The Institute of Oriental Studies of the JagiellonianUniversity in Kraków is one of the leading Polishcentres for research in the field of the languages,literatures and cultures of the Eastern World. Itwas founded in 1919 and it is the oldest academicunit for oriental studies in Poland. During onehundred years of scientific and teaching activity ofthe Institute many prominent scholars were among itsstudents and then teachers. The founder of theInstitute, professor Tadeusz Kowalski, was anoutstanding orientalist whose scientificachievements cover several oriental languages(Turkish, Karaim, Arabic and Persian) and theirliterature. Among other scholars who worked in theInstitute we would like to mention professor TadeuszLewicki, professor Andrzej Czapkiewicz (both of themwere Arabists), professor Włodzimierz Zajączkowski(eminent Turkologist), professor FranciszekMachalski (Iranologist), professor HelenaWillman-Grabowska (Indologist). Today the staff ofthe Institute conducts research in all the branchesof oriental studies and all main languages of theEast are taught here.

The volume consists of 28 chapters authored by thepresent staff of the Institute of Oriental Studiesand by prominent scholars from all over the worldwho cooperate with the Institute. Its aim is toportray the present-day state of oriental studies,which are here understood predominantly asphilologies of Asia and Africa, but also as a fieldof study including other, adjacent disciplines ofthe humanities. Therefore, although the main focusof this volume is on literature and linguistics, itincludes chapters on history, culture, science,religion and philosophy as well, not neglecting thehistory of oriental research. The reader will findhere the following topics:

Literature

Sharief Al Jayyar in hiscomparative study on the intertextual relationsbetween novels by Charles Dickens and TawfiqAl-Hakim points to the similar themes of both works,such as a social conflict and a dual nature of humanexistence.

Roswitha Badry offers adeeper reading of the novel TheGhost of al-Ḥallāj by Maqbūl al-ʿAlawī,as a testimony of some contemporary social, personaland political matters related to the newest historyof the Arab world.

Hülya Bayrak Akyıldızdepicts the image of female characters in Turkishnovels written in the era of Kemalism and comes tothe conclusion that Turkish writers of that time hadrather conservative ideas on the gender roles.