Bøger i Library of Arabic Literature serien

The earliest surviving instance of sustained first-person travel narrative in ArabicMission to the Volga is a pioneering text of peerless historical and literary value. In its pages, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. In this colorful documentary from the tenth century, the enigmatic Ibn Fadlan relates his experiences as part of an embassy sent by Caliph al-Muqtadir to deliver political and religious instruction to the recently-converted King of the Bulghars. During eleven months of grueling travel, Ibn Fadlan records the marvels he witnesses on his journey, including an aurora borealis and the white nights of the North. Crucially, he offers a description of the Viking Rus, including their customs, clothing, body painting, and a striking account of a ship funeral. Together, these anecdotes illuminate a vibrant world of diversity during the heyday of the Abbasid Empire, narrated with as much curiosity and zeal as they were perceived by its observant beholder.An English-only edition.

"Logic was revered in the thirteenth century, perhaps more highly than it has been revered before or since. In the Muslim East, logic was an integral part of the syllabus of schools and found to be especially helpful for legal studies. It was at this time that The Canons of Logic was composed by Najm al-Din al-Katibi, a scholar of the Shafi'i school of law. The Canons of Logic is the most widely read introduction to logic in the Arabic-speaking world. It has probably enjoyed a longer shelf-life than any other logic textbook ever written, having been in use by madrasa students from the early fourteenth century up until the present day. Building on the theories of Avicenna, al-Razi, and other pioneers of logic, al-Katibi discusses the many pitfalls of building arguments and setting out unambiguous claims in natural language. The enduring nature of the text is a testament to al-Katibi and his impact on concepts of formal discourse and argument. This new translation of The Canons of Logic provides new life to an influential text that has shaped the work of scholars of logic for centuries"--

"Bedouin Poets of the Nafåud Desert features poetry from three poets of the Ibn Rashåid dynasty-the highwater mark of Bedouin culture in the nineteenth century. Khalaf Abåu Zwayyid, 'Adwåan al-Hirbåid, and 'Ajlåan ibn Rmåal belonged to tribes based around the area of Jabal Shammar in northern Arabia. A cultural and political center for the region, Jabal Shammar attracted caravans of traders and pilgrims, tribal shaykhs, European travelers (including T.E. Lawrence), illiterate Bedouin poets, and learned Arabs. All three poets lived at the inception of or during modernity's accelerating encroachment. New inventions and firearms spread throughout the region, and these poets captured Bedouin life in changing times. Their poems and the accompanying narratives showcase the beauty and complexity of Bedouin culture, while also grappling with the upheaval brought about by the rise of the House of Saud and Wahhabism. The poems featured in Bedouin Poets of the Nafåud Desert are often humorous and witty, yet also sentimental, wistful, and romantic. They vividly describe journeys on camelback, stories of family and marriage, thrilling raids, and beautiful nature scenes, offering a window into Bedouin culture and society in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries"--

"Arabic hunting poetry from the Abbasid era, by renowned poet Ibn al-Mutazz"--

"A Sufi scholar's philosophical interpretation of the names of God"--

"An exposition of Islamic mysticism by a Sufi scholar"--

Poems and tales of a literary forefather of the United Arab Emirates Love, Death, Fame features the poetry of al-M¿yid¿ ibn ¿¿hir, who has been embraced as the earliest poet in what would later become the United Arab Emirates. Although little is known about his life, he is the subject of a sizeable body of folk legend and is thought to have lived in the seventeenth century, in the area now called the Emirates. The tales included in Love, Death, Fame portray him as a witty, resourceful, scruffy poet, at times combative and at times kindhearted. His poetry primarily features verses of wisdom and romance, with scenes of clouds and rain, desert migrations, seafaring, and pearl diving. Like Arabian Romantic and Arabian Satire, this collection is a prime example of Nabä¿ poetry, combining vernacular language of the Arabian Peninsula with archaic vocabulary and images dating to Arabic poetry's very origins. Distinguished by Ibn ¿¿hir's unique voice, Love, Death, Fame offers a glimpse of what life was like four centuries ago in the region that is now the UAE.An English-only edition.

"A collection of stories designed for the moral instruction and entertainment of readers"--

"A literary anthology of poetry and anecdotes related to Christian monasteries of the medieval Middle East"--

"An anthology of Arabic hunting poetry from the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras"--

"This work is essentially a legal opinion, a fatwa, asserting the inherent validity of the Sufi path"--

"The Book of Travels is òHannåa Diyåab's remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again"--

"A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence"--

A groundbreaking exposition of Islamic mysticismThe Essence of Reality was written over the course of just three days in 514/1120, by a scholar who was just twenty-four. The text, like its author ¿Ayn al-Qü¿t, is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which that it is in all likelihood the earliest philosophical exposition of mysticism in the Islamic intellectual tradition. This important work would go on to exert significant influence on both classical Islamic philosophy and philosophical mysticism.Written in a terse yet beautiful style, The Essence of Reality consists of one hundred brief chapters interspersed with Qur¿anic verses, prophetic sayings, Sufi maxims, and poetry. In conversation with the work of the philosophers Avicenna and al-Ghaz¿l¿, the book takes readers on a philosophical journey, with lucid expositions of questions including the problem of the eternity of the world; the nature of God¿s essence and attributes; the concepts of ¿before¿ and ¿after¿; and the soul¿s relationship to the body. All these discussions are seamlessly tied into ¿Ayn al-Qü¿t¿s foundational argument¿that mystical knowledge lies beyond the realm of the intellect.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Poems and tales of a literary forefather of the United Arab EmiratesLove, Death, Fame features the poetry of al-M¿yid¿ ibn ¿¿hir, who has been embraced as the earliest poet in what would later become the United Arab Emirates. Although little is known about his life, he is the subject of a sizeable body of folk legend and is thought to have lived in the seventeenth century, in the area now called the Emirates. The tales included in Love, Death, Fame portray him as a witty, resourceful, scruffy poet, at times combative and at times kindhearted.His poetry primarily features verses of wisdom and romance, with scenes of clouds and rain, desert migrations, seafaring, and pearl diving. Like Arabian Romantic and Arabian Satire, this collection is a prime example of Nabä¿ poetry, combining vernacular language of the Arabian Peninsula with archaic vocabulary and images dating to Arabic poetry¿s very origins. Distinguished by Ibn ¿¿hir¿s unique voice, Love, Death, Fame offers a glimpse of what life was like four centuries ago in the region that is now the UAE.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Timeless fables of loyalty and betrayal Like Aesop¿s Fables, Kal¿lah and Dimnah is a collection designed not only for moral instruction, but also for the entertainment of readers. The stories, which originated in the Sanskrit Panchatantra and Mahabharata, were adapted, augmented, and translated into Arabic by the scholar and state official Ibn al-Muqaffä in the second/eighth century. The stories are engaging, entertaining, and often funny, from ¿The Man Who Found a Treasure But Could Not Keep It,¿ to ¿The Raven Who Tried To Learn To Walk Like a Partridge¿ and ¿How the Wolf, the Raven, and the Jackal Destroyed the Camel.¿ Kal¿lah and Dimnah is a ¿mirror for princes,¿ a book meant to inculcate virtues and discernment in rulers and warn against flattery and deception. Many of the animals who populate the book represent ministers counseling kings, friends advising friends, or wives admonishing husbands. Throughout, Kal¿lah and Dimnah offers insight into the moral lessons Ibn al-Muqaffä believed were important for rulers¿and readers.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

The adventures of the man who created AladdinThe Book of Travels is ¿ann¿ Diy¿b¿s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights. Diy¿b, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diy¿b and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, ¿ann¿ Diy¿b met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of the Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diy¿b, including ¿Aladdin¿ and ¿Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.¿ When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diy¿b at Louis XIV¿s Royal Library, Diy¿b returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences.Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Travels introduces readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from the Thousand and One Nights.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

The adventures of the man who created AladdinThe Book of Travels is ¿anna Diy¿b¿s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights.Diy¿b, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diy¿b and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, ¿anna Diy¿b met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of The Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diy¿b, including ¿Aladdin¿ and ¿Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.¿ When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diy¿b at Louis XIV¿s Royal Library, Diy¿b returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences.Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Travels introduces readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from The Thousand and One Nights.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

The adventures of the man who created AladdinThe Book of Travels is ¿ann¿ Diy¿b¿s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights. Diy¿b, a Maronite Christian, served as a guide and interpreter for the French naturalist and antiquarian Paul Lucas. Between 1706 and 1716, Diy¿b and Lucas traveled through Syria, Cyprus, Egypt, Tripolitania, Tunis, Italy, and France. In Paris, ¿ann¿ Diy¿b met Antoine Galland, who added to his wildly popular translation of the Thousand and One Nights several tales related by Diy¿b, including ¿Aladdin¿ and ¿Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.¿ When Lucas failed to make good on his promise of a position for Diy¿b at Louis XIV¿s Royal Library, Diy¿b returned to Aleppo. In his old age, he wrote this engaging account of his youthful adventures, from capture by pirates in the Mediterranean to quack medicine and near-death experiences. Translated into English for the first time, The Book of Travels introduces readers to the young Syrian responsible for some of the most beloved stories from the Thousand and One Nights.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Flora, fauna, and famine in thirteenth-century EgyptA Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. Written by the polymath and physician ¿Abd al-Lä¿f al-Baghd¿d¿, and intended for the Abbasid caliph al-N¿¿ir, the first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt¿s geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, including a recipe for a giant picnic pie made with three entire roast lambs and dozens of chickens. ¿Abd al-Lä¿f¿s text is also a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology, with detailed observations of Pharaonic monuments, sculptures, and mummies. An early and ardent champion of archaeological conservation, ¿Abd al-Lä¿f condemns the vandalism wrought by tomb-robbers and notes with distaste that Egyptian grocers price their goods with labels written on recycled mummy-wrappings.The book¿s second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597¿598/1200¿1202. ¿Abd al-Lä¿f was a keen observer of humanity, and he offers vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall.A Physician on the Nile contains great diversity in a small compass, distinguished by the acute, humane, and ever-curious mind of its author. It is rare to be able to hear the voice of such a man responding so directly to novelty, beauty, and tragedy.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Questions and answers from two great philosophersWhy is laughter contagious? Why do mountains exist? Why do we long for the past, even if it is scarred by suffering? Spanning a vast array of subjects that range from the philosophical to the theological, from the philological to the scientific, The Philosopher Responds is the record of a set of questions put by the litterateur AbÅ« á¿¿ayyÄ?n al-TawῥīdÄ« to the philosopher and historian AbÅ« Ê¿AlÄ« Miskawayh. Both figures were foremost contributors to the remarkable flowering of cultural and intellectual life that took place in the Islamic world during the reign of the Buyid dynasty in the fourth/tenth century. The correspondence between al-TawῥīdÄ« and Miskawayh holds a mirror to many of the debates of the time and reflects the spirit of rationalistic inquiry that animated their era. It also provides insight into the intellectual outlooks of two thinkers who were divided as much by their distinctive temperaments as by the very different trajectories of their professional careers. Alternately whimsical and tragic, trivial and profound, al-Tawῥīdī‿s questions provoke an interaction as interesting in its spiritedness as in its content. An English-only edition.