Shawkat Mahmood Toorawa

Email smt24@cornell.edu

Positions

2000- Assistant Professor of Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies, Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University

1996-2000 Lecturer in History, Department of Humanities, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius

1992-93, 1987 Lecturer in Arabic, Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, and College of General Studies University of Pennsylvania

1990 Lecturer in Islamic Civilization, Department of Religion, Duke University

1989-91 Instructor in Arabic, Asian and African Languages and Literature, Duke University, Durham, NC

1986-88 Teaching Fellow in Arabic, Department of Oriental Studies, University of

Pennsylvania

Education

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

BA (Hons) in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies), 1985

MA in Oriental Studies (Islamic Near East), 1989

PhD in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Islamic Near East), 1998

Selected honors and awards

2001 (Fall) Fellowship, ‘Focal Theme: Diaspora,’ Society for the Humanities, Cornell University

2000/01 Fellowship (non-resident), Project on Creolization in the Indian Ocean, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University

1999/2000 Rockefeller African Humanities Institute Fellowship, W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University

1999 Member International Jury, Zanzibar International Film Festival, Stonetown, Zanzibar

1997 Doctoral Fellowship, School of Arts and Science, University of Pennsylvania

1988/89 Fellowship, American Research Center in Egypt

1986 First Prize, AATA Translation Contest

Publications

Books

2002 Writerly Transformations: Ibn Ab¥ ?åhir ?ayfΣr and the Rise of Arabic Literary Culture (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Books) [under contract]

2002 Co-editor (with M. Cooperson), Dictionary of Literary Biography: Arabic Literary Culture, 500-925 [under contract]

2001 Joint editor (with J. Lowry and D. Stewart), Legal Education in Islam (Cambridge: Aris & Phillips for the E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust) [under contract]

2001 Co-author (with K. Brustad, M. Cooperson, J. J. Elias, N. N. Khoury, J. Lowry, N. Rabbat, D. F. Reynolds, and D. Stewart), Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, ed. D. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press) [in press].

Articles

2001 Modern Arabic Literature and the Quran: Creativity, Inimitability… Incompatibilities? In Studies in Muslim-Jewish Relations 6 (2001) [forthcoming].

2001 Is Multiculturalism Bad for Art? Carl de Souza’s La maison qui marchait vers le large and the Mauritian City. In L’Esprit créateur 41(3) (2001) [forthcoming].

2000 Wâq al-wâq: Fabulous, Fabular, Indian Ocean (?) Islands… In Emergences: Journal for the Study of Media and Composite Cultures 10(2) (November December 2000), 387-402.

2000 ‘Translating’ The Tempest: Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann, Cultural Creolization, and the Rise of Mauritian Kreol. In African Theatre in Development 3 (2000), 125-138.

2000 ‘Strange bedfellows’?: Mauritian Writers and Shakespeare. In Wasafiri 30 (Autumn 1999), 27-31.

1999 Notes Toward a Biography of Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 893). In University of Mauritius Research Journal 1 (1998), 121-140.

1998 Burdens of the Past, Burdens of the Present: Reflections on the Negotiation of Neglect. In Bermuda Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History 9 (1997), 104-119.

1997 Language and Male Homosocial Desire in the Autobiography of Abd al-Latif al Baghdadi (d. 629/1231). In Edebiyât: The Journal of Middle Eastern Literatures, New Series 7(2) (Fall 1996), 45-59.

1997 Walt Whitman in Adonis’ Manhattan: Some thoughts on ‘A Grave for New York’. In Periodica Islamica 6(2) (1996), 15-20.

1996 The Educational Background of Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi. In Muslim Education Quarterly 13(3) (Spring 1996), 35-53.

1996 Khidr: The History of an Ubiquitous Master. In Sufi 30 (Summer 1996), 45-49.

1994 The dhimmi in medieval Islamic society: Non-Muslim physicians of Iraq in Ibn Abi UsaybiaÆs Uyun al-anba fi tabaqat al-atibba. In Fides et Historia 26(1) (Winter/Spring 1994), 10-21.

1994 Every Cloak He Dons Becomes Him: Images of clothing in the Islamic tradition. In Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition—Clothing 19(3) (Fall 1994), 20-28.

1994 A Funny thing happened on the way to Yemen, or Arabists and their Interpretations of the Movement of the Fatimid Caliphate. In Le Croissant , 25th Anniversary Issue (April 1994), 13-14.

1992 Muhammad, Muslims and Islamophiles in the Commedia. In The Muslim World, 82(1-2) (January-April 1992), 133-143. Reprint (revised): Frederick II, Christian Conduct and Islam in The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. In L’Express (18 October, 1995), 15-17.

1992 Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Point of View and the Embedded Narrator in al-Tayyib SalihÆs æDwmat Wad Hamid’. In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28 (1992), 213-221.

1991 Movement in MahfuzÆs Tharthara fawq al-n¥i. In Journal of Arabic Literature 22(2) (1991), 53-65. Reprint: Movement in Mahfouz’s Chatter on the Nile. In L’Express (13 September, 1995), 13.

Articles in encyclopaedias and scholarly dictionaries

2002 In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Arabic Literary Culture, 500-925 , ed. M. Cooperson and S. M. Toorawa (Charleston: Bruccoli & Layman):

— Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur [forthcoming]

2000 In Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. P. Bearman et al (Leiden: Brill, 2000), vol. 11:

— Wakwak [in press].

2000 In Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies, ed. J. Hawley (Westport, CT: Greenwood)

— Syed Hussain Alatas [in press].

2000 In Encyclopedia of the Quran, ed. J. D. McAuliffe et al (Leiden: Brill, 2000):

— Clothing [in press].

2000 In Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. P. Bearman et al (Leiden: Brill, 2000), vol. 10:

— Ubaydallah b. Ahmad b. Abi Tahir, 761-762.

1998 In Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. Th. Bianquis et al (Leiden: Brill, 1998), vol. 10:

— Tahir b. Muhammad al-Muhannad al-Baghdadi, 103

ù Tahir Sayf al-Din, 103-104

1998 In Encyclopaedia of Arabic Literature , ed. J. S. Meisami and P. Starkey, 2 vols (London: Routledge, 1998):

ù Dar al-Hikma, 182

— Ibn Harma al-Qurashi, 331

— Ibn Hibban al-Busti, 334

— Ibn al-Jarrah, 338

— Patronage, 598-99.

1997 In The Dictionary of Global Culture, ed. K. A. Appiah and H. L. Gates, Jr. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997):

— Hajj, 271-272

— Id al-Adha, 317-318

— Id al-Fitr, 318

— Islam, 328

— Ramadan, 543-544.

1997 In Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. C. E. Bosworth et al (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1997), vol. 9:

— Sikbadj, 576.

1993 In Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Vol. 5: Supplement and Index, ed. S. R. Serafin (New York: Continuum, 1993):

— Ahmad Abd al-Muti al-Hijazi, 285-286.

Translations

2001 Selections from the Autograph Notes of Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi. In Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, ed. D. F. Reynolds (Berkeley: University of California Press) [in press].

2000 A Soiree with Abu Khalil al-Qabbani. A translation of Sadallah Wannus, æSahra maa Abi Khalil al-QabbaniÆ. Journal of Arabic and Middle Eastern Literatures 3(1) (January 2000), 19-49.

1996 Surah Ya S¥n (36), An Explanatory Translation in Rhymed Prose (saj). Port Louis: The Haji I. I. Toorawa Waqf, 1996. 32 pages.

1993 This, Is My Name. A translation of Adonis, ‘Hadha huwa smi’. In Journal of Arabic Literature 24(1) (1993), 28-38.

1992 Introduction to the History of the Petty Kings. A translation of Adonis, ‘Muqaddimah li-tarikh muluk al-tawaif’. In Journal of Arabic Literature 23(1) (1992), 27-35.

1990 A Grave… because of New York. A translation of Adonis, ‘Qabr min ajli New York’. In Journal of Arabic Literature 21(2) (1990), 43-56.

1988 The Roots. A translation of Yusuf al-Khal, æal-Judhur’. In Journal of Arabic Literature 19(2) (1988), 179-182.

Conference publications and essays

2000 Mapping Communities and their Territories - A Reflection. Towards the making of a Multi-Cultural Society. Conference papers. Ed. S. Nirsimloo-Gayan (Moka, Mauritius: Mahatma Gandhi Institute Press, 2000), 10-17 = Culture’s Permeable Frontiers. In The Zimbabwean Review 3(4) (October-December 1997), 12-14.

2000 Imagined Territories: The Pre-Dutch History of the Indian Ocean. Globalisation and the South-West Indian Ocean. Ed. S. J. T. Evers and V. Y. Hookoomsing (Réduit, Mauritius/Leiden: University of Mauritius/International Institute for Asian Studies), 31-39.

1998 Burdens of the past, burdens of the present: reflections on the negotiation of neglect. In Coastal Fortifications/Fortification côtières. Ed. P. La Hausse de Lalouvière (Tamarin, Mauritius: Heritage, 1998), 171-78.

1998 Why I Am (Not) An Africanist: A Reflection. In Proceedings of the The Fifth African Studies Consortium: <www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Workshop/ toorawa.html>

1998 Religion in Mauritius: I have a vision... In Consolidating the Rainbow, Independent Mauritius, 1968-1998, ed. M. Carter (Port-Louis: Centre for Research on Indian Ocean Societies, 1998), 113-120.

1996 Islam in a plural society. In Le Mauricien (18 January 1996), 7.

1996 Cartographies (of silence), Orient/ation, and Sexuality: The Dis/covery of America and the Mascarenes. In USA-Mauritius. 200 Years: History, Trade, Culture. Conference Proceedings. ed. S. Crystal (Moka, Mauritius: USIS/Mahatma Gandhi Institute Press, 1996), 43-71.

1992 All Seek a Way: The Straight Path in Islam. In Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition—Labyrinth, 17(2) (Summer 1992), 22-24 .

Edited material

2000 Melvin Ayogu, Africa and Corporate Governance (Port Louis: The Hassam Toorawa Trust/W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University, 2000). i + 32 pages. [in press]

2000 Special Focus: Mauritian Writing in English. In Wasafiri 30 (Autumn 1999). 21-41.

1999 H. P. Ray, Early Seafaring Communities of the Indian Ocean (Port Louis: The Hassam Toorawa Trust, 1999). i + 27 pages.

1998 L. W. Bowman, Wandering Americans: The Mauritian Adventures of Mark Twain and Joshua Slocum (Port Louis: HTT/United States Information Service, 1998). i + 27 pages.

1997 A. R. Kidwai, A Guide to English Translations of the Quran (Port Louis: HTT, 1997). i + 19 pages.

1997 R. Lamusse, Mapping the Future of the Mauritian Economy (Port Louis: HTT, 1997). i + 17 pages.

1996 Child Care in Islam (Port Louis: HTT/UNICEF, 1996). ii + 18 pages.

Reviews

2000 Intizar Husain, The Seventh Door and Other Stories, edited and with an introduction by M. U. Memon (Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998) . In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, *.

2000 Rachid El-Daif, Cher Monsieur Kawabata (Paris: Sindbad/Actes Sud, 1998). In World Literature Today 74(1) (Winter 2000), 210-211.

2000 Death Before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu, translated and with an introduction by J. Elias (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). In Parabola: Myth, Tradition and the Search for Meaning—Threshold 25/1 (Winter 2000), 144-146.

1998 Lindsey Collen, Getting Rid Of It (London: Granta Books, 1997). In World Literature Today 72(3) (Summer 1998), 690-691.

1998 Sonorités pour adoucir le souci. Poésie traditionelle de l’archipel malais. Tr. G. Voisset (Paris: Gallimard/nrf, 1996). In World Literature Today 72(1) (Winter 1998), 213.

1998 Reorientations/Arabic and Persian Poetry, ed. S. P. Stetkevych (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994). In Journal of the American Oriental Society 117(4) (1997), 759-762.

1997 Raharimanana, Lucarne (Paris: Serpent à Plumes, 1996). In World Literature Today 71(2) (Spring 1997), 438-439.

1997 Carl de Souza, La maison qui marchait vers le large (Paris: Serpent à Plumes, 1996). In World Literature Today 71(2) (Spring 1997), 464.

1997 Sayyida Salme/Emily Ruete, An Arabian Princess Between Two Worlds: Memoirs, Letters Home, Sequels to the Memoirs, Syrian Customs & Usages, ed. E. van Donzel (Leiden: Brill, 1993). In Muslim World Book Review, 17(2) (Summer 1997), 57-58.

1996 Kaisser A. Afif, And the Word Became Poem, tr. M. Ajami (Princeton: The Grindstone Press, 1994). In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 30(2) (December 1996), 236-237.

1996 Intizar Husain, Basti, tr. F. Pritchett (Delhi: HarperCollins, 1994). In Annual of Urdu Studies 11 (1996), 310-315.

1996 Abdul Wahab Al-Bayati, Love, Death and Exile, poems translated from Arabic by Bassam K. Frangieh (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1990). In al-‘Arabiyya: Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic 27 (1994), 51-62.

1996 Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, ed. R. Allen, H. Kilpatrick and E. de Moor (London: Saqi, 1995). In Muslim World Book Review 16(3) (Spring 1996), 33-37.

1994 Hanan al-Shaykh, Women of Sand and Myrrh (London: Quartet Books, 1990). In Muslim World Book Review 14(3) (Summer 1994), 46-47.

1994 Abbasid Belles-Lettres, ed. J. Ashtiany et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). In Muslim World Book Review 14(2) (Spring 1994), 47-52.

1993 Shmuel Moreh, Live Theatre and Dramatic Literature in the Medieval Arabic World (New York: New York University Press, 1991). In Muslim World Book Review 13(4) (Summer 1993), 47-48.

1992 John Asfour, When the Words Burn (Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1988). In Journal of Arabic Literature 23(3) (1992), 236-247. Abridged version: In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 24(2) (December 1990), 244-246.

1992 M. M. Enani, The New Arabic Poetry in Egypt (Cairo: GEBO, 1988). In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 28 (1992), 241-244.

1990 Salma Jayyusi, Modern Arabic Poetry: An Anthology (New York: Columbia UP, 1987). In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 24(2) (December 1990), 254-255.

1990 (With the Members of RRALL) Wilson Bishai, A Computer Dictionary of Literary Arabic: Arabic-English (The Arabic Software Center). In Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 24(2) (December 1990), 247-248.

1990 Ghazi Algosaibi, Lyrics from Arabia (Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1986). In Jusur 6 (1990), 126-131.

1988 Basim Musallam et al., ‘The Power of the Word’ [documentary film]. In Jusur 4 (1988), 69-76.

1988 Abdullah al-Udhari, Victims of a Map (London: Saqi Books, 1985). In Journal of Arabic Literature 19(2) (1988), 193-200.

Editorial Activities

1996-present Member, International Editorial Board, Periodica Islamica

1996-present Referee, International Journal of Middle East Studies

1995-present Reviewer, World Literature Today

1993-present Reviewer, Muslim World Book Review

Public Speaking

Invited papers and lectures (past five years)

2000 The Compatibilities of Literature and Revelation. Islam Awareness Week (Muslim Students’ Association), Emory University, Atlanta, GA (November)

2000 Modern Arabic Poetry: An Overview. Live telecast in ‘Modern Arabic Literature,’ Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (October)

2000 Q 18:61-83. 2000 Keynote address, Middle East Cultural Association, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (September)

2000 Where Women Grow on Trees: Fabulous Indian Ocean Islands. (i) Program in South Asian Studies, (ii) Faculty Programs in Residential Communities, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (September)

2000 Defining adab by (re)defining the ad¥b: Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfr and Writerly Culture. NYU/Princeton Medieval Arabic Literature Workshop: “Defining Fiction and Adab in Medieval Arabic Literature.” The Kevorkian Center, New York University, New York City (April) [delivered in absentia]

2000 Panelist, Future Directions and Challenges for African American Studies. Harvard University Department of Afro-American Studies 30th Anniversary Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (April)

2000 Is Mauritius in Africa? Is Africa in Mauritius? Race and Identity on an Indian Ocean Island. W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research Colloquium Series, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (April)

2000 ‘We were here first’: The politics and rhetoric of an Arab-Islamic Mauritius and an Afr-Islamic America. Harvard Africa Seminar, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (April)

2000 The Marvelous Waqwaq Tree. Department of Religion, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (March)

2000 ‘Constructing’ Identity on an African Island in the Indian Ocean: Race, Community, Caste and Religion. Mather House, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (February)

2000 Where Women Grow on Trees: The Arab-Islamic Waqwaq tree and the New World. (i) Islamic and Near Eastern Studies Colloquium, University of California, Santa Barbara (February). (ii) Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles (February).

2000 Is Multiculturalism Bad for Art? Carl de Souza’s Mauritian City in La maison qui marchait vers le large. Conference on Cities and Cultural Diversity in France and the Francophone World. University of California, Los Angeles (February)

2000 ‘Translating’ The Tempest: Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann, Cultural Creolization and the Rise of Mauritian Kreol. Seminar in Cross-Cultural Poetics and Rhetoric, The Humanities Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (February)

2000 New Flames from Old Fires: Adonis and the Alchemy of an Arab/ic Future. Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (January).

2000 ‘We were here first’: The politics and rhetoric of an Arab-Islamic Mauritius. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (January).

1999 Advertising and the Print Media. British Council/Media Trust/University of Mauritius Seminar: Do the Public Images of Women Match Reality? University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius