Yusuf al-Shirbini’s Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded (Kitab Hazz al-Quhuf bi-Sharh Qasid Abi Shaduf)
Volume II: English translation, introduction and notes
by H.T. Davies
This translation provides access to a work of rare importance for the study of the social, economic, and intellectual life of Egypt during a critical but understudied period of its history and is a companion to the critical edition of the Arabic text (OLA 141). Written in 1686 or soon after, the work takes the form of a lengthy introduction to and a commentary on a poem supposedly composed by an Egyptian peasant. This format allows the author both to attack rural society (which he divides into peasants, jurisprudents, and Sufis) and to play for comic effect with the conventions of the then central text-and-commentary genre. A lengthy introduction and numerous notes help to explain the content and significance of the text. The book will interest students of Ottoman Egyptian culture and society, rural-urban relations in Egypt, and Arabic linguistics. It also deserves attention as a work of comic genius of a sort rarely met with in Arabic literature whose mordant humor and vitriolic tone open a window onto the mind and world of an Egyptian scholar of the period.
- By (author) HT Davies
Other Titles in this Series
Hawara in the Graeco-Roman Period
Life and Death in a Fayum Village. With an Appendix on the Pottery from Hawara by Sylvie Marchand
Volume 174
Philosophie et sciences a Byzance de 1204 a 1453
Les textes, les doctrines et leur transmission. Actes de la Table Ronde organisee au XXe Congres International d'Etudes Byzantines (Paris, 2001)
Volume 146
Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen Band IV
Bearbeitet von Dagmar Budde, Peter Dils, Lothar Goldbrunner, Christian Leitz und Daniela Mendel unter Mitarbeit von Frank Förster, Daniel von Recklinghausen und Bettina Ventker
Volume 113
Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras VIII
Proceedings of the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd International Colloquium Organized at Ghent University in May 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013
Volume 244
Byzantine Holy Images – Transcendence and Immanence
The Theological Background of the Iconography and Aesthetics of the Chora Church
Volume 176
Byzantino-Normannica
The Norman Capture of Italy (to A.D. 1081) and the First Two Norman Invasions in Byzantium (A.D. 1081-1085 and 1107-1108)
Volume 165
Kindgötter im Ägypten der griechisch-römischen Zeit
Zeugnisse aus Stadt und Tempel als Spiegel des interkulturellen Kontakts
Volume 128
East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean II
Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality. Acta of the Congress Held at Hernen Castle (the Netherlands) in May 2006
Volume 199
Moving Across Borders
Foreign Relations, Religion and Cultural Interactions in the Ancient Mediterranean
Volume 159
Philomathestatos
Studies in Greek Patristic and Byzantine Texts Presented to Jacques Noret for his Sixty-Fifth Birthday
Volume 137
The Sabaite Heritage in the Orthodox Church from the Fifth Century to the Present
Monastic Life, Liturgy, Theology, Literature, Art, Archaeology
Volume 98
Zachariae Calliergis (1470 ca-1524) Erotemata
Editio princeps. Con un'Introduzione sulla vita e attività dell'Autore
Volume 321, 32
Episcopal Networks and Authority in Late Antique Egypt
Bishops of the Theban Region at Work
Volume 264
East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean I
Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality
Volume 147
Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen Band V
Bearbeitet von Dagmar Budde, Peter Dils, Lothar Goldbrunner, Christian Leitz und Daniela Mendel unter Mitarbeit von Frank Förster, Daniel von Recklinghausen und Bettina Ventker
Volume 114
Material Culture of Mesopotamia and Beyond 1
People and their Environment in First Millennium BCE Babylonia
Volume 319
Vienna 2 – Ancient Egyptian Ceramics in the 21st Century
Proceedings of the International Conference held at the University of Vienna, 14th-18th of May, 2012
Volume 245
‘Abbasid Studies II
Occasional Papers of the School of 'Abbasid Studies, Leuven, 28 June - 1 July 2004
Volume 177
Similar Books
Cahiers de lexicologie
Particules floues — Nouvelles études sur le français et l'espagnol
Volume 128
Cities through Time
Glimpses into Urbanity and Community in Mediaeval to Modern West Asia and Egypt
Volume 1
Cuneiform Artefacts from Archaeological Contexts: New Research on Ancient Iraq
Proceedings of a Conference Held at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, July 4–5, 2024
Volume 2
Des mots aux actes
Traduction épistémique et littéraire. Nouvelles tendances en histoire et didactique
Volume 15
Deutsch als Fremdsprache nach Englisch an chinesischen Hochschulen
Eine empirische Forschung über Lernstrategien zum Wortschatzlernen
From the Frontiers of the Empire to the Borders of the Nations
Borderland Security and Safety in the (post-)Ottoman Spaces (1700–1939)
Global Gulf
Geo-Economic, Geo-Political, and Geo-Technological Transformation in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar
Islamic Rituals Beyond the Mosque
Historical Evolution of Prayer and Devotion in Physical Space and Cyberspace
Ismail Hakki Bursevi’s translation of and commentary on Fusus al-Hikam By Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi
Volumes 1-4
Monastic Manuscripts from the Eastern Mediterranean (Sinai, Jerusalem, Antioch)
Production, Use, and Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Qatar’s Societal Security
Towards the Inclusive National Concept of ‘Baladna’ Identity, Migration and External Threats Since 2017
