2025/07/17

Alexander Pushkin - Wikipedia

Alexander Pushkin - Wikipedia

Alexander Pushkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Pushkin
Portrait by Orest Kiprensky, 1827
Portrait by Orest Kiprensky, 1827
Native name
Александр Пушкин
Born6 June 1799
Moscow, Russia
Died10 February 1837 (aged 37)
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Occupation
  • Poet
  • novelist
  • playwright
LanguageRussian, French
Alma materTsarskoye Selo Lyceum
PeriodGolden Age of Russian Poetry
Genre
  • Novel
  • novel in verse
  • poem
  • drama
  • short story
  • fairytale
Literary movement
Notable works
Spouse
 
(m. 1831)
Children4
Signature

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin[a][b] (6 June [O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [O.S. 29 January] 1837) was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.[3] He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet,[4][5][6][7] as well as the founder of modern Russian literature.[8][9]

Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow.[10] His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by the Ottomans, then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson.

He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I. While under strict surveillance by the Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, Boris Godunov. His novel in verse Eugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover (her sister's husband), Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment.

Ancestry

Coat of arms of the Pushkin family
Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin

Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848), was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century.[11] Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda (Nadya) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836), was descended through her paternal grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility.[12][13] She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife, Maria Alekseyevna Pushkina (1745–1818).

Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather, was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), an African page kidnapped and taken to Constantinople as a gift for the Ottoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great. Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of "Lagon", largely on the basis of a mythical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirch.

Vladimir Nabokov, when researching Eugene Onegin, cast serious doubt on this origin theory. Later research by the scholars Dieudonné Gnammankou and Hugh Barnes eventually conclusively established that Gannibal was instead born in Central Africa, in an area bordering Lake Chad in modern-day Cameroon.[14][15] After education in France as a military engineer, Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chief (the third most senior army rank) in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia.

Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda Gannibal

Early life

Born in Moscow, Pushkin was entrusted to nursemaids and French tutors, and spoke mostly French until the age of ten. He became acquainted with the Russian language through communication with household serfs and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was more attached than to his own mother.

He published his first poem at the age of 15. When he finished school, as part of the first graduating class of the prestigious Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo, near Saint Petersburg, his talent was already widely recognized on the Russian literary scene. At the Lyceum, he was a student of David Mara, known in Russia as David de Boudry [fr], a younger brother of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat.[16] After school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg, which was then the capital of the Russian Empire. In 1820, he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila, with much controversy about its subject and style.

Social activism

While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by the Kantian liberal individualist teachings of Alexander Kunitsyn, whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem 19 October.[17] Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of the French Enlightenment, to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especially Voltaire, whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history".[18][19]

Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820.[20] He went to the Caucasus and to Crimea and then to Kamianka and Chișinău in Bessarabia.

He joined the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of the national uprising.

Rise

Pushkin recites his poem before Gavrila Derzhavin during an exam in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum on 8 January 1815. Painting by Ilya Repin (1911)
Pushkin's married lover Anna Petrovna Kern, for whom he probably wrote the most famous love poem in Russian

He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim: The Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823, Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile on his mother's rural estate of Mikhailovskoye, near Pskov, from 1824 to 1826.[21]

In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Malorossia's General-Governor.[22] Then Pushkin worked on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin.

In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poem To***. It is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern, but there are other opinions. Poet Mikhail Dudin believed that the poem was dedicated to the serf Olga Kalashnikova.[23] Pushkinist Kira Victorova believed that the poem was dedicated to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseyevna.[24] Vadim Nikolayev argued that the idea about the Empress was marginal and refused to discuss it, while trying to prove that poem had been dedicated to Tatyana Larina, the heroine of Eugene Onegin.[23] During that same year (1825) Pushkin also wrote what would become his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov, while at his mother's estate. He could not, however, gain permission to publish it until five years later. The original and uncensored version of the drama was not staged until 2007.

Authorities summoned Pushkin to Moscow after his poem Ode to Liberty was found among the belongings of the rebels from the Decembrist Uprising (1825). After his exile in 1820[25] Pushkin's friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting Emperor Alexander I and then Emperor Nicholas I on the heels of the Decembrist Uprising. Many of the Decembrists were his friends and fellow writers; Pushkin was known widely for his belief in freedom from political and moral oppression, but the Decembrists did not trust him because “he had a big mouth” and was known to be impulsive and egotistical.[26]

Upon meeting Emperor Nicholas I Pushkin obtained his release from exile and began to work as the emperor's Titular Counsel of the National Archives. However, because insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of Pushkin's earlier political poems, the emperor retained strict control of everything Pushkin published and he was banned from travelling at will.

Pushkin’s conversation with Nicholas I is not known to us, and it can only be restored from Pushkin’s later statements. After this conversation Pushkin became a supporter of Nicholas I. It was not the betrayal of Pushkin’s social ideals, it was his confidence that in the personality of Nicholas I Russia had a conductor of those events that put it forward in the direction dictated precisely by these social ideals, joined by a feeling of personal gratitude to Nicholas, who had freed the poet from exile. This attitude was vividly expressed in the stanzas: “No, I am not a flatterer when I compose free praise to the Tsar”.[27] Pushkin's patriotic poem To the Slanderers of Russia written during the 1830–1831 Polish uprising aroused hostility among some of the Russian liberals.[28]

Around 1825–1829 he met and befriended the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, during exile in central Russia.[29] In 1829 he travelled through the Caucasus to Erzurum to visit friends fighting in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War.[30] At the end of 1829 Pushkin wanted to set off on a journey abroad, the desire reflected in his poem Let's go, I'm ready.[31] He applied for permission for the journey but received negative response from Nicholas I on 17 January 1830.[32]

Natalia Pushkina, portrait by Alexander Brullov, 1831.

Around 1828 Pushkin met Natalia Goncharova, then 16 years old and one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow. After much hesitation Natalia accepted a proposal of marriage from Pushkin in April 1830, but not before she received assurances that the Tsarist government had no intention of persecuting the libertarian poet. Later Pushkin and his wife became regulars of court society. They officially became engaged on 6 May 1830 and sent out wedding invitations. Owing to an outbreak of cholera and other circumstances, the wedding was delayed for a year. The ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 (Old Style) in the Great Ascension Church on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow.

Pushkin's marriage to Goncharova was largely a happy one, but his wife’s characteristic flirtatiousness and frivolity would lead to his fatal duel seven years later, for Pushkin had a highly jealous temperament.[33]

Georges d'Anthès

In 1831, during the period of Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met one of Russia's other influential early writers, Nikolai Gogol. After reading Gogol's 1831–1832 volume of short stories Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, Pushkin supported him and would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories in the magazine The Contemporary, which he founded in 1836.

Death

By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and faced scandalous rumours that his wife was having a love affair. On 4 November, he sent a challenge to a duel to Georges d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern. Jacob van Heeckeren, d'Anthès' adoptive father, asked that the duel be delayed by two weeks. With efforts by the poet's friends, the duel was cancelled.

On 17 November, d'Anthès proposed to Natalia Goncharova's sister, Ekaterina. The marriage did not resolve the conflict. D'Anthès continued to pursue Natalia Goncharova in public and rumours circulated that d'Anthès had married Natalia's sister just to save her reputation.

On 26 January (7 February in the Gregorian calendar) 1837 Pushkin sent a "highly insulting letter" to Gekkern. The only answer to that letter could be a challenge to a duel, as Pushkin knew. Pushkin received the formal challenge to a duel through his sister-in-law, Ekaterina Gekkerna, approved by d'Anthès, on the same day through the attaché of the French Embassy, Viscount d'Archiac.

Pushkin asked Arthur Magenis, then attaché to the British Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg, to be his second. Magenis did not formally accept but on 26 January (7 February) approached Viscount d'Archiac to attempt a reconciliation; however d'Archiac refused to speak with him as he was not yet officially Pushkin's second. Magenis, unable to find Pushkin in the evening, sent him a letter through a messenger at 2 o'clock in the morning declining to be his second, as the possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the traditional first task of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation.[34][35]

The pistol duel with d'Anthès took place on 27 January (8 February) at the Black River, without the presence of a second for Pushkin. The duel they fought was of a kind known as a "barrier duel".[c] The rules of this type dictated that the duellists began at an agreed distance. After the signal to begin, they walked towards each other, closing the distance. They could fire at any time they wished, but the duellist that shot first was required to stand still and wait for the other to shoot back at his leisure.[36]

D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen. D'Anthès was only lightly wounded in the right arm by Pushkin's shot. Two days later, at 2.45 pm on 29 January (10 February), Pushkin died of peritonitis.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Idiot, a character suggests that the shot was accidental: ‘The bullet hit so low that d’Anthès was probably aiming somewhere higher, the chest or the head; nobody aims where that bullet hit, that means it probably hit Pushkin by chance, a fluke. I’ve been told that by people who know.’ [37]

At Pushkin's wife's request he was put in the coffin in evening dress, not in chamber-cadet uniform, the uniform provided by the emperor. The funeral service was initially assigned to St Isaac's Cathedral but was moved to Konyushennaya church. Many people attended. After the funeral the coffin was lowered into the basement, where it stayed until 3 February, when it was removed to Pskov province. Pushkin was buried in the grounds of Svyatogorsky monastery in present-day Pushkinskiye Gory, near Pskov, beside his mother. His last home is now a museum.

His widow Natalia Goncharova, 1849
Pushkin's ancestry

Descendants

Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalia: Maria (b. 1832), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835) and Natalia (b. 1836), the last of whom married morganatically Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and was granted the title of Countess of Merenberg. Her daughter Sophie married Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia, a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.

Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, Countess of Merenberg

Only the lines of Alexander and Natalia still remain. Natalia's granddaughter, Nadejda, married into the extended British royal family, her husband being the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and is the grandmother of the present Marquess of Milford Haven.[38] Descendants of the poet now live around the globe in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United States.

Legacy

1999 stamp of Moldova showing Pushkin and Constantin Stamati

Literary

Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as the poem The Bronze Horseman and the drama The Stone Guest, a tale of the fall of Don Juan. His poetic short drama Mozart and Salieri (like The Stone Guest, one of the so-called four Little Tragedies, a collective characterization by Pushkin himself in 1830 letter to Pyotr Pletnyov[39]) was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer's Amadeus as well as providing the libretto (almost verbatim) to Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri.

Pushkin is also known for his short stories. In particular his cycle The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin, including The Shot, were well received. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas,

"the narrative logic and the plausibility of that which is narrated, together with the precision, conciseness – economy of the presentation of reality – all of the above is achieved in Tales of Belkin, especially, and most of all in the story The Stationmaster. Pushkin is the progenitor of the long and fruitful development of Russian realist literature, for he manages to attain the realist ideal of a concise presentation of reality".[40]

Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel Eugene Onegin, which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus.

Onegin is a work of such complexity that, though it is only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning into English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers such as Henry James.[41] Pushkin wrote The Queen of Spades, a short story frequently anthologized in English translation.

Musical

Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers. Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music. Tchaikovsky's operas Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (Pikovaya Dama, 1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of the same name.

Mussorgsky's monumental Boris Godunov (two versions, 1868–9 and 1871–2) ranks as one of the very finest and most original of Russian operas. Other Russian operas based on Pushkin include Dargomyzhsky's Rusalka and The Stone GuestRimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and SalieriTale of Tsar Saltan, and The Golden CockerelCui's Prisoner of the CaucasusFeast in Time of Plague, and The Captain's DaughterTchaikovsky's MazeppaRachmaninoff's one-act operas Aleko (based on The Gypsies) and The Miserly KnightStravinsky's Mavra, and Nápravník's Dubrovsky.

Additionally, ballets and cantatas, as well as innumerable songs, have been set to Pushkin's verse (including even his French-language poems, in Isabelle Aboulker's song cycle "Caprice étrange"). SuppéLeoncavallo and Malipiero have also based operas on his works.[42] Composers Yudif Grigorevna RozhavskayaGalina Konstantinovna SmirnovaYevgania Yosifovna YakhinaMaria Semyonovna ZavalishinaZinaida Petrovna Ziberova composed folk songs using Pushkin's text.[43]

The Desire of Glory, which has been dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, was set to music by David Tukhmanov, as well as Keep Me, Mine Talisman – by Alexander Barykin and later by Tukhmanov.[citation needed]

Romanticism

Pushkin is considered by many to be the central representative of Romanticism in Russian literature; however, he was not unequivocally known as a Romantic. Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path from Neoclassicism through Romanticism to Realism. An alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but are ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including the Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic".[3]

Russian literature

Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. He is seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, and he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Whenever he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised calques. His rich vocabulary and highly-sensitive style are the foundation for modern Russian literature. His accomplishments set new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in the 19th century, marking the highest achievements of the 18th century and the beginning of literary process of the 19th century. He introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers. He brought natural speech and foreign influences to create modern poetic Russian. Though his life was brief, he left examples of nearly every literary genre of his day: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, the novel, the short story, the drama, the critical essay and even the personal letter.

According to Vladimir Nabokov,

Pushkin's idiom combined all the contemporaneous elements of Russian with all he had learned from DerzhavinZhukovskyBatyushkovKaramzin and Krylov:

  1. The poetical and metaphysical strain that still lived in Church Slavonic forms and locutions
  2. Abundant and natural gallicisms
  3. Everyday colloquialisms of his set
  4. Stylized popular speech by combining the famous three styles (low, medium elevation, high) dear to the pseudoclassical archaists and adding the ingredients of Russian romanticists with a pinch of parody.[44]

His work as a critic and as a journalist marked the birth of Russian magazine culture which included him devising and contributing heavily to one of the most influential literary magazines of the 19th century, the Sovremennik (The Contemporary, or Современник). Pushkin inspired the folk tales and genre pieces of other authors: LeskovYesenin and Gorky. His use of Russian formed the basis of the style of novelists Ivan TurgenevIvan Goncharov and Leo Tolstoy, as well as that of subsequent lyric poets such as Mikhail Lermontov. Pushkin was analysed by Nikolai Gogol, his successor and pupil, and the great Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky, who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance.

Soviet centennial celebrations

In the centennial year of Pushkin's death in 1937, a mass renaming of streets across the entire Soviet Union occurred in his honour.[45] Prior to 2022, Pushkin was the third most common historical figure represented in Ukraine’s streets; however, his monuments were removed and streets bearing his name were renamed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[45][46] These monuments, along with any toponymy named after him, are now illegal in Ukraine following the implementation of a law that bans symbols "dedicated to persons who publicly, including … in literary and other artistic works, supported, glorified, or justified Russian imperial policy".[45]

The centennial of Pushkin's death in 1937 was one of the most significant literary commemorations of the Soviet era, second only to the 1928 centennial of Leo Tolstoy's birth. Although Pushkin's image was prominently displayed in Soviet propaganda, from billboards to candy wrappers, it conflicted with the ideal Soviet persona. Pushkin was reputed as a libertine with aristocratic tendencies, which clashed with Soviet values and led to a form of repressive revisionism, akin to the Stalinist reworking of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism.[47]

Honours

Pushkin Museum, Bolshiye Vyazyomy in Golitsyno, Moskovskaya oblast, which Pushkin visited several times in his youth
Now dismantled monument in Chernihiv, Ukraine as it was in 2019
  • Shortly after Pushkin's death, contemporary Russian romantic poet Mikhail Lermontov wrote "Death of the Poet". The poem, which ended with a passage blaming the aristocracy being (as oppressors of freedom) the true culprits in Pushkin's death,[48] was not published (nor could have been) but was informally circulated in St. Petersburg.[49] Lermontov was arrested and exiled to a regiment in the Caucasus.[50]
  • Montenegrin poet and ruler Petar II Petrović-Njegoš included in his 1846 poetry collection Ogledalo srpsko (The Serbian Mirror) a poetic ode to Pushkin, titled Sjeni Aleksandra Puškina.
  • In 1929, Soviet writer, Leonid Grossman, published a novel, The d'Archiac Papers, telling the story of Pushkin's death from the perspective of a French diplomat, being a participant and a witness of the fatal duel. The book describes him as a liberal and a victim of the Tsarist regime. In Poland the book was published under the title Death of the Poet.
  • In 1937, the town of Tsarskoye Selo was renamed Pushkin in his honour.
  • There are several museums in Russia dedicated to Pushkin, including two in Moscow, one in Saint Petersburg, and a large complex in Mikhaylovskoye.
  • Pushkin's death was portrayed in the 2006 biographical film Pushkin: The Last Duel. The film was directed by Natalya Bondarchuk. Pushkin was portrayed on screen by Sergei Bezrukov.
  • His life was dramatised in the 1951 Australian radio play The Golden Cockerel
  • In 2000, the Statue of Alexander Pushkin (Washington, D.C.) was erected as part of a cultural exchange between the cities of Moscow and Washington. In return, a statue of the American poet Walt Whitman was erected in Moscow.
  • The Pushkin Trust was established in 1987 by the Duchess of Abercorn to commemorate the creative legacy and spirit of her ancestor and to release the creativity and imagination of the children of Ireland by providing them with opportunities to communicate their thoughts, feelings and experiences.
  • A minor planet, 2208 Pushkin, discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh, is named after him.[51] A crater on Mercury is also named in his honour.
1999 Russian 1 rouble coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of Pushkin's birth

Works

Narrative poems

  • 1820 – Ruslan i Ludmila (Руслан и Людмила); English translation: Ruslan and Ludmila
  • 1820–21 – Kavkazskiy plennik (Кавказский пленник); English translation: The Prisoner of the Caucasus
  • 1821 – Gavriiliada (Гавриилиада); English translation: The Gabrieliad
  • 1821–22 – Bratia razboyniki (Братья разбойники); English translation: The Robber Brothers
  • 1823 – Bakhchisarayskiy fontan (Бахчисарайский фонтан); English translation: The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
  • 1824 – Tsygany (Цыганы); English translation: The Gypsies
  • 1825 – Graf Nulin (Граф Нулин); English translation: Count Nulin
  • 1829 – Poltava (Полтава)
  • 1830 – Domik v Kolomne (Домик в Коломне); English translation: The Little House in Kolomna
  • 1833 – Andzhelo (Анджело); English translation: Angelo
  • 1833 – Medny vsadnik (Медный всадник); English translation: The Bronze Horseman
  • 1825–1832 (1833) – Evgeniy Onegin (Евгений Онегин); English translation: Eugene Onegin

Drama

  • 1825 – Boris Godunov (Борис Годунов); English translation by Alfred HayesBoris Godunov
  • 1830 – Malenkie tragedii (Маленькие трагедии); English translation: Little Tragedies [ru]
    • Kamenny gost (Каменный гость); English translation: The Stone Guest
    • Motsart i Salieri (Моцарт и Сальери); English translation: Mozart and Salieri
    • Skupoy rytsar (Скупой рыцарь); English translations: The Miserly Knight, or The Covetous Knight
    • Pir vo vremya chumy (Пир во время чумы); English translation: A Feast in Time of Plague

Fairy tales in verse

Short poems

Novels

  • 1828 – Arap Petra Velikogo (Арап Петра Великого); English translation: The Moor of Peter the Great, unfinished novel
  • 1829 – Roman v pis'makh (Роман в письмах); English translation: A Novel in Letters, unfinished novel
  • 1836 – Kapitanskaya dochka (Капитанская дочка); English translation: The Captain's Daughter, novel
  • 1836 – Roslavlev (Рославлев); English translation: Roslavlev, unfinished novel
  • 1841 – Dubrovsky (Дубровский); English translation: Dubrovskyunfinished novel[citation needed]

Short stories

  • 1831 – Povesti pokoynogo Ivana Petrovicha Belkina (Повести покойного Ивана Петровича Белкина); English translation: The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
    • Vystrel (Выстрел); English translation: The Shot, short story
    • Metel (Метель); English translation: The Blizzard, short story
    • Grobovschik (Гробовщик); English translation: The Undertaker, short story
    • Stantsionny smotritel (Станционный смотритель); English translation: The Stationmaster, short story
    • Baryshnya-krestianka (Барышня-крестьянка); English translation: The Squire's Daughter, short story
  • 1834 – Pikovaya dama (Пиковая дама); English translation: The Queen of Spades, short story
  • 1834 – Kirjali (Кирджали); English translation: Kirdzhali, short story
  • 1837 – Istoria sela Goryuhina (История села Горюхина); English translation: The Story of the Village of Goryukhino, unfinished short story
  • 1837 – Egypetskie nochi (Египетские ночи); English translation: The Egyptian Nights [ru]

Non-fiction

See also

Notes

  1.  The first name is also transliterated as Aleksandr. In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Sergeyevich and the family name is Pushkin.
  2.  English: /ˈpʊʃkɪn/;[2] Russian: Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn] 
  3.  This was coincidentally the same form of duel as the one depicted in Eugene Onegin; see Hopton (2011)

References

  1.  Weststeijn, Willem G. (2004). "Pushkin between Classicism, Romanticism and Realism"Two Hundred Years of Pushkin, Volume III. pp. 47–56. doi:10.1163/9789004484054_007ISBN 978-90-04-48405-4.
  2.  "Pushkin"Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  3.  Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., A Companion to European Romanticism. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
  4.  Short biography from University of Virginia Archived 1 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
  5.  Allan Reid, "Russia's Greatest Poet/Scoundrel". Retrieved 2 September 2006.
  6.  "Pushkin fever sweeps Russia". BBC News, 5 June 1999. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
  7.  "Biographer wins rich book price". BBC News, 10 June 2003. Retrieved 1 September 2006.
  8.  Biography of Pushkin at the Russian Literary Institute "Pushkin House". Retrieved 1 September 2006.
  9.  Maxim Gorky, "Pushkin, An Appraisal". Retrieved 1 September 2006.
  10.  "Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Russian famous poet. Biography and interesting facts about his life". 7 July 2016. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  11.  Н.К. Телетова [N.K. Teletova] (2007).
  12.  Лихауг [Lihaug], Э.Г. [E.G.] (November 2006). "Предки А.С. Пушкина в Германии и Скандинавии(предположительно): происхождение Христины Регины Шёберг (Ганнибал) от Клауса фон Грабо из Грабо [Ancestors of A.S. Pushkin in Germany and Scandinavia: Descent of Christina Regina Siöberg (Hannibal) from Claus von Grabow zu Grabow]". Генеалогический вестник [Genealogical Herald].–Санкт-Петербург [Saint Petersburg]2731–38.
  13.  Lihaug, Elin Galtung (2007). "Aus Brandenburg nach Skandinavien, dem Baltikum und Rußland. Eine Abstammungslinie von Claus von Grabow bis Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin 1581–1837". Archiv für Familiengeschichtsforschung1132–46.
  14.  New Statesman. New Statesman Limited. 2005. p. 36. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  15.  Catharine Theimer Nepomnyashchy; Nicole Svobodny; Ludmilla A. Trigos, eds. (2006). Under the Sky of My Africa: Alexander Pushkin and Blackness. Northwestern University Press. p. 31. ISBN 0810119714. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  16.  Goëtz-Nothomb, Charlotte. "Jean-Paul Marat - Notice Generale" (in French). p. 9.
  17.  Schapiro, Leonard (1967). Rationalism and Nationalism in Russian Nineteenth Century Political Thought. Yale University Press. pp. 48–50. Schapiro writes that Kunitsyn's influence on Pushkin's political views was 'important above all.' Schapiro describes Kunitsyn's philosophy as conveying 'the most enlightened principles of past thought on the relations of the individual and the state,' namely, that the ruler's power is 'limited by the natural rights of his subjects, and these subjects can never be treated as a means to an end but only as an end in themselves.'
  18.  Kahn, Andrew (2008). Pushkin's Lyric Intelligence. OUP Oxford. p. 283.
  19.  Pushkin, Alexander (1967). The Letters of Alexander Pushkin. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 164.
  20.  Wight, C. "Pushkin, poet and troublemaker - the early years"www.bl.uk. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  21.  Images of Pushkin in the works of the black "pilgrims". Ahern, Kathleen M. The Mississippi Quarterly p. 75(11) Vol. 55 No. 1 ISSN 0026-637X. 22 December 2001.
  22.  (in Russian) P.K. Guber. Don Juan List of A. S. Pushkin. Petrograd, 1923 (reprinted in Kharkiv, 1993). pp. 78, 90–99.
  23.  (in Russian) Vadim Nikolayev. To whom «Magic Moment» has been dedicated? Archived 2 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  24.  (in Russian) In an interview with Kira Victorova Archived 7 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  25.  Thorpe, Vanessa (21 April 2018). "Pushkin descendant puts Russian poet's turbulent life on stage for first time"The Guardian.
  26.  Russia’s Greatest poet/scoundrel
  27.  Boris Tomashevsky Pushkin: A Marxist Interpretation
  28.  Clarence A. Manning (November 1944). "Shevchenko and Pushkin's to the Slanderers of Russia"Modern Language Notes59 (7). The Johns Hopkins University Press495–497. doi:10.2307/2911316JSTOR 2911316Pushkin's patriotic poem had aroused hostility among some of the Russian liberals ...
    Mikhail Bakunin (1990). Bakunin: Statism and Anarchy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521369732.
    Pennsylvania State University (2005). Political History and Culture of Russia, Volume 21. Nova Science Publishers.
    Maurice Baring, Sheba Blake (2021). An Outline of Russian Literature. Sheba Blake Publishing. ISBN 9783986774691.
  29.  Kazimierz WykaMickiewicz Adam Bernard, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Tome XX, 1975, p. 696
  30.  Wilson, Reuel K. (1973). "Pushkin's Journey to Erzurum". The Literary Travelogue. Springer. pp. 98–121. doi:10.1007/978-94-010-1997-2_10ISBN 978-90-247-1558-9.
  31.  Поедем, я готов; куда бы вы, друзья...(in Russian)
  32.  Pushkin, A.S. (1974). Sobranie sochinenii. Vol. 2. Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura. p. 581.
  33.  Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich; Пушкин, Александр Сергеевич (1998). Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings. London: Penguin Books. pp. X. ISBN 0-14-044675-3.
  34.  Simmons, Ernest J. (1922). "Pushkin". p. 412. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  35.  Binyon, T. J. (2007). Pushkin: A Biography. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 593–594. ISBN 978-0-307-42737-3. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  36.  Hopton, Richard (1 January 2011). Pistols at Dawn: A History of Duelling. Little, Brown Book Group Limited. pp. 85–87. ISBN 978-0-7499-2996-1.
  37.  Dostoevsky, Fyodor (1992). The Idiot. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-953639-2.
  38.  Pushkin Genealogy. PBS.
  39.  Anderson, Nancy K. (trans. & ed.) (2000). The Little Tragedies by Alexander Pushkin. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 1 & 213 n.1ISBN 0300080255..
  40.  Kvas, Kornelije (2020). The Boundaries of Realism in World Literature. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-7936-0910-6.
  41.  Joseph S. O'Leary, ”Pushkin in 'The Aspern Papers'”. The Henry James E-Journal Number 2, March 2000 Archived 5 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 24 November 2006.
  42.  Taruskin R. Pushkin in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera. London & New York, Macmillan, 1997.
  43.  Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). International encyclopedia of women composers (Second edition, revised and enlarged ed.). New York. ISBN 0-9617485-2-4OCLC 16714846.
  44.  Vladimir NabokovVerses and Versions, p. 72.
  45.  "Pushkin must fall: monuments to Russia's national poet under threat in Ukraine"The Guardian. 5 May 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2024.

  46. "Bandera Street appeared in the liberated Izium"Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 3 December 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2022.
    Lyudmyla Martinova (28 October 2022). "Kyiv renamed Pushkinska Street to Chikalenka, Nekrasivska to Dracha"Ukrainian News Agency (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 3 December 2022.
    "Monuments to Pushkin, Lomonosov, and Gorky will be removed from public space in Dnipro - city council"Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
    "Poltava decided to demolish monuments to two Soviet generals and Pushkin"Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 7 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  47.  Morrison, Simon (2008). Sergey Prokofiev and His World. Princeton University Press. p. 60.
  48.  "Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov Biography"Home English. 2005. Retrieved 4 March 2011. (in English)
  49.  C. T. Evans (2010). "Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov (1814-1841)"Nova Online. Retrieved 4 March 2011. (in English)
  50.  "Лермонтов Михаил Юрьевич" [Mikhail Lermontov]. Russian Biographical Dictionary a. Retrieved 4 March 2011. (in Russian)
  51.  Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. p. 179. ISBN 3-540-00238-3.
  52.  "Pushkin Hills"Geographical Names Data BaseNatural Resources Canada. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  53.  "Pushkin Lake"Geographical Names Data BaseNatural Resources Canada. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  54.  Wagner, Ashley (6 June 2013). "Celebrating Russian Language Day"Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on 8 June 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  55.  Alexander Pushkin (1799–1837). Plaque on the pedestal of Pushkin's statue at the Mehan Garden, Manila. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015.
  56.  В Эритрее появится памятник ПушкинуVesti (in Russian). 26 November 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  57.  Kaminski-Morrow, David (5 December 2018). "Sheremetyevo named for Pushkin in national airport scheme"Flightglobal.com. Retrieved 26 July 2019.

Further reading

  • Binyon, T.J. (2002) Pushkin: A Biography. London: HarperCollins ISBN 0-00-215084-0; US edition: New York: Knopf, 2003 ISBN 1-4000-4110-4
  • Yuri Druzhnikov (2008) Prisoner of Russia: Alexander Pushkin and the Political Uses of Nationalism, Transaction Publishers ISBN 1-56000-390-1
  • Dunning, Chester, Emerson, Caryl, Fomichev, Sergei, Lotman, Lidiia, Wood, Antony (Translator) (2006) The Uncensored Boris Godunov: The Case for Pushkin's Original Comedy University of Wisconsin Press ISBN 0-299-20760-9
  • Feinstein, Elaine (ed.) (1999) After Pushkin: versions of the poems of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin by contemporary poets. Manchester: Carcanet Press; London: Folio Society ISBN 1-85754-444-7
  • Galgano Andrea (2014). The affective dynamics in the work and thought of Alexandr Pushkin, Conference Proceedings, 17th World Congress of the World Association for Dynamic Psychiatry. Multidisciplinary Approach to and Treatment of Mental Disorders: Myth or Reality?, St. Petersburg, 14–17 May 2014, In Dynamische Psychiatrie. Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychotherapie, Psychoanalyse und Psychiatrie – International Journal for Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, and Psychiatry, Berlin: Pinel Verlag GmbH, 1–3, Nr. 266–68, 2015, pp. 176–91.
  • Jakowlew, Valentin. "Pushkin's Farewell Dinner in Paris" (Text in Russian) Koblenz (Germany): Fölbach, 2006, ISBN 3-934795-38-2.
  • Morfill, William Richard (1911). "Pushkin, Alexander" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 668–669.
  • Pogadaev, Victor (2003) Penyair Agung Rusia Pushkin dan Dunia Timur (The Great Russian Poet Pushkin and the Oriental World). Monograph Series. Centre For Civilisational Dialogue. University Malaya. 2003, ISBN 983-3070-06-X
  • Troyat, Henri (1974) Pushkin. A Biography. London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-0-04928-028-1
  • Vitale, Serena (1998) Pushkin's button; transl. from the Italian by Ann Goldstein. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux ISBN 1-85702-937-2
  • DuVernet, M.A. (2014) Pushkin's Ode to Liberty. US edition: Xlibris ISBN 978-1-4990-5294-7
  • Телетова, Н.К. (Teletova, N.K.) (2007) Забытые родственные связи А.С. Пушкина (The forgotten family connections of A.S. Pushkin). Saint Petersburg: Dorn OCLC 214284063
  • Wolfe, Markus (1998) Freemasonry in life and literature. Munich: Otto Sagner ltd. ISBN 3-87690-692-X
  • Wachtel, Michael. "Pushkin and the Wikipedia" Pushkin Review 12–13: 163–66, 2009–2010

Muhammad: Learning Tools: Essays | PBS

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet . Learning Tools: Essays | PBS








How a Muslim Sees Muhammad
Michael Wolfe
Read >>

Michael Wolfe, a poet and a co-producer of Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, is the author of three books about Islam: Taking Back Islam, Rodale Press, 2002; One Thousand Roads to Mecca, Grove Press, 1997; and The Hadj, Grove Press, 1993.

A Muslim Cleric on the American Frontier
by Imam Sayed Hassan Al Qazwini
Read >>

Imam Sayed Hassan Al Qazwini, was born in Karbala, Iraq in 1964. From a family of Muslims clerics, he came to United States in 1992. Since 1997, he has served as the resident imam at Dearborn Michigan's Islamic Center of America.

Of Muslims and Muhammad
by Azizah Al-Hibri
Read >>

Dr. Azizah Al–Hibri, teaches in the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond and is currently a scholar in residence at the Library of Congress. She is the founder of KARAMAH, an organization of Muslim women lawyers "dedicated to empowering Muslim women within an Islamic framework."

"The Best Speech is the Speech of Allah,
And the Best Guidance is the Guidance of Muhammad"
by Jameel William Aalim-Johnson
Read >>

Jameel Aalim–Johnson , is Chief of Staff for Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. Raised as a Christian, he converted to Islam in his early 20s. He now organizes the weekly Muslim congregational Friday prayer on Capitol Hill.

Finding the Prophet in his People
by Ingrid Mattson
Read >>

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, is a professor of Islamic Studies at Hartford Seminary. In 1995, she was an adviser to the Afghan delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, Professor Mattson is a contributor to The Muslim World Journal.

A Daughter of Detroit
by Najah Bazzy
Read >>

Najah Bazzy, a second generation American, is a critical care nurse in Dearborn, Michigan. She also conducts workshops to help bridge the gap in understanding between hospital staff and their Muslim patients, many of whom are immigrants.

My Journey in Islam
by Kevin James, Supervising Fire Marshal, FDNY
Read >>

Kevin James retired as a Supervising Fire Marshal from the FDNY in September 2002. He is currently a Revson Fellow at Columbia University who does volunteer work with the NY Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) and is seeking admission into law school.



Muhammad and Violence and Jihad | PBS

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet . Muhammad and Violence and Jihad | PBS
Muhammad's religious career is often divided into two periods: the Meccan Period which lasted for thirteen years, from the start of his revelations to his emigration to Medina; and the Medinan period, which lasted the remaining ten years of his life.

The Meccan Period is characterized by the more elliptical and otherworldly portions of the Qur'an, and by the story of the rejected and persecuted prophet. Had the assassination plot against him in 621 succeeded, his religious career would have been similar in broad outline to that of Jesus.

However, Muhammad escaped the trap set for him and went to live in the oasis of Medina. There he evolved from the charismatic head of a small group to the political and spiritual director of a large community. For the first time he had to wrestle with the challenges of creating a new society. The Qur'an continued to be revealed to him, but the focus of the message broadened now from the purely spiritual to include the more temporal issues of community building, lawmaking, and social institutions. Muhammad also came under formal military attack for the first time in Medina. Consequently, the Qur'an and Muhammad's teaching also focused on delineating the concept of the just war. Formal permission to fight is first applied in the Medinan Period:
"They will question you concerning the holy month, and fighting in it. Say: 'Fighting in it is a heinous thing, but to bar people from God's way, to disbelieve in Him and the Holy Mosque and to expel its people from it - that is more heinous in God's sight; and persecution is more heinous than fighting." (Qur'an 2:217)
Through most of the Medina period, the Muslim community was in mortal danger and surviving in a defensive mode. Between 624 and 627 especially, the Muslim community was often quite literally fighting for its life. It is no accident that the concepts of jihad and martyrdom were developed at this time.

Though the Qur'an takes on more temporal issues in the Medinan Period, it does not abandon the notions of spiritual striving and God consciousness that were hallmarks of the Meccan Period. Even the concept of defensive warfare is placed within the larger concept of jihad as striving for what is right. Though jihad might involve bloodshed, it has the broader meaning of exerting an effort for improvement, not only in the political or military realm, but also in the moral, spiritual, and intellectual realms. Muhammad is often cited in Islamic tradition for calling the militant aspect of jihad the "minor" or "little" jihad, while referring to the improvement of one's self as the "greater" jihad.

Other revelations and rulings during this period concerned the proper treatment of prisoners of war and non-combatants, the sanction against killing innocent civilians, and the respectful treatment of enemy corpses (in contrast to the custom of the time, which was mutilation.) The wanton destruction of property or agricultural resources was put off limits too. Even words of consolation for prisoners of war are found in the Qur'an:
"Prophet, tell the captives you have taken: 'If God finds some good in your hearts, He will reward you with something better than was taken away from you, and forgive your sins, for God is forgiving and kind." (Qur'an 8:70)
Various Muslim traditions define the time and place when the concept of martyrdom first appeared. One tells the story of a young man who becomes a Muslim and is killed the next morning in a skirmish. The young man's distraught wife comes to Muhammad, asking what will be the fate of her husband's soul, as he never prayed or performed even one act of worship. Muhammad answered that dying in defense of faith is the sign of ultimate submission to God. A person dying this way would be considered a martyr and go to heaven. At the same time, the Prophet warned against those who claim to be fighting for the sake of righteousness, but in fact are fighting for selfish or unjust reasons. Such a person will not be rewarded. Those who die in certain other ways, including women who die in childbirth and people who die in natural catastrophes including burning buildings, are considered martyrs too.

With many of the billion-plus Muslims living in poverty or oppression, Islam has become a rallying point for independence movements worldwide. Since jihad and martyrdom were placed within a religious context during the Medinan period, some of these independence movements have deployed the same concepts as sanctified tools for motivating combatants in the face of overwhelming odds. Thus, some seek a military solution to their political aspirations.

At the far end of the spectrum lies a fairly recent tendency to justify acts of terror with quotations from the traditions of Islam. This exercise in legal sleight of hand, placed beyond the pale by all except the terrorists themselves, has bred enormous doubt throughout the world about the essentially peaceful nature of Islam.

Especially since the tragic events of September 11, most religious scholars around the world have rejected these interpretations as spurious. Rather, they have re-emphasized the Prophet's saying that "the true jihad is only that which exalts God's word, which is truth." The Qur'an condemns as an ultimate act of blasphemy actions that attempt to dismantle the very fabric of existence by destroying and spreading ruin on the Earth. Elsewhere it states that God has willed Muslims "to be a community of moderation." (Qur'an 2:143)

Muhammad and Qu'ran | PBS

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet . Muhammad and Qu'ran | PBS



Muhammad and Qu'ran

Muslims view the Qur'an as a divine scripture revealed by God in the same way that many Christians and Jews view their scriptures. The Arabic word "Qur'an" means "the Recitations" or "the Revelations." It is a collection of the revelations that Muslims believe Muhammad received, starting in 610 when he was 40 years old. According to its own message, the Qur'an does not establish a new religion. Instead, it confirms and clarifies the truth of the original monotheism of Abraham, the focus of the Torah and Gospels.

Rather than a chronological narrative, the Qur'an addresses the social and inner condition of believers. Ethical and spiritual by turns, it occasionally refers to Biblical prophets, religious figures and events- Joseph in Egypt, Noah and the Flood, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, among many others- but it is not a book of history or narration. Rather, the Qur'an is concerned with people's spiritual destiny, the Day of Judgment, and what it means to believe in God and be a responsible person. In this last regard, the Qur'an occasionally lays down rules of behavior, but it is not a detailed book of laws like Leviticus or Deuteronomy.

Like many of the Biblical prophets, Muhammad described the experience of revelation as wrenching. He felt as if his "soul was being ripped away." He doubted its validity at first, until reassured first by his wife, then by a Christian ascetic, and eventually by the revelations themselves. All his life he distinguished between his personal opinions and the words conveyed to him in revelation.

Nonetheless, the year 610 became the watershed of Muhammad's life. Once he began to hear messages and convey them, nothing would ever be the same for him, or for the world. From a humble merchant and family man, the experience transformed him into a spiritual teacher, lawgiver, and ultimately leader of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. The book he delivered grew in stature from a text that was first reviled and ridiculed by many, to become the most memorized text in the world, a spiritual comfort to hundreds of millions, and the scripture for a global religion of more than 1.2 billion followers.

The Qur'an consists of several thousand verses arranged in 114 chapters, with the longest chapters coming first, and the shorter chapters near the end. According to Muslim tradition, its contents arrived unexpectedly to Muhammad a few verses at a time over weeks, months, and years. As this long, intermittent burst of sacred language emerged, it was memorized and written down by others, and later reorganized into the book form we have now.

The Qur'an may be called rhymed prose. It is often said to have a striking beauty when heard in Arabic. Its deft use of associations, rhymes, near rhymes and shifts in cadence seems proof to many of its Divine origin. Some prominent figures during Muhammad's lifetime converted to Islam after hearing or reading a part of it. The language of the Qur'an quickly became the basis of Classical Arabic, both written and spoken.

For readers today, the Qur'an bears the stamp of its time and place, yet for many its message transcends time and history to express universal truths. An English version of the first ten verses of the ninety-first chapter, The Sun, reads:

Consider the sun and its radiance, and the moon reflecting the sun.
Consider the day as it reveals the world,
and the night that veils it in darkness.
Consider the sky and its wonderful composition,
the earth and its expanse.
Consider the human self and He Who perfected it
And how He imbued it with awareness
of what is right and wrong.
The one who helps this self to grow in a clean way
attains to happiness.
The one who buries it in darkness is really lost.


Today, the Qur'an is memorized and recited in classical Arabic by millions of people from grade-schoolers to professional performers. It is also the basis for much of the decoration in Islamic architecture around the world, where calligraphy beautifully executed in mortar and paint enhances the walls and corridors of mosques, schools, and other public buildings. The central purpose, however, is not to provide decoration but rather to honor the Divine Word.

Muslims hear and use the Qur'an every day. The five daily prayers themselves all incorporate passages from it. The call to prayer, heard from minarets, is composed of Qur'anic lines and phrases. In view of its religious value for over a billion human beings, the Qur'an remains one of the modern world's most influential books.


Muhammad and Qu'ran


Muslims view the Qur'an as a divine scripture revealed by God in the same way that many Christians and Jews view their scriptures. The Arabic word "Qur'an" means "the Recitations" or "the Revelations." It is a collection of the revelations that Muslims believe Muhammad received, starting in 610 when he was 40 years old. According to its own message, the Qur'an does not establish a new religion. Instead, it confirms and clarifies the truth of the original monotheism of Abraham, the focus of the Torah and Gospels.

Rather than a chronological narrative, the Qur'an addresses the social and inner condition of believers. Ethical and spiritual by turns, it occasionally refers to Biblical prophets, religious figures and events- Joseph in Egypt, Noah and the Flood, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, among many others- but it is not a book of history or narration. Rather, the Qur'an is concerned with people's spiritual destiny, the Day of Judgment, and what it means to believe in God and be a responsible person. In this last regard, the Qur'an occasionally lays down rules of behavior, but it is not a detailed book of laws like Leviticus or Deuteronomy.

Like many of the Biblical prophets, Muhammad described the experience of revelation as wrenching. He felt as if his "soul was being ripped away." He doubted its validity at first, until reassured first by his wife, then by a Christian ascetic, and eventually by the revelations themselves. All his life he distinguished between his personal opinions and the words conveyed to him in revelation.

Nonetheless, the year 610 became the watershed of Muhammad's life. Once he began to hear messages and convey them, nothing would ever be the same for him, or for the world. From a humble merchant and family man, the experience transformed him into a spiritual teacher, lawgiver, and ultimately leader of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. The book he delivered grew in stature from a text that was first reviled and ridiculed by many, to become the most memorized text in the world, a spiritual comfort to hundreds of millions, and the scripture for a global religion of more than 1.2 billion followers.

The Qur'an consists of several thousand verses arranged in 114 chapters, with the longest chapters coming first, and the shorter chapters near the end. According to Muslim tradition, its contents arrived unexpectedly to Muhammad a few verses at a time over weeks, months, and years. As this long, intermittent burst of sacred language emerged, it was memorized and written down by others, and later reorganized into the book form we have now.

The Qur'an may be called rhymed prose. It is often said to have a striking beauty when heard in Arabic. Its deft use of associations, rhymes, near rhymes and shifts in cadence seems proof to many of its Divine origin. Some prominent figures during Muhammad's lifetime converted to Islam after hearing or reading a part of it. The language of the Qur'an quickly became the basis of Classical Arabic, both written and spoken.

For readers today, the Qur'an bears the stamp of its time and place, yet for many its message transcends time and history to express universal truths. An English version of the first ten verses of the ninety-first chapter, The Sun, reads:

Consider the sun and its radiance, and the moon reflecting the sun.
Consider the day as it reveals the world,
and the night that veils it in darkness.
Consider the sky and its wonderful composition,
the earth and its expanse.
Consider the human self and He Who perfected it
And how He imbued it with awareness
of what is right and wrong.
The one who helps this self to grow in a clean way
attains to happiness.
The one who buries it in darkness is really lost.


Today, the Qur'an is memorized and recited in classical Arabic by millions of people from grade-schoolers to professional performers. It is also the basis for much of the decoration in Islamic architecture around the world, where calligraphy beautifully executed in mortar and paint enhances the walls and corridors of mosques, schools, and other public buildings. The central purpose, however, is not to provide decoration but rather to honor the Divine Word.

Muslims hear and use the Qur'an every day. The five daily prayers themselves all incorporate passages from it. The call to prayer, heard from minarets, is composed of Qur'anic lines and phrases. In view of its religious value for over a billion human beings, the Qur'an remains one of the modern world's most influential books.

Muhammad and Jews of Medina | PBS

Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet . Muhammad and Jews of Medina | PBS

Judaism was already well established in Medina two centuries before Muhammad's birth. Although influential, the Jews did not rule the oasis. Rather, they were clients of two large Arab tribes there, the Khazraj and the Aws Allah, who protected them in return for feudal loyalty. Medina's Jews were expert jewelers, and weapons and armor makers. There were many Jewish clans-some records indicate more than twenty, of which three were prominent-the Banu Nadir, the Banu Qaynuqa, and the Banu Qurayza.

Various traditions uphold different views, and it is unclear whether Medina's Jewish clans were Arabized Jews or Arabs who practiced Jewish monotheism. Certainly they were Arabic speakers with Arab names. They followed the fundamental precepts of the Torah, though scholars question their familiarity with the Talmud and Jewish scholarship, and there is a suggestion in the Qur'an that they may have embraced unorthodox beliefs, such as considering the Prophet Ezra the son of God.

There were rabbis among the Jews of Medina, who appear in Muslim sources soon after Muhammad proclaimed himself a prophet. At that time the quizzical Meccans, knowing little about monotheism, are said to have consulted the Medinan rabbis, in an attempt to put Muhammad to the test. The rabbis posed three theological questions for the Meccans to ask Muhammad, asserting that they would know, by his answers, whether or not he spoke the truth. According to later reports, Muhammad replied to the rabbis' satisfaction, but the Meccans remained unconvinced.

Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 believing the Jewish tribes would welcome him. Contrary to expectation, his relations with several of the Jewish tribes in Medina were uneasy almost from the start. This was probably largely a matter of local politics. Medina was not so much a city as a fractious agricultural settlement dotted by fortresses and strongholds, and all relations in the oasis were uneasy. In fact, Muhammad had been invited there to arbitrate a bloody civil war between the Khazraj and the Aws Allah, in which the Jewish clans, being their clients, were embroiled.

At Muhammad's insistence, Medina's pagan, Muslim and Jewish clans signed a pact to protect each other, but achieving this new social order was difficult. Certain individual pagans and recent Medinan converts to Islam tried to thwart the new arrangement in various ways, and some of the Jewish clans were uneasy with the threatened demise of the old alliances. At least three times in five years, Jewish leaders, uncomfortable with the changing political situation in Medina, went against Muhammad, hoping to restore the tense, sometimes bloody-but predictable-balance of power among the tribes.

According to most sources, individuals from among these clans plotted to take his life at least twice, and once they came within a bite of poisoning him. Two of the tribes--the Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa--were eventually exiled for falling short on their agreed upon commitments and for the consequent danger they posed to the nascent Muslim community.

The danger was great. During this period, the Meccans were actively trying to dislodge Muhammad militarily, twice marching large armies to Medina. Muhammad was nearly killed in the first engagement, on the plains of Uhud just outside of Medina. In their second and final military push against Medina, now known as the Battle of the Trench, the Meccans recruited allies from northwestern Arabia to join the fight, including the assistance of the two exiled Jewish tribes. In addition, they sent envoys to the largest Jewish tribe still in Medina, the Banu Qurayza, hoping to win their support. The Banu Qurayza's crucial location on the south side of Medina would allow the Meccans to attack Muhammad from two sides.

The Banu Qurayza were hesitant to join the Meccan alliance, but when a substantial Meccan army arrived, they agreed.

As a siege began, the Banu Qurayza nervously awaited further developments. Learning of their intention to defect and realizing the grave danger this posed, Muhammad initiated diplomatic efforts to keep the Banu Qurayza on his side. Little progress was made. In the third week of the siege, the Banu Qurayza signaled their readiness to act against Muhammad, although they demanded that the Meccans provide them with hostages first, to ensure that they wouldn't be abandoned to face Muhammad alone. Yet that is exactly what happened. The Meccans, nearing exhaustion themselves, refused to give the Banu Qurayza any hostages. Not long after, cold, heavy rains set in, and the Meccans gave up the fight and marched home, to the horror and dismay of the Banu Qurayza.

The Muslims now commenced a 25-day siege against the Banu Qurazya's fortress. Finally, both sides agreed to arbitration. A former ally of the Banu Qurayza, an Arab chief named Sa'd ibn Muadh, now a Muslim, was chosen as judge. Sa'd, one of the few casualties of battle, would soon die of his wounds. If the earlier tribal relations had been in force, he would have certainly spared the Banu Qurayza. His fellow chiefs urged him to pardon these former allies, but he refused. In his view, the Banu Qurayza had attacked the new social order and failed to honor their agreement to protect the town. He ruled that all the men should be killed. Muhammad accepted his judgment, and the next day, according to Muslim sources, 700 men of the Banu Qurayza were executed. Although Sa'd judged according to his own views, his ruling coincides with Deuteronomy 20:12-14.

Most scholars of this episode agree that neither party acted outside the bounds of normal relations in 7th century Arabia. The new order brought by Muhammad was viewed by many as a threat to the age-old system of tribal alliances, as it certainly proved to be. For the Banu Qurayza, the end of this system seemed to bring with it many risks. At the same time, the Muslims faced the threat of total extermination, and needed to send a message to all those groups in Medina that might try to betray their society in the future. It is doubtful that either party could have behaved differently under the circumstances.

Yet Muhammad did not confuse the contentiousness of clan relations in the oasis with the religious message of Judaism. Passages in the Qur'an that warn Muslims not to make pacts with the Jews of Arabia emerge from these specific wartime situations. A larger spirit of respect, acceptance, and comradeship prevailed, as recorded in a late chapter of the Qur'an:
We sent down the Torah, in which there is guidance and light, by which the Prophets who surrendered to God's will provided judgments for the Jewish people. Also, the rabbis and doctors of the Law (did likewise), according to that portion of God's Book with which they were entrusted, and they became witnesses to it as well…. Whoever does not judge by what God has sent down (including the Torah), they are indeed unbelievers. (5:44)
Some individual Medinan Jews, including at least one rabbi, became Muslims. But generally, the Jews of Medina remained true to their faith. Theologically, they could not accept Muhammad as a messenger of God, since, in keeping with Jewish belief, they were waiting for a prophet to emerge from among their own people.

The exiled Banu Nadir and the Banu Qaynuqa removed to the prosperous northern oasis of Khaybar, and later pledged political loyalty to Muhammad. Other Jewish clans honored the pact they had signed and continued to live in peace in Medina long after it became the Muslim capital of Arabia.

Namgok Lee - 지구화의 문회적 차원을 생각할 때, 그 비관적 측면이 큰 것이 사실이다. 악화가 양화를... | Facebook

Namgok Lee - 지구화의 문회적 차원을 생각할 때, 그 비관적 측면이 큰 것이 사실이다. 악화가 양화를... | Facebook
Namgok Lee
  · 
지구화의 문회적 차원을 생각할 때, 그 비관적 측면이 큰 것이 사실이다.
악화가 양화를 구축하는 문화제국주의에 대항하는 것은 위성 안테나를 금지하고 영화나 TV프로그램을 수입 금지하는 것으로는 성공할 수 없다.
오히려 역효과가 클 것이다.
양질의 문화를 창조하는 것이 해답이다.
욕망의 지구화가 업그레이드가 아닌, 그 반대의 경향이 크다는 것이 인류라는 종이 당면하고 있는 최대의 함정이다.
어떻게 그것을 넘어설 수 있을까?

===
선생님의 물음은 오늘날 인류 문명 전환의 본질을 찌르는 깊은 성찰입니다.
지구화(Globalization)의 문화적 차원은 종종 "접속의 확대"로 포장되지만, 
그 내면에는 욕망의 획일화와 저질 콘텐츠의 세계화, 그리고 정신의 쇠락이라는 어두운 그림자가 짙게 드리워져 있습니다.
---
🔍 1. 왜 욕망의 지구화는 업그레이드가 아닌가?
오늘날 지구화된 문화는 대부분 자본주의적 미디어 시스템에 의해 생산·배포되며, 그 본질은 다음과 같습니다:
자극적 감정(폭력·섹스·복수)의 대량 생산과 유통
빠른 소비와 폐기의 순환 구조
시장성 있는 콘텐츠의 표준화와 지역 문화의 주변화
이런 구조 안에서 '악화가 양화를 구축하는' 것은 우연이 아니라 자본의 본능입니다.
즉, 더 잘 팔리는 것이 문화적 우위가 되는 시스템 속에서, 욕망의 질은 자연히 하향 평준화됩니다.
그 결과, 인류는 "접속은 넓어졌지만, 고립되고 얕아진 감각"에 갇히게 되었죠.
---
⚠️ 2. 금지와 차단은 해법이 아니다
과거 일부 국가들은 서구의 문화제국주의에 대응해
위성 TV 차단
외국 영화 수입 제한
검열과 통제를 시도했지만
이는 두 가지 문제를 낳았습니다:
1. 불신과 반감의 확대 (금지된 것이 더 유혹적으로 느껴짐)
2. 내부 문화 창조 능력의 저하 (폐쇄성은 생명력과 감수성을 갉아먹음)
따라서 외부 차단이 아닌 내부 혁신,
즉 질 높은 문화의 창조야말로 유일한 대안입니다.
---
🌱 3. 대안은 무엇인가: 욕망의 질적 전환
이제 문제는 이렇게 바뀌어야 합니다:
> "무엇을 보느냐"에서
"무엇을 갈망하느냐"로.
즉, 욕망 자체의 품격을 바꾸는 문화적 전략이 필요합니다.
자극을 넘어 사유로
폭력의 카타르시스에서 치유의 서사로
개인의 성공 신화에서 공동체적 연대로
속도의 미학에서 깊이의 미학으로
이런 방향은 단지 예술이나 영화에 국한되지 않습니다.
**교육, 정치, 언어, 공동체 구조 전체가 포함된 "문명적 기획"**이어야 합니다.
---
🌞 4. 한국의 가능성: 제2의 개벽, 문화적 도약
한반도는 특이한 문명적 위치에 있습니다.
서구와 동양의 접점
분단의 상처를 지닌 실존적 공간
고도 자본주의와 유교적 공동체의 혼종적 구조
이것은 ‘문제’이자 동시에 ‘기회’입니다.
우리가 창조할 수 있는 문화는:
영혼이 살아 있는 예술
욕망의 질을 끌어올리는 대중 서사
슬픔과 치유의 서사, 연대의 상상력
즉, 'K-컬처'가 아니라, ‘K-문명’(K-Civilization)의 전환 기획이 필요한 때입니다.
---
🕊️ 5. 정리: 우리는 무엇을 창조할 것인가?
> 금지가 아닌 공감의 예술을
감각의 자극이 아닌 욕망의 품격을
개별 감동이 아닌 문명의 방향을
창조해 나갈 때, 
비로소 지구화의 함정을 넘어 보편적 공명을 일으킬 수 있습니다.