With this bright new year of 2020, I’m sharing a few literary/artistic picks (two books and one music album) that were recently inspired by Conference of the Birds (منطق الطير), the allegorical poem by Farid al-Din Attar (lived in Nishapur c. 1145-c. 1221, in northeastern Iran). “Considered by Rumi to be ‘the master’ of Sufi…
I’d like to provide here several draft syllabi for those of you interested in teaching and research of the following topics. I support an open-source approach to knowledge, and am happy to follow up on these resources in conversation if you have any comments or questions. Time Periods & Parameters of Arabic Literature In the…
Al-Buraq (ِِالبراق) is a supernatural creature in Islamic tradition that travels extremely rapidly. It appears in the context of the Prophet Muhammad’s miraculous night journey (Arabic Isra’ إسراء) from Mecca to Jerusalem, followed by the ascension (Ar. Mi‘raj معراج). This journey occurred on the 27th of Rajab in the Islamic calendar, and is remembered among…
I’m just wrapping up a late summer group read of: The Green Bicycle By Haifaa Al Mansour This is a light, fun read if you enjoy YA literature and you have any interest in what it would be like to grow up in Saudi Arabia. The text flows easily, and the main character is a…
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…
Today I learned of Emily Nasrallah’s passing. As a student at NYU, I used to shop at the Dahesh Heritage bookshop (since closed, sadly). The kind and helpful shopkeeper, Mike Masri, is the one who first mentioned her to me, placing her book Fi l-bal / In Mind, in my outstretched hands. This book of…
This post celebrates and complements our first group read of 2018 in the Middle East North Africa Lit group on Goodreads.com: الباب المفتوح / The Open Door by Latifa al-Zayyat! This is one of the most enjoyable feminist classics in all of Arabic literature, as far as I’m concerned. As a historical novel, it transports…
Here is a tiny teaser excerpt from my Work in Progress translation of the epic Sirat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma/سيرة الأميرة ذات الهمة from Arabic to English. (This translation project is funded by a grant from the NEA.) Note: I’m playing with the name of the main character. She was born Fatima, but is known as…
As I talk with people about my current translation project, more and more people want to know about Arabic epics. These epics (Arabic: سيرة / sira) are long adventure tales that recount the exploits of a group of heroic characters and villains. Siras draw on historical events, although they are not to be considered conventional…
Some Favorite Quotations in Arabic Literature On art, literature, and writing Horses, night, and the desert know me And the sword, the spear, paper, and the pen – 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…
