- 474 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Verses on hunter and quarry from a giant of Arabic poetry
Arguably the greatest poet of the Arabic language, Ab? Nuw?s was renowned for his innovations in poetic genre and style and was a larger-than-life figure even among his contemporaries in Abbasid Baghdad. In A Demon Spirit, prize-winning translator and scholar James E. Montgomery renders this literary giant's hunting poetry, or ?ardiyy?t, translated for the first time in vivid English.
Ab? Nuw?s's poems radiate brilliance, ingenuity, and lyrical attentiveness to both nature and body. These hunting poems convey the crackling energy of ruthless predators and wily prey, the worryingly uncertain outcome of perilous pursuits, and the mythic perfection of warriors both human and animal—all the while overturning genre structures and power dynamics with unforgettable imagery expressed in smooth, natural language.
A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Series Editors
- Letter from the General Editor
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Table of Contents
- Letter from the General Editor
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Map: Heartlands of the Abbasid Caliphate
- Note on the Text
- Notes to the Introduction
- Urjuzahs and Qasidas Recorded by the Experts
- Poems on Various Topics, Some of Which Are Authentic, Others Not
- A Series of Poems Attributed to Abū Nuwās in the Manuscripts but Not Recorded by the Experts on His Verse
- A Poem Not Contained in Al-Iṣfahānī’s Recension and Found Only in Al-Ṣūlī’s Recension
- Poems Found Only in Tüzün’s Recension
- Poems Attributed to Abū Nuwās, Preserved Only in Al-Shimshāṭī’s Kitāb Al-Anwār wa-maḥāsin Al-ashʿār
- Two Qasidas with Hunting Scenes
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Further Reading
- Index
- About the NYUAD Research Institute
- Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature
- About the Editor–Translator