Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Best five Arabic books to read

I favor Elias Muhanna's list the most in this list.  If I were to select my top five Arabic books, they would be:
1) Rasa'il Al-Jahiz (Epistles of Jahiz and some are translated).
2) Diwan of Mutanabbi (not the selection by Bernard Lewis and not his translation. There is one by Arberry, I think).
3) Mikha'il Nu`ayman's Sab`un (not translated yet).
4) Arabian Nights.
5) Luzumiyyat of Abu Al-`Ala' (there is a selection by Amin Rihani rendered into poetic English).