> Music of a Distant Drum
> Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew Poems
> Translated and Introduced by Bernard Lewis
> http://www.pup.princeton.edu/titles/7138.html
>
> Music of a Distant Drum marks a literary milestone. For the
> first time in English, poems from four leading literary
> traditions of the Middle East, representing a wide sweep of
> medieval history, appear in a single volume compiled by a
> single translator. Bernard Lewis, one of the world's
> greatest authorities on the region's culture and history,
> offers a work of startling beauty that leaves no doubt as to
> why such poets were courted by kings in their day. Like
> those in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the poems here-as
> ensured by Lewis's mastery of all the source languages and
> his impeccable style and taste-come fully alive in English.
> They are surprising and sensuous, disarmingly witty and
> frank. They provide a fascinating and unusual glimpse into
> Middle Eastern history. Above all, they are a pleasure to
> read.
>
> The 129 poems, most of which here make their English-
> language debut, represent the three major languages of
> medieval Islam-Arabic, Persian, and Turkish-with the
> remainder from Hebrew. They span more than a thousand years,
> from the seventh to the early eighteenth century, when
> poetry, like so much else, was shattered and reshaped by the
> impact of the West. They range from panegyric and satire to
> religious poetry and lyrics about wine, women, and love.
> Lewis begins with an introduction on the place of poets and
> poetry in Middle Eastern history and concludes with
> biographical notes on all the poets.
>
> This treasure trove of verse is aptly summed up by a quote
> from the ninth-century Arab author Ibn Qutayba: "Poetry is
> the mine of knowledge of the Arabs, the book of their
> wisdom, the muster roll of their history, the repository of
> their great days, the rampart protecting their heritage, the
> trench defending their glories, the truthful witness on the
> day of dispute, the final proof at the time of argument."
>
> Bernard Lewis is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near
> Eastern Studies and Professor Emeritus at Princeton
> University. He is the author of numerous books on Middle
> Eastern history, including A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments
> of Life, Letters, and History; The Middle East: A Brief
> History of the Last 2000 Years; The Multiple Identities of
> the Middle East; The Muslim Discovery of Europe; The
> Political Language of Islam; Islam and the West; The Arabs
> in History; and The Jews of Islam (Princeton).
>
>
> 0-691-08928-0 Cloth $19.95 US and L13.95
> 224 pages. 25 halftones. 5 x 8.
>
>
> If you wish to place an order, we encourage you to do so through your
> local bookseller. If that is not possible, you can order through our
> website by clicking on the link above.
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