Like Joseph in beauty : Yemeni vernacular poetry and Arab-Jewish symbiosis / / by Mark S. Wagner.

• Superior document: Brill studies in Middle Eastern literatures, v. 33
• Author: Wagner, Mark S.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Brill studies in Middle Eastern literatures ; v. 33.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (372 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Like Joseph in Beauty traces the evolution of an Arabic poetic form called ‘Humayni poetry’. From Muslim mystical circles, the courts of aristocrats in Highland Yemen, and kabbalist circles of Yemenite Jews, Humayni poetry distinguishes itself with lyricism, musicality, and eroticism. It also plays a variety of code-switching linguistic games. The book addresses the connections between the Humayni poetry of Yemen and the sacred poetry of Jews from Yemen, a hitherto-neglected chapter in the history of Arabic and Jewish literatures. The book culminates with a discussion of ways in which poets and critics in modern-day Yemen and in Israel transformed this poetry.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / M.S. Wagner -- Introduction / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter One. Defining the Ḥumaynī poem / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Two. Dialect in Ḥumaynī poetry / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Three. A golden age of Ḥumaynī poetry / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Four. The status of Ḥumaynī poetry / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Five. R. Sālim Al-Shabazī and the Shabaziyyāt / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Six. Shabazian eroticism, Kabbalah and Dor deʿAh / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Seven. Ḥumaynī poetry and revolution in twentieth-century Yemen / M.S. Wagner -- Chapter Eight. Shabazī in Tel Aviv / M.S. Wagner -- Conclusion / M.S. Wagner -- Appendix One. The word “Ḥumaynī” / M.S. Wagner -- Appendix Two. Ḥumaynī form, structure, and prosody / M.S. Wagner -- Appendix Three. Orthography and prosody in St / M.S. Wagner -- Bibliography / M.S. Wagner -- Index / M.S. Wagner.