A crowdsourced list of cult classics.
classics
NEA Announces 23 Literary-translation Fellowships; 2 Will Translate Arab Writers
“Complete with fight scenes, love scenes, and warrior women, this epic follows a woman and her son and their posse of friends as they move back and forth primarily in the Arab-Byzantine borderlands, with visits to Constantinople and to the caliph’s court in Baghdad.”
On Who Shouldn’t Read Ibn al-Nabulusi and Grammar-nerd Humor in 13th Century Egypt
“I’m not entirely sure who shouldn’t read this. It’s tempting to hope that the Pamela Gellers, Robert Spencers, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadis of the world will overlook it. But actually I think it would be alright if they didn’t.”
Ibn al-Nabulusi and the Reasons to Translate ‘Bigot Lit’
“[W]hat this book shows us is that exclusionary ideas arise out of particular milieus and under particular stresses. The authors are not just inspired by the contents of the tradition, they’re aggressively shaping and pruning the tradition to suit their own needs.”
‘His Voice Really Speaks To Us Directly Now’: Tahera Qutbuddin on Translating Mutanabbi with the Library of Arabic Literature
“It’s a winning combination — the aesthetic qualities of his poetry are unmatched, and his life is also so interesting.”
Forthcoming from the Library of Arabic Literature: A 19th-century Traveler’s Account of Sudan, A Popular Medieval Cookbook, ‘101 Nights,’ and More
While Executive Editor Shawkat Toorawa noted that the board’s expertise “by and large tends to be pre-1450,” it’s clear that the project isn’t just translating the classic classics, but also works from the sixteenth through early twentieth centuries.
‘We Are the Exception’: Translational Fidelity and the ‘Nights’
“Is this parsimony a virtue?”
‘A New Phase for Arabic Literature in the West’
In ten years, Library of Arabic Literature General Editor Philip Kennedy said, those in attendance at Thursday’s event would be able to look back and say “I was there.”
Pioneer Translator Roger Allen on a Text He’s Been Working with for the Last 50 Years
Roger Allen retired in 2011 from his position as the Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served for forty-three years as Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature. He is the author and translator of… Read More ›
Library of Arabic Literature’s ‘Paperback Launch’ to Feature Amitav Ghosh, Elias Khoury, Sinan Antoon
“In less than a month, the Library of Arabic Literature (LAL) will launch its first four English-only paperback volumes.”
In Translation, ‘Two Heads Are Better Than One’
“I wouldn’t say it takes too much time — I think if you’re committed, you’re committed.”
In the Footsteps of Powerful Slave and Free Women of Baghdad
“I can imagine a course that focuses on medieval Europe, medieval Baghdad, and late-medieval China — not so much to compare, but to contrast. How does this get recorded by male historians, what matters?”
