Reading Milton through Islam


Book Description

John Milton’s poetry and prose are central to our understanding of the aesthetic, political and religious upheavals of early modern England. Innovative recent scholarship, however, continues to expand the range of contexts through which we read Milton beyond Christian Europe, unearthing the vitality and resonance of the Miltonic text within religious and political debates across borders, through time and in multiple languages. The Islamic world has begun to receive deserved recognition as one such global site of this cultural energy. The publication of complete translations of Paradise Lost into Arabic has stimulated fresh critical explorations from a multiplicity of perspectives: historicist, comparative and theological. Attention to spatially and religiously diverse influences and reception contexts offers new avenues of approach into masterpieces including Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Areopagitica, as well as into the cultural forces these texts represent, reimagine and contest. By exploring how Milton, Islam and the Middle East address and implicate one another, this collection asks how, why and where Milton matters. This book was originally published as a special issue of English Studies.




Milton in the Arab-Muslim World


Book Description

The first full-length study of the reception of John Milton’s (1608-74) writings in the Arab-Muslim world, this book examines the responses of Arab-Muslim readers to Milton’s works, and in particular, to his epic poem: Paradise Lost. It contributes to knowledge of the history, development, and ways in which early modern writings are read and understood by Muslims. By mapping the literary and more broadly cultural consequences of the censure, translation and abridgement of Milton’s works in the Arab-Muslim world, this book analyses the diverse ways in which Arab-Muslims read and understand a range of literary and religious aspects of Milton’s writing in light of cultural, theological, socio-political, linguistic and translational issues. After providing an overview of the presence of Milton and his works in the Arab world, each chapter sheds light on how cultural and translational issues shape the ways in which Arab-Muslim readers perceive and understand the characters and motifs of Paradise Lost. Chapters outline the ways in which the figures are currently understood in Milton scholarship, before exploring how they fit into the narrative drama and theology of the poem, and their position in Islamic creed and Arab-Muslim culture. Concurrently, each chapter examines the poem’s subject matter in detail, placing particular emphasis on matters of linguistic, theological and cultural translation and accommodation. Chapter conclusions not only summarise the patterns and potentialities of reception, but point towards the practical functions of Arab-Muslim responses to Milton’s writing and their contribution to the formation of social ideas.




Islam and Early Modern English Literature


Book Description

This book traces the process through which authors like Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton adapted, rewrote, or resisted romance, mapping a world in which new cross-cultural contacts and religious conflicts demanded a rethinking of some of the most fundamental terms of early modern identity.




Once Upon the Orient Wave


Book Description

In an unusual view of one of the English language's greatest writers, an Arab scholar analyzes the oriental influences on Milton's work, and Milton's own influence on Arab writers and critics John Milton's great poems, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, are among the greatest pieces of writing in the English language. Like other writers of his time, Milton had only a sketchy idea of Islam and the Arab world, from travelers and linguists who had made the arduous journey to and from the Middle East. But buried in his works are signs that Milton had absorbed ideas and influences from Islam and Arab culture. Professor Dahiyat shows how from the Middle Ages, partly as an attempt to counteract Islam with Christianity, a wide range of writers and researchers spoke, read, and wrote Arabic and published books in the earliest days of printing which Milton could have read. He then shows how many different references there are to the Orient and Islam in Milton's writings, and discusses the later response of Arab writers and scholars to Milton's major works.




Islamic Politics in Palestine


Book Description

Palestinian Islamists are regularly in the headlines these days, mainly for their violent attempts to undermine the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. What motivates the Islamists? How did they become such a powerful force?




White Gold


Book Description

This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale. Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a disturbing, little known chapter of history. Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco who was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. As his personal slave, he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of the imperial court, as well as experience the daily terror of a cruel regime. Gripping, immaculately researched, and brilliantly realised, WHITE GOLD reveals an explosive chapter of popular history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.




Digital Milton


Book Description

Digital Milton is the first volume to investigate John Milton in terms of our digital present. It explores the digital environments Milton now inhabits as well as the diverse digital methods that inform how we read, teach, edit, and analyze his works. Some chapters use innovative techniques, such as processing metadata from vast archives of early modern prose, coding Milton’s geographical references on maps, and visualizing debt networks from literature and from life. Other chapters discuss the technologies and platforms shaping how literature reaches us today, from audiobooks to eReaders, from the OED Online to Wikipedia, and from Twitter to YouTube. Digital Milton is the first say on a topic that will become ever more important to scholars, students, and teachers of early modern literature in the years to come.




Milton in Translation


Book Description

Milton in Translation represents an unprecedented collaboration that demonstrates the breadth of John Milton's international reception, from the seventeenth century through today. This book collects in one volume new essays written on the translation of Milton's works written by an international roster of experts: stalwart and career-long Miltonists, scholars primarily of translation studies, and practitioners who have translated Milton's works. Chapters are grouped geographically but also, by and large, chronologically, given that Milton's works radiated further abroad over time. The chapters on the twenty-three individual languages showcased in this volume are framed by 'Part I: Approaches', consisting of an introduction and two major essays on the global reach and the aural nature of Milton's poetry, and by an epilogue. 'Part II: Influential Translations' features the most influential languages in translations of Milton's works (English, Latin, German, French). Then, accounts of Milton's afterlives in specific languages are provided in 'Part III. Western European and Latin American Translations' (Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish), 'Part IV: Central and Eastern European Translations' (Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian/Montenegrin, Serbo-Croatian languages), 'Part V: Middle Eastern Translations' (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian), and 'Part VI: East Asian Translations' (Chinese, Japanese, Korean). The chapters in Parts II through VI include historical and critical context, a brief history of translation in the language, and a case study on any single work or group of Milton's works in translation.




Reading John Milton


Book Description

Reading John Milton is a guide to Milton’s writings written for students, teachers, and readers everywhere seeking to approach this major figure in English and world literature. Milton’s works range from the monumental epic Paradise Lost to moving personal sonnets, from the tragic grandeur of Samson Agonistes to prose defenses of political liberty and religious tolerance. This book offers clear, fresh introductions and commentary that make an author with a reputation for difficulty relevant and accessible. Individual texts are placed in their literary and historical contexts, and explored so as to encourage fresh, independent interpretations informed by the contemporary humanities. Carefully organized for ease of use, the book opens with reasons why Milton matters, ideas for critical approaches, and a biography of Milton. Subsequent chapters are dedicated to groups of works or individual masterpieces. Key themes are placed in focus and a full overview provided for all of Milton’s major poems. Each chapter includes a set of stimulating questions and activities and suggestions for further reading keyed to a generous bibliography, including online resources. Reading John Milton is both an ideal introduction and a complete companion for anyone ready to experience the sublimity and delight of reading Milton.




Basic Judaism


Book Description

The classic, essential guide to the beliefs, ideals and practices that form the historic Jewish faith.