Library of Arabic Literature

New Release! 📚 The Genius of Invective: Ibn Zaydūn's Letter Explained, translated by Peter Webb, is an encyclopedic guide to one of the most widely read works of Arabic literature: an erudite and searing rejection letter by Ibn Zaydūn. Now available from LAL!

"I won’t be able to outrun Fate when she comes. Cowards run. I stand my ground, despite my comrades my men of honor dead by dusk."

"As a young child grows up he learns what he hears from adults and it stays with him forever." Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, The Epistle of Forgiveness Vol. 2, translated by Geert Jan van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler

"Woe is me and alack for my pangs! Enough That I endure deep wrenching sighs in my sorrows!"

"Too wide gape the gashes made by love’s passion to be stitched by even the strongest threads."

"Everything about you is desirable and everything in me desires."

Check out the @NYUpress summer sale! Almost all LAL titles are 60% off through August 31 📚 nyupress.org/sale25-library…

"The cultivation of the soul and the settling of the mind into quietude come about through the attenuation of his afflictions."

"You must not let feelings of despondency gain the upper hand. Should things turn out for the best rather than the worst, you will, as it were, have borrowed grief and fear."

"Some say that staring at the ocean may overwhelm a person from thinking of himself, and if he then falls into the ocean, he will have no sensation other than of drowning in it." ʿĀʾishah al-Bāʿūniyyah, The Principles of Sufism, translated by Th. Emil Homerin

"A day and a night, and then our time in the world is up."

"A good life is nothing but a lock and key, And a room through which cool winds blow, without loud noise or screaming." Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, The Epistle of Forgiveness Vol. 2, translated by Geert Jan van Gelder and Gregor Schoeler

"To escape death had been simple—but grim resolve and rugged character brought him back to face death."

“What difference does it make what I eat or what I wear? It will all be over soon enough.”

"Time's taste has turned bitter in my mouth---Will it ever become sweet again?"

"Dawn was the shock of gray hair. I crossed the dark on a branded horse in his prime like a river in spate," Ibn al-Muʿtazz, In Deadly Embrace, translated by James E. Montgomery

"Since human beings love themselves, they see their good qualities but are blind to their bad qualities—they even see in themselves good qualities they do not possess."

"Silence fell. Listen—then, swords clashing arrows thwacking warriors grunting, between shock and grief in dread combat." ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād, War Songs, translated by James E. Montgomery

"Beware of flattery—it is a form of slaughter."

"You change so often—what’s to be done? your heart isn’t mine to rule."

"Train your soul to be generous."