Louise Gallorini
PhD - Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages at the American University of Beirut (BA from Université Lumière Lyon 2 and MA from INALCO Paris).
The main focus areas of my current research are Quranic Studies, Sufi Studies, Medieval Arabic Literature studies. Dissertation topic: the Evolution of the Representation of Angels in the Qur’an and Mystical Literature (Sufi commentaries, Sufi Mi’raj tales and the Meccan Openings by Ibn Arabi).
I also have a more general interest in the areas of Cultural Anthropology, Modern Literature, Religious studies and Mythology studies.
حاصلة دكتوراه في الدائرة اللغة العربية ولغات الشرق الأدنى في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت. موضوعات اهتمامها البحثية من ضمن الدراسات القرآنية والدراسات الصوفية (تصوّف), كما تهتم بشكل عام بدراسات الأداب العربية وبعلوم الدين وبعلم الإنسان الثقافي وبالميثولوجيا.
Supervisors: Bilal Orfali
The main focus areas of my current research are Quranic Studies, Sufi Studies, Medieval Arabic Literature studies. Dissertation topic: the Evolution of the Representation of Angels in the Qur’an and Mystical Literature (Sufi commentaries, Sufi Mi’raj tales and the Meccan Openings by Ibn Arabi).
I also have a more general interest in the areas of Cultural Anthropology, Modern Literature, Religious studies and Mythology studies.
حاصلة دكتوراه في الدائرة اللغة العربية ولغات الشرق الأدنى في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت. موضوعات اهتمامها البحثية من ضمن الدراسات القرآنية والدراسات الصوفية (تصوّف), كما تهتم بشكل عام بدراسات الأداب العربية وبعلوم الدين وبعلم الإنسان الثقافي وبالميثولوجيا.
Supervisors: Bilal Orfali
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subject of popular belief in pre-islamic Arabia, whereby angels would take on the role of exclusive messengers from the Otherworld, a function which was typical of the jinn in pre-islamic Arabia. Jinn would remain an important feature of the imaginary within the Islamic world, albeit with a modified role.
Food as a Cultural Signifier
International & Interdisciplinary Conference of the
Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA)
12-14 May 2016
Auditorium B1/College Hall
American University of Beirut
Held in Beirut on May 10-12th 2018
Conference organised by Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn and Bilal Orfali
Report written by Louise Gallorini
✶ ✶ ✶
This conference was organised over three days by Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn and Bilal Orfali. The first day of the conference was held on the premises of the American University of Beirut, after which the Bristol Hotel in Beirut became the venue for the second and third days of the conference.
Nadia Maria El Cheikh (Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - AUB), Bilal Orfali (Chair of the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages - AUB) and Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn (Director of the Center for Arts and Humanities - AUB) welcomed participants to this conference on Thursday. This conference, which they had hoped to organise for many years, should result in the publication of the papers presented. The different presentations explored the overwhelming presence of anthologies in pre-modern Arabic literature, a phenomenon unique to this literature, where you may find anthologies and compilations on any kind of subject or following diverse themes, from love, wine, travel, death to music, difficult words and blaming or praising things. What were the reasons for the popularity of the genre, and what was its function? To what extent can they be considered as original works in themselves, how the author’s influence can be traced in his manner and method of compiling? What can be inferred from the chosen excerpts over what has been left out by an author and most of the time lost to us? What can these compilations say on the historical and cultural context? These questions and many others were raised about this genre, and continue to rise for the readers and scholars today.
The conference was composed by eight panels on the following themes: “Emotions”, “Pleasure”, “Faith and Education”, “This is not a tale”, “Poetry”, “Compilation, Authorship and Readership”, and “Geography”. Each panel was followed by an open question session, allowing the audience to participate and engage with the participants. A keynote speech was given by Professor Ramzi Baalbaki of the American University of Beirut on the second day, and an honorary guest speech by Professor Beatrice Gruendler of the Freie Universität of Berlin on the third day, after which the conference was concluded by a dinner.
Mi‘rāj literature took then a particular importance in sufi literature, and this is what this paper is interested in : “For the Ṣūfīs, the night journey and ascension of the Prophet became the prototype of the soul's itinerary to God as it rises from the bonds of sensuality to the height of mystical knowledge.” (Böwering, 2005). It is this travel as quest for mystical knowledge - reflecting a well known hadīth on travel for the quest for knowledge - that we will be the main focus of this paper, with an early example of sufi literature which is the Kitāb al-miʿrāj attributed to Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (d. 261/874–5 or 234/848–9), an important sufi figure interestingly known only by works and sayings attributed to him, as no work authored by him exists (Mojaddedi, 2012). The text used is based on R.A. Nicholson’s edition (1926), and this sufi miʿrāj is possibly the earliest sufi work on the theme (El Azma, 1973). We will look into the story itself with its characters, narrative and the symbolic implications derived from a rendering of a sufi master’s ascension in mimesis to the prophetic ascension, as well as the language used, questioning the context and history of this text.
http://hdl.handle.net/10938/22446
subject of popular belief in pre-islamic Arabia, whereby angels would take on the role of exclusive messengers from the Otherworld, a function which was typical of the jinn in pre-islamic Arabia. Jinn would remain an important feature of the imaginary within the Islamic world, albeit with a modified role.
Food as a Cultural Signifier
International & Interdisciplinary Conference of the
Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA)
12-14 May 2016
Auditorium B1/College Hall
American University of Beirut
Held in Beirut on May 10-12th 2018
Conference organised by Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn and Bilal Orfali
Report written by Louise Gallorini
✶ ✶ ✶
This conference was organised over three days by Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn and Bilal Orfali. The first day of the conference was held on the premises of the American University of Beirut, after which the Bristol Hotel in Beirut became the venue for the second and third days of the conference.
Nadia Maria El Cheikh (Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - AUB), Bilal Orfali (Chair of the Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages - AUB) and Abdul Rahim Abu-Husayn (Director of the Center for Arts and Humanities - AUB) welcomed participants to this conference on Thursday. This conference, which they had hoped to organise for many years, should result in the publication of the papers presented. The different presentations explored the overwhelming presence of anthologies in pre-modern Arabic literature, a phenomenon unique to this literature, where you may find anthologies and compilations on any kind of subject or following diverse themes, from love, wine, travel, death to music, difficult words and blaming or praising things. What were the reasons for the popularity of the genre, and what was its function? To what extent can they be considered as original works in themselves, how the author’s influence can be traced in his manner and method of compiling? What can be inferred from the chosen excerpts over what has been left out by an author and most of the time lost to us? What can these compilations say on the historical and cultural context? These questions and many others were raised about this genre, and continue to rise for the readers and scholars today.
The conference was composed by eight panels on the following themes: “Emotions”, “Pleasure”, “Faith and Education”, “This is not a tale”, “Poetry”, “Compilation, Authorship and Readership”, and “Geography”. Each panel was followed by an open question session, allowing the audience to participate and engage with the participants. A keynote speech was given by Professor Ramzi Baalbaki of the American University of Beirut on the second day, and an honorary guest speech by Professor Beatrice Gruendler of the Freie Universität of Berlin on the third day, after which the conference was concluded by a dinner.
Mi‘rāj literature took then a particular importance in sufi literature, and this is what this paper is interested in : “For the Ṣūfīs, the night journey and ascension of the Prophet became the prototype of the soul's itinerary to God as it rises from the bonds of sensuality to the height of mystical knowledge.” (Böwering, 2005). It is this travel as quest for mystical knowledge - reflecting a well known hadīth on travel for the quest for knowledge - that we will be the main focus of this paper, with an early example of sufi literature which is the Kitāb al-miʿrāj attributed to Abū Yazīd al-Bisṭāmī (d. 261/874–5 or 234/848–9), an important sufi figure interestingly known only by works and sayings attributed to him, as no work authored by him exists (Mojaddedi, 2012). The text used is based on R.A. Nicholson’s edition (1926), and this sufi miʿrāj is possibly the earliest sufi work on the theme (El Azma, 1973). We will look into the story itself with its characters, narrative and the symbolic implications derived from a rendering of a sufi master’s ascension in mimesis to the prophetic ascension, as well as the language used, questioning the context and history of this text.
http://hdl.handle.net/10938/22446