I very rarely ask , request books from publishers these days. I do get sent a lot of books without asking which keeps this blog going and for which I am grateful. But once in a while there is an important book or set of books that come out I feel I would love to read, so I send a request sometimes these fall on deaf ears and other times I get a reply and if I am very lucky the books .Earlier this year I saw on Arablit that paperback version of the Library of Arabic Literature series were coming out .
The first two books are the four volumes of Leg over Leg by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq THe book recounts the writers life using an Alter ego .The book is considered one of the first books of Modern Arabic literature .The book was a satrical look at the world he lived in and is one of those books that breaks the mould .
The second set of two books deal with early days of Islam, The epistle on Legal Theory by Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafii deals with early foundations of Islamic law. I feel we hear a lot about islamic law these days , But maybe if we know more about it’s origins we would understand it in the sense of present day. The second book is The expeditions by Mamar Ibn Rashid is one of the first books about the prophet Muhammad and the early years of Islam. Both these serve as important texts in the Arabic cannon available in English for the first time .For more books from the series look and the Library of Arabic website.
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