Milton in the Arab-Muslim World

Reviews / Votes

"Islam Issa is a rising star amongst scholars of the cultural interaction between the West and the Islamic world. This elegantly written book graciously eclipses previous studies of the topic. The subject is complex and in some respects volatile, but Issa grasps the tiller with a steady hand: his methodology is exemplary, and the inferences drawn from the data are characterised by common sense and intellectual honesty. Writing by literary specialists on such topics all too often describes imagined worlds, but Issa deals with the literary and religious cultures of a real world observed from the platform of his own experience and wide reading in both Arabic and English. The book will be essential reading for scholars and students of Milton, Early Modern literature, translation studies, cultural studies and reception studies, and for anyone curious about the cultural aspect of relations between the West and the Middle East."

-- Gordon Campbell, University of Leicester, UK

"Islam Issa's study of Milton and the Arab-Muslim world revisits with much greater range and detail a subject first broached in 1987 by Eid Dahiyat, whose short monograph remains unfamiliar to most Milton scholars. In line with scholarly efforts to understand the distinctive nature of relations between the West and the Middle East, Issa's Milton in the Arab-Muslim World breaks important ground on two fronts. It is both a timely reception history and an invaluable illustration of how twenty-first-century scholars can engage with canonical authors. By focusing on global and peripheral readerships, translation theories and practices, and especially in this instance, the cross-cultural synergy that ensues when writings informed by Hebraic and Christian traditions are assessed by a culture that seems in many ways opposed to them, Issa has produced a book that will become a must-read for years to come."

-- Edward Jones, Editor, Milton Quarterly

"This is genuinely important work, which makes a truly original contribution to knowledge. Most of it, indeed, is completely new. Islam Issa demonstrates how, in certain instances, Milton's meaning and poetic affect is actually thickened and intensified by his Muslim reception. At these points in its argument, the book makes good on its engagingly provocative suggestion that a Qur'anic Milton might well mean more to modern Muslims than Paradise Lost does to its secularized modern Christian readership. Groundbreaking stuff."

-- Ewan Fernie, Shakespeare Institute

"In the context of current interest in Milton's global impact, Islam Issa's detailed study of his reception, appropriation and translation in the Arab-Muslim world is particularly timely and welcome."

-- Thomas N. Corns, Bangor University, UK

"Milton in the Arab-Muslim World by Islam Issa is a significant work that merits the attention of anyone interested in the larger international reception of Milton's writings ... Overall, Milton in the Arab-Muslim World is a genuinely enriching and indeed groundbreaking text, contributing tremendously to readers' understanding of Milton's reception in the Arab-Muslim culture upon which Issa focuses and setting a high standard for future studies of cross-cultural receptions of Milton's writings."

--David V. Urban, Year's Work in English Studies