The Assemblies of Al-Hariri

📖 Public Domain Classic — Islamic Golden Age

Description

The Assemblies of Al-Hariri is one of the towering achievements of classical Arabic literature — fifty short, dazzlingly witty episodes narrated by Al-Harith ibn Hammam, who again and again crosses paths with Abu Zayd of Saruj, a brilliant, shameless, endlessly resourceful wandering rogue-poet. In city after city across the medieval Islamic world, Abu Zayd talks, tricks, preaches, and begs his way out of trouble with virtuoso eloquence, leaving Harith (and the reader) alternately outraged, delighted, and thoroughly charmed.

Composed by Al-Hariri of Basra (1054–1122), a senior Abbasid civil servant and master philologist, the Maqamat were prized by generations of Arabic readers second only to the Qur'an for their linguistic virtuosity — rhymed prose, riddles, and verse woven into irresistible storytelling. This edition presents the complete fifty Assemblies in English, together with Hariri's own preface, drawn from the standard Victorian translation prepared for the Oriental Translation Fund: Thomas Chenery's Volume One (1867) and F. Steingass's Volume Two (1898).

Author & Genre

Author: Al-Hariri of Basra (1054–1122)
Genre: Classical Arabic Literature / Islamic Golden Age Fiction
Translator: Thomas Chenery & F. Steingass (1867/1898)

"I don the black robe to seek my meal, and I fix my hook in the hardest prey: And of my preaching I make a noose, and steal with it against the chaser and the chased."