Introduction to Classical Arabic Literature (In Translation)

Undergraduate / Graduate

This course introduces students to the main genres of classical Arabic literature (in English translation), including Arabic poetry, the Qur'an, Arabian Nights and folk epics, humanistic prose (adab), encyclopedias, wonder literature, and philosophical writings. Students will engage with both modern scholarship on Arabic literature and primary texts originating from diverse locations such as Cairo, Baghdad, Granada, and the Arabian Desert, spanning the 6th to the 19th century. These works were composed by rulers, outcasts, merchants, enslaved women, and intellectuals. The course has two primary goals: first, to introduce students to the broad history of Arabic literature; and second, to familiarize them with the main approaches scholars have taken to these classical texts over the last two centuries. No Arabic is required.