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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2025

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Summary

This volume of collected articles was inspired by aconference convened at the Georg-August-UniversitätGöttingen in September 2011 on the subject ofeducation and learning in the pre-madrasa period. The mainobjective was to gather a series of contributions onvarious aspects of the intellectual and educationallife of Baghdād during the apex of ,Abbāsid culture that wouldadequately convey a notion of the diversity andvibrancy of scholarship in this city. Poetry,literature, the transmission of prophetic reports(ḥadīth), astrologyand astronomy, Christian and Muslim schooleducation, the Syriac to Arabic translationmovement, and Jewish learning are some of the maintopics discussed in the volume. In addition, thestudies shed light on a variety of religious andscholarly groups that flourished in Baghdād, therebyproviding insight into specific and oftenunderstudied features of the city's social andintellectual life. All the entries are connected bya concern for the institutional background and thepatronage networks that underlay scholarship inBaghdād during this period and that ensured asustained process of knowledge transmission,production, and transformation.

In spite of this, it is clear that the volume could notaim for comprehensiveness. There are certain obviousomissions, particularly with regard to the practiceof theology, philosophy, and law, which will beflagrant to many informed readers. The reasons foromitting them are manifold. First, including theserich fields would have expanded the book tounreasonable length. Second, these disciplines havealready received much scholarly attention inconnection with the ,Abbāsid capital in various specializedmonographs and volumes, which explains whypreference was given to Baghdād's achievement inother fields and to the social and inter-culturalaspects of scholarship in this city. Finally, theobjective was not to provide a systematic andexhaustive overview of Baghdādī scholarship, butrather to generate insight into specific contexts oflearning and educational circles in an attempt toemphasize the diversity, complexity, andcosmopolitan nature of Baghdād's scholarly liferather than its unity or systematicity.

Accordingly, the volume opens with an introductorychapter describing the historical background of thecity's urban, social and educational developments,and proceeds with a series of contributions onArabic poetry and literature. It then turns to thestudy of admonitions and the role the quṣṣāṣ played in theintellectual landscape of Baghdād, as well as toaspects of Christian learning.

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The Place to Go
Contexts of Learning in Baghdad, 750-1000C.E.
, pp. xvii - xx
Publisher: Gerlach Books
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Preface
  • Edited by Jens Scheiner, Damien Janos
  • Book: The Place to Go
  • Online publication: 25 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9783959941310.002
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  • Preface
  • Edited by Jens Scheiner, Damien Janos
  • Book: The Place to Go
  • Online publication: 25 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9783959941310.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Edited by Jens Scheiner, Damien Janos
  • Book: The Place to Go
  • Online publication: 25 September 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9783959941310.002
Available formats
×