Brains Confounded by the Ode of Abū Shādūf Expounded: Volume One

Unique In Pre-20th-century Arabic Literature For Taking The Countryside As Its Central Theme, Yusuf Al-shirbini’s Brains Confounded Combines A Mordant Satire On Seventeenth-century Egyptian Rural Society With A Hilarious Parody Of The Verse-and-commentary Genre So Beloved By Scholars Of His Day. In Volume One, Al-shirbini Describes The Three Rural “types”—peasant Cultivator, Village Man-of-religion And Rural Dervish—offering Numerous Anecdotes Testifying To The Ignorance, Dirtiness, Illiteracy, Lack Of Proper Religious Understanding, And Criminality Of Each. He Follows It In Volume Two With A 47-line Poem Supposedly Written By A Peasant Named Abu Shaduf, Who Charts The Rise And Fall Of His Fortunes And Bewails, Above All, The Lack Of Access To Delicious Foods To Which His Poverty Has Condemned Him. Wielding The Scholarly Tools Of Elite Literature, Al-shirbini Responds To The Poem With Derision And Ridicule, Dotting His Satire Of The Ignorant Rustic With Numerous Digressions Into Love, Food, And Flatulence.witty, Bawdy, And Vicious, Brains Confounded Belongs To An Unrecognized Genre From An Understudied Period In Egypt’s Ottoman History, And Is A Work Of Outstanding Importance For The Study Of Pre-modern Colloquial Egyptian Arabic, Pitting The “coarse” Rural Masses Against The “refined” And Urbane In A Contest For Cultural And Religious Primacy, With A Heavy Emphasis On The Writing Of Verse As A Yardstick Of Social Acceptability. Frontmatter -- Letter From The General Editor -- Table Of Contents -- Introduction -- Note On The Text -- Notes To The Introduction -- The Author Describes The Ode Of Abū Shādūf -- The Author Embarks On A Description Of The Common Country Folk -- An Account Of Their Escapades -- An Account Of Their Pastors And Of The Compounded Ignorance, Imbecility, And Injuries To Religion And The Like Of Which They Are Guilty -- An Account Of Their Poets And Of Their Idiocies And Inanities -- It Now Behooves Us To Offer A Small Selection Of The Verse Of Those Who Lay Claim To The Status Of Poets But Are In Practice Poltroons, And Who Make Up Rhymes But Are Really Looney Tunes -- An Account Of Their Ignorant Dervishes And Of Their Ignorant And Misguided Practices -- Urjūzah Summarizing Part One -- Notes -- Index -- About The Nyu Abu Dhabi Institute -- About The Typefaces -- Titles Published By The Library Of Arabic Literature -- About The Editor–translator Yūsuf Al-shirbīnī; Humphrey Davies. Includes Index. English