In this Book
- The Desert: Or, the Life and Adventures of Jubair Wali al-Mammi
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: Syracuse University Press
- Series: Middle Eastern Literature in Translation
summary
Hailed as a masterpiece when it was first published in France in 1977, The Desert tells the story of al-Mammi, a young exiled prince of a now-destroyed Jewish kingdom in southern Morocco in the late fourteenth century. Fighting battles in the service of kings and narrowly escaping imprisonment, the prince travels the Islamic world absorbing lessons, often painfully, on how to govern himself, as well as a country. At that same time, al-Mammi engages upon a spiritual journey to obtain inner wisdom rather than material riches. Memmi chronicles the prince’s fortunes as they rise and fall, drawing upon the traditions of Maghrebian storytelling and Arabian tales to offer a highly imaginative and allegorical novel that provocatively blends history with fiction.
Table of Contents
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- Illustrations
- pp. xi-xii
- Translator’s Introduction
- pp. xiii-xxxvi
- What Historians Have to Say
- pp. 1-2
- The Fat King
- pp. 11-20
- At the Court of Fez
- pp. 21-30
- Tacpharinas
- pp. 31-38
- Return to Tunis
- pp. 49-57
- Turncoat’s Treachery
- pp. 58-66
- The Queen and the Jeweler
- pp. 67-75
- At the Court of Castile
- pp. 76-87
- The Burntfaces
- pp. 88-96
- The Sorcerer-Prince
- pp. 97-104
- Bologuine’s Death
- pp. 105-111
- Al-Kahin’s Death
- pp. 125-132
- The Brigands
- pp. 133-142
- The Termites
- pp. 143-151
- What Historians Add
- pp. 152-154
- About the Authors
- pp. 155-156
- Back Cover
- p. 157
Additional Information
ISBN
9780815653356
Related ISBN(s)
9780815610557
MARC Record
OCLC
929784659
Pages
200
Launched on MUSE
2016-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No