Showing papers in "Journal of the American Oriental Society in 1996"
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TL;DR: Hoch's Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period is a work of major importance for scholars both of Semitic and Egyptian as mentioned in this paper, and it has been used extensively in future research.
Abstract: James E. Hoch's Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period is a work of major importance for scholars both of Semitic and Egyptian. This review essay summarizes the book's presentation of the data, discusses the analyses derived from a detailed study of the data, and suggests ways in which the work can be utilized in future research. Hoch's most important contribution is the conclusion that the phonemic inventory of Canaanite included twentyseven to twenty-nine phonemes, far more than is usually reconstructed.
109 citations
TL;DR: A study of the intellectual history of the Andalusi Christians (alias Mozarabs) of Spain based on their Arabic and Latin polemical writings against Islam, 1050-1200, is presented in this article.
Abstract: This is a study of the intellectual history of the Andalusi Christians (alias Mozarabs) of Spain based on their Arabic and Latin polemical writings against Islam, 1050-1200. The first part of the book examines how these authors drew on earlier Oriental Arab-Christian theology, 12th-century Latin-Christian theology and the foundational texts of Islam itself, the Qur'an and Hadit, for polemical purposes. The second part is a critical edition and English translation of the "Liber denudationis siue ostensionis aut patefaciens" (alias "Contrarietas alfolica"). Since it describes how the Andalusi Christians participated in the pluralistic intellectual milieu in which they lived, this study should be of interest to historians of medieval Spain's minority groups, Christian-Muslim relations and the Arab-Christian tradition.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this article, over 400 names found in the books of the Hebrew and the Greek Bible, Old and New Testament, including the Apocrypha are included, with a discussion of the pertinent name, its meaning, the religio-historical background, relevant biblical passages and an up-to date bibliography.
Abstract: This text is designed as a work of reference on the gods, angels, demons, spirits and semi-divine heroes whose names occur in the biblical books. Arranged in the order of the Latin alphabet, over 400 names found in the books of the Hebrew and the Greek Bible, Old and New Testament, including the Apocrypha are included. There are entries on divine names recognized as such by the biblical authors; divine names in theophoric toponyms and anthroponyms; secular terms which occur as divine names in neighbouring civilizations, conjectural divine names, at times based on textual emendation, proposed by modern scholarship; and humans having acquired a semi-divine status in tradition. Entries contain a discussion of the pertinent name, its meaning, the religio-historical background, relevant biblical passages and an up-to date bibliography. Owing to the comprehensive coverage of names and its religio-historical emphasis, this book provides information concerning the spiritual world in which the peoples of the book have lived. Extensive indexes and cross-references provide easy access to the information of the dictionary.
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TL;DR: The authors examines the transmission of biblical pseudepigraphic literature and motifs from their largely Jewish cultural contexts in Palestine to developing gnostic milieux of Syria and Mesopotamia, particularly that one lying behind the birth and growth of Manichaeism.
Abstract: This volume examines the transmission of biblical pseudepigraphic literature and motifs from their largely Jewish cultural contexts in Palestine to developing gnostic milieux of Syria and Mesopotamia, particularly that one lying behind the birth and growth of Manichaeism. It surveys biblical pseudepigraphic literary activity in the late antique Near East, devoting special attention to revelatory works attributed to the five biblical forefathers who are cited in the Cologne Mani Codex: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Shem, and Enoch. The author provides a philological, literary, and religio-historical analysis of each of the five pseudepigraphic citations contained in the Codex, and offers hypotheses regarding the original provenance of each citation and the means by which these traditions have been adapted to their present context. This study is an important contribution to the scholarly reassessment of the roles played by Second Temple Judaism, Jewish Christian sectarianism, and classical gnosis in the formulation and development of Syro-Mesopotamian religious currents.
46 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an indispensable guide for the study of a Levantine stone tool type: the arrowhead is presented. But it is illustrated with excellent line drawings of the arrowheads typology and with statistical and chronological charts, maps, and appendixes recording the sites studied, the number of objects per site, etc.
Abstract: The book is illustrated with excellent line drawings of the arrowhead typology and with statistical and chronological charts, maps, and appendixes recording the sites studied, the number of objects per site, etc. A useful bibliography and index of archaeological sites will be of benefit to the professional reader, who will find this book an indispensable guide for the study of a Levantine stone tool type: the arrowhead.
TL;DR: The authors used a combination of literary theory and the tools of biblical criticism to investigate the art of editing in the Hebrew Bible, and found that the book of Judges is composed in its parts, and as a whole, according to particular integrative principles.
Abstract: Using a combination of literary theory and the tools of biblical criticism, this original and thought-provoking study investigates the book of Judges as an example of the art of editing in the Hebrew Bible. Judges is shown to have been composed in its parts, and as a whole, according to particular integrative principles. The study not only sheds new light on the redaction of Judges, but opens a new window on biblical historiography as a whole. Responding to calls in the scholarly literature for its translation from Hebrew, this publication makes Amit's fine study available to a wider audience.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain the notions of time and space in China, how culturally concrete and particular to China they are, and how significant the Chinese "culturalness" of these notions is.
Abstract: All cultures have their own notions of time and space. Being one of the fundamental ideas in every society, they in turn influence virtually every aspect of society. This book explains the notions of time and space in China, how culturally concrete and particular to China they are, and how significant the Chinese "cultural-ness" of these notions is. It contains contributions from 17 scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds who have treated topics within this general perspective in a comprehensive way.
TL;DR: In this paper, Smith continues his examination of how European artists and scientists travelling to the Pacific during the time of Cook's voyages were stimulated to see the world in new and creative ways.
Abstract: Imagining the Pacific in the Wake of the Cook Voyages-Bernard Smith 1992 Explores in more depth the issues first dealt with in European Vision and the South Pacific. Smith continues his examination of how European artists and scientists travelling to the Pacific during the time of Cook's voyages were stimulated to see the world in new and creative ways. In analysing intensely personal responses to a newly accessible environment, Smith shows how science, topography and travel had an impact on current pictorial genres, how an empirical naturalism affected long-standing classical conventions, and how difficult it was for the artists to portray people and places they knew little about.
TL;DR: The authors suggests that the breakdown in late Han institutions is attributed to an overemphasis on the two Confucian virtues of hsiao (filial piety) and jang (renunciation).
Abstract: Many historians continue to analyze the collapse of Eastern Han rule (A.D. 25-220) in negative language, speaking of the failure of Confucian ethics, while using quite positive terms, such as the growth of individualism, to characterize intellectual life in the following Wei-Chin period (220-420). This essay offers an alternative view : that the breakdown in late Han institutions is ascribable in part to an overemphasis on the two Confucian virtues of hsiao (filial piety) and jang (renunciation). While this breakdown opened a greater variety of choices to individual members of the shih elite, it is probably inappropriate to apply the language of individualism to Wei-Chin life
TL;DR: In this paper, Weinfeld et al. examined the similarities between Davidic promises and royal grants under three rubrics-structure, language, and unconditionality-and concluded that they are not analogous.
Abstract: This essay reviews and challenges the widely accepted thesis of Moshe Weinfeld that the Davidic promises are patterned after ancient Near Eastern land grants. Examination of proposed parallels between Davidic promises and royal grants under three rubrics-structure, language, and unconditionality-reveals that Davidic promises and royal grants are not analogous. Regarding the first issue, the problematic and changing structure of land grants precludes any attempt to posit a formal parallel between Davidic covenant passages and royal grants. Similarly, the main passages describing the Davidic promises neither exhibit a common structure nor contain many of the features that are said to characterize royal grants. As to language, too much has been made of linguistic affinities between land grants and the Davidic promises. Correspondence in general formulaic phrases not unique to the land grant genre is inadequate to demonstrate that the Davidic promises and royal grants belong to the same genre. Finally, close study of the historical and literary setting of royal grants indicates that most are actually conditional. In depicting YHWH's promises to David, biblical authors draw upon a variety of genres-legal, diplomatic, and mythological. Given the complexity of the evidence, this essay advocates a broadly bilateral understanding of covenant that seeks to do justice to both ancient Near Eastern treaties and a variety of biblical covenants.
TL;DR: In this paper, it was pointed out that Ferdowsi's claim to have had access to such a history is conventional in character and is paralleled in other chronicles, and the article discusses the older-preface to the Shâhnâmeh and al-Tha'âlebi's history in the light of this claim.
Abstract: The article questions the usual view that Ferdowsi's main source for the Shâhnâmeh was a written prose history of pre-islamic Iran commissioned by Abu Mansur Abd al-Razzâq. It is pointed out that Ferdowsi's claim to have had access to such a history is conventional in character and is paralleled in other chronicles. The article discusses the so-called older-preface to the Shâhnâmeh and al-Tha'âlebi's history in the light of this claim. It concludes by pointing out that the rhetoric of the Shâhnâmeh fits Parry's and Lord's descriptions of oral verse rhetoric and suggests that, for the legendary part of the poem (up to the advent of the Sasanians), Ferdowsi in all probability used versified oral rather than written prose, sources, or if he used written sources these were in verse and derived from an oral tradition. It is accepted that for the Sasanian portion of the poem written prose sources were probably used
TL;DR: The importance of the office of shaykh al-islam, or chief jurist, of Isfahan during the seventeenth century as an institutionalized locus of the highest religious authority of the empire is discussed in this paper, where it is suggested that this special status dates to ca. 963/1555-56, when Shah Tahmasb appointed Shaykh Husayn b. Abd al-Samad al-Harithi al-Amili (d. 984/1576) shayslam of Qazvin.
Abstract: Previous scholarship on the Safavids has noted the importance of the office of shaykh al-islam, or chief jurist, of Isfahan during the seventeenth century as an institutionalized locus of the highest religious authority of the empire. It is suggested here that this special status dates to ca. 963/1555-56, when Shah Tahmasb appointed Shaykh Husayn b. Abd al-Samad al-Harithi al-Amili (d. 984/ 1576) shaykh al-islam of Qazvin. The abrupt dismissal of al-Harithi from this office ca. 970/1563 probably resulted from his being challenged and replaced by his outspoken contemporary, Sayyid Husayn b. Hasan al-Karaki (d. 1001/992-93), who enjoyed the support of the Qizilbash and was known for his extreme anti-Sunni views.
TL;DR: Within the protases of the Babylonian celestial omen series Enuma Anu Enlil, a number of celestial phenomena are referred to by means of anthropomorphic tropes whose referents are the gods associated with the celestial body in question as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Within the protases of the Babylonian celestial omen series Enuma Anu Enlil, a number of celestial phenomena are referred to by means of anthropomorphic tropes whose referents are the gods associated with the celestial body in question. For example, a lunar eclipse is referred to as the moon god in mourning. Metaphor and its implications for abstract relational thought in the language of Babylonian divination can be established on the basis of the function of the attested metaphorical expressions, which was to represent a physical phenomenon deemed ominous. This evidence sheds light on the conception of natural phenomena and the relation between nature and the gods in ancient Mesopotamia, underscoring the religious component of Mesopotamian science. A culture's capacity or incapacity for the use of metaphor has been used as a criterion for differentiating ancient/traditional from modern/scientific thought in a substantial literature that includes studies in the history of Greek and Renaissance science and magic as well as in anthropology. Establishing the existence and identifying the function of metaphorical language in Mesopotamian celestial divination introduces evidence which tempers such dichotomous schemes of culture and thought.
TL;DR: Kelley's "Bible Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar" as mentioned in this paper is an introductory grammar of Biblical Hebrew with a wide range of imaginative, biblically based exercises.
Abstract: Comprehensive in scope, this carefully crafted introductory grammar of Biblical Hebrew offers easy-to-understand explanations, numerous biblical illustrations, and a wide range of imaginative, biblically based exercises. According to Page Kelley, his book is \"designed not so much for seasoned travelers as for those who are just starting out on a strange and wonderful journey.\" The book consists of thirty-one lessons arranged as follows: the nonverbal aspects of the language (lessons 1-10); the verb forms and their functions, with special attention to the strong verbs (lessons 11-20); the coordinate relationship of verbs, a topic alluded to but seldom developed in other grammars (lesson 21); and a comprehensive introduction to each of the ten classes of weak verbs (lessons 22-31). The grammar is accompanied by eleven complete verb charts, an extensive vocabulary list, a glossary of grammatical terms, and a subject index. Kelley employs a method that one reviewer has described as a cross between a straight presentation of grammatical principles and rules and a semi-inductive presentation of concepts through the exercises. Each lesson first presents new grammatical concepts, with biblical examples, and then provides reinforcing exercises that Kelley has judiciously selected from the biblical text (the exercises do not presuppose vocabulary and grammar not already covered). Deriving from the author's forty years of experience in teaching Biblical Hebrew to seminary students, and enthusiastically employed in its developing stages by instructors at a variety of colleges and seminaries, Kelley's \"Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar\" promises to be an excellent teaching tool with high potential as a textbook. Kelly has designed it for use in either a one-semester or a two-semester course.
TL;DR: In this paper, the birth of tradition has been discussed in the context of Islam and hadith, and the history and adab have been discussed as well as hikma and siyasa.
Abstract: l. The birth of tradition 2. History and hadith 3. History and adab 4. History and hikma 5. History and siyasa Conclusion.