Critical Edition, Annotated Translation and Study by Peter Webb.
In 'The Arab Thieves', Peter Webb critically explores the classic tales of pre-Islamic Arabian outlaws in Arabic Literature. A group of Arabian camel-rustlers became celebrated figures in Muslim memories of pre-Islam, and much poetry ascribed to them and stories about their escapades grew into an outlaw tradition cited across Arabic literature. The ninth/fifteenth-century Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī arranged biographies of ten outlaws into a chapter on 'Arab Thieves' in his wide-ranging history of the world before Muhammad. This volume presents the first critical edition of al-Maqrīzī’s text with a fully annotated English translation, alongside a detailed study that interrogates the outlaw lore to uncover the ways in which Arabic writers constructed outlaw identities and how al-Maqrīzī used the tales to communicate his vision of pre-Islam. Via an exhaustive survey of early Arabic sources about the outlaws and comparative readings with outlaw traditions in other world literatures, 'The Arab Thieves' reveals how Arabic literature crafted lurid narratives about criminality and employed them to tell ancient Arab history.
Author(s): Al-Maqrīzī, Peter Webb (ed., transl.)
Series: Bibliotheca Maqriziana. Opera maiora, 6
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2019
Language: English, Arabic
Pages: 376
City: Leiden
Contents
Plates and Tables
Plates
Tables
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1. Study of the Arab Thieves
Chapter 1. Outlaw Literature
Chapter 2. ‘Arab Thieves’: Establishing a Category
2.1. Ṣuʿlūk/Ṣaʿālīk
2.2. Fātik/Futtāk
2.3. Liṣṣ/Luṣūṣ
2.4. The Runners
2.5. The Arab Ravens
2.6. Lions and Wolves
2.7. Thievery Semantics: Conclusions
Chapter 3. Thieves and Arab History
3.1. Outlaws and Arabness in the Third/Ninth Century
3.2. Outlaws and Arabness in the Fourth/Tenth Century
3.3. The Ayyubid and Mamluk Eras
3.4. Al-Maqrīzī and His Luṣūṣ al-ʿArab
Chapter 4. Contemporary Outlaws: Criminality in al-Maqrīzī’s Own World
Chapter 5. Al-Maqrīzī’s Manuscript: Its Conceptual, Narrative and Physical Structure
5.1. The Thieves
5.2. Narrative Structure
5.2.1. Multiple Outlaws under One Name: ʿAmr of the Dog
5.2.2. Anecdote Arrangement and Outlaw Personae Construction: al-Šanfará
5.2.3. ʿAmr ibn Barrāqah and Concluding Impressions
5.3. The Book
Chapter 6. The Sources
6.1. Dictionaries and the List of ‘Arab Thieves’
6.2. Al-Maqrīzī’s Sources: Overview
6.3. Al-Maqrīzī’s Copying Style: Case Studies
6.4. Al-Maqrīzī and Outlaw Poetry: Specialised Collections
6.5. Sources: Conclusions
Chapter 7. Concluding Remarks
Plates
Part 2. Critical Edition and Translation
The Holograph
The Translation
Abbreviations and Symbols
Text and Translation of al-Maqrīzī’s al-Ḫabar ʿan al-bašar كتاب الخبر عن البشر The History of Mankind Volume V, sections 1–2 The Arab Thieves
Section on the Arabs’ religions before Islam
Section on the Arab Hussies
Section on the Arab Thieves
ʿAmr of the Dog
Taʾabbaṭa Šarran
Al-Šanfará
Al-Sulayk b. al-Sulakah al-Saʿdī
Al-Muntašir
Awfá b. Maṭar al-Māzinī
ʿAmr b. Barrāqah
Al-Uḥaymir
Niẓām
Yazīd
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Studies
List of Quoted Manuscripts
Index of Verses
Index of Names (People and Places)
Index of Quoted Titles in al-Ḫabar ʿan al-bašar
Index of Sources in al-Ḫabar ʿan al-bašar
Index of Glosses
Index of Technical Terms
Facsimile of MS Fatih 4340 (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi), fols. Ia–b, 1a–3b, 4*a–b, 4a–9b, 10*a–b, 10a–15b
Bibliotheca Maqriziana Titles Published
