"Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time ... more "Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time into English, is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn 'Abd Rabbih (246-328 H./860-940 C.E.), it remains a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death. Essentially it is a book of adab, a term understood in modern times to specifically mean literature but in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning later evolved and included belles letters in the form of elegant prose and verse that was as much entertaining as it was morally educational such as poetry, pleasant anecdotes, proverbs, historical accounts, general knowledge, wise maxims, and even practical philosophy.Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's imagination and organization saved his encyclopedic compendium from easily being a chaotic jumble of materials by conceiving of it as a necklace composed of twenty-five 'books', each of which carried the name of a jewel. Each of the twenty-five 'books' was organized around a major theme and had an introduction written by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, followed by his relevant adab selections of verse and prose on the theme of the 'book'. He drew on a vast repertoire of sources including the Bible, the Qur'an, and the "Hadith", and the works of al-Jahiz, Ibn Qutayba, al-Mubarrad, Abu 'Ubayda ibn al-Muthanna and several others, and the diwans of many Arab poets, including his own poetry which is why "The Unique Necklace" is a standard text for those interested in classical Arabic literature. Volume I of this translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid" (Garnet Publishing, 2006) contained four of its twenty-five 'books'. The present volume, Volume II, contains two more.
... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was inv... more ... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was involved in the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. Gabriel Skoog: Mmmm. Farhat Ziadeh: So he studied with me in England. And and he was doing history with Bernard Lewis. ...
As aMiddle Eastern feminist scholar who is invested in the lives of Muslim women and their activi... more As aMiddle Eastern feminist scholar who is invested in the lives of Muslim women and their activisms, I have my concerns about the exclusivity of inviting only Muslim-identified women to rethink Islamic texts. Although I understand the author’s concern about Islamophobia, Muslim women’s lives in the United States, and the pressure they receive from both the public and academic sphere, I am also apprehensive of the lives of “non-Muslimidentified” women outside Europe and North America. Many women who do not identify as practicingMuslims, may endure the same tensions emanating from a dominant Islamic religious sphere in a range of Muslim-majority global contexts. Therefore, I wish for a more inclusive invitation to rethink the Islamic sunna, one extended to both those who identify as practicing Muslims and those who do not. My final concern returns to the definition of Muslim-identified women solely through the lens of their religious beliefs. Despite all the right intentions, overloo...
At first glance the length of The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions may seem daunting... more At first glance the length of The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions may seem daunting to even the most enthusiastic of readers. But this is not just a casual overview of the subject, suitable for whiling away a lazy afternoon. It offers a timely look at major developments during the past several decades concerning scholarship produced about the Arabic novel. For anyone with more than a passing interest in the fortunes of the novel genre in modern Arab society and culture and how it got to the place of primacy it holds today, this book will be a resource to return to again and again. It will repay those who have the opportunity to read, re-read, compare and reflect on its major essays for decades to come. The editor of the volume, Professor Hassan, is to be commended for keeping it focused on the major trends, as he sees them, in the study of modern Arabic fiction, while at the same time giving his contributors maximum leeway to produce meaningful interpretations of their subject matter. Hassan establishes how inclusive and exclusionary impulses have interacted in the study of Arab novelistic traditions very clearly in the introduction to the Handbook. He speaks of “the novel” as having “played an important role in consolidating national identities,” à la Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities (6), but he also shows how it frequently became the vehicle for expressing heterogeneous strands within “[e]thnic, racial, linguistic, religious, and other minorities” (9) that challenged the national clichés of homogenization. Parts II (“Developments” in 21 Arabic-speaking countries, from Algeria to Mauritania to Yemen) and III (“Diasporas” in 13 additional countries, from Argentina to the Netherlands to the United States) provide major evidence for the contributors’ contention that Arab novelistic traditions cannot be reduced to single, univocal phenomenon. Hassan’s major focus in the introduction may be on nomenclature and the organization of the entire volume, but he also argues that the “standard account” of the development of the novel in Arabic places it as “a sign of MESA R o M E S 53 2 2019
The Caliph's Sister is a recent entry in a long-term project, sponsored by the Zaidan Foundat... more The Caliph's Sister is a recent entry in a long-term project, sponsored by the Zaidan Foundation (www.zaidanfoundation.org), to translate a number of Jurji Zaidan's historical novels from Arabic into English using the talents of experienced and highly regarded academic translators like Roger Allen (The Conquest of Andalusia), Issa J. Boullata (who produced this volume), Michael Cooperson (The Caliph's Heirs), and Samah Salim (Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt). This work, published in Arabic under the title Al-Abbasah, Ukht al-Rashid (1906), is one of the best known of the original series (begun by Zaidan in 1892) to deal with events from the Abbasid period. The novel, written in an engaging and lively style, represents the most mature phase of Zaidan's output in this genre and is more skillfully constructed than his earlier, more tentative attempts at composing such works. At the time Zaidan wrote it, a new edition of The Thousand and One Nights was under preparation in Cairo. The story of the high-born 'Abbasah and her unfortunate love for her brother's vizier Ja'far is very reminiscent, with its dark undertones and pointed social commentary (especially concerning gender relations), of the stories included in The Thousand and One Nights cycle. According to legend, Harun al-Rashid, greatest of the Abbasid caliphs, loved the companionship of both his sister and his vizier as he relaxed informally in the evening. But, since Jafar was a male unrelated to 'Abbasah, they could not simultaneously enjoy his company. So Harun arranged a marriage of convenience between them, one that they both swore would never be consummated. Unfortunately, they fell in love and their marriage became one in truth, eventually producing two sons. This mesalliance, once it became known to Harun, offended him so much that he killed his sister, brought down the entire family of Ja'far, the Barmakids, and "disappeared" their children. Regardless of the actual truth of this story, it illustrates (especially as written by Zaidan) the dangerous results for the subjects of any realm where the ruler has too much autocratic power concentrated in his hands. The tensions engendered by despotism, for both ruler and ruled, would undoubtedly have had particular resonance in the peculiar atmosphere (combining an absolute monarchy with colonialism) prevalent at the time of the novel's publication. Zaidan also shows—through subplots about two of the more prominent poets of the period, Abu al-Atahiyah and Abu Nuwas—the prominent role literature played in court society. In fact, it is through poetry (penned by Harun's wife
This article examines developments in the memoir form in Palestinian literature over time, concen... more This article examines developments in the memoir form in Palestinian literature over time, concentrating on the period since the Oslo Accords of 1993. It begins by briefly looking at new, general theoretical perspectives on the memoir form relevant to recognizing the importance of memoirs by Palestinians. A shift from viewing memoirs as purely the product of individuals to validating the notion of collective recollection occurs in the theoretical literature and can be documented in the Palestinian memoir. Similarly, attention to the idea of recollection as fluid and as a process enriches our understanding of what Palestinian memorists are trying to achieve. This section draws upon the work of such foundational figures as Maurice Halbwachs, Paul Ricoeur, Sidonie Smith, and Julia Watson. It also incorporates the insights of those who have focused more specifically on the Palestinian memoir form, such as Rashid Khalidi and Susan Slyomovics. These theoretical views are then tested throu...
"Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time ... more "Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time into English, is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn 'Abd Rabbih (246-328 H./860-940 C.E.), it remains a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death. Essentially it is a book of adab, a term understood in modern times to specifically mean literature but in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning later evolved and included belles letters in the form of elegant prose and verse that was as much entertaining as it was morally educational such as poetry, pleasant anecdotes, proverbs, historical accounts, general knowledge, wise maxims, and even practical philosophy.Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's imagination and organization saved his encyclopedic compendium from easily being a chaotic jumble of materials by conceiving of it as a necklace composed of twenty-five 'books', each of which carried the name of a jewel. Each of the twenty-five 'books' was organized around a major theme and had an introduction written by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, followed by his relevant adab selections of verse and prose on the theme of the 'book'. He drew on a vast repertoire of sources including the Bible, the Qur'an, and the "Hadith", and the works of al-Jahiz, Ibn Qutayba, al-Mubarrad, Abu 'Ubayda ibn al-Muthanna and several others, and the diwans of many Arab poets, including his own poetry which is why "The Unique Necklace" is a standard text for those interested in classical Arabic literature. Volume I of this translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid" (Garnet Publishing, 2006) contained four of its twenty-five 'books'. The present volume, Volume II, contains two more.
Since several of my colleagues have referred to this article, which provides an overview of the i... more Since several of my colleagues have referred to this article, which provides an overview of the influence of T.S. Eliot on modern Arabic poetry, I have appended here the version of the article that has the footnote numbers restored in the body of the text. They were inadvertently left out of the original article in the last stage of the publication process, thus rendering it difficult to use.
Page 1. LANGUAGE IN LOOKING-GLASS LAND: SAMIH AL-QASIM AND THE MODERNIZATION OF JINAS TERRI DEYOU... more Page 1. LANGUAGE IN LOOKING-GLASS LAND: SAMIH AL-QASIM AND THE MODERNIZATION OF JINAS TERRI DEYOUNG ... Page 4. 186 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.2 (1992) Bidu l-safa'ihi la s-udu l-saha'ifi fi mut-unihinna jala'u l-shakki wa-l-riyabi. 10 ...
After formulating a theoretical foundation for the sociology of narrative genres based on the wor... more After formulating a theoretical foundation for the sociology of narrative genres based on the work of Bakhtin, Foucault, Goldmann, Jauss and Said, this work challenges the widely held assumption that Arabic culture stagnated before its contact with the West at the beginning of the 19th century. Hafez traces the revival to the mid-18th century and follows its development throughout the Arab world, showing how the emergence of a new reading public with its distinct "world view" induced the process of the transformation and genesis of a new literary discourse. This is followed by a study of the dynamics of this process and an outline of the various stages of the formation and transformation of the new narrative discourse until it culminates in the production of a sophisticated and mature narrative.
... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was inv... more ... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was involved in the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. Gabriel Skoog: Mmmm. Farhat Ziadeh: So he studied with me in England. And and he was doing history with Bernard Lewis. ...
"Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time ... more "Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time into English, is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn 'Abd Rabbih (246-328 H./860-940 C.E.), it remains a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death. Essentially it is a book of adab, a term understood in modern times to specifically mean literature but in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning later evolved and included belles letters in the form of elegant prose and verse that was as much entertaining as it was morally educational such as poetry, pleasant anecdotes, proverbs, historical accounts, general knowledge, wise maxims, and even practical philosophy.Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's imagination and organization saved his encyclopedic compendium from easily being a chaotic jumble of materials by conceiving of it as a necklace composed of twenty-five 'books', each of which carried the name of a jewel. Each of the twenty-five 'books' was organized around a major theme and had an introduction written by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, followed by his relevant adab selections of verse and prose on the theme of the 'book'. He drew on a vast repertoire of sources including the Bible, the Qur'an, and the "Hadith", and the works of al-Jahiz, Ibn Qutayba, al-Mubarrad, Abu 'Ubayda ibn al-Muthanna and several others, and the diwans of many Arab poets, including his own poetry which is why "The Unique Necklace" is a standard text for those interested in classical Arabic literature. Volume I of this translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid" (Garnet Publishing, 2006) contained four of its twenty-five 'books'. The present volume, Volume II, contains two more.
... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was inv... more ... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was involved in the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. Gabriel Skoog: Mmmm. Farhat Ziadeh: So he studied with me in England. And and he was doing history with Bernard Lewis. ...
As aMiddle Eastern feminist scholar who is invested in the lives of Muslim women and their activi... more As aMiddle Eastern feminist scholar who is invested in the lives of Muslim women and their activisms, I have my concerns about the exclusivity of inviting only Muslim-identified women to rethink Islamic texts. Although I understand the author’s concern about Islamophobia, Muslim women’s lives in the United States, and the pressure they receive from both the public and academic sphere, I am also apprehensive of the lives of “non-Muslimidentified” women outside Europe and North America. Many women who do not identify as practicingMuslims, may endure the same tensions emanating from a dominant Islamic religious sphere in a range of Muslim-majority global contexts. Therefore, I wish for a more inclusive invitation to rethink the Islamic sunna, one extended to both those who identify as practicing Muslims and those who do not. My final concern returns to the definition of Muslim-identified women solely through the lens of their religious beliefs. Despite all the right intentions, overloo...
At first glance the length of The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions may seem daunting... more At first glance the length of The Oxford Handbook of Arab Novelistic Traditions may seem daunting to even the most enthusiastic of readers. But this is not just a casual overview of the subject, suitable for whiling away a lazy afternoon. It offers a timely look at major developments during the past several decades concerning scholarship produced about the Arabic novel. For anyone with more than a passing interest in the fortunes of the novel genre in modern Arab society and culture and how it got to the place of primacy it holds today, this book will be a resource to return to again and again. It will repay those who have the opportunity to read, re-read, compare and reflect on its major essays for decades to come. The editor of the volume, Professor Hassan, is to be commended for keeping it focused on the major trends, as he sees them, in the study of modern Arabic fiction, while at the same time giving his contributors maximum leeway to produce meaningful interpretations of their subject matter. Hassan establishes how inclusive and exclusionary impulses have interacted in the study of Arab novelistic traditions very clearly in the introduction to the Handbook. He speaks of “the novel” as having “played an important role in consolidating national identities,” à la Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities (6), but he also shows how it frequently became the vehicle for expressing heterogeneous strands within “[e]thnic, racial, linguistic, religious, and other minorities” (9) that challenged the national clichés of homogenization. Parts II (“Developments” in 21 Arabic-speaking countries, from Algeria to Mauritania to Yemen) and III (“Diasporas” in 13 additional countries, from Argentina to the Netherlands to the United States) provide major evidence for the contributors’ contention that Arab novelistic traditions cannot be reduced to single, univocal phenomenon. Hassan’s major focus in the introduction may be on nomenclature and the organization of the entire volume, but he also argues that the “standard account” of the development of the novel in Arabic places it as “a sign of MESA R o M E S 53 2 2019
The Caliph's Sister is a recent entry in a long-term project, sponsored by the Zaidan Foundat... more The Caliph's Sister is a recent entry in a long-term project, sponsored by the Zaidan Foundation (www.zaidanfoundation.org), to translate a number of Jurji Zaidan's historical novels from Arabic into English using the talents of experienced and highly regarded academic translators like Roger Allen (The Conquest of Andalusia), Issa J. Boullata (who produced this volume), Michael Cooperson (The Caliph's Heirs), and Samah Salim (Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt). This work, published in Arabic under the title Al-Abbasah, Ukht al-Rashid (1906), is one of the best known of the original series (begun by Zaidan in 1892) to deal with events from the Abbasid period. The novel, written in an engaging and lively style, represents the most mature phase of Zaidan's output in this genre and is more skillfully constructed than his earlier, more tentative attempts at composing such works. At the time Zaidan wrote it, a new edition of The Thousand and One Nights was under preparation in Cairo. The story of the high-born 'Abbasah and her unfortunate love for her brother's vizier Ja'far is very reminiscent, with its dark undertones and pointed social commentary (especially concerning gender relations), of the stories included in The Thousand and One Nights cycle. According to legend, Harun al-Rashid, greatest of the Abbasid caliphs, loved the companionship of both his sister and his vizier as he relaxed informally in the evening. But, since Jafar was a male unrelated to 'Abbasah, they could not simultaneously enjoy his company. So Harun arranged a marriage of convenience between them, one that they both swore would never be consummated. Unfortunately, they fell in love and their marriage became one in truth, eventually producing two sons. This mesalliance, once it became known to Harun, offended him so much that he killed his sister, brought down the entire family of Ja'far, the Barmakids, and "disappeared" their children. Regardless of the actual truth of this story, it illustrates (especially as written by Zaidan) the dangerous results for the subjects of any realm where the ruler has too much autocratic power concentrated in his hands. The tensions engendered by despotism, for both ruler and ruled, would undoubtedly have had particular resonance in the peculiar atmosphere (combining an absolute monarchy with colonialism) prevalent at the time of the novel's publication. Zaidan also shows—through subplots about two of the more prominent poets of the period, Abu al-Atahiyah and Abu Nuwas—the prominent role literature played in court society. In fact, it is through poetry (penned by Harun's wife
This article examines developments in the memoir form in Palestinian literature over time, concen... more This article examines developments in the memoir form in Palestinian literature over time, concentrating on the period since the Oslo Accords of 1993. It begins by briefly looking at new, general theoretical perspectives on the memoir form relevant to recognizing the importance of memoirs by Palestinians. A shift from viewing memoirs as purely the product of individuals to validating the notion of collective recollection occurs in the theoretical literature and can be documented in the Palestinian memoir. Similarly, attention to the idea of recollection as fluid and as a process enriches our understanding of what Palestinian memorists are trying to achieve. This section draws upon the work of such foundational figures as Maurice Halbwachs, Paul Ricoeur, Sidonie Smith, and Julia Watson. It also incorporates the insights of those who have focused more specifically on the Palestinian memoir form, such as Rashid Khalidi and Susan Slyomovics. These theoretical views are then tested throu...
"Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time ... more "Al-Iqd al-Farid" ("The Unique Necklace"), translated now for the first time into English, is one of the classics of Arabic literature. Compiled in several volumes by an Andalusian scholar and poet named Ibn 'Abd Rabbih (246-328 H./860-940 C.E.), it remains a mine of information about various elements of Arab culture and letters during the four centuries before his death. Essentially it is a book of adab, a term understood in modern times to specifically mean literature but in earlier times its meaning included all that a well-informed person had to know in order to pass in society as a cultured and refined individual. This meaning later evolved and included belles letters in the form of elegant prose and verse that was as much entertaining as it was morally educational such as poetry, pleasant anecdotes, proverbs, historical accounts, general knowledge, wise maxims, and even practical philosophy.Ibn 'Abd Rabbih's imagination and organization saved his encyclopedic compendium from easily being a chaotic jumble of materials by conceiving of it as a necklace composed of twenty-five 'books', each of which carried the name of a jewel. Each of the twenty-five 'books' was organized around a major theme and had an introduction written by Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, followed by his relevant adab selections of verse and prose on the theme of the 'book'. He drew on a vast repertoire of sources including the Bible, the Qur'an, and the "Hadith", and the works of al-Jahiz, Ibn Qutayba, al-Mubarrad, Abu 'Ubayda ibn al-Muthanna and several others, and the diwans of many Arab poets, including his own poetry which is why "The Unique Necklace" is a standard text for those interested in classical Arabic literature. Volume I of this translation of "Al-Iqd al-Farid" (Garnet Publishing, 2006) contained four of its twenty-five 'books'. The present volume, Volume II, contains two more.
Since several of my colleagues have referred to this article, which provides an overview of the i... more Since several of my colleagues have referred to this article, which provides an overview of the influence of T.S. Eliot on modern Arabic poetry, I have appended here the version of the article that has the footnote numbers restored in the body of the text. They were inadvertently left out of the original article in the last stage of the publication process, thus rendering it difficult to use.
Page 1. LANGUAGE IN LOOKING-GLASS LAND: SAMIH AL-QASIM AND THE MODERNIZATION OF JINAS TERRI DEYOU... more Page 1. LANGUAGE IN LOOKING-GLASS LAND: SAMIH AL-QASIM AND THE MODERNIZATION OF JINAS TERRI DEYOUNG ... Page 4. 186 Journal of the American Oriental Society 112.2 (1992) Bidu l-safa'ihi la s-udu l-saha'ifi fi mut-unihinna jala'u l-shakki wa-l-riyabi. 10 ...
After formulating a theoretical foundation for the sociology of narrative genres based on the wor... more After formulating a theoretical foundation for the sociology of narrative genres based on the work of Bakhtin, Foucault, Goldmann, Jauss and Said, this work challenges the widely held assumption that Arabic culture stagnated before its contact with the West at the beginning of the 19th century. Hafez traces the revival to the mid-18th century and follows its development throughout the Arab world, showing how the emergence of a new reading public with its distinct "world view" induced the process of the transformation and genesis of a new literary discourse. This is followed by a study of the dynamics of this process and an outline of the various stages of the formation and transformation of the new narrative discourse until it culminates in the production of a sophisticated and mature narrative.
... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was inv... more ... Ah ? a fellow by the name of M?s? al-?usayn? who was later on killed, ah ? because he was involved in the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. Gabriel Skoog: Mmmm. Farhat Ziadeh: So he studied with me in England. And and he was doing history with Bernard Lewis. ...
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