The Power of Oratory in the Medieval Muslim World

A remarkable book analysing the importance of oratory for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimising rulers and inculcating moral values in the medieval Islamic world.

Linda G. Jones (Author)

9781107023055, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 August 2012

312 pages
23.3 x 16 x 2.1 cm, 0.56 kg

Oratory and sermons had a fixed place in the religious and civic rituals of pre-modern Muslim societies and were indispensable for transmitting religious knowledge, legitimising or challenging rulers and inculcating the moral values associated with being part of the Muslim community. While there has been abundant scholarship on medieval Christian and Jewish preaching, Linda G. Jones's book is the first to consider the significance of the tradition of pulpit oratory in the medieval Islamic world. Traversing Iberia and North Africa from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the book analyses the power of oratory, the ritual juridical and rhetorical features of pre-modern sermons and the social profiles of the preachers and orators who delivered them. The biographical and historical sources, which form the basis of this remarkable study, shed light on different regional practices and the juridical debates between individual preachers around correct performance.

Introduction
1. Laying the foundations
2. The khutba: the 'central jewel' of medieval Arab-Islamic prose
3. The khutba: rhetorical and discursive strategies of persuasion
4. Putting it all together: the khutba, texts, and contexts
Part I. Canonical Questions: 5. Putting it all together: the khutba, texts, and contexts
Part II. Thematic and Occasional Orations: 6. Homiletic exhortation and storytelling: challenging the 'popular'
7. 'The good eloquent speaker': profiles of pre-modern Muslim preachers
8. The audience responds: participation, reception, contestation
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Islam [HRH], Religion & beliefs [HR], Medieval history [HBLC1], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], General & world history [HBG]