The hero cycles of Arabic belong to the literary tradition of 'The Arabian Nights' and can be seen as the popular epics of their civilisation. 'The Arabian Epic' covers eleven of the main representatives of this genre. Each of these has been developed through the processes of accretive oral story-telling by means of an accumulation of narrative and folklore motifs, many of which belong to what can be seen as a universal tradition. The work is published in three volumes. The first volume introduces the background and the dimensions in which the cycles are set, while the second volume analyses their contents and the literary formulae used in their construction, as well as listing analogues found in other literatures. The epitomes surveyed in the final volume provide non-Arabists with a more immediate insight into the contents of the cycles, drawing attention to their narrative colouring and texture.
Author(s): Malcolm Cameron Lyons
Series: University of Cambridge Oriental Publications, 49
Publisher: Cambridge University Books
Year: 1995
Language: English
Pages: 672
Introduction to volume three page 1
Kitāb Qişşat al-Muqaddam 'Alī al-Zaibaq 2
Sīrat'Antar 17
Sīrat al-Ẓāhir Baibars 77
Sīrat Banī Hilāl al-Kubrā 237
Taghrībat Banī Hilāl 268
Sīrat Banī Hilāl fi Qişşat Abī Zaid al-Hilālī wa'l-Nâ'īsa wa-Zaid al-'Ajjāj 295
Sīrat al-Amīra Dhāt al-Himma 301
Qişşat Fīrūz Shāh b. al-Mālik Dārāb 505
Qişşat al-Amīr Hamzat al-Pahlawān 534
Sīrat Fāris al-Yaman al-Malik Saif b. Dhī Yazan 586
Sīrat Saif al-Tījān 642
Qişşat al-Zīr 651
