The Poer of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World [Paperback]

A remarkable book analysing the importance of oratory for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimising rulers and inculcating moral values in the medieval Islamic world.Oratory and sermons had a fixed place in the religious and civic rituals of pre-modern Muslim societies and were indispensible for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimizing rulers, and inculcating moral values. While there has been abundant scholarship on medieval Christian and Jewish preaching, this book is the first to consider the tradition of pulpit oratory in the medieval Islamic world. Traversing Iberia and North Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the book analyzes the power of oratory, the ritual juridical and rhetorical features of pre-modern sermons, and the social profiles of the preachers who delivered them. The biographical and historical sources, which form the basis of this remarkable study, offer abundant proof of cultural exchange between al-Andalus and the eastern regions of the Islamic empires, thus shedding light on different regional practices and the juridical debates between individual preachers around correct performance.Oratory and sermons had a fixed place in the religious and civic rituals of pre-modern Muslim societies and were indispensible for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimizing rulers, and inculcating moral values. While there has been abundant scholarship on medieval Christian and Jewish preaching, this book is the first to consider the tradition of pulpit oratory in the medieval Islamic world. Traversing Iberia and North Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the book analyzes the power of oratory, the ritual juridical and rhetorical features of pre-modern sermons, and the social profiles of the preachers who delivered them. The biographical and historical sources, which form the basis of this remarkable study, offer abundant proof of cultural exchange between al-Andalus and the eastern regions of the Islamic empires, thul³¢