{"id":102403,"date":"2016-09-07T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=102403"},"modified":"2016-09-07T12:52:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T16:52:13","slug":"a-prisoner-of-my-abandonment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/07\/a-prisoner-of-my-abandonment\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prisoner of My Abandonment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_102358\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/9780143107484-copy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-102358\" class=\"wp-image-102358\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/9780143107484-copy.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"461\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-102358\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Gianni Dagli Orti.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>This week, we\u2019re publishing four short excerpts from<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/316708\/the-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition-by-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-edited-translated-and-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-elias-muhanna\/9780143107484\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition<\/a><em>, a fourteenth-century encyclopedia\u00a0of \u2026 well, everything, or everything known to Arab civilization circa 1314. Compiled with dogged dedication by Shih\u0101b al-D\u012bn al-Nuwayr\u012b, the book runs to more than nine thousand pages; an abridged version is now available for the first time in English.\u00a0<\/em>Ultimate Ambition\u00a0<em>lives up to its bold title\u2014its eclectic, protean entries cover lunar cults, the sugary drinks in the sultan\u2019s buttery, and how to attract your dream woman by burying a crow\u2019s head.<\/em><em>\u00a0Its translator, Elias Muhanna, believes the compendium affords\u00a0<\/em><em>\u201ca view into the kaleidoscopic and multifarious intellectual tradition of the classical Islamic world\u201d; the\u00a0<\/em>New York Review of Books\u00a0<em>calls it \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/daily\/2016\/08\/24\/in-the-attic-of-early-islam-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri\/\" target=\"_blank\">a bizarre, fascinating book that illustrate[s] the sprawlingly heterodox reality of the early centuries of Islam<\/a>.\u201d Today\u2019s extract:\u00a0<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some Amorous and Erotic Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a very broad subject. The poets have devoted a great \u2028deal of verse to this subject, with a variety of styles and tropes. \u2028Were we to explore it thoroughly, this book would be greatly \u2028lengthened. There are extensive books and large volumes on \u2028this subject, and we have extracted from them a few valuable \u2028pearls and precious things. \u2028<\/p>\n<p>The poets have produced diverse forms of amorous poetry. \u2028They have rhapsodized about the beloved, mentioning them by \u2028name or by euphemism or metaphor. They would describe the \u2028beloved\u2019s body parts and compare them to all kinds of things. For example, they might compare their eyes to the narcissus, and \u2028the effects of their gaze to wine or arrows. They\u2019d compare the \u2028eyebrows to longbows, and the forehead to the morning and the \u2028hair to the evening, and sideburns to silkworm chrysalises and \u2028scorpions. The face they\u2019d compare to the sun and the moon, \u2028while the cheeks have been likened to roses and apples, and the \u2028front teeth to chrysanthemums. Dark lips are wine-colored, \u2028saliva tastes like the sweetest honey, lips are like agate, teeth like \u2028pearls, breasts are like pomegranates, torsos are supple branches, \u2028buttocks are sand dunes, and so on and so forth. All of this has \u2028already been presented in detail in its proper place, in the chapter preceding this one. \u2028<\/p>\n<p>In this chapter I\u2019ve presented some of what has been written \u2028about the male beloved, the female beloved, flights of fancy, \u2028replies to the blamer, the retreat of the blamer, the reunion of \u2028lovers, separation and division, bidding the lover farewell, on \u2028rejecting a lover, on visiting the lovesick former lover, emaciation as the result of love, on the lover\u2019s excuses, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Love Poetry About Men<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A poet said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The radiance of his face beneath his locks was like<br \/> A moon rising on a dark night<br \/> While the scorpion on his temples halted at his cheeks<br \/> Afraid of their fire and water <br \/> A moon, I beseeched time to bring him back to me<br \/> One day, but he spurned my pleas*<\/p>\n<p><em><small>*The sideburns of the male beloved were often compared to scorpions. The \u201cfire and water\u201d of the cheeks refers to their ruddiness and their tears, respectively.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And Abu Nuwas said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>His face like a full moon<br \/> With a gazelle\u2019s eyes <br \/> The body of a boy\u2028<br \/> And the coquetry of a girl <br \/> In public, a man\u2028<br \/> In private, a woman <br \/> Exciting me with his curls <br \/> And ringlets <br \/> Above a smooth cheek<br \/> Lighting up the gloom<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Fadl al-Raqashi said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>That sly and brilliant one\u2028<br \/> Who grows girlish in his impudence <br \/> He appears manly at first<br \/> \u2028But after a drink is suddenly a woman <br \/> When you tell him: \u201cBaby, say Moses,\u201d<br \/> He lisps moistly: \u201cMotheth\u201d <br \/> He embraces me until morning<br \/> Trading stories with me in the dark.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ibn Munir al-Tarabulusi said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If the full moon were asked, as it glittered: \u201cWhom, on the earth, do you envy?\u201d <br \/> It would say: \u201cThat certain so-and-so \u2026\u00a0<br \/> He rises over me in his virtues, <br \/> Beautiful in voice and appearance,\u201d\u2028<br \/> The haughtiness of Persia and the tenderness of Syria <br \/> The elegance of the Iraqi and the eloquence of the Hijazi<br \/> And what heartwarming wine is more intoxicating than <br \/> The fluency of the Bedouin in the words of a Turk?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Love Poetry About Women<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sayf al-D\u0131n al-Mushidd said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>By my life! Were she to appear to the sun<br \/> From behind her veil <br \/> The sun would have hidden the beauties of its own face<br \/> In shame, taking refuge behind a cloud<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u02bfAl\u0131 ibn \u02bfAbd al-Rahman ibn al-Munajjim said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I compared her to the full moon and she laughed aloud,<br \/> Meeting my phrase with rejection <br \/> Declaring it insipid, she replied:\u2028<br \/> Just when did I become so ugly as the moon? <br \/> The moon does not gaze intently as I do, nor does it smile so sweetly. <br \/> Does it shrug off a shawl from its swelling breasts<br \/>Or clasp a necklace around its throat? <br \/> He who would measure my qualities against the moon,<br \/> Must remain a prisoner of my abandonment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/316708\/the-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition-by-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-edited-translated-and-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-elias-muhanna\/9780143107484\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-102353 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/9780143107484.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"306\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>From\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/316708\/the-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition-by-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-edited-translated-and-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-elias-muhanna\/9780143107484\/\" target=\"_blank\">T<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/316708\/the-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition-by-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-edited-translated-and-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-elias-muhanna\/9780143107484\/\" target=\"_blank\">he Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/316708\/the-ultimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition-by-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri-edited-translated-and-with-an-introduction-and-notes-by-elias-muhanna\/9780143107484\/\" target=\"_blank\">: A Compendium of Knowledge from the Classical Islamic World<\/a><em> by Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri; edited and translated by Elias Muhanna,\u00a0published by Penguin Classics, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Translation, abridgement, introduction, and notes copyright \u00a9 2016 by Elias Muhanna.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Translated from the Arabic by Elias Muhanna.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, we\u2019re publishing four short excerpts from\u00a0The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition, a fourteenth-century encyclopedia\u00a0of \u2026 well, everything, or everything known to Arab civilization circa 1314. Compiled with dogged dedication by Shih\u0101b al-D\u012bn al-Nuwayr\u012b, the book runs to more than nine thousand pages; an abridged version is now available for the first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[489],"tags":[24384,22649,24363,24360,12203,24354,24364,1773,24353,24355,24383,14922,14829,24359,24358,4425,20236,2111,13303,24356,7221,165,2047,24362,24357,24361,24352,530,12807],"class_list":["post-102403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-2","tag-amorous-poems","tag-arabic","tag-aromatics","tag-carpets","tag-clothes","tag-compendia","tag-diseases","tag-egypt","tag-elias-muhanna","tag-encyclopedia","tag-erotic-poetry","tag-eroticism","tag-fruits","tag-furs","tag-gems","tag-islam","tag-knowledge","tag-love","tag-meteorology","tag-miscellany","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-poets","tag-poisonous-animals-sweets","tag-shihab-al-din-al-nuwayri","tag-steeds","tag-the-uitimate-ambition-in-the-arts-of-erudition","tag-translation","tag-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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