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Contains selected papers given at the 4th- Seminars, held 1970-
The three Garima Gospels are the earliest surviving Ethiopian gospel books. They provide glimpses of lost late antique luxury gospel books and art of the fifth to seventh centuries, in the Aksumite kingdom of Ethiopia as well as in the Christian East. As this work shows, their artwork is closely related to Syriac, Armenian, Greek, and Georgian gospel books and to the art of late antique (Coptic) Egypt, Nubia, and Himyar (Yemen). Like most gospel manuscripts, the Garima Gospels contain ornately decorated canon tables which function as concordances of the different versions of the same material in the gospels. Analysis of these tables of numbered parallel passages, devised by Eusebius of Caesarea, contributes significantly to our understanding of the early development of the canonical four gospel collection. The origins and meanings of the decorated frames, portraits of the evangelists, Alexandrian circular pavilion, and unique image of the Jerusalem Temple are elucidated. The Garima texts and decoration demonstrate how a distinctive Christian culture developed in Aksumite Ethiopia, while also belonging to the mainstream late antique Mediterranean world. Lavishly illustrated in colour, this volume presents all of the Garima illuminated pages for the first time and extensive comparative material. It will be an essential resource for those studying late antique art and history, Ethiopia, eastern Christianity, New Testament textual criticism, and illuminated books.
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, 2008.
Born from the fields of Islamic art and architectural history, the archaeological study of the Islamic societies is a relatively young discipline. With its roots in the colonial periods of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its rapid development since the 1980s warrants a reevaluation of where the field stands today. This Handbook represents for the first time a survey of Islamic archaeology on a global scale, describing its disciplinary development and offering candid critiques of the state of the field today in the Central Islamic Lands, the Islamic West, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. The international contributors to the volume address such themes as the timing and process of Islamization, the problems of periodization and regionalism in material culture, cities and countryside, cultural hybridity, cultural and religious diversity, natural resource management, international trade in the later historical periods, and migration. Critical assessments of the ways in which archaeologists today engage with Islamic cultural heritage and local communities closes the volume, highlighting the ethical issues related to studying living cultures and religions. Richly illustrated, with extensive citations, it is the reference work on the debates that drive the field today.
This book examines the challenges facing the development of tourism in the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This region, which largely comprises the Arabian Peninsula, possesses some of the fastest growing economies in the world and is remarkably unique. It shares similar associations and affinities: tribal histories, royal kinship, political associations, Bedu cultural roots, Islamic heritage, rapid urbanization, oil wealth, rentier dynamics, state capitalist structures, migrant labour, economic diversification policies and institutional restructuring. Therefore, this volume takes the study of tourism away from its normative unit of analysis, where tourism in the region is being examined within the context of the Middle East and the wider Islamic and Arab world, towards an enquiry focusing on a specific geo-political territory and socially defined region. Although international tourism development in the region embodies a range of challenges, complexities and conflicts, which are deeply contextualized in this volume, the approach overall does not endorse the normative ‘Gulf bashing’ position that has predominated within the critical enquiries in the region. It presents a forward-looking and realistic assessment of international tourism development, examining development potentialities and constructive ways forward for GCC states and the region as a whole. This edited volume provides a real attempt to examine critically ways in which tourism and its development intersect with the socio-cultural, economic, political, environmental and industrial change that is taking place in the region. By doing so, the book provides a theoretically engaged analysis of the social transformations and discourses that shape our contemporary understanding of tourism development within the GCC region. Moreover, it deciphers tourism development’s role within the context of the GCC states undergoing rapid transformation, urbanization, ultra-modernization, internationalization and globalization. In addition to state-specific illustrations and destination case studies, the work provides insights into relatable themes associated with international tourism development in the region, such as tourism’s relationship with religion, heritage and identity, the environment and sustainability, mobility and cross-border movements, the transport industry, image production and destination branding, mega-development and political stability and instability. The book combines theory with diverse case study illustrations, drawing on disciplinary knowledge from such fields as sociology, political economy and social geography. This timely and original contribution is essential reading for students, researchers and academics in the field of tourism studies and related subject areas, along with those who have regional interests in Middle East studies, including Gulf and Arabian Peninsula studies.
Ritual and practice are one of the most distinctive features of religion, and they are linked with its central beliefs. Islam is no exception here, and this Handbook covers many aspects of those beliefs and practices. It describes the variety of what takes place but mainly why, and what the implications of both the theory and practice have for our understanding of Islam. The book includes accounts of prayer, food, pilgrimage, mosques, and the various legal and doctrinal schools that exist within Islam, with the focus on how they influence practice. The volume is organized in terms of texts, groups, practices, places, and others. An attempt has been made to discuss the wide range of Muslim ritual and practice and provide a sound guide to this significant aspect of the religious life of one of the largest groups of believers in the world today.
The Safaitic rock art of the North Arabian basalt desert is one of the few surviving traces of the elusive herding societies that lived there in antiquity. This comprehensive study of over 4500 petroglyphs from the Jebel Qurma region of the Black Desert in North-Eastern Jordan is the first-ever systematic study of the Safaitic petroglyphs.
In this book, Richard Bussmann presents a fresh overview of ancient Egyptian society and culture in the age of the pyramids. He addresses key themes in the comparative research of early complex societies, including urbanism, funerary culture, temple ritual, kingship, and the state, and explores how ideas and practices were exchanged between ruling elites and local communities in provincial Egypt. Unlike other studies of ancient Egypt, this book adopts an anthropological approach that places people at the centre of the analysis. Bussmann covers a range of important themes in cross-cultural debates, such as materiality, gender, non-elite culture, and the body. He also offers new perspectives on social diversity and cultural cohesion, based on recent discoveries. His study vividly illustrates how our understanding of ancient Egyptian society benefits from the application of theoretical concepts in archaeology and anthropology to the interpretation of the evidence.
The ability to accumulate and store large amounts of goods is a key feature of complex societies in ancient times. Storage strategies reflect the broader economic and political organization of a society and changes in the development of control mechanisms in both administrative and non-administrative—often kinship based—sectors. This is the first volume to examine storage practices in ancient complex societies from a comparative perspective. This volume includes 14 original papers by leading archaeologists from four continents which compare storage systems in three key regions with lengthy traditions of complexity: the ancient Near East, Mesoamerica, and Andes. Storage in Ancient Complex Societies demonstrates the importance of understanding storage for the study of cultural evolution.