The Bright Garden of Verses and Anecdotes

Shidyaq, Ahmad Faris al-. Kitab al-rawd al-nadher abyat wa nawadir.

€ 28,000.00

Unique manuscript anthology titled "al-Rawd al-Nadher Abyat wa Nawadir" (The Bright Garden of Verses and Anecdotes), edited by one of the most prominent Arab intellectuals of the mid-19th century. The work forms a collection of verse and short humorous tales from the Islamic Golden Age (ca. 8th to 13th century CE). It commences with three anecdotes, two of which are told about Ibn al-Muqaffa’ (d. ca. 756/759 CE), then continues to include couplets from such renowned poets as al-Hallaj (ca. 858-922 CE), Abu Nuwas (ca. 756/8-814 CE), and Ibn al-Rumi (836-869 CE), to name but a few, before turning to combining both styles until the end of the book.

Faris al-Shidyaq (1805/06-1887 CE) was a well-travelled scholar, writer, and journalist supported by several Egyptian, Ottoman, and Tunisian rulers during his mostly prosperous career. His preservation of Arabic texts such as these was instrumental in safeguarding Arabic literary heritage against the Turkish reformers of the 19th century, and many continue to live on in print as proof of his efforts. The present collection, however, did not see publication: a checklist of the works of Faris al-Shidyaq compiled by the Foundation of Lebanese Thought at Notre Dame University-Louaize, Zouk Mosbeh, Lebanon (p. 4, no. 23) lists it among the writer's lost works of which only the title is known.