Dreaming Across Boundaries: The Interpretation of Dreams in Islamic Lands (Ilex Series)

Descriptions of dreams abound in the literatures of the Near East and North Africa. The Prophet Muhammad endowed them with a theological dimension, saying that after him “true dreams” would be the only channel for prophecy. Dreams were often used to support conflicting theological and political arguments, and the local chronicles contain many accounts of royal dreams justifying the advent of new dynasties.
This volume explores the context of these theological speculations and political aspirations through the medium of dreams to present fascinating insights into the social history of the pre-modern Islamic world in all its cultural diversity. Wider cultural exchanges are discussed through concrete examples such as the Arabic version of the Aristotelian treatise De divinatione per somnum. Some of the current scholarly assumptions about dreams being merely stylized expressions of social conventions are challenged by personal reports that express individual personalities, self-awareness, and spiritual development.
This is the first volume of the Ilex Series on Themes and Traditions. The series explores cross-cultural constructs without losing sight of the rich texture of local variations of traditions or beliefs.

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Ilex Foundation

Descriptions of dreams abound in the literatures of the Near East and North Africa. The Prophet Muhammad endowed them with a theological dimension, saying that after him “true dreams” would be the only channel for prophecy. Dreams were often used to support conflicting theological and political arguments, and the local chronicles contain many accounts of royal dreams justifying the advent of new dynasties.   This volume explores the context of these theological speculations and political aspirations through the medium of dreams to present fascinating insights into the social history of the pre-modern Islamic world in all its cultural diversity. Wider cultural exchanges are discussed through concrete examples such as the Arabic version of the Aristotelian treatise De divinatione per somnum. Some of the current scholarly assumptions about dreams being merely stylized expressions of social conventions are challenged by personal reports that express individual personalities, self-awareness, and spiritual development.   This is the first volume of the Ilex Series on Themes and Traditions. The series explores cross-cultural constructs without losing sight of the rich texture of local variations of traditions or beliefs.

This book is a study of heroic femininity as it appears in the epic Mahabharata, and focuses particularly on the roles of wife, daughter-in-law, and mother, on how these women speak and on the kinship groups and varying marital systems that surround them. It portrays those qualities that cohere about women in the poem, which are particular to them and which distinguish them as women, and describes how women heroes function as crucial speakers in the generation and maintenance of cultural value and worth. This includes men who have been transformed into women and women who have been reincarnated as men. The overall method accomplishes an ethnography of text, describing a special aspect of the bronze age preliterate and premonetary world as it is represented by the actions and metaphors of Mahabharata. References to contemporary Indian cinema and popular culture support the narrative of the book, bringing modern valence to the arguments.

Strī: Women in Epic Mahābhārata (Ilex Series)

McGrath, Kevin

This volume presents several articles and other writings of Sorour S. Soroudi (1938–2002), who taught in the Department of Iranian Studies at the Hebrew University for three decades. Soroudi’s research was concentrated in three main areas, all of which are well represented in this collection. First, Soroudi was an early specialist in modern Persian poetry, particularly that of the constitutional era; her studies and translations did much to bring this poetry to the attention of critics and scholars. Second, on the basis of extensive fieldwork as well as literary study, Soroudi contributed greatly to the study of Judeo-Persian literature and folk culture. Third, Soroudi explored the history and culture of Iranian Jewry, which she situated in the larger context of Iranian history. This volume, meticulously and sensitively edited by Houchang E. Chehabi, brings together many of Dr. Soroudi’s published articles in these two areas. Included in this book is a previously unpublished piece as well as an article that appears here in English for the first time.

Persian Literature and Judeo-Persian Culture: Collected Writings of Sorour S. Soroudi (Ilex Series)

Soroudi, Sorour S.

Within a growing scholarly literature devoted to the topics of biography and autobiography, especially in the Arabic literary tradition, the essays in this volume explore the forms and meanings of these genres with particular reference to Persian writings, as well as to writings in Arabic and Turkish that were also composed in Persianate societies.

The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating Lives in Persianate Societies (Ilex Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

This is the first complete translation, with detailed commentary, of the surviving volumes of Beyhaqi’s massive project. The historian’s writings, dealing with the years 1030–1041, combine astute criticism and wry humor with an unobtrusive display of mastery of the learned literature of the time, both in Arabic and Persian.

Introduction and Translation of Years 421–423 A.H. (1030–1032 A.D.) (Volume I) (Ilex Series)

History

Beyhaqi, Abu’l-Fażl

Ancient Civilizations

This is the first complete translation, with detailed commentary, of the surviving volumes of Beyhaqi’s massive project. The historian’s writings, dealing with the years 1030–1041, combine astute criticism and wry humor with an unobtrusive display of mastery of the learned literature of the time, both in Arabic and Persian.

Translation of Years 424–432 A.H. (1032–1041 A.D.) and the History of Khwarazm (Volume II) (Ilex Series)

Commentary, Bibliography, and Index (Volume III) (Ilex Series)

JAYA is a study of how the four poets of the Indian epic Mahābhārata fuse their separate performances of the poem into a single and seamless work of art. The subtle poetics of preliteracy and literacy which are compounded in one performance are demonstrated and made distinct in both a literary and a conceptual light.

Jaya: Performance in Epic Mahabharata (Ilex Series)

Dramas & Plays

The essays in Ruse and Wit examine in detail a wide range of texts (from nonsensical prose, to ribald poetry, titillating anecdotes, edifying plays, and journalistic satire) that span the best part of a millennium of humorous and satirical writing in the Islamic world, from classical Arabic to medieval and modern Persian, and Ottoman Turkish (and by extension Modern Greek). While acknowledging significant elements of continuity in the humorous across distinct languages, divergent time periods, and disparate geographical regions, the authors have not shied away from the particular and the specific. When viewed collectively, the findings presented in the essays collected here underscore the belief that humor as evidenced in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish narrative is a culturally modulated phenomenon, one that demands to be examined with reference to its historical framework and one that, in turn, communicates as much about those who produced humor as it does about those who enjoyed it.

Ruse and Wit: The Humorous in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Narrative (Ilex Series)

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Books by Ilex Foundation

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Ilex Foundation publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Dreaming Across Boundaries: The Interpretation of Dreams in Islamic Lands (Ilex Series)

Dreaming Across Boundaries: The Interpretation of Dreams in Islamic Lands (Ilex Series)

Strī: Women in Epic Mahābhārata (Ilex Series)

Persian Literature and Judeo-Persian Culture: Collected Writings of Sorour S. Soroudi (Ilex Series)

The Rhetoric of Biography: Narrating Lives in Persianate Societies (Ilex Series)

Introduction and Translation of Years 421–423 A.H. (1030–1032 A.D.) (Volume I) (Ilex Series)

Translation of Years 424–432 A.H. (1032–1041 A.D.) and the History of Khwarazm (Volume II) (Ilex Series)

Commentary, Bibliography, and Index (Volume III) (Ilex Series)

Jaya: Performance in Epic Mahabharata (Ilex Series)

Ruse and Wit: The Humorous in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Narrative (Ilex Series)