Solving the "Accursed Riddle" of the Diplomatic Relations between Catalonia and Egypt around 1430

The last Arabic diplomatic document in Barcelona's Crown of Aragon Archive (ACA) that is still to be edited and studied is ACA Arabic doc. 164. The document is a preliminary draft of the commercial and peace treaty drawn up in 1430 by Alfons the Magnanimous, King of Aragon, Naples and Sicily (1396-1458), and the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Barsbāy (825-841/1422-1437), signed in Rhodes (Ramadān 7 833/30 May 1430, ACA Arabic doc. 145), and published in 1939 by Ruíz Orsatti. Document 164 contained 111 folios, which were not in order, and for this reason specialists called it the "accursed riddle". The document was probably prepared for discussion during the summer of 1429, a few months before the definitive version was signed. It is longer than the final agreement, and contains an additional Chapter (33) which has not been published to date. Little documentary evidence of diplomatic negotiation between Muslim and Christian powers in Medieval times has survived, and this chapter provides us with a highly unusual example. In the first part of this study the document is described and its contents outlined. In sections 2 and 3 we edit and analyse the contents of the additional Chapter 33 and the Explicit that goes with it, which is absent from Ruíz Orsatti's version. We then present some historical data regarding the Catalan embassy to Rhodes, which will shed light on the diplomatic negotiations that concern us and the historical reasons for the censoring of Chapter 33.     

Labour relations in Korea between crisis management and living solidarity

Abstract

This paper examines the ambiguous nature of Murakami's criticism toward the postwar Japanese condition – as the artist most effectively captured in his phrase ‘A Little Boy,’ which was also the title of his curated exhibition at the Japan Society of New York in 2005 Murakami, Takashi. 2005. “‘Earth in my window’”. In Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Edited by: Murakami, Takashi. 98–149. New York and New Haven: The Japan Society and Yale University Press. Linda Hoaglund (trans.) [Google Scholar]. As Murakami wrote in his introduction to the catalogue, demilitarized Japan after the Second World War underwent a collective sense of helplessness, and the metaphor of a little boy is intended to describe Japan's supposedly unavoidable reliance on its big brother, America. The name ‘Little Boy,’ in fact, originates from the code name used by the American military for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The proliferation of ‘cuteness’ in Japanese contemporary art, which draws upon youth culture, especially otaku culture, evinces a common urge among the postwar generation in Japan to escape from their horrible memories and sense of powerlessness. Murakami's rhetorical analysis of Japan's self‐image seems, however, contradictory, given his extremely aggressive business tactics, which can find no counterpart in the Western art world – not even in the efforts of Murakami's predecessor, Andy Warhol. Like My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), whose hyper sexuality defies its pubescent and immature appearance, his art, theory, and art marketing indicate the paradoxical nature of his theory of impotence. By focusing on his manifesto and writings published on the occasion of his 2005 Murakami, Takashi. 2005. “‘Earth in my window’”. In Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture, Edited by: Murakami, Takashi. 98–149. New York and New Haven: The Japan Society and Yale University Press. Linda Hoaglund (trans.) [Google Scholar] exhibition and his style of managing Kaikai Kiki Ltd., this paper delves into the dual nature of Murakami's interpretation of postwar Japanese art and culture, particularly in relation to those of America.     

Ibn Baṭṭūṭa on Shedding of Blood in the Delhi Sultanate

Ibn Ba??ū?a's longest sojourn (734–748/1333-ca. 1347) in his famous world travels was in the domains of the Delhi sultanate ruled by Mu?ammad b. Tughluq. He presents a vivid picture of court life in Delhi and a portrait of the sultan, whom Ibn Ba??ū?a describes in contrasting terms of generosity and violence. This essay examines the latter phenomenon, first by briefly noting the contribution of two contrasting studies on the complex nature of violence itself (Part One), followed by Ibn Ba??ū?a's depiction of Ibn Tughluq's accession to power (Part Two), and then his perception of the sultan's use of capital punishment during his reign (Part Three). The last section (Part Four) adds further detail on the sultan's policy and then briefly compares Ibn Ba??ū?a's perception of the sultan's violence with that of another contemporary witness, the historian ?iyā? al-Dīn Baranī. The result suggests that Ibn Ba??ū?a's representation of violence is as nuanced as the phenomenon of violence itself.     

Piracy as Statecraft: The Mediterranean Policies of the Fifth/Eleventh-Century Taifa of Denia

The taifa of Denia on the Iberian eastern seaboard was one of the most dynamic of the regional polities that emerged from the disintegrated Cordovan caliphate. Mujāhid al-‘āmirī based his state not only on its continental territories, but especially on the maritime networks that linked it with the Mediterranean. Commerce with Muslim and Christian ports played a role in Denia's success, but both Latin and Arabic sources emphasise its practice of piracy on a grand scale. In fact, Mujāhid al-‘āmirī built his state as a continuation of the maritime policies of the Cordovan caliphate under which the piracy of independent coastal communities was adopted and expanded into a state-sponsored guerre de course. Mujāhid's pursuance of this policy stemmed from his role in the erstwhile caliphate, but was also motivated by a combination of religious, political and economic factors. The legitimacy provided by his “jihād on the sea” helped to shore up his power at a time of political instability. This policy also provided the taifa's economic foundation for much of its history. In fact, the Mediterranean maritime lanes became as much an extension of Denia as its continental territories. Denia's piracy thus reflects a coherent form of statecraft, informing definitions of the medieval state and territoriality.     

Book Reviews

Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam RICHARD G. HOVANNISIAN and GEORGES SABAGH (Eds), 1999 Giorgio Levi della Vida Conferences, 14 Cambridge, Cambridge University Press viii_118 pp., UK£32.50 ISBN 0-521-623502 This book contains the proceedings of a conference whose speakers and theme were chosen by Professor George Makdisi, recipient of the Giorgio Levi della Vida Award in 1993. Although the theme is quite wide, the tone and viewpoint of the book are consistent with each other and coherent with Makdisi's own position, which he summarises in the first chapter, "Religion and culture in classical Islam and the Christian West". Here, Makdisi gives an overview of the fascinating theory which he has expounded in several works over the past decades (especially his The Rise of Colleges: Institutions of Learning in Islam and the West (Edinburgh, 1981) and The Rise of Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West (Edinburgh, 1990)), explaining how came to be interested in this subject and linking it to the modern-day American situation. Makdisi's view is that the European scholastic and humanistic movements had their origin in two equivalent movements that had begun some centuries earlier in the Middle East and, through Spain and Sicily, reached the West. This first chapter sets the tone of the whole book, which deals with several Arabo-Islamic subjects, making ample references to equivalent or parallel themes in the medieval (and occasionally modern) Christian (and occasionally Jewish) world. W. Montgomery Watt's essay on The future of Islam" compares Jewish reactions to Hellenism in Antiquity with contemporary Muslim reactions to the Western, Christian culture. It is a very stimulating piece, and the daring juxtapposition of past and present provokes important questions: to what extent can one think, today, of different parts of our globalised world simply Muslim or Christian, albeit with varying degrees of secularism? How can one deal with the fact that large portions of all societies do not identify themselves in any religion? Returning to a medieval subject, the following two chapters illustrate aspects the relation between religion and literature. Merlin Swartz writes on "Arabic rhetoric and the art of the homily in medieval Islam", pointing to the lack of secondary scholarship on this genre, whose Christian parallel has instead received great attention. Swartz begins filling this gap by describing in great detail the norms laid out in two handbooks for preachers written by Ibn al-Jawzý¯ (d. 597/1201). The fourth chapter, by Irfan Shahý¯d ("Medieval Islam: the literary-cultural dimension") reflects on the Qur'a¯nic idea of i'ja¯z (inimitability) and its consequences for the field of literature, from the times of Muh_ammad to the present day. This is followed by George Saliba's more specific illustration of how three prominent Ash'arite authors refute astrology ("The Ash'arites and the science of the stars"); the issue is placed within the context of the Islamic-Arabic approach to classical Greek heritage. Roger Arnaldez ("Religion, religious culture, and culture") provides an outline of the development of Islam from starting point as a religion containing ancient practices whose origins were forgotten,     

Leadership and peacemaking: Yitzhak Rabin and the Oslo Accords

Leaders guiding their groups through a peace process following a difficult conflict must address the unique challenges created by this process. This article describes the duality characterizing peace processes and offers an original conceptualization of the socio-psychological tasks leaders fulfill in this context, addressing security and control needs, changing collective beliefs and emotions, and mobilizing the group while simultaneously coping with social polarization. This paper reports on a case study of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's leadership during the Oslo Accords through his public speeches designed to mobilize his group's support. A content analysis of speeches following different types of events (positive, negative or neutral) and targeting different audiences (Israeli and international) highlights three major themes emerging from his rhetoric, which correlate to his tasks as a leader in peacemaking. The findings describe how Rabin coped with the challenges that arose from the complex peace process, while fulfilling the first two of his tasks and mobilizing his group, but not dealing with the deep social polarization that existed within Israeli society at that time. The triangular interaction between leader, society and context are discussed with regard to their impact on peace processes. Conclusions are drawn about the opportunities and setbacks of the Oslo Accords, considering Rabin's contribution to peacemaking.     

"Asterix Repelling the Invader": Globalization and Nationalism in News Coverage of Jose Bove and the McDonald's Incident

This article examines Associated Press and Agence France-Presse wire service coverage of Frenchman Jose Bove's 1999 ransacking of a Millau, France, McDonald's, as well as his subsequent trial. News media coverage of this incident represents an opportunity to examine deeper issues surrounding globalization, nationalism, and the media's-in this case, international news agencies'-role in constructing and maintaining both. Analysis suggests that both services covered the Bove incidents similarly, downplaying the broader context of corporate capitalism and the global movement to resist it, while elevating Bove to be a key representative of the movement. At the same time that they anointed Bove as a French icon (contributing to "Bovemania"), the wire services constructed a comical caricature of him, which ultimately discredits the activists and the movement he represents.     

The Deathbed of Lord Palmerston

ABSTRACT

Lord Palmerston died on 18 October 1865, still prime minister at the age of eighty. He was given a state funeral in Westminster Abbey on 27 October. By that time his stepson-in-law, Lord Shaftesbury, had begun spreading the word to a half-believing, half-unpersuaded public that Palmerston had died ‘the good [evangelical] death’, confessing in his last moments not only his sins but his belief in a life to come for all penitent believers in Christ's atoning sacrifice. This article reviews the surviving evidence of witnesses at Palmerston's deathbed and attempts to reconstruct the meaning(s) which Palmerston and his attendants (both family and medical) placed on the rituals in which they participated during the final days of Palmerston's life. A particular effort is made to provide a plausible cultural and intellectual context to Palmerston's participation in these rituals. Palmerston, it will be argued, was a ‘religious believer’ but in a very different sense from that wished on him by the younger generation who stage-managed the event.     

Prostration Before the Law: Representations of Illness,Interaction, and Intimacy in the NYPD Blue Prostate Cancer Narrative

Building on extant literature on media, illness narratives, and "message television," we analyze the prostate cancer narrative presented in ABC's police drama, NYPD Blue. Given the potential for entertainment television as a source of health information, we justify the need to examine the prostate cancer experiences portrayed by the show's central character, Detective Andy Sipowicz, and his wife Sylvia. In addition to using narrative analysis, we compare the televised story with knowledge derived from extant research on prostate cancer and prostate cancer support groups. After providing background information about the television series and the disease, we investigate the accuracy and scope of the prostate cancer information presented in the story. In doing so, we consider (a) depictions of the wife as a selfless support source, (b) dialectical tensions that emerge within the marital relationship because of the illness experience, and (c) the narrative probability of this fictitious illness narrative.     

Reclaiming America: the quest for home in Shawn Wong’s Homebase

ABSTRACT

With its dynamic narrative, Shawn Wong's Homebase recounts the story of four generations of a Chinese family searching for a homebase on the land of the United States. Personal experiences, family chronicles, and Chinese American history are portrayed through various forms, including short stories, correspondences, student essays, memories, and dreams. A major theme of the novel is geographically and spiritually “reclaiming America,” or attempts by Chinese Americans to make the United States their “real” home. The protagonist's way to reclaim America involves revisiting landmarks and other places in the United States where his father and grandfather had traveled, through which he tries to discover the meaning of his own life in the United States and thereby to find his personal identity and home in this country. In drawing the topography of Chinese American history, Shawn Wong not only inscribed Chinese American presence on those places where the protagonist's forefathers had lived and worked, but also used legends to implant their heritage into those soils. Shawn Wong hopes that through his writing he can build for Chinese Americans a history, a cultural foundation with myths and legends of their own. Only when a people's myths spread over the land they inhabit can the land truly be considered theirs. The Chinese American identity shaped in Homebase is heroism, rooted in the ethnic identity of the male Chinese American in the American West, and this is the “home” that the protagonist as well as many other Chinese Americans ever quest for.     

The Passions of the Prince: Moral Philosophy and Staatskirchenrecht in Thomasius's Conception of Sovereignty

This paper argues that in his discussions of the ethics of sovereignty, Christian Thomasius makes use of two very different conceptions of the prince's moral persona. In his natural law works, Thomasius draws on a Christian-Epicurean moral anthropology, in order to model a sage–prince whose capacity to rule is conditioned by his capacity for restraint of the passions. In his works in the area of Staatskirchenrecht or constitutional church law, however, Thomasius adopts a different stance. Here, drawing on Pufendorf's construction of multiple moral personae, Thomasius restricts the ethic of passional restraint to the personae of the ‘man’ and the Christian, drawing the duties of the prince from a quite different source: the goal of preserving social peace through the exercise of a coercive sovereign power. It is argued that these different kinds of political ethic are associated with the different purposes of Thomasius's natural-law and staatskirchenrechtlich writings, the former being dedicated to the moral formation of his law students, the latter to the provision of political advice to the prince.     

Review Essay: Sex in Advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal and Measuring Up: How Advertising Affects Self-Image

This analysis argues that Grant Hill advances a critique of internal contradictions within Black communities; offers rival epistemologies of how to be Black, male, and an athlete; as well as connects concrete Black experience within an abstract museum setting. This examination grounds Hill's public statements of what he hopes to accomplish with the exhibition "Something All Our Own: The Grant Hill Collection of African American Art" within a rubric featuring theme, function, and quantity. Under examination are Hill's messages to understand the ways in which he seeks to demonstrate his multidimensionality and ability to transcend the one-dimensional identity position of Black male athlete.     

Johnnie To's “northern expedition:” from Milkyway Image to Drug War

Abstract

After the Regulations on the Administration of Movies came into force in 2002, Johnnie To became famous for sticking with the Hong Kong market while Hong Kong filmmakers rushed north. In Drug War, his 50th film, he decided to bring his unique genre to the Mainland for the first time. Drug War was the first Johnnie To gangster film to be shot entirely in the Mainland. Despite its outstanding box office record in the Mainland, some Johnnie To fans would lament that his typical style is missing in Drug War, a film that has become “realistic.” This paper argues that Johnnie To's “northern expedition.” backed up by a tradition of translations between business and pleasure, has to be interpreted against the backdrop of his production company Milkyway Image (HK) Ltd. Johnnie To, as a migrant crossing the border, brought with him the long tradition of cultural translations from Milkyway Image, which acted as a “seed of the untranslatable” in Homi Bhabha's term. It was this untranslatability of Milkyway-cum-Hong Kong flavour that distinguished To from other Hong Kong directors who were assimilated into the Mainland market as a simple mélange. To capture the rich inter-textual allusions to not only Milkyway Image but also to Hong Kong in Drug War helps one to understand how Hong Kong cinema can move on in the age of Chinese cinema.     

Chen Yingzhen and Taiwan's “sixties”: self-realization of the postwar generation in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Chen Yingzhen has been regarded as Taiwan's utmost representative leftist intellectual. This article tries to reconstruct Chen's historical significance in Taiwan's “sixties” in a broader perspective. The 1960s in Taiwan was a peculiar period. While there was a global youth rebellion, Taiwan's postwar baby boom generation, who had just been re-educated as Chinese, were going through a cultural “renaissance”. They started to put into practice what they had learned and to realize their creativities in all aspects—taken as a whole, these efforts could be understood as this generation's attempt to achieve self-realization. Chen Yingzhen and his works served as a significant initiating and guiding force during this time. The fact that there were no dominating ideologies during this period allowed room for this wave of creativity to flourish.     

Western Medicine for the Masters of Damascus: Benvenutus Grapheus's Experimenta

This article examines a rediscovered work by the thirteenth-century physician Benvenutus Grapheus de Iherusalem. Surviving only in a late medieval German translation, it contains select recipes and medical procedures. The study of this compilation offers new insight into two important aspects of Benvenutus's life: It provides a more precise dating for his activities, and clarifies at least one facet of his connection to the Levant. An analysis of Benvenutus's sources, most notably the Antidotarium Nicolai but also the Circa instans, confirms the assumption of previous scholars that he had studied at the Salernitan school of medicine. This article also shows that, at least in this particular case, practitioners trained within the Arabic medical tradition did not view Western medicine as a priori inferior.     

The .(H)ajj as Justifiable Self-Exile: Şehzade Korkud's Wasīlat al-a.(h)bāb (915–916/1509–1510)1

In the spring of 915/1509 an Ottoman prince named Korkud (ca. 1468–1513) abandoned his Antalya post and headed by sea to Mamlūk Egypt. Since such princes were absolutely not allowed to leave their assigned postings, by his actions Korkud risked provoking a civil war and opened himself up to allegations of betrayal. In an attempt to counter such accusations, Korkud sent his father Bayezid (886–918/1481–1512) an autobiographical treatise presented as an individual testimony to the religious significance of the .(h)ajj ritual and a comprehensive defence of his actions. However, as Korkud was the main royal backer of several sea ghāzī captains, there is reason to believe that his motivation for leaving Antalya extended beyond personal piety. Whatever his real intentions, Korkud's insistence on a believer's right to embark on the pilgrimage provided a powerful argument to justify his 14-month self-exile at a personally and politically sensitive time.