Description
Book SynopsisThis book fills a long-standing gap in Arabic-Islamic studies. Following the informative and entertaining style of adab literature and based on a large number of relevant sources from a wide range of genres, Hasan Shuraydi presents a panoramic view of relevant themes that concern youth and old age in Medieval Arabic literature intended for both specialists and non-specialists. A pattern of binary oppositions runs through such themes, e.g., black/white, male/female, husband/wife, sacred/profane, paradise/this world, ignorance/wisdom, past/present, young/old, new/old, health/disease, sappy/dry, permitted/forbidden, lust/chastity, obedience/disobedience, experience/inexperience, folly/reason, sobriety/intoxication, parent/child, celibacy/marriage, present life/hereafter. Themes discussed include: aging, ambition, aphrodisiacs, beauty, education, feminist trends, hair dyeing, homosexuality, honoring age, jihad, life stages, longevity, love, marriage, sex.
Trade Review"[This book] is done with great love, sympathy, and understanding, and the language, English though it is, is commensurate. It gives a wonderfully realistic view of the people and society which produced these sentiments in prose and poetry. We complained that such a book on youth and old age in Arabic did not exist--now it does. Rosenthal would have been proud of it, no doubt, and perhaps also a bit jealous." Dimitri Gutas, Yale University “.. the volume lives up to Rosenthal's masterpieces... This beautifully written volume will be easier reading for those familiar with Arabic writers and literature, but it is worth the effort for those who are not. Summing up: Recommended.” S. Ward in Choice53.3 (November 2015) doi: 10.5860/CHOICE.190998 “…ein schönes Buch, das wohl auch Rosenthal gefallen hätte.” Ewald Wagner in Der Islam 94.1 (2017), 304-308. DOI 10.1515/islam-2017-2018
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1: Toward a Definition of the Ages of Man Chapter 2: The Age of Beauty Chapter 3: Youthful Pleasures and Repentance Chapter 4: Lament for Lost Youth Chapter 5: Intellectual Pursuits Chapter 6: Code of Conduct Chapter 7: Marriage and Sexuality Chapter 8: Religio-Political Leadership and the Promise of Paradise Chapter 9: Rejuvenation and Paradisiacal Youth Concluding Remarks Appendix A: Rhetorical Devices Appendix B: Monographs Apparently Lost Bibliography General Index
