middle Ages. This is the first work to analyze the tropes of Andalusi and Sefardi exceptionalism in comparative perspective. Brann focuses on the social power of these tropes in Andalusi Islamic and Sefardi Jewish cultures from the tenth through the twelfth century and reflects on their enduring influence and its expressions in scholarship, literature, and film down to the present day.

Looking Back at al-Andalus

Looking Back at al-Andalus
Author: Alexander Elinson
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2009-02-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9047442725

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Through an examination of a variety of literary genres composed in Arabic and Hebrew, this book examines the literary definition of al-Andalus by taking into account the role of memory, language, and literary convention in analyses of texts composed following cultural and political challenges to Arab hegemony in the Iberian Peninsula.

Al-Andalus, Sepharad and Medieval Iberia

Al-Andalus, Sepharad and Medieval Iberia
Author: Ivy Corfis
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2010-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9047441540

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This volume show the many facets of contact in al-Andalus and Medieval Iberia, with issues still vital after more than a millennium as cultures face off and open or close frontiers to ideas, customs, ideologies and the arts.

The Ornament of the World

The Ornament of the World
Author: Maria Rosa Menocal
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2009-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0316092797

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This classic bestseller — the inspiration for the PBS series — is an "illuminating and even inspiring" portrait of medieval Spain that explores the golden age when Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance (Los Angeles Times). This enthralling history, widely hailed as a revelation of a "lost" golden age, brings to vivid life the rich and thriving culture of medieval Spain, where for more than seven centuries Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together in an atmosphere of tolerance, and where literature, science, and the arts flourished. "It is no exaggeration to say that what we presumptuously call 'Western' culture is owed in large measure to the Andalusian enlightenment...This book partly restores a world we have lost." —Christopher Hitchens, The Nation

Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature

Double Diaspora in Sephardic Literature
Author: David A. Wacks
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2015-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253015766

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The year 1492 has long divided the study of Sephardic culture into two distinct periods, before and after the expulsion of Jews from Spain. David A. Wacks examines the works of Sephardic writers from the 13th to the 16th centuries and shows that this literature was shaped by two interwoven experiences of diaspora: first from the Biblical homeland Zion and later from the ancestral hostland, Sefarad. Jewish in Spain and Spanish abroad, these writers negotiated Jewish, Spanish, and diasporic idioms to produce a uniquely Sephardic perspective. Wacks brings Diaspora Studies into dialogue with medieval and early modern Sephardic literature for the first time.

Freethinkers of Medieval Islam

Freethinkers of Medieval Islam
Author: Sarah Stroumsa
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1999-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9789004113749

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This book studies the phenomenon of freethinking in medieval Islam, as exemplified in the figures of Ibn al-R wand and Ab Bakr al-R z . It reconstructs their thought and analyzes the relations of the phenomenon to Islamic prophetology and its repercussions in Islamic thought.

Performing al-Andalus

Performing al-Andalus
Author: Jonathan Holt Shannon
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2015-07-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0253017742

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Performing al-Andalus explores three musical cultures that claim a connection to the music of medieval Iberia, the Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus, known for its complex mix of Arab, North African, Christian, and Jewish influences. Jonathan Holt Shannon shows that the idea of a shared Andalusian heritage animates performers and aficionados in modern-day Syria, Morocco, and Spain, but with varying and sometimes contradictory meanings in different social and political contexts. As he traces the movements of musicians, songs, histories, and memories circulating around the Mediterranean, he argues that attention to such flows offers new insights into the complexities of culture and the nuances of selfhood.