Library of Arabic Literature offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature from the seventh to nineteenth centuries.[1] The series' aim is "to revive and reintroduce classic Arabic literature to a whole new generation of Arabs and non-Arabs, and make it more accessible and readable to everyone,"[2] as very little of the corpus of Arabic literature from this period is available to an English-speaking audience.[3] The books are edited and translated by distinguished scholars of Arabic and Islam from around the world.
The series publishes each book in a hardcover parallel-text format, with Arabic and English on facing pages, as well as in English-only paperbacks and free downloadable Arabic PDFs. For some texts, the series also publishes separate scholarly editions with full critical apparatus.[1] Genres include poetry and prose, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and travel writing.[2]
As of 2024, the Library of Arabic Literature has published more than fifty bilingual hardcover edition-translations and more than forty English-only paperbacks.[8] Arabic-only PDFs are also available for download from the website for free.[1] All books are published in all three formats unless otherwise noted. Forewords only appear in the paperback versions.
2012
Classical Arabic Literature: A Library of Arabic Literature Anthology, translated by Geert Jan van Gelder (English only)
Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal, Volume One by Ibn al-Jawzī, edited and translated by Michael Cooperson; also abridged with volume two as The Life of ibn Ḥanbal, with a foreword by Garth Fowden
Leg over Leg, Volume Two by Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies
2014
The Epistle of Forgiveness, Volume Two: Hypocrites, Heretics, and Other Sinners by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, edited and translated by Geert Jan van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler; foreword by Matthew Reynolds
A Treasury of Virtues: Sayings, Sermons, and Teachings of 'Ali, with the One Hundred Proverbs attributed to al-Jahiz by al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī, edited and translated by Tahera Qutbuddin; foreword by Rowan Williams
Leg over Leg, Volume Three by Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies
Leg over Leg, Volume Four by Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies
Two Arabic Travel Books (published together in hardcover and separately in paperback)
Accounts of China and India by Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī, edited and translated by Tim Mackintosh-Smith; foreword by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Mission to the Volga by Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān, edited and translated by James E. Montgomery; foreword by Tim Severin
2015
Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal, Volume Two by Ibn al-Jawzī, edited and translated by Michael Cooperson
Disagreements of the Jurists: A Manual of Islamic Legal Theory by al-Qāḍī al-Nuʿmān, edited and translated by Devin Stewart; foreword by John J. Coughlin and John Sexton
Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdad by Ibn al-Sāʿī, edited by Shawkat M. Toorawa and translated by The Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature; introduction by Julia Bray and foreword by Marina Warner
Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, Volume One by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies; foreword by Youssef Rakha
Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded, Volume Two by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies
Risible Rhymes by Muḥammad ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Sanhūrī, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies (in paperback, collected with Brains Confounded, Volume Two)
Light in the Heavens: Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad by al-Qāḍī al-Quḍāʿī, edited and translated by Tahera Qutbuddin
2017
The Excellence of the Arabs by Ibn Qutaybah, translated by Sarah Bowen Savant and Peter Webb and edited by James E. Montgomery and Peter Webb
Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook, edited and translated by Charles Perry
Arabian Satire: Poetry from 18th-Century Najd by Ḥmēdān al-Shwēʿir, edited and translated by Marcel Kurpershoek
2018
In Darfur: An Account of the Sultanate and Its People, Volume One by Muḥammad al-Tūnisī, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies; introduction by R.S. O'Fahey
In Darfur: An Account of the Sultanate and Its People, Volume Two by Muḥammad al-Tūnisī, edited and translated by Humphrey Davies
Diwan ʿAntarah ibn Shaddad: A Literary-Historical Study by James E. Montgomery (Arabic text with English scholarly apparatus)
Arabian Romantic: Poems on Bedouin Life and Love by ʿAbdallāh ibn Sbayyil, edited and translated by Marcel Kurpershoek
