Leg over Leg : : Volumes Three and Four / / Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: al-Shidyāq, Aḥmad Fāris,
• MitwirkendeR: Davies, Humphrey,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 9
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Leg over Leg recounts the life, from birth to middle age, of “the Fariyaq,” alter ego of Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a pivotal figure in the intellectual and literary history of the modern Arab world. The always edifying and often hilarious adventures of the Fariyaq, as he moves from his native Lebanon to Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England, and France, provide the author with grist for wide-ranging discussions of the intellectual and social issues of his time, including the ignorance and corruption of the Lebanese religious and secular establishments, freedom of conscience, women’s rights, sexual relationships between men and women, the manners and customs of Europeans and Middle Easterners, and the differences between contemporary European and Arabic literatures, all the while celebrating the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.Volumes Three and Four see the peripatetic Fariyaq fall in love and convert to Catholicism for twenty-four hours in order to marry. Although the narrative revolves around a series of debates over the nature of male-female relationships, opportunities also arise for disquisitions on the physical and moral significance of such diverse topics as the buttocks, the unreliability of virginity tests, and the human capacity for self-delusion. Lengthy stays in England and France allow for animadversions on the table manners and sexual aberrations of their citizens, but the discussion, whether it involve dance-halls, pleasure gardens, or poetry, almost always ends up returning to gender relations.Akin to Sterne and Rabelais in his satirical outlook and technical inventiveness, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg Over Leg a work that is unique and unclassifiable. It was initially widely condemned for its attacks on authority, its religious skepticism, and its “obscenity,” and later editions were often abridged. This is the first complete English translation of this groundbreaking work.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Letter from the General Editor -- About this Paperback -- Contents -- Contents of the Book -- Book Three -- Chapter 1. Firing Up a Furnace -- Chapter 2. Love and Marriage -- Chapter 3. Contagion -- Chapter 4. Analepsis -- Chapter 5. Travel, and the Correction of a Common Misconception -- Chapter 6. A Banquet and Various Kinds of Hot Sauce -- Chapter 7. That Stinging Sensation You Feel When You Get Hot Sauce up Your Nose -- Chapter 8. Dreams -- Chapter 9. The Second Dream -- Chapter 10. The Third Dream -- Chapter 11. Physicking the Foul of Breath -- Chapter 12. A Voyage and a Conversation -- Chapter 13. A Maqāmah to Make One Stand -- Chapter 14. Raveningly Ravenously Famished -- Chapter 15. The Journey from the Monastery -- Chapter 16. Ecstasy -- Chapter 17. An Incitement to Nudity -- Chapter 18. A Drain -- Chapter 19. Assorted Wonders -- Chapter 20. A Metropolitan Theft -- Book Four -- Chapter 1. Unleashing a Sea -- Chapter 2. A Farewell -- Chapter 3. Assorted Pleas for Mercy -- Chapter 4. The Rules for Retelling -- Chapter 5. The Superiority of Women -- Chapter 6. A Discussion -- Chapter 7. Compare and Contrast -- Chapter 8. A Voyage Festinate and Language Incomprehensibly and Inscrutably Intricate -- Chapter 9. Form and Shapes -- Chapter 10. A Passage and an Explanation -- Chapter 11. A Translation and Some Advice -- Chapter 12. Philosophical Reflections -- Chapter 13. A Maqāmah to Make You Walk -- Chapter 14. Elegy for a Son -- Chapter 15. Mourning -- Chapter 16. The Tyrannical Behavior of the English -- Chapter 17. A Description of Paris -- Chapter 18. A Complaint and Complaints -- Chapter 19. A Metropolitan Theft and Miscellaneous Events -- Chapter 20. A Selection of Poems and Verses Written by the Fāriyāq in Paris as Previously Alluded To -- Conclusion -- Letter -- A List of the Synonymous and Lexically Associated Words in This Book -- Appendix to the Book -- List of Misspelled Arabic Words that I Discovered in the Transcriptions of Letters -- Table Showing the Mistakes in the Probative Verses in the Maqāmāt -- Notice -- Translator’s Afterword -- Chronology: al-Shidyāq, the Fāriyāq, and Leg over Leg -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Further Reading -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the Translator -- The Library of Arabic Literature