Oriental Languages and Civilizations

Book excerpt: The volume consists of six parts devoted to literature, languages, history, culture, science, religions and philosophy of the Eastern World. Its aim is to portray the present-day state of oriental studies, which are here understood predominantly as philologies of Asia and Africa, but also as a field of study including other, adjacent disciplines of the humanities, not neglecting the history of oriental research. The book’s multidisciplinary content reflects the multi- and often interdisciplinary nature of oriental studies today. Part 1 (Literature) offers new insights into belles-lettres written in Arabic, Hindi, Turkish, Urdu, Persian and Japanese. Part 2 (Linguistics) contains studies on Sanskrit texts (in a stylometric approach), Japanese nominals, Japanese poetry as a linguistic source, Arabic translations of the Bible, Arabic dialect of Morocco, Arabic culinary terms of Persian origin and Turkish vocabulary of the language reform era. Part 3 (History) investigates Napoleon’s campaign in the Middle East, Middle Eastern-Russian relations in the 18th century, the history of Seljuk Empire and the works of a Moroccan historian, Ǧaʿfar Ibn Aḥmad an-Nāṣīrī as-Salawī. Part 4 (Historyof Oriental Studies) deals with the history of oriental studies in Kraków and with the problems of a critical edition of the Quran. Part 5 (Culture and Science) examines the artistic achievements of Egyptian moviemaker Yūsuf Šahīn and possible influence of the Muslim science on medieval Polish scholars. Part 6 (Religion and Philosophy) explores some philosophical concepts of the Confucian ethics and the contribution of Karīma Bint Aḥmad Al-Marwaziyya to preservation and transmission of some religious traditions of Islam.