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A Sea of Languages

A Sea of Languages

Rethinking the Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History

Edited by Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Karla Mallette

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

Digital download
9781442663398
Published: October 2013

Digital download
9781442663404
Published: December 2013

Description
Contents

Medieval European literature was once thought to have been isolationist in its nature, but recent scholarship has revealed the ways in which Spanish and Italian authors – including Cervantes and Marco Polo – were influenced by Arabic poetry, music, and philosophy. A Sea of Languages brings together some of the most influential scholars working in Muslim-Christian-Jewish cultural communications today to discuss the convergence of the literary, social, and economic histories of the medieval Mediterranean.

This volume takes as a starting point María Rosa Menocal's groundbreaking work The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History, a major catalyst in the reconsideration of prevailing assumptions regarding the insularity of medieval European literature. Reframing ongoing debates within literary studies in dynamic new ways, A Sea of Languages will become a critical resource and reference point for a new generation of scholars and students on the intersection of Arabic and European literature.

In Memoriam

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction: The Persistence of Philology: Language and Connectivity in the Mediterranean
SUZANNE CONKLIN AKBARI

Part One: Philology in the Mediterranean

2 Beyond Philology: Cross-Cultural Engagement in Literary History and Beyond
SHARON KINOSHITA

3 Linguistic Difference, the Philology of Romance, and the Romance of Philology
SIMON GAUNT

4 Forging New Paradigms: Towards a History of Islamo-Christian Civilization
JOHN TOLAN

5 Reflections on Muslim Hebraism: Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus and al-Biqa‘i
WALID A. SALEH

6 “Mixing the East with the West”: Cosmopolitan Philology in Richard Burton’s Translations from Camões
PAULO LEMOS HORTA

7 Reading Backward: The 1001 Nights and Philological Practice
KARLA MALLETTE

Part Two: The Cosmopolitan Frontier: Andalusi Case Studies

8 Andalusi “Exceptionalism”
ROSS BRANN

9 The Convivencia Wars: Decoding Historiography’s Polemic with Philology
RYAN SZPIECH

10 “In One of My Body’s Gardens”: Hearts in Transformation in Late Medieval Iberian Passion Devotions
CYNTHIA ROBINSON

11 Arab Musical Influence on Medieval Europe: A Reassessment
DWIGHT REYNOLDS

12 Sicilian Poets in Seville: Literary Affinities across Political Boundaries
WILLIAM GRANARA

13 Vidal Benvenist’s Efer ve-Dinah between Hebrew and Romance
DAVID A. WACKS

14 The Shadow of Islam in Cervantes’s “El Licenciado Vidriera”
LEYLA ROUHI

15 “The Finest Flowering”: Poetry, History, and Medieval Spain in the Twenty-First Century
MARÍA ROSA MENOCAL

16 Boustrophedon: Towards a Literary Theory of the Mediterranean
KARLA MALLETTE

Bibliography

Contributors