Maqamat Abi Zayd al-Saruji

Maq¿m¿t Ab¿ Zayd al-Sar¿j¿ is a scholarly, Arabic-only edition of the celebrated work by al-¿ar¿r¿, which is also available in English translation from the Library of Arabic Literature as Impostures. Al-¿ar¿r¿'s text consists of fifty stories about the adventures of the itinerant con man and master of persuasion Ab¿ Zayd al-Sar¿j¿, as told by the equally itinerant and often gullible narrator al-¿¿rith ibn H¿mmam. Al-¿ar¿r¿ was a virtuoso writer of the rhymed prose narrative genre known as the maq¿mah, which would continue as a popular literary form into the twentieth century.
An Arabic edition with an Arabic foreword and English scholarly apparatus.