Bedouin and 'Abbasid Cultural Identities e-bog

This literary-historical book draws out and sheds light upon the mechanisms of "e;the ideological work"e; that the Arabic Majnun Layla story performed for 'Abbasid urbanite, imperial audiences in the wake of the disappearance of the "e;Bedouin cosmos."e; The study focuses upon the processes of primitivizing MajnA n in the romance of MajnA n LaylA as part of the paradigm shift that occurred in the 'AbbA sid empire after the Greco-Arabian intellectual revolution. Moreover, this book demonstrates how gender and sexuality are employed in the processes of primitivizing MajnA n. As markers of "e;strangeness"e; and "e;foreignness"e; in the 'AbbA sid interrogations of the multiple categories of ethnicity, culture, identity, religion and language present in their cosmopolitan milieus. Such "e;cultural work"e; is performed through the ideological uses of alterity given its mechanisms of distancing (e.g., temporal and spatial) and nearness (e.g., affective). Lastly, the MajnA n LaylA love story demonstrates, in its text and reception, that a Greco-Arabian and Greco-Persian subculture thrived in the centers of 'AbbA sid Baghdad that molded and shaped the ways in which this love story was compiled, received and performed.Offering a corrective to the prevailing views expressed in Western scholarly writings on the Greco-Arabian encounter, this book is a major contribution to scholars and students interested in Islamic studies, Arabic and comparative literature, Middle East and gender studies.