RUBYIAT OF ABU-TAYB-AL-MUTANABI by Al-Mutanabbi, Abu al-Tayyib; Amin Beder - 1945
by Al-Mutanabbi, Abu al-Tayyib; Amin Beder
RUBYIAT OF ABU-TAYB-AL-MUTANABI
by Al-Mutanabbi, Abu al-Tayyib; Amin Beder
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
St. Petersburg, Florida: Amin Beder, 1945. 79 pp., including in-text photographic portrait of the translator. Publisher's black cloth, stamped in gold. Front free endpaper signed and inscribed by the translator: "Presented To. Lt. Selwa Keamy A.N.N.756481 255 General Hospital A.P.O. 772 c/o Postmaster New York from Amin Beder 12-31-45." Half-inch chip at tail of spine, text block and spine split one inch at tail between pp. 78 and 79, else very good.
The first translation into English of the Rubaiyat of the great Arabic-language poet Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, with a preface, a biography of al-Mutanabbi, and original poems by the translator. Al-Mutanabbi (ca. 915-965) is one of the Arab world's most lauded and influential poets and the namesake of the famous Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, long the center of bookselling and literary and intellectual life in that city.
The translator, Amin Georges Beder (1876-1955), was born in present-day Lebanon and emigrated to New York at the age of 14. Arriving in the U.S. with little English, he studied vigorously and went on to attend St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where he graduated in 1899 as class valedictorian with a degree in English. He subsequently founded Amin Beder & Co., a business trading in "Oriental goods" that became a highly successful international firm, eventually specializing in fine womens clothes and moving with him to Florida in 1929.
Beder remained active in Arab culture, Middle Eastern affairs, and the Lebanese diaspora community throughout his life. His preface in the present work discusses American interests in the Arabian peninsula, and he inscribes this copy to a Lebanese-American serviceman in a New York hospital on the last day of 1945.
Beder's biographical sketch of Al-Mutanabbi traces his colorful life, examines his poetry, and describes him as the "progenitor of Omar Khayyam," who then as now was much better known to Western readers. The book concludes with several poems of Beders own, including a eulogy to Kahlil Gibran, a 1944 war lament, and a final "Longing for Schweir," his home town.
The first translation into English of the Rubaiyat of the great Arabic-language poet Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi, with a preface, a biography of al-Mutanabbi, and original poems by the translator. Al-Mutanabbi (ca. 915-965) is one of the Arab world's most lauded and influential poets and the namesake of the famous Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, long the center of bookselling and literary and intellectual life in that city.
The translator, Amin Georges Beder (1876-1955), was born in present-day Lebanon and emigrated to New York at the age of 14. Arriving in the U.S. with little English, he studied vigorously and went on to attend St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where he graduated in 1899 as class valedictorian with a degree in English. He subsequently founded Amin Beder & Co., a business trading in "Oriental goods" that became a highly successful international firm, eventually specializing in fine womens clothes and moving with him to Florida in 1929.
Beder remained active in Arab culture, Middle Eastern affairs, and the Lebanese diaspora community throughout his life. His preface in the present work discusses American interests in the Arabian peninsula, and he inscribes this copy to a Lebanese-American serviceman in a New York hospital on the last day of 1945.
Beder's biographical sketch of Al-Mutanabbi traces his colorful life, examines his poetry, and describes him as the "progenitor of Omar Khayyam," who then as now was much better known to Western readers. The book concludes with several poems of Beders own, including a eulogy to Kahlil Gibran, a 1944 war lament, and a final "Longing for Schweir," his home town.
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Bookseller
W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera
(US)
- Format/Binding Hardcover
- Book Condition Used - Very good
- Quantity Available 1
- Edition First Edition
- Binding Hardcover
- Publisher Amin Beder
- Place of Publication St. Petersburg, Florida
- Date Published 1945
- Keywords Arabic literature, Arabic poetry, American literature, English translation, Middle East, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Shweir, Choueir, Arab Americans