Adam Talib

Syllables and Scansion

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This lesson introduces the fundamental building blocks of Classical Arabic prosody: syllable types and how to scan Arabic verse. Understanding these patterns is essential for reading and appreciating pre-modern Arabic poetry.

Welcome to Research Notes

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This section of my website is a space for depositing research materials that don’t fit within the constraints of formal academic publication. Here you’ll find:

Working notes on primary sources and ongoing projects
Supplementary materials — appendices, concordances, and additional data related to published articles and books
Blog posts on topics of scholarly interest
Images and PDFs — manuscript reproductions, charts, and other visual materials
Responses to other scholars’ work and methodological reflections

Unlock "Empty Cages": A Virtual Book Discussion

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Empty Cages

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“The brilliance of [Qandil’s] prose lies in its reflection of the complex emotions we endure when those we love disappoint us” — New Arab

Winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, Empty Cages presents an urgent and raw confessional narrative examining memory, family, and loss across one woman’s lifetime.

The narrative begins with discovery of an old chocolate tin, then traces memories spanning the 1960s to present day. Central to the work is the mother-daughter relationship. Qandil documents growing up in a middle-class Egyptian family as the youngest child, witnessing declining family fortunes. The account encompasses her father’s addiction, her mother’s illness, her brothers’ failings, and multiple forms of violence and death—both literal and figurative.

Manchester in Translation 2024: Working with a Writer Panel

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Unlearning the Aesthetics of Malicious Joy

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Podcast: How Modern Scholars Influenced the Perception of Classical Arabic Literature

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As Inconvenient and Offensive as Abundance

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Book Reviews & Encyclopedia Entries

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Book Reviews

Review of Lara Harb, Arabic Poetics: aesthetic experience in classical Arabic literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). International Journal of Middle East Studies, in press.
Review of Ibn Qutaybah, The Excellence of the Arabs, eds. James E. Montgomery and Peter Webb, trans. Sarah Bowen Savant and Peter Webb (NYU Press, 2017). Speculum 97:1 (January 2022), pp. 199–200.
Review of Bilal Orfali, The Anthologist’s Art: Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī and his Yatīmat al-dahr (Brill, 2016), Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 139, no. 1, 2019, pp. 251–53.

Translating for Bigots

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Qasida Poetry: A World unto Itself

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

al-Safadī, His Critics, and the Drag of Philological Time

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

citystruck

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How Do You Say "Epigram" in Arabic?: Literary History at the Limits of Comparison

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This monograph presents the first history of the Arabic epigram form (مقطوع). This form was extremely popular in the later half of pre-modern Arabic literary history (c. 1200–1900) and remains largely unknown in contemporary scholarship. It ranks among the most accessible and immediate literary forms in Arabic and appeared ubiquitously in all manner of literary texts from the period. The epigrams treat amatory and erotic themes, descriptions of natural and luxury objects, jokes, and riddles. The monograph presents the first sustained scholarly engagement with this genre while examining the category of epigram in world literature and its application across literary traditions including Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Turkish. The study offers a new history of classical Arabic literature while addressing important theoretical and critical issues in comparative literature.

Emblematic or Exceptional? aṣ-Ṣafadī and ad-Damāmīnī

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Fathers and Husbands

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Arabic Literature, 1200–1800: A New Orientation

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Edited by Monica Balda-Tillier and Adam Talib.

Special Issue of Annales Islamologiques (Volume 49, Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 2016).

The Doves' Necklace

Fri, 01 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Co-translated with Katharine Halls.

Winner of the 2017 Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation (tied for 1st place, Arabic-to-English category).

“Alem, the first woman to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, blends surrealism and mystery in this challenging novel, which opens with the Lane of Many Heads taking on narrative duty” — Publisher’s Weekly

“While the novel’s setting is contemporary, Ms. Alem tinges each page with the musky, byzantine ambience of Mecca and the Lane, an atmosphere faithfully rendered in Katharine Halls and Adam Talib’s nuanced translation.” — Words Without Borders

A New Source For The Poetry Of Ibn Matrūh (1196–1251)

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Al-Mutanabbi in His Own Words

Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Caricature and Obscenity in Mujūn Poetry and African-American Women's Hip Hop

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The Rude, the Bad, and the Bawdy: Essays in Honour of Geert Jan van Gelder

Wed, 01 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Edited by Adam Talib, Marlé Hammond, and Arie Schippers.

This volume collects eighteen essays on all facets of obscenity in classical and modern Arabic literature to celebrate the career of Geert Jan van Gelder, FBA, Laudian Professor of Arabic. The editor’s contribution is entitled “Caricature and obscenity in mujūn poetry and African-American women’s hip-hop,” comparing modes of caricatured obscenity across both genres to demonstrate their parodic and camp orientation.

Woven Together as Though Randomly Strung: Variation in Collections of Naevi Poetry

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

AUC MESC Lecture

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

The Many Lives of Arabic Verse: Ibn Nubātah al-Misrī Mourns More Than Once

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Topoi and Topography in the Histories of al-Hīra

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Review of volume

Translation Slam: One Text, Two Translators, Many Possibilities

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Pseudo-Ṯaʿālibī's Book of Youths

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Sarmada

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“[…] the gem of the Arabic literature of dissent.” — The New Yorker

“Brimful of magic, Sarmada is a book to be swallowed in rapturous gulps. It’s beautifully written and, save the rare plunge into cliché, beautifully translated by Adam Talib.” — The Independent

“Sarmada by Fadi Azzam is a unique and audacious book by pretty much any measure: drawing heavily on the both Scheherazadian tradition of stories within stories, and elements of magical realism” — Eleutherophobia

The Hashish Waiter

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“Twelve years on from the first publication of The Hashish Waiter in Arabic, its hero Rowdy Salih can be seen as a precursor of the millions of Egyptians who finally rose up and said ‘Enough’ and ‘No’ in the 2011 revolution.” — Banipal Magazine

“The translation by Adam Talib is zesty and enjoyable; Talib is resourceful in rendering into English the author’s rich prose style peppered with dialect, slang and hashish-related jargon.” — Banipal Magazine

Cairo Swan Song

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“[…] given the city’s political and social climate, that may be about right. Either way, it seems hard to argue with the air of desperation and resignation Said’s characters and prose evoke.” — The Independent

“Cairo Swan Song makes intriguing reading for those interested in contemporary third-world and developing societies, without any grand statements attempting to capture the ’essence’ of the country and its peoples.” — University of Texas

“At its best, Cairo Swan Song does hold up a mirror to something very real about the line between art, charity, and profiting off other people’s exotic misery.” — Rain Taxi

Le Gallienne's Paraphrase and the Limits of Translation

Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Page not found

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This page may have moved or may never have existed. Try the home page or the colophon.

Search

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000