Part of the rich legacy of the Middle East is a poetic record stretching back five millennia. This unparalleled repository of knowledge - across different languages, cultures and religions - allows us to examine continuity and change in human expression from the beginnings of writing to the present day. In Warfare and Poetry in the Middle East leading scholars draw upon this legacy to explore the ways in which poets, from the third millennium bc to the present day, have responded to effects of war. The contributors deal with material in a wide variety of languages - including Sumerian, Hittite, Akkadian, biblical and modern Hebrew, and classical and contemporary Arabic - and range from the Sumerian lament on the destruction of Ur and the Assyrian conquest of Jerusalem to the al-R?miyy?t of the poet and warrior prince Ab? Fir?s al-?amd?n?, the popular Arabic epics and romances that form the siyar, to the contemporary poetry of Hamas and Hezbollah. Some of the poems are heroic in tone celebrating victory and the prowess of warriors and soldiers; others reflect keenly on the pity and destruction of warfare, on the grief and suffering that war causes.The result is a work that provides a unique reflection upon the ways in which this most violent and pervasive of human activities has been reflected in different cultures. The history of war begins in the Middle East - the earliest reported conflict in human history was fought between the neighbouring city states of Lagash and Umma in ancient Iraq. At a time when the Middle East seems to be permanently at war and wracked by violence, it is salutary to look back at the ancient roots of modern attitudes and to see that in the past, as in the present, these attitudes are much more varied, and the emotions more subtle, than often realised.
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The Middle East has a poetic record stretching back five millennia. In this unique book, leading scholars draw upon this legacy to explore the ways in which poets, from the third millennium BC to the present day, have responded to the effects of war.
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List of Contributors Preface Introduction by Hugh Kennedy 1 'O City Set Up Thy Lament': Poetic Responses to the Trauma of War (Stefan Sperl) 2 The Poem of Erra and Ishum: A Babylonian Poet's View of War (A. R. George) 3 Poetry and War among the Hittites (Mark Weeden) 4 Warfare in Ancient Egyptian Poetry (Robert Anderson) 5 Poetry and the Early Islamic Historical Tradition: Poetry and the Narratives of the Battle of Siffin (Peter Webb) 6 Pity and Defiance in the Poetry of the Siege of Baghdad (197/813) (Hugh Kennedy) 7 Silenced Cultural Encounters in Poetry of War (Wen-chin Ouyang) 8 Courage and Eloquence: 'Antar, the Warrior-Poet of the siyar (Peter Phillips) 9 'If only al-Barraq could see...': Violence and Voyeurism in an Early Modern Reformulation of the Pre-Islamic Call to Arms (Marle Hammond) 10 'I am a civil war': The Poetry of Haim Gouri (Tamar S. Drukker) 11 Humanism, Nationalism and Violence in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry (Atef Alshaer) Index
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The Middle East has a poetic record stretching back five millennia. In this unique book, leading scholars draw upon this legacy to explore the ways in which poets, from the third millennium BC to the present day, have responded to the effects of war.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781780763620
Publisert
2013-10-03
Utgiver
Vendor
I.B. Tauris
Vekt
632 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Dybde
33 mm
Aldersnivå
01, G
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
304

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Biographical note

Hugh Kennedy is Professor of Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of a number of books including The Great Arab Conquests and The Court of the Caliphs.