
War Songs
Kay Hardy Campbell
`Antarah ibn Shaddad. James E. Montgomery with Richard Sieburth, tr. Peter Cole, fwd.
2018, New York UP, 978-1-47985-8-798, $14 pb.
Najd-born `Antarah ibn Shaddad, (525–608 CE) is considered one of the greatest pre-Islamic Arabian poets. His verses glorified battle and his love for Ablah, a noblewoman he could never marry because he was a slave and the son of a slave. Four hundred years after his death, storytellers embellished `Antarah’s exploits and his love for Ablah in new epic poems inspired by the original verses. This book features translations of `Antarah’s poems and selections from the later epic verses. Presented in modern form, the translations are as clear and unexpected as `Antarah’s original verse. The volume’s comprehensive introduction to the life, poetry and lore of `Antarah, along with scholarly accounts of him and his and works, provide an insightful portrayal of an enduring literary legend.
You may also be interested in...
The Regency of Tunis 1535–1666
Book Deconstructs Myth Surrounding Egypt’s Most-Famous Boy King
Egyptologist Aidan Dodson sifts the evidence—from tomb paintings to statuary to temple inscriptions—in his quest to recover the real King Tutankhamun.On the Sultan’s Service: Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil’s Memoir of the Ottoman Palace, 1909-1912