Library of Arabic Literature

LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

L I B RA R Y O F A RA B I C L I T E RAT U R E

A text on the limits and validity of Sufism

Ibn al-Nadīm, Kitāb al-Fihrist

A comprehensive listing of books by a 10th-century Baghdad bookseller

Ibn Qutaybah, Kitāb al-ʿArab wa-l-tanbīh ʿalā ʿulūmihā A defense of traditional Arabic virtues and fields of knowledge in response to the Persian Shuʿūbiyyah

560 PAGES JULY 2016 CLOTH • 978- 1 – 4798 – 3890 - 5• $40.00

al-Jāḥiẓ, Rasāʾil

Epistles on theology by the “Father of Arabic Prose”

The Sword of Ambition

Bureaucratic Rivalry in Medieval Egypt By ʿUTHMĀN B. IBRĀHĪM AL-NĀBULUSĪ Edited and Translated by LUKE YARBROUGH Foreword by SHERMAN ʿABD AL-ḤAKĪM The earliest and most eclectic of several independent works composed in medieval Egypt against the employment of Coptic and Jewish officials.

MAY 2016

al-Mutanabbī, al-Sayfiyyāt

Praise poems by one of the foremost poets in Arabic literature

al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī, Kitāb al-Shihāb

Light in the Heavens, a compilation of the sayings of the Prophet Muḥammad

Muḥammad ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Sanhūrī, Muḍḥik dhawī l-dhawq wa-l-niẓām fī ḥall shadharah min kalām ahl al-rīf al-ʿawāmm Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Tunisī, Tashḥīdh al-adhhān bi-sīrat bilād al-ʿArab wa-lSūdān A 19th-century traveler’s account of the kingdom of Darfur, Sudan

478 PAGES CLOTH • 978 – 1 - 4798 – 8945 - 7 • $40.00

Kitāb al-Wuṣlah ilā al-ḥabīb fī waṣf al-ṭayyibāt wa-l-ṭīb

The Expeditions

An Early Biography of Muḥammad

By MAʿMAR IBN RĀSHID Edited and Translated by SEAN W. ANTHONY Foreword by M.A.S. ABDEL HALEEM

One of the most popular cookbooks of the Arabic Middle Ages

Kitāb Miʾat laylah wa-laylah

“Sean W. Anthony has undertaken a bold endeavor attempting to translate such a difficult early text, and he is to be commended for having provided an accessible, useful and legible piece of work.”

—Speculum

The Hundred and One Nights. The first English translation of this story collection that shares the same frame tale as the Alf Layla.

Dīwān Ḥmēdān al-Shwēʿir and Dīwān Ibn Sbayyil

Volumes by two major Nabati poets, from the 18th- and early 20th-centuries, respectively

The Library of Arabic Literature offers Arabic editions and English translations of key works of classical and pre-modern Arabic literature.

www.nyupress.org • 800.996.NYUP

NYU PRESS NEW AND FORTHCOMING TITLES IN

LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE 2016

For more information, visit www.libraryofarabicliterature.org.

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20% off featured books

Risible Rhymes, a mocking “literary analysis” of rustic verse from 17th-century Egypt

www.nyupress.org

Volume Two

424 PAGES CLOTH • 978 - 0 - 8147 - 6963 - 8 • $40.00

Ibn Khaldūn, Shifāʾ al-sāʾil fī tahdhīb almasāʾil

NYUPRESS

488 PAGES JULY 2016 CLOTH • 978 -1 -4798- 8234-2 - $40.00

The verse of the pre-Islamic warrior-poet

838 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York, New York 10003

Volume One

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād, Dīwān ʿAntarah

a NYU PRESS

By YŪSUF AL-SHIRBĪNĪ Edited and Translated by HUMPHREY DAVIES Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Brains Confounded is a work of outstanding importance for the study of pre-modern Egyptian Arabic, with a heavy emphasis on the writing of verse as a yardstick of social acceptability.

Forthcoming books from the LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

20% OFF FEATURED BOOKS

Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

MORE FROM THE

NYU PRESS 3/15/16 9:14 AM

LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

Announcing new paperback editions from the LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

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L I B RA R Y O F A RA B I C L I T E RAT U R E

Leg over Leg

By AḤMAD FĀRIS AL-SHIDYĀQ Edited and Translated by HUMPHREY DAVIES Leg over Leg recounts the life, from birth to middle age, of ‘the Fariyaq,’ alter ego of Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and literary history of the modern Arab world.

“A remarkable project of editing, translating and publishing that will do for pre-modern Arabic texts what the famous Loeb Library has done for the Classics.”

- TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT -

“Leg over Leg will eventually be acknowledged as one of the most important translations of the twenty-first century... ” —Patricia Storace, Times Literary Supplement

“Its contemporaneity is astonishing... It would be doing Leg over Leg a massive disservice to not make it clear how funny it is. This is a book that for all its challenges, all its insight into humanity, all its place in history, had me regularly laughing out loud.”

Leg over Leg

AḤMAD FĀRIS AL-SHIDYĀQ Translated by HUMPHREY DAVIES Foreword by REBECCA JOHNSON A semi-autobiographical novel by a pivotal figure in the intellectual and literary history of the modern Arab world.

Volumes One and Two 528 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-0072-8 • $17.00

Volumes Three and Four 632 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-1329-2 • $17.00

—Music and Literature

The Expeditions

An Early Biography of Muḥammad MAʿMAR IBN RĀSHID Translated by SEAN W. ANTHONY Foreword by M.A.S. ABDEL HALEEM One of the oldest biographies of the Prophet Muḥammad to survive into the modern era.

320 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-1682-8 • $15.00

Volume One

416 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-2937- 3 • $40.00

Volume Two

464 PAGES CLOTH • 978- 08147- 6984- 3 • $40.00

Volume Three

488 PAGES CLOTH • 978-14798-4224-7• $40.00

Volume Four

The Epistle on Legal Theory

AL-SHĀFIʿĪ Translated by JOSEPH E. LOWRY Foreword by KECIA ALI The oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory and a foundational document of Islamic jurisprudence.

584 PAGES CLOTH • 978-1-4798-7575-7• $40.00

4-Volume Set

1920 PAGES CLOTH • 978 – 1 – 47989 - 7544 • $125.00

The Life and Times of Abū Tammām

388 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-5544-5 • $16.00

New Paperbacks The Epistle of Forgiveness

By ABŪ L-ʿALĀʾ ALMAʿARRĪ Translated by GEERT JAN VAN GELDER and GREGOR SCHOELER Foreword by MATTHEW REYNOLDS An imaginative tour-deforce by one of the most pre-eminent figures in classical Arabic literature, replete with erudite commentary, amusing anecdotes, and sardonic wit.

The Principles of Sufism By ʿĀʾISHAH ALBĀʿŪNIYYAH Translated by TH. EMIL HOMERIN

“Masterful…. Homerin’s elegant and readable translation is made especially valuable by the side-by-side presentation of the Arabic and English texts.”

—Choice

and Samarra.

By ABŪ BAKR AL-ṢŪLĪ Edited and Translated by BEATRICE GRUENDLER A robust defense of “modern” poetry and of Abū Tammām, one of the most celebrated poets in Arabic, with a lively picture of literary life in Baghdad

336 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-6040-6 • $40.00

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Classical Arabic Literature

A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology Selected and translated by GEERT JAN VAN GELDER A rich assortment of classical Arabic poems and literary prose, from preIslamic times until the 18th century.

“The translations of this volume are a marvel, and often a tour de force—precise, highly readable and evocative.”

Disagreements of the Jurists

A Manual of Islamic Legal Theory

By AL-QĀḌĪ AL-NUʿMĀN Edited and Translated by DEVIN STEWART Throws light on a critical stage in the historical development of Islamic legal theory that would otherwise be lost to history.

The National

Women and the Court of Baghdad

By IBN AL-SĀʿĪ Edited by SHAWKAT M. TOORAWA Translated by The Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature Introduction by JULIA BRAY Foreword by MARINA WARNER “A rare and unusual book providing glimpses into the lives of influential Muslim women who often pulled the strings from behind the scene…

Indispensable for the study of medieval Muslim culture and society.”

—The Muslim News 272 PAGES CLOTH • 978-1-4798-5098-3 • $30.00

The Epistle of Forgiveness

By ABŪ L-ʿALĀʾ AL-MAʿARRĪ Edited and Translated by GEERT JAN VAN GELDER and GREGOR SCHOELER “Van Gelder and Schoeler present one of the most complex and unusual texts in Arabic literature.”

—Banipal Magazine

Volume One: A Vision of Heaven and Hell 464 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-6378-0 • $40.00

The Principles of Sufism

By ʿĀʾISHAH AL-BĀʿŪNIYYAH Edited and Translated by TH. EMIL HOMERIN 224 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-4528-1 • $30.00

Two Arabic Travel Books

Accounts of China and India

By ABŪ ZAYD AL-SĪRĀFĪ Edited and Translated by TIM MACKINTOSH-SMITH Mission to the Volga

By AḤMAD IBN FAḌLĀN Edited and Translated by JAMES MONTGOMERY

448 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-6375-9 • $40.00

Virtues of the Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal

496 PAGES PAPER • 978-0-8147-3826-9 • $27.00 // CLOTH • 978-0-81477027-6 • $85.00

Consorts of the Caliphs

L I B RA R Y O F A RA B I C L I T E RAT U R E

By IBN AL-JAWZĪ Edited and Translated by MICHAEL COOPERSON

328 PAGES CLOTH • 978-1-4798-0350-7 • $40.00

What ʿĪsā ibn Hishām Told Us

592 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-7166-2 • $40.00

or, A Period of Time

By MUḤAMMAD ALMUWAYLIḤĪ Edited and Translated by ROGER ALLEN Paving the way for the modern Arabic novel, What ‘Isa ibn Hisham Told Us is invaluable both for its sociological insight into colonial Egypt and its pioneering role in Arabic literary history.

Volume Two

Volume One

“Cooperson’s translation is uncommonly deft… On the whole, this translation is a grand success. It will be valuable for teachers to illustrate early Islamic piety, early Islamic law, early Sunni theology, and everyday life in Baghdad.”

—Christopher Melchert, Journal of Islamic Studies

Volume One

544 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-3894-8 • $40.00

A Treasury of Virtues

By AL-QĀḌĪ AL-QUḌĀʿĪ Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of Ali, with the One Hundred Proverbs, attributed to al-Jahiz Edited and Translated by TAHERA QUTBUDDIN

496 PAGES CLOTH • 978-1-4798-1388-9 • $40.00

Volume Two

416 PAGES CLOTH • 978-1-4798-6225-2 • $40.00

The Epistle on Legal Theory

AL-SHĀFIʿĪ Edited and Translated by JOSEPH E. LOWRY 544 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-6998-0 $40.00

“Qutbuddin’s edition proves to be definitive…”

—Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 306 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-2655-1• $24.00 CLOTH • 978-0-8147-2914-4 • $40.00

Volume Two: Hypocrites, Heretics, and Other Sinners 360 PAGES CLOTH • 978-0-8147-7194-5 • $35.00

210 PAGES PAPER • 978- 1- 4798- 2924- 8• $15.00

584 PAGES PAPER • 978-1-4798-3494-5 • $16.00

NYU PRESS

www.nyupress.org • 800.996.NYUP

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