Rhyming the National Spirit: Taras Shevchenko and Ilia Chavchavadze

The paper is a comparative inquiry into the roles of Ilia Chavchavadze (1837-1907) and Taras Shevchenko (1818-1861) as national poets and anti-colonial (anti-Tsarist) intellectuals within the context of their respective national traditions (Georgia and Ukraine). During the period of their activity (19th and the beginning of 20th century) both Ukraine and Georgia were under Tsarist imperial rule, albeit the two poets lived in different periods of Russian empire history. Through their major works, each called on their communities to ‘awaken’ and ‘revolt’ against oppression, rejected social apathy caused by Tsarist subjugation and raised awareness about the historical past of their nations. The non-acceptance of present and belief in an independent future was one of the dominant themes in the poetry and prose of both. Their contemporary importance is illustrated in political discourse both after Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004), and Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003) where both poets are referred “as founding fathers of national ideology”, the history textbooks alluding to them as “symbols of anti-colonial resistance”. To this day, however, there has been surprisingly little academic writing in the West endeavoring to compare the works and activities of the two poets and their impact on national mobilization in Tsarist Ukraine and Georgia, even though their countries are often mentioned in a same breath by commentators on contemporary culture and politics. The paper attempts to fill this gap and tries to understand the relationship between literature and social mobilization in 19th century Russian Empire. By reflecting on Taras Shevchenko’s and Ilia Chavchavadze’s poetry, prose and social activism, I will try to explain how in different periods of Russian imperial history, the two poets helped to develop a modern form of political belonging among their compatriots and stimulated an anti-colonial mobilization with different political outcomes. To theorize on the role of poets and novelists in anti-colonial national movement, I will reflect on the writings of Benedict Anderson (1991), John Hutchinson (1994; 1999), Rory Finnin (2005; 2011) and problematize Miroslav Hroch’s (1996) three phase model of the development of national movements. Overall, the paper would aim to show the importance of, what John Hutchinson called, ‘cultural nationalists’ in understanding contemporary nationalist discourse in Georgian and Ukrainian societies.

Almonastires y rábitas: espiritualidad islámica individual y defensa colectiva de la comunidad. Espiritualidad y geopolítica en los orígenes de Almonaster la Real

Primeramente se describe el ŷihād, su origen coránico, la escatología asociada y el derecho musulmán asociado al mismo, para acabar explicando cómo el espíritu colectivo y estatal del ŷihād evolucionó hacia la espiritualidad individual del ribāṭ en Al-Andalus. En la segunda parte se enumeran los topónimos al-Munastīr en la península Ibérica, asociados a construcciones eclesiásticas visigodas precedentes, y se explica la geopolítica de Almonaster la Real: en la vía romana que comunicaba Sevilla y Huelva por la montaña onubense con Beja, esta vía de origen romano se usó hasta fin del s. X. La vigilancia en época omeya de este itinerario esencial de comunicación con Portugal dio origen a este “lugar de ribāṭ” que fue Almonaster, fundado sobre restos tardorromanos precedentes.

Kitāb-i Ādāb al-mulūk

[Muḥammad Rafīʻ ibn ʻAlī Aṣghar al-Ṭabāṭabāʼī].

Kitāb al-Mukhtār fī kashf al-asrār

li-Zayn al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʻUmar al-Dimashqī al-maʻrūf bi-al-Jawbarī.

Hādhā kitāb Qiṣaṣ al-ʻulamāʼ

min taʼlīfāt al-ʻālim al-fāḍil al-kāmil nukhbat al-ʻulamāʼ wa-al-mujtahidīn al-Mīrzā Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Tunukābunī.

Kitāb al-Tabṣirah fī ʻilm al-hayʼah : manuscript, undated

Title from caption.

Khulāṣah-ʼi aḥvāl-i Bānū Bagum mukhāṭab ba-Mumtāz Maḥall : manuscript, undated

Biography of Banū Begam, surnamed Mumtāz Maḥall, and known as Tāj Bībī, wife of Shāh Jahān, and of the buildings connected with her name.

Risālah fī aḥkām al-ṭāʻūn / li-Ibn al-Ḥājj : manuscript, undated

With: Muqaddimah fī-mā yajibu ʻalá al-awlād maʻrifatuh min al-aḥkām al-sharʻīyah / lil-Faqīh al-Mālikī.

ʻUmdat al-ṭullāb fī maʻrifat ʻilm al-ḥisāb : manuscript, 1637

Written in one column, 21 lines per page, in black rubricated in red.

The Jalayirids : Dynastic State Formation in the Mongol Middle East /

This book examines the rise and collapse of Mongol rule in Iran and Iraq, and its revival by a family of sultans who claimed to be the rightful heirs to the Mongol khans. The Jalayirids offers a glimpse at a long overlooked but critical period in the history of the Middle East in the late medieval period. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.

Jihad and Islam in World War I : Studies on the Ottoman Jihad at the Centenary of Snouck Hurgronje's "Holy War Made in Germany" /

This books investigates the background and nature of the Ottoman Jihad proclamation, but also its effects in the wider Middle East. It looks at the German hopes and British fears of a worldwide rising of Muslims in the colonial empires. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.

Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson, wife of the Rev. Adoniraum Judson, missionary to Burmah, including a history of the American Baptist Mission in the Burman Empire.

http://www.archive.org/details/memoirofmrsannhj00judsuoft

The island empire of the East : being a short history of Japan and missionary work therein with special reference to the mission of the M.S.C.C. / by Rev. J. Cooper Robinson ; with an introduction by the lord bishop of Algoma.

http://www.archive.org/details/theislandempire00robiuoft