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The Excellence of the Arabs by Ibn Qutaybah ; translated by Sarah Bowen Savant and Peter Webb ; foreword by Jack Weatherford ; volume editor, Michael Cooperson.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ibn Qutaybah, ʻAbd Allāh ibn Muslim, 828-889?, author.
- Series:
- Library of Arabic Literature ; 51
- Standardized Title:
- Faḍl al-ʻArab wa-al-tanbīh ʻalá ʻulūmihā. English
- Language:
- Arabic
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Islamic civilization--Early works to 1800.
- Islamic civilization.
- Islamic Empire--Intellectual life--Early works to 1800.
- Islamic Empire.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (193 pages)
- Place of Publication:
- New York Univeristy Press, 2019. New York :
- Summary:
- A spirited defense of Arab identity from a time of political unrest. In 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?
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- Letter from the General Editor
- About this paperback
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Note on the Text
- Notes to the Introduction
- Book One: Arab Preeminence
- Book Two: The Excellence of Arab Learning
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Further Reading
- Index of Qurʾanic Verses
- Index
- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
- About the Translators
- The Library of Arabic Literature
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
- Description based on print version record.
- ISBN:
- 9781479859764
- 1479859761
- OCLC:
- 1097365785
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