arabic poetry

In this collection of poems by one of the Ar ab world”s greatest love poets, the author pays homage to th e grace and beauty of women and takes on those who dare to i mpose taboos on women and love. ‘
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Khalid Sindawi introduces the reader to a prominent Shi’ite poet of the Abbasid period who has been largely ignored by modern scholarship. ‘Ali b. Ishaq al-Zahi (925-963 CE) is considered second only to al-Mutanabbi among the poets of this period. The first part of the book presents the historical, political and intellectual background of the poet’s lifetime, framing the biographical section of this book with the poet’s birth in Baghdad, his later years in Aleppo and his death. The study discusses his names, his occupation, his relations with prominent personalities of his age, such as Sayf al-Dawla and the vizier al-Hasan b. al-Muhallabi, and his conversion to Shi’ite. It then provides an account of the various themes in his poetry and gives an analysis of the technical aspects of al-Zahi’s poetry, its language, style and rhetorical devices. It also discusses the transmitters of his poetry, opinions of ancient and modern critics, and cases of plagiarism of his verse. The book’s second part consists of a scholarly analysis of the poems which have survived in various traditional collections. There are fifty-four poems with three-hundred-and-seven verses in total. The final section presents the verses as they have been extracted from the various sources and closes with a detailed commentary of all the poems.
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This concise bibliography is a comprehensive list of Classical Arabic texts on grammar, lexicography, adab, balagha, metrics and poetry, which have been edited from 1960 to 2000. Featuring about 1300 authors and more than 4000 text editions this reference work is intended to serve as a supplement to Brockelmann’s GAL and to Sezgin’s GAS. Research is facilitated by indices of titles and modern editors.
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This work presents the complete collection of oral poetry by ad-Dindan, a bedouin poet of the Duwasir tribe in southern Najd, transcribed and translated on the basis of taped recordings. The text is representative of a poetic tradition which has remained remarkably close to the desert poetry of the early classical age. An extensive glossary, including detailed cross-references to the classical Arabic vocabulary, completes the edition. The introduction describes Dindan’s somewhat anomalous position in local society as a result of his stubborn attachment to nomadism, his fierce artistic temper and his unreconstructed bedouin ethos. It also discusses the composition of oral poetry, the “diwan”‘s themes and its place in the Najdi tradition, the impact of literacy on the poet’s oral work and the prosodic and linguistic features of the text.
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“Quite simply: these are seminal essays…. Distinguished scholarship, erudite, and full of innovative ways of interpreting Arabic and Persian poetry.” — Omar Pound

“[This book] reads Arabic and Persian poetry in a refreshingly new and significant way…. raises our understanding… to a new level.” — James T. Monroe

Innovative methodologies reorient critical readings of classical Middle Eastern literature.

Best review for Reorientations / Arabic and Persian Poetry

This book is the first critical survey of the development and achievements of ‘modern’ Arabic poetry, here signifying the period from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present day. It ranges over the entire Arabic-speaking world and includes a discussion of the work of poets who emigrated to the United States and Latin America. Four main stages are examined in the development of a specifically modern Arabic poetry: the ‘neoclassical’, in which poets turned to their literary heritage for their ideals and inspiration; the pre-romantic’, which was marked by a tension between a modified classical style and new romantic sentiments, itself the reflection of a wider cultural movement towards change and modernization; the ‘romantic’, in which the tensions between form and content were resolved, and a lyricism and simplicity of language become the norm; and the ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’ which is typified by a reaction against romanticism, and dominated by either committed social realism or symbolism and surrealism. In the absence of any similar published work in a European language, the book, as well as being designed for students of Arabic literature and of comparative literature, will also be of interest to the general reader. No knowledge of Arabic is presupposed: all the verse (newly translated by the author) is given in English translation, and technical terminology has been reduced to a minimum.
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Best review for A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry

Short fiction was an immensely innovative art in the medieval Arab world, providing the perfect vehicle for transmitting dazzling images of life and experiences as early as pre-Islamic times. These works also speak to the urbanization of the Arab domain after Islam, mirroring the bustling life of the Muslim Arabs and Islamized Persians and reflecting the sure stamp of an urbanity that had settled very staunchly after big conquests. All the noises and voices of the Umayyads and Abbasids are here. One can taste the flavor of Abbasid food, witness the rise of slave girls and singers, and experience the pride of state. Reading these texts today illuminates the wide spectrum of early Arab life and suggests the influences and innovations that flourished so vibrantly in medieval Arab society. The only resource of its kind, Salma Khadra Jayyusi’s Classical Arabic Stories selects from an impressive corpus, including excerpts from seven seminal works: Ibn Tufail’s novel, Hayy ibn Yaqzan; Kalila wa Dimna by Ibn al-Muqaffa’; The Misers by al-Jahiz; The Brethren of Purity’s The Protest of Animals Against Man; Al-Maqamat (The Assemblies) by al-Hamadhani and al-Hariri; Epistle of Forgiveness by al-Ma’arri; and the epic romance, Sayf Bin Dhi Yazan. Jayyusi organizes her anthology thematically, beginning with a presentation of pre-Islamic tales, stories of rulers and other notables, and thrilling narratives of danger and warfare. She follows with tales of love, religion, comedy, and the strange and the supernatural. Long assumed to be the lesser achievement when compared to Arabic literature’s most celebrated genre-poetry-classical Arabic fiction, under Jayyusi’s careful eye, finally receives a proper debut in English, demonstrating its unparalleled contribution to the evolution of medieval literature and its sophisticated representation of Arabic culture and life.

Best review for Classical Arabic Stories: An Anthology

Since pre-Islamic days poetry has been the mass art form of the Arabic language. In modern times poets in the region have had a greater impact on popular culture than novelists, and there can be no doubt that Mahmud Darwish, Samih al-Qasim and Adonis are among the leading poets of the Arab world today. Victims of a Map presents fifteen translated poems by each poet. It includes thirteen poems by Darwish never before published in book form, even in Arabic, and a long work by Adonis written during the 1982 siege of Beirut, also published here for the first time.
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Best review for Victims of a Map: A Bilingual Anthology of Arabic Poetry

Called a “major innovator in his art form” by the New York Times, Baghdad-born poet Abdul Wahab Al-Bayati broke with over fifteen centuries of Arabic poetic tradition to write in free verse and became world famous in the process. This collection is a rare, bilingual facing-page edition in both the original Arabic text and in a highly praised English translation by Bassam K. Frangieh-containing selections from eight of Al-Bayati’s books of poetry.
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Best review for Love, Death, and Exile: Poems Translated from Arabic