This thesis consists of an edition of the section on Marriage and Divorce entitled AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF A SECTION OF AL-SHRZ'S AL-NUKAT F AL-MAS'IL AL-MUKHTALAF FH BAYNA AL-SHAFI' WA ABU HANFA (al-Nika wa al-talaq) by Abu Ishaq al-Shraz 393/1002-3 = 476/1082. This work is concerned with differences of practice in the Shafi'ite and Hanafite Schools of Law. A study of the author's life and times is included, as is also a section on 'Divine controversy' ('ilm al-Khilaf).

With the increasing mobility of the Chinese to the West, there has been an increase in publication and popularity of literary works by ethnic Chinese writers living in the West. This thesis proposes to investigate the image of China and the West in ethnic Chinese writing focusing on autolbiographies and novels, and to explore the role of 'representation' in the diffusion of these texts, a topic that has not yet been systematically and substantially studied. Since ethnic Chinese writers are immigrants or descendants of immigrants who live in-between nations, cultures or languages, the representational issue is examined from both Western as well as Chinese standpoints, using theories developed by Michel Foucault, interpreted by Edward Said and Xiaomei Chen. Different representations of China and the West affect divergent, and often contradictory, receptions of these texts between Western audiences and Chinese readers. The thesis suggests that through negative depictions of China, ethnic Chinese bestsellers in the West concede to a Western positional superiority which assigns China to the position of culturally and politically inferior Other. This in turn often entails criticism of the West and a rejection of these books in China or in the ethnic Chinese community in the West.

This thesis deals with the phenomenon of assimilation, a natural phonological process, in classical Arabic. It consists of three chapters: The first chapter of the thesis deals with the Arabic sounds in isolation: their points of articulation and manners of articulation with reference to the views of both Arab linguists and scholars of Tajw{=i}d. Secondary sounds, both accepted and rejected, are mentioned too. A brief discussion is devoted to the distinctive features, with particular reference to those that seem to have been described inaccurately by some early or modern linguists. The second chapter deals with the definition and different types of assimilation. The term idgh{= a}m, which has been rendered as `lq assimilation is, in fact, narrower in application than the English term; other topics and sub-topics in Arabic grammar that subsume aspects of assimilation are also discussed. The direction of assimilation, whether the influence comes regressively or progressively or in both directions is dealt with, with detailed examples, mostly from the Qur'{= a}n. A brief discussion of both complete and partial assimilation is given followed by a discussion of distant assimilation, with particular attention being given to the so called `lq al-Idgh{= a}m al-Kab{=i}r. The last sub-chapter here deals with the history of sound changes in Arabic. The third chapter is the main part of the thesis. It deals with Arabic sounds in combination. Consonants are discussed first, from two points of view: the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain consonants with each other within the same roots, and the influence of certain sounds upon others when these occur adjacently. Vowels are then discussed in detail, particularly with respect to the best-known phenomena associated with them: im{= a}lah, vowel harmony, lengthening and shortening, and tafkhim. Under im{= a}lah, we consider whether the alif al-im{= a}lah is an independent phoneme, a dialectal variant, or an allophone of the actual /= a/. When this alif is likely to occur and when it is likely to be inhibited is also seen. In the section on vowel harmony the question as to whether there is systematic harmony is confronted. In the section on lengthening and shortening, the circumstances in which these two phenomena occur are discussed, with particular attention to the over-lengthened vowels. Finally, alif at-tafkh{=i}m is investigated, to see whether this vowel /bar >/ is an independent phoneme, a dialectal variant, or an allophone of the actual /=a/.

This study investigates sociolinguistic variation and change in the dialect of Ha’il city, a dialect that belongs to the Najdi type of dialects, especially Northern Najdi. Two traditional linguistic features of Ha’ili Arabic (HA) are examined: the realisation of the feminine ending (ah) and realisation of the feminine plural suffix (a:t), in relation to three social factors: age (Younger, Middle-aged, Older), gender (Male, Female) and levels of contact (High, Low) with people from different dialectal backgrounds. Raising of the feminine ending -ah is defined as: fronting and raising of short /a/ to /ɛ/ or /e/. In traditional Ha’ili Arabic, /a/ is raised unconditionally in all environments even after guttural and emphatic sounds (Abboud, 1979). The results, however, show progressive lowering of the (ah) variable, constrained by social and linguistic factors. Younger female speakers especially those with high level of contact lead the change toward the innovative and supra-local variant [a], while older speakers, even those with high level of contact, maintain the use of the traditional variant [e] at a very high rate (96%). Women are slightly ahead of men in using [a]. Such gender patterning can be interpreted in relation to the fact that there is no negative social meaning associated to the use of the two variants. Regarding the second variable (a:t), /t/ in the feminine plural suffix -a:t can be lenited to /h/ or /j/ in HA. According to previous research (Abboud, 1964 and Ingham, 1982, 2009), lenition of /a:t/ is linguistically conditioned by the following environment. It is promoted pre- pausally and when the following word begins with a consonant, but it is precluded when followed by a vowel across word boundary. The results show that the innovative variant [a:t] is highly favoured when it is followed by a vowel across word boundary. Additionally, the number of syllables and the stress on the final syllable appear to have a minimal effect on the realisation of (a:t). All the younger speakers, except low contact female speakers, use the innovative variant categorically, while the older speakers use it at a rate of 52%. Concerning gender, men are found to lead the change in using [a:t] than women. This gender pattern is explained with reference to men’s social interaction, mobility and to the overt stigmatisation associated with the use of the traditional variants [a:j] and [a:h] by male speakers. Overall, a progressive levelling out of local/marked features in HA has been observed in favouring the innovative features found in the emerging supra-local variety in the central region of Saudi Arabia.

This dissertation investigates the close connection between poetry and prayer in South Asia by studying the history of Sanskrit hymns of praise (stotras) in Kashmir. It offers a broad introduction to the history and general features of the stotra genre, and it charts the course of these literary hymns in Kashmir from the ninth century to the present. Historically, Kashmir was one of the most dynamic and influential centers of Sanskrit learning and literary production in South Asia. This dissertation focuses on a number of innovative texts from this region, such as Ksemaraja's eleventh-century commentaries and Sahib Kaul's seventeenth-century hymns, which have received little scholarly attention. In particular, it offers the first study in any European language of the Stutikusumanjali, a major work of religious literature dedicated to the god Siva and one of the only extant witnesses to the trajectory of Sanskrit literary culture in fourteenth-century Kashmir. This dissertation also contributes to the study of Saivism by examining the ways that Saiva poets have integrated the traditions of Sanskrit literature (kavya) and poetics (alankarasastra), theology (especially non-dualism), and Saiva worship and devotion. It argues for the diverse configurations of Saiva bhakti expressed and explored in these literary hymns and the challenges they present for standard interpretations of Hindu bhakti. More broadly, this study of stotras from Kashmir offers new perspectives on the history and vitality of prayer in South Asia and its complex relationships to poetry and poetics.

This dissertation explores highly influential constructions of the past at a key turning point in Chinese history by mapping out what I term a poetics of memory in the more than four hundred poems written by Du Fu (712-770) during his two-year stay in the remote town of Kuizhou (modern Fengjie). A survivor of the catastrophic An Lushan rebellion (756-763), which transformed Tang Dynasty (618-906) politics and culture, Du Fu was among the first to write in the twilight of the Chinese medieval period. His most prescient anticipation of mid-Tang concerns was his restless preoccupation with memory and its mediations, which drove his prolific output in Kuizhou. For Du Fu, memory held the promise of salvaging and creatively reimagining personal, social, and cultural identities under conditions of displacement and sweeping social change. The poetics of his late work is characterized by an acute attentiveness to the material supports--monuments, rituals, images, and texts--that enabled and structured connections to the past. The organization of the study attempts to capture the range of Du Fu's engagement with memory's frameworks and media. It begins by examining commemorative poems that read Kuizhou's historical memory in local landmarks, decoding and rhetorically emulating great deeds of classical exemplars. The second chapter explores the shifting boundaries Du Fu draws between the customs of Kuizhou's local people and the orthodox ritual practices that defined his identity as a scholar-official. This is followed by an interlude that discusses poems on housework, in which domesticating projects spur reflection on poetry's capacity to create cultural value through commemoration. Chapter three turns to poems on paintings, arguing that for Du Fu painted images served as a vital support for memory of pre-rebellion court society, and that in writing on them he both drew upon and redefined a medieval visual aesthetic of craft and pictorial illusionism. The fourth and final chapter analyzes the rhetoric of narrative autobiographical poems, traditionally approached as non-figurative factual records, in order to elucidate Du Fu's retrospective construction of a self. A picture thus emerges of a body of work in which memory, mediated through material objects and practices, functioned to envision and rebuild frameworks of identity in an age of upheaval and transition. This study will contribute to a more critical understanding of a major poet, of the representation and uses of memory in traditional Chinese poetry, and of the emergence of new forms of expression and literati identity in late medieval China.

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This thesis consists of a critical edition of Tuhfat dhawi al-irab fi mushkil al-asma' wa al-nisab by Abu al-Thana' Nur al-Din Mahm-ud b. Ahmad b. Muhammad known as Ibn Khatib al-Dahshah: an alphabetical dictionary which deals with the vocalization of the names and nisbas which occur in the three canonical hadith collections, namely the Sahihayn and the Muwatta' regardless of whether these names occur in the isnads or in the matn of these books. This work is divided into two parts, an introduction and the edition of the text. The first part consists of a biographical account of the author, his works and a review of the previously published edition of the Tuhfah. A study of the work comprising the author's sources, a discussion of his alleged carelessness in copying, his arrangement, the subject and the title of the work is undertaken. A description of the MSS and an account of the method of edition adopted is also given. The second part comprises a critical edition of the Tuhfah, depending on five MSS, with the necessary explanatory notes, indices and bibliography.

This thesis explores how Wang Wei 王維(701-761), a Chinese Tang-dynasty poet, was received and represented through the twentieth century in the Anglophone world and what images of him different translators have created at different times for different readers in the receiving context. Wang Wei, like some of his contemporaries, notably Li Bo 李白(701-762) and Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770), is one of the most translated Chinese poets. The translation and reception of Wang Wei’s poetry have been dominated by emphasis on imagery, landscape, and Zen over the past one hundred years although his poetry also includes other themes. The hypothesis is that Wang Wei was more discussed for his contribution to Chinese landscape art at the beginning of the twentieth century, then began to be connected with Zen Buddhism around the mid-century. In the post-war period and beyond, his nature poetry associated with eco-spirituality has been widely explored. Starting with an introductory chapter, which explores critical debates about Wang Wei’s life and establishes a theoretical framework based on systemic approaches, this thesis will discuss the following elements chapter by chapter: classical Chinese poetry in English translation, Chinese imagery traditions and the development of Imagism, Wang Wei’s poetry about landscape and Zen, and difficulties of and patterns in translating Wang Wei. The concluding chapter will stress that the sustainability of Wang Wei’s poetry in English lies in its constant interactions with various literary, political, and social factors in the polysystem of the target culture. Thus, the translation of a foreign literary figure, like Wang Wei, goes beyond the linguistic and takes into account contextual relationships.

Doctoral thesis--Rome--Pontifical Oriental institute. / Bibliogr. p. VII-XV.