– a famous line of poetry by the poet Al-Mutanabbi (known for his bragging!) from 10th century Baghdad
On education
What I want is knowledge of how things really are,
so must I not [first] try to find out what knowledge really is?
– from المُنْقِذ من الضلال / Deliverance from Error, by Al-Ghazali, a philosopher of 11th century Baghdad and the Arab empire
Knowledge is in the head Not in the notebook
– Arab proverb
The king’s adviser had two daughters: the elder named Shahrazad, and the younger named Dunyazad. The eldest had read the great books, history, the ancient sagas of kings, and tales of past nations. It was said that she had collected a thousand books on the history of great peoples, and on the chief rulers and poets. She said to her father: Why do I see you upset, carrying worries and sadness? As it is said: “Tell the one who carries worries that worries don’t last forever. Just as happiness ends, so worries end also.” – from the opening story of الف ليلة وليلة / The One Thousand and One Nights in the Arabic Mohsen Mahdi edition, transcribed from a 14th century manuscript
On life
If an idiot wants to do you harm, disregard him
and leave it to time to teach him his lesson
And avoid dirty injustice, for when a mountain seeks to harm
another mountain, the aggressor will be ruined.
– Poetry in the Story of Jawdar, One Thousand and One Nights Mohsen Mahdi edition of 14th century manuscript
“There are two blessings which many people lose: good health and free time.”
– a saying of the prophet Muhammad, narrated by Ibn Abbas and recorded by Bukhari, a 9th century scholar (see Kitab al-Raqaq in Sahih al-Bukhari)
On displacement
la anta anta wala diyaru diyaru
You are not you, and home is not home
– opening words in a poem by Abu Tammam
On love
You are the completion of my happiness
When you approach, good news alights, O Light of My Eyes
– a line of Moroccan malhun poetry (the subject of my dissertation)
On religion and spirituality
I fell in love; Is there anything wrong with love? Love did not muddle my head What did I and the others do wrong? How they revile me! My religion is my affair and other people’s religion is theirs.
– by Abu Nuwas (Iraq c. 756-810) from Diwan Abi Nuwas al-Hasan ibn Hani, ed. Ahmad Abd al-Majid al-Ghazzali (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-‘Arabi, 1966): 265
On travel
lisan jadid, insan jadid
New language, new person.
– An Arab proverb on the effects of language learning
1640 Harvard College establishes the first Semitic chair (Hebrew, Chaldaic and Syriac) in the United States, adding Arabic between 1654 and 1672. Others followed Harvard’s example, dependent upon the availability of scholars (beginning at Yale in 1700, at Dartmouth and Andover in 1807, and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1822). Early scholars learned Arabic only…
In this post, I’m adding some new Arabic proverbs/sayings to the ones I posted years ago here. The post from 2016 is one of my most consistently popular posts, but it is high time we got some new ones! This round is more colloquial. The earlier post includes more quotations from literature. Enjoy! إن كان…
بتحكي عربي؟ بتحب الادب؟ عندنا فرصة لمناقشة الادب(العربي خاصةً) بالعربي بأي نوع (المصري، الشامي، المغربي، إلخ..) مرة كل اسبوع يوم الأحد 3:30 – 4:30 مساءً (Eastern Standard Time) على Google Hangouts اتصل بي للمشاركة احنا بنقرى “الساق على الساق” للشدياق حالياً
This article translated from Moroccan press by Melanie Magidow (Hespress April 28, 2018, Wail Bourchachene) Abdelfattah Kilito, Moroccan writer and literary critic, deplored that his Masters students in the last several years before his retirement “really read nothing.” In an interactive lecture at Ibn Tufail University in Kénitra, he stressed that the students were not…
I am delighted to announce my latest Special Project, developing the first English anthology of Moroccan Malhun poetry, building on my PhD dissertation and fieldwork and time spent in Morocco on and off, over more than a decade. Mbarek Sryfi, poet and professor at The University of Pennsylvania, is co-translator. Growing up in Morocco, he…
Tarif Khalidi posted this with the intriguing comment that it’s “from an anthology of Arabic literature, ancient & modern, verse & prose, all my own translations, which should be completed in a couple of years or so.” Happy Saturday! ~ m. Al-Buhturi (d.897) The Poet and the Wolf What a night! Dawn at its tail-end…