The book is the first study of the 10th century Iraqi poet Ibn al-Hajjaj who popularized a new genre of obscene and scatological parody (sukhf) and is considered the most obscene poet in Arabic literature. Antoon traces the genealogy of this fascinating genre in and examines its rise by placing it in its sociopolitical context.

Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer.Born in the town of Bsharri in the north of modern-day Lebanon (then part of Ottoman Mount Lebanon), as a young man he immigrated with his family to the United States, where he studied art and began his literary career, writing in both English and Arabic. In the Arab world, Gibran is regarded as a literary and political rebel. His romantic style was at the heart of a renaissance in modern Arabi...

Discover a new way to read classics with Quick Read.This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.- Reading time of the complete text: about 2 hours- Reading time of the summarized text: 7 minutes"The Great God Pan" is a novella written by Arthur Machen in 1890. The story is about a doctor named Raymond who performs an experiment to open the mind of a patient to experience the spiritual world. The experiment results in the p...

Perhaps the most important work in modern Iranian literature, this starkly beautiful novel examines the trials of an impoverished woman and her children living in a remote village in Iran, after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch.Lyrical yet unsparing, the novel examines her life as she contends with the political corruption, authoritarianism, and poverty of the village. It follows her vacillations between love for Soluch and anger at his absence, and her struggle...

In a direct, frank, and intimate exploration of Iranian literature and society, scholar, teacher, and poet Fatemeh Keshavarz challenges popular perceptions of Iran as a society bereft of vitality and joy. Her fresh perspective on present-day Iran provides a rare insight into this rich culture alive with artistic expression but virtually unknown to most Americans.Keshavarz introduces readers to two modern Iranian women writers whose strong and articulate voices belie the stereotypic...

So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Kite Runner tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Khaled Hosseini's book.Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.This short summary and analysis of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini includes:Historical contextChapter-by-chapter summariesA...

In this Middle Eastern History Book, we're going to take a look at the three power Empires that ruled centuries ago. Learning about them would help establish a model for living. Lessons will be picked from the pages of this book along with facts and other valuable information. Soon, you'll be having historical discussions fueled by this child-friendly educational resource. Grab a copy today!

Humanism has mostly considered the question “What does it mean to be human?” from a Western perspective. Dabashi asks it anew from a non-European perspective, in a groundbreaking study of 1,400 years of Persian literary humanism. He presents the unfolding of this vast tradition as the creative and subversive subconscious of Islamic civilization.

This is one of the first books in English to explore Arab responses to Western culture and values in modern Arab literature. Through in-depth research El-Enany examines the attitudes as expressed mainly through works of fiction written by Arab authors during the twentieth, and, to a lesser extent, nineteenth century. It constitutes an original addition to the age-old East-West debate, and is particularly relevant to the current discussion on Islam and the West.Alongside raising hig...

This book engages with contemporary Arab women writers from Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Algeria. In spite of Edward Said’s groundbreaking reappraisal of the uneven relationship between the West and the Arab world in Orientalism, there has been little postcolonial criticism of Arab writing. Anastasia Valassopoulos raises the profile of Arab women writers by examining how they negotiate contexts and experiences that have come to be identified with postcoloniality such as the preoc...

The Book of Songs of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani (AD 897-971) is the most extensive collection of anecdotes from pre-Islam Mecca, Medina, Damascus and Baghdad to the beginning of the tenth century. Entertaining and informative, these gems have remained largely inaccessible to Western readers. This translation presents a collection of love stories and poems, biting satires, daring erotic encounters, bathroom humor and hilariously detailed descriptions of feminine beauty, genitalia, se...

Short fiction was an immensely innovative art in the medieval Arab world, providing the perfect vehicle for transmitting dazzling images of life and experiences as early as pre-Islamic times. These works also speak to the urbanization of the Arab domain after Islam, mirroring the bustling life of the Muslim Arabs and Islamized Persians and reflecting the sure stamp of an urbanity that had settled very staunchly after big conquests. All the noises and voices of the Umayyads and Abbasids are...