Annales Islamologiques 47: Dossier: Histoires de Famille

The 47th issue of the Annales islamologiques includes a folder and varia, as was the case of the preceding issues. The folder called Family Stories is edited by Julien Loiseau. An introduction and thirteen articles draw a wide overview of the representations and practices of family in all the meanings of the word, in Muslim Spain and the Middle East, from the 9th to the 16th centuries. Scrutinizing a field of studies that regained much favour of late among scholars, the folder aims at renewing the approach to the topic by multiplying case studies, in order to offer original viewpoints: it allows the reader to consider the wide range of meanings conveyed by the word family, from rules and their breaking, to political, economical, and emotional aspects. For family aroused complex issues: authority, and the transmission of authority, in its spiritual, intellectual and political dimensions; heritage; networks of alliance; gender relations; status of the individuals, their visibility of invisibility; and the expression of the self in conventional as well as singular ways. By relying on documents of various nature, i. e. chronicles, biographical dictionaries, hagiographies, poetry, juristic literature, pious foundations deeds, the original contributions to this folder concur in drawing a sensitive history of Near and Middle Eastern medieval societies. The varia part of the issue includes seven articles in French, English and Arabic, testifying to the variety of disciplines dealing with the Muslim world: grammar, linguistics, history of law, history of religion, political history, architecture, study of material documentation.