Disputation Literature in the Near East and Beyond

Book

Disputation Literature in the Near East and Beyond

Edited by: Enrique Jiménez and Catherine Mittermayer

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2020

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This book is in the series

Volume 25 | Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER)

About this book

Disputation literature is a type of text in which usually two non-human entities (such as trees, animals, drinks, or seasons) try to establish their superiority over each other by means of a series of speeches written in an elaborate, flowery register. As opposed to other dialogue literature, in disputation texts there is no serious matter at stake only the preeminence of one of the litigants over its rival. These light-hearted texts are known in virtually every culture that flourished in the Middle East from Antiquity to the present day, and they constitute one of the most enduring genres in world literature. The present volume collects over twenty contributions on disputation literature by a diverse group of world-renowned scholars. From ancient Sumer to modern-day Bahrain, from Egyptian to Neo-Aramaic, including Latin, French, Middle English, Armenian, Chinese and Japanese, the chapters of this book study the multiple avatars of this venerable text type.

Author / Editor information

Enrique Jiménez, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Catherine Mittermayer, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
1. Introduction Enrique Jiménez and Catherine Mittermayer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Section I. Disputations from the Ancient Near East
2. The Sumerian Precedence Debates Catherine Mittermayer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	11
3. An Introduction to the Sumerian School Disputes Manuel Ceccarelli Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	33
4. “She was dumbstruck and took it to heart” Jana Matuszak Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	57
5. The Tamarisk, the Date-Palm and the King A. R. George Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	75
6. Antiques in the King’s Libraries Enrique Jiménez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	91
7. La «fable» égyptienne du Corps et de la Tête (tablette Turin CG 58004) Bernard Mathieu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	105
8. Opposing Voices in Ancient Egyptian Literature Andréas Stauder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	121
9. Those Who Cannot Do, Reign? Andrés Piquer Otero Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	143
Section II. Eastern Disputations during the Middle Ages
10. Disputations in Syriac Literature Sebastian Brock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	159
11. The Debate of Spring and Autumn in Arabic Literature Geert Jan van Gelder Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	175
12. Night and Day in Islamicate Literary Disputation David Larsen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	191
13. Disputation Poems in Medieval Hebrew Literature in Spain Amparo Alba Cecilia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	215
14. Debate in Iranian Literary Culture Firuza Abdullaeva-Melville Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	237
15. The Rhetoric of Persian Verbal Contests Asghar Seyed-Gohrab Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	261
16. A Survey of Disputation Texts in Ottoman Literature Hatice Aynur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	283
17. Dispute Poems in Armenian Sergio La Porta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	309
Section III. Western Disputations during the Middle Ages
18. Tradition and Innovation in the Early Medieval Latin Debates Vicente Cristóbal and Juan Luis Arcaz Pozo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	335
19. Owls, Nightingales, Cuckoos and Other Feathered Disputants Thomas Honegger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	353
20. De la dispute des clercs au dialogue des acteurs Laëtitia Tabard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	369
Section IV. Contemporary Disputation Texts
21. Neo-Aramaic Dialogue and Dispute Poems Alessandro Mengozzi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	391
22. Modern Vernacular Disputation Poems from Bahrain and the Wider Gulf Clive Holes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	415
Section V. Other Traditions of Disputations
23. Ludic Disputations in the East-Asian Cultural Sphere John A. Chaney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	435
Index of Contestants Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	457

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

August 10, 2020

eBook ISBN:

9781501510274

Hardcover published on:

August 10, 2020

Hardcover ISBN:

9781501517075

Paperback published on:

July 18, 2022

Paperback ISBN:

9781501527258

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

8

Main content:

470

Illustrations:

11

Coloured Illustrations:

4

Tables:

8

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501510274

eBook ISBN: 9781501510274

Hardcover ISBN: 9781501517075

Paperback ISBN: 9781501527258

Keywords for this book

Disputations; Comparative literature; Dialogues; ancient Near East

Audience(s) for this book

Scholars of the ancient and medieval Near East, and of comparative literature

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Disputation Literature in the Near East and Beyond

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data