Faraz Alidina is a specialist in Middle Eastern languages and literatures. He obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada, and previously completed degrees at Harvard University and McGill University.

• List of Figures and ImagesTransliteration ChartsA Note on Dates Introduction I. Ethics and Storytelling II. 'Attar, Sufism and Exempla III. Defining the Exemplum in Greek, Arabic and Latin 1.The Exemplum in Aristotelian and Galenic Theories of Logic and Ethics I. Enthymeme and Exemplum II. Moral Self-Reflexivity and Parrhesia III. Summary 2. The Ancients and The Heirs: Debating and Legitimating Homiletic Storytelling I. The Origins and Early Disputes of Islamicate Storytelling II. Controversies during the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Periods III. Summary 3. Through Rupture and Continuity: Transmitting Exempla in the 10th–14th Century I. Introduction II. The Documentary vs. Narratological Approach III. Comprehending the Old Man Planting IV. The Inconvenient Home of the Old Woman V. Summary 4. Exempla and Exemplarism: Re-reading 'Attar’s Discourse of Birds I. Introduction II. Gathering the Congregation III. The Hoopoe’s Sermon of Pious CounselIV. Arriving at the Court of the Simurgh V. Summary Conclusion I. Similarity, Discontinuity and Ornamentation II. Crisis, Change and Continuity III. Reconstituting our Contemporary Ethical and Political Consensus NotesBibliography

Faraz Alidina is a specialist in Middle Eastern languages and literatures. He obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada, and previously completed degrees at Harvard University and McGill University.

• List of Figures and ImagesTransliteration ChartsA Note on Dates Introduction I. Ethics and Storytelling II. 'Attar, Sufism and Exempla III. Defining the Exemplum in Greek, Arabic and Latin 1.The Exemplum in Aristotelian and Galenic Theories of Logic and Ethics I. Enthymeme and Exemplum II. Moral Self-Reflexivity and Parrhesia III. Summary 2. The Ancients and The Heirs: Debating and Legitimating Homiletic Storytelling I. The Origins and Early Disputes of Islamicate Storytelling II. Controversies during the Umayyad and 'Abbasid Periods III. Summary 3. Through Rupture and Continuity: Transmitting Exempla in the 10th–14th Century I. Introduction II. The Documentary vs. Narratological Approach III. Comprehending the Old Man Planting IV. The Inconvenient Home of the Old Woman V. Summary 4. Exempla and Exemplarism: Re-reading 'Attar’s Discourse of Birds I. Introduction II. Gathering the Congregation III. The Hoopoe’s Sermon of Pious CounselIV. Arriving at the Court of the Simurgh V. Summary Conclusion I. Similarity, Discontinuity and Ornamentation II. Crisis, Change and Continuity III. Reconstituting our Contemporary Ethical and Political Consensus NotesBibliography