This palaeographical guide grew out of a workshop («A Jewish Theologian’s Arabic Guide to State Administration: Mukhtaṣar fī ṣināʿat al-kitāba of Sahl b. al-Faḍl al-Tustarī»), organised by Dr. Luke Yarbrough at the NYU Abu Dhabi, 29-30 March 2017. Comments and corrections are welcome (g.schwarb@gmail.com).

Ever since appearing in Disney’s Saludos Amigos (1942), Ary Barroso’s musical ode to the Brazilian motherland, “Brazil,” is among the most recognizable songs circulating in Western Culture about Brazil. This essay shows how the song became detached from its roots as a nationalist samba to represent in audiovisual media such divergent ideas as tro…[Read more]

This paper examines a 9th-century Arabic text of genethlialogical astrology, arguing that while it presents itself as heir to a Greek science deriving from India, it is also a testament to the pervasive role played by Sasanian intellectual culture in the 8th- to 10th-century Greek-Arabic translation movement. After a description of the…[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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).

Thābit b. Qurra (d. 288/901), a Sabian of Ḥarrān, and his descendants remained in their ancestral religion for six generations. Why did they persist despite pressure to convert? This article argues that religious self-identification as a Sabian could be a distinct advantage in Baghdad’s elite circles. It focuses on Thābit’s great-grandson Abū…[Read more]

Review about Elvira Asensi book’s “Música mestre!”, about Valencian wind orchestras at the beginning of the 20th century.

A principis dels anys 90, amb el boom del Rock català, comença formar-se tota una escena musical pròpia dels Països Catalans, amb un model de funcionament diferenciat del de l’escena espanyola. Actualment, aquesta escena ha canviat, s’han obert noves vies: per una banda, l’eco del Rock català segueix vigent, mentre que per l’altra es…[Read more]

El cant de la Sibil·la és una tradició medieval que avui encara es canta a l’illa de Mallorca durant la nit de Nadal. Però existeixen traces que demostren el coneixement popular d’aquesta representació a l’illa de Menorca almenys fins al segle XIX.

The Chant of the Sibyl is a medieval tradition that is still sung in the island of Mallorca duri…[Read more]

The Muslim-dominated “Swahili Coast”has always served as a conceptual as well as physical periphery for post-colonial Kenya. This article takes Kenyan youth music under the influence of global hip-hop as an ethnographic entry into the dynamics of identity and citizenship in this region. Kenyan youth music borrows from global hip-hop culture the…[Read more]