Routledge Curzon Studies in Middle-Eastern Literatures is a monograph series devoted to aspects of the literatures of the Near and Middle East and North Africa both modern and pre-modern. It is hoped that the provision of such a forum will lead to a greater emphasis on the comparative study of the literatures of this area, although studies devoted to one literary or linguistic region are warmly encouraged. It is the editors' objective to foster the comparative and multi-disciplinary investigation of the written and oral literary products of this area.
By Geert Jan van Gelder
March 08, 2011
Considers how Arab and Islamic culinary culture may be represented in literary forms. Scholars of the medieval Islamic period are keenly aware of the importance of food and wine as themes in literature. Van Gelder's witty and subtle approach teases the most out of texts as well as enabling the ...
By Eva Sallis
January 13, 2011
The Thousand and One Nights was reborn into an alien environment in 1704, its signs being received in a radically different way from their original meanings. Works of literature change as people and cultures who read them change. This study explores the Nights with reference to this view of ...
By Ibrahim Taha
September 30, 2010
Examines the complex relationship between the reality of the Palestinian minority in Israel and their literature through six novels, according to a literary communication model which enables Dr Taha to examine how authors who belong to this minority relate to their readers....
Edited
By Glenda Abramson, Hilary Kilpatrick
January 13, 2011
This collection brings together discussions of the way in which Muslim and Jewish beliefs and practices are represented in modern literary texts of poetry, fiction and drama. The chapters collected here consider elements of the expression of Judaism and Islam in modern literature. Key topics ...
By Shawkat M. Toorawa
October 06, 2010
Toorawa re-evaluates the literary history and landscape of third to ninth century Baghdad by demonstrating and emphasizing the significance of the important transition from a predominantly oral-aural culture to an increasingly literate one. This transformation had a profound influence on...
By Samah Selim
October 06, 2010
The book locates questions of languages, genre, textuality and canonicity within a historical and theoretical framework that foregrounds the emergence of modern nationalism in Egypt. The ways in which the cultural discourses produced by twentieth century Egyptian nationalism created a space ...
By Kamran Rastegar
August 25, 2010
Providing a broad ranging and unique comparative study of the development of English, Persian and Arabic literature, this book looks at their interrelations with specific reference to modernity, nationalism and social value. It gives a strong theoretical underpinning to the development of Middle ...
By Cynthia Robinson
August 25, 2010
Medieval Andalusian Courtly Culture discusses the unicum manuscript of the Hadîth Bayâd wa Riyâd, the only illustrated manuscript known to have survived for more than eight centuries of Muslim and Arabic-speaking presence in present-day Spain. The manuscript is of paramount importance as it ...
By Mohamed-Salah Omri
August 20, 2010
The writer and politician Mahmud al-Mis’adi is a figure of prime importance in the development of North African literature and cultural politics since the last war. This fascinating book covers both his essays and fiction, written between the 1930s and 1990s, which challenge the boundaries between ...
By Richard van Leeuwen
August 20, 2010
This volume discusses The Thousand and One Nights' themes of space and travel showing how they are used not only as a setting in which the story unfolds, but also as the dynamic force which propels the heroes and the story to the final dénouement. These events often symbolize a process of ...
Edited
By Julia Bray
August 20, 2010
With contributions from specialists in different areas of classical Islamic thought, this accessible volume explores the ways in which medieval Muslims saw, interpreted and represented the world around them in their writings. Focusing mainly on the eighth to tenth centuries AD, known as the ‘...
By Fabio Caiani
August 10, 2010
This book introduces Western readers to some of the most significant novels written in Arabic since 1979. Despite their contribution to the development of contemporary Arabic fiction, these authors remain largely unknown to non-Arab readers. Fabio Caiani examines the work of the Moroccan Muhammad ...