NEW BOOKS JULY-DECEMBER 2022 GINGKO
THE ARAB CHRIST
Towards an Arab Christian Theology of Conviviality
Mouchir Basile Aoun
Translated from the French by Sarah Patey
INTERFAITH SERIES SERIES EDITOR JOSHUA RALSTON
A close analysis of the challenges facing Arab-Christians who seek to foster an understanding between Christians and Muslims in the Arab world.
Through a close analysis of the writings of four Lebanese theologians, the author out lines the challenges facing those in Arab Christian communities who seek to foster an accommodation and understanding between Christians and Muslims in the Arab world. The author examines the current position of the Arab Christian communities in the face of rising Islamic fundamentalism in the Arab world, with particular refer ence to the weakened position of those communities in Lebanon in the aftermath of that country’s civil war between 1975 and 1992.
The author goes on to call for a re-evaluation by Arab Christians of their attitude towards Arab Muslims and their faith, and for an engagement between the faiths based on mutual recognition of the shared traditions of Christianity and Islam and an understanding of the need for the faiths to act together in solidarity to address the socio-political and sociocultural challenges in the Arab world today. The author concludes by indicating the basis on which a shared spiritual quest for moral and political commitment can be realised.
Mouchir Basile Aoun is Professor of Philosophy at the Lebanese University in Beirut where he teaches the history of German philosophy and hermeneutics. He is the author of several works on philosophy and religion
Arabic, English, French and German.
published
£50.00 October 2022 978-1-914983-02-3 Religion, Theology Royal Hardback, 153x234mm 400 pp
which have been
in
NEW
From the Preface : The painful advent of the Arab Christ
Sociopolitical and sociocultural conditions are evolving and changing in the West, giving rise to a slow yet profound mutation in both the patterns and ways of thinking. Nothing of the kind has happened in the Arab Middle East. Conditions may undergo radical change from one decade to another, but philosophical, theologicaland political discourse remains more or less the same, with rigid concepts expressed in sclerotic pronouncements.
The numbers of Christians in the societies of the Arab world are falling irrecoverably, with the result that their presence is increasingly becoming symbolic, particularly in those countries where they have formerly had demographically significant representation, especially in Iraq and Syria. Even in Lebanon, which has been battered by its structural contradictions and confessional tensions, there is a dramatic fall in the Christian population. At a deep level, this is due to the widespread state of mind among Christians. It finds expression in a feeling of existential disillusionment and national bitterness. Young Lebanese, especially among the Christian communities, no longer believe the country has any political future and are no longer keen to marry and have children; above all, they are leaving the country for good in large numbers. Any prospect of a Christian presence in Lebanon is clearly permanently compromised by this haemorrhaging of the population, which undermines any desire to bear witness to the faith.
This gloomy picture is sadly reflected across the Arab world, which offers little real hope in the third decade of the twenty-first century. Arab societies are disintegrating, in the Mashriq and the Maghreb, and there is little prospect of anything better. At the most, one can expect some kind of grim end to the political and economic crises that are crushing these profoundly destabilised countries – the same societies that once upon a time were hoping to welcome all that the end of the Cold War promised, including economic, scientific, technical and cultural globalisation. When the despotic Arab regimes collapsed, a deep abyss was created in the collective Arab unconscious that was not yet sufficiently mature or rigorously trained to rise with dignity to the challenges of the changes experienced by the population.
NEW
THE MOULIDS OF EGYPT
Egyptian Saint’s Day Festivals
J. W. McPherson
New Foreword by Valerie J. Hoffman Edited and annotated by Russell McGuirk2022
History, Islam, Anthropology
Royal Hardback, 153x234mm
colour and b/w images, 22 maps
pp
Never resissued before, The Moulids of Egypt is a unique study of the popular Muslim and Christian festivals of Egypt and a modern classic of Egyptology
The book is a study of the moulids, the popular Egyptian religious festivals (Muslim and Christian) as they were in the first half of the 20th century. Some of the rites and customs date from as far back as the Pharaonic period in Ancient Egypt, but the moulids are gradually dying out. Many of the 126 religious festivals described in the book have since faded away, making the book of lasting interest.
Muslims and Christians happily attended each other’s festivals. Moulids also had a secular side. The sports, games, theatres, shadow-plays, coffee booths, beer booths, sweet stalls, eating houses, the dancing, and the laughter, were as much part of a moulid as the religious processions.
J. W. McPherson lived in Egypt for 45 years, working as a teacher before the First World War, then serving with the Red Cross at Gallipoli, as a soldier with the Egyptian Camel Transport in Sinai and Palestine, as an Intelligence Officer in Cairo, and until his retirement in 1924 as Ma’mûr Zapt, the Director of the political Criminal Investigation Department for investigating political activists and secret societies. In retirement, he researched the religious festivals called ’moulids’ and wrote this book.
£50.00 November
978-1-914983-10-8
47
352
‘An invaluable work…a superb first-hand glimpse of the life of Egypt’ Lawrence Durrell
NEW
FULLY ANNOTATED EDITION
IMAGES FROM THE MOULIDS OF EGYPT
ART
TREASURES OF HERAT
Two Manuscripts of the Khamsah of Nizami in the British Library
Barbara Brend Edited by Melanie Gibson2022
Persian Studies
pp
colour
‘A treasure, and it takes the study of Timurid painting to new levels of sophistication’ Robert Hillenbrand, Emeritus Professor in Islamic Art History, University of Edinburgh
In this book, Barbara Brend provides an account of two celebrated Persian manuscripts housed in the British Library. Both are copies of the Khamsah (Quintet) – a set of five poems by the twelfth-century poet Nizami, one of the most renowned authors of Persian literature and were produced in Herat in the fifteenth century, one of the greatest periods of Persian painting.
In this magnificently illustrated book, Brend tells the story of each poem and the painting that illustrates it, and formally analyses the images, placing them in their historical and artistic contexts. The images from both highly-prized manuscripts are beautifully reproduced in colour, with many details and comparative paintings.
One of the Khamsah manuscripts ended up in the possession of the Mughal court where its different owners, who included the Mughal rulers Akbar, Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb marked the book with seals and inscriptions. Ursula Sims-Williams has contributed a translation and commentary of these important marks of ownership.
Barbara Brend is a specialist in the field of Persian and Mughal painting. Her most recent books include Perspectives on Persian Painting: Illustrations to Amir Khusrau’s Khamsah and Muhammad Juki’s Shahnamah of Firdausi.
£60.00 April
Art,
978-1-909942-54-7 Hardback, 240x290mm (Portrait) 240
| 137
illustrations
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
SERIES co published with the british library
treasures of herat
The picture owes a great deal to the tradition of Herat, so that we may wonder if Bihzad, then employed by Shah Tahmasp, guided the Safavid painter. The conception of a castle of complex architecture, set upon rocks, and especially having an entrance gate between two bastions, calls to mind ‘Iskandar appeals to the hermit’ a picture to be discussed later, Or. 6810, No. 18 [Figure 91]. Prior to that, a significant example is ‘Isfandiyar slays Arjasp in the Brazen Hold’ in the Shāhnāmah made for Muhammad Juki.60
The composition also reflects an earlier work: the illustration of ‘Khvurshid at the window’ in Salman Savaji’s Jamshīd va Khvurshīd in the Anthology H.796
in Yazd
retaining the figure of a lady
the window, which is not required for the narrative of Add. 25900.
In addition, Herat’s
the
Iskandar
is
that is restrained by differing blues. The hand of Nushabah, seen against the ground of her robe, is closely paralleled by that of the Youth in the pictorial shamsah attributed to Bihzad that opens the Freer Anthology copied in 930/1524 at Herat.
Panels of schist at the foot of the pīshtāq are still painted as in Herat and not in the weakened forms seen in Shah Tahmasp’s Shāhnāmah. The depiction of rock continues to be in subtle washes, with some colour very thin; some faces are present. Small dried bushes are again numerous, but fewer than in the two previous Safavid paintings.
It seems probable that this is the work of the same artist as ‘Khusrau sees Shirin bathing’ and ‘Iskandar comforts the dying Dara’, and whom I take to be Mirza ʿAli; he is continuing to assimilate the lessons of Herat with increasing subtlety. How the tradition is transmitted is not clear: whether he works from sketches or manuscripts created in Herat, whether Bihzad himself instructs him verbally or draws elements for him. It does not seem possible to follow S.C. Welch, who groups these three pictures together as work of Dust Muhammad, the artist whose name appears below ‘Haftvad’s daughter finds a worm in an apple’ made for Shah Tahmasp’s Shāhnāmah.64 Though the Shāhnāmah picture shares with that in our Khamsah the motifs of a minaret and muezzin, and a gateway with angular machicolations, its style—notably the heavily slanted trees—is more baroque in character.
Figure
102
The right-hand page (folio
has rulings in ink and gold— as with many other
the
line, in slightly-blurred
can be considered to have been added
picture has a stepped
was positioned at folio
but because the original folio was destroyed it is not certain whether the illustration was on recto or
The left-hand page (folio 4a) has rulings in ink and gold, and also lines in blue and green. Later in this
inclusion of
the rulings is found with
to be of
the
copied
in 810/1407 [Figure 48],
at
61
expressive use of colour
apparent in
near, but not complete affinity of hues, in the garments of
and Nushabah, both having an assertive orange red
48. Khvurshid at the window, Jamshīd va Khvurshīd of Salman Savaji in Anthology. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, H. 796, f. 155b. Image by the author, 1977. 4342
Double
frontispiece, folios 4a–3b Hitherto, scholars have for the most part accepted these two paintings as designed to be a frontispiece. However, they are not of the same size, their rulings do not match and their scenes represent different times of day, indicating that they were not conceived as a pair. In addition, damage suffered by the left-hand page is not reflected on the right, implying that they were not always partners.
3b)
manuscripts,
outermost
dark blue,
during a refurbishment. The
upper line, evidently intended to accommodate text, which has been blocked out in gold: this is not to be expected in a frontispiece. Clearly the folio was extracted from the body of the manuscript, with consequent need to adjust text and illumination at the site. The picture is therefore listed below as No. 4, ‘Khusrau and Shirin entertained’ [Figure 29]. It
52,
verso.2
manuscript the
coloured elements in
pictures in Safavid style; however,
painting on folio 4a appears
1490s Herat. One other picture in the manuscript shares Herat style with rulings that include blue and green: No. 12, ‘Bahram Gur in the Black Pavilion’. Since the left-hand frontispiece has this associate within the narrative area, it seems probable that a frontispiece was part of the original scheme. A right-hand page might have succumbed to any number of accidents. CHAPTER 4 Illustrations in Add. 25900 Figure 21. Frontispiece (left-hand page). 128 x 78 mm. Add. 25900, f. 4a. Figure 28. Khusrau and Shirin entertained. 136 x 77 mm. Add. 25900, f. 52. PAGES FROM TREASURES OF HERAT
£30.00
978-1-909942-62-2
Royal Hardback, 153x234mm
352 pp
£40.00
978-1-909942-56-1
Royal Hardback, 153x234mm
302 pp
Friend of God, Virgin, Mother
Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch
‘A groundbreaking example of how to engage in comparative theology in a reciprocal way. Through their mutual interrogation and creative collaboration, Muna Tatari and Klaus von Stosch succeed in shedding significant new light on the role and meaning of the figure of Mary in both the Muslim and the Christian traditions.’ Catherine Cornille, Boston College
MARY IN THE QUR'AN HIJAB
Three Modern Iranian Seminarian Perspectives
Lloyd Ridgeon
‘This excellent study is an examination of the evolving theological and juristic positions on hijab among seminarians in Iran. The author Lloyd Ridgeon provides the reader with valuable insights into the complexity of the juristic debates. Focusing on the work of three aptly-chosen scholars, he makes their juristic arguments available in English for the first time, as well as referencing the extensive literature on the topic in English and Persian.’
Ziba Mir-Hosseini, SOAS University of London
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Architectural Heritage of Yemen 9781909942073 £35.00
Art, Trade and Culture 9781909942905 £60.00
Christmas and the Qur'an 9781909942080 £30.00
Democracy is the Answer 9781909942714 £30.00
Iran's Constitutional Revolution of 1906 9781909942912 £65.00
Iran, Islam and Democracy 9781909942981 £30.00
Javanmardi 9781909942158 £40.00
Making the Modern Middle East 9781909942998 £14.99
Memories of Bygone Age 9781909942868 £30.00
New Thinking in Islam 9781909942738 £28.00
Ottoman Explorations of the Nile 9781909942165 £40.00
Pagan Christmas 9781909942844 £40.00
Religious Imagination 9781909942202 £35.00
The Age of Aryameh 9781909942189 £30.00
The First World War and Its Aftermath 9781909942752 £56.00
The Phoenix Mosque 9781909942882 £50.00
East-West Divan 9781909942028 £50.00
Hafiz, Goethe and the Gingko 9781909942820 £25.00
At the Corner of a Dream 9781909942394 £25.00
The Early Ottoman Peloponnese 9781909942325 £40.00
The Mercantile Effect 9781909942301 £30.00
Environmental Challenges in the MENA Region 9781909942219 £50.00
A New Divan 9781909942288 £20.00
Christmas and the Qur'an 9781909942387 £12.99
complete backlist
The Image Debate 9781909942349 £60.00
The Other Prophet 9781909942363 £30.00
The Unfinished Arab Spring 9781909942486 £40.00
Off Limits 9781909942479 £9.99
The Culinary Crescent 9781909942424 £16.99
On Literature and Philosophy (Mahfouz, vol i) 9781909942776 £28.00
Essays of the Sadat Era (Mahfouz, vol ii) 9781909942806 £28.00
The Early Mubarak Years (Mahfouz, vol iii) 9781909942110 £28.00
After the Nobel Prize (Mahfouz, vol iv) 9781909942134 £28.00
The Non-Fiction Writing of Naguib Mahfouz (set) 9781909942523 £95.00
You Can Crash the Flowers 9781909942530 £20.00
West-Eastern Divan 9781909942554 £14.99
Hijab 9781909942561 £40.00
The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus 9781909942455 £60.00
Capital Development 9781909942509 £40.00
Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning, vol i 9781909942592 £60.00
Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning, vol ii 9781909942608 £60.00
Fruit of Knowledge, Wheel of Learning (cased set) 978190994-615 £185.00
Mary in the Qur'an 9781909942622 £30.00
Revealing the Unseen 9781909942646 £60.00
Poet and Businessman 9781914983009 £20.00
Treasures of Herat 9781909942547 £60.00
Urban Histories of Rajasthan 9781909942660 £40.00
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