Irwin - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 is the last chapter in the anthology.

 

In the later Middle Ages: "Jahiz, Hariri, Mutanabbi and Ma'arri do not seem to have had worthy successors" (p.315)

In early modern period "We find no poets who can bear comparison with Mutanabbi or Ibn al-Farid, or prose writers who can match the achievements of Ibn Hazm, or Hariri." (p.448)

 

- al-Isfahani (1125-1201): one of the two "most influential prose writers of the age," wrote 2 histories on Saladin, also compiled a 12th century poetry anthology

- Zuhayr (1186-1258): caligrapher, ghazal poet used language closed to Middle Arabic

- Ibn al-Athir (1163-1239): brother of his historian brother (d.1233), prose writer, literary critic / theorist

- al-Ghazzali (1058-1111): Deliverance from Error selected

- Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235): mystical poet, older contemporary of Ibn al-'Arabi; Nazm al-Suluk is 761 verse long; Diwan is small though highly esteemed.

- al-Busiri (1211-1294/6?) - Sufi mystic, "Together with Imru' al-Qays's Mu'allaqat, Bursiri's Burda is probably the most famous poem in the Arabic language." 

- Usamah (1095-1188) - "one of the most interesting and appealing of medieval Arab authors"; a literary polymath; Kitab al-I'tibar (The Book of Example) "is a good read" and "is rightly Usamah's most famous book and has been translated into many European languages; "in his own lifetime he was chiefly famous as a poet"; also a noted anthologist (of campsites poems, and anecdotes/poems about sticks, and adab anthology Lubab al-Adab ('The Pith of Literature'); and a noted literary critic that deals with the new style in poetry

- Athir al-din (1256-1344): famous grammarian and linguist; wrote the oldest grammar of the Turkish language to have survived; a notable poet

- Abu Hamid al-Gharnati (d.1169-70)

- al-Jawbari: his Kashf al-Asrar was written in the 1230s or 1240s

- ibn Daniyal (1248-1311): only playwright included in the anthology; 3 plays

- Reqa'iq al-Hilal fi Daqaiq al-Hiyal ('Cloaks of Fine Fabric in Suble Ruses') 

- The Thousand and One Nights: earliest substantially surviving manuscript dates from the 14th or 15th century; probably from Mamluk Syria (Irwin's selection is 50 pages out of the whole book of ~450 pages - 1/9th of the book!)

- Sirat 'Antar: a popular fiction in the form of a lengthy poetic epic

- The Delectable War between Mutton and the Refreshments of the Market Place

- Ibn Zafar (1104-70) - animal fables on good government

- al-Ghuzuli (d.1412) - adab compilation

- Ibn 'Arabshah (1392-1450): animal fables, full-length biology of Timur

- al-Husayni - one of the two sources recording the literary soirees held by Qansuh al-Ghuri (r.1501-16, Mamluk sultan)

- Ibn Zunbul (live at least till 1558) - historical novel of the fall of Mamluks to the Ottomans

 

The logic of the order for the authors selected is not very clear.