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Dr. Walter Young “Uṣūl al-fiqh”

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Oxford Islamic Studies Online

OISO, a major reference tool for Islamic Studies as it covers the whole Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco and everything in between. The reference tool’s usefulness just increased with the recent publication of Dr. Walter Young, a recent IIS graduate. His article entitled “Uṣūl al-fiqh” provides a concise overview of the subject as well as a splendid bibliography for further reading.

To access the article you must login to your McGill account (or your local institution): Uṣūl al-fiqh.

Walter’s PhD thesis The Dialectical Forge: proto-system juridical disputation in the Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-‘Irāqiyyīn (2 vols.) is freely accessible via McGill’s escholarship platform.

Congratulations, Dr. Young!

Ottoman Postcards

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A recent ‘discovery’ in the Islamic collection in Rare Books and Special Collections, is a set of Ottoman-French postcards named Medjmouaï teçavir (Collection de costumes). There are 22 postcards with each image portraying a different cultural aspect of Ottoman customs and dress attire. Unfortunately, there is no date on the cards themselves but we can assume these date from the late 19th or early 20th centuries.Ottoman PC3For further reading on Ottoman costumes, have a look at:

Salman, Fikri. 2012. Türk kumaş sanatı. Erzurum: Atatürk Üniversitesi, Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi.

Fenerci Mehmed. 1986. Osmanlı kıyafetleri: Fenerci Mehmed albümü = Ottoman costume book. İstanbul: Vehbi Koç Vakfı.

Hamilton, Alastair. 2001. Arab culture and Ottoman magnificence in Antwerp’s Golden Age. London: Arcadian Library.

Ottoman PC1Sevin, Nureddin. 1973. On üç asırlık Türk kıyâfet târihine bir bakış. [İstanbul]: Devlet Kitapları.

Yılmaz, Hale. 2013. Becoming Turkish nationalist reforms and cultural negotiations in early republican Turkey, 1923-1945. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.

As well as: http://www.midafternoonmap.com/2014/02/ottoman-hats.html

Ottoman PC

Ignác Goldziher signatures

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Ignaz Goldziher (Ignác Goldziher) (1850-1921), the famous Orientalist (in the pre-Said definition of the word) and scholar of Islamic Studies. He was born in Budapest in 1850 and has been recognised as one of the founders of Islamic studies, along with Theodor Nöldeke and Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje.

Discovered in the stacks in a bound collection of offprints are a number of Goldziher’s signatures. The signatures are throughout the articles, complete with dedications some of which are to the philologist, René Basset who is also suspected as being the binder of these volumes. The dedications are written in German, Arabic and French.

In related news, the Oriental Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has released “The Goldziher correspondence of Budapest – more than 13000 letters related to Ignaz Goldziher.” The letters are searchable, here.

Below are some of the signatures in multiple languages for your viewing pleasure.

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Further reading: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 42 (1922), pp.189-193.

Nöldeke, Theodor, Ignác Goldziher, and René Basset. 1871. Mélanges. (Held in the Islamic rare books collection at Rare Books and Special Collections, 4th floor McLennan Library.)

Poetry reading 25 January, 2014

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Hi friends! In less than 2 weeks le Cénacle culturel Liban-Québec invites you for an Arabic poetry reading by current Director of the IIS, Prof. Rula Jurdi Abisaab. This will be followed by poems translated into English and French by Prof. Michelle Hartman of the IIS, Poet Nadine Ltaif and McGill Doctoral candidate Hadi Fakhoury. Oud musician, Mr. Isam Haddad will play some pieces of Arabic music.

The event will take place on Saturday, January 25th, 2014 from 5:00-7:00 at the Ballroom on the 3rd Floor of Thomson House, 3650 McTavish Street, Montreal, H3A 1Y2 Phone:(514)398-3756. (Between Pine Avenue and Dr. Penfield Avenue).
The Event is also supported by Nelson Publishing House.

The Essay: The Islamic Golden Age (BBC)

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Hi friends!
The BBC has recently launched a 20-part series exploring the Islamic Golden Age. Currently available for your listening pleasure are discussions with Jonathan Bloom, Robert Gleave and Hugh Kennedy.   The McGill Library and the ISL have the works of  these authors, too. An easy way to search in McGill’s WorldCat local is to use “au: surname, first name” (without the quotation marks) which will return all of the works held by McGill of the author you search for. For example, au: Bloom, Jonathan.

The Islamic Golden Age 20 part series.

A special thank you to McGill’s web librarian and avid BBC enthusiast, Ed Bilodeau for passing along the link.