{"product_id":"the-excellence-of-the-arabs-9781479809578","title":"The Excellence of the Arabs","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Excellence of the Arabs\u003c\/i\u003e is a spirited defense of Arab identity--its merits, values, and origins--at a time of political unrest and fragmentation, written by one of the most important scholars of the early Abbasid era. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the cosmopolitan milieu of Baghdad, the social prestige attached to claims of being Arab had begun to decline. Although his own family originally hailed from Merv in the east, Ibn Qutaybah locks horns with those members of his society who belittled Arabness and vaunted the glories of Persian heritage and culture. Instead, he upholds the status of Arabs and their heritage in the face of criticism and uncertainty. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Excellence of the Arabs\u003c\/i\u003e is in two parts. In the first, Arab Preeminence, which takes the form of an extended argument for Arab privilege, Ibn Qutaybah accuses his opponents of blasphemous envy. In the second, The Excellence of Arab Learning, he describes the fields of knowledge in which he believed pre-Islamic Arabians excelled, including knowledge of the stars, divination, horse husbandry, and poetry. And by incorporating extensive excerpts from the poetic heritage--\"the archive of the Arabs\"--Ibn Qutaybah aims to demonstrate that poetry is itself sufficient corroboration of Arab superiority. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEloquent and forceful, \u003ci\u003eThe Excellence of the Arabs\u003c\/i\u003e addresses a central question at a time of great social flux at the dawn of classical Muslim civilization: what did it mean to be Arab? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA bilingual Arabic-English edition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIbn Qutaybah (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eIbn Qutaybah\u003c\/b\u003e (d. 276\/889) was a renowned judge and writer known for many influential works on a wide range of subjects, including Qur'anic exegesis, poetry and poetics, and statecraft. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames E. Montgomery (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eJames E. Montgomery\u003c\/b\u003e is Sir Thomas Adams's Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are \u003ci\u003eFate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eKalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice\u003c\/i\u003e, with Michael Fishbein. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Webb (Editor, Translator) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003ePeter Webb\u003c\/b\u003e is University Lecturer in Arabic Literature and Culture at the University of Leiden. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eImagining the Arabs: Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam\u003c\/i\u003e and an editor-translator of \u003ci\u003eThe Excellence of the Arabs\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eSarah Bowen Savant (Translator) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eSarah Bowen Savant\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor at The Aga Khan University, London, and the author of \u003ci\u003eThe New Muslims of Post-Conquest Iran.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50556761964818,"sku":"9781479809578","price":52.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_83508684-9268-4ef2-ac67-887de3624074.jpg?v=1731764043","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-excellence-of-the-arabs-9781479809578","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}