Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū I-Faraj al-Isbahānī's Kitāb al-aghānī

Hilary Kilpatrick

ISBN 10: 0700717013 / ISBN 13: 9780700717019

Published by New York ; London : Routledge, 2002

About this Item

xi + 449 pages : 24 cm.

Seller Inventory # ptg05

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making the Great Book of Songs: Compilation and the Author's Craft in Abū I-Faraj al-Isbahānī's Kitāb al-aghānī
• Publisher: New York ; London : Routledge
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700717013
• ISBN 13: 9780700717019
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • Islam
  • Ethnomusicology

About this title

Synopsis

This is the first systematic literary study of one of the masterpieces of classical Arabic literature, the fourth/tenth century Kitāb al-aghānī (The Book of Songs) by Abū I-Faraj al-Isbahānī. Until now the twenty-four volume Book of Songs has been regarded as a rather chaotic but priceless mine of information about classical Arabic music, literature and culture. This book approaches it as a work of literature in its own right, with its own internal logic and coherence. The study also consistently integrates the musical component into the analysis and proposes a reading of the work in which individual anecdotes and poems are related to the wider context, enhancing their meaning.

About the Author

Hilary Kilpatrick studied Arabic at Oxford. She has taught at the universities of St. Andrews, UK, Nijmegen, The Netherlands and Bern, Switzerland, and now works as an independent scholar in Lausanne. She is one of the editors of the Arabic and Middle Eastern Literatures series, and has published on modern Arabic fiction and classical Arabic belles-lettres, and has made some translations from modern Arabic literature.