BRAINS CONFOUNDED
BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF
EXPOUNDED
Volume One
LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE
EDITORIAL BOARD
GENERAL EDITOR
Philip F. Kennedy, New York University
EXECUTIVE EDITORS
James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University
EDITORS
Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University
Julia Bray, University of Oxford
Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles
Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania
Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi
Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago
Devin J. Stewart, Emory University
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Chip Rossetti
DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER
Stuart Brown
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Lucie Taylor
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR
Amani Al-Zoubi
LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR
The Library of Arabic Literature makes available Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, travel writing, history, and historiography.
Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars. They are published as hardcovers in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, as English-only paperbacks, and as downloadable Arabic editions. For some texts, the series also publishes separate scholarly editions with full critical apparatus.
The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations, with the ultimate goal of introducing Arabic’s rich literary heritage to a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.
The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.
Philip F. Kennedy
General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature
ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK
This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hardcover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.
BRAINS CONFOUNDED
BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF
EXPOUNDED
Volume One
BY
YŪSUF AL-SHIRBĪNĪ
TRANSLATED BY
HUMPHREY DAVIES
FOREWORD BY
YOUSSEF RAKHA
VOLUME EDITORS
JAMES E. MONTGOMERY
GEERT JAN VAN GELDER
| NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESSNew York |
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
Copyright © 2019 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687, author. | Davies, Humphrey T. (Humphrey Taman), editor translator. | Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687. Hazz al-quḥūf fī sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf. English. | Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687. Hazz al-quḥūf fī sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf.
Title: Brains confounded by the ode of Abu Shaduf expounded / Yusuf al-Shirbini ; translated by Humphrey Davies ; foreword by Youssef Rakha.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2019] | Originally published in hardback in 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | In English with original Arabic text.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018052779 (print) | LCCN 2018055775 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479879847 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479852949 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479840212 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Villages—Egypt—Early works to 1800. | Egypt—Rural conditions—Early works to 1800. | Social problems in literature—Early works to 1800. | Satire, Arabic—Egypt—Early works to 1800. | Arabic literature—Egypt—Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC HN786.A8 (ebook) | LCC HN786.A8 S5513 2019 (print) | DDC 307.720932—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052779
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward
Typeset in Adobe Text
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Kristina Nelson and Clare and James Davies
CONTENTS
Letter from the General Editor
BRAINS CONFOUNDED BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF EXPOUNDED, PART ONE
The Author Describes the Ode of Abū Shādūf
The Author Embarks on a Description of the Common Country Folk
An Account of a Few of Their Names, Nicknames, and Kunyahs
Their