Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature
This book is about an aspect of medieval Arabic culture and literature known in Arabic as mujùn (roughly ‘libertinism, licentiousness, frivolity, indecency, profligacy, shamelessness, impertinence’, etc.), a concept that students of mediaeval Arabic texts may find rather hard to define but which is a recurrent term and a widespread phenomenon in medieval Arabic literature, and probably common in real life. The social implications and the background of mujùn are focused on in an attempt to learn what the popularity of mujùn during a specific period of the medieval Middle East can tell us about the society and the culture that produced such works. It is a study of the society in which such literature flourished, of the values and norms of that society, and of the májin (the man who does or writes mujùn) rather than of mujùn in itself. The author uses many excepts from primary source texts to explore the nature, concepts and content of mujùn, including its vernacular language, religious irreverence and not infrequent indecency of subject matter, within its socio-religious context. It provides a critical inventory of the varied motifs of mujùn in literature so as to define this elusive term by way of an accumulation of concrete examples.
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Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature
This book is about an aspect of medieval Arabic culture and literature known in Arabic as mujùn (roughly ‘libertinism, licentiousness, frivolity, indecency, profligacy, shamelessness, impertinence’, etc.), a concept that students of mediaeval Arabic texts may find rather hard to define but which is a recurrent term and a widespread phenomenon in medieval Arabic literature, and probably common in real life. The social implications and the background of mujùn are focused on in an attempt to learn what the popularity of mujùn during a specific period of the medieval Middle East can tell us about the society and the culture that produced such works. It is a study of the society in which such literature flourished, of the values and norms of that society, and of the májin (the man who does or writes mujùn) rather than of mujùn in itself. The author uses many excepts from primary source texts to explore the nature, concepts and content of mujùn, including its vernacular language, religious irreverence and not infrequent indecency of subject matter, within its socio-religious context. It provides a critical inventory of the varied motifs of mujùn in literature so as to define this elusive term by way of an accumulation of concrete examples.
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Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature

Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature

by Zoltan Szombathy
Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature

Mujùn: Libertinism in Medieval Muslim Society and Literature

by Zoltan Szombathy

Hardcover

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Overview

This book is about an aspect of medieval Arabic culture and literature known in Arabic as mujùn (roughly ‘libertinism, licentiousness, frivolity, indecency, profligacy, shamelessness, impertinence’, etc.), a concept that students of mediaeval Arabic texts may find rather hard to define but which is a recurrent term and a widespread phenomenon in medieval Arabic literature, and probably common in real life. The social implications and the background of mujùn are focused on in an attempt to learn what the popularity of mujùn during a specific period of the medieval Middle East can tell us about the society and the culture that produced such works. It is a study of the society in which such literature flourished, of the values and norms of that society, and of the májin (the man who does or writes mujùn) rather than of mujùn in itself. The author uses many excepts from primary source texts to explore the nature, concepts and content of mujùn, including its vernacular language, religious irreverence and not infrequent indecency of subject matter, within its socio-religious context. It provides a critical inventory of the varied motifs of mujùn in literature so as to define this elusive term by way of an accumulation of concrete examples.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780906094617
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication date: 11/30/2013
Series: Gibb Memorial Trust
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 6.69(w) x 9.44(h) x 1.50(d)

Table of Contents

AcknowledgementsIntroduction

1. NORMS AND VALUES IN MEDIAEVAL MUSLIM SOCIETY1. Ideals and Actual Behaviour2. Some Enduring Values in Mediaeval Muslim Society3. A Preliminary Definition of Mujūn

2. THE MOTIFS OF MUJŪN : RELIGION1. An Omnipresent Religious Culture2. Quran and ÍadÐths3. The Stuff of a Sound Education: Religious Disciplines,Theology, and Islamic History4. The Religious Obligations5. Images of Afterlife6. Hyperboles in Praise Poetry7. Genuine Mujūn: A Provisional Summary

3. THE MOTIFS OF MUJŪN : DECENCY AND PROPRIETY1. Breaches of the Norms of Proper Conduct2. Images of Sexuality3. Stylistic Features: Punning, Double Entendre, Obscenity, and Parody

4. THE RECEPTION OF MUJŪN1. The Reception of Mujūn2. Sanctions and Rewards3. Regional Differences in the Reception of Mujūn

5. MUJŪN, VALUES AND NORMS1. Mujūn vis-à-vis Dominant Values2. The Sociology of Mujūn

Afterword: On Defining MujūnSourcesIndex

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