Call for Papers: "Figures of Wisdom" (FU Berlin, Oct. 2014)
emilyc...@yahoo.fr
Prophets, Viziers,
and Philosophers:
Figures of Wisdom in Arabic Literature (8th–11th centuries)
10-11 October 2014, Berlin, Freie Universität
Early Arabic literature stands at the crossroad of multiple influences: South-Arabian, Persian, Indian, Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian. Wisdom may therefore take the shape of divine knowledge, practical discipline, scientific achievements, moral teachings, ethics, etc. Furthermore, the literary genres used for transmitting sapiential, ethical, and philosophical materials are diverse: biographies of prophets, saints, sages, ascetics and philosophers; mirrors for princes; collections of sayings (gnomologies); philosophical commentaries, etc. Thus, sapiential material in Arabic medieval literature is to be found in both religious texts and in secular works.
Important agents in the creation and transmission of this multifarious material are Wahb ibn Munabbih, Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and al-Kindi. Their works, often lost, have at times been partially preserved in later epitomes and compilations, in larger historical encyclopaedias and in philosophical compendiums. Through the translations of such works as the pseudo-Aristotelian Sirr al-asrar (Secretum Secretorum) and Mubashshir ibn Fatik’s Mukhtar al-hikam (Bocados de Oro), examples of this literature – which often echoed works already available in Greek and Latin – were passed to Europe, where they were avidly read in translations all along the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period.
This conference aims at discussing the multifarious representation of wisdom and the phenomena of translation, adaptation, and transmission that can be found within this kind of literature, bringing together scholars from different fields. We welcome papers on any work related to the early stages of Arabic sapiential/philosophical literature. The Syriac transmission of Pagan and rhetorical material could also be considered. Furthermore, we welcome papers on the European versions of the Adab al-falasifa, the Sirr al-asrar and the Mukhtar al-hikam.
Questions that may be asked include: Why were Arabic speaking authors interested in this type of literature? How did they pick their material to fit their actual religious, political, social, and literary contexts? Which sages were their favourites? And which ones did they neglect? How were these Arabic texts received in other literatures, within and without the Middle East? What usages were made of these texts? Were they considered as handbooks for scholars, as belles-lettres, or as a kind of resources to be used in order to produce new texts?
Conference languages are English, German, and French.
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to Emily Cottrell (emily.c...@fu-berlin.de) and Regula Forster (for...@zedat.fu-berlin.de) by 1st March 2014.
Contact:
Dr Emily Cottrell and Prof Dr Regula Forster
Seminar für Semitistik und Arabistik
Freie Universität Berlin
Altensteinstr. 34
14195 Berlin
Germany