Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded. Volume two : With Risible Rhymes / by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī ; with Risible rhymes by Muḥammad ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Sanhūrī ; translated by Humphrey Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665-1687, author.

Contributor:

Davies, Humphrey T. (Humphrey Taman), editor, translator.

Series:

Library of Arabic literature.

Library of Arabic Literature ; 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Villages.

Social problems in literature.

Satire, Arabic.

Rural conditions.

Arabic literature.

Arabic literature--Egypt--Early works to 1800.

Satire, Arabic--Egypt--Early works to 1800.

Social problems in literature--Early works to 1800.

Villages--Egypt--Early works to 1800.

Egypt.

Egypt--Rural conditions--Early works to 1800.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (318 pages).

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"Witty, bawdy, and vicious, Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī's 'Brains Confounded' pits the "coarse" rural masses against the "refined" urban population. In Volume One (ISBN 9781479840212), al-Shirbīnī describes the three rural "types"-peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion, and rural dervish-offering anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness, and criminality of each. In Volume Two, he presents a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day, with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named Abū Shādūf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbīnī responds to the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire with digressions into love, food, and flatulence. Volume Two of 'Brains Confounded' is followed by 'Risible Rhymes', a concise text that includes a comic disquisition on "rural" verse, mocking the pretensions of uneducated poets from Egypt's countryside. 'Risible Rhymes' also examines various kinds of puzzle poems, which were another popular genre of the day, and presents a debate between scholars over a line of verse by the tenth-century poet al-Mutanabbī. Together, 'Brains Confounded' and 'Risible Rhymes' offer intriguing insight into the intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt, showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and stylistics and shedding light on the literature of the era"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

An account of the lineage of the poet and its components, and of the place that took him to its bosom and gave him shelter from his earliest moments, and of the origins of his fortune and how it was brought, and of the nature of his beard, whether it was long or short, and of how, at the end, by fate he was o’erthrown, as a result of which he composed this ode for which he became famous and well known

The ode of abū shādūf with commentary

Some miscellaneous anecdotes with which we conclude the book625

Let us conclude this book with verses from the sea of inanities

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Further reading

Introduction

Note on the text

Notes to the introduction

Preamble

The author declares his intention to decode a sampling of rural verse and to follow this with a sampling of hints, wrangles, and riddles

A sampling of the verse of the rural rank and file

A sampling of hints and riddles

A wrangle over a line by al-mutanabbī

The author mentions the date of composition of the work and apologizes for its brevity

Index

About the nyu abu dhabi institute

About the translator

The library of arabic literature

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Contains:

Sanhūrī, Muḥammad bin Maḥfūẓ, active 1648. Risible rhymes.

Sanhūrī, Muḥammad bin Maḥfūẓ, active 1648. Muḍḥik dhawī al-dhawq wa-al-niẓām fī ḥall shadharah min kalām ahl al-rīf al-ʻawāmm. English.

Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665-1687. Hazz al-quḥūf fī sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf. English

ISBN:

1-4798-4683-X

OCLC:

1056480154