The calligraphic state : textual domination and history in a Muslim society
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The calligraphic state : textual domination and history in a Muslim society
（Comparative studies on Muslim societies, 16）
University of California Press, 1996, c1993
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-331) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In this innovative combination of anthropology, history, and postmodern theory, Brinkley Messick examines the changing relation of writing and authority in a Muslim society from the late nineteenth century to the present. The creation and interpretation of texts, from sacred scriptures to administrative and legal contracts, are among the fundamental ways that authority is established and maintained in a complex state. Yet few scholars have explored this process and the ways in which it changes, especially outside the Western world. Messick brings together intensive ethnography and textual analysis from a wealth of material: Islamic jurisprudence, Yemeni histories, local documents. In exploring the structure and transformation of literacy, law, and statecraft in Yemen, he raises important issues that are of comparative significance for understanding political life in other Muslim and nonwestern states as well.
Table of Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I* AUTHORITY
Chapter 1. Genealogies of the Text
Chapter 2. The Pen and the Sword
Chapter 3. Disenchantment
PART II* TRANSMISSION
Chapter 4. Audition
Chapter 5. The New Method
Chapter 6. Print Culture
PART III* INTERPRETATION
Chapter 7. Relations of Interpretation
Chapter 8. Shari'a Society
Chapter 9. Judicial Presence
Chapter I0. Court Order
PART IV* INSCRIPTION
Chapter 11. Evidence of the Word
Chapter 12. Spiral Texts
CONCLUSION
BIOGRAPHICAL GUIDE
GLOSSARY
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
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