Al-Maʿarrī’s Anxious Menagerie: The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule

Abstract Around the year 411/1021, blind author and controversial freethinker Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (449/1057) wrote Risālat al-ṣāhil wa-l-shāḥij (The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule), a meandering prose work populated by animal characters who talk about Syrian society on the eve of the crusades....

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Blankinship, Kevin (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Brill 2021
In: Journal of Abbasid Studies
Year: 2021, Volume: 8, Issue: 1, Pages: 142-171
Further subjects:B Animals
B Islam
B Poetry
B al-Maʿarrī
B Fiction
B Arabic Literature
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)

MARC

LEADER 00000caa a22000002 4500
001 176293714X
003 DE-627
005 20210720163601.0
007 cr uuu---uuuuu
008 210715s2021 xx |||||o 00| ||eng c
024 7 |a 10.1163/22142371-12340066  |2 doi 
035 |a (DE-627)176293714X 
035 |a (DE-599)KXP176293714X 
040 |a DE-627  |b ger  |c DE-627  |e rda 
041 |a eng 
084 |a 0  |2 ssgn 
100 1 |a Blankinship, Kevin  |e VerfasserIn  |4 aut 
245 1 0 |a Al-Maʿarrī’s Anxious Menagerie: The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule 
264 1 |c 2021 
336 |a Text  |b txt  |2 rdacontent 
337 |a Computermedien  |b c  |2 rdamedia 
338 |a Online-Ressource  |b cr  |2 rdacarrier 
520 |a Abstract Around the year 411/1021, blind author and controversial freethinker Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (449/1057) wrote Risālat al-ṣāhil wa-l-shāḥij (The Epistle of the Horse and the Mule), a meandering prose work populated by animal characters who talk about Syrian society on the eve of the crusades. The story exudes a brand of fictionality, namely creative literary exaggeration designed to call forth mental pictures, that sets it apart from other animal texts due to the overwhelming ambiguity it creates. The animal characters suffer existential anxiety when, for instance, they realize that concepts like genus (jins) and species ( nawʿ ) turn out to be fuzzier than they thought, thereby calling into question whether any species—be it biological or linguistic—is a stable class. Animal ontology gets further confused by just-so stories about hybrids and crossbreeds, and by terms for philosophical contingency that question whether talking animals even exist—this is not just a story that did not happen, but a story that cannot happen except in the imagination. On the other hand, those same philosophical terms may yet affirm that speaking animals could exist, and that they have value in themselves, by hinting at their place in a cosmic order that radiates the goodness of its Source. 
601 |a Menagerie 
650 4 |a Poetry 
650 4 |a al-Maʿarrī 
650 4 |a Islam 
650 4 |a Fiction 
650 4 |a Arabic Literature 
650 4 |a Animals 
773 0 8 |i Enthalten in  |t Journal of Abbasid Studies  |d Leiden : Brill, 2014  |g 8(2021), 1, Seite 142-171  |h Online-Ressource  |w (DE-627)791558711  |w (DE-600)2779360-6  |w (DE-576)410285269  |x 2214-2371  |7 nnns 
773 1 8 |g volume:8  |g year:2021  |g number:1  |g pages:142-171 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.1163/22142371-12340066  |x Resolving-System  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
856 4 0 |u https://brill.com/view/journals/jas/8/1/article-p142_6.xml  |x Verlag  |z lizenzpflichtig  |3 Volltext 
935 |a mteo 
951 |a AR 
ELC |a 1 
LOK |0 000 xxxxxcx a22 zn 4500 
LOK |0 001 3952273252 
LOK |0 003 DE-627 
LOK |0 004 176293714X 
LOK |0 005 20210715042654 
LOK |0 008 210715||||||||||||||||ger||||||| 
LOK |0 035   |a (DE-Tue135)IxTheo#2021-07-14#75330CA31DE7BC3E4D33A93039F4FB33640B3D55 
LOK |0 040   |a DE-Tue135  |c DE-627  |d DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 092   |o n 
LOK |0 852   |a DE-Tue135 
LOK |0 852 1  |9 00 
LOK |0 935   |a ixzs  |a zota 
ORI |a SA-MARC-ixtheoa001.raw 
REL |a 1 
STA 0 0 |a Islam,Islam 
STB 0 0 |a Islam,Islam 
STC 0 0 |a Islam,Islam 
STD 0 0 |a Islam,Islam 
STE 0 0 |a 伊斯兰教,伊斯兰教,回教,回教 
STF 0 0 |a 伊斯蘭教,伊斯蘭教,回教,回教 
STG 0 0 |a Islã,Islã 
STH 0 0 |a Ислам (мотив),Ислам 
STI 0 0 |a Ισλάμ (μοτίβο),Ισλάμ 
SUB |a REL 
SYE 0 0 |a Islam