Lives in Adab - (Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature) by Alexander Key & Letizia Osti (Hardcover)

About the Book

Essays and translations by modern-day scholars organised along the principles of the Arabic narrative tradition.

Book Synopsis

Adab is not an English word, but it could become one. This collection, in honour of Julia Bray, experiments with juxtaposed articles, quotations, translations and lines of poetry to let readers create connections in the same way authors did a thousand years ago in Arabic. The collaboration is inspired by the ongoing work of Julia Bray, which continues to demonstrate the rewards of taking what we read seriously.

The field of Arabic studies is increasingly rejecting a hard line between the modern and the premodern. This book is an intervention in that development - arguing that the premodern can structure contemporary thinking. It offers translations, commentaries and discussions of important and insufficiently known primary texts together with the original Arabic text of poems. These cross-genre and cross-disciplinary connections can catalyse future research and show how a key feature of the Arabic literary tradition is relevant to how we think about scholarship today. The chapters provide readers with both an academic resource and an intellectual conversation with the past.

Review Quotes

This remarkable volume, paying tribute to Julia Bray, also honors the intellectual rigor and curiosity she has modeled, exemplified in her persistent questioning of what adab is, what it does, and why it continues to matter. The essays explore the multiple dimensions of adab, redefining boundaries, challenging assumptions, and opening new avenues for understanding the richness and complexity of Arabic literary culture.--Nadia El-Cheikh, American University in Beirut