Imagining the Arabs: Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam
Webb, Peter
ISBN 10: 1474426433 ISBN 13: 9781474426435
Published by Edinburgh University Press, 2017
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Soft cover
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Joseph Burridge Books, Dagenham, United Kingdom
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About this Item
Description:
ix, 403 pages ; 25 cm. Summary:Investigates core questions about Arab identity and history through close interpretation of pre-Islamic evidence and extensive Arabic literary corpus in tandem with theories of identity and ethnicity, prompting new answers to the riddle of Arab origins and fundamental reinterpretations of early Islamic history. Seller Inventory # jhj206
Synopsis:
Who are the Arabs? When did people begin calling themselves Arabs? And what was the Arabs’ role in the rise of Islam? Investigating these core questions about Arab identity and history by marshalling the widest array of Arabic sources employed hitherto, and by closely interpreting the evidence with theories of identity and ethnicity, Imagining the Arabs proposes new answers to the riddle of Arab origins and fundamental reinterpretations of early Islamic history.
This book reveals that the time-honoured stereotypes which depict Arabs as ancient Arabian Bedouin are entirely misleading because the essence of Arab identity was in fact devised by Muslims during the first centuries of Islam. Arab identity emerged and evolved as groups imagined new notions of community to suit the radically changing circumstances of life in the early Caliphate. The idea of ‘the Arab’ was a device which Muslims utilised to articulate their communal identity, to negotiate post-Conquest power relations, and to explain the rise of Islam. Over Islam’s first four centuries, political elites, genealogists, poetry collectors, historians and grammarians all participated in a vibrant process of imagining and re-imagining Arab identity and history, and the sum of their works established a powerful tradition that influences Middle Eastern communities to the present day.
About the Author: Peter Webb is University Lecturer in Arabic literature and culture at Leiden University.
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Imagining the Arabs: Arab Identity and the ...
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication Date: 2017
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good
Edition: 1st Edition