Arabic Oration: Art and Function

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Presentation

Introduction

1 The Preservation of Orations

Mnemonics-Based Oral Transmission, Supplementary Writing, and the Question of Authenticity

2 Structure of the Oration

Contextualization of Conventional Components to Strengthen a Religio-Political Message

3 Style of the Oration

The Aesthetics of Orality and Persuasion

4 Orators and Audience of the Oration

Dynamics of Public Space, Authority, and Negotiation

5 The Sermon of Pious Counsel

Human Mortality, a Life of Virtue, and Preparation for the Hereafter

6 The Friday and Eid Sermon

Ritual and Piety, Politics and War

7 The Battle Oration

Horses and Swords, Strategies and Ethics, Urgings and Prayers

8 The Political Speech

Succession and Accession, Control and Policy

9 Additional Categories

Legislative, Theological, Oracular, and Marriage Orations

10 Women’s Orations

Kinship-Based Authority and Silence-Breaking Trauma

11 The Oration’s Influence on Arabic Prose Viewed in a Hybrid Oral-Written Continuum

12 The Influence of the Classical Arabic Oration on Contemporary Muslim Sermons and Speeches

Appendix of Orations: References and Index

Glossary 1: Early Arabic Orators

Glossary 2: Arabic Literary Terms

Bibliography

General Index