Poetic Desire and Literary Thievery

Economies of Intertextuality in Arabic Literature

AvMuhsin J. al-Musawi

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

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Beskrivning

How do we define plagiarism in literature? In this wide-ranging and innovative study, Muhsin J. al-Musawi examines debates surrounding literary authenticity across Arabic and Islamic culture over seven centuries. Al-Musawi argues that intertextual borrowing was driven by personal desire alongside the competitive economy of the Abbasid Islamic Empire. Here, accusations of plagiarism had wide-ranging consequences, as competition among poets and writers grew fierce, while philologists and critics served as public arbiters over controversies of alleged poetic thefts. Taking in an extensive remit of Arabic sources, from Persian writers to the poets of Andalusia and Morocco, al-Musawi extends his argument all the way to Ibrāhīm ᶜAbd al-Qādir al-Māzinī's writing in Egypt and the Iraqi poet Nāzik al-Malā՚ikah's work in the twentieth century to present 'theft' as a necessary condition of creative production in Arabic literature. As a result, this study sheds light on a vast yet understudied aspect of the Arabic literary tradition, while raising important questions surrounding the rising challenge of artificial intelligence in matters of academic integrity.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2026-02-19
Mått:152 x 229 x 16 mm
Vikt:443 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:304
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781009584562

Utforska kategorier

Poesi inom Skönlitteratur
Litteraturteori inom Skönlitteratur
Mellanösterns historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

Muhsin J. al-Musawi is Professor of Arabic and Comparative Studies at Columbia University. He is the editor of the Journal of Arabic Literature and the recipient of numerous awards including the 2002 Owais Award in Literary Criticism, the 2018 Kuwait Prize in Arabic Language and Literature, and the 2022 King Faisal International Prize for Arabic Literature in English. Recent publications include The Arabian Nights in Contemporary World Cultures (Cambridge, 2021), which won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award.

Recensioner i media

'In a series of carefully researched and annotated chapters, al-Musawi reveals his comprehensive knowledge of not only the entire Arabic literary tradition in all its periods, but also of theoretical research devoted to literary genres in general and Arabic literature in particular. The resulting work is a major addition to historical and theoretical studies on the Arabic literary tradition.' Roger Allen, University of Pennsylvania

Innehållsförteckning

Preface: Inceptions: the battle for words: the underlying economies of desire; 1. Canons, thefts, and palimpsests in the Arabic literary tradition; 2. Thresholds: Dependency and Thievery in the Adab Marketplace; 3. Grounding Arabic literary history and literary theory; 4. A genealogy for poetic property: rights, infringements, and arbitration; 5. Disputed poetic territories: proponents and interlocutors; 6. The waning economies of textual theft: The Andalusian shift; Conclusion: A sense of unending; Appendix A: Adab; Appendix B: The perfect Muwashshah.