Edinburgh University Press Lives in Adab: Essays in Honour of Julia Bray (Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature)

Essays and translations by modern-day scholars organised along the principles of the Arabic narrative tradition Essays by leading scholars from across the genres and disciplines of premodern Arabic Translations and commentaries of important and insufficiently known primary texts together with the Arabic original text of poems Cross-genre and cross-disciplinary connections – catalyzing future research Shows how a key feature of the Arabic literary tradition is relevant to how we think about scholarship today Provides readers with both an academic resource and an intellectual conversation with the past Adab is not an English word, but it could become one. This collection, in honour of Julia Bray, experiments with juxtaposed articles, quotations, translations and lines of poetry to let readers create connections in the same way authors did a thousand years ago in Arabic. The collaboration is inspired by the ongoing work of Julia Bray, which continues to demonstrate the rewards of taking what we read seriously. The field of Arabic studies is increasingly rejecting a hard line between the modern and the premodern. This book is an intervention in that development – arguing that the premodern can structure contemporary thinking. It offers translations, commentaries and discussions of important and insufficiently known primary texts together with the original Arabic text of poems. These cross-genre and cross-disciplinary connections can catalyse future research and show how a key feature of the Arabic literary tradition is relevant to how we think about scholarship today. The chapters provide readers with both an academic resource and an intellectual conversation with the past.