The birth, life and early years of the Fariyaq, the alter-ego of the Arab intellectual Ahmad Faris al Shidyaq
“Little Leg” tells the story from birth to middle old age, of ‘the fariyaq an alter ego for Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq, a significant figure in the cultural literature and history of the contemporary Arab world. The often entertaining and humorous experiences of Fariyaq in his journey from his home in Lebanon across Egypt, Malta, Tunis, England and France, offer the author a source of the basis for a wide-ranging discussion of the social and intellectual issues of the time such as the insanity and corruption of Lebanese secular and religious establishments and freedom of conscience.
Suggested Read:
The rights of women, sexual relations between females and males as well as the customs and manners that characterized Europeans and people from the Middle East and the distinctions between contemporary European as well as Arabic literatures. Al-Shidyaq also celebrates the power and elegance of the classic Arabic language.
Like Sterne as well as Rabelais with his humorous perspective and technical ingenuity, al-Shidyaq produced in Leg over Lega work that is original and not classifiable. The work was initially criticized because of its attacks on authority as well as its religious skepticism as well as its “obscenity,” and later editions were often reduced. The present edition is the first English translation of the text and also reproduces it in its entirety from the Arabic text that was first published under the direction of the author in 1855.
Product details
- ASIN : B00MHS1DPO
- Publisher : NYU Press; Bilingual edition
- Publication date : August 23, 2013
- Language : English
- File size : 22626 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Print length : 769 pages
- Lending : Not Enabled
Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq(1805 or 1806-1887) was one of the most important figures in the modern age of Arabic literature. Born into an influential Maronite family from Lebanon Al-Shidyaq was a prominent publisher, poet as well as lexicographer, essayist and translator.
The name is “”the the father of Arabic journalism,””” al-Shidyaq was a significant role in the revival as well as modernizing Arabic language.
Humphrey Davies is an award-winning translator of around twenty-five works of contemporary Arabic literature, including Alaa Aswany’s the Yacoubian Building, five novels written by Elias Khoury, including Gate of the Sun and Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq’s The Leg Over Leg.
He also has created an important edition as well as a translation and lexicon of the Ottoman period. Brains Confused through The Ode of Abu Shaduf Expounded by Yusuf al-Shirbini, as well as translations and editions from al-Tunisi’s The In Darfurand Al-Sanhuri’s The Risible Rhymesfrom the same period.
Additionally, he’s co-authored with Madiha Doss an anthology of Arabic called Al-‘ammiyyah Al-maktubah: the mukhtarat from 1400 to 2009. ( Egyptian Colloquial Writing: Selections from 1400 until the year 2009) in collaboration with Lesley Lababidi with Lesley Lababidi, A Field Guide to the Street Names of Central Cairo.
He studied Arabic in The University of Cambridge, received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley prior to completing the first of his translations in 2003 he worked in research and social development agencies across Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine and Sudan. He is associated with Cairo’s American University in Cairo. This text refers to the hardcover edition.
