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  3. The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature

The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature is a series of collaborative volumes covering the field from early Islam up to the present day. Contributors from around the world explore the extraordinary diversity of that literature and how it evolved under the influence of adjacent civilizations, and those the Arabs came to inhabit.

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6 results in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature

Religion, Learning and Science in the 'Abbasid Period
  • Edited by M. J. L. Young, J. D. Latham, R. B. Serjeant
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    16 May 1990
  • The five centuries of the 'Abbasid period (eighth to thirteenth centuries AD) were the golden age of Arabic literature. They saw the appearance not only of poetry and belles-lettres (which are covered in a previous volume), but also of an extensive body of writings concerned with subjects ranging from theology and law to history and the natural sciences. This volume of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature surveys the most important of these writings, including the literature of Sunnism and Shi'ism, Arabic philosophy, Sufism, Islamic law, grammar, lexicography, administration, historiography, mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography, alchemy and medicine. It contains separate chapters on six of the greatest scholars of the Middle Ages, as well as on the Arabic literature of the Christians and Jews who lived under the rule of the 'Abbasid caliphate, and includes a study of one of the great cultural movements of the period, the translations from Greek into Arabic.

Modern Arabic Literature
  • Edited by M. M. Badawi
  • Published online:
    28 May 2012
    Print publication:
    14 January 1993
  • This volume of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature provides an authoritative, comprehensive critical survey of creative writing in Arabic from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. With the spread of secular education, printing and journalism, a new reading public emerged. Against the background of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of nationalism, and the conflict between Islam and increasing Westernization, the traditional conception of literature as a display of verbal skill was replaced by the view that literature should reflect and indeed change social and political reality. A significant translation movement resulted in the borrowing of Western ideas and literary forms: the novel, the short story and drama. This book examines the attempts made by Arab men and women to adapt the new imported forms as well as the indigenous literary tradition to meet the requirements of the modern world. Quoted material is given in English translation, and there is an extensive bibliography.

Abbasid Belles Lettres
  • Edited by Julia Ashtiany, T. M. Johnstone, J. D. Latham, R. B. Serjeant
  • Published online:
    28 May 2012
    Print publication:
    30 March 1990
  • This volume of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature covers artistic prose and poetry produced in the heartland and provinces of the 'Abbasid empire during the second great period of Arabic literature, from the mid-eighth to the thirteenth centuries AD. 'Abbasid literature was characterised by the emergence of many new genres and of a scholarly and sophisticated critical consciousness. This volume deals chronologically with the main genres and provides extended studies of major poets, prose-writers and literary theorists. It concludes with a comprehensive survey of the relatively unknown literature of the Yemen to appear in a European language since the manuscript discoveries of recent years. To make the material accessible to non-specialist readers, 'Abbasid authors are quoted in English translation wherever possible, and clear explanations of their literary techniques and conventions are provided. With chapters by leading specialists from the Middle East, Europe and America, the volume represents a wide cross-section of current academic opinion.

Arabic Literature to the End of the Umayyad Period
  • Edited by A. F. L. Beeston, T. M. Johnstone, R. B. Serjeant, G. R. Smith
  • Published online:
    28 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 1983
  • Originally published in 1983, The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature was the first general survey of the field to have been published in English for over fifty years and the first attempted in such detail in a multi-volume form. The volumes of the History provide an invaluable source of reference and understanding of the intellectual, literary and religious heritage of the Arabic-speaking and Islamic world. This volume begins its coverage with the oral verse of the sixth century AD, and ends with the fall of the Umayyad dynasty two centuries later. Within this period fall major events: the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the founding of the Islamic religion, the great Arab Islamic conquests of territories outside the Arabian Peninsula, and their meeting, as overlords, with the Byzantine and Sasanian world. Contributors to this volume discuss an array of topics including the influences of Greeks, Persians and Syrians on early Arabic literature.

The Literature of Al-Andalus
  • Edited by María Rosa Menocal, Raymond P. Scheindlin, Michael Sells
  • Published online:
    28 May 2012
    Print publication:
    31 August 2000
  • The Literature of Al-Andalus is an exploration of the culture of Iberia, present-day Spain and Portugal, during the period when it was an Islamic, mostly Arabic-speaking territory, from the eighth to the thirteenth century, and in the centuries following the Christian conquest when Arabic continued to be widely used. The volume embraces many other related spheres of Arabic culture including philosophy, art, architecture and music. It also extends the subject to other literatures - especially Hebrew and Romance literatures - that burgeoned alongside Arabic and created the distinctive hybrid culture of medieval Iberia. Edited by an Arabist, an Hebraist and a Romance scholar, with individual chapters compiled by a team of the world's leading experts of Islamic Iberia, Sicily and related cultures, this is a truly interdisciplinary and comparative work which offers a interesting approach to the field.

Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period
  • Edited by Roger Allen, D. S. Richards
  • Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    13 April 2006
  • The final volume of The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature explores the Arabic literary heritage of the little-known period from the twelfth to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Even though it was during this time that the famous Thousand and One Nights was composed, very little has been written on the literature of the period generally. In this volume Roger Allen and Donald Richards bring together some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to rectify the situation. The volume is divided into parts with the traditions of poetry and prose covered separately within both their 'elite' and 'popular' contexts. The last two sections are devoted to drama and the indigenous tradition of literary criticism. As the only work of its kind in English covering the post-classical period, this book promises to be a unique resource for students and scholars of Arabic literature for many years to come.