The papper offers an identification and reconstruction of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī’s “Kitāb fī bāb al-qibla” together with its anonymous Qaraite refutation (al-Naqḍ ʿalā l-Sāmira). Building on previous studies by A. Loewenstamm, A. Halkin, H. Pohl, and others, this paper will also provide new evidence from the Firkovitch collections (mainly ФIPK. СA…[Read more]

The article offers a bibliographical aperçu of Zaydī-Muʿtazilī Kalām-studies from the 15th through 18th centuries based on MS Munich, Bavarian State Library, Cod. arab. 1294. This codex contains ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad al-Naǧrī’s as yet unedited K. Mirqāt al-anẓār, a major kalām textbook which for almost three centuries constituted the b…[Read more]

Analyses the introduction of Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah’s Risāla fī ’l-Jawāb ʿan masāʾil mushkila fī ’l-tarkīb, its key concept (al-muwāḍaʿa al-sharʿiyya), and its relation to Muʿtazilī uṣūl al-fiqh.

The paper revisits the arguably most conspicuous example of a Jewish Muʿtazilī Hexaemeron in Arabic. Its 11th century Byzantine Hebrew translation bears the title “Bereshit Rabbah” and attributes the work to Yeshuʿah ben Yehudah (fl. 1040-1070) whose authorship has been questioned in recent scholarship. Based on a reconstruction of all extant…[Read more]

Surveys the Begriffsgeschichte of istiṭāʿah (< τὸ αὐτεξούσιον; τὸ ἐφ´ ἡμῖν) in antique and late antique philosophical and theological/patristic texts, the Syriac&Arabic reception history of the Nicomachean Ethics, Alexander of Aphrodisias's Maqāla fī l-istiṭāʿa, Nemesius of Emesa's K. Ṭabīʿat al-insān, and early Christian-Arabic literature, and…[Read more]

Discusses the Graeco-Syriac-Arabic transmission of Nemesius of Emesa’s Περὶ φύσεως ἀνθρώπου and related texts. The focus is on the notions of istiṭāʿah (τὸ αὐτεξούσιον; τὸ ἐφ´ ἡμῖν), irāda, qaṣd and ikhtiyār (προαίρεσις) in philosophical theories of action, the reception history of the Nicomachean Ethics, and their historical and conceptual relati…[Read more]

Audio & slides of a paper given at the Colloquium on Avicenna and Avicennisms held at SOAS, University of London, 6–7 June 2014. http://meti.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/home/meti-info/2014-avicenna/ © Gregor Schwarb, 7 June 2014

Toolkit for Genizah Scholars: A Practical Guide for Neophytes
prepared for the participants of the EAJS SUMMER LABORATORY FOR YOUNG GENIZAH RESEARCHERS, Institut für den Nahen und Mittleren Osten, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, 6–7 September 2017.

Corrections and additions are most welcome (g.schwarb[at]gmail.com).

As a paratext, the colophon’s functions can be summarily and quickly described. It marks the ending of a text. In the era before printing this was a necessity, so that later copyists would know that they had a complete text before them to reproduce. This is the case with many Egyptian and Akkadkian colophons. As such, a colophon is an assertion o…[Read more]