Interpreting the Self

A comprehensive work on the autobiographical tradition in Arabic letters, which includes a detailed introduction to the genre and a selection of autobiographical texts ranging from the 9th to the 19th centuries.

Dwight F. Reynolds is Associate Professor of Arabic Language and Literature in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara

Acknowledgments

vii

Introduction

1

(16)

Part I. A Thousand Years Of Arabic Autobiography

The Fallacy of Western Origins

17

(19)

Western Reception of Arabic Autobiography

20

(11)

Redefining the Issues

31

(5)

The Origins of Arabic Autobiography

36

(16)

Biographical Traditions: Early Prototypes

36

(2)

Biographical Writing: Literary Genres

38

(1)

Sira (Exemplary Life Story)

38

(2)

Tabaqat (Biographical Dictionaries)

40

(2)

Tarjama (Biographical Notice)

42

(2)

Autobiographical Subgenres

44

(1)

Other Influences

45

(7)

Toward a History of Arabic Autobiography

52

(20)

Historical Clusters

52

(7)

Authorial Motivations

59

(7)

Autobiographical Anxieties

66

(6)

Arabic Autobiography and the Literary Portrayal of the Self

72

(169)

Essentializing the Self: Private Life and Personality in the Memoirs of Ibn Buluggin

74

(5)

Historicizing the Self: Deciphering the Autobiography of Ibn Hajar

79

(8)

Reading for Stylistic Convention in the Autobiography of al-Suyuti

87

(1)

Dreams, Visions, and Unseen Voices

88

(5)

Poetry: An Alternative Discourse

93

(14)

Part II. Translations

Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873 or 877)

107

(12)

Al-Tirmidhi (d. between 905 and 910)

119

(13)

Al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi (d. 1077)

132

(13)

`Imad al-Din al-Katib al-Isfahani (d. 1201)

145

(11)

`Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d. 1231)

156

(9)

Ibn al-`Adim (d. 1262)

165

(14)

Abu Shama (d. 1268)

179

(9)

Al-Simnani (d. 1336)

188

(6)

`Abd Allah al-Turjuman [Fray Anselmo Turmeda] (d. 1432?)

194

(8)

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 1505)

202

(6)

Al-`Aydarus (d. 1628)

208

(8)

Yusuf al-Bahrani (d. 1772)

216

(8)

`Ali Mubarak (d. 1893)

224

(17)

Conclusion

241

(14)

Personality and Self

242

(3)

Literary Conventions

245

(2)

The Status of Arabic Autobiographies as Texts

247

(2)

Into the Twentieth Century

249

(6)

Annotated Guide to Arabic Autobiographical Writings

255

(34)

Glossary

289

(6)

References

295

(16)

List of Contributors

311

(2)

Index

313

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Interpreting the Self

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials