NEW BOOK ON MAMLUK LITERATURE
The Centre for Non-Western Studies (CNWS) of the University of
Leiden, the Netherlands, has just published my critical edition and
study of the "Kitab Nuzhat al-nufus wa mudhik al-abus", a collection
of mostly humorous poetry and prose by the 15th-century Cairene
author Ali Ibn Sudun al-Bashbughawi.
The bibliographical details are as follows:
Vrolijk, Arnoud
Bringing a laugh to a scowling face: a study and critical edition of
the "Nuzhat al-nufus wa-mudhik al-`abus" by Ali Ibn Sudun
al-Bashbughawi (Cairo 810/1407 - Damascus 868/1464). - Leiden:
Research School CNWS, Leiden University, 1998. - (CNWS Publications,
ISSN 0925-3084; no. 70)
ISBN 90-5789-013-5
Price: 65 Dutch guilders (approximately EUR 29.50 or USD 33) plus
postage & handling.
The book can be ordered from: CNWS, PO Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The
Netherlands. Email: [log in to unmask]
For more information I include the blurb I wrote for the benefit of
the publisher. The book is sold on a non-profit basis, and even if
there were any profits I would have no share in them.
"In fifteenth-century Cairo, a second-generation Mamluk author
called Ali Ibn Sudun tried to make his mark as a religious scholar
and a serious poet, but failed. By switching to humorous verse he had
immediate success, but he paid for it with the loss of his own
reputation. Banished for his "immorality'', he died in Damascus in
1464. The work he left behind is a delightful collection of
occasional poetry and prose, an almost carnivalesque parade of poems
singing the praise of Oriental dishes and hashish ("the poor man's
wine''), poems on weddings and circumcisions, and perfectly serious
pieces destined for religious festivals. Many poems are written in
the Arabic vernacular of his time.
Apart from its literary merits the work is an invaluable source for
those who are interested in Egyptian daily life in the Middle Ages.
The present edition of the Arabic text, based on two autographs, is
accompanied by a study of the author and his public, the festive
occasions for which he wrote his poems, poetic metre and Arabic
music, the fate of the surviving thirty-eight manuscripts, problems
of textual criticism, and the linguistic particularities of Ibn
Sudun's use of 15th-century colloquial Arabic."
Arnoud Vrolijk
Asst. Curator, Oriental Collections
Leiden University Library
The Netherlands
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