Fate the Hunter

Fate the Hunter
Format
Paperback
Publisher
New York University Press
Country
United States
Published
12 November 2024
Pages
184
ISBN
9781479834259

Fate the Hunter

A rich anthology of pre-Islamic and early Islamic poetry on the beauties and perils of the hunt

In the poems of Fate the Hunter, many of them translated into English for the first time, trained cheetahs chase oryx, and goshawks glare from falconers' arms, while archers stalk their prey across the desert plains and mountain ravines of the Arabian peninsula. With this collection, James E. Montgomery, acclaimed translator of War Songs by ?Antarah ibn Shaddad, offers a new edition and translation of twenty-six early works of hunting poetry, or ?ardiyyat. Included here are poems by pre-Islamic poets such as Imru? al-Qays and al-Shanfara, as well as poets from the Umayyad era such as al-Shamardal ibn Sharik. The volume concludes with the earliest extant epistle about hunting, written by ?Abd al-?amid al-Katib, a master of Arabic prose.

Through the eyes of the poet, the hunter's pursuit of the quarry mirrors Fate's pursuit of both humans and nonhumans and highlights the ambiguity of the encounter. With breathtaking descriptions of falcons, gazelles, and saluki gazehounds, the poems in Fate the Hunter capture the drama and tension of the hunt while offering meditations on Fate, mortality, and death.

An English-only edition.

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