Iṣbahānī’s Invitation to Madness
Introduction to the Majnūn Laylā Story
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11014950 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kirsten Beck (Queens College, CUNY, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 330-354 |
| Publication date | 2018-11-28 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Arabic Literature (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0085-2376 • E-ISSN: 1570-064X |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/1570064x-12341371 |
| OpenAlex | W2958354452 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī’s (d. 971) Kitāb al-Aghānī chapter on Majnūn Laylā (“Akhbār Majnūn Banī ʿĀmir wa nasabuh”) confronts its audience with unresolving divergent knowledge about Majnūn. We are left not only wondering about his name, his origin, and his mental state, but also his being—does he even exist? This paper examines the potential impact of Iṣbahānī’s selection and presentation of akhbār in this Aghānī chapter, making a case for a literary approach to Iṣbahānī’s text fitting with the medieval concept of adab . It asserts that the line of questions we are compelled to ask about Majnūn implicates us in his madness and the madness of the text, which disrupts and complicates that which appears most essential to his story
Art · Art history · Literature · Presentation (obstetrics · State (computer science · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Computer Science · Families in Therapy and Culture · History · Islamic Studies and History · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2024 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |