| Description |
1 online resource |
| Series |
Library of Arabic Literature |
| Contents |
Cover; Letter from the General Editor; About this Paperback; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Note on the Text; Notes to the Introduction; Book One: Arab Preeminence; Book Two: The Excellence of Arab Learning; Horse Husbandry; Stars; Somatomancy; Physiognomancy; Augury, Lithomancy, Geomancy, and Soothsaying; Oratory; Poetry; Wisdom Poetry; Wisdom in the Prose and Rhyming Aphorisms of the Arabs; [Colophon]; Notes; Glossary; Bibliography; Further Reading; Index of Qurʼanic Verses; Index; About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute; About the Translators |
| Summary |
A spirited defense of Arab identity from a time of political unrestIn ninth-century Abbasid Baghdad, the social prestige attached to claims of Arab identity had begun to decline. In The Excellence of the Arabs, the celebrated litterateur Ibn Qutaybah locks horns with those members of his society who belittled Arabness and vaunted the glories of Persian heritage and culture. Instead, he upholds the status of Arabs and their heritage in the face of criticism and uncertainty.The Excellence of the Arabs is in two parts. In the first, Arab Preeminence, which takes the form of an extended argument for Arab privilege, Ibn Qutaybah accuses his opponents of blasphemous envy. In the second, The Excellence of Arab Learning, he describes the fields of knowledge in which he believed pre-Islamic Arabians excelled, including knowledge of the stars, divination, horse husbandry, and poetry. By incorporating extensive excerpts from the poetic heritage--"the archive of the Arabs"--Ibn Qutaybah aims to demonstrate that poetry is itself sufficient evidence of Arab superiority.Eloquent and forceful, The Excellence of the Arabs addresses a central question at a time of great social flux, at the dawn of classical Muslim civilization: What does it mean to be Arab? |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and indexes |
| Notes |
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed |
|
Print version record |
| Subject |
Islamic civilization -- Early works to 1800
|
|
Islamic Empire -- Intellectual life -- Early works to 1800
|
|
LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Middle Eastern.
|
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Islamic civilization
|
| Genre/Form |
Early works
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Savant, Sarah Bowen, translator
|
|
Webb, Peter, 1978- translator.
|
|
Cooperson, Michael, editor
|
| LC no. |
2019017757 |
| ISBN |
9781479859764 |
|
1479859761 |
|
9781479863334 |
|
1479863335 |
|
