Books by Letizia Osti
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Copyright © Bursa İlahiyat Foundation Volume 8 Number 2 Summer / Fall 2017 p-ISSN: 1309-1786 / e-... more Copyright © Bursa İlahiyat Foundation Volume 8 Number 2 Summer / Fall 2017 p-ISSN: 1309-1786 / e-ISSN: 1309-1719 DOI: 10.12730/13091719.2017.82.169 Crisis and Continuity at the Abbasid Court: Formal and Informal Politics in the Caliphate of al-Muqtadir (295320/908-32), ed. Maaike van Berkel, Nadia Maria El Cheikh, Hugh Kennedy, and Letizia Osti (Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts, 102) (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2013), i-xiii + 262 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-25271-4, €123.00 / $144.00
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Abu Bakr al-Suli was an Abbasid polymath and table companion, as well as a legendary chess player... more Abu Bakr al-Suli was an Abbasid polymath and table companion, as well as a legendary chess player. He was perhaps best known for his work on poetry and chancery, which would have a long-lasting influence on Arabic literature. His decades of service at the court of at least three caliphs give him a unique perspective as an historian of his own time, although he is often valued as an observer rather than an interpreter of events for posterity. Letizia Osti here provides the first full-length English-language study devoted to al-Suli, illustrating how investigating the life, times and works of such a complex individual can serve as a fil rouge for tackling broader, contested concepts, such as biography, autobiography, court culture, and written culture. The result is an exploration of the ways in which the Abbasid court made sense of the past and, in general, of what ‘historiography’ means in a medieval Arabic context.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-32) is a crucial and controversial epoch in the history of ... more The reign of al-Muqtadir (295-320/908-32) is a crucial and controversial epoch in the history of the Abbasid empire. Al-Muqtadir’s regime has traditionally been depicted as one of decline, when the political power of the caliphate and the lustre of its capital began to crumble. This book not only offers a substantial investigation of the idea and reality of decline, but also provides new interpretations of the inner workings of the court and the empire. The authors, four specialists of Abbasid history, explore the formal and informal power relationships that shaped politics at the court, involving bureaucrats, military, harem, courtiers and of course al-Muqtadir himself. A study of the topography of Baghdad completes this vivid picture of the court and its capital.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Edited Volumes by Letizia Osti
Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 71:3, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Il libro vuole mettere a fuoco la pluralità che sostanzia il concetto di «autorità» mel mondo isl... more Il libro vuole mettere a fuoco la pluralità che sostanzia il concetto di «autorità» mel mondo islamico. Le direttrici sottese dalla riflessione sono due: quella dell’eterogeneità, sia essa intesa in senso cronologico o geografico; e quella della continuità, che ha permesso la persistenza di categorie di pensiero, istituzioni e strutture sociali che hanno dato forme per certi versi simili alle civiltà del Vicino e Medio Oriente, al subcontinente indiano, ma anche, al di là di queste, a parte dell’Africa subsahariana e alle isole del sud-est asiatico
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Abbasid Studies, 2020
https://brill.com/view/journals/jas/7/2/jas.7.issue-2.xml
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 71:3, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Articles by Letizia Osti
«Par les geus d’Amors savoreus» : Parole di Eros dal Medioevo al Moderno, ed A. Gurrieri, C. La Rosa, I. Licitra, N. Primo, 2022
This paper discusses the relation between love, wealth, and social standing as it is described in... more This paper discusses the relation between love, wealth, and social standing as it is described in two fourth/tenth century sources, the Kitāb al-Muwashshā (The Book of Brocade) by al-Washshāʾ (d. 325/937), a manual for refined litterateurs, and the Jawāmiʿ al-ladhdha by ʿAlī b. Nasr al-Kātib (d. perhaps 377/987), a compendium of sexual knowledge containing medical and legal as well as literary material. Through the analytical framework of the history of emotions, the paper argues that, despite their different outlooks, both al-Washshāʾ and ʿAlī b. Nasr connect love with practical circumstances which influence the ability, or opportunity, to nurture it. However, this does not mean that they describe specific social groups.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Abbasid Studies, 2020
This paper introduces the volume's rationale, problematising the concept of fourth/tenth-century ... more This paper introduces the volume's rationale, problematising the concept of fourth/tenth-century 'Arab encyclopaedism' and suggesting a new framework for the analysis of a wide range of activities connected with organization, inventory and classification.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 2018
This paper looks at the interplay of personal and political history in Ab\u16b Bakr al-\u1e62\u16... more This paper looks at the interplay of personal and political history in Ab\u16b Bakr al-\u1e62\u16bl\u12b\u2019s Kit\u101b al-Awr\u101q, a composite chronicle of the Abbasid Caliphate. The central is whether the parts of the Awr\u101q covering the years when al-\u1e62\u16bl\u12b was alive (and working at the caliphal court) are to be considered a chronicle or rather an autobiography and whether, in this context, there is a recognisable authorial voice evaluating events and persons from a distinct point of view. The material is contrasted internally, with parts of the Awr\u101q covering periods before al-\u1e62\u16bl\u12b\u2019s life, and externally, with the work of historians chronicling the same period, such as \u2bfAr\u12bb and Miskawayh
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Questo contributo propone l\u2019applicazione di strumenti di analisi propri della pragmatica a t... more Questo contributo propone l\u2019applicazione di strumenti di analisi propri della pragmatica a testi arabi classici, e in particolare alla prosa storiografica. Scopo dello studio \ue8 identificare possibili vie e modalit\ue0 esplorative e formulare le domande di ricerca a cui questo tipo di analisi pu\uf2 offrire una risposta. Ci si concentrer\ue0 su un autore, al-Suli, e su un elemento specifico dei testi, la conversazione
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Abbasid Studies
This paper outlines the rationale behind this Special Issue, problematizing the concept of fourth... more This paper outlines the rationale behind this Special Issue, problematizing the concept of fourth/tenth-century “Arab encyclopaedism” and advancing new frameworks and points of focus for the analysis of a wide range of activities so far examined under this rubric. In particular, we suggest that, in accordance with the conclusions of several contributors to this volume, greater attention should be paid to developments in the Arabic book that were designed to make texts navigable, such as division into topical chapters, hierarchical chapter-structures and tables of contents. These would more helpfully be understood as part of a longer history whereby books became more easily accessible, and thus useable, for the independent reader. As other contributors stress, it is also more profitable to examine the local, institutional and political circumstances that produced certain kinds of organization, inventory and classification.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Studies on medieval Arabic bibliophilia have mainly focussed on public and semi-public institutio... more Studies on medieval Arabic bibliophilia have mainly focussed on public and semi-public institutions, for some of which we have detailed information. Less is known about private libraries and their physical arrangement. This paper looks at the library of Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/947), which is described by the sources in unique terms, contextualising it with al-Ṣūlī’s own words on collecting and organizing books.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Abbasid Studies, 2014
This study follows the financial adventures of Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/947) as he served at the ... more This study follows the financial adventures of Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī (d. 335/947) as he served at the court of three Abbasid caliphs in various capacities over thirty-eight years. In hisKitāb al-Awrāq, chronicles covering this period, al-Ṣūlī frequently refers to payments he himself or his colleagues had received as regular salaries, occasional presents, or inheritances, and he describes in some detail the physical appearance of material gifts and the circumstances in which they were given. Al-Ṣūlī wrote the last part of his chronicles at the end of his life, residing in Basra, living in reduced circumstances after he had left the court. Especially in the part of the book which records the reign of al-Rāḍī (r. 322/934-329/940), al-Ṣūlī recollects his prosperity as court companion at the time and contrasts it with his present worries. Based on the information provided by al-Ṣūlī, different components of a courtier’s income and the sources they are extracted from are identified and discuss...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Lingue Culture Mediazioni - Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal)
[One day, the famous grammarian] al-Farrā’ made several mistakes while speaking in the presence o... more [One day, the famous grammarian] al-Farrā’ made several mistakes while speaking in the presence of Hārūn al-Rašīd. [The vizier] Ja‘far b. Yaḥyā al-Barmakī pointed this out to the caliph, who said: “Al-Farrā’, are you speaking incorrectly?”. “Commander of the Faithful”, replied al-Farrā’, “while it is natural for the Beduins to inflect words correctly, for citydwellers [like me] it is not. When I prepare, I speak correctly; when I speak off the cuff, I make mistakes”. Al-Rašīd appreciated al-Farrā’’s words. (Ibn Ḫallikān, 1968-72, vol. 6, 147)
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques, Dec 20, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Books by Letizia Osti
Edited Volumes by Letizia Osti
Articles by Letizia Osti
1350–1850
Xinhua news agency news production of Chinese internal politics in different languages is influenced by the agency’s multifaceted
organizational identity, which can be described as both ideologically driven and consumer oriented, as well as by the targeted audiences’ culture and language. Her contribution draws on a corpus of Xinhua news agency press releases (in Chinese, English and French) regarding the 2015 Premier report on the work of government to the Chinese National People’s Congress, shedding light on the basic characteristics of the Chinese official media’s multilingual news production on Chinese politics. In order to better discuss the peculiarities of the news agency’s discourse, the textual findings are interpreted through the lens of keywords concerning the relations between the media and the political system in China, with a focus on the leading role of Xinhua news agency in representing the country to world audiences.