Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, with Risible Rhymes. Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī

      BRAINS CONFOUNDED

      BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF

      EXPOUNDED

       Volume Two

      WITH

      RISIBLE RHYMES

      LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

      EDITORIAL BOARD

      GENERAL EDITOR

      Philip F. Kennedy, New York University

      EXECUTIVE EDITORS

      James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge

      Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University

      EDITORS

      Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University

      Julia Bray, University of Oxford

      Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles

      Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

      Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi

      Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

      Devin J. Stewart, Emory University

      EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

      Chip Rossetti

      DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

      Stuart Brown

      ASSISTANT EDITOR

      Lucie Taylor

      FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM COORDINATOR

      Amani Al-Zoubi

      LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR

      The Library of Arabic Literature makes available Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, travel writing, history, and historiography.

      Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars. They are published as hardcovers in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, as English-only paperbacks, and as downloadable Arabic editions. For some texts, the series also publishes separate scholarly editions with full critical apparatus.

      The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations, with the ultimate goal of introducing Arabic’s rich literary heritage to a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.

      The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.

      Philip F. Kennedy

       General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature

      ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK

      This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hardcover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.

      BRAINS CONFOUNDED

      BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF

      EXPOUNDED

       Volume Two

      BY

      YŪSUF AL-SHIRBĪNĪ

      with RISIBLE RHYMES

      by MUḤAMMAD IBN MAḤFŪẒ AL-SANHŪRĪ

      TRANSLATED BY

      HUMPHREY DAVIES

      VOLUME EDITORS

      JAMES E. MONTGOMERY

      GEERT JAN VAN GELDER

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESSNew York

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

       New York

      Copyright © 2019 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687, author. | Davies, Humphrey T. (Humphrey Taman), editor translator. | Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687. Hazz al-quḥūf fī sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf. English. | Shirbīnī, Yūsuf ibn Muḥammad, active 1665–1687. Hazz al-quḥūf fī sharḥ qaṣīd Abī Shādūf.

      Title: Brains confounded by the ode of Abu Shaduf expounded / Yusuf al-Shirbini ; translated by Humphrey Davies ; foreword by Youssef Rakha.

      Description: New York : New York University Press, [2019] | Originally published in hardback in 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | In English with original Arabic text.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2018052779 (print) | LCCN 2018055775 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479879847 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479852949 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479840212 (pbk. : alk. paper)

      Subjects: LCSH: Villages—Egypt—Early works to 1800. | Egypt—Rural conditions—Early works to 1800. | Social problems in literature—Early works to 1800. | Satire, Arabic—Egypt—Early works to 1800. | Arabic literature—Egypt—Early works to 1800.

      Classification: LCC HN786.A8 (ebook) | LCC HN786.A8 S5513 2019 (print) | DDC 307.720932—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018052779

      New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

      Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward

      Typeset in Adobe Text

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      CONTENTS

       Letter from the General Editor

       BRAINS CONFOUNDED BY THE ODE OF ABŪ SHĀDŪF EXPOUNDED, PART TWO

       An Account of the Lineage of the Poet and Its Components

       His Lineage

       His Village

       The Shape of His Beard

       The Origins of His Good Fortune in His Early Days and How Fate Came to Turn Against Him

       The Ode of Abū Shādūf with Commentary