This presentation focuses on several works of the Mu'tazili theologian and Arabic prose master, 'Amr b. Bahr al-Jahiz (d. 255/869) in which probably fictitious addressees appear as an intermediating presence between the author and the intended audience, allowing al-Jahiz avoid broaching delicate issues related to his purpose in writing on the topic at hand to his real readership. In works of theology or religious polemic, the requests of the addressees for help are shaped in such a way as to avoid conceding that the arguments advanced by these adversaries are sincere and worthy of serious debate by a theologian such as himself. In K. al-Radd ala al-Nasara ("Replying to the Christians"), he purports to be writing to a group of Muslims who are worried that certain challenges posed to the veracity of the Qur'an by Christians will trouble the youth of the Community. Al-Jahiz's Muslim reader is thus invited to identify himself with these addressees who have a legitimate reason for seeking answers to questions they cannot themselves answer without suggesting that their faith in the revelation has been shaken. But as the text progresses, the reader will be subtly prompted to distance himself from these same addressees who appear to have overlooked the malicious intentions of those who have been challenging Qur'an. In R. fi Khalq al-Qur'an ("On the Createdness of the Qur'an"), which appears to have been written chiefly as a caution to certain Mu'tazili theologians who had grown careless in the exposition of their doctrines, al-Jahiz pretends to be writing to an enthusiastic but confused addressee who demands that he provide answers to questions raised on the creation of the Qur'an in a manner that exhaustively refutes the Mu'tazilis' opponents while remaining brief and pleasant to read. By posing as though he were writing to such a nanve tyro in theological inquiry, al-Jahiz avoids implying that the Mu'tazili doctrine on the createdness of the Qur'an is in need of being defended on logical grounds, while illustrating, in the person of the addressee, the bewilderment that theologians' carelessness has led to. The paper will thus be a literary, rather than theological, analysis of al-Jahiz's rhetorical techniques, focusing on the two above-mentioned texts and perhaps a few other essays. The theoretical underpinnings of the presentation derive in part from the thought of Mikhail Bakhtin and his concept of double-voicing.

Taboo refers to "a proscription of behaviour for a specifiable community of one or more persons, at a specifiable time, in specifiable contexts" (Allan & Burridge, Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language (Cambridge, 2006), 11). Avoidance of taboo words, expressions believed to be harmful for the speaker or hearers, is a universal phenomenon of language behavior. With regard to medieval Muslim society, it is important to note that taboos did not necessarily overlap with Islamic legal prohibitions, but were often socially-disapproved practices. Hence, if not leading to legal sanction, transgressing a taboo in act or word would lead to social sanction. Words tabooed are usually related to sex, bodily functions and effluvia, sickness and death, and normative Arabic--as other languages--renders them indirectly by means of euphemisms (kinayat). The primary focus of this paper is two medieval Arabic works on euphemisms: the first, the earliest of its kind, was composed by Abu Mansur al-Tha'alibi (350-429/961-1038) and titled Kitab al-kinaya wa-l-ta'rid; the second, relying heavily on al-Tha'alibi's work (without acknowledgment) is Ahmad al-Jurjani's (d. 482/1089) Kinayat al-udaba` wa-isharat al-bulagha`. Topically arranged, Kitab al-kinaya and Kinayat al-udaba` offer numerous euphemistic expressions for the use of any civilized person. Albeit lacking analytic approach, through the abundant euphemisms presented to the reader, these two works reflect well the conventions of censorship and purification of language in society. Approaching the evidence from a sociolinguistic point of view, I map the taboos in medieval Arabic-speaking society as appearing in these sources (and a few others); discuss the explicit and implicit reasons for tabooing certain language behaviors; and outline the linguistic characteristics of the euphemisms produced. I have found that already in the 4th/10th century the short-life of euphemisms due to contamination by the taboo topic and replacement by other expressions has been astutely observed. With regard to the reasons for censuring language, the weight of fear of metaphysical harm befalling the speaker or audience was considerable. This is in contrast to contemporary Western society, in which politeness and face are the main reasons for using euphemisms (see Allan & Burridge, Forbidden Words, 238). Lastly, in creating euphemisms, figurative language sparked by conceptions about the denotata (e.g., menstrual blood, genitals, and feces) was preferred over formal changes in the tabooed expressions (by remodeling or clipping of taboo words).

In medieval Arabic literary culture, stories and poetry about pleasure are both an escape from the serious business of politics, the military, and religion and an indirect commentary on this serious business. Stories and poetry about pleasure often articulate experience through the description of things, bodies, and/or locations. Writers and poets amplify material life to express the refinement and emotion of manners with moral authority in the background. In his Kitab al-Diyarat (Book of Monasteries), the 4th/10th century writer al-Shabushti links the description of monasteries in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to stories about the people who frequented them. Though their books on monasteries are not extant, the collected poetry by al-Sari al-Raffa' al-Mawsili and the Khalidi brothers, and by other descriptive poets of the 4th/10th century, contain descriptive poems about monasteries that complement the stories and poetry in al-Shabushti's book. The book has been used as a source on Christianity. The focus of this project is, instead, the dynamics of pleasure and politics as they take shape through the interweaving of stories and poetry. It places al-Shabushti's book in the context of other monographic compilations from the 4th/10th century that also explore the dynamics of politics and pleasure in prose and poetry, including Kushajim's Kitab al-Masayid wal-Matarid (Book of Snares and Spears) and the Khalidi brothers' Kitab al-Tuhaf wal-Hadaya(Book of Rarities and Gifts). This project argues that monographic compilations on the pleasure scene, on topics such as gift exchange, hunting for sport, and drinking at monasteries, represent an expanding cultural sphere that provides an alternative to the serious business of politics, the military, and religion. The two compilations of al-Tanukhi and the maqamas (series of narratives in rhymed prose) of al-Hamadhani, also from the 4th/10th century, have received a great deal of attention as developments of literary expression. Stories about the pleasure scene share with al-Tanukhi's stories an interest in historical characters. This project shows that stories about aspects of the pleasure scene, alongside the work of al-Tanukhi and al-Hamadhani, are a crucial development of literary expression in medieval Arabic culture. The project draws on research by Ali Ibrahim Abu Zayd, Samer Ali, Julia Bray, Abdallah Cheikh-Moussa, Sami Dahhan, Andras Hamori, Habib al-Hasani, Phillip Kennedy, James Montgomery, Shawkat Toorawa, and Katia Zakharia. The analysis makes use of theoretical perspectives of Bakhtin, de Certeau, and de Lauretis.

Nuzhat al-nufus wa tuhfat al-'arus. An Unknown Arabic Manual of Erotology from the 14th Century The author of the paper aims to present an unknown Arabic book on erotology ('ilm al-bah), from the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century, entitled Nuzhat al-nufus wa tuhfat al-'arus, very probably of North African provenance, whose unique manuscript, belonging to the library of Oriental Institute in Sarajevo, was destroyed in a blaze following the shelling of the city in spring 1992. Having the opportunity to work on one of the few xerographic copies of the manuscript, and to compare the tractate with the similar works from the period, the author of the paper claims that the manuscript was misidentified as much wider renowned, and considerably shorter work of 'Abd All?h b. Mulammad al-T-janm (d. after 1311) Tuhfat al-'ar)s wa nuzhat al-nufss. The manuscript, copied by a certain 'Ale of znik in 1002/1593, consists of 371 folios, with 21 lines of text on each folio, written in well legible nesh. The work itself has the usual inner structure of the similar works: after the talmrd and the introductory part in which the author reveals the title of the book (The Promenade of the Soul and the Masterpiece of the Bride) and the reasons for composing it, follow 12 chapters in which the art of love is taught starting from the general accounts of the main attributes of men and women, what they like or dislike on the opposite sex, continues with the more practical topics, like aphrodisiacs or figurae veneris, and concludes with anegdotes and excerpts from the classical Arabic poetry referring to sexuality. The author of the paper will also use this opportunity to announce the forthcoming publication of the work, saving it for the future researches.

The seventh-century Madinan poet Hassan ibn Thabit is best known for his role as poet laureate of the Prophet Muhammad. His poetry composed in defense of Muhammad and the nascent religion of Islam has been widely studied, and it is in this context that Hassan appears in Arabic literary history. Yet, as one of the mukhadramun, a class of poets whose lives spanned the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods, Hassan is a transitional literary figure who composed poetry in two distinct eras. This study focuses on an understudied subset of the poems attributed to Hassan: his twenty-six poems and fragments composed on the Ghassanids, a sedentary, Christian kingdom located in modern-day Syria and Jordan where Hassan served as the primary court poet prior to the rise of Islam. Relying on this body of poems and employing the methods of contextualized close reading and in-depth textual analysis, this paper argues that Hassan is a pioneer in the urbanization of Arabic poetry and a precursor to the city-dwelling poets of the later 'Abbasid caliphate. In contrast to the desert-related stock motifs and themes that dominated the poetry of his contemporaries, Hassan's verses reject the idealized portrayal of nomadic life in the desert. His compositions praise life in the cities and towns of al-Sham and detail the luxurious quality of life enjoyed by inhabitants of this region. He frequently presents a sharp dichotomy between sedentary and nomadic lifestyles and contrasts the comfort in which sedentary tribes live with the relative poverty of nomads who roam the harsh Arabian desert. Hassan's poetic lexicon also demonstrates a familiarity with an urban rather than desert landscape. By exploring the urban features of Hassan's Ghassanid poetry, this paper aims to shed light on both the urbanization of Arabic poetry and the diverse range of settings in which pre-Islamic poetry was composed.