Night & Horses & the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature

by Robert Irwin (Editor)

Spanning the fifth to sixteenth centuries and societies that range from Afghanistan to Spain, this anthology is a testament to the astonishing grandeur and variety of classical Arabic literature. Here are excerpts from dozens of works–both renowned (The Qur’an, The Thousand and One Nights) and esoteric (Ibn Washshiyya’s “Book of Poisons”; a 10th-century poem in praise of asparagus)–all accompanied by Robert Irwin’s erudite commentaries that illuminate readers on the vanished world in which they were written.

In Night & Horses & the Desert we encounter the dashing Byronic poetry of Imru’ al-Qays and a treatise on bibliomania by Al-Jahiz, possibly the only writer to have been killed by books. There’s a sorcerer’s manual from 11th century Spain and an allegory by the mysterious “Brethren of Purity,” in which animals argue their case against humanity. Encompassing piety and profanity, fables and philosophy, this volume is a thrilling and invaluabe introduction to one of the world’s great bodies of literature.

Genres: Poetry, Middle East, Literature, Classics, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories

480 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 1999

About the author

Robert Graham Irwin was a British historian, novelist, and writer on Arabic literature.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continued to float on the sea of love,
One surging wave lifting me up, another
pulling me down;
And so I went on, now rising, now falling,
Till I found myself in the middle of the deep sea,
Brought by love to a point where there was no
shore.
[...]
Your place in my heart is the whole of my heart,
For your place cannot be taken by anyone else.
My soul has lodged You between my skin and my bones,
So what would I do were I ever to lose You?

—Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, from "Diwan"

[Edith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection, along with excellent commentary that elucidates the poems, giving much needed historical, religious, and socio-cultural background in order to appreciate the poems more. I wish more poetry volumes (especially those of translated works) would include a more comprehensive commentary section.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been reading various translations of the 1001 Nights or Arabian Nights. This was not the book I wanted, but it was interesting. It took well over a year for me to complete this history. [The font is tiny.] It was recommended to me, and certainly it covers a great deal of Arabic literary history in some detail. I only had access to the book for a few days a week, so there was that, but the main problem is that it does a very poor job of supporting a reader who doesn't already know everything.

The typical structure: This author, most famous for this work, born here, traveled there, worked for this important and powerful person, influenced by this person and argued with that, wrote in this language and this tradition, and died in that place.

3.5 stars rounded up because this was not a book made particularly useful to me. [I will read reviews and see who found it perfect—I was desperate for a glossary, details about poetic forms, and a more expansive index. The bibliography at the beginning is very short and out of date; the bibliography of sources at the back is incoherent. So... I did not like it, but read the entire thing and kept wishing I were in a class with a prof who was explaining it to me.]

There is an index only of authors, and the name underwhich they are listed indexed is indicated, on first mention, by small caps, or sometimes in bold. Sometimes the titles of works are listed under the author, but sometimes I had to go back pages to discover that author's name. Many terms are undefined or defined once a hundred (or several hundred) pages earlier in the book. I do not have the background of middle eastern history that would have supported this reading.

Further, I would have let blood for a glossary. As one example, mentioning poetic forms or that poetic forms exist without actually defining them or detailing their conventions drove me crazy. I resorted to searching the web when I had a named term, but often I didn't. I am familiar with a ghazal and its conventions, but nothing in this book would have hinted at the form, content, or sound of a ghazal. Wikipedia will explain. The sample translation here was not even in couplets, contained no rhyme or repetition or mention of the author. If the rules of a ghazal have changed over time, that is the sort of detail I would have appreciated. Often I didn't have enough information to look something up! All of this made the reading irksome at times.

Literature is introduced more-or-less in chronological order, but because the author covers more than a continent (though not very far to the east), and necessarily backs up or refers back to connecting works, and each chapter has its own timeline. An overall timeline would have been helpful. Any sort of organizational device would have helped.

I was particularly taken by the number of European works inspired by earlier works in this tradition. I should have written them down. [A translation of one work was accessed and likely inspired Danté?] The index, of course, doesn't include such references or connections.

The last work mentioned by name and quoted in translation was written before 1558, the last year that author might have been alive and the end of what Irwin is terming "classic." Irwin wraps up the most recent five centuries or so in the last two or three pages by saying there may be (or may not) be less literature to tell about in more recent centuries, but certainly the poetry is less skilled—so he claims—than that of earlier authors. Rather analogous to providing hundreds of pages about European writing and skimming over recent work in English, because after all, none of it so wonderful as Shakespeare.

Now that I have looked at the reviews, I should add that like at least one other reader I thought this was an anthology. It's not that. It offers bits and pieces. A sampling. The longest work in translation is the story of Jayda from the Arabian Nights, which was a great translation (I'd read it before). Not all are particularly appealing. Almost all the translations included brief explanation, none of the translations included commentary that explained everything I wanted to know about the piece.

Fro Sharon's review: "Other highlights: an ode to asparagus; an argument by animals against the cruelty of humanity; a discussion of the true nature of love; an afterlife encounter with a woman who worked in the Baghdad library; the poetry of the pre-Islamic tribeswoman al-Khansa and Andalusian princess Wallada; a 12th-century precursor to Robinson Crusoe; a long and peculiar story from the Arabian Nights about three foolish brothers [Jaydar]; finishing with a short story of incredible and weird hilarity about the battle between “King Mutton” (personification of rich people food) and “King Honey” (personification of poor people food)."

btw a lot of gay relationships, sex as passion divorced from relationship or character, and fables. And many, many poems written in praise of the writer's patron. Most of the authors struggled to earn their way, many fell upon hard times, and while poetry was most respected, what we have of earlier works is limited. A period index of works in Arabic reveals, for example, the existence of hundred of essays that no longer exist in any language.

[Esra Tasdelen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been teaching this for many years. It's a great survey of Arabic literature throughout the centuries.

[ouijacine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read parts of this book over a couple weeks based on what my course was going on about. So first week was Quran, second was the Jahiliyyah poet and now was prose in the Abbasid period!!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great anthology of the Arabic Literature. The language is sophesticated and very smooth third person narrartive.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to classical Arabic literature--lots of instruction, lots of notes. I learned a lot.

Unfortunately, I thought it was an anthology, like the Norton ones for English or American literature. Big fat books of poetry, mostly--remember those? That misconception was not really my fault. The subtitle, "An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature," says it right out. But... it's not really. (IMO.)

No, this is a textbook. A good one, for sure, so I give it 4 stars for that. But it's not like anthologies I have used before. ("Introductory anthology" maybe? Closer.) For the most part, the author provides one example of each type of literature or genre, or one piece of writing from a key author, and that's all you get. Moving on. I thought I'd be finding page after page of poetry, but that ended up being a small fraction of the book. Flipping through the book shows that in seconds. (By contrast, similar books on classical Japanese or Chinese poetry show lines of verse on almost every page, with little besides.)

In addition, much of the book is dedicated to prose. That's fine, actually, but the selections were chosen to provide examples, not really to be read for pleasure, so there are only bits and pieces from the selected works. Almost nothing here is printed in its entirety. (I can't remember anything, anyway.) That doesn't make for a very satisfying or aesthetically pleasing read, and as an old whole language teacher it disappointed me quite a bit.

In short, this is an excellent example of a the wrong thing, at least from my perspective. I wanted to read for pleasure; I wanted to find multiple examples of well received poetry; I wanted to be immersed in the literature. It doesn't do that. Apparently, based on other reviews, it makes a good textbook, so that's good. That's the best use for it, I think. And despite my complaints, I found it useful as a primer and as a source for ideas for further reading. I'm not sorry I read it.

Cautiously recommended. It's well done, even if it wasn't what I wanted. I found it so-so as a pleasure read, but it makes a good entry into Arabic literature.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Irwin edits a collection of representative works in classical Arabic literature. This collection includes writings from the fifth through sixteenth centuries, as it geographically spans from Spain to Afghanistan. The target audience might include college undergraduates or readers knowledgeable of general themes in Arab history. Readers with more knowledge will likely find worthwhile content too. While some readers seeking representation from both east and southeast Asia might be disappointed with its exclusion, most readers seeking an accessible balance of breadth and depth of classical Arabic literature should be impressed by the book's contents and their accompanying, brief, scholarly commentary.

[Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently reading the book, and find Irwin a very sane and sympathetic collector of works, facts and commentary.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert Irwin’s sense of humor and eclecticism is hard to beat. He often focuses on the interesting rather than the beautiful; the first qasida of Imru al-Qays is very moving, but he has a great love for stories of the underworld, swindles and scandals.

(a content warning specifically about the stories of Tanukhi in chapter 3; they include some fairly gruesome murders of women and young men in a pederastic context. It’s hard for a person who hasn’t studied the subject at all to know if this is representative, or if Irwin went out of his way to find examples that would shock.)

Other highlights: an ode to asparagus; an argument by animals against the cruelty of humanity; a discussion of the true nature of love; an afterlife encounter with a woman who worked in the Baghdad library; the poetry of the pre-Islamic tribeswoman al-Khansa and Andalusian princess Wallada; a 12th-century precursor to Robinson Crusoe; a long and peculiar story from the Arabian Nights about three foolish brothers; finishing with a short story of incredible and weird hilarity about the battle between “King Mutton” (personification of rich people food) and “King Honey” (personification of poor people food).

It took me four weeks to read and I will doubtless need to read it again.

[Thomaz Amancio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antologias podem ser um pouco frustrantes, ainda mais quando cobrem um período muito longo, como é o caso aqui. Mas esta consegue equilibrar uma narrativa histórica densa e acessível com uma seleção estelar de textos e traduções, o que resulta em uma espécie de crash course de literatura árabe.

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful introductory guide, to Arab Literature. Of nights, when the body cools sufficiently, for it to be pleasant. Of longing and desire, from parched, long journey's through the desert; of spending sprees and nights of fun, when civilization is encountered. Night's with entertainers, female or otherwise- and perhaps prostitutes.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic and idiosyncratic anthology of Arabic literature with notes that elucidate historical context.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection was good for the most part although would have liked to have seen more women writers included.

[Kin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have some issues with this—some (but not most) of the poetry was translated in rhyme which is a huge pet peeve of mine, and of course I wish I could have found an anthology compiled by an own voices editor, but I did feel like this gave me a good groundwork and lots of jumping-off points for further reading. There’s concise historical context provided and I loved the Andalusian selection especially.

[Evey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ma’arri’s Risalat al-Gihufran is reminiscent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, an epic poem that also portrays an allegorical concept of the hereafter. Beyond the vision of the afterlife, the visit to Paradise and the descent to Hell, and the intent to moralize, it remains difficult to ascertain to what extent, if any, Dante was influenced and/or inspired by an Arabic book of the 10th century. Certainly, throughout literature there are many works that deal with the afterlife, such as the Greek myths of Persephone and Odysseus, the Mesopotamian myths of Ishtar, Chaucer’s House of Fame, and others, works that correlate and parallel, each similar yet different, diverging conferring to a culture’s conventions and creeds. Hell itself is a Christian construct, one that many cultures and religions borrow and refashion according to their intentions. Perhaps, humanity just has a need to create a vision of the afterlife, a vision that brings hope and/or fear of immorality into the forefront of the social consciousness. Much like the classical works found throughout history, Risalat al-Gihufran defines the ideological ideas and perceptions of its time.


There is the structure, the foundation upon which to build a temple on. The skeleton props the walls, supports the elements and the individual parts that make up its stateliness. They are the words, the laws, the orders, the beliefs, and the extortions that govern and circumvent. Without these fundamentals, the temple will crumble under the weight of individualism and insurrection. Religion acts in this capacity, herding the humans like cattle and grouping them together to graze upon the hope of redemption and salvation and the promise of heaven. Islam and the Qur’an set up the standard, the orthodox by which to calibrate individual moral compasses. They moralize, decree how to live, but do not tell how to be a human whose individual soul must be kindled to burn fervently. The soul desires spirituality. Spirituality is experiencing life, tending the human condition, broadening horizons, the shaping of the soul- the kindling of the fire within. This is where Sufism comes into play, the spiritualism of the Muslim faith, a mysticism that nurtures and restores humanity.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I am known to night and horses and the desert..." wrote 10th-century poet and self-proclaimed badass Abu'l-Tayyid Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Mutanabbi, "to sword and lance, to parchment and pen." In the year 965 he was set upon by bandits in the wilderness, and he turned tail and ran. When one of his surprised servants quoted back to him the swaggering lines of his own poetry, he turned back, fought, and was killed.

That and a hundred other excerpts and anecdotes form the basis of this fascinating, funny, fantastic collection, with droll and understated commentary by editor Irwin. A joy to read.

[Richard Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent overview.