Arabic Belles Lettres

Arabic Belles Lettres brings together ten studies that shed light on important questions in the study of Arabic language, literature, literary history, and writerly culture. The volume is divided into three sections. Early Narratives comprises: Joseph Lowry on the Qur'an’s allusive legal language; Abed el-Rahman Tayyara on matrilineal lineages in the context of Badr and Uhud; Ruqayya Khan on the ramifications of public courtship in 'UdhrÄ« romances; and Philip Kennedy on firÄsah (reading for signs and traces) in medieval narrative. Medieval Authors comprises: Shawkat Toorawa on Í‘UbaydallÄh ibn Ahmad ibn AbÄ« TÄhir’s History of BaghdÄd; Maurice Pomerantz and Bilal Orfali on Ibn FÄris and the origins of the maqÄmah genre; Everett Rowson on al-TawhÄ«dÄ« and his predecessors; and Ghayde Ghraowi on al-KhafÄjÄ« and his RayhÄnat al-alibbÄ'. Modern Egypt comprises: Roger Allen on a cultural controversy in the Cairo newspapers of 1902; and Devin Stewart on preposterous boasting and ingenuity in modern Egyptian Arabic. This illuminating collection is a must read for anyone interested in Arabic literature.