Bergen Studies on the Middle East and Africa
Bergen Studies on the Middle East and Africa is a series of monographs from younger scholars at the University of Bergen. Based on previously unpublished dissertations, it covers the humanities and social sciences, with an emphasis on Islamic Africa and the Near East.
1
Anne K. Bang, The Idrisi state in 'Asir, 1906-1934: Politics, religion and personal prestige as statebuilding factors in early twentieth-century Arabia
[1996; viii, 203 pp.; £ 25]. ISBN 1-85065-306-2.
In 1906, a new state was created in Asir on the border between Yemen and the Hijaz. This study traces its rise and fall, and its attempt to find a basis between great power politics and the personal and religious prestige of its founder, Muhammad al-Yamani al-Idrisi. It includes the text and translation of al-Idrisi's treatise, Bayan li'l-nas.
2
Herbjørn Jenssen, The Subtleties and Secrets of the Arabic Language: Preliminary Investigations into al-Qazwini's Talkhis al-miftah
[1998, x, 146 pp.; £ 22]. ISBN 1-85065-307-0
Muhammad b. 'Abd al-Rahman al-Qazwini (d. 1398), while a qadi in Baghdad, was also a scholar on the Arabic language. This study of one of his major works sees him as a product of the madrasa system of the period, and views the relations between meaning (ma'ani) and rhetoric (balagha), together with a discussion of Western scholarship on balagha.
3
Knut S. Vikør, The Oasis of Salt: The History of Kawar, a Saharan Centre of Salt Production
[1999; xii, 342 pp.; £ 25]. ISBN 1-85065-308-9.
Kawar is an oasis region in the absolute centre of the Sahara, whose existence depends on the vast quantities of salt it produced and traded to the south. This is a study of its history from the classical sources down to the colonial occupation in 1906, and of the region's salt trade economy in the pre-colonial period.
4
Camilla Trud Nereid, In the Light of Said Nursi: Turkish Nationalism and the Religious Alternative
[1997; x, 121 pp.; £ 22]. ISBN 1-85065-309-7.
The Nurcu movement has maintained a religious-political opposition to the Turkish state since it was founded. This main cause has often been seen in the state's secularism, this study refutes this and focuses on the differing views on Turkish nationalism as the main reason for the repression of the movement.
