Table of Contents

Introduction Humble Custodians of the Divine Word: Classical Arabic in Daily Life Text Regulation and Site Ideology Creating Contemporaneity: Struggles with Form Persistent Dilemmas: Pleasure, Power, and Ambiguity Conclusion

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About the Author

NILOOFAR HAERI is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She has also been a visiting research scholar at the University of Cairo and held a Bunting Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.

Reviews

'[T]his is one of the most interesting books I have ever read on language. It is certainly unique insofar as the study of Arabic is concerned, for no linguistic ethnography exists for Classical Arabic'. - Steven C. Caton, Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies, Harvard University 'I don't know of anyone who has carved out the subject Haeri is pursuing in such original fashion. She writes clearly about a very complicated set of issues, and she has a wonderful way of blending theory with empirical work'. - Philip S. Khoury, Professor of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 'Haeri's fine book explores one of the most fundamental distinctions in human communication systems-formal versus informal-by examining one of the world's most important official languages-Classical Arabic. She shows that understanding the role of formal language in society is crucial to an understanding of the state and its relation to symbolic capital. This subtle and well-written analysis is only possible because Haeri relies on concrete ethnographic data of language in practice for her examples'. - Joel Kuipers, George Washington University, Institute for Ethnographic Research