Having lived for many years in Beirut, John Wortabet grew to know much about the Islamic world. Recognizing the wisdom and integrity of the people and religion of what was then known as Syria, Wortabet set about to preserve the essentials of Arabic wisdom in this little book. The wisdom saying, a literary form of ancient pedigree in this part of the world, is generally a brief but pointed statement of a truth distilled from careful observation. Wortabet here presents these saying arranged according to topic, with the goal of facilitating understanding between the wider world and those who live in what has become a very unsettled region.

Samuel A. Rhea created a brief vocabulary and grammar while doing missionary work with the Kurds. His goal in creating a Kurdish grammar was to translate the Old and New Testaments into Kurdish.

The Royal Navy victualling yard was excavated in 1983-8 as part of the Royal Mint site. Founded in 1560, on the site of a Black Death cemetery and the suppressed Cistercian abbey of St Mary Graces, it was the first large-scale naval food supply base in Britain and remained the principal one until the 18th century. The yard closed in 1785, having proved inadequate for the needs of the expanding Georgian navy. A substantial part of the ground plan of the yard was recorded, including salt houses and pickling sheds, slaughterhouses and yards, bakeries, coopers workshops, storehouses, and the offices and dwellings of yard personnel. The evidence suggests that food processing was increasingly industrialised from the late 17th century onwards. The excavated remains are compared to the substantial documentary evidence available, particularly two detailed plans of 1635 and 1776. The success and ultimate failure of the yard as a supply depot is assessed, including the extent to which former abbey buildings were reused by the navy and the deleterious effect this had. The work reported on here represents the most extensive excavation and post-excavation analysis of an early post-medieval naval victualling establishment in this country.

Bhartrharinirveda of Harihara is a play that glorifies the Yoga philosophy, which teaches that the summum bonuzz is the discrimination and separation of soul from matter, thus leading through renunciation of the world to isolation of the ego.

The name Asur is difficult. In cuneiform, it is designated for the city, country, and deity. However, it appears that the deity was named after the city, which emerged first.

In Wit’s End, Sean Zwagerman offers an original perspective on women’s use of humor as a performative strategy as seen in works of twentieth-century American literature. He argues that women whose direct, explicit performative speech has been traditionally denied, or not taken seriously, have often turned to humor as a means of communicating with men.The book examines both the potential and limits of women’s humor as a rhetorical strategy in the writings of James Thurber, Zora Neale Hurston, Dorothy Parker, Edward Albee, Louise Erdrich, and others. For Zwagerman, these texts “talk back” to important arguments in humor studies and speech-act theory. He deconstructs the use of humor in select passages by employing the theories of J. L. Austin, John Searle, Jacques Derrida, Shoshana Felman, J. Hillis Miller, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Zwagerman offers arguments both for and against these approaches while advancing new thinking on humor as the “end”—both the goal and limit—of performative strategy, and as a means of expressing a full range of serious purposes.Zwagerman contends that women’s humor is not solely a subversive act, but instead it should be viewed in the total speech situation through context, motives, and intended audience. Not strictly a transgressive influence, women’s humor is seen as both a social corrective and a reinforcement of established ideologies. Humor has become an epistemology, an “attitude” or slant on one’s relation to society.Zwagerman seeks to broaden the scope of performativity theory beyond the logical pragmatism of deconstruction and looks to the use of humor in literature as a deliberate stylization of experiences found in real-world social structures, and as a tool for change.Zwagerman contends that women\u2019s humor is not solely a subversive act, but instead it should be viewed in the total speech situation through context, motives, and intended audience. Not strictly a transgressive influence, women\u2019s humor is seen as both a social corrective and a reinforcement of established ideologies. Humor has become an epistemology, an \u201cattitude\u201d or slant on one\u2019s relation to society.Zwagerman seeks to broaden the scope of performativity theory beyond the logical pragmatism of deconstruction and looks to the use of humor in literature as a deliberate stylization of experiences found in real-world social structures, and as a tool for change.

"Sometimes we have questions that seem to defy answers or even suppositions but then we find Love and Strange Horses to help us map out a course to continue loving life. A really wonderful, thoughtful read by an intriguing new voice."—Nikki Giovanni

Makings of the Sea is an inquiry into the makings of the Mediterranean imagination in the 20th century, focusing on specific cases in the visual and performing arts, music and literature. It also questions a number of populist perceptions of the Mediterranean and its cultures. Following a thematic structure that falls broadly under the headings of journey, doubt and nostalgia, this is an essay on Mediterranean aesthetics.

The JCSSS is an annual refereed journal containing the transcripts of public lectures presented at the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies Inc. It focuses on the literature, art, and archaeology of Syriac Christianity from the 2nd century to modern times. Contributors include Judith H. Newman, Frederick McLeod, George Bevan, Sidney H. Griffith, Mat Immerzeel, Mary Hansbury, and George Kiraz.

How do we read a book as an object in a network, in a post-book, post-reading, meta-data environment? Seven Controlled Vocabularies models a generic book, a kind of field guide to the arts, wherein distinctions between various aesthetic disciplines are relaxed or dissolved and where avant-garde notions of difficulty are replaced with more relaxing and ambient formats such as yoga, disco, and meditation. Each of the book's seven sections is devoted to a particular art form-film, photography, painting, the novel, architecture, music, and theory-and includes both text and found photographs as it explores the idea of what it means to be a book in an era when reading is disappearing into a diverse array of cultural products, media formats, and aesthetic practices. Seven Controlled Vocabularies will be available in a variety of print and electronic book delivery systems and formats.

In addition to war, terrorism, and unchecked military violence, modernity is also subject to less visible but no less venomous conflicts. Global in nature, these "culture wars" exacerbate the tensions between tradition and innovation, virtue and freedom. Internationally acclaimed scholar Fred Dallmayr charts a course beyond these persistent but curable dichotomies in Integral Pluralism: Beyond Culture Wars. Consulting diverse fields such as philosophy, literature, political science, and religious studies, Dallmayr equates modern history with a process of steady pluralization. This process, which Dallmayr calls "integral pluralism," requires new connections and creates ethical responsibilities.Dallmayr critically compares integral pluralism against the theories of Carl Schmitt, the Religious Right, international "realism," and so-called political Islam. Drawing on the works of James, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Merleau-Ponty, Integral Pluralism offers sophisticated and carefully researched solutions for the conflicts of the modern world.

As a representation of Arabic verse art, this exploration by Freytag serves as a useful introduction to Arabic poetry for German readers. Following an introduction that presents the basics such as metrical considerations, verse structure, and important characters in the development of Arabic verse, Freytag moves on to specific examples. On all of these topics Freytag writes with authority and sets the standard for works that follow in this field. Useful for beginning students of Arabic and researchers alike, this volume will make a welcome supplement to any library on Arabic verse.

Al-Mashriq (1946-1947) and its sequel Lisān al-Mashriq (1948-1951) were the primary Arabic journals in Mosul, Iraq, entirely dedicated to the Eastern Christian tradition. Many of the articles were written by the journals’ founder and editor Boulus Behnam. The scope of the journal covers philosophy, history, religion, poetry, and literary criticism. The news section sheds light on the history of the Christian community in Mosul during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Al-Mashriq (1946-1947) and its sequel Lisān al-Mashriq (1948-1951) were the primary Arabic journals in Mosul, Iraq, entirely dedicated to the Eastern Christian tradition. Many of the articles were written by the journals’ founder and editor Boulus Behnam. The scope of the journal covers philosophy, history, religion, poetry, and literary criticism. The news section sheds light on the history of the Christian community in Mosul during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Al-Mashriq (1946-1947) and its sequel Lisān al-Mashriq (1948-1951) were the primary Arabic journals in Mosul, Iraq, entirely dedicated to the Eastern Christian tradition. Many of the articles were written by the journals’ founder and editor Boulus Behnam. The scope of the journal covers philosophy, history, religion, poetry, and literary criticism. The news section sheds light on the history of the Christian community in Mosul during the 1940s and early 1950s.

Al-Mashriq (1946-1947) and its sequel Lisān al-Mashriq (1948-1951) were the primary Arabic journals in Mosul, Iraq, entirely dedicated to the Eastern Christian tradition. Many of the articles were written by the journals’ founder and editor Boulus Behnam. The scope of the journal covers philosophy, history, religion, poetry, and literary criticism. The news section sheds light on the history of the Christian community in Mosul during the 1940s and early 1950s.