{"product_id":"brains-confounded-by-the-ode-of-ab-363-sh-257-d-363-f-expounded-volume-two-hardcover","title":"Brains Confounded by the Ode of Ab\u0026#363; Sh\u0026#257;d\u0026#363;f Expounded: Volume Two - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eYūsuf Al-Shirbīnī\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eHumphrey Davies\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor), \u003cb\u003eHumphrey Davies\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnique in pre-twentieth-century Arabic literature for taking the countryside as its central theme, Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī's \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded \u003c\/i\u003ecombines a mordant satire on seventeenth-century Egyptian rural society with a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn Volume One, al-Shirbīnī describes the three rural \"types\"-peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion and rural dervish-offering numerous anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness, illiteracy, lack of proper religious understanding, and criminality of each. He follows it in Volume Two with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named Abū Shādūf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes and bewails, above all, the lack of access to delicious foods to which his poverty has condemned him. Wielding the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbīnī responds to the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire of the ignorant rustic with numerous digressions into love, food, and flatulence. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWitty, bawdy, and vicious, \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded\u003c\/i\u003e belongs to an unrecognized genre from an understudied period in Egypt's Ottoman history, and is a work of outstanding importance for the study of pre-modern colloquial Egyptian Arabic, pitting the \"coarse\" rural masses against the \"refined\" and urbane in a contest for cultural and religious primacy, with a heavy emphasis on the writing of verse as a yardstick of social acceptability. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA bilingual Arabic-English edition.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eYūsuf al-Shirbīnī (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eYūsuf al-Shirbīnī \u003c\/b\u003ewas a well-educated Egyptian from the eleventh\/seventeenth century, thought to originate from the town of Shirbīn, then a significant rural center in the eastern part of Delta. Little is known about him--including his social standing and profession--beyond \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded\u003c\/i\u003e and two other extant texts: \u003ci\u003eThe Pearls \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003ci\u003eAl-Laʾāliʾ wa-l-durar\u003c\/i\u003e) and \u003ci\u003eThe Casting Aside of the Clods for the Unstringing of the Pearls \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003ci\u003eṬarḥ al-madar li-ḥall al-laʾāliʾ wa-l-durar\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eHumphrey Davies (Edited and Translated by) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e Humphrey Davies\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning translator of some twenty-five works of modern Arabic literature, among them Alaa Al-Aswany's \u003ci\u003eThe Yacoubian Building\u003c\/i\u003e, five novels by Elias Khoury, including \u003ci\u003eGate of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e, and Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq's \u003ci\u003eLeg over Leg\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also made a critical edition, translation, and lexicon of the Ottoman-period \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded\u003c\/i\u003e by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī, as well as editions and translations of al-Tūnisī's \u003ci\u003eIn Darfur \u003c\/i\u003eand al-Sanhūrī's \u003ci\u003eRisible Rhymes \u003c\/i\u003efrom the same era. In addition, he has\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ecompiled with Madiha Doss an anthology in Arabic entitled \u003ci\u003eAl-ʿāmmiyyah al-miṣriyyah al-maktūbah: mukhtārāt min 1400 ilā 2009\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eEgyptian Colloquial Writing: selections from 1400 to 2009\u003c\/i\u003e) and co-authored, with Lesley Lababidi, \u003ci\u003eA Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo\u003c\/i\u003e. He read Arabic at the University of Cambridge, received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and previous to undertaking his first translation in 2003, worked for social development and research organizations in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Sudan. He is affiliated with the American University in Cairo. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 360\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.38 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 12, 2016\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51806713676064,"sku":"9781479838905","price":75.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/90896d071aedc88d5c63be65df4a520e.webp?v=1780926685","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/brains-confounded-by-the-ode-of-ab-363-sh-257-d-363-f-expounded-volume-two-hardcover","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}