Arabian Romantic: Poems on Bedouin Life and Love - Hardcover
Arabian Romantic: Poems on Bedouin Life and Love - Hardcover
by ʿabdallāh Ibn Sbayyil (Author), Marcel Kurpershoek (Editor), Marcel Kurpershoek (Translator)
Love poems from late nineteenth-century Arabia
Arabian Romantic captures what it was like to live in central Arabia before the imposition of austere norms by the Wahhabi authorities in the early twentieth century: tales of robbery and hot pursuit; perilous desert crossings; scenes of exhaustion and chaos when water is raised from deep wells under harsh conditions; the distress of wounded and worn-out animals on the brink of perdition; once proud warriors who are at the mercy of their enemy on the field of battle. Such images lend poignancy to the suffering of the poet's love-stricken heart, while also painting a vivid portrait of typical Bedouin life.
Author Biography
ʿAbdallāh ibn Sbayyil (Author)
ʿAbdallāh ibn Sbayyil (d. 1352/1933) was a poet from the High Najd region in Central Arabia, in what is now Saudi Arabia.
Marcel Kurpershoek is a specialist in the oral traditions and poetry of Arabia. He is the author of the five-volume Oral Poetry and Narratives from Central Arabia, as well as several books on Middle Eastern history and culture.