Books in the Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture series

Examines ʿAttar's didactic poetry in historical context from a rhetorical, reader-centered perspective

Offers an in-depth study of the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus in its prime

A radical re-interpretation of the nature of medieval Arabic love poetry in the classical age This book examines in detail the concept of the body in Arabic love poetry in the 'Udhri tradition. Avoiding familiar clichés about the purity of love in 'Udhri poetry - broadly speaking, an Arabic counterpart to the western medieval concept of unconsummated courtly love - it instead questions the traditional much-vaunted emphasis on chastity and the assumption that this poetry omits any concept of the body. Challenging this view, Jokha Alharthi re-appraises the relationship between love, poetry and Arab society in the 8th to 11th centuries. She focuses on the key differences between what the poetry itself says and the views of later sources about 'Udhri poets and their works. She also documents how the representation of the beloved in the 'Udhri ghazal was influenced by pre-Islamic poetry, showing how this tradition developed, with a series of overlapping historical layers. And she breaks new ground by examining how this poetry treats not only the body of the beloved but also that of her lover, the poet himself. Key Features  Challenges the stereotypical idea about the absence of the body in 'Udhri love poetry  Investigates the 'Udhri tradition through close readings of the classical 10th-century Arabic sources including anthologies such as the Kitab al-Aghani  Contributes to literary studies on the representations of the body  Includes close readings of difficult literary texts in classical Arabic including the work of 'Urwah b. Hizam, Majnun Layla, Qays b. Dharih, Jamil Buthaynah and Kuthayyir 'Azzah Jokha Alharthi is Associate Professor of Classical Arabic Literature at the Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat. She obtained her PhD in classical Arabic literature from the University of Edinburgh. She is the winner of the Man Booker International Prize 2019 for her novel Celestial Bodies (Sayyidat al-Qamar). To date, translation rights in the novel have been sold in 21 languages.

This book examines the life and work of Rashid al-Din Tabib (d. 1318), the most powerful statesman working for the Mongol Ilkhans in the Middle East.

In the 12th - 14th centuries, Sufism ('Islamic mysticism') became extraordinarily popular across Egypt. Elites and non-elites, rulers and ruled, the wealthy and the poor, even Jews, all embraced a variety of Sufi ideas and practices. This book is the first systematic investigation of how and why this popularisation occurred. It surveys several Sufi groups, from different regions of Egypt, and details how each of them promulgated, performed, and popularised their specific Sufi doctrines and practices. This popularisation would have a profound impact on the Egyptian religious landscape and on the subsequent history of Islam more broadly.