Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers
This is a superb book. With penetrating insight and an eloquent style, alDa'mi explores the crucial role that Arabo-lslamic history played in the arguments of such prominent British and American "men of letters" as Thomas Carlyle and Washington Irving. The book opens with a preface,...
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International Institute of Islamic Thought
2003
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oai:doaj.org-article:ff9603f30e66405c84492d28ccaf56c02021-12-02T19:41:23ZArabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers10.35632/ajis.v20i3-4.18292690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/ff9603f30e66405c84492d28ccaf56c02003-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/1829https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 This is a superb book. With penetrating insight and an eloquent style, alDa'mi explores the crucial role that Arabo-lslamic history played in the arguments of such prominent British and American "men of letters" as Thomas Carlyle and Washington Irving. The book opens with a preface, in which he lays out his rationale and purpose, and contains seven chapters, in which he develops his argument. AI-Da'mi seeks to deepen our understanding of nineteenth-century Oriental ism by exploring the works of leading intellectual writers of that time: not the professional historians, but the "men ofletters" who used history to expound their arguments, but with a kind of literary licence not available to a proper historian. His main argument is that the writers used Arabo-Islamic history not simply as an exotic or a romantic flourish, but rather as an integral and important aspect of their discourses to comment upon their own time. For example, Carlyle praises the Prophet as a heroic leader, as a way to warn the British of the dangers of utilitarianism and materialism; Ralph Waldo Emerson likewise does this to send a message to the young American nation; Cardinal John H. Newman to alert Europe to the Ottoman threat; and so on. Al-Da'mi convincingly points out that we can neither understand these writers nor the age itself adequately without properly comprehending this aspect of their writings. This is an important rectification to traditional western scholarship, which typically leaves out all mention of anything non-European in its study of its own intellectual history. (Walter E. Houghton's classic work on the Victorian age, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830-1870, has in its index only one entry for Prophet Muhammad ... Katherine BullockInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 20, Iss 3-4 (2003) |
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Islam BP1-253 |
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Islam BP1-253 Katherine Bullock Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
description |
This is a superb book. With penetrating insight and an eloquent style, alDa'mi
explores the crucial role that Arabo-lslamic history played in the
arguments of such prominent British and American "men of letters" as
Thomas Carlyle and Washington Irving. The book opens with a preface,
in which he lays out his rationale and purpose, and contains seven chapters,
in which he develops his argument.
AI-Da'mi seeks to deepen our understanding of nineteenth-century
Oriental ism by exploring the works of leading intellectual writers of that
time: not the professional historians, but the "men ofletters" who used history
to expound their arguments, but with a kind of literary licence not
available to a proper historian. His main argument is that the writers used
Arabo-Islamic history not simply as an exotic or a romantic flourish, but
rather as an integral and important aspect of their discourses to comment
upon their own time. For example, Carlyle praises the Prophet as a heroic
leader, as a way to warn the British of the dangers of utilitarianism and
materialism; Ralph Waldo Emerson likewise does this to send a message
to the young American nation; Cardinal John H. Newman to alert Europe
to the Ottoman threat; and so on.
Al-Da'mi convincingly points out that we can neither understand
these writers nor the age itself adequately without properly comprehending
this aspect of their writings. This is an important rectification to traditional
western scholarship, which typically leaves out all mention of
anything non-European in its study of its own intellectual history. (Walter
E. Houghton's classic work on the Victorian age, The Victorian Frame of
Mind, 1830-1870, has in its index only one entry for Prophet Muhammad ...
|
format |
article |
author |
Katherine Bullock |
author_facet |
Katherine Bullock |
author_sort |
Katherine Bullock |
title |
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
title_short |
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
title_full |
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
title_fullStr |
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arabian Mirrors and Western Soothsayers |
title_sort |
arabian mirrors and western soothsayers |
publisher |
International Institute of Islamic Thought |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
https://doaj.org/article/ff9603f30e66405c84492d28ccaf56c0 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT katherinebullock arabianmirrorsandwesternsoothsayers |
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