Writing Religious, Transcultural, Gendered Identities and Alterities in the Medieval and Early Modern Mediterranean
Ibn al-Zayyāt al-Kalā‘ī (d. 724/1324), “the famous Sufi khaṭīb” of Velez Málaga, was renowned for his “amazing sermons,” which he delivered with “a booming voice,” and for his piety, religious knowledge, and extreme humility. Rulers sought him out as an ambassador to mediate between them in their disputes and ordinary people crowded to listen to…
Abū l-Rabī‘ al-Kalā‘ī (555/1160-634/1237) was a Hadith scholar, Friday liturgical preacher, and ceremonial court orator in the service of the Almohads in Valencia. He was famed for his eloquence as an orator and belletrist. He wrote several books on the Hadith, belles-letters, and preaching, but he was best known for his work, al-Iqtifā’ fī maghāzī…
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Abū Zakarīyā al-Qaysī al-Wā‘iẓ (d. 608/1211) was a religious scholar and hortatory preacher from Damascus. After studying many years in Isfahan he devoted himself to homiletic exhortation and became and itinerant preacher, delivering sermons in the Levant before arriving in al-Andalus, where he preached hortatory sermons for a long time in Granada. His charismatic sermons…
Read More “Abū Zakarīyā Yaḥyā b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān b. ‘Abd al-Mun‘im al-Qaysī al-Wā‘iẓ” »
Muḥammad ibn Qāsim al-Anṣārī (d. 650/1252) was a Valencian belletrist, Qur’an and Hadith scholar with family origins in Calatayud. He adopted a life of asceticism devoting himself to teaching Qur’anic exegesis, Hadith, and Sufi mysticism. He is the author of two treatises on the art of preaching, Nasīm al-ṣaba fī l-wa‘ẓ (The breeze of the eastern…
Read More “Muḥammad b. ‘Abd Allāh…b. Khalaf ‘Alī ibn Qāsim al-Anṣārī” »
(b. Orijuela 570-580/1174-84; d. 663/1265 Tunis). Ibn al-Murābiṭ was a belletrist, liturgical preacher (khaṭīb), court scribe, and diplomat in the autonomous government of Orihuela. He was best known for his eloquent correspondence, religious sermons, and nuptial orations, which he included in an anthology (diwān) of his works that he compiled, titled, Ẓawāhir al-fikar wa-jawāhir al-fiqar…
Read More “Ibn al-Murābiṭ, Abū l-‘Alā’ Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān…al-Murādī” »