Classical Arabic Literature: A Library Of Arabic Literature Anthology [EPUB]

E-Book Overview

A major translation achievement, this anthology presents a rich assortment of classical Arabic poems and literary prose, from pre-Islamic times until the 18th century, with short introductions to guide non-specialist students and informative endnotes and bibliography for advanced scholars. Both entertaining and informative, Classical Arabic Literature ranges from the early Bedouin poems with their evocation of desert life to refined urban lyrical verse, from tender love poetry to sonorous eulogy and vicious lampoon, and from the heights of mystical rapture to the frivolity of comic verse. Prose selections include anecdotes, entertaining or edifying tales and parables, a fairy-tale, a bawdy story, samples of literary criticism, and much more. With this anthology, distinguished Arabist Geert Jan van Gelder brings together well-known texts as well as less familiar pieces new even to scholars. Classical Arabic Literature reveals the rich variety of pre-modern Arabic social and cultural life, where secular texts flourished alongside religious ones. This masterful anthology introduces this vibrant literary heritage--including pieces translated into English for the first time--to a wide spectrum of new readers.

E-Book Information

  • Series: Library of Arabic literature

  • Year: 2,013

  • City: New York

  • Pages: xxviii, 468 pages ; 24 cm

  • Language: English

  • Identifier: 9780814770276,9780814738269,9780814745113,9780814771204,0814738265,0814745113,0814770274,0814771203

  • Org File Size: 19,128,221

  • Extension: epub

  • Tags: Arabic literature Arabisch Literatur Translations Arabic literature -- Translations into English

  • Toc: Letter from the general editor / Phillip F. Kennedy -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Notes to Introduction. -- Verse: A Qaṣīdah / 'Abīd ibn al-Abraṣ -- A Qaṣīdah / 'Alqamah ibn 'Abadah -- A Qaṣīdah / al-Muthaqqib al-'Abdī -- An Elegy (Marthiyah) / al-Khansā' -- Polemics in Verse: An Invective Qaṣīdah / al-Akhṭal -- Love in the Desert: A Qaṣīdah / Dhū l-Rummah -- An Umayyad Ghazal Poem, used as an Abbasid Song Text -- An 'Udhrī Ghazal attributed to Majnūn Laylā -- An Umayyad Ghazal / 'Umar ibn Abī Rabī 'ah -- A Love Poem / Umm Khālid -- Anti-Arab, Pro-Iranian Lampoon (Hijā') / Bashshār ibn Burd -- A Modern (Muhdath) Ghazal Epigram / Abū Nuwās -- A Ghazal: On a Boy Called 'Alī / Abū Nuwās -- Two Wine Poems / Abū Nuwās -- A Lampooning Epigram (Hijā') / Abū Nuwās -- A Ghazal Poem / al-'Abbās ibn al-Aḥnaf -- Three Love Epigrams / 'Ulayyah bint al-Mahdī -- A Poem of Asceticism (Zuhdiyyah) / Abū l-'Atāhiyah -- Ibn al Rūmī: On His Poetry -- A Qaṣīdah: A Party at 'Abd al-Malik ibn ṣāliḥ al-Hāshimī's / Ibn al-Rūmī -- A Panegyric Qaṣīdah / al-Buḥturī -- A Victory Ode: The Qaṣīdah on Sayf al-Dawlah's Recapture of the Fortress of al-ḥadath / al-Mutanabbī -- Nature Poetry: Two Epigrams / Ibn Khafājah -- Strophic Poem: A Muwashshaḥah / al-A 'mā al-Tuṭīlī -- An Anonym