Book Presentation: Arabic Oration. Art and Function
18 March 2021
New Books in Middle East and Islamic Studies
Tahera Qutbuddin, "Arabic Oration: Art and Function", (Brill 2019)
Tahera Qutbuddin discusses her latest book Arabic Oration. Art and Function with Maurice Pomerantz and Jonathan Shannon from NYU Abu Dhabi.
In the early Islamic world of the 7th and 8th centuries AD, religion, politics, and aesthetics coalesced in the rich art of Arabic oration (khutba). Today, the legacy of Arabic oratory continues to shape the idiom and concepts of religion and politics across the Muslim world. Drawing on ten years of research for her recent book, Arabic Oration: Art and Function (Brill 2019), the speaker will discuss the major features of classical Arabic oration and explores their deliberate echoes in the contemporary Friday sermon. Decoding these echoes can help us better understand the subtext of speeches by mosque-imams and political leaders in the Middle East and beyond.
This video is a production of NYU Abu Dhabi.
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Additionally, Tahera Qutbuddin recently discussed her book in Ventures, a podcast by the University of Chicago, Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
