University of California Press. All rights reserved. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001.
ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32.
Interpreting the Self Copyright © 2001. University of California Press. All rights reserved. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F.
Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. University of California Press.
All rights reserved. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.
Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. Interpreting the Self Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition EDITED BY Dwight F. Reynolds COAUTHORED BY Kristen E. Brustad • Michael Cooperson • Jamal J.
Lowry • Nasser Rabbat Dwight F. University of California Press. All rights reserved. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London Brustad, Kristen.
Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32.
University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England ! 2001 by the Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Interpreting the self : autobiography in the Arabic literary tradition / edited by Dwight F. Reynolds ; coauthored by Kristen Brustad. University of California Press.
All rights reserved. Includes thirteen translated texts from Arabic. Includes bibliographical references and index. Arabic literature—History and criticism.
Authors, Arab—Biography—History and criticism. Arabic literature— Translations into English. Reynolds, Dwight Fletcher, 1956– II.7'09492—dc21 00-037411 Manufactured in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39 0. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F.
Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Part I.
A Thousand Years of Arabic Autobiography 1. The Fallacy of Western Origins 17 Western Reception of Arabic Autobiography 20 Redefining the Issues 31 2. The Origins of Arabic Autobiography Copyright © 2001. University of California Press.
All rights reserved. 36 Biographical Traditions: Early Prototypes 36 Biographical Writing: Literary Genres 38 Sı̄ra (Exemplary Life Story) 38 Tfi abaqāt (Biographical Dictionaries) 40 Tarjama (Biographical Notice) 42 Autobiographical Subgenres 44 Other Influences 45 3. Toward a History of Arabic Autobiography 52 Historical Clusters 52 Authorial Motivations 59 Autobiographical Anxieties 66 4. Arabic Autobiography and the Literary Portrayal of the Self 72 Essentializing the Self: Private Life and Personality in the Memoirs of Ibn Buluggı̄n 74 Brustad, Kristen.
Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32.
vi CONTENTS Historicizing the Self: Deciphering the Autobiography of Ibn H fi ajar 79 Reading for Stylistic Convention in the Autobiography of al-Suyūtfiı̄ 87 Dreams, Visions, and Unseen Voices 88 Poetry: An Alternative Discourse 93 Part II. Translations Hfi unayn ibn Ishfi āq (d. 873 or 877) 107 Al-Tirmidhı̄ (d. between 905 and 910) 119 Al-Mu!ayyad al-Shı̄rāzı̄ (d.
1077) 132 "Imād al-Dı̄n al-Kātib al-Isfifahānı̄ (d. 1201) 145 "Abd al-Latfiı̄f al-Baghdādı̄ (d. 1231) 156 Ibn al-"Adı̄m (d. 1262) 165 Abū Shāma (d.
1336) 188 "Abd Allāh al-Turjumān [Fray Anselmo Turmeda] (d. 1432?) 194 Jalāl al-Dı̄n al-Suyūtfiı̄ (d. 1628) 208 Yūsuf al-Bahfi rānı̄ (d. 1772) 216 "Alı̄ Mubārak (d.
University of California Press. All rights reserved. Personality and Self 242 Literary Conventions 245 The Status of Arabic Autobiographies as Texts 247 Into the Twentieth Century 249 Annotated Guide to Arabic Autobiographical Writings 255 Glossary 289 References 295 List of Contributors 311 Index 313 Brustad, Kristen. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F.
Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work is unusual, perhaps even unique, in modern American letters, for it was collectively conceived, collaboratively researched, and coopera- tively written by nine coauthors, not as an anthology of individual contri- butions, but as a single cohesive work.
Although portions of the book were originally penned by one or another of our group (particularly the trans- lations), the final product is the result of many readings, revisions, and discussions among all of the researchers. This approach is common in the physical and life sciences and, to a lesser extent, in the social sciences but remains rare in the humanities. The scope of this project, however, would have challenged the capacity of any single scholar, and the topic, once Copyright © 2001. University of California Press.
All rights reserved. raised, was compelling. As a result, all of the coauthors took large amounts of time from their individual research plans to contribute to this joint ef- fort. The seeds of this project were first sown in 1990 during a summer get- away on the shores of Lake Sammamish outside Seattle, Washington, where Joseph Lowry’s parents, Larry and Louise Lowry, graciously hosted a rau- cous bunch of young academics who at the time seemed equally interested in local viniculture and Derrida’s writings on autobiography.
Having argued endlessly (or so we thought at the time) about whether the handful of medieval Arabic autobiographies we knew constituted a tradition, or indeed even constituted autobiographies at all, we spent two years seeking out and reading additional texts. In August 1992, with sup- port from the University of California at Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Center for Black Studies under the directorship of Charles Long, and Department of Religious Studies, we met for a week of presentations and discussions only to discover, somewhat to our dismay, that we had uncovered far more premodern Arabic autobiographies than vii Brustad, Kristen. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001.
ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS we properly knew what to do with: not twenty or twenty-five, but well over fifty. In summer 1993 and again in 1997, we were generously welcomed and hosted at the Middlebury Summer School of Arabic by then-director Mah- moud Al-Batal, whose boundless hospitality and encouragement greatly contributed to the completion of this work.
Throughout those years our corpus of texts continued to grow—sixty, seventy, eighty—and our work in reading these newly uncovered texts, discussing recurring themes, and at- tempting to understand the motivations and worldviews of these medieval authors continued apace. At the annual meetings of the Middle Eastern Studies Association in 1993 and again in 1994, the authors presented panels of papers exploring sample texts from the premodern Arabic autobiographical tradition. Un- der the insightful guidance of Julie Scott Meisami and Michael Beard, ver- sions of these papers were published as a special edition of Edebiyât: The Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures (1997), guest edited by Dwight F. Reyn- olds under the watchful eye of his research assistant, Sandra Campbell.
Along the way, many others helped with their suggestions, encourage- ment, and guidance, among them ‘Abd al-H fi amı̄d H fi awwās, Roger Allen, Adel Allouche, Patricia Crone, Patricia Eisenlohr, Richard Hecht, Janet Gyatso, Michael Hopper, Stephen Humphreys, John Hunwick, Eve Troutt Powell, Werner Sollors, and Pei-Yi Wu. Their contributions are much ap- preciated. We also wish to thank Ibrahim Muhawi for his meticulous comments and valuable suggestions on the manuscipt, as well as our anonymous reader. Lynne Withey, associate director of the University of California Copyright © 2001.
University of California Press. All rights reserved. Press, provided inestimable encouragement and, more important, proved to be extraordinarily patient with our slow but steady process toward com- pletion. For their hours of research assistance and for cheerfully putting up with the editor’s foibles, I personally wish to thank Sandra Campbell, Adrian DeGifis, and Linda Jones at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as our copyeditor, Sheila Berg, and our project editor, Rose Anne White.
It has fallen to me to do the final editing, and although my colleagues have rescued me again and again from errors I managed to introduce into various stages of the manuscript, both factual and interpretive, there are no doubt many that have not been expunged from the final text. These I claim as my own and hope that they may provide fodder for future publications by other scholars who will be able to revise, amend, and add to what we have assembled here as a first foray into a virtually untouched field. The process of working as a collective on such a far-reaching project has Brustad, Kristen. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F.
Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix at times been slow and awkward, for we did not always see eye to eye on all of the critical issues; but the overall richness of this extended collaboration, even if only measured by what I personally have learned from these scholars and friends, has far outweighed the additional work involved.
At a time when our institutions often cut us off from our colleagues as much as they help to link us together, this project has provided a constant reminder of the joy and satisfaction that can and should grow out of the academic en- deavor. Reynolds University of California at Santa Barbara Copyright © 2001. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32.
University of California Press. All rights reserved. Interpreting the Self : Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, edited by Dwight F. Reynolds, University of California Press, 2001.
ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2020-11-15 14:35:32. Introduction When the Egyptian scholar Jalāl al-Dı̄n al-Suyūtfiı̄ sat down to pen his auto- biography in about 1485, he began by situating his text within what was for him a recognized tradition of Arabic autobiographical writing. In the pref- ace to his work he first considers the Qur!ānic injunction that one should speak of the blessings one has received from God (“And as for the bounty of your Lord, speak!” [Q 93:11]) and draws on traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (hfi adı̄th) and Qur!ānic commentaries to demonstrate that to speak of God’s blessings, indeed to enumerate them in detail, is a means of expressing gratitude to God and thus a duty incumbent on every Muslim.
He therefore titles his autobiography al-Tahfi adduth bi-ni"mat Allāh (Speaking Copyright © 2001. University of California Press. All rights reserved. of God’s Bounty) and closes his preface by noting both laudable and blame- worthy motivations for writing an autobiography.
He concludes by carefully identifying his own motivations as the former: Scholars from ancient to modern times have continually written biographical accounts of themselves [yaktubūna li-anfusihim tarājim]. They have done so with praiseworthy intentions, among which is “speaking of God’s bounty” in thanks, and also to make known their circumstances in life so that others might emulate them in these, so that those who do not know of these circum- stances should learn of them, and so that whosoever might later wish to men- tion them in works of history or in biographical dictionaries might draw upon their accounts. Among those who have done so before me are: [1] the Imām "Abd al- Ghāfir al-Fārisı̄ [d.