Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Letter from the General Editor iii
3. Table of Contents vii
4. Acknowledgements xi
5. Abbreviations xii
6. Introduction xiii
7. Notes to the Introduction xxvi
8. Verse
9. A Qaṣīdah by ʿAbīd ibn al-Abraṣ 2
10. A Qaṣīdah by ʿAlqamah ibn ʿAbadah 4
11. A Qaṣīdah by al-Muthaqqib al-ʿAbdī 8
12. An Elegy (Marthiyah) by al-Khansāʾ 12
13. Polemics in Verse: An Invective Qaṣīdah by al-Akhṭal and a Reply by Jarīr 15
14. Love in the Desert: A Qaṣīdah by Dhū l-Rummah, “To Mayyah’s Two Abodes, a Greeting!” 21
15. An Umayyad Ghazal Poem, Used as an Abbasid Song Text 27
16. ʿUdhrī Ghazal: a poem attributed to Majnūn Laylā 29
17. Umayyad Ghazal: A Poem by ʿUmar ibn Abī Rabīʿah 31
18. A Love Poem by Umm Khālid 33
19. Anti-Arab, Pro-Iranian Lampoon (Hijāʾ), by Bashshār ibn Burd 34
20. A Muḥdath (“Modern”) Ghazal Epigram by Abū Nuwās 37
21. A Ghazal by Abū Nuwās: On a Boy Called ʿAlī 38
22. Two Wine Poems by Abū Nuwās 40
23. A Lampooning Epigram (Hijāʾ) by Abū Nuwās 43
24. A Ghazal Poem by al-ʿAbbās Ibn al-Aḥnaf 44
25. Three Love Epigrams by ʿUlayyah bint al-Mahdī 46
26. A Zuhdiyyah (“Poem of Asceticism”) by Abū l-ʿAtāhiyah 49
27. Ibn al-Rūmī: On His Poetry 51
28. A Qaṣīdah by Ibn al-Rūmī: A Party at ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Hāshimī’s 53
29. A Panegyric Qaṣīdah by al-Buḥturī 58
30. A Victory Ode by al-Mutanabbī: The Qaṣīdah on Sayf al-Dawlah’s Recapture of the Fortress of al-Ḥadath in 343/954 61
31. Nature Poetry: Two Epigrams by Ibn Khafājah 65
32. Strophic Poem: A Muwashshaḥah by al-Aʿmā al-Tuṭīlī 67
33. An Anonymous Muwashshaḥah from Spain 69
34. “There Descended to You”: A Philosophical Allegory by Ibn Sīnā 73
35. Five Epigrams on Death and Belief, by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī 75
36. Mystical Ghazal: A Poem by Ibn al-Fāriḍ 79
37. A Mystical Zajal by al-Shushtarī 83
38. Two Elegies on the Death of his Concubine, by Ibn Nubātah al-Miṣrī 85
39. A Zajal: An Elegy on the Elephant Marzūq 89
40. Rajaz 93
41. Prose
42. Examples of Early Rhymed Prose (Sajʿ) 110
43. A Pre-Islamic Tale: The Princess on the Myrtle Leaf (Three Versions) 114
44. How the Queen of Sheba Became Queen 117
45. Two Stories from al-Masʿūdī’s Meadows of Gold 119
46. Lives of The Poets: al-Farazdaq Tells the Story of Imruʾ al-Qays and the Girls at the Pond 123
47. Bedouin Romance: The Unhappy Love Story of Qays and Lubnā 127
48. A Parable: The Human Condition, or The Man in the Pit 166
49. Mirror for Princes (and Others): Passages from Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ’s Right Conduct 168
50. Al-Jāḥiẓ on Flies and Other Things 176
51. Essayistic Prose: Al-Tawḥīdī on the Superiority of the Arabs 195
52. History as Literature: Al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn, the Sons of Hārūn al-Rashīd 208
53. Moral Tales and Parables: Passages from Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (The Epistles of the Sincere Brethren) 218
54. Prose Narrative: Four Stories by al-Tanūkhī 225
55. The Isfahan Maqāmah by Badīʿ al-Zamān al-Hamadhānī 245
56. The Debate of Pen and Sword, by Aḥmad Ibn Burd al-Aṣghar 248
57. A Visit to Heaven and Hell, by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī 255
58. Poetics: Ibn Rashīq on the Definition and Structure of Poetry 277
59. Literary Criticism: From The Secrets of Eloquence by ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī 281
60. Popular Science: Two Chapters from al-Damīrī’s Encyclopedia of Animals 297
61. A Section from an Adab Encyclopedia: The Chapter on Stinginess fromThe Precious and Refined in Every Genre and Kind by al-Ibshīhī 305
62. A Fairytale: The Tale of the Forty Girls 318
63. Erotica: The Young Girl and the Dough Kneader, from al- Tīfāshī’s The Old Man’s Rejuvenation 333
64. Two Burlesque Stories from Brains Confounded by al-Shirbīnī 339
65. Lyrical Prose: A Visit to the Bath, by al-Ḥaymī al-Kawkabānī 345
66. Notes 352
67. Chronology 426
68. Glossary of Names and Terms 429
69. Bibliography 432
70. Further Reading 452
71. Index 457
72. About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute 466
73. About the Typefaces 467
74. About the Translator 468