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Mannerism in Arabic Poetry: A Structural Analysis of Selected Texts (3rd Century A.H./9th Century A.D.-5th Century A.H./11th Century A.D.), by Stefan Sperl. (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization.) 304 pages. Cambridge University Press, London and New York1989. $44.50.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Michael Cooperson
Michael Cooperson*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Abstract

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Type
Book Reviews
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , December 1990 , pp. 257 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1990

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References

1 Speri might have done well to distinguish explicitly between a “structural analysis” and a “structuralist” one. The existence of a dichotomous thematic structure does not necessarily entail a predictable kind of symmetry on the verbal level. To my knowledge, Renate Jacobi is the only Arabist who makes this distinction explicitly: see her “Ibn aHUu’tazz: Dair ‘Abdūn: A Structural Analysis,” JAL 6 (1975) 35.

2 Mannerism includes appendices containing the texts and translations of the major poems discussed, as well as a glossary of Arabic technical terms. Following Sperl’s argument closely requires a good deal of flipping back to the appendices. I noted two errors, both in the translation of al-Buhturl’s poem: “sideboards” for “sideburns” on page 197, and “You do not cease…” as the translation of lã zilti (line 3). The Arabic is the negative of the optative, and should be translated “May you never cease.”