5 minute read
Library of Arabic Literature
Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Jawbarī was born in the Ghouta region near Damascus. He was the author of three texts, of which only The Book of Charlatans survives. Manuela Dengler studied Arabic in Damascus and Cairo and received her PhD in Oriental Philology and Islamic Studies from the University of Cologne (Germany). Humphrey Daviesis an award-winning translator of some twenty-five works of modern Arabic literature. He is affiliated with the American University in Cairo.
THE BOOK OF CHARLATANS
JAMĀL AL-DĪN ʿABD AL-RAḤĪM AL-JAWBARĪ Edited by MANUELA DENGLER Translated by HUMPHREY DAVIES Foreword by S. A. CHAKRABORTY
Uncovering the professional secrets of con artists and swindlers in the medieval Middle East
The Book of Charlatans is a comprehensive guide to trickery and scams as practiced in the thirteenth century in the cities of the Middle East, especially in Syria and Egypt. The author, al-Jawbarī, was well versed in the practices he describes and may well have been a reformed charlatan himself. Divided into thirty chapters, his book reveals the secrets of everyone from “Those Who Claim to be Prophets” to “Those Who Claim to Have Leprosy” and “Those Who Dye Horses.” The material is informed in part by the author’s own experience with alchemy, astrology, and geomancy, and in part by his extensive research. The work is unique in its systematic, detailed, and inclusive approach to a subject that is by nature arcane and that has relevance not only for social history but also for the history of science. Covering everything from invisible writing to doctoring gemstones and quack medicine, The Book of Charlatans opens a fascinating window into a subculture of beggars’ guilds and professional con artists in the medieval Arab world.
November 2020 524 pages • 6 x 9 2 maps Cloth • 9781479897636 • $35.00S(£27.99)
Arabic Literature Library of Arabic Literature
THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATAÑJALI
ABŪ RAYHĀN AL-BĪRŪNĪ Edited and translated by MARIO KOZAH
A brilliant cross-cultural Arabic interpretation of a key text of yoga philosophy
The Yoga Sutrasof Patañjali is the foundational text of yoga philosophy to this day and is still used by millions of yoga practitioners and students worldwide. Written in a question-and-answer format, The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali deals with the theory and practice of yoga and the psychological question of the liberation of the soul from attachments. This book is a new edition and translation into English of the Arabic translation and commentary on this text by the brilliant eleventh-century polymath al-Bīrūnī. Given the many historical variants of the Yoga Sutras, his Kitāb Bātanjali is important for yoga studies as the earliest translation of the Sanskrit text. It is also of unique value as an Arabic text within Islamic studies, given the intellectual and philosophical challenges that faced the medieval Muslim reader when presented with the intricacy of composition, interpretation, and allusion that permeates this translation.
Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī was an accomplished Iranian scholar and polymath. Mario Kozah is Director of Islamic Studies and teaches Arabic and Syriac language and literature at the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES), the American University of Beirut.
October 2020 224 pages • 6 x 9 1 map Cloth • 9781479804139 • $30.00S(£23.99)
Philosophy Library of Arabic Literature
FEATURED PAPERBACKS
WAR SONGS
ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād Translated by James E. Montgomery with Richard Sieburth Foreword by Peter Cole 9781479858798 • $14.00T • 320 pages • Paper Translated by Bruce Fudge Foreword by Robert Irwin 9781479873234 • $15.00T • 272 pages • Paper
ARABIAN SATIRE
Ḥmēdān al-Shwēʿir Translated by Marcel Kurpershoek Foreword by Jane Tylus
A HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS
9781479885169 • $15.00T • 160 pages • Paper
LIGHT IN THE HEAVENS
al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī Translated by Tahera Qutbuddin Foreword by Bishop Paul Hinder 9781479864485 • $15.00T • 192 pages • Paper
ARABIAN ROMANTIC
Poems on Bedouin Life and Love ʿABDALLĀH IBN SBAYYIL Translated by MARCEL KURPERSHOEK Foreword by ANNMARIE DRURY
Scenes from Arabian life at the turn of the twentieth century
Arabian Romantic captures what it was like to live in central Arabia before the imposition of austere norms by the Wahhabi authorities in the early twentieth century: tales of robbery and hot pursuit; perilous desert crossings; scenes of exhaustion and chaos when water is raised from deep wells under harsh conditions; the distress of wounded and worn-out animals on the brink of perdition; once proud warriors who are at the mercy of their enemy on the field of battle. Such images lend poignancy to the suffering of the poet’s love-stricken heart, while also painting a vivid portrait of typical Bedouin life. Ibn Sbayyil, a town dweller from the Najd region of the Arabian Peninsula, was a key figure in the Nabaṭī poetic tradition. His poetry, which is still recited today, broke with the artifice of the preceding generation by combining inherited idiom and original touches reflecting his environment. Translated into English for the first time by Marcel Kurpershoek, Arabian Romantic will delight readers with a poetry that is direct, fluent, and expressive, and that has entertained Arabic speakers for over a century.
ʿAbdallāh ibn Sbayyilwas a poet from the High Najd region in Central Arabia, in what is now Saudi Arabia. Marcel Kurpershoek is a senior research fellow at New York University Abu Dhabi.
NEW IN PAPERBACK
October 2020 192 pages • 5.5 x 8.25 1 map Paper • $15.00T(£11.99) 9781479804405
Poetry Library of Arabic Literature
IN DARFUR
An Account of the Sultanate and Its People MUḤAMMAD AL-TŪNISĪ Translated by HUMPHREY DAVIES Foreword by KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH Historical introduction by R. S. O’FAHEY
A merchant’s remarkable travel account of an African kingdom
In Darfur is al-Tūnisī’s remarkable account of his ten-year sojourn in this independent state, featuring descriptions of the geography of the region, the customs of Darfur’s petty kings, court life and the clothing of its rulers, marriage customs, eunuchs, illnesses, food, hunting, animals, currencies, plants, magic, divination, and dances. In Darfur combines literature, history, ethnography, linguistics, and travel adventure, and most unusually for its time, includes fifty-two illustrations, all drawn by the author.
Muḥammad al-Tūnisībelonged to a family of Tunisian merchants who traded with Egypt and what is now Sudan. Raised in Cairo, al-Tūnisī spent ten years traveling through the Darfur Sultanate. On his return to Egypt, he played an important part in Muḥammad ʿAlī’s modernization project, supervising the translation of veterinary and medical texts and editing the first printed editions of classical Arabic texts. Humphrey Daviesis an award-winning translator of some twenty-five works of modern Arabic literature.
NEW IN PAPERBACK
September 2020 352 pages • 5.5 x 8.25 52 black & white illustrations with 2 maps Paper • $15.00T(£11.99) 9781479804443
