In the languages spoken by the Muslims in Central Asia, atheistic writing developed into a setting not for attacking religion, but for documenting it. "Muslim Atheism in Central Asia" argues that scientific atheism, an ideology hostile to Islam, was itself Islamized during the decades following World War II. Drawing on a substantial and neglected body of literature in these languages, this study shows how atheist writers described and catalogued prayer, pilgrimage, ritual, and sacred geography...

This volume addresses representations of war and peace in various media, ranging from literature to film, photography, the visual arts, and music. Underlining the importance of an inter-disciplinary study of images of war and peace, the essays collected in this volume analyse how the choice of medium has contributed to shaping images of war in different historical contexts. Topographically, the focus is on wars in Europe, the United States, and Canada, yet the essays also address the global...

During more than half a century, from 1972 onwards, Nicholas Sims-Williams has published many important articles on the older Iranian languages, especially Eastern Middle Iranian (Sogdian, Bactrian and Khotanese). Virtually all of his articles on Sogdian and Khotanese are collected in the present volume, together with three entirely new papers entitled “Is there a ‘predicative instrumental’ in Sogdian?”, “Yaghnobi and the Sogdian ‘Rhythmic Law’” and “The locative singular in Old Khotanese”. The...

The Tempelgasse synagogue in Vienna, designed by Ludwig Förster and built between 1852 and 1858, marked a milestone in the annals of Jewish emancipation and architectural history. Located on a narrow alley in what was then the suburb of Leopoldstadt, it was planned to be the first monumental replica of King Solomon's Temple. Built in a Moorish-Oriental style and with an original projected capacity of 2,240 worshipers, making it Vienna's largest synagogue, the temple in Leopoldstadt was...

The proclamation of the Republic of Austria on November 12, 1918 also led to a change in the status of the court theaters. At the end of November, the state administration took over the two theatres and transferred them from the imperial court arsenal to the budget of the young republic. Even the changing address of the Burgtheater shows the political upheavals: the "Franzensring", the official address of the Hofburgtheater, becomes the "Ring des 12. November". The "k. k. Hofburgtheater", as it...

Tilmann Vetter was a Full Professor of Buddhist studies at Leiden University from 1975 until his retirement in 2000. He was an internationally renowned scholar of Indian philosophy and Buddhism. His untimely death in 2012 prevented him from finishing several significant projects. This volume contains a partial reconstruction of materials relating to the planned revision of his book “The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism” (1988), as well as scripts and lecture manuscripts on...

The Chuvash, the Kazan Tatars and the Bashkirs are Turkic-speaking peoples which have long inhabited the Volga region in Russia. For centuries, Islam and Orthodox Christianity have coexisted and blended here with folk religiosity and “pagan” beliefs. Delving into this rich cultural landscape, Sun-Eater, Moon-Swallower offers an encyclopaedic collection of narratives about mythical beings recorded among these Volga Turkic peoples. The first section of the book contains almost two hundred...

This volume addresses exchanges, challenges, and concerns in the North Atlantic Triangle that have been prevalent in the diverse disciplines of the humanities, such as musicology, philosophy, and art history, and considers the institutionalization of Canadian Studies in Austria as well as Québécois TV series and films. The collection discusses the attitude of eminent European scholars and writers toward the United States, such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Sigmund Freud, and investigates...

This Reader is the first of its kind. Tracing the evolution of literary modernity across national borders, it brings together texts from three different spheres of Persian Studies. “Literary Modernity in the Persophone Realm” explores theoretical literary discussions as they unfolded in Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia from the early 20th century to the Second World War. The compilation presents contextualized primary sources by writers, poets and critics of the time, including both famous...

What languages are used in the Austrian scientific community? Is English the new lingua franca? Or is multilingualism still necessary for research and teaching? This volume explores these questions and demonstrates the importance of language skills in science, which thrives on the publication of studies, theories and theses and on peer criticism. However, all these forms of exchange are only possible if the languages relevant to one's own field are adequately mastered. These questions are...

Based on the increasingly popular concept of the ‘region’ or the ‘regional’, this publication examines the forms and functions of "Heimatschutz" and other reform as well as vernacular architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that have received little attention to date. Based on specific phenomena, the contributions pursue two main theses: firstly, that references to land and home were constructions primarily developed in urban milieus whose ideal-typical conceptions were simply...