This book—the first comprehensive reader of Arabic literature from pre-Islamic times to the present—is an essential work for advanced students of the Arabic language. Presenting seventy works by seventy authors, it includes:

• pre-Islamic poetry and prose;

• selections from the Qur’an;

• the Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon;

• the powerful writing of Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Islamic Caliph;

• writings from the “Golden Age of the Arabs” (750-1258 A.D.) in philosophy, mysticism, prose, and poetry;

• works from the neoclassical, modernist, and metaphorical schools;

• literature of the Arabs in Andalus, Spain;

• discussions of cultural, literary, critical, and political movements of the present day;

• vocabulary lists, a list of idioms and notes, a set of questions about the text, and two glossaries.

This book not only introduces students to the entire sweep of Arabic intellectual, political, and cultural thought but also gives examples of how this thought is expressed, offering important insight into the Arab mind.

Bassam K. Frangieh is professor of Arabic at Claremont-McKenna College.