On December 18th, the world celebrates World Arabic Language Day, the sixth official language adopted by the United Nations. The Library of Arabic Literature offers a wealth of translated Arabic literature to lose yourself in. From poetry to proverbs, catch up on your Arabic literature this month with the titles below. You can get each eBook for just $1.99 through the end of December!
Offer good through December 31, 2021, only available through US retailers.
War Songs
Translated by James E. Montgomery; with Richard Sieburth; foreword by Peter Cole
“The Library of Arabic Literature has another landmark success with this so-called untranslatable poet…Sixth-century Arabia may be ‘strange,’ but the years of struggle on the part of this scholar-writer and his poet collaborator have given the general reader a visceral insight into this world in compelling, beautiful poetry.”—Times Literary Supplement
“An unmistakable voice…What is perhaps most beautiful about War Songs is how ‘Antarah hints at tenderness beneath the violence, defending slaughter for a cause and remaining faithful to tribe and family, even in the face of death.”—Marginalia (Los Angeles Review of Books)
A Hundred and One Nights
Translated by Bruce Fudge; foreword by Robert Irwin
“This volume offers many pleasures and presents many wonderful stories that would otherwise have been lost to most readers.”—Journal of the American Oriental Society
“Bruce Fudge’s erudite translation . . . is a major contribution to the field and promises to intrigue and beguile the general reader as well as to become indispensable to literary scholars.”—Times Literary Supplement
“An enjoyable collection, with a good variety of stories (and presentation).”—Complete Review
Consorts of the Caliphs
Women and the Court of Baghdad
by Ibn al-Sāʿī; translated by Shawkat M. Toorawa and The Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature; introduction by Julia Bray; foreword by Marina Warner
“Yet another wonderful collaborative project of the Library of Arabic Literature Clear from this volumes pages is that there was great appreciation of the original text and the entire process of editing and translating was a labor of love; the reader specialist or non-specialist reaps these fruits by getting to know another great text of Arabic classical literature.”—Journal of the American Oriental Society
Mission to the Volga
by Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān; foreword by Tim Severin; translated by James E. Montgomery
“Montgomery’s edition…is itself the product of many years’ research, travel, and discussion and should become definitive.”—Speculum
“A compelling account which is, among other things, the earliest first-hand description of travel from the Muslim world.”—Times Literary Supplement
Accounts of China and India
by Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī; foreword by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite; translated by Tim Mackintosh-Smith
“These accounts are full of fascination and wonder [and] continue the contribution this excellent series is making towards integrating classics of Arabic into the global canon.”—Times Literary Supplement
An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse territory, from the Somali headlands of Africa to the far eastern shores of China and Korea.
A Treasury of Virtues
Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of ‘Ali, with the One Hundred Proverbs attributed to al-Jahiz
by al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī; translated by Tahera Qutbuddin; foreword by Rowan Williams
“Tahera Qutbuddins edition proves to be definitive A smooth presentation of the Arabic texts and a first-rate English translation.”—Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
Of the many compilations of ‘Ali’s words, A Treasury of Virtues, compiled by the Fatimid Shafi’i judge al-Quda’i (d. 454/1062), arguably possesses the broadest compass of genres and the largest variety of themes. Included are aphorisms, proverbs, sermons, speeches, homilies, prayers, letters, dialogues, and verse, all of which provide instruction on how to be a morally upstanding human being. The shorter compilation included here, One Hundred Proverbs, is attributed to the eminent writer al-Jahiz (d. 255/869). This volume presents the first English translation of both of these important collections.
Light in the Heavens
Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad
by al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī; translated by Tahera Qutbuddin; foreword by Bishop Paul Hinder
“Easily readable and accessible. Highly recommended and beneficial for the expert, the scholar, and the student of Islamic Studies, while equally expedient for general readers.”—Reading Religion
“Beautifully edited and translated by Tahera Qutbuddin . . . The book is a welcome addition to the literature on . . . hadith scholarship, and will be of interest to scholars, students, and non-specialist readers interested in classical and medieval Islam, Islamic history, and Islamic studies, particularly Islamic theology and hadith studies.”—Digest of Middle East Studies
The Principles of Sufism
by ʿĀʾishah al-Bāʿūniyyah; translated by Th. Emil Homerin; foreword by Ros Ballaster
“The translation of the prose and poems is excellent, and both the expert and the general reader can profit from the lucid presentation of the text in English. No doubt, this book is a great contribution to the study of Sufism in the Mamluk period. . . . Homerin deserves our gratitude for bringing to our knowledge ‘A’isha al-Ba’uniyyah and for presenting an outstanding edition and translation of one of her treatises.”—Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
“Brings to English readership a rare feast: a short treatise on four fundamentals of the Sufi path–Repentance, Sincerity, Remembrance, and Love–strung together with copious quotations from the works of great masters.”—Islamic Sciences
