Resources
A Brave New Quest: 100 Modern Turkish Poems
Talat S. Halman (Editor), Jayne L. Warner (Editor)
Publisher: Syracuse University Press (May 2006)
ISBN-10: 0815608403; ISBN-13: 978-0815608400
This anthology features a wide variety of 20th and 21st century poems about social justice, love, evocations of history, humanitarian concerns, and other themes. It contains examples of the revolutionary romanticism of Nazim Hikmet; the wry and captivating humor of Orhan Veli Kanik; the intellectual complexity of Oktay Rifat and Melih Cevdet Anday; and the modern mythology of Ilhan Berk as well as the diverse explorations of younger poets.
A Millennium of Turkish Literature: A Concise History
Talat S. Halman (Author), Jayne L. Warner (Editor)
Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2010
ISBN-10: 0815609582; ISBN-13: 978-0815609582
A Millennium of Turkish Literature tells the story of how literature evolved and grew in stature on the Turkish mainland over the course of a thousand years. The book features numerous poems and extracts, most in fluid translations by Halman. This volume provides a concise introduction to Turkish literature and, with selections from its extensive Further Reading section, serves as an invaluable guide to Turkish literature.
About The Tribes of Bani Shadad and Bani’a’rush
The Bani Shadad and Bani ‘A’rush are two of the seven tribes of the Bakil Confederation, who live in a mountainous region east of Yemen’s capital San’a. The region is known for its rich oral poetic traditions. Yemeni tribesmen often phrase messages in poetic form, using it as a way of honoring those with whom they wish to negotiate and then conduct the negotiations themselves in verse.
Abu Nuwas: A Genius of Poetry
Philip Kennedy (Author)
Publisher: Oneworld, 2007
ISBN-10: 1851685103; ISBN-13: 978-1851685103
Abu Nuwas (756 – 813) was one of the greatest Arab poets of the classical period. He is particularly renowned for his poems on wine and pederasty. His verse is laced with humor and irony, reflecting the genial yet cynical outlook of the poet, who spent much of his life in pursuit of pleasure. Yet he was in fact an all-round poet and exerted a profound influence on Abbasid poetry more generally; he is one of a handful of individuals who can be deemed to stand at the very heart of Arabic literary culture.
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation
Eboo Patel
Publisher: Beacon Press, 2010
ISBN-10: 080700622X; ISBN-13: 978-0807006221
Eboo Patel, a former Rhodes scholar with a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford, is the founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that unites young people of different religions to perform community service and explore their common values. With honesty, Patel relates how he suffered the racist taunts of fellow youth, and, in response, alternately rebelled against and absorbed the religion of his parents—Islam—but in his own way. Meanwhile, he continued to pursue interfaith work with vigor, not quite knowing his end goal but always feeling in his gut that interfaith understanding was the key. This autobiography of a young activist captures how an angry youth can be transformed—by faith, by the community and, most of all, by himself—into a profound leader for the cause of peace.
Adonis
Adonis: Selected Poems,
Trans. Khaled Mattawa.
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2010.
ISBN-10: 0300153066; ISBN-13: 978-0300153064
The first comprehensive survey of the work of acclaimed Arabic poet Adonis’ (1930- ) work by the poet’s own handpicked translator, Khaled Mattawa. Experimental in form and prophetic in tone, Adonis’ poetry sings exultantly of both the sweet promise of eros and the lingering problems of the self.
Al-Mutanabbi
Margaret Larkin (Author)
Publisher: Oneworld, 2007
ISBN-10: 1851684069; ISBN-13: 978-1851684069
This exhaustive and yet enthralling study considers the life and work of al-Mutanabbi (915-965), often regarded as the greatest of the classical Arab poets. A revolutionary at heart and often imprisoned or forced into exile throughout his tumultuous life, al-Mutanabbi wrote both controversial satires and when employed by one of his many patrons, laudatory panegyrics.
Alcalay, Ammiel
After Jews and Arabs: Remaking Levantine Culture
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
ISBN-10: 0816621551; ISBN-13: 978-0816621552
The thesis in this difficult but important book is that conventional modes of interpreting Western civilization have left little room for the complex play of Semitic and non-Semitic culture in the Levant, and for the roles of Arabs and Jews in the formation of European cultures. The book is also a valuable introduction to Levantine Hebrew and Arabic literatures, both medieval and modern.
Ali, Agha Shahid
The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems of Agha Shahid Ali.
Publisher: WW Norton, 2009.
ISBN 978-0-393-06804-7
Poet Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001), who taught at the University of Utah, at the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, was a major promoter of the ghazals in English. Mourned by myriad lovers of poetry and devoted students, this collection, gathers his work, from playful early poems to themes of mourning and loss, culminating in the ghazals of his final book, Call Me Ishmael Tonight.
Ali, Agha Shahid, ed.
Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English.
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2000.
ISBN-10: 0819564370; ISBN-13: 978-0819564375
This anthology brings together ghazals by a rich gathering of 107 poets including Diane Ackerman, John Hollander, W. S. Merwin, William Matthews, Paul Muldoon, Ellen Bryant Voigt, and many others. Agha Shahid Ali’s lively introduction gives a brief history of the ghazal and instructions on how to compose one in English.
Ali, Kazim
The Far Mosque.
Publisher: Alice James Books, 2005.
ISBN-10: 9781882295531; ISBN-13: 978-1882295531
Kazim Ali’s (1971- ) poetry debut draws on mystical traditions of the world’s religions in its urgent quest. These gently fragmented narrative lyrics pursue enlightenment in long, elegant yet plainspoken, dark yet ecstatic lines. The poems travel by water and by night, seeking The Far Mosque and its overarching paradox: that when God and Self are one, an ascent into Heaven is a voyage within.
Ali, Taha Muhammad
So What: New and Selected Poems, 1971-2005,
Trans. Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi and Gabriel Levin.
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2006.
ISBN 1-55659-245-0
Taha Muhammad Ali (1931-2011) was a revered Palestinian poet whose work is driven by vivid imagination, disarming humor, and unflinching honesty. Born in 1931 in Galilee, he fled to Lebanon during the 1948 war. A year later he slipped across the border with his family and settled in Nazareth. The longtime owner of a souvenir shop, Ali was self-taught in contemporary literature, and a favorite reader at international literature festivals. Composed in a synthetic Arabic that draws both on classical language and colloquial speech, Ali’s vivid free verse conveys the moody resilience of his personality in treatments of the national grief of occupation, exile and the Palestinian Arabs’ “endless migration.” Often informed by symbols and structures from Arab tradition, Ali’s ironies stand alongside easily grasped, even universal, versions of lament: “We did not know/ at the moment of parting/ that it was a moment of parting.” His poems portray experiences that range from catastrophe to splendor, each preserving an essential human dignity.
Andrews, Walter G., Najaat Black and Mehmet Kalpakli, eds.
Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology.
Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2006.
ISBN-10: 029598595X; ISBN-13: 978-0295985954
For the people of the Ottoman Empire, lyrical poetry was the most prized literary activity, and it was used to express all manner of things, from feelings of love to a plea for employment. This collection offers free verse translations of 75 lyric poems from the mid-fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Biographies of the poets and background information on Ottoman history and literature complete the volume.
Anonymous
Tales from 1,001 Nights: Aladdin, Ali Baba and Other Favourites,
Trans. Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2012.
ISBN-10: 014119166X; ISBN-13: 978-0141191669
A one-volume edition of “Tales from 1,001 Nights,” drawn from the acclaimed landmark translation published in 3 volumes by “Penguin Classics” in 2008. It contains “Aladdin”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Sindbad the Sailor” and many others of the most enjoyable and beloved tales from the “Arabian Nights”.
Arif, Iftikhar and Waqas Khwaja, eds.
Modern Poetry of Pakistan.
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press, 2011.
ISBN-10: 1564786056; ISBN-13: 978-1564786050
Modern Poetry of Pakistan brings together not one but many poetic traditions indigenous to Pakistan, with 142 poems translated from seven major languages, six of them regional (Baluchi, Kashmiri, Panjabi, Pashto, Seraiki, and Sindhi) and one national (Urdu). Writers included range from Pakistan’s national poet Muhammad Iqbal to the young Pashto poet Hasina Gul.
Aslan, Reza
Tablet and Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.
ISBN-10: 0393065855; ISBN-13: 978-0393065855
This unique gathering of poems, memoirs, fiction, and essays, many translated into English for the first time from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, covers the past century of frenetic disruption and change in the Middle East in works of beauty, dissent, irony, and romance. Includes the writings of Kahlil Gibran, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Nâzim Hikmet, Ismat Chughtai, Muhammad Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Forugh Farrokhzad, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Yaşar Kemal, Ghassan Kanafani, Mahmoud Darwish, Adonis, Ahmad Shamlu, Naguib Mahfouz, Orhan Pamuk, and more.
Attar, Farid al-Din
The Conference of the Birds,
Trans. Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi.
Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1984.
ISBN-10: 0140444343; ISBN-13: 978-0140444346
Composed in the twelfth century in northeastern Iran, Farid Attar’s great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvelous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic doctrine of Sufism, it describes the pilgrimage of the world’s birds in search of their ideal king, the Simorgh bird, and the arduous journey they take to reach him. This masterly translation preserves the poem’s rhymed couplet form and nuances of language.
Behbahani, Simin
A Cup of Sin: Selected Poems,
Trans. Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa.
Publisher: Syracuse Univ Press, 1999.
ISBN-10: 0815605544; ISBN-13: 978-0815605546
As a Muslim woman writing in Iran, Simin Behbahani’s (1927- ) collections contain some of the seminal work of twentieth-century Persian literature. Written over almost a half-century, much of her work reflects the traumatic experiences that have shaped recent Iranian history. In the traditional verse of the ghazal, she improvises with meter to echo and provide new interpretations.
Book of the Edge
Ece Temelkuran (Author), Deniz Perin (Translator)
Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd, 2010
ISBN-10: 1934414360; ISBN-13: 978-1934414361
One of Turkey’s most accomplished young writers, Ece Temelkuran (1973- ) describes an allegorical journey wherein the speaker, or explorer, encounters strange creatures, including a butterfly, bull, swordfish, sow bug, and cruel city dwellers in Book of the Edge. Temelkuran has published eight books of poetry, prose, and nonfiction and is an award-winning journalist and political commentator.
Charara, Hayan, ed.
Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Poetry.
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 2008.
ISBN-10: 1557288674; ISBN-13: 978-1557288677
Inclined to Speak gathers together poems from the most important contemporary Arab American poets that shape and alter our understanding of the Arab experience. These poems also challenge us to reconsider what it means to be American. Included in the anthology are Naomi Shihab Nye, D. H. Melhem, Lawrence Joseph, Khaled Mattawa, Mohja Khaf, Kazim Ali, Fady Joudah, and Lisa Suhair Majaj. With Charara’s introduction about the state of Arab American poetry, short biographies of the poets, and an extensive list of further readings.
Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes by ‘Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, ‘Antara, Al-A’sha, and Dhu al-Rumma
Michael A. Sells (Editor, Translator)
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 1989
ISBN-10: 0819511587; ISBN-13: 978-0819511584
Desert Tracings is a translation of six classical sixth to eighth century Arabic odes (qasidas) traditionally begin with the relationship of the lover to the beloved. As Michael Sells writes in his introduction, the qasida been overshadowed in the West by other Arabic literature, such as The Arabian Nights, but the qasida is the primary literary tradition in both pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia. The remarkable richness of language and range of mood captured in theses translations help explain their enduring fascination.
Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea
Dunya Mikhail (Author), Elizabeth Winslow (Translator)
Publisher: New Directions, 2009
ISBN-10: 0811218317; ISBN-13: 978-0811218313
An impressionistic memoir by the award-winning Iraqi-American writer, Dunya Mikhail, Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea covers her earliest sensations of childhood to a more complicated grasp of death, beginning with the death of her father to the Gulf War and the subsequent Iraqi War.
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood
Fatima Mernissi
Publisher: Perseus Books, 1995
ISBN-10: 0201489376; ISBN-13: 978-0201489378
“This rich, magical and absorbing growing-up tale set in a little-known culture reflects many universals about women. The setting is a “domestic harem” in the 1940s city of Fez, where an extended family arrangement keeps the women mostly apart from society, as opposed to the more stereotypical “imperial harem,” which historically provided sex for sultans and other powerful court officials. Moroccan sociologist Mernissi charts the changing social and political frontiers and limns the personalities and quirks of her world. Here she tells of a grandmother who warns that the world is unfair to women, learns of the confusing WW II via radio news in Arabic and French, watches family members debate what children should hear, wonders why American soldiers’ skin doesn’t reflect Moroccan-style racial mixing and decides that sensuality must be a part of women’s liberation. With much folk wisdom–happiness, the author’s mother told her, “was when there was a balance between what you gave and what you took”–this book not only tells a winning per
E-mails from Scheherazad
Mohja Kahf (Author)
Publisher: University Press of Florida, 2003
ISBN-10: 0813026210; ISBN-13: 978-0813026213
Kahf establishes herself as a new voice in the tradition of ethnic American poets, blending the experiences of recent Arab-American immigrants into contemporary American scenery. In her poems, Muslim ritual and Qur’anic vocabulary move in next door to the idiom of suburban Americana, and the legendary Scheherazad of the Thousand and One Nights shows up in New Jersey, recast as a sophisticated postcolonial feminist.
Eda: an Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry
Murat Nemet-Nejat (Editor)
Publisher: Talisman House, 2004
ISBN-10: 1584980346; ISBN-13: 978-1584980346
The only American anthology to date to track the development of one of the great poetic traditions of our time. Nemet-Nejat offers an introduction to modern and contemporary Turkish poetry, particularly the avant-garde, until now largely unknown in the West. Poets include Nazim Hikmet, Orhan Veli Kanik, and Cemal Sureya. A selection of essays completes the volume.
Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader
Habib Tengour (Author), Pierre Joris (Translator)
Publisher: Commonwealth Books, 2012
ISBN-10: 0984264051; ISBN-13: 978-0984264056
A survey of the poems and writings of Habib Tengour (1947- ). Though widely published in Europe and North Africa, this is the first English language volume of his works to be published. With over 19 books published to date he is one of the Maghreb regions most important poets and commentators. Tengour, born in Algeria, divides his time between Paris and Constantine. Pierre Joris has been one of Tengour’s most active translators into the English language.
Forugh Farrokhzad: “Inaugurating the Garden”
Translator Sholeh Wolphe’s introduction and Forugh Farrokhzad’s reading “Inaugurating the Garden”
Impasse of the Angels: Scenes from a Moroccan Space of Memory
Stefania Pandolfo (Author)
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press, 1998
ISBN-10: 0226645320; ISBN-13: 978-0226645322
Composed as a polyphonic dialogue of texts, Impasse of the Angels explores what it means to be a subject in the historical and poetic imagination of a southern Moroccan society. Passionate and lyrical, ironic and tragic, the book listens to dissonant, often idiosyncratic voices—poetic texts, legends, social spaces, folktales, conversations—which elaborate in their own ways the fractures, wounds, and contradictions of the Maghrebi postcolonial present.
Introduction to the Language of the Qur’an
Duke University professor Bruce Lawrence offers an introduction to the poetic style and aural beauty of the Qur’an and discusses the challenge of translating archaic Arabic into modern-day English.
Islamic Mystical Poetry: Sufi Verse from the Early Mystics to Rumi
Mahmood Jamal (Editor, Translator)
Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2010
ISBN-10: 9780140424737; ISBN-13: 978-0140424737
Poetry has been the most powerful vehicle for conveying Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam, from the early flowering of mystical Islam in Baghdad to the later heights it reached through Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273) and Jami (d. 1492). Starting with the writings of eighth-century mystics, this anthology moves through the twelfth century with Ibn Arabi in Spain and Ibn Farid of Cairo, then onto the Maghrib prayer of Abul Ala Al Maari, Aynul quddat Hamddhani of Persia, Yunus Emre of Turkey in the fourteenth century, and many others, culminating in the early twentieth century.
Lailí And Majnún: A Poem
Nizami (Author), James Atkinson (Translator)
Publisher: Kessinger Publishing, 2008
ISBN-10: 1437181317; ISBN-13: 978-1437181319
This book is a facsimile reprint of the 1836 verse translation of Lailí and Majnún, the most popular of Persian romances, by British scholar James Atkinson. In a culture where men and women were rigidly separated, marriages were arranged, and love played a much larger role in fantasy than in real life, 12th century poet Nizami created a tragic love story to rival Romeo and Juliet.
Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora
Persis M. Karim (Editor)
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 2006
ISBN-10: 1557288208; ISBN-13: 978-1557288202
Until recently, Iranian literature has overwhelmingly been the domain of men. But the new hybrid culture of diaspora Iranians has produced a prolific literature by women that reflects a unique perspective and voice. Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been is an extensive collection of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by women whose lives have been shaped and influenced by Iran’s recent history, exile, immigration and the formation of new cultural identities in the United States and Europe.
Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me and Other Poems
Ghassan Zaqtan (Author), Fady Joudah (Translator)
Publisher: Yale University Press, 2012
ISBN-10: 0300173164; ISBN-13: 978-0300173161
Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan (1954- ) is the author of ten collections of poetry. Critically acclaimed among avant-garde artists in the Arab world, he is also a novelist, playwright, and editor. Zaqtan is the cofounder and director of the House of Poetry in Ramallah. These poems have been rendered into English by award-winning poet and translator Fady Joudah.
Listen
Translation of Rumi’s “What Can I Do, Muslims?” with Music by Amir Vahab & Ensemble
Listen
Sohaib Khan recites Sura 93 of the Qur’an
Listen
Translator Sholeh Wolpe’s introduction and Forugh Farrokhzad’s reading of “Inaugurating the Garden”
Listen
“Song of Sabdatama” performed by Jogja Hip-Hop Foundation featuring Akala
Modern Arabic Poetry
Salma Khadra Jayyusi (Editor)
Publisher: Columbia University Press, 1991
ISBN-10: 0231052731; ISBN-13: 978-0231052733
After centuries of Ottoman rule, the Arab world began to find new vitality and freedom in the twentieth century. The accompanying resurgence of creative expression is reflected in this definitive anthology of contemporary Arabic poetry, which spans the modern Arab world from the turn of the century to the present, from the Arab Gulf to Morocco. The editor, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, a renowned expert on modern Arabic literature, presents a through introduction to the works of more than ninety Arab poets.
Muhajababes: Meet the new Middle East: Young, Sexy, and Devout
Allegra Stratton
Melville House, 2008
ISBN-13: 9781933633503
Two thirds of the population in the Middle East is under 25 years old, and there’s been an explosive growth of college graduates. Still, there aren’t enough jobs to go round. They’re having a collective quarter-life crisis. In the months before turning 25 herself, BBC producer Allegra Stratton set out to meet them. She visits Beirut, Amman, Cairo, Dubai, Kuwait City and Damascus during a time of potentially momentous change, looking for youth culture.
Nets of Awareness: Urdu Poetry and Its Critics
Frances W. Pritchett
Publisher: University of California Press, 1994
ISBN-10: 8187649658; ISBN-13: 978-0520083868
This lively, compassionate book joins literary criticism with history to explain how Urdu poetry–long the pride of Indo-Muslim culture–became devalued during 19th century British rule. Using the lives and writings of the distinguished poets and critics Azad and Hali, Pritchett’s beautiful reconstruction of the classical Urdu poetic vision allows us to understand one of the world’s richest literary traditions and also highlights the damaging potential of colonialism.
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam
Reza Aslan
Publisher: Random House, 2006
ISBN-10: 0812971892 ; ISBN-13: 978-0812971897
In No god but God, Reza Aslan explains Islam—the origins and evolution of the faith—in all its beauty and complexity. In this updated edition, Aslan explores what the popular demonstrations pushing for democracy in the Middle East mean for the future of Islam in the region, how the Internet and social media have affected Islam’s evolution, and how the war on terror has altered the geopolitical balance of power in the Middle East.
On Wings of Diesel: Trucks, Identity and Culture in Pakistan
Jamal J. Elias
Publisher: Oneworld Publications, 2011
ISBN: 978-1851688111
Illustrated with beautiful color photos throughout, On Wings of Diesel takes us on a journey through the fascinating world of Pakistani truck decoration. Ornately adorned and considered as “moving art”, these trucks—veritable roving exhibitions—depict all aspects of life and support a highly developed artisanal industry. Exploring the significance of this practice, Jamal J. Elias provides a unique window on Pakistan’s complex society that addresses questions of culture and religion in a way that is both accessible and entertaining.
Peaks of Yemen I Summon: Poetry as Cultural Practice in a North Yemeni Tribe
Steven C. Caton
Publisher: University of California Press, 1993
ISBN-10: 0520082613; ISBN-13: 978-0520082618
In this first full-scale ethnographic study of Yemeni tribal poetry, Steven Caton reveals an astonishingly rich folkloric system where poetry is both a creation of art and a political and social act. Almost always spoken or chanted, Yemeni tribal poetry is cast in an idiom considered colloquial and “ungrammatical,” yet admired for its wit and spontaneity. Drawing on his three years of field research in North Yemen, Caton explores the poet’s role and power in Yemeni society.
Persian Poets
Peter Washington (Editor)
Publisher: Everyman’s Library (Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets), 2000
ISBN: 978-0375411267
The Middle Ages saw an extraordinary flowering of Persian poetry. Though translations began appearing in Europe in the nineteenth century, these remarkable poets–Omar Khayyam, Rumi, Saadi, Sanai, Attar, Hafiz, and Jami–are still being discovered in the West. The great medieval Persian poets owe much to the mystical Sufi tradition within Islam, which understands life as a journey in search of enlightenment, and, like their European contemporaries, they combine religious and secular themes. While celebrating the beauty of the world in poems about love, wine, and poetry itself, or telling humorous anecdotes of everyday life, they use these subjects to symbolize deeper concerns with wisdom, mortality, salvation, and the quest for God.
Poems of Nazim Hikmet (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Nazim Hikmet (Author), Randy Blasing (Editor, Translator), Mutlu Konuk (Editor, Translator)
Publisher: Persea, 2002
ISBN-10: 0892552743; ISBN-13: 978-0892552740
A centennial volume, with previously unavailable poems, by Turkey’s greatest poet. Published in celebration of the poet’s one hundredth birthday, this exciting edition of the poems of the Nazim Hikmet (1902-1963) collects work from his four previous selected volumes and adds more than twenty poems never before available in English. The Blasing/Konuk translations, acclaimed for the past quarter-century for their accuracy and grace, convey Hikmet’s compassionate, accessible voice with the subtle music, innovative form, and emotional directness of the originals.
Poetry of the Taliban
Edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn; Preface by Faisal Devji
Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-231-70404-5
Poetry of the Taliban draws upon both Afghan tradition and the nation’s recent past, and seamlessly connect with the long history of Persian, Urdu, and Pashto verse. The contrast between the severity of the Taliban’s ideology and its long-standing poetic tradition is nothing short of remarkable. Unrequited love, vengeance, the thrill of battle, religion, and nationalism – even a yearning for nonviolence – are expressed through images of wine, powerful women, and pastoral beauty, providing a fascinating perspective on the hearts and minds of Western civilization’s redoubtable adversaries. Two introductory essays contextualize the anthology’s poems, relating their significance to Pashtun history and their reflection of a culture inundated by thirty years of war.
Reorientations: Arabic and Persian Poetry
Suzanne Pinckney Stetkevych (Editor)
Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1994
ISBN-10: 0253354935; ISBN-13: 978-0253354938
This excellent collection of scholarly essays on classical Arabic and Persian poetry gives the non-specialist a chance to listen in on the experts and benefit from their working translations along the way. The essays cover a broad spectrum of poetry, ranging from the pre-Islamic ode of the sixth century to seventeenth-century Safavid Moghul ghazal.
Rooftops of Tehran
Sholeh Wolpé,
Publisher: Red Hen Press, 2008
ISBN 978-1-57909-110-7
“Here is a delicious book of poems, redolent of saffron and stained with pomegranate in its vision of Iran and of the immigrant life in California. Wolpe’s poems are at once humorous, sad and sexy, which is to say that they are capriciously human, human even in that they dream of wings and are always threatening to take flight”.—Tony Barnstone, award winning poet and translator.
Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad
Forugh Farrokhzad (Author), Sholeh Wolpe (Translator)
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press, 2007
ISBN-10: 1557288615; ISBN-13: 978-1557288615
Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967) was the most significant female Iranian poet of the twentieth century, as revolutionary as Russia’s Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva and America’s Plath and Sexton. She wrote with a sensuality and burgeoning political consciousness that pressed against the boundaries of what could be expressed by a woman in 1950s and 1960s Iran. Farrokhzad died in a car accident in 1967 at the age of thirty-two. Sin is a tribute to the work and life of this remarkable poet.
Song of Sabdatama (Jogja Hip-Hop feat Akala)
Strange Times in Persia: An Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature
Nahid Mozaffari (Author), Ahmad Karimi Hakkak (Author)
Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2007
ISBN-10: 1845114175; ISBN-13: 978-1845114176
A rich and varied collection of short stories, extracts from novels, and poetry that convey an engaging but also disturbing picture of dangerous times in Iran during the late 1970s and 1980s, the book tackles controversial issues, ranging from religious freedom to misogyny to revolution to the oil trade. Poets include Ahmad Shamlu, Simin Behbahani, Nader Naderpur, and Granaz Mussavi.
Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights
Marina Warner
Publisher: Belknap Press: Harvard University Press
ISBN-10: 0253354935; ISBN 9780674055308
Stranger Magic examines the wondrous tales of the Arabian Nights, their profound impact on the West, and the progressive exoticization of magic since the eighteenth century, when the first European translations appeared. Writers from Voltaire to Goethe to Borges, filmmakers from Raoul Walsh on, and countless authors of children’s books have adapted its stories. What gives these tales their enduring power to bring pleasure to readers and audiences? Their appeal, Marina Warner suggests, lies in how the stories’ magic stimulates the creative activity of the imagination. In Warner’s hands, the Nights reveal the underappreciated cultural exchanges between East and West, Islam and Christianity, and cast light on the magical underpinnings of contemporary experience, where mythical principles, as distinct from religious belief, enjoy growing acceptance.
Sufi Rapper: The Spiritual Journey of Abd al Malik
Abd Al Malik (Author), Jon E. Graham (Translator)
Publisher: Inner Traditions; 1st U.S. Ed edition, 2009
ISBN-10: 1594772789; ISBN-13: 978-1594772788
“This book is a little gem, full of colorful characters and uplifting incidents that have the charm of fairy stories, as well as the profundity and resonances of life tales. Most important, it is a spiritual journal of a young man, seeking the infinite to find peace. Recommended for all readers.”(Library Journal)
Taha Muhammad Ali reads “Twigs”
The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam: A New Edition (Princeton Classic Editions)
F. E. Peters
Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2006
ISBN-10: 0691127697; ISBN-13: 978-0691127699
Peters traces the three faiths from the sixth century B.C., when the Jews returned to Palestine from exile in Babylonia, to the time in the Middle Ages when they approached their present form. He points out that all three faith groups, whom the Muslims themselves refer to as “People of the Book,” share much common ground. Most notably, each embraces the practice of worshipping a God who intervenes in history on behalf of His people. The book’s text is direct and accessible with thorough and nuanced discussions of each of the three religions.
The Essential Rumi
Jalal al-Din Rumi (Author), Coleman Barks (Translator)
Publisher: HarperOne, 2004
ISBN: 0-06-250959-4
Persian Sufi Jalal al-Din Rumi is today the most widely read poet in America. This is, of course, largely due to the fact that his poems and stories are simple and direct enough for their startling and passionate imagery to travel across such distances of culture and time. With over ten books of Rumi translations, Coleman Barks has established himself as the foremost translator of Rumi into English.
Rumi’s poems in their original Persian reflect a dense musicality rarely if ever found in translation. Barks acknowledges the difference in language and uses American free verse to convey a sense of the work’s simplicity. With the best of these translations beautifully collected in The Essential Rumi, in poems which are alternately ecstatic, wise, and hilarious, the prolific poet comes alive in the 20th century.
The Garden of Heaven: Poems of Hafiz
Hafiz (Author), Gertrude Bell (Translator)
Publisher: Dover Publications, 2003
ISBN-10: 0486431614; ISBN-13: 978-0486431611
Poetry is the greatest literary form of ancient Persia and modern Iran, and the 14th-century poet known as Hafiz is its preeminent master. This collection is derived from Hafiz’s Divan (collected poems), a classic of Sufism. This 19th-century translation by historian Gertrude Bell remains widely acclaimed by scholars and readers.
The Masnavi, Book One
Jalal al-Din Rumi (Author), Jawid Mojaddedi (Translator)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 0199552312; ISBN-13: 978-0199552313
Rumi’s Masnavi is widely recognized as the greatest Sufi poem ever written, and has been called “the Qur’an in Persian.” The thirteenth-century Muslim mystic composed his work for the benefit of his disciples in the Sufi order named after him. In order to convey his message of divine love and unity he threaded together entertaining stories and penetrating homilies. Jawid Mojaddedi’s verse translation of Book One is consistent with the aims of the original work in presenting Rumi’s most mature mystical teachings in simple and attractive rhyming couplets.
The Masnavi: Book Two
Jalal al-Din Rumi (Author), Jawid Mojaddedi (Translator)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007
ISBN-10: 0199212597; ISBN-13: 978-0199212590
The most influential Sufi poem ever written, the six books of the Masnavi are often called “the Qur’an in Persian”. Book Two is concerned with the challenges facing the seeker of Sufi enlightenment. In particular it focuses on the struggle against the self, and how to choose the right companions in order to progress along the mystical path. Here, Jawid Mojaddedi has translated the text into accessible rhyming couplets, as he did for Oxford’s award-winning edition of Book One.
The Oxford India Ghalib: Life, Letters and Ghazals
Ralph Russell (Editor)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2005
ISBN-10: 0195660374; ISBN-13: 978-0195660371
Introduced and selected by Ralph Russell, an eminent Urdu scholar, this collection presents a representative selection of the works of Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869), the most famous and popular of the Urdu poets that the Indian subcontinent has produced. This complete Ghalib anthology comprises poetry and prose translated from both Persian and Urdu, as well as biographical details.
The Poetry of Arab Women
Nathalie Handal (Editor)
Publisher: Interlink Publishing Group (October 2000)
ISBN-10: 1566563747; ISBN-13: 978-1566563741
Arab women poets work within one of the oldest literary traditions in the world, yet they are virtually unknown in the West. Uniting Arab women poets from the all over the Arab World and abroad, Handal has put together an outstanding collection that showcases the work of 82 poets, among them: Etel Adnan, Andre Chedid, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Fadwa Tuqan.
The Qur’an: Books That Changed the World
Bruce Lawrence
Publisher: Grove Press, 2008
ISBN-10: 080214344X; ISBN-13: 978-0802143440
Few books in history have been as poorly understood as the Qur’an. Sent down in a series of revelations to the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an is the unmediated word of Allah, a ritual, political, and legal authority, an ethical and spiritual guide, and a literary masterpiece. In this book, distinguished historian of religion Bruce Lawrence shows precisely how the Qur’an is Islam. He describes the origins of the faith and assesses its tremendous influence on today’s societies and politics. Above all, Lawrence emphasizes that the Qur’an is a sacred book of signs that has no single message.
The Rebel’s Silhouette: Selected Poems
Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Author), Agha Shahid Ali (Translator)
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1995
ISBN-10: 0870239759; ISBN-13: 978-0870239755
Born in India and considered the leading poet on the South Asian subcontinent, Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984) was a two-time Nobel nominee and winner of the 1962 Lenin Peace Prize. His evening readings in Hindi/Urdu-speaking regions drew thousands of listeners. This volume offers a selection of Faiz’s poetry in a bilingual Urdu/English edition with a new introduction by poet and translator Agha Shahid Ali.
The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings
Abolqasem Ferdowsi (Author), Dick Davis (Translator)
Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2007
ISBN-10: 0143104934; ISBN-13: 978-0143104933
Among the greatest works of world literature, this narrative, composed by the poet Ferdowsi in the late tenth century, tells the story of pre-Islamic Iran, beginning in the mythic time of creation and continuing forward to the Arab invasion in the seventh century. The sweep and psychological depth of the Shahnameh is nothing less than magnificent. One of the greatest translators of Persian poetry, Dick Davis, presents Ferdowsi’s masterpiece in an elegant combination of prose and verse.
Three Mughal Poets
Ralph Russell (Author), Russell Islam (Author)
Publisher: Non Basic Stock Line, 1998 (Oxford India)
ISBN-10: 0195633911; ISBN-13: 978-0195633917
The first major flowering of Urdu literature occurred in the eighteenth century, during a time of widespread violence and disaster in which the great feudal lords of the Mughal Empire were struggling to gain control of the empire. This book presents the work of three great Urdu poets of this tumultuous time: the satires of Sauda, the masnavi (narrative poems) of Mir Hasan, and the ghazal love poems of Mir.
Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems
Mahmoud Darwish (Author), Munir Akash (Translator), Carolyn Forché (Translator), Sinan Antoon (Translator), Amira El-Zein (Translator)
Publisher: University of California Press, 2003
ISBN-10: 0520237544; ISBN-13: 978-0520237544
Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) was a literary rarity: at once critically acclaimed as one of the most important poets in the Arabic language, and beloved as the voice of his people. This collection spans Darwish’s entire career, nearly four decades, revealing an impressive range of expression and form. A splendid team of translators has collaborated with the poet on these new translations, which capture Darwish’s distinctive voice and spirit.
Water’s Footfall
Sohrab Sepehri, Translated by Kazim Ali with Mohammad Jafar Mahallati
Puiblisher: Omnidawn Publishing, 2011.
ISBN: 978-1-890650-55-1
Also an acclaimed painter, Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) published eight books of poetry during his lifetime and traveled widely throughout the world. Many of his poems were influenced by his relationship with nature, and his studies of Eastern philosophy and visual arts and were often composed in a cadence similar to spoken language, considered a radical innovation at the time. Sepehri is considered to be one of the most important Iranian poets of the twentieth century.
Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to Odalisque
Mohja Kahf
Publisher: University of Texas Press, 1999
ISBN-10: 0292743378 ISBN-13: 978-0292743373
With an impressive knowledge of European literature from the medieval period to the mid-nineteenth century and in command of literary and feminist criticisms as well as Islamic history, Mohja Kahf unearths and revives conveniently forgotten images of Muslim women. This fascinating genealogy—relegated to oblivion, pushed in the footnotes, forced into invisibility—reveals the evolving images of the Muslim women in the West.
“Rais Lebled” (“President of the Country”)
“Rais Lebled” (“President of the Country”) by Tunisian rapper El Général