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.
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
Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras VII
Proceedings of the 16th, 17th and 18th International Colloquium Organized at Ghent University in May 2007, 2008 and 2009
Volume 223
Centre and Periphery within the Borders of Islam
Proceedings of the 23rd Congress of L'Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants
Volume 207
Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen Band III
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 112
Manuscripta Graeca et Orientalia
Mélanges monastiques et patristiques en l'honneur de Paul Géhin
Volume 243, 12
Encyclopedic Trends in Byzantium?
Proceedings of the International Conference held in Leuven, 6-8 May 2009
Volume 212
The Temple of Shanhûr Volume I
The Sanctuary, the Wabet, and the Gates of the Central Hall and the Great Vestibule (1-98)
Volume 124
Le microcosme animal en Égypte ancienne: de l’effroi à la vénération
Études d'archéo- et ethnoarthropodologie culturelle
Volume 297
Histoire, géographie et religion de l’Égypte ancienne: Opera selecta
Textes édités et indexés par Ivan Guermeur
Volume 224
Dayr al-Barsha Volume I. The Rock Tombs of Djehutinakht (No. 17K74/1), Khnumnakht (No. 17K74/2), and Iha (No. 17K74/3)
With an Essay on the History and Nature of Nomarchal Rule in the Early Middle Kingdom
Volume 155
Gregorio di Nazianzo, Sulla malattia (carm. II,1,50)
Introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento
Volume 331, 36
Editing Mediaeval Texts from a Different Angle: Slavonic and Multilingual Traditions. Together with Francis J. Thomson’s Bibliography and Checklist of Slavonic Translations
To Honour Francis J. Thomson on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Together with Proceedings of the ATTEMT Workshop held at King's College London, 19-20 December 2013 and the ATTEST Workshop held at the University of Regensburg, 11-12 December 2015
Volume 276, 19
East and West in the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean III
Antioch from the Byzantine Reconquest until the End of the Crusader Principality
Volume 269
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
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