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Member: shikari

CollectionsYour library (3), General library (580), Art History (86), Classics and Byzantine (1,407), Linguistics and Language (294), Academic and Historiographical (77), Oceanography (18), ELT (14), Orientalistik (810), Philosophy (145), Sheet Music (2), Frances' books (39), Family (8), Currently reading (5), Fumetti (6), Once owned but disposed of (24), All collections (3,080)

Reviews26 reviews

Tagsclassics (1,239), As New (582), VG (481), greek literature (374), As New/As New (313), --/VG (309), ancient history (262), NF (261), late antiquity (257), latin literature (252) — see all tags

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About meOrientalist and Late Antiquarian. My MA dissertation was on Procopius' Sasanian ethnography and its echoes of Herodotus. Current work is on pre-Islamic Arabia.

visited 37 states (16.4%)
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About my libraryA mix of Classics, Orientalistik (Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Hebrew and Armenian with some Turkic and Indian materials), Language materials and general literary works. There is also a reasonable collection of books on Central Asian history.

The Classics materials are mostly related to Late Antique historiography, rhetoric and Greek drama (with a good uncatalogued section on satyr drama).

The Arabic section has a number of works on Nabati poetry, a particular interest of mine. These, like most of the library, are still in storage, however, and are not yet catalogued.

The Library catalogue is divided into several collections (books can appear in several):-
Classics and Byzantine on the Graeco-Roman world;
Orientalistik for oriental and near-Eastern cultures and languages and for biblical studies;
Linguistics and Language for non-Classical linguistics;
General library contains all non-classified including literature and poetry;
Academic and Historiographical contains books on literary theory, post-Classical historiography etc.;
Oceanography materials for offshore work;
Sheet Music is small but self-explanatory;
Frances' books is a collection of books that I gave to or were left to me by my dearest friend, a victim of cancer.

All catalogued books are paper books I own or owned at the time of cataloguing. Electronic books are not listed in this catalogue (a subset are catalogued under the catalogue name shikari-electronica).

Oh, I'm a terrible Loeb addict and have just become an addict of the C. H. Beck Wissen series.

GroupsAncient History, Arab, North African and Middle Eastern Literature, Byzantinistik, Coptic, Let's Learn Armenian, Syriac: ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, Zoroastrianism

Favorite authorsAdonis, Fernand Braudel, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Peter Levi, Lucian, Andrew Marvell, Theodor Nöldeke, Anthony Powell, Edward Thomas (Shared favorites)

VenuesFavorites

Favorite bookstoresAlbion Beatnik, Blackwell's Oxford, Burgersdijk & Niermans, Daunt Books - Marylebone, De Slegte Den Haag, Judd Books, The Book House, The Classics Bookshop

Favorite librariesBibliotheca Alexandrina, Bodleian Oriental Institute Library (OIL), Oxford University, Indian Institute Library, Oxford University, Institute of Classical Studies Library / Joint Library of the Hellenic and Roman Societies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, Sackler Library, Oxford University, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) Library, University of London, Warburg Institute Library, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, Wellcome Library

Homepagehttp://shikariana.wordpress.com/

Real nameJohn

LocationOxford, England

Account typepublic, lifetime

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/shikari (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/shikari (library)

Member sinceMay 5, 2009

Currently readingJohn Caius and the Manuscripts of Galen (Supplementary volume) by Vivian Nutton
Maṣādir al-shiʻr al-Jāhilī wa-qīmatuhā al-tārīkhīyah by Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Asad
Rêves de Femmes: Une enfance au harem by Fatima Mernissi
Gregorii Barhebræi Chronicon syriacum, e codd. mss. emendatum ac punctis vocalibus adnotationibusque locupletatum by Gregorius Bar Hebraeus
Herodoti Historiae Libri I-IV (Edito Tertia, Tomus Prior) by Herodotus

Most recent activity

shikari added:
Abbasid Belles Lettres (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature) by Julia Ashtiany

shikari added:
Religion, Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature) by M. J. L. Young

shikari added:
A History of Antioch in Syria: from Seleucus to the Arab Conquest by Glanville Downey

shikari added:
The Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam (Emblems of Antiquity) by G.W. Bowersock

shikari added:
Barbarians and Bishops: Army, Church, and State in the Age of Arcadius and Chrysostom by J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz

shikari added:
Poetae Melici Graeci by D. L. Page

Hi thanks for the tip. I saw that they were planning on publishing an english translation of the Book of Ceremonies about a year ago and have been monitoring their website ever since. Just received my copy a couple of weeks ago.

posted by webadr31 at 2:25 pm (EST) on Jan 12, 2013

I have read Robert Sole's book but maddeningly it is nowhere to be found, probably lurking somewhere with Marina Warner's Indigo which I wanted to re-read after finally finishing Culture and Imperialism this summer. Quite by accident I had a copy of The Tempest with me in Benghazi and from what I remember of Indigo, it explores colonialism through re-telling the play. Mind you, I haven't seen my copy since I read it, apparently in 1994 according to my note. I probably loaned it to someone, that seems to have happened with other Marina Warner books I once owned. I am currently trying to re-read Monuments and Maidens using Google preview to see if I "need" a new copy. I am based in Malta part of the year as my sons are at school here and buying books can be costly. Especially if they may just be "lost" somewhere in the house. I enjoyed Stranger Magic, though I was surprised to read in the Introduction (I think, book is in Benghazi) that Marina Warner seems not to have thought it important to learn even a little Arabic. Her interest is more in the life of the Thousand and One Nights in Europe though. I am not studying Arabic right now, I lost heart for attending lessons during the revolution when I spent all my energy worrying about Libya and especially family in Benghazi and Tripoli. My Arabic always deteriorates in Benghazi where I only seem to learn slang but perhaps I will do better in 2013.

posted by Athina at 9:52 am (EST) on Dec 30, 2012

I found my teacher through the Alliance Francaise in Dubai. He teaches privately by appointment on weekends. Work in the UAE is too unpredictable for regularly scheduled weekday classes! I've worked mainly in Al Markaziyah (Hamdan Street), trekking out to Musaffah only occasionally.

posted by CJW at 10:52 pm (EST) on Dec 18, 2012

Hi Shikari, I suppose it's the range of books concerning classical and near eastern civilisations that caught my eye. I have been living in Dubai and working there and in Abu Dhabi as (just another) lawyer and trying to make progress in learning arabic on the weekends...

posted by CJW at 4:02 am (EST) on Dec 18, 2012

Your library includes some of the books (Classics & Arabic grammar)I think I would like in my ideal library - given the space and finance, of course. Philip Mansel's book about Constantinople is a favourite so I expected to enjoy Levant, and I did, especially since I read it in Benghazi and it was interesting to talk to family about the era when Benghazi shared some of the "Levantine" characteristics he wrote about in Izmir, Alexandria and Beirut. Older people in Benghazi talk about the foreign communities there throughout the last century and point out where Greek, Maltese and of course Italian families and businesses were to be found in the old city.

posted by Athina at 11:46 am (EST) on Dec 9, 2012

Thanks for the heads-up John. I think I may wait until the price drops a bit. I have Malalas and Zosimus from them and am hoping they reprint Marcellinus Comes.

Once I read De Administrando Imperio (I have the Dumbarton Oaks edition) I may get so enthused that I decide to splurge on it but for the time being I'll hold off.

Curt

posted by cemanuel at 8:21 am (EST) on Dec 2, 2012

Hello Shikari,

Your comments are very useful and Volume 2 will definately be along the lines you suggest.
Another book of literary pieces would only be repetition and would serve no useful purpose, so look out for volume two, probably early next year.

TT

posted by TheTortoise at 5:44 am (EST) on Jul 4, 2012

Hello Shikari,

Yes, my wife Tamara is a Russian national and is a teacher of Russian. The book came about as a result of discovering the dearth of really good resources for her Intermediate students.

She is currently in Russia, but on her return will begin work on Volume 2!

Hope you find it useful.

TT

posted by TheTortoise at 6:20 am (EST) on Jul 3, 2012

Hello Shikari,

I notice you have a copy of The New Penguin Russian Course by Nicholas J Brown, which I also have and learned from.

Are you still studying Russian? If so, you might find Practical Russian Reader helpful. It is a new book of Russian short stories with helpful exercises.

Let me know what you think of it?

TT

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Practical-Russian-Reader-Vol-1-Intermediate/dp/147013979...

posted by TheTortoise at 7:08 am (EST) on Jul 2, 2012

I actually found you through a book we both share--Himalayan Frontiers: A Political Review of British, Chinese, Indian and Russian Rivalries by Dorothy Woodman--and was intrigued by your profile. The reasonable amount of Central Asian history was a big selling point (I know many Middle Eastern affairs scholars, but have yet to meet many people who recognize Central Asia as its own separate region with its own separate history and people). Plus we are both members of the Arab, North African, and Middle Eastern Literature group. So I decided to bookmark your library for further perusal of interesting titles.

posted by a_radical_abacus at 7:53 pm (EST) on Jul 1, 2012

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out - I just ordered Malalas and Zosimus from them. Would like Marcellinus Comes too if they decide to reprint it.

posted by cemanuel at 2:19 pm (EST) on Jan 25, 2012

Right here: http://www.mediafire.com/?7a2cobgpei5dqbe

posted by PrissBNS at 5:10 pm (EST) on Dec 27, 2011

Curiosity is welcome. I saw your post about Zoroastrianism, which was extremely interesting, so I went to your profile. I saw that you are keeping track of Central Asian history, which is on my list to learn something about someday "soon." I figured I better keep track of you or I'll never find you again when I'm ready to pick your brain about what to read in that area. You have quite the scholar's library, which is very admirable here on LT where so many of us are generalists.

posted by aulsmith at 2:45 pm (EST) on Dec 27, 2011

hi john,

just out of interest, are you a surveyor (as well) or is your fugro connection a different one? It is not often i hear about someone working offshore who is into the classics (me neither though i do appreciate ancient roman, greek and egyptian culture / architecture)

As to my English, after writing and teaching for so many years i actually do manage to get a few correct phrases in every now and then. the grammar does keep bugging me though (should have paid more attention during my English classes)

btw i see you do not own one of the hydrography 'classics' yet - which i edited together with a colleague - the handbook of offshore surveing ;-)

posted by hydrografie at 4:41 pm (EST) on Dec 5, 2011

Thx. As a non native speaker I do tend to mess things up every now and then (especially with non technical English. I will change it to compulsive.

posted by hydrografie at 5:06 am (EST) on Dec 3, 2011

I've enjoyed it - very useful perspectives on the cult of Asklepios!

posted by troelsmyrup at 4:28 am (EST) on Nov 15, 2011

i cannot recall if i replied that Eros the Bitter Sweet is a sweet read so i do recommend it -- my last year and a half was that exhausting = had a hard time getting back into LT today as i could not recall what name i was under or which password to use . . now moved from fla after my sister passed away and in brooklyn. Thanks to columbia u library i will be able to eventually take kyouka all the way (back to japan) = i see an Oxford location below -- for old english books at a decent price, a big church in Edinburgh once every two years -- or is it twice a year -- was by far the best used bk collection i have ever found (i like old essays).

posted by keigu at 1:53 pm (EST) on Oct 3, 2011

I do ask your forgiveness for this late reply. We have had out-of-town guests and I have not been near my computer.

I found your library interesting because of the number of interests we share and because you live in Oxford. That is one of the places I love most in the world.

I do apologize for this truncated and not-very-informative reply, but I did not want to leave your question unanswered any longer, and this is all the time I have for the moment.

posted by Kathleen828 at 6:52 pm (EST) on Apr 18, 2011

Ah, but if you might be able to make The Hague on thursdays : there's an open air book market on the "Plein" every thursday in winter (in the summer they move somewhere else). Several stands - varying from total rubbish to highly collectable.

posted by BarkingMatt at 12:59 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2011

Thanks John. I've found it and ordered it. At that price it's worth it, and MacMullen seems to be Yale, so respectable!

posted by unittj at 3:14 pm (EST) on Dec 21, 2010

It's difficult to imagine that kind of fervor sustained over so many volumes. The hypotheses of the first book are tendentious enough. I got into some controversy at Wikipedia over something that I developed from Shahid there - Philip the Arab as a Christian - although that might have been more for my demeanor than the thesis itself.

I'm still a young thing (a first-year undergraduate student), so it's still tricky to round up the money for complete sets. I have a workable library on site, though, so it's not much of a problem. I've picked up a few of the books already - they'd been remaindered. They're pretty neat little things.

Thank you for the recommendation. I'll keep it in mind, but I'm so busy flitting through things - I might get embarrassed if you call me up on it later only to find that I've been reading on something far afield (or worse, something trashy). I'm surprised to find that it was only this spring that I finished Rome and the Arabs. It feels like it has been an eternity.

Thanks again,
Alexander

posted by AlexBMM at 11:20 pm (EST) on Nov 19, 2010

I noticed that you are translating
[Hafez]. I donʻt know much about
him -- not even what was his
language. But I always
wondered if the [Rudyard
Kipling] poem "Certain Maxims
of Hafez" had any connection
with the real Hafez. (I rather
hoped NOT, having some
respect for Hafez, and little
for Kipling.

By having a "Connection", I mean
for example that it might be like
Ive read that Fitzgeraldʻs
[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]
is: a long way from the original
but didnʻt have to be called
an adaptation or just Fitzgeraldʻs
own poem.

In translating [Hafez], what language
are you working
with? and secondarily do you
know whether the Kipling
["Certain Maxims"] is a Kil;ing
work, an adaptation, or an
attempt at actual translation?

posted by rolandperkins at 4:48 pm (EST) on Nov 19, 2010

Your specializations - the Near East and antiquity. It's an area of interest that's just a bit out of reach for me (I have neither the language skills nor the disposable income to make much headway in it), but I'd like to dip into it if I ever find the time. It helps to have he index to a specialist's personal library. I can check the prices of the relevant books, look up reviews of the same in the relevant periodicals. I could even purchase something, if the price is right. That's why I have the Shahid, for example. It was available for less than twenty dollars.

posted by AlexBMM at 8:47 am (EST) on Nov 18, 2010

i just noticed i did not reply to your question in april re eros the bitter-sweet -- yes, the book is worth reading for more than the comments on vowels and consonants which i took issue with due to my baqckground in japanese. One eg of an interesting topic in it, touches upon the title = anne noted the expression for love was sweet-bitter as it usually started with the former and turned in that direction. However, I am a sucker for short literary idea-oriented books (two others would be serres: detachment, and needman? exemplars, though neither are at all like one another or anne carson's book in style ---- respectively being poetic / essayic? / novelistic.

posted by keigu at 4:36 pm (EST) on Oct 20, 2010

i don't teach composition but i do teach latin.

posted by chriscross at 3:30 pm (EST) on Oct 17, 2010

ON my blog is her CD available on AMAZON where u can purchase her songs separately or the whole songs. On the top, Gomidas songs is a CD available through Barnes and Noble. I do not own these CDs but have listened to the samples to find out what's on them. The song I was trying to highlight was her version of Hayr Mer. It is available also on youtube with lyrics in English transliterateion of the Armenian. I will post the lyrics if I have not on the Library Home Groups section of Let's Learn Armenian. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gCH95Ot344&feature=search

posted by deeannl at 2:51 am (EST) on Aug 24, 2010

Thanks for the recommendation! I have gone ahead and ordered it from New Delhi, so I look forward to reading it, whenever it gets here. The Ravi Shankar book I cataloged is very promotional, lots of (enjoyable) pictures, but overwhelmingly worshipful. It does have some educational chapters, but what I need is some education in forms to help me learn to distinguish one piece, instrument, etc., from another. Pandora has reawakened my old interest in Indian music, which was of the George Harrison vintage.

posted by anthonywillard at 8:14 pm (EST) on Aug 17, 2010

A lot for here. Used Loebs are usually $10 or less. New ones list for $24 but through Barnes & Noble with membership they are about $19 plus shipping. But of course we are a world apart.

There's a used bookstore I frequent that has several hundred Loebs but unfortunately most are moldy and smell so they will not visit my home. The ones that don't smell are in sets (like all 20 some odd volumes of Aristotle) which put them a bit out of reach, even used.

posted by Garp83 at 9:27 pm (EST) on May 25, 2010

I'm jealous -- you are buying Loebs!!!!

posted by Garp83 at 7:46 pm (EST) on May 25, 2010

I could make an argument for Procopius as pagan - but a philosopher? I've read TSH but what I need to pick up is On Buildings. My next big buy will likely be The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium - looks like it's available online for under $200. I'm waiting until after Kalamazoo though to make more purchases.

posted by cemanuel at 9:58 am (EST) on Apr 10, 2010

It's in the preface to Pagans and Christians, my favorite of his books.

posted by cstebbins at 9:20 pm (EST) on Mar 4, 2010

Don't worry about it - it's not high on my list. Though I was amused to see you were the one other person here with the two Prosopography books I just wishlisted. Purdue has the earlier Jones edition so I'll probably just have to use those - interestingly, they aren't in the reference collection which seems a bit odd.

posted by cemanuel at 7:10 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2010

Hey John,

It's a wishlist for now so I don't know exactly what the book is but he was a 6th century Byzantine official - I'm most interested in his account of his diplomatic mission to the Persians. That was how a footnote led me to it. The book just came out and it's pretty pricy for under 200 pages but maybe I'll see it at a conference before long.

Curt

posted by cemanuel at 6:39 pm (EST) on Feb 20, 2010

Responding to your comment of January 26, I'm afraid I have to out myself as just a lawyer. I think I remember being a little chilled by one of the acknowledgments in a Robin Lane Fox book, thanking somebody "without whom I would have become just another lawyer". As a result, I don't research. I just read, mostly early church history and late antiquity. When I left Harvard College in 1971 with my degree concentrating in medieval history, I thought I was going to do great things in the field. After a year at Yale Graduate School in what was then the Program in Medieval Studies, I got discouraged by my fellow graduate students and by the unlikelihood of ever finding a good job in my native South, so I jumped ship to the default choice and became a lawyer like my father before me. I think I keep up fairly well for somebody who's been out of academia his entire working life. Late Antiquity led me to a general interest in local histories of all kinds, as well as in all sorts of unlikely corners. It seems to spill over into pretty much everything else. Unlike you, my language ability is restricted to Latin and French. To my great chagrin, no Greek. As an undergraduate I passed on Greek, under the impression that, even if I went back home, it could always be picked up at one of the numerous theological seminaries in our part of the world. That turned out to be quite wrong. Also, I now realize that I should have paid attention to the offerings of the Department of Semitic and Near Eastern Languages. My daughter eventually followed me to Harvard and majored in Greek, where I was once more confronted with my deficiency. She's always explaining that I don't really understand.

posted by cstebbins at 10:57 pm (EST) on Feb 14, 2010

Your online catalog keeps filling up with books I wish I had the means to acquire and the time and (in the case of the Arabic and Syriac) the ability to read. Are most of your acquisitions physically available there in Oxford, where I believe you are, or do you mostly get them from afar? Here in Augusta, Ga., one gets such books only by mail or package service. I see you've just added some local histories. Is this because you have a general interest in local history, or is just because they deal with localities of interest to you? I decided way back in my own graduate school days that local histories are a good complement to classical interests. They seem naturally to raise some of the methodological questions of studies in classical history, in a different context that is thought provoking.

posted by cstebbins at 7:04 pm (EST) on Jan 26, 2010

PS I have happy memories of the Oriental Institute library when I was a fellow at St. Cross and could get from my room to my library desk in about 5 minutes. I gave the first public version of my general survey of pre-industrial money at St. Cross.

posted by Tiesenhausen at 4:05 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2009

I'm a historian specialized in history, coinage, and economic history, nowadays in the period of the Muslim caliphates although I used to have wider responsibilities. I'm also working on a general overview of the monetary system of the pre-industrial world--how coins functioned.

posted by Tiesenhausen at 4:02 pm (EST) on Oct 26, 2009

Great collection.

posted by Totemica at 6:47 am (EST) on Oct 22, 2009