Description
About the Author
Elias Muhanna is the Manning Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Brown University. He is the editor and translator of an abridged version of al-Nuwayri's The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition (Penguin) and the editor of The Digital Humanities and Islamic & Middle East Studies.
Reviews
"Winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Book Prize, Journal of the History of Ideas"
"Honorable Mention for the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize"
"Winner of the John Nicholas Brown Prize, Medieval Academy of America"
"In this erudite book, Elias Muhanna deftly analyzes the epistemological structure of al-Nuwayri's immense encyclopedia and places it into its many rich intellectual, cultural, and historical contexts."---Nasser Rabbat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Elias Muhanna's The World in a Book: Al-Nuwayri and the Islamic Encyclopedic Tradition is an erudite, scrupulously researched, and eminentlyreadable book that marks a significant contribution to studies in Arabic literature, Mamluk history, and the production and circulation of knowledgein the medieval Islamicate world."---Mimi Hanaoka, American Journal of Islamic Social Science
"There are few books in the field of pre-modern Islamic intellectual history that are both original contributions to scholarship and such a pleasure to read that they would interest a broad audience of non-specialists. This book is one of them."---Matthew L. Keegan, Arab Studies Journal
"
Muhanna's well-researched The World in a Book presents an exciting exploration
of the conditions of creating a compendium in the fourteenth century. . . a fascinating read for all lover of knowledge
"
The World in a Book is edifying, lucidly-written, and enjoyable to read. . . . Al-Nuwayri's world of Mamluk
Egypt and Syria is vividly brought to life. Muhanna's book also potentially enables very fruitful comparative conversations on encyclopedism in Middle Eastern and Western traditions. It is an important work that moves the study of "post-classical" Arabic literature significantly forward.
Book Information
ISBN 9780691175560
Author Elias Muhanna
Format Hardback
Page Count 232
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 510g