Leg over Leg : : Volume Four / / Aḥmad Fāris al-Shidyāq; ed. by Humphrey Davies.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2014-2015
• VerfasserIn: al-Shidyāq, Aḥmad Fāris,
• HerausgeberIn: Davies, Humphrey,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 30
• 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. Al-Shidyaq also celebrates the genius and beauty of the classical Arabic language.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 English translation of the work and reproduces the original Arabic text, published under the author’s supervision in 1855.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents Letter from the General Editor -- Table of Contents -- Leg Over Leg -- Contents of the Book -- Chapter 1. Unleashing a Sea -- Chapter 2. A Farewell -- Chapter Three. Assorted Pleas for Mercy -- Chapter 4. The Rules for Retelling -- Chapter 5. The Superiority of Women -- Chapter Six. 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 -- In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate -- A List of the Synonymous and Lexically Associated Words in This Book -- Appendix to the Book. In Which Are Strung Together the Pearl-like Errors Made by the Great Masters among the Teachers of Arabic Languages378 in the Schools of Paris -- List of Misspelled Arabic Words that I Discovered in the Transcriptions of Letters in Persian in the Book by “the Sandy Shaykh,” Alexandre Chodźko -- Table Showing the Mistakes in the Probative Verses in the Maqāmāt of al-Ḥarīrī which appeared in a second edition, with corrections by the two eminent shaykhs Reinaud and Derenbourg, in 1847 following the death of de Sacy; the mistakes in the commentary itself are too numerous to count -- 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 Typefaces -- About the Editor-Translator