Twentieth-century Western scholarship has been interested in virtually every aspect of Muslim eschatology. Considerable attention has been paid to the themes and formulations of Islamic eschatology in the Qur'an and its exegesis, Hadith (Muslim traditions), individual Muslim works on eschatology, and Muslim eschatological folk literature. Thus far, however, no commensurate degree of attention has been paid to describing the different categories of Muslim eschatological literature as literary genres. A group of works that usually have the title Sifat al-Janna (literally, the Description or the Characteristic of Paradise) represent one of these literary genres. These works deal exclusively with the depiction of paradise and the nature of life in it. A preliminary survey of these works also shows that they are almost entirely based on the Qur'an and Hadith material and that they have been predominantly composed by traditionists (Hadith scholars); two indications that this literary genre is closely related to Ahl al-Sunna wal JamaJa ('Orthodox') Muslim thought. The purpose of the suggested study is to delineate and analyze the salient characteristics of this literary genre, particularly with respect to its motifs, structures (i.e. organization of material, themes, etc), and the strategies of compilation its authors employed (e.g. the types of traditions cited, the criteria of including certain themes and excluding others, the relationship to theological debates with other religious groups, etc). The study will cover virtually all the works belonging to this genre in classical and medieval Islam. Of these, Sifat al-Janna by Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 281/894), Sifat al-Janna by Ab) Nu'aym al- Isfahani (d. 430/1038), and Hadi al-Arwah by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) are prominent examples. The abundance of manuscripts of Sifat al-Janna works scattered throughout Muslim and Western archives indicates that historically these works have played a significant role in shaping Muslims' perception of paradise and the rewards of the afterlife. This study will offer a literary 'history' of these works as a genre. In addition, by providing contextual delineation of their composition it seeks to contribute significantly to better understanding of the perceptions of paradise they convey.

My paper explores the travel narratives of medieval Arab travelers Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun, who used their representations of Black Africa and Africans to validate their Arab national identity vis-?-vis the world around them. My paper thus contributes to the study of race and its history through literature, showing the unique ways race has manifested itself in the Arab world. In Morocco, the coming of Islam in the seventh century and the introduction of a writing culture in Arabic language encouraged not only the flourishing of a literary tradition, but also a trans-Saharan slave trade. At the time when Ibn Battuta and Ibn Khaldun emerged as new literary talents, Black slaves were the dominant export to North Africa. The travel accounts of these two North African writers coincided with the Moroccan Empire, which controlled trade between Morocco and Timbuktu for over 300 years. Racial stereotypes that denigrated blacks and justified slavery were prevalent among people at the time, and might have affected these writers' perspectives on Black Africans. While Ibn Battuta's ingrained Muslim identity in Rihla Ibn Battuta demanded an adherence to the dominance of the Muslim 'Umma,' and the complete rejection of non-Muslims, Ibn Khaldun's disparaging remarks about the blackness of Africans in his Kitab Al-Ibar/Muqaddima offer an important insight into the racial construction of Black Africans that will influence many writers after his time. This paper also investigates how such travel narratives from the Middle-Ages contributed to deprecatory cultural attitudes toward Africa and Africans, and to what extent they have affected later domineering attitudes towards Africans. My theoretical framework draws upon Arabs' conceptualizations of race that I derive from the literary texts, as well as key concepts of modern critical race theory. In my application of critical race theory to the Arabic context, I direct greater attention to the contrast between early Arab theories which promote a biological view of race, and the theories of modern critical race theorists who view race as a sociocultural concept. I also discuss the limitations of critical race theory when we approach Arabic literature with critical tools devised in modern and postmodern contexts.

In 1826, a twenty-four year old Rifa'a al-Tahtawi was among the first students sent to France by Muhammad 'Ali (Mehmet Ali Pasha) in an attempt to reform the educational system in Egypt. Encouraged by his mentor Shaykh Hassan al-Attar, al-Tahtawi sailed to Marseilles, then went to Paris and spent the next five years there. His travelogue, Takhlis al-ibriz 'ila talkhis Bariz (The extraction of pure cold towards the abridgment of Paris) was published in 1834, a few years following his return and soon after, was translated into Turkish upon the request of a thoroughly impressed Mohammad 'Ali. The Turkish translation appeared in 1839, as a publication of the government press (al-matba'a al-amiriyya) in Bulaq. As Daniel Newman remarks in his preface to the translation of the book into English, the timing of the translation is interesting given that the Ottoman capital was in the midst of a wave of reformations introduced by the government. As a matter of fact, the Hatt-i Sharif of Gulhane, marking the beginning of the Tanzimat was proclaimed that very year. The copies of Takhlis in Turkish, sent to Constantinople upon Muhammed 'Ali's order, were hence met with great interest from the Sublime Porte as one of the first comprehensive accounts of European society and culture. A year later, another travelogue, this time written by Mustafa Sami Efendi, appeared in Constantinople, following the sefaratname (the book of embassy) tradition of Yirmisekiz Mehmet ielebi, the ambassador in France during the early eighteenth century. Its author was a fervent supporter of Mustafa Rerid Pasha's policies, hence of the Tanzimat Edict. Yet, while al-Tahtawi's account has been praised and given a significant place in the developments of modern Arab social thought, Mustafa Sami was often mocked by his Ottoman contemporaries for his exaggerated admiration of the West. This paper will explore the possibilities to compare the ways in which the mentioned works were presented and perceived in their respective contexts in an attempt to establish a basis for the comparative study of the Tanzimat and Nahda movements that were developing during the same period, one in the imperial center, and the other in its provinces.