Fate the hunter : early Arabic hunting poems /
A rich anthology of pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry on the beauties and perils of the hunt. In the poems of Fate the Hunter, many of them translated into English for the first time, trained cheetahs chase oryx and goshawks glare from falconers' arms, while archer stalk their prey across de...
| Other Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
New York University Press,
[2024].
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| Series: | Library of Arabic literature.
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | A rich anthology of pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry on the beauties and perils of the hunt. In the poems of Fate the Hunter, many of them translated into English for the first time, trained cheetahs chase oryx and goshawks glare from falconers' arms, while archer stalk their prey across desert plains and mountain ravines of the Arabian peninsula. With this collection, James E. Montgomery, acclaimed translator of War Songs by 'Antarah ibn Shaddad, offers a new edition and translation of twenty-six early works of hunting poetry, or tardiyyat. Included here are poems by pre-Islamic poets such as Imru' al-Qays and al-Shanfara, as well as poets from the Umayyad era such as al-Shamardal ibn Sharik. The volume concludes with the earliest extant epistle about hunting, written by 'Abd al-Hamid al-Katib, a master of Arabic prose. Through the eyes of the poet, the hunter's pursuit of the quarry mirrors Fate's pursuit of both humans and nonhumans and highlights the ambiguity of the encounter. With breathtaking descriptions of falcons, gazelles and saluki gazehounds, the poems in Fate the Hunter capture the drama and tension of the hunt while offering meditations on Fate, mortaliy and death. |
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| Physical Description: | xliii, 147 pages : map ; 21 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-125) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781479834259 1479834254 |