War Songs

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād

Published by New York University Press 2018

War Songs

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād
In collaboration with: Richard Sieburth
Translated by: James E. Montgomery
Preface by: Peter Cole

Volume 41 in the series Library of Arabic Literature

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479806553.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Poems of love and battle by Arabia’s legendary warrior

From the sixth-century highlands of Najd in the Arabian peninsula, on the eve of the advent of Islam, come the strident cries of a legendary warrior and poet. The black outcast son of an Arab father and an Ethiopian slave mother, 'Antarah ibn Shaddad struggled to win the recognition of his father and tribe. He defied social norms and, despite his outcast status, loyally defended his people.

'Antarah captured his tumultuous life in uncompromising poetry that combines flashes of tenderness with blood-curdling violence. His war songs are testaments to his life-long battle to win the recognition of his people and the hand of 'Ablah, the free-born woman he loved but who was denied him by her family.

War Songs presents the poetry attributed to 'Antarah and includes a selection of poems taken from the later Epic of 'Antar, a popular story-cycle that continues to captivate and charm Arab audiences to this day with tales of its hero’s titanic feats of strength and endurance. 'Antarah’s voice resonates here, for the first time in vibrant, contemporary English, intoning its eternal truths: commitment to one’s beliefs, loyalty to kith and kin, and fidelity in love.

An English-only edition.

Author / Editor information

Shaddād ʿAntarah ibn :

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād was one of the most famous warrior-poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. A semi-legendary hero from the sixth century AD, ʿAntarah was born into slavery as the son of an Arab father and an African mother. Many of his poems are about his love for ʿAblah, daughter of the tribe's shaykh--a love thwarted by his low social status.Montgomery James E. :

James E. Montgomery is Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems, and Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice, with Michael Fishbein.Sieburth Richard :

Richard Sieburth is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University and an award-winning translator of works by Henri Michaux, Michel Leiris, George Büchner, Walter Benjamin, and Friedrich Hölderlin. His translation of Gerard de Nerval’s Selected Writings won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize.Cole Peter :

Peter Cole has published several books of poems and many volumes of translations from Hebrew and Arabic, both medieval and modern. He has received numerous honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and in 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād (Author)
ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād was one of the most famous warrior-poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. A semi-legendary hero from the sixth century AD, ʿAntarah was born into slavery as the son of an Arab father and an African mother. Many of his poems are about his love for ʿAblah, daughter of the tribe's shaykh--a love thwarted by his low social status.

Peter Cole (Foreword by)
Peter Cole has published several books of poems and many volumes of translations from Hebrew and Arabic, both medieval and modern. He has received numerous honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and in 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

James E. Montgomery (Translator)
James E. Montgomery is Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems, and Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice, with Michael Fishbein.

Reviews

Presented in modern form, the translations are as clear and unexpected as ʿAntarah’s original verse. The volume’s comprehensive introduction to the life, poetry and lore of ʿAntarah, along with scholarly accounts of him and his works, provide an insightful portrayal of an enduring literary legend.

War Songs is a well-presented collection, with useful supplementary material, from the introductory matter to the appendices.

Beautifully accomplished by James E. Montgomery in collaboration with fellow scholar-translator, Richard Sieburth...Dynamic, fully cinematic translations that effect ‘the transfer of energy’ essential to literary translation...An exciting addition to the LAL corpus.

The Library of Arabic Literature has another landmark success with this so-called untranslatable poet...Sixth-century Arabia may be 'strange,' but the years of struggle on the part of this scholar-writer and his poet collaborator have given the general reader a visceral insight into this world in compelling, beautiful poetry.

An unmistakable voice...What is perhaps most beautiful about War Songs is how 'Antarah hints at tenderness beneath the violence, defending slaughter for a cause and remaining faithful to tribe and family, even in the face of death.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Letter from the General Editor Publicly Available Download PDF	iii
About this Paperback Publicly Available Download PDF	iv
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Foreword Peter Cole Publicly Available Download PDF	xiv
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	xxiv
A Note on the Text Publicly Available Download PDF	lvi
Maps Publicly Available Download PDF	lxv
Map 1: The Tribes of Pre-Islamic Arabia [c. ad 600] Publicly Available Download PDF	lxvii
Map 2: The Topography of the Poetry of ʿAntarah Publicly Available Download PDF	lxviii
Notes to the Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	lxix
Al-Aṣmaʿī’s Redaction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Two Qasidas from Ibn Maymūn’s Anthology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Poems from al-Baṭalyawsī’s Recension Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
Poems from The Epic of ʿAntar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Appendix 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Appendix 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Appendix 3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
Concordance of Principal Editions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Further Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
About the Translators Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
The Library of Arabic Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: October 9, 2018
ISBN: 9781479806553