Risible Rhymes

Written In Mid-17th Centuryegypt, Risible Rhymesis In Part A Short, Comic Disquisition On “rural” Verse, Mocking Thepretensions And Absurdities Of Uneducated Poets From Egypt’s Countryside.the Interestin The Countryside As A Cultural, Social, Economic, And Religious Locus Inits Own Right That Is Hinted At In This Work May Be Unique In Pre-twentieth-centuryarabic Literature. As Such, The Work Provides A Companion Piece To Its Slightlyyounger Contemporary, Yusuf Al-shirbini’s Brains Confounded By The Ode Of Abushaduf Expounded, Which Also Takes Examples Of Mock-rural Poems Andsubjects Them To Grammatical Analysis. The Overlap Between The Two Texts Mayindicate That They Both Emanate From A Common Corpus Of Pseudo-rural Verse Thatcirculated In Ottoman Egypt.risible Rhymes Also Examines Various Kinds Of Puzzlepoems—another Popular Genre Of The Day—and Presents A Debate Between Scholarsover A Line Of Verse By The Tenth-century Poet Al-mutanabbi. Taken As A Whole, Risiblerhymes Offers Intriguing Insight Into The Critical Concerns Of Mid-ottomanegypt, Showcasing The Intense Preoccupation With Wordplay, Grammar, Andstylistics That Dominated Discussions Of Poetry In Al-sanhuri’s Day Andshedding Light On The Literature Of This Understudied Era. Frontmatter -- Letter From The General Editor -- Table Of Contents -- Introduction -- Note On The Text -- Notes To The Introduction -- Risible Rhymes -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index -- About The Nyu Abu Dhabi Institute -- About The Typefaces -- Titles Published By The Library Of Arabic Literature -- About The Editor–translator Muḥammad Ibn Maḥfūẓ Al-sanhūrī; Humphrey Davies. Bibliographic Level Mode Of Issuance: Monograph Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Issued Also In Print. English