Unique in pre-twentieth-century Arabic literature for taking the countryside as its central theme, Y suf al-Shirb n 's Brains Confounded combines a mordant satire on seventeenth-century Egyptian rural society with a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day. In Volume One, al-Shirb n describes the three rural "types"--peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion and rural dervish--offering numerous anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness, illiteracy, lack of proper ...
Read More
Unique in pre-twentieth-century Arabic literature for taking the countryside as its central theme, Y suf al-Shirb n 's Brains Confounded combines a mordant satire on seventeenth-century Egyptian rural society with a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day. In Volume One, al-Shirb n describes the three rural "types"--peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion and rural dervish--offering numerous anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness, illiteracy, lack of proper religious understanding, and criminality of each. He follows it in Volume Two with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named Ab Sh d f, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes and bewails, above all, the lack of access to delicious foods to which his poverty has condemned him. Wielding the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirb n responds to the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire of the ignorant rustic with numerous digressions into love, food, and flatulence. Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Brains Confounded belongs to an unrecognized genre from an understudied period in Egypt's Ottoman history, and is a work of outstanding importance for the study of pre-modern colloquial Egyptian Arabic, pitting the "coarse" rural masses against the "refined" and urbane in a contest for cultural and religious primacy, with a heavy emphasis on the writing of verse as a yardstick of social acceptability. A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
Read Less
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Abå« Shädå«F Expounded: to cart. $2.97, good condition, Sold by Project HOME rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Abå« Shädå«F Expounded: to cart. $6.82, like new condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded: to cart. $12.50, like new condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded: to cart. $13.00, new condition, Sold by Powell's Books Chicago rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Chicago, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded: to cart. $16.98, new condition, Sold by MESILLAINTERNET rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from LAS CRUCES, NM, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Ab Shdf Expounded: to cart. $24.85, new condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Ab Shdf Expounded: to cart. $33.49, like new condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Ab Shdf Expounded: to cart. $33.49, very good condition, Sold by Ebooksweb rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensalem, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by New York University Press.
Add this copy of Brains Confounded By the Ode of Ab? Sh? D? F Expounded: to cart. $40.11, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by NYU Press.
