Dana Sajdi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785327
- eISBN:
- 9780804788281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785327.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter explores the larger phenomenon of nouveau literacy in the texts of the Greek Orthodox Priest, Mikhā’īl Burayk; the Shī`ī agriculturalists of southern Lebanon, Ḥaydar Aḥmad Riḍā ...
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This chapter explores the larger phenomenon of nouveau literacy in the texts of the Greek Orthodox Priest, Mikhā’īl Burayk; the Shī`ī agriculturalists of southern Lebanon, Ḥaydar Aḥmad Riḍā al-Rukaynī and his unnamed son; the Samaritan scribe from Nablus, Ibrāhīm al-Danafī; the judicial court scribe from Ḥimṣ, Muḥamad al-Makkī; and by the two Damascene soldiers, Ḥasan Āghā al-`Abd and Ḥasan Ibn al-Ṣiddīq. The chronicles are seen as “‘cheap’ monumentality” since they, like monuments, are public records meant for display and negotiation, but are cheap because they are affordable investments. The chapter demonstrates how each of these new historians navigated and negotiated in the new order through their chronicles. The chapter also considers the language of the chronicles to show how the new authors flouted the rules of textual Arabic to write chronicle “in plain Arabic,” a fact which may suggest wide audiences.Less
This chapter explores the larger phenomenon of nouveau literacy in the texts of the Greek Orthodox Priest, Mikhā’īl Burayk; the Shī`ī agriculturalists of southern Lebanon, Ḥaydar Aḥmad Riḍā al-Rukaynī and his unnamed son; the Samaritan scribe from Nablus, Ibrāhīm al-Danafī; the judicial court scribe from Ḥimṣ, Muḥamad al-Makkī; and by the two Damascene soldiers, Ḥasan Āghā al-`Abd and Ḥasan Ibn al-Ṣiddīq. The chronicles are seen as “‘cheap’ monumentality” since they, like monuments, are public records meant for display and negotiation, but are cheap because they are affordable investments. The chapter demonstrates how each of these new historians navigated and negotiated in the new order through their chronicles. The chapter also considers the language of the chronicles to show how the new authors flouted the rules of textual Arabic to write chronicle “in plain Arabic,” a fact which may suggest wide audiences.
Dana Sajdi
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804785327
- eISBN:
- 9780804788281
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804785327.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter explores the literary and historiographical dimensions of the phenomenon of nouveau literacy. It does this by attempting to answer the question “why is it that all the new historians of ...
More
This chapter explores the literary and historiographical dimensions of the phenomenon of nouveau literacy. It does this by attempting to answer the question “why is it that all the new historians of the eighteenth-century Levant converged on the text of the contemporary chronicle?” The chapter traces the historical development of the genre of the chronicle and, necessarily, of its sister genre, the biographical dictionary, from their earliest roots in the eighth century to their latest reincarnation in the eighteenth century. It demonstrates how in the process of its evolution the chronicle gradually shed some authority-related literary conventions that had historically kept non-scholars at bay. By the eighteenth century, the chronicle had been liberated from the authority of the scholars rendering it easily appropriable by anyone—that is, anyone who could read and write. Chapter Keywords: Biographical dictionary, literary conventions, historiography, contemporary chronicle.Less
This chapter explores the literary and historiographical dimensions of the phenomenon of nouveau literacy. It does this by attempting to answer the question “why is it that all the new historians of the eighteenth-century Levant converged on the text of the contemporary chronicle?” The chapter traces the historical development of the genre of the chronicle and, necessarily, of its sister genre, the biographical dictionary, from their earliest roots in the eighth century to their latest reincarnation in the eighteenth century. It demonstrates how in the process of its evolution the chronicle gradually shed some authority-related literary conventions that had historically kept non-scholars at bay. By the eighteenth century, the chronicle had been liberated from the authority of the scholars rendering it easily appropriable by anyone—that is, anyone who could read and write. Chapter Keywords: Biographical dictionary, literary conventions, historiography, contemporary chronicle.
