Irwin - Chapter 5

After the last blog post on Robert Irwin's Night & Horses & the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature in 2013, I am continuing the series. Below are the classical authors that Irwin anthologizes, with very brief comments:

 

The Chapter's scope is from c.900-c.1175) "the golden age of Arabic literature in and around the 10th century."

 

Fiction

- Ibn al-Nadim (10th c.) - left a long bibliographical index, most books listed not extant now

- al-Tanukhi (940-994) - prose stories

- al-Tawhidi (922/932-1023) - prose stories

- al-Hamadhani (969-1008) - creator of maqamat genre

- al-Hariri (1054-1122) - "Despite the enormous reputation of Hamadhani's Maqamat, in the twelfth century its fame was overtaken by Hariri's somewhat similar work, also entitled Maqamat. The latter book is, together with Kalila wa-Dimna by Ibn al-Muqaffa', the most famous work of prose fiction produced in the Arab world."

 

 

Non-Fiction

- Ikhwan al-Safa' - 'Brethren of Purity' - produced anonymous encyclopedia in the form of letters

 

- al-Marzuban (d.921) - wrote a book about animals

- al-Mas'udi (896-956) - historian

- al-Suli (d.946) - gossipy historian whic hcover literary critiques of leading poets

- Miskawayh (c.936-1030) - "The Experiences of the NAtionas and the Results of Endeavors"

- Ibn Sina (980-1037)

- al-Jurjani (d.1078) - literary treatise

 

Poetry

- Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (897-c.967) - Kitab al-Aghani, 'Book of Songs' - "in effect an encyclopedia of Arabic poetry" (note: I checked, and it seems like the original compilation does not include poems from Abu Nuwas or al-Mutanabbi)

- Ibn Nubata (946-84) - liturgical oratory

- al-Mutanabbi (915-965) - "perhaps the greatest poet of his age." Irwin wasn't giving al-Mutanabbi much praise in the chapter, but does mention, his most famous line as "I am known to night and horses and the desert, to sword and lance, to parchment and pen." and then I realize Irwin's book real title is Night and Horses and the Desert ... so I guess al-Mutanabbi has to be important?!

- Abu Firas (932-68) - prisoner poet in Byzantine Empire

- al-Sanawbari (d.945) - garden poems

- Kushajim al-Sindi (d.970/1) - poems about food

- al-Ma'arri (973-1058) - blind poet, most famous poetic collection is Luzum ma lam yalzam, "The Constraint of What Is Not Compulsory"; Risalat al-Ghufran, "The Epistle of Forgiveness" is in prose, probably written in 1033, (about a journey to Paradis and Hell). "Despite the interest of its contents, the Risalat is likely to be hard going for a modern reader." "It has been suggested that Ibn Shuhayd's and Ma'arri's fantasies about the afterlife were indirectly the inspiration of Dante's Divine Comedy, though this remains controversial."