{"product_id":"brains-confounded-by-the-ode-of-ab-363-sh-257-d-363-f-expounded-volume-one","title":"Brains Confounded by the Ode of Ab\u0026#363; Sh\u0026#257;d\u0026#363;f Expounded: Volume One","description":"\u003cp\u003eWitty, bawdy, and vicious, Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī's \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded\u003c\/i\u003e pits the \"coarse\" rural masses against the \"refined\" urban population. In Volume One, al-Shirbīnī describes the three rural \"types\"--peasant cultivator, village man-of-religion, and rural dervish--offering anecdotes testifying to the ignorance, dirtiness, and criminality of each. In Volume Two, he presents a hilarious parody of the verse-and-commentary genre so beloved by scholars of his day, with a 47-line poem supposedly written by a peasant named Abū Shādūf, who charts the rise and fall of his fortunes. Wielding the scholarly tools of elite literature, al-Shirbīnī responds to the poem with derision and ridicule, dotting his satire with digressions into love, food, and flatulence. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVolume Two of \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded\u003c\/i\u003e is followed by \u003ci\u003eRisible Rhymes\u003c\/i\u003e, a concise text that includes a comic disquisition on \"rural\" verse, mocking the pretensions of uneducated poets from Egypt's countryside. \u003ci\u003eRisible Rhymes\u003c\/i\u003e also examines various kinds of puzzle poems, which were another popular genre of the day, and presents a debate between scholars over a line of verse by the fourth\/tenth-century poet al-Mutanabbī. Together, \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRisible Rhymes\u003c\/i\u003e offer intriguing insight into the intellectual concerns of Ottoman Egypt, showcasing the intense preoccupation with wordplay, grammar, and stylistics and shedding light on the literature of the era. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn English-only edition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-13511059\"\u003eYūsuf Al-Shirbīnī\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/09\/2019\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.10lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.90d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781479840212\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1479840211\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-LCO\"\u003eLiterary Collections\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-LCO012000\"\u003eMiddle Eastern\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-SOC\"\u003eSocial Science\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-SOC026020\"\u003eSociology | Rural\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eYūsuf al-Shirbīnī (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eYūsuf al-Shirbīnī \u003c\/b\u003ewas a well-educated Egyptian from the eleventh\/seventeenth century, thought to originate from the town of Shirbīn, then a significant rural center in the eastern part of Delta. Little is known about him--including his social standing and profession--beyond \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded\u003c\/i\u003e and two other extant texts: \u003ci\u003eThe Pearls \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003ci\u003eAl-Laʾāliʾ wa-l-durar\u003c\/i\u003e) and \u003ci\u003eThe Casting Aside of the Clods for the Unstringing of the Pearls \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003ci\u003eṬarḥ al-madar li-ḥall al-laʾāliʾ wa-l-durar\u003c\/i\u003e). \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eYoussef Rakha (Foreword by) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eYoussef Rakha\u003c\/b\u003e is an Egyptian novelist, poet, and photographer. His first novels to appear in English are \u003ci\u003eThe Crocodiles\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Book of the Sultan's Seal\u003c\/i\u003e, a literary experiment inspired by medieval Cairo historians, which won the 2015 Banipal Seif Ghobash Prize for Paul Starkey's translation. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eHumphrey Davies (Translator) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e Humphrey Davies\u003c\/b\u003e is an award-winning translator of some twenty-five works of modern Arabic literature, among them Alaa Al-Aswany's \u003ci\u003eThe Yacoubian Building\u003c\/i\u003e, five novels by Elias Khoury, including \u003ci\u003eGate of the Sun\u003c\/i\u003e, and Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq's \u003ci\u003eLeg over Leg\u003c\/i\u003e. He has also made a critical edition, translation, and lexicon of the Ottoman-period \u003ci\u003eBrains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded\u003c\/i\u003e by Yūsuf al-Shirbīnī, as well as editions and translations of al-Tūnisī's \u003ci\u003eIn Darfur \u003c\/i\u003eand al-Sanhūrī's \u003ci\u003eRisible Rhymes \u003c\/i\u003efrom the same era. In addition, he has\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ecompiled with Madiha Doss an anthology in Arabic entitled \u003ci\u003eAl-ʿāmmiyyah al-miṣriyyah al-maktūbah: mukhtārāt min 1400 ilā 2009\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eEgyptian Colloquial Writing: selections from 1400 to 2009\u003c\/i\u003e) and co-authored, with Lesley Lababidi, \u003ci\u003eA Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo\u003c\/i\u003e. He read Arabic at the University of Cambridge, received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and previous to undertaking his first translation in 2003, worked for social development and research organizations in Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, and Sudan. He is affiliated with the American University in Cairo. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42639422783725,"sku":"9781479840212","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_80c94743-ba61-40a8-bf66-64a4a2152973.jpg?v=1649052839","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/brains-confounded-by-the-ode-of-ab-363-sh-257-d-363-f-expounded-volume-one","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}