Two Medieval Muslim Anthologists Reading Christian Arabic Poetry

Date: Friday, December 9

Location: Online via Zoom. Register here.

Time: 1:10 PM – 3 PM

Hosted by Sarah R. bin Tyeer (Columbia Middle East Institute) and Matthew L. Keegan (Barnard Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures) with presenter Nathaniel Miller (NYU) and discussant Salam Rassi (Edinburgh University).

ABSTRACT:

Several new poems by sixth-/twelfth-century Christian poets are now available in the recently rediscovered manuscript of Abū al-Maʿālī’s Zīnat al-Dahr. It is now possible to triangulate between ʿImād al-Dīn, who used Abū al-Maʿālī as a source, and several poems by Christians addressed to Muslims and vice versa, to reconstruct the space for Christian participation in late Abbasid literary discourse.